Photoshop

robpopper said:

Pigoo3, whoops I didn't notice the date of the post... Next time I'll read a bit more carefully.

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LOL don't feel bad, I am bad about blindly following right behind people when they wake up old post without looking at the date either..

robpopper said:

I.ve never tried Elements and have been using CS2 for 1- years. Does all I need so there's no need to go to CS2 + whatever.

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PS Elements Pros:
- Not a renter per se, you buy you own.
- Has Photomerge built in for Panoramic Photo creation.
- Has HDR built in.

Cons:
- 8 Bit Color Depth ONLY
- HDR is very basic
- While it has many of the features PS CC has, they are very basic and very limiting to customizing changes.

Final Thoughts: Many will find it a very good software tool. But if you come from using Photoshop CC then you will find many of the features limiting and to overly basic. Also the downgrade to only 8bit color can be an issue if you are a professional photographer requiring 16bit. However 8bit color depth is standard on jpegs and most web content.


Pixelmator Pros:
- Cost, $15 on sale, $30 normal price
- Not a renter, you buy you own.
- 16 bit Color Depth
- Very feature rich.

Cons:
- No HDR
- No Panoramic Software
- Not as many tools as Photoshop CC
- Partial Learning Curve

Final Thoughts: If you come from using Ps CC you will find Pixelmator very familiar to work with. While it doesn't have as many tools as Ps CC, it does have many of the most popular ones. Now Pixelmator does have a learning curve, I say this because while the tools it has are feature rich, the options are not always shown and it uses many mouse gestures to customize the tools. But over all for the price, you can't beat this software too. Only other thing to mention, its not a complete con. But it is available only for Mac..



GIMP Pros:
- FREE and OpenSource
- Feature Rich
- Not a renter, you download you own. ;-)
- Comes closer to having as many tools as Photoshop

Cons:
- No HDR
- No Panoramic Software
- 8 Bit color ONLY
- Destructive Editing

Final thoughts: Many will claim it is the harder of the bunch to learn, but I have to disagree. Its Destructive editing design makes learning slower since you can't delete 15 steps back into history to learn what you did wrong with your image. There has been some work done towards making GIMP into a non destructive editor, but to this day gegl implementation isn't even close to working as hopped.



Hope this helps..

I'm staying with Photoshop and will learn what I need to know in CS6. I too do not favor leasing software , (at this level).

robpopper said:

I'm staying with Photoshop and will learn what I need to know in CS6. I too do not favor leasing software , (at this level).

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I was put off by this at first to. But I said what the heck. I been playing World of Warcraft for years, its $49.99 each expansion and then another $14.95 per month to play it.

At least Adobe only wants $9.99 a month for 2 extremely nice pieces of software that is installed on your machine and if you get the 1 year contract you are only required to connect to the internet once every 90 days to keep the software active..

At this point I have decided there are 3 types of people who have an issue with this service and wouldn't use it.
1) Those who have a working copy of CS6 or just have other software in their budget that does what they need. Or,
2) Those who wouldn't buy it anyway and are now just pissed they can not pirate it anymore and just want to make excuses why this purchaseing model isn't for them. And last,
3) Those who don't fully understand how Adobe has this setup and are just put off by the Cloud part of the name. Since in todays age, cloud is synonymous with "must use online." Which isn't the case at all.


The way I see it Photoshop used to cost $800 USD, Lightroom is still offered at $150 USD.
Thats $950 USD, if you divide that by 9.99 per month, it would take you 95 months to pay for this. Thats just under 8 years.. So if this model eliminates pirating so I can afford great software at a much much lower cost, so be it..

What is World of Warcraft? Btw... Photoshop CS6 Extended can be purchased for $149.95, or for just $99.95 if you are a teacher or student. So leasing the program at 9.95/mo doesn't turn me on. In just 3 years the leasing cost would more than double the cost to purchase, (not PIRATE) the program. Just how long ago did Photoshop CS6 sell for $995.? I prefer to lease assets, like a home or automobile, etc.

CS6 still sells for many hundreds of dollars more than your EDU discount. Just because "leasing" doesn't apply to you thanks to a VERY generous deal that's tied to your job doesn't mean it isn't a good deal for most people. One particularly attractive aspect of "leasing" is that those who only need the program sporadically can turn on or off their commitment, which lowers the cost quite dramatically for those people.

The $150 cost you post simply doesn't exist. You could upgrade from CS5 to CS6 for $200 (not $150), and the retail price of Photoshop CS6 Extended was $999 (use a search engine and see for yourself). Regular CS6 Photoshop cost $699, so all of Exodist's figures are, essentially, correct (not that you can buy CS6 anymore anyway, except from pirates).

Truth be told, I'm new to the Mac Forum and could easily be mistaken. I'm not at all looking to offend anyone. However the attached screen shots will reveal current price of the software and the vendors are not pirates, but trusted resellers.

Truth be told, I'm new to the Mac Forum and could easily be mistaken. I'm not at all looking to offend anyone. However the attached screen shots will reveal current price of the software and the vendors are not pirates, but trusted resellers.

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Sorry, but if the prices are too good to be true, then something is amiss. And how do know that they're trusted resellers? I've seen dozens of advertisements all similar to what you have above and every one of them was either a fancied up site loaded with illegal software or a pirates haven. No one in an honest business sells software that retails at $899.00 for $149.00.

chscag said:

Sorry, but if the prices are too good to be true, then something is amiss. And how do know that they're trusted resellers? I've seen dozens of advertisements all similar to what you have above and every one of them was either a fancied up site loaded with illegal software or a pirates haven. No one in an honest business sells software that retails at $899.00 for $149.00.

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That's an assumption, and "hearesay". Completely unfair to condemn based upon a past experience with unrelated vendors or pirates.

It's not an assumption nor is it unfair. Think about it for a minute..... Why would anyone sell you a software package that retails for $899.00 (Adobe) for $149.00? Doesn't that even ring a bell with you? Aren't you the least bit suspicious?

These are pirates who are ripping you off, or EDU resellers who are abusing their EDU pricing. But don't take our word for it: call Adobe and ask them. You'll see.

I just checked the source of the "cheap" software and it appears that I've been wrong on this issue and stand corrected.

@robpopper:

Thank you for posting back about this. I want you to know that we were not chiding you in any way regarding what you thought were legitimate advertisements for expensive software greatly reduced in price. Many folks like yourself, and myself included, are sometimes taken in by these types of schemes and advertisements. That's why we were in effect warning you about it. In any event, a valuable lesson for all of us.