Professional Image-Editing

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Richard
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Professional Image-Editing

Postby Richard » Fri Nov 11, 2016 1:24 pm

Photoshop is way too expensive.

Here is a link to a beta of 'Affinity Photo Windows' by 'Serif'
There is a Mac version too.
it may be worth a look:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/windows/

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Derek Jempson
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Re: Professional Image-Editing

Postby Derek Jempson » Sat Nov 12, 2016 6:08 am

Serif software is excellent, I have used many of their products over the years. The new Affinity range looks exciting. Their software is reasonably priced as well (compared with the likes of Photoshop and Quark). What I like most of all is that older versions of their software are gradually reduced in price, usually ending up at £9.99!

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Geoff
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Re: Professional Image-Editing

Postby Geoff » Fri Nov 18, 2016 9:41 pm

Gimp is the most popular free image editor, but I have to say you can't beat Photoshop. There's a price tag as you would expect with any pro software, but if you're serious about it then it's the only sensible option.

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Richard
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Re: Professional Image-Editing

Postby Richard » Sat Nov 19, 2016 4:41 pm

I don't understand Geoff, are you saying that 'Creatives' can't be professionals unless they use Adobe Photoshop?
I think Photoshop may be in for some stiff competition, it has been creaming big money off for years, (monthly subscription now) with a product that is outdated now, it's time to look at other kids on the block.
Photoshop is still the most powerful package, for what it does, but a lot of 'Creatives' and/or photographers work on their own and their needs have changed.
Photoshop is not much good if you need creative inspiration and you may require 'Lightroom' as well, in any case, inside 'creative cloud'.
Serif's Affinity 'Photo' and Designer' (developed originally for Mac's) have been built, from the ground up, for the latest computing hardware, and are cheap and major upgrades have been issued free.
The windows version is in 'beta' but promises to shake the Photoshop crown!!

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Geoff
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Re: Professional Image-Editing

Postby Geoff » Sat Nov 19, 2016 4:59 pm

Thanks Richard, sounds like you've got shares in Serif ;)

Sorry for your confusion with my post, of course it's down to the individual which software they prefer (based on price as well as features) and I am not knocking whichever you decide is best for you.

It would be nice if something affordable came along and took Photoshop's crown, but the jury is out as to whether anything different will get adopted on mass.

My daughter is doing both a graphics and a photography course at Bexhill college and they're both 100% photoshop for image editing. It seems sensible if you're looking for a future in this field that you would learn the software most commonly used in a professional environment.

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Richard
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Re: Professional Image-Editing

Postby Richard » Sat Nov 19, 2016 8:12 pm

Let's agree to differ Geoff, on the 'professional' angle.
The world is changing rapidly, and clearly Photoshop is facing competition, not to mention 'Corel photoshop' which doesn't quite cut the mustard, but 'ACDsee pro 7' is a contender.
Serif's offerings have only just been developed for the PC mass-user audience, but of course Photoshop (or Photoshop Elements) is the industry-standard, and is hard to beat in its combination with 'Lightroom'.
I totally understand that if you are going for a job in a company that uses Photoshop you might be silly not to know all about it to gain employment.

As a welcome aside, look at the way in which Microsoft are trying to steal a march on Macintosh's dominance , with its new Surface Studio PC:

http://petapixel.com/2016/10/26/microso ... kill-imac/

It is only because Photoshop are facing serious competition that they keep coming up with new software, so it can't be a bad thing to have someone breathing down your neck.

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Geoff
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Re: Professional Image-Editing

Postby Geoff » Sat Nov 19, 2016 8:21 pm

There's no argument here, if you prefer something other than Photoshop then use it. But your thread was titled "Professional Image-Editing" and Photoshop is by far the professionals first choice for the time being.

Things move on and nothing is cast in stone. I look forward to checking out Serifs new offerings. Hopefully I will be pleasantly surprised and save a small fortune on Adobe subscriptions ;)

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Richard
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Re: Professional Image-Editing

Postby Richard » Sun Nov 20, 2016 12:18 pm

No hard feelings then Geoff!
I was not routing for the leading professional image-editing package, and whilst Photoshop is certainly the one to beat for now, there are many contenders - this is all I was indicating.
Many professional 'creatives' work on their own and are not happy to be tied to expensive and uninspiring software, as offered by the industry-standard of Photoshop.
There is a big learning-curve with it, as an obstacle, because it takes ages to master a tiny part, but the good thing is that there are plenty of video-instructions for any feature you may wish to learn.
I was always taught not to discard something you disliked, until you had a viable alternative, and maybe, just maybe, the gap is narrowing.
8-)

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Richard
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Re: Professional Image-Editing

Postby Richard » Tue Nov 22, 2016 1:31 pm

I forgot to mention the following:

Corel AfterShot Pro 2 (Mac, PC & Linux – £57.99)

PhotoDirector 8 Ultra (£50 on offer)

http://www.cyberlink.com/products/photo ... .html?&r=1

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Insomniac
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Re: Professional Image-Editing

Postby Insomniac » Mon Jan 02, 2017 4:13 pm

My wife uses paint.net at her work, but that's for doing basic photoediting (cropping, magic wand) for the company to upload onto ebay and amazon.

I was introduced to Photoshop at school and have used it since, though when I introduced it to wife a couple years back, she couldn't stand it.


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