GIMP?

[tekla]

Thanks everyone, and keep it up, I enjoy and and working through the info.  I only work with one image at a time, so perhaps that will make it a bit easier.

I have a small portfolio at the Flicker site below that might give some indication of what I'm shooting.  I have a few examples of each, the flowers, the reflections, the 2,000 plus shots I have of the Warfield and Fillmore, and the odd things that interest me - if that helps.

[burgandy]

I have yet to have someone explain exactly what they think PhotoShop has that Gimp doesn't. With all that Gimp does, I don't mind herding the cats around the screen.

I don't have a lot of experience, but a few really useful things come to mind:

- The healing tools, which magically blend away blemishes in a photograph using the surrounding colours and texture.  Works for anything, including portraits!!

- The history brush, which lets one paint in parts of an image from a previous point in history.

- Adjustment layers:  I can assign a specific set of adjustments to a pseudo-layer, say, a colour correction, then go work on the base image and whatever adjustments I made will automatically be applied.

I'm sure there's more, that's just what comes to mind at the moment.  Certainly nothing against GIMP, since it's open and free, but for some people, it's a deal-breaker.

   ~ Burgundy ~

[finewine]

I've used GIMP quite a lot and it's a primary tool in my toolkit.  All the fundamentals you need are there, however PhotoShop sets the trend with the convenience and manipulation functions, then GIMP has to catch up.

There are some tutorials out there for GIMP users but the resources aren't as rich as they are for PhotoShop (and translating a PS tutorial to GIMP as you read isn't easy unless you're intimately familiar with both...which I'm not).

Unless you're going to be doing a lot of hardcore manipulation, GIMP should be more than sufficient in the value-for-money department

[Miniar]

I have to add, I don't produce digital art. I use paint.net for  some small post-scan-adjustments, and playing around.
I do not own a tablet.
I'm an old fashioned artist.. the kind that believes that if your hands are clean, you're not doing it right

[finewine]

[...] the kind that believes that if your hands are clean, you're not doing it right

Sage words that apply to many of my favorite activites

[Suzy]

I use both Gimp and Pain.net.  I find Gimp is a bit challenging to learn, but maybe it's just me.  But it definitely does some very cool things.

Kristi

[Syne]

Gave up PS for GIMP a long time ago and have not looked back. I know of entire art departments that have converted over as well.

I use mine for some photography and also a bit of digital art. It took me awhile to get the layout down to where I liked it. Love so many filters and plugins that are out there and it was great when I could stop converting the adobe brushes manually and just dump them in the brushes folder.

[sd]

I wasn't impressed with Gimp, it just felt very foreign to me, but I have been using Photoshop for years.

You may want to check out Paint Shop Pro, that used to be quite good and a lot cheaper.

[Lisbeth]

it just felt very foreign to me

Understandable. Adobe is an American company and Gimp was developed in Europe.