Pick a Photo Editing Program
For many years I’ve used Adobe Photoshop for almost 90% of my digital work. It’s very robust and has almost everything that I need, but it’s not for everyone. Photoshop is expensive and it has an extremely high learning curve. They teach college courses on this program, people. If you have a own Photoshop and have a good grasp on it already, then that’s great. But if you are like many people, you don’t have this wonderful program, and your using something else. There are plenty of great alternatives. Let’s look over a few.
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Photoshop Elements: This Adobe program has a great deal of what Photoshop has, but is more designed for the novice and possibly those on a budget. Photoshop Elements will get the job done for you with great results. However if you are a wanting to be a professional graphic artist or have a photography business, then Photoshop is the way to go. It offers the proper tools for color management and more editing features. If you don’t plan on making a career with graphic arts or photography, then Photoshop Elements is worth your time to check out. Current price $99.99
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Paintshop Pro Photo X2: Corel makes this fine program that is a competitor to Photoshop. It has a very clean and easy to understand interface. I’ve enjoyed this program, but it’s more designed to manipulate existing photos than creating. Don’t get me wrong on that last comment however. Paintshop Pro Photo X2 can also be used to create new images. Current Price: $99.99
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GIMP: This slick program is often lauded as the "free Photoshop". I don’t have much personal experience in this program, but I can tell you that for a program that is free, yes I said FREE, it’s very well thought out. GIMP is an open source program that people all over the world are very passionate about. Many of these people contribute to the continuing development of the program. Current Price: huh, FREE
A great resource for other free photo editing programs can be found here. Free Photo Editing Programs
Give thanks to Sue Chastain for putting together such a comprehensive list.
