Please help me out here...

[Daruba]

I know, i know, it's a very long time that I didn't post / interact on this forum and now that I do I only come with a question that is not really belonging here. Shame to me! Knowing you all, you will help me anyways

Yesterday I switched from PC to MAC. Tonight I will install Nikon Capture NX2 for Mac on it.

I'm looking for a decent affordable replacement for Photo Shop. Any suggestions?

[randimal]

I use Picasa for most everything and GIMP for the more difficult stuff. Definitely affordable (free). May not be what you would consider "decent," I'm not a pro. But I believe some pros do use GIMP and a few may even use Picasa.

Picasa has a lot of good features, but is missing several high-end things. And I often use Windows Picture Manager to darken and crop pictures before sending them to Picasa. Picasa's exposure tools only seem to increase brightness and contrast with no ability to decrease, so I get any brightness or contrast reduction done first. And cropping them first just keeps the file size down since Picasa saves pretty much EVERY change.

So I guess my free arsenal actually includes three tools, but they seem to work OK.

[Daruba]

Thanks Randimal.

With Nikon Capture NX2 I do actually the most of the stuff regarding color- and exposure corrections and such. I had PhotoShop 7 on my PC and was mostly used for removing unwanted subjects and framing the pic. Also, the vacation JPG's did go trait into PS.

I do not mind to invest some $$$ into new software, but it must be capable to do some essential stuff like color corrections, framing, straiten, layers, ...

There's a PhotoShop Essentials available for about $85.00 and I will ask around what those "essentials" really are.

[mattb]

Thanks Randimal.

With Nikon Capture NX2 I do actually the most of the stuff regarding color- and exposure corrections and such. I had PhotoShop 7 on my PC and was mostly used for removing unwanted subjects and framing the pic. Also, the vacation JPG's did go trait into PS.

I do not mind to invest some $$$ into new software, but it must be capable to do some essential stuff like color corrections, framing, straiten, layers, ...

There's a PhotoShop Essentials available for about $85.00 and I will ask around what those "essentials" really are.

I just bought full Photoshop as an upgrade for $300 which is a good deal - I think that deal is around until the end of the month. Maybe you have something that is eligible to be upgraded? I used an old copy Photoshop Elements 7 that came with a Wacom tablet.

[Daruba]

I just bought full Photoshop as an upgrade for $300 which is a good deal - I think that deal is around until the end of the month. Maybe you have something that is eligible to be upgraded? I used an old copy Photoshop Elements 7 that came with a Wacom tablet.

Thanks!

What's your opinion about Elements 7? I can buy version 10 for about $89.00. You think it's worthy?

[mattb]

Thanks!

What's your opinion about Elements 7? I can buy version 10 for about $89.00. You think it's worthy?

It seemed ok, but honestly I didn't use it all that much. Now that I have spent some money I really want to learn this stuff for real.