Photo software?

I have Corel Paint Shop Pro loaded on my computer. The free trial expired long ago. Before I delete the program altogether does anyone else use this? Is it worth paying the $60 to get the license?
All I use right now is Microsoft picture manager which is VERY basic. It crops, resizes and does some color adjustments. Anything else I need I pop the photo into Gimp. There are a lot of help pages for Gimp done by a variety of people so it's an ok system but it's not easy to learn. Part of the problem is it is very basic in that everything is there but you have to figure out how to use it. Which is not my strong point. I watched a video the other day that caused me to do a dope slap. Holy cow THAT'S how you do that? 30 second video to explain something I had pondered for awhile.
Maybe all the photo software is like that and requires you play around with it rather than say 'you want to do this? click here.'

I use a very old version of Photoshop, because I'm just so used to it and I don't want to pay for the updates. But if I was going to spend the money today, I would likely suggest getting Photoshop Elements for $69 for a fully legal copy. (Academic if you still have students at home.)

I also have Photoshop Elements, but find that more often than not, I use freebies loaded on the computer. I also find info on u tube very helpful...I need instructions too. Nothing these days comes with instructions anymore, pet peeve, I just don't have a full day to figure things out, drives me crazy, and that is getting to be a very short drive.

I could use some Gimp tutorials. Even their basic help documents start out WAY over my head, so I'm even more confused before I learn anything.
Where did you find the videos? You Tube?

I've been using this which is easy to use. I'm not doing anything fancy, just adding text, sometimes putting more than 1 photo together for a before/after pic., etc.

Breakfast Diva said:

I've been using this which is easy to use. I'm not doing anything fancy, just adding text, sometimes putting more than 1 photo together for a before/after pic., etc..

Click to expand...

Can't wait to upload DH under distortion....

K9 said:

I could use some Gimp tutorials. Even their basic help documents start out WAY over my head, so I'm even more confused before I learn anything.
Where did you find the videos? You Tube?.

Click to expand...

K9 said:

I could use some Gimp tutorials. Even their basic help documents start out WAY over my head, so I'm even more confused before I learn anything.
Where did you find the videos? You Tube?

Click to expand...

Don't bother with their tutorials. Just put 'Gimp photo sizing' or whatever you want to know how to do. There are a bunch of step by step either written or video tutorials. Just make sure you start with 'Gimp' so you get the right tutorial.

white pine said:

I also have Photoshop Elements, but find that more often than not, I use freebies loaded on the computer. I also find info on u tube very helpful...I need instructions too. Nothing these days comes with instructions anymore, pet peeve, I just don't have a full day to figure things out, drives me crazy, and that is getting to be a very short drive..

Click to expand...

That was another one I had heard about.
Really just trying to figure out if I can uninstall this 600+ meg file to free up some room.

Breakfast Diva said:

I've been using this which is easy to use. I'm not doing anything fancy, just adding text, sometimes putting more than 1 photo together for a before/after pic., etc..

Click to expand...

Is it really free or is that just a teaser?

K9 said:

Breakfast Diva said:

I've been using this which is easy to use. I'm not doing anything fancy, just adding text, sometimes putting more than 1 photo together for a before/after pic., etc..

Click to expand...

Is it really free or is that just a teaser?
.

Click to expand...

it's really free!

What version of PSP do you have? I love mine. I am on version x4...they are on X5 right now. I wouldn't get rid of it. You can do soooooo much with it and there are loads of tutorials on line for it.
But if you haveGImp and are using it ok, then stick with it.

EmptyNest said:

What version of PSP do you have? I love mine. I am on version x4...they are on X5 right now. I wouldn't get rid of it. You can do soooooo much with it and there are loads of tutorials on line for it.
But if you haveGImp and are using it ok, then stick with it..

Click to expand...

Mine is expired so I would have to upgrade to version 5. As it is I can't use it. Trial version. So I was wondering if it is worth paying for it or does Gimp do the same thing for free?
Not that I do a lot with it.
I'd like to learn how to 'remove' unwanted stuff from the photos. Wires, cables, A/C units... That's something I've tried but can't seem to get a handle on.

Madeleine said:

EmptyNest said:

What version of PSP do you have? I love mine. I am on version x4...they are on X5 right now. I wouldn't get rid of it. You can do soooooo much with it and there are loads of tutorials on line for it.
But if you haveGImp and are using it ok, then stick with it..

Click to expand...

Mine is expired so I would have to upgrade to version 5. As it is I can't use it. Trial version. So I was wondering if it is worth paying for it or does Gimp do the same thing for free?
Not that I do a lot with it.
I'd like to learn how to 'remove' unwanted stuff from the photos. Wires, cables, A/C units... That's something I've tried but can't seem to get a handle on.
.

Click to expand...

It does it all! Gimp ..I do not know well enough to tell you. But I dont think it will remove things from photos, you could do a search and see what comes up

Madeleine said:

EmptyNest said:

What version of PSP do you have? I love mine. I am on version x4...they are on X5 right now. I wouldn't get rid of it. You can do soooooo much with it and there are loads of tutorials on line for it.
But if you haveGImp and are using it ok, then stick with it..

Click to expand...

Mine is expired so I would have to upgrade to version 5. As it is I can't use it. Trial version. So I was wondering if it is worth paying for it or does Gimp do the same thing for free?
Not that I do a lot with it.
I'd like to learn how to 'remove' unwanted stuff from the photos. Wires, cables, A/C units... That's something I've tried but can't seem to get a handle on.
.

Click to expand...

You can airbrush or or rubber stamp things out of photos in Gimp. Its not too bad. I switched to it a while back. I'm on Ubuntu now and enjoying not having to worry about software prices.

I have never tried to learn Photoshop or one of the more advanced photo editors; I use Google Picasa which organizes and edits, and is free. It generally works pretty welll - the most un-intuitive thing about it is resizing, which is done through the 'export' function. Adding text and the auto-correct software is convenient and easy.

I do have to admit that although I don't use Corel Photo Shop Pro, I do use Corel Draw for vector graphics and not Adobe.

I have it open right now, and most every moment of every day. Paint Shop Pro.
Was able to visit another amazing Virginia State Park where I got this photo!
I also got a great shot of two fisherman in a green canoe, but had to shoot the image from a distance between some trees, so need to work on cropping and more, which I will do in Paint Shop Pro. The image above was not touched up at all, but it may be in the future, to brighten it up a bit.

Here is the pic of the fishermen, I was trying to get a photo when they launched, they were fishing off a dock first, then put the canoe in and went away from me. Here is the shot (compressed) from a long distance.
as you can immediately see there are plenty of things to FIX in this image to make it a KEEPER.
They weren't really paddling uphill. All of the fixes I do in Paint Shop Pro.

Joey Bloggs said:

Here is the pic of the fishermen, I was trying to get a photo when they launched, they were fishing off a dock first, then put the canoe in and went away from me. Here is the shot (compressed) from a long distance.
as you can immediately see there are plenty of things to FIX in this image to make it a KEEPER.
They weren't really paddling uphill. All of the fixes I do in Paint Shop Pro..

Click to expand...

We are alike My Paint Shop Pro is always open!!! I have been working it to death this weekend.

EmptyNest said:

Joey Bloggs said:

Here is the pic of the fishermen, I was trying to get a photo when they launched, they were fishing off a dock first, then put the canoe in and went away from me. Here is the shot (compressed) from a long distance.
as you can immediately see there are plenty of things to FIX in this image to make it a KEEPER.
They weren't really paddling uphill. All of the fixes I do in Paint Shop Pro..

Click to expand...

We are alike My Paint Shop Pro is always open!!! I have been working it to death this weekend.
.

Click to expand...

EmptyNest said:

We are alike My Paint Shop Pro is always open!!! I have been working it to death this weekend.

Click to expand...

I know there is plenty of other quick useful products, there are a few that have features this one does not, but this one has features I need like correcting that slant on that photo, and unfortunately when I snap a super fast image I am never balanced when I take it! haha I always use the water line etc if I have time.
There are some nice products to use online without owning the software, here is one I will recommend and I have a short cut on my desktop (this has nothing to do with correcting a photo, it is for effects only):
http://pixlr.com/o-matic/