PS: you're dumped.

[MARS1960]

Ok guys, 

I have canceled my PS subscription today as it just isn't getting used enough,,,,,, for the price.

I was considering just getting GIMP instead but noticed that i could buy Lightroom 6 for a single one off £100, that's £200 less than iv'e spent on PScc in the last three years.

Is it worth spending £100? or is GIMP going to be just as good?

[pete_l]

GIMP claims to have the functionality of Photoshop. But it is not in the same league so far as refinement, ease of use, plugins or features are concerned. Whenever I am forced to use it, there is a feeling of intense relief when I can close it down after I've finished.

Some years ago one of the software giveaway sites had Zone Studio 16 as a free (and legal!) download. I have found that does all I need - including handling RAW formats. The latest version is also cheaper than Lightroom and has an evaluation licence.

[darknight]

well I use cs6, not the cloud, I never would buy into that, I have lightroom....think its 5, and it gets used a lot, but I'm a photographer, gimp does virtually the same as PS just takes a while getting used to it, if its for plain A.P then try startools, I bought it ages ago and its very good

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

One feature lacking in the standard release of GIMP is 16-bit processing. There are betas of a 16bit processing versions are available. I haven't checked whether these are out of beta yet

[Alien 13]

The problem with PS is that you get spoiled so it shows up the problems/bad ergonomics in other software, it would be worth looking at PSP or Infinity Photo as cheap paid alternatives though.

Alan 

[SteveA]

PI? ?

[MARS1960]

Ok guys, thanks for the suggestions, it's strictly for photography as i have PI for astro @SteveA .

I think i'll give some of the freebies a try, (they may be enough for my needs) then decide if it's worth buying Lightroom 6 at a later date.

[Alien 13]

I am running CS6 at the moment but might jump ship too due to lack of RAW support, downloading a trial of PSP at the moment to see if I could live with it although earlier versions left me un impressed.

Alan

[Mr niall]

I've used both, gimp is good but a nightmare to learn and just not as pleasant to use. And (puts on hard hat jumps in nearby trench) I think Lightroom does a better job, it's just so intuitive to use.

[darknight]

Alien 13, there is raw support for cs6, I have it, its a separate download, in camera raw

[Alien 13]

12 minutes ago, darknight said:

Alien 13, there is raw support for cs6, I have it, its a separate download, in camera raw

I can not get it to work with the 80D RAW files it only works if they are first converted to DNG format with adobe DNG converter, it is ok though with my older camera.

Alan

P.S. The trial with PSP  X9 lasted all of 5 mins before I deleted it 

[uhb1966]

Regarding GIMP: I'm using it but its ergonomy can not hold up with PS. Regarding the learning curve: you will probably have to google a bit, but you'll find good explanations for all the workflows. There are very stable versions with 64bit processing, but there too you'll have to google a bit :/

[darknight]

hmm strange, I downloaded an ipdate for the d7100 and d90 all ok, I'm sure they are virtually all supported, maybe delete and re download to get update notifications?

[gazza]

Have a look at Affinity Photo, cheap and very close to Photoshop in performance. Available for Windows and Mac:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/

cheers

Gary

[SonnyE]

I prefer to actually own my software...

And there is a certain satisfaction in so many free software icons to choose from.  LOL!

I did buy Photoshop Elements 12 a few years ago. Added to the filters, and get by fine.

[MARS1960]

Thank's everyone, lots to consider.

[ejp1684]

Another vote for Affinity Photo.

Eric.

[The Admiral]

18 hours ago, MARS1960 said:

Ok guys, 

I have canceled my PS subscription today as it just isn't getting used enough,,,,,, for the price.

I was considering just getting GIMP instead but noticed that i could buy Lightroom 6 for a single one off £100, that's £200 less than iv'e spent on PScc in the last three years.

Is it worth spending £100? or is GIMP going to be just as good?

I understand your pain here; I never got into Photoshop because even as a one off purchase the price was just too darned high, and it strayed into realms that I would never need! I think the problem that you will find is that when you are embedded into a particular way of doing things it's quite hard to change to another way of working. I thought I read that there was still an early version of PS that could be purchased (or was free). Don't quote me on that!

Lightroom is not, nor ever intended to be, a replacement for PS. So I suspect that it would not solve your problem, though of course it all rather depends on the sort of things you want to do. I started off with LR but also used Picture Window Pro as my pixel editor. It's not much known and certainly has what would be considered these days a rather clunky interface, but it is an extremely powerful and capable application, and it doesn't do anything 'behind the scenes', so you know exactly what's going on. It doesn't do layers though. It was cheap, but as development on it has come to an end it is now free.

When I acquired my Fuji I jumped ship to Capture 1, which can do a lot more manipulation and has a layers approach. For pixel editing, I've been looking at Affinity Photo which I think is regarded as a PS replacement. I believe it's workflow is a little different though, but it is a very reasonable price and can do a lot. I got it principally for its focus merge option, and for that it worked well, except I do find the application keeps hanging. Still, it's a new application so hopefully that'll be sorted in future.

Ian

[spillage]

I never have really used ps but a  linux user gimp has always been around. I do think that whilst it may lack some of the finesse of ps you have to take into consideration the price difference and the time it take to get used to new software. I always thought of ps like microsoft in the fact that they have the lions share of the market and for such a long time that nearly everyone one is just used to using it.

[Grierson]

18 hours ago, MARS1960 said:

Ok guys, 

I have canceled my PS subscription today as it just isn't getting used enough,,,,,, for the price.

I was considering just getting GIMP instead but noticed that i could buy Lightroom 6 for a single one off £100, that's £200 less than iv'e spent on PScc in the last three years.

Is it worth spending £100? or is GIMP going to be just as good?

If you have an old copy of Lightroom there is a cheaper upgrade to LR6 buried in the depths of the Adobe site.

BTW Adobe stopped supporting CS6 in January. As Alan has found the 80D needs Camera RAW ver. 9.5 which will not work with CS6. The last Camera RAW ver. CS6 can use is 9.1.1.461 

[MARS1960]

33 minutes ago, The Admiral said:

I understand your pain here; I never got into Photoshop because even as a one off purchase the price was just too darned high, and it strayed into realms that I would never need! I think the problem that you will find is that when you are embedded into a particular way of doing things it's quite hard to change to another way of working. I thought I read that there was still an early version of PS that could be purchased (or was free). Don't quote me on that!

Lightroom is not, nor ever intended to be, a replacement for PS. So I suspect that it would not solve your problem, though of course it all rather depends on the sort of things you want to do. I started off with LR but also used Picture Window Pro as my pixel editor. It's not much known and certainly has what would be considered these days a rather clunky interface, but it is an extremely powerful and capable application, and it doesn't do anything 'behind the scenes', so you know exactly what's going on. It doesn't do layers though. It was cheap, but as development on it has come to an end it is now free.

When I acquired my Fuji I jumped ship to Capture 1, which can do a lot more manipulation and has a layers approach. For pixel editing, I've been looking at Affinity Photo which I think is regarded as a PS replacement. I believe it's workflow is a little different though, but it is a very reasonable price and can do a lot. I got it principally for its focus merge option, and for that it worked well, except I do find the application keeps hanging. Still, it's a new application so hopefully that'll be sorted in future.

Ian

Cheers Ian, Affinity seem to be getting a few mentions, i have just had a look and there is a free trial so i'll see how it performs. 

[The Admiral]

I must admit that I've really only considered Affinity (or PWPro for that matter) as a pixel processor to be use after work in LR or C1. How good the RAW converter is in Affinity I haven't a clue. If you are on a Mac there is the well regarded Iridient Developer but it's 84 quid, not much better than LR I guess. Silkypix Developer is another application which has its following, and I have used a long while ago and which might be worth a look, but again, not a lot of difference in price.

If you want to see what's out there have a look here: http://forum.luminous-landscape.com/index.php?board=44.0

Cheers, Ian

 

[DaveS]

I was going to mention PWP but wasn't sure if it was still around. The last version I used was 5.x which I paid for and had on a now defunct laptop (I still have the drive though), so thanks for the heads-up. Pity it's no longer being developed, but as it's now free, I see little reason for not giving it a go.

One thing I liked was its B&W conversion tool which had filter settings to mimic the standard Kodak Wratten filters that B&W photographers were used to without having to go through all that RGB layer blend nonsense of PS.

[The Admiral]

1 hour ago, DaveS said:

I was going to mention PWP but wasn't sure if it was still around. The last version I used was 5.x which I paid for and had on a now defunct laptop (I still have the drive though), so thanks for the heads-up. Pity it's no longer being developed, but as it's now free, I see little reason for not giving it a go.

One thing I liked was its B&W conversion tool which had filter settings to mimic the standard Kodak Wratten filters that B&W photographers were used to without having to go through all that RGB layer blend nonsense of PS.

Yes I still think there's a lot going for it; it's up to v7 now. One thing that really appealed was the user forum (which is still live I believe) inwhich the developer Jonathan Sachs was actively involved. He was the developer of the Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet programme I believe. It's operations are very transparent too, basically it does what it says on the tin. I understand that JS wants to produce another application that is up to date, but he must be getting on in years now.

Ian

[DaveS]

I've just installed it on my works computer to have a look at it, the interface looks terribly familiar. I'll put it on my home computer after work, and possibly on my laptop too.