Photoshop? Gimp? Paintshop? Affinity? What editing program do YOU use, and why?

[Chadeaux]

There are lots of photo editing programs out there, the most famous of which is photoshop. They were always super expensive, so I didn't use them. The subscription model was cheaper but if you miss your monthly payment, you can't work.

There are many free editors as well, of which I liked Gimp --- even though I never quite got comfortable with it, I did get great results.

Since about 2005 I've been using Paintshop Pro Ultimate (always spend the extra because I get plenty of goodies to expand my capabilities). This year though, they changed their licensing model (install on one desktop and only 1 laptop --- used to be 2 laptops which worked great for me).

As much as I hate what Serif did when they suddenly dropped their "Plus" line of software (had been a customer since the 1990's with their desktop publishing and photo editing software), I have to admit that I'm taken with their Affinity Photo. Really like the way I can work my images to get the results I am looking for.

Sure, we shoot every image to be as close to perfect as possible, but they all need a bit of "tweaking" here and there.

What do you guys and gals think? What's your go to program, and why?

 

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[jeff of pa]

IrfanView 32 bit

Because I can adjust Colors, and Scramble unwanted Content Like License plate Numbers,
Sharpen Pics, do Fine Rotation Etc.





Lexmark Photo Editor for the Drawing Tool


For Moving things around or Making them Disappear

Example:





And Paint
for resizing and circling things etc

 

[Chadeaux]

Irfanview --- I had forgotten about that one. So long as it does what you need, it is the right one for you.

 

[Hawks88]

Photoshop Lightroom 5. Can do everything I need.

 

[Whyme]

I use Lightroom and Gimp. I lean a little more towards Gimp. Does what I need.

 

[Reanm8er]

I've been doing photo restoration from old celluloid and tintypes for a long time. I currently have Adobe PD 10 and it's very versatile but a real challenge to figure out. Mostly I get gibberish from adobe on how to. The best and most universally workable program was Adobe PD 3. It was so self explanatory I could figure it out as I went along. I once fixed an old family photo of my G-grandmother and her six daughters. The baby of the family was a real pain and someone had fingernailed half her face off. I selected a crop from the other side of her face , inverted it and pasted it on the other side with just the imbedded tutorials. Other members of the family said exact! Only problem is that 3 is a 32 bit program so it may or not work on later 64 bit systems in the compatibility mode .
I don't subscribe to periodic programs because there just a rip-off and when you try and get help to figure out what the heck's going they just tell you that all will be right if you just pay them for the newest version. Not so.
Find a stand alone program with a hard disc in 64 bit and learn how to reload it anytime you want to. The subscription thing is just another rip-off.

 

[Chadeaux]

Only problem is that 3 is a 32 bit program so it may or not work on later 64 bit systems in the compatibility mode .

Actually, a 32 bit program should have no problem on a 64 bit system. Wouldn't hurt to try it. However, 16 bit programs are out of the question with a 64 bit system unless you run a virtual machine with an older version of windows installed.

I don't subscribe to periodic programs because there just a rip-off and when you try and get help to figure out what the heck's going they just tell you that all will be right if you just pay them for the newest version. Not so. Find a stand alone program with a hard disc in 64 bit and learn how to reload it anytime you want to. The subscription thing is just another rip-off.

That's what I do. I purchase an update if it has new features I see that I can use.

For $50.00 I couldn't resist getting Affinity Photo. It is so much more than I thought it was, and just about every Photoshop tutorial translates easily to Affinity. They adapt pretty well in Paintshop Pro as well, but there are some shortcomings in the matter of blend modes and filters that Affinity and Adobe do so well.

For example, got a photo with a white balance problem? In Adobe or Affinity, duplicate the photo so that you have a copy on another layer. Invert (negative) the top layer and apply a Blur/Average filter. Then for that layer, change the blend mode to soft light. You should have a pretty good white balance without having to deal with all the sliders etc.

 

[GopherDaGold]

GIMP. It's free, does everything Photoshop does and many schools use it.

 

[RTR]

Can someone post a before & after Pix. using GIMP ?