I had PhotoImpact when I used a PC. It did what I needed it to do, and it was really cheap. Since I’ve been on a Mac, I’ve been without a similar program. (iPhoto doesn’t seem to do anything.) I rarely need a photo program anymore, but there are times that I do. Everyone uses Photoshop, but I don’t want to spend $500 or $600 for something I won’t use much. Is there a cheaper version?
I can’t answer your question but I can say this much: I have full photoshop as a consequence of Mrs P doing professional photographic processing at one time. It is fantastically powerful. It is also a PITA if you don’t use it a lot, in that it tends (at least to me) to be counter intuitive and complicated. Every time I open it up I have to spend a lot of time re-learning techniques. Once I re-learn them it’s great but then I don’t use it again for a while and have to re-learn once again. If you need to do complicated things, PS might need to be on your radar. If you are doing simple things that freeware can probably do, forget it is my advice, particularly as you say you will only rarely use it.
You’re looking for GIMP. It’s essentially free Photoshop. Doesn’t quite do everything Photoshop does and can be buggy, but hey, the price is right.
You can get Photoshop Elements (a stripped down version) for less than $100
On a Mac? Try Pixelmator (a very good image editing program; $70, but a trial version is available) or Autodesk Sketchbook (the Express version is a free and very good paint program). Both of these are available in the Mac App Store.
Full-on Photoshop is something like $700.
I agree GIMP is a great alternative to Photoshop, but it is SO HARD to learn. I was lucky that our library had a book on it that made it a LOT easier to use.
GIMP is not intuitive at all. It’s a great program but expect to spend a long time learning it, or go out and buy a book
I have several versions of PS. Right now, I’m really enjoying a different program, ACDSee Pro 4. Very easy interface, supports various formats.
Aha! I saw some of those on eBay, but I didn’t have time to delve into them. I assumed that ‘Elements’ were add-ons to an already-installed program. But a stripped-down version is what I’m looking for.
I use Lightroom, by Adobe. It’s all the photo touching of Photoshop.
I’ve never used Photoshop, so I can’t compare. Photoshop is excellent at overprocessing…a look I really dislike, but is very trendy right now.
I used The Gimp for years…I still use it for graphic arts, but IMO, Lightroom kicks Gimp’s ass for photo enhancing.
Students get it a substantial discount. I took a continuing education class to qualify. I would be lost without PS.
:dubious:
Now, I haven’t used Lightroom in a few years, but last I saw it’s photo retouching abilities were just a bare minimum of what Photoshop can do. Yes, you can overprocess with Photoshop, but you can do that with pretty much any photo software, including Lightroom. Photoshop is great for being to able to make just the smallest of adjustments in a wide variety of different ways.
That being said, it’s horribly complicated, horribly expensive, and whenever you finally have a grasp on things, they release a new version. I’ve been using PS for over a decade now, and I feel like I’m starting all over again with CS5.
Of course, as far as expense there’s plenty of ways of questionable legality to get PS at an “extensive discount” if you will. (And no, don’t ask me how. The internet is out there for a reason)
As enalzi points out, Lightroom doesn’t have all the photo retouching of Photoshop, and the overprocessed look can be accomplished just as much in Lightroom as it can in Photoshop. That’s not a fault of the software–that’s a fault of the person using the software.
Anyhow, Lightroom does contain a lot of the basic retouching tools you’re going to need, as long as all you need to do is basic toning and color adjustments, along with perhaps some localized adjustments (dodging and burning). For serious photo editing, I go into Photoshop. Lightroom leaves a lot to be desired if used primarily as a photo editing tool. I use it mostly as a digital asset management tool, and for proofing.
I personally find Photoshop completely intuitive and easy to use, but I’ve also pretty much been raised on it (17 years). It’s an extremely powerful and amazing photo editing tool, and I haven’t found anything comparable. All the Adobe programs have trial versions available, so check out Elements and Lightroom and see if either of those are suitable for you. If all you’re going to be doing is very light photo editing, then Lightroom may well be enough for your needs. I would recommend having it, anyway, as a way of organizing and cataloging your work.
As a graphic designer, I, of course, use Photoshop, but a old friend/colleague who has moved from graphic design to professional photography now uses Lightroom for her photoshoots. Seeing as she knows Photoshop inside out, Lightroom must have some benefits over it (don’t ask me what, though, as I’ve never used it).
I only find Photoshop intuitive because I took a class on it. GIMP is worse, but knowing Photoshop helps. It’s the only software class I’ve taken where I learned more in the class than I did by fiddling on my own (although I now do wind up doing a lot of fiddling). I think growing up on it meant you were introduced to the features gradually, and it all made sense. You didn’t experience the feature overload.
I was looking to see if you could get PhotoImpact installed on a Mac, but I saw no ready made solutions. I want to recommend something like Wineskin, but I don’t know how easy that is to use, and I don’t have a Mac to try it out on. But it uses Wine, and I know Wine can handle it, at least up to version 12.
BTW, don’t open that first link in Firefox.
Hm. Roomie is a student… 
It’s still around? I haven’t looked for it since I got the Mac.
Student discounts for Photoshop don’t bring it down to reasonable prices. I picked up GIMP a few weeks ago and it’s fine; not as slick as Photoshop but it does everything that a casual user will need it to do. I found it about as easy to use as Photoshop but that may be because I did not learn Photoshop in one fell swoop-- rather, I learned it over years and on several different versions. Therefore, I’m used to having to poke around for what I want.
Then get thee to:
Search for the student version of standard creative suite.
I think you will agree the price for Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign are worth it!
You will have to prove you are a student at a college/university, but if you can do that, the savings are amazing. I send my students there all the time.
The final version was made in 2008, but is still for sale from the original publisher. The actual final owner, Corel, moved on to Paint Shop Pro.
But actually, I was just assuming you still had your old copy. The program I was talking about would let you install it on a (Intel) Mac, and it’s free. I figured it’d be worth a shot.