Ciaran O'Hagan

Debbie Black, 5 months ago

Gimp is free and I know alot of people on here use it. The interface is very similar to photoshop and it’s simple to use. Go to download.com and search “Gimp” :)
Debz

Ciaran O'Hagan in reply to Debbie Black’s comment, 5 months ago

will look up that, thanks

RichardV, 5 months ago

Hi Ciaran.

Have a look on ebay for older versions of Photoshop, or Paint Shop Pro. The only downside to this is the fact that the older versions might not support RAW, as explained in the group forums.

What Deddie above says is ok.

An easy to use programme thats supports RAW, is Picasa2, a free download from Google, although that is a bit limited, but has some good effects. Maybe you could use that in conjunction with Photoshop 7, or PSP 9 or 10.

RichardV, 5 months ago

PICASA2

You got nothing to lose.

Debbie Black, 5 months ago

More great advice from Rich. If you def wanna buy a decent programme I’d go with the ebay advice :)

dtdesign, 5 months ago

I agree with Richard .. Picasa is great .. you could also try paint.net .. similar to photoshop but its free .. Photoshop is great .. I use it .. you would probably have to get it off ebay or somewhere for 50-60 though .. its kinda expensive

Shelley Heath, 5 months ago

No photo program is fool proof and they are only as good as the user. Personally I use Photoshop as I like the versatility of it but if you are only going to use it for colour correction or cropping I would go for one of the cheaper programs. Just my two cents worth.

Ern Mainka, 5 months ago

If the software is old or not sealed inside a box, always ask the seller to send you real photographs of the installation CDs and software manuals that came along with his purchase. This is to confirm that the seller owns the authentic version of the software. Verify with the seller that the software hasn’t already been activated. If it has, you may have just bought yourself a coaster.

Ern Mainka, 5 months ago

P.S. I was refering to copies of Photoshop for sale on Ebay.

Susan Epps Oliver, 5 months ago

Depends what you want to do with the software. On your budget, I’d recommend Ulead PhotoImpact 12 which I think is around 60 US dollars new. Simple interface for the basics and a heck of a lot more behind the scenes as you learn your way around it. It’s compatible with Photoshop plug-ins too so you don’t need to spend hundreds of dollars and have your computer groaning under the weight of Photoshop.

Don’t get me wrong….I love Photoshop…...but not everyone needs or wants its capabilities.

Good luck with whatever you choose :)

Colin Hollywood, 5 months ago

I would suggest you try both Gimp and Picassa, as they are free. If they do all you want, then you have £60 still in your pocket.
That £60 would buy you Photoshop Elements though, which would give you most of the facilities you need as your expertise grows. If you later decided to invest in CS3 the step up would be more intuitive.
Some of the other software is good too, such as Paint Shop Pro and Photoimpact, but Photoshop is the standard and is so well supported with plug ins etc.
Hope this helps a bit – let me know if I can help more.

Colin Hollywood, 5 months ago

Oh yes…. beware of the Ebay offers – if they look too good to be true, they probably are!
Better to shop online for a decent deal from a recognised seller e.g. Amazon.
A Google search should bring up some reasonable prices.

jaffa, 5 months ago

I bought photoshop elements 5 for 25 quid from a shop on ebay and have not worked out half the features yet. it will take quite sometime to suss all the pieces. Excellent starting place.

paul777, 5 months ago

i have used both paintshop and photoshop and i found photoshop better and easier to use. I know people who have photoshop elements and found this enough for their needs. I would try looking out for an old version of elements and possibly in a year or two upgrade to cs3. Good luck.

Stephen Mitchell, 5 months ago

This is a great question that has obviously a lot of different answers, all of which have validity in their argument. Here is my response .

Bryan Davidson, 5 months ago

I honestly don’t find the interface between Photoshop Elements and Photoshop to be very similar. I use CS3 and can’t find my way around Elements. However, for the amount of money you want to spend, and what you want to do, I’d recommend Elements, or even better GIMP, because it’s free. It’d be best to download the trial versions of the competing softwares to try them out and see which one you like before putting down your money though. Or you could be dodgy and buy a pirate copy…

Lenny La Rue, IPA, 5 months ago

I use a blend of three programs: PaintShop, Roxio’s PhotoSuite, and PhotoShop Elements. I find that the projects I need to complete are a lot easier with PhotoSuite, the interface with PaintShop is the best of any I’ve tried (including Gimp and Picasa 2), and PhotoShop Elements has just about all I understand in my 4th year of editing. Each program has something sweeter about it than the other: enlarging is mastered by PhotoShop’s program, but the tools for everything else are scattered and not where I want them; PhotoShop has a help section available that will help you with the basics of programming for ALL programs, telling you what does what and how; and PhotoSuite can put your projects like a 9 panel montage together in a snap.

If I was to be limited to a single program, I’d go nuts. But if I realy, really had to, I’d have to do PaintShop because of the amount of time it saves by allowing you to completely customize the interface by making everything from shortcuts to pallets of tools, toolbars that lock into place, and a fantastic way to store all of your workspaces – including the art you’re working on – with dates to show your development or find a tool you once used but have since forgotten.

Buying used software (or 2nd hand ‘open-box’ software) has to be the riskiest proposition around because you’ll NEVER know what you got until you try to install it. LOL!

dawlishblue, 4 months ago

As a starting point, Elements