What Photoshop should I buy?

[Mael Thibault]

I just got a Macbook Pro and I am broke now... I really want photoshop but I was wondering what was the cheapest version who could do photomerge and copy paste a person from another photo to another, etc... Anyways, I need help... What is the best version besides the 800$ ones...
THank you

 

[angelwatt]

Take a look at Photoshop Elements.

 

[chrono1081]

I would suggest downloading and giving Pixelmator a try. I am seriously impressed with this program. And its much faster then Photoshop.

 

[KoolStar]

I would take a look at the academic license for adobe if you are a student.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

http://www.pixelmator.com/

I use this 99.99% of the time and I have both pixelmator and photoshop.

 

[Jaro65]

+1 vote for Elements

 

[Frosties]

Well there is always GIMP. As a plus it's free.

http://www.gimp.org/

 

[Mael Thibault]

WHat about Aperture??

Do you guys think that I should also buy Aperture? Would Photoshop and Aperture be a good match?

 

[roadbloc]

http://www.pixelmator.com/

I use this 99.99% of the time and I have both pixelmator and photoshop.

wow... thanks. ive been putting up with the sillyness of X11 gimp and was so close to buying photoshop. you've just saved me money

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

Do you guys think that I should also buy Aperture? Would Photoshop and Aperture be a good match?

Yes. They integrate well, however if you're going to be a heavy photoshop user I would recommend Light Room since they'll feel more similar.

 

[kasakka]

Whatever you do, I recommend waiting for the next iteration of Adobe's software. For what you do, I think Pixelmator will be just fine. It's a good program but not as feature packed as Photoshop. I truly wish it had more developers working on it so new versions were out faster.

Adobe's software is in reality really poorly cobbled together and full of bugs, UI flaws etc. At my workplace we didn't even bother upgrading to CS4 because it offers nothing relevant over CS3. I have feeling Adobe has lost any good developers in the recent years judging by the quality and choices made in all of the programs in the Creative Suite package.

 

[MSTRKRFT]

I just got a Macbook Pro and I am broke now... I really want photoshop but I was wondering what was the cheapest version who could do photomerge and copy paste a person from another photo to another, etc... Anyways, I need help... What is the best version besides the 800$ ones...
THank you

Are you a student or do you know a student?

 

[jon08]

Do they plan to add 'barrel distortion removal' option to Pixelmator any time soon??

 

[Nostromo]

Photoshop is the standard.

Don't forget you main investment will be the time to learn the application.

Photoshop Elements will at least teach you the Photoshop way, and you can upgrade later.

But you don't necessarily need Photoshop, nor elements to process images.

A RAW processor like Capture One, Lightroom, or Aperture will suffice for a beginning photographer.

If you shoot Canon, you already got a RAW processor for free: DPP.