Photoshop

[Frenchgow]

Hi all,I've been using gimp for processing since starting AP this year,and while I've been getting reasonable results I feel I could be getting better,on sgl it seems Photoshop is being used a lot by more experienced members ,so I would like to try photoshop,but which version ?

Many thanks

Gow

[daz]

I would say CS4 as a minimum, but I've not used it in a long time so others may have a differing view

Adobe now do a subscription based purchase model as well, I think. So you can get the latest version for a small monthly fee...

[jsmoraes]

I use CS3 version and at least for me it has better result than CS6. CS6, the last version, has many problems about amount of memory and power of computer.

One best tools to use with Photoshop, IMHO, is the convertion 32 bits from DSS to 16 bits (CS3 doesn't like 32 bits) when I can work with HDR curves. In CS6, this exist, but it was made to use adjusts by slider mode. It is not the same as CS3.

Some people like more new version, CS4 or CS5, because of support for 32 bits. The more important ressources of Photoshop is to work with many layers and masks. But you must study and learn it. I suggest you see some movies from http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/Presentations.html before migration from Gimp to Photoshop

[swag72]

I use CS5 and it works well - For me as long as it had layer functionality, that would be the most important thing.

[wxsatuser]

I use PS CC and Lightroom CC on a monthly sub.

Have Annie's Actions, Noel Carboni's stuff, HLVG and Gradient Exterminator all working with it.

[Ouroboros]

I use CS3 version and at least for me it has better result than CS6. CS6, the last version, has many problems about amount of memory and power of computer.

One best tools to use with Photoshop, IMHO, is the convertion 32 bits from DSS to 16 bits (CS3 doesn't like 32 bits) when I can work with HDR curves. In CS6, this exist, but it was made to use adjusts by slider mode. It is not the same as CS3.

Some people like more new version, CS4 or CS5, because of support for 32 bits. The more important ressources of Photoshop is to work with many layers and masks. But you must study and learn it. I suggest you see some movies from http://www.imagingdeepsky.com/Presentations.html before migration from Gimp to Photoshop

I am intrigued by this because my CS5 won't open the 32 bit files that DSS outputs. So I always use DSS's option to save the file as a 16 bit TIFF file and work with that. I thought this was standard practice. Am I missing a trick here? .... And given that a Canon RAW file is 14 bit anyway is there much point in working with 32 bit?

[RikM]

I use CS3 for astro processing and it works perfectly well enough for me. I use CS6 at work and Photoshop CC + Lightroom CC at home for normal photography and so far haven't found anything I can do with those that I can't already do with CS3 for astro processing. However Photoshop + Lightroom on Creative cloud for less than £10 per month is quite reasonable, especially if you will be processing normal photos as well as astro.

[Ouroboros]

Yes, in some ways the subscription model now adopted by Adobe has its advantages for trying something out for a few months without the huge outlay for buying the software outright.

[davedownsouth]

Yes, in some ways the subscription model now adopted by Adobe has its advantages for trying something out for a few months without the huge outlay for buying the software outright.

I seem to remember when I took up the monthly subscription a while back that I had to agree to taking the subscription for a minimum of 12 months.  Still think this is a better deal than buying an out right copy, but means that I committed to paying 12 x £8.87, so £106.44 as a minimum is not bad.  Having said that, since getting PixInsight, I do not think that I have used PS for anything else other than viewing the finished product

[RikM]

I looked at the PI trial and it was good but it's strength was also it's limitation for me. It is astro specific and I also shoot normal photography so it would have meant buying both. I have used Photoshop at work for about 15 years and I didn't find anything in PI that I couldn't do with PS + plugins, so I saved myself £150 and stuck with PS.

Note: I'm not knocking PI in any way. It's a great set of software, it's just that I don't need it right now.

[Ouroboros]

I have a pretty low opinion of Adobe. They appear to treat customers with older non-subscription software very shabily. That has been my personal experience and that of many others judging by the complaints on other forums. So I certainly wouldn't buy a pre-subscription copy of PS for example and install it for example on a modern machine with a more recent operating system. If things go wrong I wouldn't expect to get any response from Adobe let alone any technical support.

[steppenwolf]

The version CS3 that I use seems to cover everything you could reasonably want to do with the possible exception of 'Content Aware' in the 'Fill' option but this is a minor thing.

[D4N]

Gimp 2.9 works well for me.

I haven't forgiven Adobe for the evil that is flash so m certainly not going to buy a subscription off of them.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[damnut]

That's not quite fair, there has to be a point where older sw is no longer supported. If you installed an older version of cs what would you expect to go wrong that would require Adobe to assist?. If you are running w7 there is no ms mainstream support for the most popular os.

 

[cathouse42]

Given that Photoshop is now subscription, PIxInsight looks even more better value in the long term.

If you like renting, go for it.

Does anybody know if PixInsight has student prices?

[cathouse42]

That's not quite fair, there has to be a point where older sw is no longer supported. If you installed an older version of cs what would you expect to go wrong that would require Adobe to assist?. If you are running w7 there is no ms mainstream support for the most popular os.

True but. You can get extended support for Windows 7 until 2020.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/lifecycle

[cathouse42]

True but. You can get extended support for Windows 7 until 2020.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-GB/windows/lifecycle

Also, they still provide updates even after mainstream stupport is ended, mainstream support generally referrs to Service Packs, not updates mostly. Adobe just drop the product DEAD once they have a new major release, at least Microsoft doesn't.

[Snaxmuppet]

Another vote for PS CC and LR CC together in the photography subscription. It is under £9 a month and you can put it onto 2 computers so I have it on my desktop and laptop. Works well for me and makes sure I have the latest version always available.

[wxsatuser]

Another vote for PS CC and LR CC together in the photography subscription. It is under £9 a month and you can put it onto 2 computers so I have it on my desktop and laptop. Works well for me and makes sure I have the latest version always available.

Just bought another laptop purely for astro stuff and forgot I had PS and LR on two already.

The software politely reminded me to deactivate one of them.

CC may not be everyones cup of tea but I'm very happy with it.