I'm just an amature with a Nikon CP900. I downloaded a PhotoShop 5 trial demo program the other day and am just getting into it (Huge program). I wonder if it is worth the money ($570.00)? It seems to do a lot more than my other 'cheapy' software programs: PhotoDelux, MS Picture It and Thumbs+. Is anyone out there gone the same route as I? Can you advise me before I spend the money? Thanks.

-- Bob Benson (benson@gbasin.com), March 29, 1999

Answers

It depends on how much digital work you are going to do. First thing is you will need to get a book to tell you how it really works. There is a lot to it. A good book is Osborne's Photoshop fundamentals from Magraw Hill. If you are just going to do a little then it is to much and you should look into Digital Light and Colors Picture window or PhotosuiteII or Soap. They all do more than Photoshop Delux. Keep in mind that other than Wright which cost the same a s Photoshop 5 nothing has the slection or the ability that Photoshop has, but if you are not a graphic designer than you will only use a few of the good ones. Hope it helps you to make up your mind.

-- Phil (phili1@idt.net), March 29, 1999.

I downloaded a trial version of Wright Design and found the graphics manipulation amazing. With photo editing you can do amazing things with this program. Its currently available for $100 via download.

Go to www.pcphotomag.com for the link to the offer or directly to www.wrightna.com.

PCPHOTO is a very good magazine for checking out photo graphics programs.

-- Robert Johnson (rjjohnson@silverlink.net), March 29, 1999.

I would put in a plug for Corel PhotoPaint version 7 or 8.

These are available for a tiny fraction of the cost of Photoshop and are superb programs, much easier to use than PhotoShop. I bought Photoshop 5.0 (since I had Photoshop 2, I was able to buy an upgrade for only $160), but I find myself using Corel PhotoPaint 7 far more often due to its ease of use, and it is pretty close to as powerful as Photoshop 5. I was able to get PhotoPaint 7 for a mere $20 bucks as part of a bundle with Lumiere, a video editing program that I do not use.

-- Doug Green (dougjgreen@yahoo.com), March 30, 1999.

I have been using Paint Shop Pro for years and it does a lot of what PhotoShop does for MUCH cheaper. Check out this review by CNET:

http://www.cnet.com/Content/Reviews/JustIn/Items/0,118,379,00.html

They have a free 30 days eval as well, at least give it a try before you buy anything else: http://www.jasc.com/

-- William VBP (vbp@via.ecp.fr), April 01, 1999.

Hey Doug. How much is the collpix 950 going for? 99,000 yen NOT 200,000 as you said it would.

-- sure (uhah@hotmail.com), April 01, 1999.

Try getting warranty service or an english manual for your 99000 Y Coolpix 950.

-- Doug Green (dougjgreen@yahoo.com), April 02, 1999.

I use a lot of the photo processing programs, and many have singular advantages over Photoshop. One big disadvantage to Photoshop is its' lack of file and thumbnail handling and printing.

I have gone through hours and hours of Photoshop training tapes borrowed from a library. For the quick and easy things, most of the cheapy stuff would be fine. Photoshop also has several quick and easy tools, but when you have poor images, I know of nothing that comes close to the power of Photoshop (I've never seen Wright). Some of those poor images, such as scanned negatives from the end of the roll with cerrated tape over half the image, have taken hours to fix.

I agree with another of the contributors. You don't really need to be a graphic artist to need Photoshop (or Correl), maybe you just need to be a little nutty about your image quality. To use the capabilities of Photoshop costs more than money, it costs a lot of learning time. If you're willing to spend the time, it's worth what you get. Photoshop compares to a complete machine shop, while the cheapies compare to a portable saw & drill.

If you plan to spend more than a couple of hours a week processing images, get Photoshop, otherwise, get Paint Shop Pro, Kai's Photo Soap or one of the other "home" programs. They will do what I do with 95% of the images I process with Photoshop.

Of all the programs I use, Paint Shop Pro is the 2nd most used because of it's easy printing and thumbnail capabilities.

-- William McAuley (wrmcauley@aol.com), April 18, 1999.

Go for Photoshop 5.0 In the end if you are really keen, you will have to have it. If you are overawed by it you can get Training CDs from VTC 1- 888-TRAIN-CD or www.vtco.com. Another fabulous book which includes a cd rom is Adobe Photoshop 5.0 by Martin evening. I got it about one year after purchasing photoshop 4.0 and about 2 months after getting the 5.0 upgrade. It was like a curtein had been pulled back to reveal all the secrets. well, quite a lot of them. If you are only dabbling then follow the advice you have already received. Gaston

-- Gaston Alziary (gaston.alziary@lineone.net), April 26, 1999.

I recently found Painter (Ver 5) has very powerful photo editing function too besides its main power in handling brushes. You can get it for only $70.

-- Joel Xue (joel_qxue@yahoo.com), April 28, 1999.