Comments on: Photoshop Alternatives, Part II

By: DiscerningPhotog

DiscerningPhotog — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 19:03:17 +0000

I’m not familiar with the email issue you describe. Not sure whether that’s a PSE issue or an AOL issue.
I’m afraid your crashing issues could be Win related. I finally switched back to Macs for video
editing because the platform is so much, much more stable for that process than what I was using on the PC side.

By: Don Dunaway

Don Dunaway — Wed, 04 Jan 2012 17:02:57 +0000

The reason I’m looking at your post is that I’ve been using PSE since v.2.0 (I’m now on 8.0 on Win7x84) and though I like the program, I’m tired of wrestling with frustrating problems.
- PSE crashes way too often, especially if I leave it open for a couple of hours without input.
- It’s extremely difficult to email pix via AOL. It ‘forgets’ email addresses I’ve entered so I have to re-enter them, and is generally very hard to use for email.
- I can’t see videos in PSE. Sometimes it will show a few frames and then goes black. This is a new trick since I got 8.0.
Are there solutions to these problems, or do I need to change? Is there a PSE version that addresses any of these issues? Free is nice but I don’t mind paying for good software, and none of the three other programs you discuss meets my needs.
Thanks for your help

By: Danny

Danny — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 19:50:44 +0000

No matter how many times I try another alternative, I constantly find myself back at Photoshop. I just wish it was more intuitive. Maybe Apple can give them an overhaul.

By: Merrill

Merrill — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 21:46:53 +0000

I’ve been using Photoshop Elements for years. It was actually free software included with a scanner I purchased. I was excited at the time because I figured eventually I would move on to Photoshop and Elements would give me a nice head start on what I heard was software with a large learning curve.

Turns out, I’ve never moved to the full Photoshop. Elements does everything I need. It’s that good. I’m sure that for the hardcore photo editor that Photoshop is needed. But for the vast majority of us, Elements will provide more than enough options.

- M

By: Adrian

Adrian — Sat, 18 Jun 2011 03:39:06 +0000

Love GIMP but for real easy jobs I also used paint.net. It’s super easy to use for banners etc.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Mon, 02 May 2011 16:03:22 +0000

I really dig the look of Photoshop Elements. Something about the darker backdrop makes editing pictures (and staring at a computer) more comfortable for the eyes.

By: Warren Kimmel

Warren Kimmel — Mon, 02 May 2011 04:19:10 +0000

I’ve been exploring your site for a while, and it’s right up my alley. I’ve recently been bit by the ‘shutter bug’ and I’ve been learning lots of techniques, mainly on the fly. You offer a great resource from which to learn.

By: DiscerningPhotog

DiscerningPhotog — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:54:04 +0000

Good luck with it, Dennis! You certainly can’t beat the price.

By: Dennis

Dennis — Thu, 28 Apr 2011 18:27:04 +0000

I’ve recently been looking for something other than Photoshop… Glad I came across your post! I’m off to go try Gimp…

By: AdSR

AdSR — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 09:49:23 +0000

(I know it’s been a year )

The Image menu in GIMP is for the entire image – all layers, paths, whatever. If at all, I’d move levels and curves to Layer or Filters. But both these locations have their own meanings. Layer, like Image, is kind of “administrative” for layer properties and handling. Filters is for more complex processing, including scripts (well, that’s the script author’s decision really).

Just so you know, as a GIMP user, I was equally confused by Photoshop interface when I tried it – and being used to GIMP look I didn’t like Photoshop’s looks that much. So this is rather personal. I agree with your comparison to Firefox but GIMP doesn’t have that kind of backing. Regrettably, many worthwhile open source projects don’t have the corporate resources they could use.