KelloggKid

You might give Affinity Photo a try. It can process RAW, has many of the same capabilities as PS and costs a one-time charge of $50. Ton's of excellent training videos available as well. I believe they still offer a limited time fully functional trial.

DWU2 Loc: Phoenix Arizona area

For what it's worth, there's a website called Photopea (https://www.photopea.com/), which offers an on-line Photoshop simulator. It has a fairly large subset of Photoshop features, and the user interface is the same as PS. It doesn't open RAW files, but there are work-arounds for that. It would be a good way to learn PS before buying, or to edit photos on a friend's PC or at the library.

Fotoartist Loc: Detroit, Michigan

Beautiful shots.

don26812 Loc: South Bay of Los Angeles, CA

Given the high quality of your posted images, your hobby is worth a $120 a year investment. But since you are not interested in the subscription approach, then my suggestion is PSE 2019 for about $80 as others have suggested. FWIW

bikertut Loc: Kingsville, MO

Great analogy.

Woodworm65 Loc: Lombard, IL

Adobe has taken advantage of the photography community but it looks like until they raise the price again the die-hards who are not willing to try a program such as Affinity will keep using it and keep paying for it.

JBGLADSTONE Loc: Oregon

I would suggest looking at ON1 RAW 2019. 69.99.
They provide lots of training videos. Great customer service.

Bill P

Adobe now has many competitors, but as one who got started with PS, I find the from the beginning learning curve is too much to worry about the $10/month thing. Another thing is Lightroom, I found out that it's only advantage was for those who spray and pray every day, as it is essentially a digital asset cataloging program. I did that for years without LR with PS and Bridge. But consider every option now, as once you are up with one, you won't want to change due to the learning curve.

JBGLADSTONE Loc: Oregon

Bill,

ON1 Is very similar to LR/PS. I would suggest going to Youtube and review ON1 RAW 2019. Many of the same tools are used as well as labeled.

Free for 30 days .... try it out

petejohn

Check out ACDSEE one of the better versions; Ultimate or Pro. I've used ACDSEE for years and find it very easy and quick. I think they also have a free trial. Good luck

Bartet

I use Photoshop, but GIMP is a freebie that is comparable to PS.
https://www.gimp.org/

Carusoswi

The linux applications to which you refer are all open source, meaning they are free to anyone regardless of operating system. The question is whether they are available for a particular user's OS (I am certain you know this, just pointing it out to clarify for others). There is a version of each of the applications you mentioned available for Windows. Gimp and RT also run on MAC, I'm not certain about DT.

I use both Windows and Linux, subscribe to Adobe, but have untold respect for these open source programs and those who work tirelessly to develop and maintain them. It pleases me that you (and others) point out these fine programs. As others have pointed out, software is a personal choice, but the logic behind the notion that because Adobe is the "industry" standard, one should just go with "the best" escapes me.

LR and PS are slick applications, but there are features in DT and G that I prefer. Furthermore, the latest version of Gimp eliminates the bit-depth limit which for so long was the weakness to which most of its critics so frequently pointed in comparing it negatively to PS.

DT can do things that LR simply cannot (robust masking that allows for localized edits to the image before converting/exporting to tif or jpg is but one example).

The learning curve for these applications is no more (and, of course, no less) difficult than that for LR/PS, and, as the OP stated that he prefers to stay away from Adobe's subscription plan, I cannot imagine a reason why he should not try these fine applications before shelling out $60 or so for some other JR Adobe or other application. What is to lose by trying one of the open source programs. It's akin to stating that, in choosing a camera/camera system, you should stick to Canon/Nikon because they are "industry standards."

My Linux version of Gimp is packaged with darktable, and when you choose to open a RAW file with Gimp, the application calls darktable to open the RAW file which you can then proceed to open in Gimp (similar to Adobe's LR/PS or Bridge/PS routine).

Everything one needs is, for the most part, available in that DT/Gimp package, it is free, there are regular updates to both programs which are also free. For someone leery of subscription plans, what could possibly be better?

My 2 cents.

Merry Christmas

Caruso

AMO Loc: Pennsburg, PA

Same here. I've been using Corel Paintshop Pro for many years now and am very happy with it.

ClarkG Loc: Southern Indiana USA

I made the switch to AFFINITY PHOTO less than a year ago. It is AWESOME! Don't let the $50 price tag fool you. It is a very powerful photo editing software that will give Photoshop a run for their money! There are 200+ tutorial videos to watch but you'll pick it up very quickly. It even has a few "auto" adjustments that you can use that work very well.
The only downside that I see is the lack of a "sorting" or "cataloging" feature that can help you organize your photos. I personally shoot Canon and I use their FREE Digital Photo Pro software to organize mine.

AquaAndy

I've been busy for the last couple of days so I haven't been able to check back here. Thank you for all the replies and complements on my photos, I have a lot to learn but I do enjoy it very much. I do see that there are a lot of opinions (and some very strong) on this subject and I do appreciate them all. I'll be spending tonight playing with some of the suggested programs that are either free or offer a trial period and see what happens. While replying I was trying to quote multiple replies but could not figure out how to do it. I see the button for "quote reply" but no "multi quote" button.