Some Photoshop Alternatives - For Free! (Page 2): You've got the price of Affinity wrong, in UK Affinity Photo 2 costs GB £68. equivalent in US$ would be half what you quote!

Delderby Loc: Derby UK

jerryc41 wrote:

From YouTube - free alternatives to PS.

Photopea - best - ads
GIMP
Keira
Paint.net
PhotoScapeX

If you want to spend a bit of money - just once -
PS Express
Pixel Express
Affinity. $165
Oscillator Pro $50

You've got the price of Affinity wrong, in UK Affinity Photo 2 costs GB £68. equivalent in US$ would be half what you quote!

Linda From Maine Loc: Yakima, Washington

Delderby wrote:

You've got the price of Affinity wrong, in UK Affinity Photo 2 costs GB £68. equivalent in US$ would be half what you quote!

That price is for the "Universal License." Otherwise, it's $69.

Jimmy T Loc: Virginia

jerryc41 wrote:

From YouTube - free alternatives to PS.

Photopea - best - ads
GIMP
Keira
Paint.net
PhotoScapeX

If you want to spend a bit of money - just once -
PS Express
Pixel Express
Affinity. $165
Oscillator Pro $50

For Free, I recommend PhotoScape X (Free)
I also use PhotoScapeX on your pic, mainly the “Dehaze, Brighten, and Clairity for the flower using a mask. I also used the mask on the water and flower reflection to bring out the cooler tone and darken the reflection.
PhotoScapeX (Free). They all work well for me. PhotoScapeX (Free) can be used accurately with 3 or 4 clicks or you can REALLY get into serious editing. Here are a couple of sites for you to see if you are interested. Be sure to select Mac/or Windows. Get the free version (just below the "Pro" download) first (it never expires), and you may always upgrade. Also, please do yourself a favor and watch the following two short YouTube videos to see if you would be interested in training. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nWC-SAuYOzw&t=325s Instruction and download at http://x.photoscape.org/

“One more thing”: On the opening page of PhotoScape X, there is an icon at the top, just to the left of the word "Viewer". This will open a page of EVERY function that PhortoScape has. When you click on a specific function it will describe how to perform that function and/or open up a < 2-minute video, showing step-by-step how to perform that function.
PhotoScape X has a built-in Viewer, Editor, Cut-Out, Batch* (processing), Collage, Combine, Create GIF, Print, and many other tools.
*Batch - Crop, Resize, Color, Filter, Film, Light, Insert, Curves, Frames.

Best Wishes,
JimmyT Sends

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Bill_de wrote:

It's amazing with all these free alternatives that PS sells as much as they do. For some folks who only use a fraction of what PS provides, that $10 a month could make a difference.

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Yes, only $10 a month! Of course, if I wanted all the other subscription software, it would be several hundred dollars a month. I prefer paying $0 a month. It works for me and my needs, but everyone makes their own choice.

BebuLamar

Bill_de wrote:

It's amazing with all these free alternatives that PS sells as much as they do. For some folks who only use a fraction of what PS provides, that $10 a month could make a difference.

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Because many folks think it's only $10 and not $600 or $700 like before.

GLSmith Loc: Tampa, Fl

Under the "spend a bit of $$$"

AC/DC as powerful as LightRoom, much easier learning curve, free upgrades, as well as CorelDraw

MosheR Loc: New York City

Timmers wrote:

Me and Newsguygeorgeare buddies so this I hope wil... (show quote)

How about posting some of your great art. I'm always looking for inspiration and revelation.

chrisg-optical Loc: New York, NY

jerryc41 wrote:

From YouTube - free alternatives to PS.

Photopea - best - ads
GIMP
Keira
Paint.net
PhotoScapeX

If you want to spend a bit of money - just once -
PS Express
Pixel Express
Affinity. $165
Oscillator Pro $50

GIMP has been my favorite go-to app since v1.0 for quick graphic edits, crops, re-sizes, etc. For photographic images, I prefer Ps with it's close sibling Lr. For $14.95/mo you get both plus 1 TB cloud storage.

I'm all for the free apps - Inkscape, LibreOffice, Blender, Total Commander, Notepad++ are my other favorites. The "pay once" software is kind of a trap. If you don't expect to ever update the software, it's fine. But if you need or want software updates every year or so you will have to either pay for the new version, or an "upgrade" version. With these annual or semi-annual costs, it averages out to a monthly subscription anyway. I also use CoffeeCup software for web design - great software for a "one time" cost - and they usually give you a few updates from purchase date. Every year or so CoffeeCup updates their software with new enhanced versions, bug fixes, etc., which sometimes requires a full purchase license. If you're a web designer, I think MobiRise is even better - it's free to start, but for only $99 annually, you get oodles of templates to work with. It's also very simple to use.

Sooner or later, you will have to update the software anyway, as OS updates and new versions are released, or computer hardware is updated. I do know people who are still using CS6 and still happy with it. It really depends on your use cases and budget.

zarathu Loc: Bar Harbor, MDI, Maine

jerryc41 wrote:

Affinity. $165

$165 is only fir the whole suite. It's about $65 for just the photo.

DirtFarmer Loc: Escaped from the NYC area, back to MA

chrisg-optical wrote:

GIMP has been my favorite go-to app since v1.0 for... (show quote)

There are differences in the capability of different software packages.

When I first started learning postprocessing I used GIMP to handle masks and layers because the price was right. At the time Photoshop was in the $600 range. After about a year I found that GIMP was limited in what it could do. I saw things being done that I couldn't do with GIMP so I sprung for Photoshop (yes, at $600). Have not looked back.

I had an application for a computer in the barn to handle data from some of the appliances. Got a used computer cheap. Used an outdated OS because it was all offline. But I needed a word processor, so rather than spring for MS Word, I used Libre Office. I could take the data and produce a PDF and send it to my primary computer by sneakernet. The Libre Office files would work in Word if they were just formatted text, but when I tried to add images, the files were not compatible with Word. Image formatting was all screwed up.

Both these examples were several years ago and I expect that some of the issues have been resolved in later versions of the software. However, it shows that there exists the possibility that you will not be able to share your results with someone who uses the software that is considered the industry standard. Whether this is an issue or not is strictly up to you.

The photography package is $10/month without the terabyte of cloud storage and gives you LR/PS (which I consider the industry standard, but my opinion is my own and is clearly not shared by everyone). I don't use cloud storage that way so I save $5/month, which I apply toward cloud storage for backup purposes.

mtbear

Iv'e tried GIMP and did not consider it ready for prime time.

SonyA580 Loc: FL in the winter & MN in the summer

Timmers wrote:

Me and Newsguygeorgeare buddies so this I hope wil... (show quote)

And I thought I was the only one still using PhotoShop 7.0!

fantom Loc: Colorado

jerryc41 wrote:

From YouTube - free alternatives to PS.

Photopea - best - ads
GIMP
Keira
Paint.net
PhotoScapeX

If you want to spend a bit of money - just once -
PS Express
Pixel Express
Affinity. $165
Oscillator Pro $50

I think this is an apple to oranges comparison.

PS/LR has powerful tools the others do not---but I have not spent time investigating all of them. If you are a casual photo editor and you can get by without layers, masks, generative AI, selective editing and continued improvement of sophisticated editing tools, etc etc then go for the alternatives.

If you just object to PS/LR because of the monthly fee then that is a shortsighted and naive reason not to consider LR/PS that has nothing to do with the quality of the products.

I do not care what programs you use and I'm merely suggesting that you carefully consider all the alternatives in relation to what you are trying to accomplish. Many, many people do not need what PS/LR have to offer, so they should avoid it and save ten bucks a month. Others find that the powerful tools are indispensable, challenging and rewarding, so the monthly subscription is an efficient and rewarding investment for them.

End of sermon.
Amen

Blues Dude

Way back in the last century, I started with PS, but my employers paid for it. Being incredibly cheap and preferring to do most of my photo creation in-camera, I switched to GIMP, which I'm slowly learning. It takes a looong time to teach an old dog new tricks. My biggest GIMP complaint is that I haven't found a printed reference book that would allow me to quickly look up how to do something, like create layers, etc. It's a pain to search YouTube for how-to videos on specific GIMP tasks. Did you guess I'm a digi-dinosaur?

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

SonyA580 wrote:

And I thought I was the only one still using PhotoShop 7.0!

I have PS 6, but I seldom use it now.