Photoshop total dominance?

[Craftysnapper]

Photoshop is dominant simply because it is the best .But saying that most hobby and social photgraphers rarely need more power than Elements 3 & 4 can provide at a fraction of the cost of CS2 and Elements is built on the same engine as CS2 so you get the same smoothness and power which is why Elements is now the most popular editor in that price range.

I have CS2 as well as Elements 3 & 4 (I got 4 free from adobe as a beta tester) and Paintshop Pro X, but find I fire up Elements for most tasks.

By the way anyone owning PSP X should download the latest update as it at last sorts out the colour managment issues with that program.

[Snowyowl]

I have been using GIMP for quite a while. It's free and I'm told that it does everything that PS does. I've never used PS so I can't speak from personal experience with it. I don't find GIMP very user friendly and the manuals are poor. I finally have bought PS on Ebay. Hopefully I'll receive it this coming week.

[greypoint]

I don't use Photoshop and there is no way [other than if i suddenly come into money!] that I will spend several hundred pounds on an editing application. I use PSP8 which was a gift - I've had Elements free witha couple of cameras but went back to PSP and removed Elements to free up disc space on my PC. It would be a shame if other applications disappeared - I'd rather spend my money on a camera or lens than on an editing programme I'd probably use no more than 5% of. Of course there are plenty of free programmes out there - Photofiltre's very good for simple editing and presentation stuff.

[windyridge50]

But because it dominates the industry, people just have to learn it anyway. I can almost forgive Adobe its outrageous pricing (compare Photoshop with most other major software packages, it's about double the going price for a full-featured heavyweight.


I wouldn't agree that photshop is either overpriced or a particulalrly difficult system to master. it is in fact an advanced Digital Signal Processing suite. In the DSP world the only real packages that it can be compared with are the industry standard LabView and autoCAD which are at least three times the price. For many years I used Corel Photopaint 8-10 which is in many ways similar to photoshop but CS2 not only provides image manipulation but also an advanced file and tracking system. I have over 60,000 pictures on 800GB of disc and CS allows me to pull out any picture in a few seconds. I can't think pf any other package that offers this felxibility.However I would have to say that Photshop is much more user friendly in a dual monitor set up. Also Photoshop is cheap compared to a wet darkroom. If you add up the cost of a decent enlarger, lenses, colour analyser and 16"x12" colour processor you won't see much change out of £1500, so~£500 for the digital equivalent seems good value to me.

[greypoint]

But it depends on your budget and how much time and energy you want to spend on your photography. When you think how big the overall digital camera industry is then only a very small percentage of the buyers are going to be real enthusiasts or pro photographers. So there must be a vast number of people who just want a good but simple to use editing programme. Yes, there are those who visit forums to say they have a 2mp Acmecam and are having a few difficulties - oh and they're using CS2. Which makes me think they did'nt actually buy it or surely they'd be better off swapping their Acmecam for a proper camera!
I have no quibble with the fact that PS is the industry standard and that serious photographers are, of course, going to use it - but any kind of monopoly is usually bad news for the consumer. I want a bit of choice - that's what helps to keep prices down.

[Craftysnapper]

"but CS2 not only provides image manipulation but also an advanced file and tracking system. "

I'd say that the Organiser in Elements 4 does a much better job than Adobe bridge does , its a lot smoother and quicker and deals with off line files a lot better which is the main reason it sits alongside CS2 on my computer, at least till ACDSee brings out there Pro version photo manager in January

I'd also agree with greypoints veiw about dominance, can you imagine DSLR prices being as cheap as they are now if Nikon or Canon had total dominance but most flock to those two brands simply because of that!

[Snowyowl]

Originally Posted by Craftysnapper

"but CS2 not only provides image manipulation but also an advanced file and tracking system. "

I'd say that the Organiser in Elements 4 does a much better job than Adobe bridge does , its a lot smoother and quicker and deals with off line files a lot better which is the main reason it sits alongside CS2 on my computer, at least till ACDSee brings out there Pro version photo manager in January

I'd also agree with greypoints veiw about dominance, can you imagine DSLR prices being as cheap as they are now if Nikon or Canon had total dominance but most flock to those two brands simply because of that!

I now have PS 7 (as of yesterday) but it doesn't seem to have the file tracking system that you have mentioned. I use Picasa for organisation but would prefer to have everything combined in one program. Is Organiser something that is only part of CS or Elements or am I overlooking something?

[greypoint]

Whatever else i use, PSP, Picasa [for uploading] and Photofiltre, i always return to Irfanview for viewing and sorting pictures.

As a mac user I use mostly GraphicConverter for manipulations, but for serious editing jobs go back to near-antique Color-it which does subtle jobs better and in a quarter of the operator's time than either GC or Elements. Both originally bundled and a few £s for upgrades. Unfortunately Apple mess up the OS faster than macromedia can upgrade. I occasionally use Elements 2 (useful for re-digitising multipage .pdf files), but thought 3 was even messier and wasted more screen space than 2. For most tasks, no one prog is best for everything. Apple's own iPhoto is idiot proof, as is the Nikon stuff, but at a heavy price in loss of control.

[Craftysnapper]

Originally Posted by Snowyowl

I now have PS 7 (as of yesterday) but it doesn't seem to have the file tracking system that you have mentioned. I use Picasa for organisation but would prefer to have everything combined in one program. Is Organiser something that is only part of CS or Elements or am I overlooking something?

The Organiser is only in Elements 3 and 4, PS7 does not have this feature..sorry..if you do not work with Raw files then ACDsee8 is a very good photo manager and can manage off line images (CD/DVD) which Picasa and infran view cannot do.