One thing has bothered me a great deal since getting interested in digital photography.. and that is

"Why do people spend money on photoshop?"

I am by no means an expert on digital image manipulation (I do very little) but when I do, I use GIMP which is freeware and for most intents and purposes seems to do everything that photoshop can do. I think it has one possible limitation, in that it is not yet 16-bits/channel but I hear even that is coming soon.

Perhaps my question can be expanded further... Why do so many magazines and online articles/tutorials also refer to Photoshop? Maybe there is some kind of self-fulfilling prophecy here. ie we buy photoshop because that's what we hear about so often.. and we hear about photoshop so much because that's what everyone has bought.

Anyway, I'd love to hear your opinions. If you absolutely have to have photoshop, please tell me why..
If, like me, you are getting by with GIMP then let's hear it too.
Maybe you've bought photoshop and are still wondering why you paid money for something you could have done with freeware?

ewen

Greetings, thought I'd throw my oar into the pond. Although I'm a Samsung GX-10 person, I hope that you might not frown on me too much interfering in your Pentaxian ways. I do have a Pentax fil-um camera anyway and use mostly pentax lenses on the S*****g so don't think too badly of me

I'll keep checking back here from time to time to see what you are all up to and who knows, maybe I'll join you if you're organising an interesting event.

Can't say I have any burning desire for photography one way or another.. my landscapes suck big-style so maybe something like that would be good for me.

cheers
ewen