Photoshop vs. PaintShop vs. ???

sween · Jan 2, 2009

Adobe Photoshop elements are roughly $100. The full install of PaintShop Pro is likewise roughly $100. Then there's Nikon's Capture NX 2 which, depending on source of purchase, can be anywhere up to $150.

If you were to buy one of the three, which would it be? I realize these are not identical pieces of software as to what precisely they do. They do, though, all get you from point A to point B one way or the other.

(I do have Capture NX and can't say that it blows my hair back, FWIW.)

Joves · Jan 2, 2009

I have never used Elements or Paintshop. I do have NX though and Photoshop CS. NXs problem is it is a resource hog and slow. Supposedly they have made it more streamlined to work better. You might go to Nikon and download a trial version to see if that is true. I do like how it works though with the photos.

sween · Jan 2, 2009

Thanks for the input.

I have zero need for the full Photoshop suite, 80% of it is useless unless you do graphic design for a living...which I do not.

NX is a pig. I've been running it with three gigs of RAM and a quad chip on two different machines and it still chokes from time to time. The NX 2 trial has so many functions disabled that it's tough to know what it will do if you buy it.

If not Paintshop or Photoshop, what else is there? What do the long-timers here use? Thanks...

tirediron · Jan 2, 2009

For 95% of people, PaintShop Pro is all the editing software they will ever need. It's not Photoshop, but it's darn close and the few key features it's missing, are more than compensated for by the massive price difference. NX is the best program for working with .NEF files, BUT as mentioned, it's a HUGE resource hog, and will allow you to streamline your workflow about as effectively as an elephant. NX2 appears to be much improved, but it's still slow, and still eats up every byte of RAM you give it.

-->Sween: What functions are disabled in the NX2 trial? I haven't found any yet.

UncleRico · Jan 2, 2009

I didn't want to spend the money on a full version of CS, so I picked up Elements for $79 from Adobe earlier today.

I've seen links around where you can buy an upgrade from Elements to CS4 for $299, but I'm not sure if that will be around for ever.

monkeykoder · Jan 2, 2009

$299 seems a bit expensive. With my student discount I get it for $199 from journeyed or I think it is $169 from the bookstore... Of course that is the student edition so I don't know if there is some sort of huge difference.

Josh66 · Jan 2, 2009

I do 95% of my editing in Lightroom. Whatever Lightroom can't do, I do in GIMP. ...I'm cheap.

I probably will buy Paintshop Pro soon though. I got the free trail (which expired months ago) and liked it. I just have other priorities right now...

elemental · Jan 3, 2009

O|||||||O said:
I do 95% of my editing in Lightroom. Whatever Lightroom can't do, I do in GIMP. ...I'm cheap.

I probably will buy Paintshop Pro soon though. I got the free trail (which expired months ago) and liked it. I just have other priorities right now...

I have the same workflow. I actually got Elements free with my negative scanner, and I would not recommend it.

Many Photoshop users will tell you how awful GIMP is, but as a GIMP user I couldn't stand Elements. It's at least worth a try, as it doesn't cost anything but your time.

Lightroom 2, on the other hand, was worth every penny. I can't remember what I did without it.

Garbz · Jan 3, 2009

Lightroom 2 is catered for the photographer. It has literally every tool that is needed for fine tuning the exact tone and colour of an image, and along with it the basic touchup tools from photoshop elements with one key difference. It is a fully featured RAW processor with an interface streamlined to editing photos quickly and efficiently.

If you need something more juicy there's no need to spend money for something that you will use on about 2% of your images. GIMP is a fully featured and free "photoshop clone" using the term very loosely given is significantly smaller feature set, but it is great for the times you need to do pixel level editing.

Grab the Lightroom trial from Adobe
get GIMP free from GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

/Edit: wtf is with the new links system.