Photoshop Elements Vs Freeware Gimp

[ali_kat]

Does anyone have any experience of both?

How do they compare?

I'm a complete newbie to Photoshop, I have it on my works laptop, but want something for home, which means buying it (£60 which I don't mind). But I don't want to buy it if someone thinks Gimp or some such is better/easier to use?

Want to take it on holdiay with me next week to play with....



Thanks!!

[J111]

GIMP is far harder to use than Elements. Having said that, GIMP is more powerful in some areas and is free. If you want something you can pick up and use almost instantly Elements is probably the choice.

Many of the basic photographic functions of Elements are lost under layers of menu options in GIMP. As an example, red eye correction in Elements is a one click process. This is one way to do it in GIMP:

www.gimp.org/tutorials/Red_Eye_Removal/

Some photography tutorials for GIMP are collected here:

www.gimpguru.org/Tutorials/

[ali_kat]

Thanks!

[zaktoo]

Don't be afraid of the Gimp - it's really a powerful tool. Apparently some features are lacking compared to Photoshop, but I would guess that for most work it is a quite suitable alternative. I've not used Photoshop though, only the Gimp...

HTH

Ciao

Zak

[Bodo]

From what I understand, Elements is a version of Photoshop for people that don't want to dive too deep into image editing, just use some elemental features. Can't really compare them on that basis since The Gimp is packed with more features than a home user normally needs, and a bit more technical to use.

The advantage of starting with the Gimp is that the concept of using it (the strategy of how to edit an image) is similar to those of the other professional programs, so you could easily switch by just getting used to the other user interfaces.

[ali_kat]

Thanks, I was advised by our Marketing department to start with Elements and then go to Photoshop proper, or just start and stay with Gimp.

Hence the need for comparison of the 2

Thanks for all the advice

[imperialism2024]

ali_kat said:

Thanks, I was advised by our Marketing department to start with Elements and then go to Photoshop proper, or just start and stay with Gimp.

Hence the need for comparison of the 2

Thanks for all the advice

How about, ahem, acquiring Photoshop?

[ali_kat]

imperialism2024 said:

ali_kat said:

Thanks, I was advised by our Marketing department to start with Elements and then go to Photoshop proper, or just start and stay with Gimp.

Hence the need for comparison of the 2

Thanks for all the advice

How about, ahem, acquiring Photoshop?

Ahem :cough:

I have :cough: from a very kind friend who runs his own company and had a licence or 2 spare......