No one has mentioned that Apple does have excellent customer service, and I think if you explain to them that you cannot upgrade past Catalina, you'll get someone who can help you upgrade to that OS. I have found them to be very helpful that way.

I have used Epson for many years, and if you are considering one of their units, check into their new 'cartridge-less' printers. Way more economical but more up front cost. I had a smaller unit that just printed up to 8X10" - the XP-060, and I went to replace it.

They had an XP-970 for about $200, but they had a new version which had refillable tanks for their ink. That brought the price per print way down, but it also cost $700 for the printer. I almost bought it, but since I had so many cartridges on hand, I went for the cheaper one. But I WISHED for the refillable one. :)

BTW - I only ever use Epson original inks, and I very rarely had any issues with clogging, and that was only if I hadn't used it for a long time. But you just clean it and keep going.

Well since you really want to just experiment, you can go on eBay and buy the highest rated Canon you can find for $500. Itch satisfied, price met, Best Buy for your money, yada yada. I have purchased a lot of lenses and some cameras on eBay and never had any problems.

If these photos are dear to you, as you indicated, there are definitely ways to make them look a LOT better. In the example you sent, Topaz Denoiser could absolutely improve the image. However, you indicated that you did not want to spend any money on new software (though if you can wait until Black Friday, Topaz almost always has a huge sale), so it sounds like you are stuck with Photoshop Elements. I do not really use Elements, but maybe the question to ask of Hoggers is 'Is there an Elements expert out there who can help me fix this kind of image?'

Hey Guys - if any of you were considering a purchase of Affinity Photo, they have their half price sale going on for two days. You can buy the program for only $25!
Just FYI. Here is the link:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/photo/ipad/?utm_source=serifemail&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=covid19_sale_v2_EOS&mc=C19V2OESE02

Rick

Thank you all who weighed in. Everything was very helpful.
Rick

Hello Gang - I have a question for anyone who has mostly moved from Photoshop to Affinity. I have Photoshop 6 for the Mac, but it will stop functioning once I upgrade to Catalina. And - I purchased Affinity, which I assume will continue to work on that OS. I was expecting to switch over by now, but old habits die hard.

There is one feature I use a LOT in Photoshop to do a 'quick and dirty' image improvement. Well, two, actually, depending on the photo. I use Auto Contrast and Auto Color on almost every photo, and they really help each image pop without me having to do all kinds of backflips to get there.

I have been looking for the equivalent in Affinity. I know they have their sliders, the white balance, etc., but I have tried them and found them not to work as well or as easily. I am pretty sure they must have something like that, but I don't know how to do it. Can anyone help me on this?

Also - I can export anything as a JPEG or whatever, but if I just save the file, it does so in their 'Affinity File Format'. I would prefer to just save it automatically as a JPEG (Or RAW or whatever I brought it in as). Is there an easier way to do this other than exporting it every time? Thanks in advance,
Rick

I have been considering an R6, but was intrigued by the many hoggers who have gone with the RP for weight and price considerations. I'm wondering - of those who have used both, what seems to me to be the prime deciding factors is that the R6 has image stabilization, better low light capabilities and bird eye following, which the RP does not. Do you find that it is easier to get more 'keepers', i.e., fewer blurred shots with your R6 vs the RP6? And - would you say that it is worth the $1500 difference?
Rick G

I would say that Sharpen is magical, but not miraculous. Definitely worth the money, and I definitely use it as needed. When you need it - say, those wedding pics, or shots of your relatives that are now passed away, or that birthday party that you can't re-do, it can absolutely save you if you have a great shot that is slightly out of focus. I have been amazed at seeing it fix an otherwise useless image (magical), but it doesn't work all the time - it seems that it's algorithms can only do so much. (they can't perform miracles). I will say that over the year of photographing things, I always ended up with shots that I loved but were just a little bit fuzzy. I'm so glad I never deleted those. Sharpen has been able to fix quite a few of them. They do go on sale every so often - their best deals seem to be on Black Friday.

Depending on how much patience you have, I picked up the whole suite of Topaz products (including their 4K Video enhancer, though they had a deal minus the video for less) last Black Friday for something like $250. I don't know if they ever discount that steeply outside of Black Friday, but the price was certainly right.

Depending on how much patience you have, I picked up the whole suite of Topaz products (including their 4K Video enhancer) last Black Friday for something like $250. I don't know if they ever discount that steeply outside of Black Friday, but the price was certainly right.

I think this is great for you. However, unless you sold the print as a 'limited edition', I don't see a problem with printing another of the same image for your friend. Unless, of course, you want to show more of a variety of your work.

As others have said, using a scanner that is designed to scan negatives will make most of your problems go away. The Epson 600 is a great one - and it does flatbed as well as transparencies. Those striations don't look like dirt of other problems on the negative - its almost like a recording of whatever texture is on your flatbed. It doesn't show up much on the dark parts of the image, but mostly light, which would make sense if light was bouncing off the scanner pad. At any rate, if the negatives mean anything to you, it's better to bite the bullet and get a scanner for the specific job.

Based on what the OP asked, I'm skipping all the suggested softwares (Many of which I own) and going straight to Topaz Mask AI. This is what he said:

I am looking for a good affordable Photo editing software that I can cut people out and switch backgrounds! Just something I can touch up photos and change backgrounds!! I just don’t want to spend much over a 100 dollars and something this country hick can figure out how to run!!!

Topaz Mask was designed to do this exactly - cutting people out and switching backgrounds. And it's WAY easier than trying to do it in Photoshop. Here is a link: https://topazlabs.com/mask-ai/
Unfortunately, while the price fits his budget, he sadly missed out on the recent Black Friday/Christmas sales, where I picked it up for only $31 as part of a bundle. But it still fits all his criteria with the exception of 'touch up photos', which could mean a lot of things and can be handled with many of the free programs already listed.

I had never used Topaz at all until someone here posted the links to their Black Friday sale, and I must say, I was very impressed with how well their products worked. In some ways, it would be nice to have them all in one program, but then again, if you have a specific issue, you know which one to use. I've used the sharpen, Denoise, the Gigapixel and all have surpassed expectations. They have made otherwise useless photos into post-able shots, and even restored old photos of people who passed away into beautiful keepsakes. I am using an older Mac running High Sierra with 16GB of memory, and haven't had any of the speed issues otherwise described. But it was - to me, well worth the investment. Thanks to original poster of those links!