On my home computer, I currently use an old Photoshop LE program. I was trained professionally on the full version Photoshop, so I’m most familiar with it. I want to update, so after some research here are my choices: Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro Ultimate or ACDSee Photo Editor. What do you recommend & why? This will be used for freelance and hobby photos.
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Well, i only ever used Photoshop, and a few online editors, like the one on http://www.picnik.com Without a doubt, most professionals use Photoshop. Those versions are hundreds of dollars, but there are cheaper versions, like elements 7. I’m not one hundred percent sure on this, but i think Photoshop gives you the most options. Like i said, I use Photoshop 7. It does everything i want it to do.
I don’t think ACDSee is even in a similar category.
The latest PS Elements and PSP have about the same features, functionality and price. If you are more familiar with PS, then go for PS. It’ll link to other Adobe products better. I use both and I personally find PSP a lot easier to use for web development work. I recommend PSP to most of my friends who don’t spend much time with image editors.
GIMP is also in a similar class and it’s free!
The full blown PS is again in a different class. It has a lot more features and functionality (which you may never use) it’ll cost you 3x more and such a steep learning curve. Many people who has Full PS use less than 30% of it’s functionality/features. That’s why Adobe got smart and released PS Elements which has about 40% features of a full PS.
ACDSee, no. Thats more for organizing your photos.
I would recommend photoshop elements, i have it as well and the full version of photoshop and they work about the same, except of course the full version has A LOT more stuff..
so if you’re used to how photoshop works then elements will be good.
i don’t have any experience with psp.