Gimp verses Photoshop?

Tom-eg

So Photoshop we all know is the industry standard. Is Gimp any good? What limitations does it have when compared to Photoshop. Also besides those limitations how does it hold up against Photoshop?

Morrisseeee

I have GIMP (on a linux distribution Ubuntu) but I've never used it, I suppose its biggest asset is that it is FREE !, but I've read that there's a STEEP learning curve to use it. I do use Photoshop and I find it straight-foreward, even though I'll probably never use ALL its options. Its disadvantage is thats its expensive for the casual user.

5uspect

I'd say the GIMP is equivalent to about Photoshop 7 in terms of functionality. That means you get 90%+ of the features.

One criticism of the GIMP is that it can feel rather clunky once you have experience of Photoshop. One thing that I found is that they organise things differently to PS which makes finding things annoying. Like moving to Vista from XP

There is a version called GIMPshop that tries to mimic PS tho but I haven''t heard good things.

pullandbang

I have GIMP and as a newbie to digital processing I find it quite complicated. I've been using the free version of Serif Photoplus to do basic cropping, resizing, adjusting etc. and it's very easy to use. I'v tried GIMP a few times and it looks good from my limited experience. It takes a lot of trial and error especially with the dodge and burn, but I suppose I'll get the hang of it as time goes on. Haven't used PS so can't comment. I'll keep using the freebies until I move onwards and upwards....hopefully!

CrazyRabbit

I personally find GIMP much easier to use than PS. Though, it is more limited in functionality, so I have to switch to PS for some tasks.

Still, if you are learning, you can't go wrong with GIMP as it's free and there are a lot of good tutorials out there to help you learn.

Make sure you get the newly released version of GIMP. It's fixes many of the complaints users had about the previous versions. It also fixes some pretty serious bugs with random Wacom tablets.

Dublin_Gunner

I use PS in a professional capacity (although no extensive work generally - the odd touch up / recoloour for brochures etc).

But I do use it extensively in a personal capacity too, for image manipulation, photo retouching etc

I've also used GIMP - more so out of curiosity I suppose. I do however find PS to be FAR superior, and much much more user friendly.

There is the upside though - GMP is free, which is a huge bonus, and for someone who is willing to study it, and get into the nitty gritty of it, it can be just about as powerful as PS.

Granted, I havent given it all that much of my time - most likely because I just find PS far superior myself - but as I said, have never really given all that much time to GIMP.

If you're looking for something with some good basic features, and really easy to use (but powerful enough to do some decent basic editing) you can't go wrong with Paint.net its free, and really superb for what you get and ease of use, IMO anyway.

cleeek

Hi there,

First post to the group.

I use Gimp on Mac OS X, mainly because a) its free, b) the most I do is resizing images, sometimes stitching, maybe adding a stamp (but I do most of the metadata stuff thru Aperture).

It is abit clunky, like another poster mentioned, but I guess it depends how much work you want to do in it.

I have used Photoshop before, mainly in photography classes, and I find it too feature rich (hunting for where a feature is) - mainly because I don't need many.

I guess the best advice is to try Gimp, and the trial of Photoshop (there is still one available right?) and see which you prefer.

Hope that helps,
bernard

Dublin_Gunner

cleeek wrote: »

I guess the best advice is to try Gimp, and the trial of Photoshop (there is still one available right?) and see which you prefer.

Hope that helps,
bernard

Yep, Adobe generally do 30 day fully-functional trials on all of their software.

pullandbang

I suppose the crunch question here is - do I use GIMP which is free or PS which I have to buy - how much is it by the way?

As an amateur who is messing about with the camera as a minor hobby, I think I'll stick with GIMP. If I was a pro, or took my photography a bit more serious, then I'd probably go for PS.

cleeek

pullandbang wrote: »

As an amateur who is messing about with the camera as a minor hobby, I think I'll stick with GIMP. If I was a pro, or took my photography a bit more serious, then I'd probably go for PS.

You've answered your question there

I did a quick search and it seems you can buy PS CS4 online for less than EUR200 - that was a just quick search.

hth,
bernard

AnCatDubh

cleeek wrote: »

I did a quick search and it seems you can buy PS CS4 online for less than EUR200 - that was a just quick search.

Are you sure that's not an upgrade or a grey source? Recently I saw $700 if memory serves me correctly on the adobe site for a new version. Student rates are way less if you are studying with a recognised institution.

For me, The Gimp V Photoshop depends on what you need to do with it. My postprocessing needs aren't terribly complicated. I process the RAW in Skilypix and then move to the Gimp - croping, b/w conversions, contrast adjustment, levels and curves, a little saturation here and there. Rarely do I do much with layers and masks but have done a little more lately than before with them.

For all of the above the Gimp performs admirably and that's probably about 5% of what it can do.

Yes it is reputed to have a steep learning curve but remember it is a new skill that you are picking up and unless you have a prior starting point with photoshop then the playing pitch is level.

If my needs were more then perhaps I'd outgrow what the Gimp can do but i'm so far from that at the moment that it isn't a concern. It would be hard to justify the spend and subsequent upgrade spend cycle that you enter into. ( anyone still using CS3 - oh lord when are you going to upgrade )

If you get examples of Gimp'd work which is done correctly then from a visual perspective you'd not notice the difference to a similar photoshop'd piece.

I'm far from expert on the gimp but I know it does my needs at present.

I've never used photoshop (or have specifically needed to use it) however from the results that I have seen and in my humble opinion, both Gimp and Photoshop are excellent pieces of software.

One other advantage for me is that the Gimp runs on my windows laptop and my linux based netbook (small screen and slowness of the netbook but if i persevere then I can achieve anything that I do on my laptop).

I think an important point to bear in mind though is that this is a new skill and beyond the normal crop'ing and basic adjustments that you would normally make as a photographer. You are actually moving into the realm of graphic design. People obviously study for years to become graphic designers so it mightn't happen overnight regardless of the tool.

have a look at meetthegimp.org for some video tutorials to see it being put through its paces.

Good luck with it.

Nforce

Another option would be to purchase Adobe Photoshop Elements. It's available for just over €100 here

cleeek

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Are you sure that's not an upgrade or a grey source? Recently I saw $700 if memory serves me correctly on the adobe site for a new version. Student rates are way less if you are studying with a recognised institution.

No, not sure. It could have been a student price. It was a very quick search so it could have been wrong.

In fact, doing a proper search just now (:)) I found this Amazon link http://is.gd/uEbv which says 660 dollars.

Sorry for the eh, wrong facts

Teutorix

GIMP is only difficult if you move from PS or some other program, its the same as moving from mac to windows or FL studio to cubase

Dublin_Gunner wrote: »

Yep, Adobe generally do 30 day fully-functional trials on all of their software.

Which are very easily exploited in the right hands

<.<

>.>


Not suggesting anything

Podge2k7

Paint.NET FTW!:D

Dublin_Gunner

Teutorix wrote: »

Which are very easily exploited in the right hands

<.<

>.>


Not suggesting anything

As I know only too well myself. Eh, from what I've been told