Who needs PhotoShop anyway?

Kia ora tatou:
Good morning, everybody. Last night I had the singular good fortune to talk to a small photographic group in northwestern Christchurch. The group has only been going for a year now, but there is considerable enthusiasm and interest in photography.

One member of the group, who has been following Blueprintx for some time, commented that sometimes, what is discussed here is quite-goes over my head is the word he used, and that it would be nice if there were some simpler stuff. At the end of my talk, the discussion turned to working with digital. This lady has only just got a digital camera, and is having difficulty with the basics. For her, downloading, archiving and storage of images, let alone editing, are challenge enough. It is easy to be somewhat for us ‘experts’ to be superior/supercilious, when you meet a beginner at this level. She commented that it would be really nice to see some of the really basic stuff put there for people like her.

So for the lady at the for Burnside photographic group, whose name I never learned, here are some very important but often overlooked basics to digital photography. In fact, I can feel a wee series of posts coming on. A sort of digital primer, really. Let’s begin by stomping on a myth.


There seems to be some sort of preconception out there that unless you're using PhotoShop, you really haven't arrived as a digital photographer, that you must learn PhotoShop before you can do any sort of significant digital photography.

Bollocks.

PhotoShop is the 18-wheeler of image editing programs. If you've just got your learners license on a Nissan March,, being thrown the keys to a B-train, and then being told to drive to the other end of the country is a bit of an ask. Using a big rig to buy the groceries at the supermarket is pure overkill. The point I'm trying to make here, is that there are programs out there, that will do a similar job, as well, if not sometimes more efficiently.
Crystal ball time: II would predict that once Adobe Lightroom is released, sales of CS2 will slump. Remember that PhotoShop was never designed for photographers anyway. It was originally aimed at prepress people and designers. In a sense, it is becoming a piece of bloatware. Adobe, however, seem to have caught onto this, and are now developing a product specifically fo digital photographers. If you're thinking of buying CS2, or CS3, when it is released in late 2007, I would hold off, and consider Lightroom instead.

So what are the alternatives to Photoshop?

Try, Paintshop Pro-fraction of the price, and every bit as good. (In some cases, better).
Alternatively, download the GIMP. Heavy duty, but that the best possible price-free!
If you want a simple program for downloading and renaming, try Picasa. Again, a free download.
If you are Mac, use iPhoto. The latest versions are really good.
And why haven’t I mentioned the manufacturers’ software?
Approach with caution!
Some are really good and some simply awful (Camedia software has been bad for my PC- but the cameras are really good). the only manufacturer's software I have had any joy with is what came with my Sony R-1.
I am interested in software you have used and enjoyed. There are already a number of suggestions in the comments on this post. feel free to add to them.
Ka kite ano.