Corel Paint Shop Pro x3

[tuttlejr]

On sale at Corel: $29.95 full version and $24.95 upgrade.

Great program and fairly easy to master. Offer good until July 31.

[kenw]

advantages over x2?

[brad]

Crap. Guess there goes my excuse for not upgrading...

[LSCSN.com]

Wonder if that means a new version is on the horizon :-).

[kenw]

Originally Posted by LSCSN.com

Wonder if that means a new version is on the horizon :-).

History says bet on it....

[brad]

Originally Posted by kenw

History says bet on it....

What he said.

I usually end up buying every other version or so...

I think I've owned Versions 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, and 12....

[ggeen]

I still have the books and media for JASC PSP 8.

[Hardrock]

Ok excuse my ignorance on this software. But I checked out there website and read about the product and Im very interested in the slideshow ability but have a couple of other questions that I didnt find the answer to. Will the software allow you to sharpen just a specific area of the image or is it mostly global edits? Does the software work in layers? And how does it compare with CS? Obviously the price is way cheaper but more looking to know if it is similar.

[LSCSN.com]

I'm not sure I have ever tried to sharpen just a isolated area, but I'm guessing you could definitely do that with the marquee tool (not sure if that's what it's called). You can definitely work in layers.

I have found that it is much easier to use than photoshop myself, but like some of the others I have started with them since the very beginning. I think there is only one upgrade that I haven't made.

The X3 has a Lightroom-esque feature as well as the full editor program. I have not used the LR feature on the program so I don't know how good it is.

I don't think there's much you can do with photoshop that you won't be able to do with Paint Shop Pro that I can think of right now. Plus they have a free trial so you can download it and see if you like it.

[brad]

I just wrote this to answer a PM this morning... so here it is.. with a few more edits for clarity and context.......


I've never used Photoshop other than to play with it for a few minutes a couple of times... I used Lightroom when it first came out, but it was slow and clunky on Windows. I have used Paint Shop Pro since the first version, back in the very early 90s, when it was shareware and only could do 16 colors. We used it for creating icons and drawing buttons for Windows programming. When I got involved heavily in digital photography was the same time that PSP came out with a version that was suitable for photo editing, so it was a natural move for me to that version.... at that time, I had honestly never heard of Photoshop - or if I did, it was Mac software in my brain and didn't register. (This is also before Corel bought Paint Shop Pro from JASC. JASC's last version was 9.)

I use Paint Shop Pro X2 right now for all my editing. I did just purchase an HDR program since the PSP HDR is really, really bad. I also use a few free plugins I've discovered, several from Topaz Labs, one from Nik, and a background masker from Corel. Most of the Nik ones don't actually seem to function under PSP X2, though.

Do I miss anything from Photoshop? I watch a lot of Photoshop presentations (including from the amazing Julianne Kost). I always come away from those with the thinking "I wonder if PSP can do that?" and often times, I can.

There are a couple of things Photoshop can do that I can't that might make my life easier from time to time.. content aware fill and the history brush being among them.. but I have workarounds for both. It might take a little longer, but I don't use them often enough to justify the expense of Photoshop. Photoshop's layers are also better implemented than they are in X2... I'm limited in what I can create as adjustment layers, for instance. Again, I have workarounds, but the PS implementation is more elegant.

What it comes down to is price... PS is so expensive and PSP is so inexpensive (plus I also already have it... and have since around 1991 - in those days, I was using it to create icons for Windows programming).. that, for me, I just have never been able to justify the cost. The few things that PSP cannot do just aren't worth the expense to me.

I've debated about upgrading to PSP X3, but there hasn't been any compelling reason. There is nothing new in X3 that has made me go "ooh, I need that ability." I probably will upgrade to X4 when it comes out, though... mostly in the hope that the plugin system has been updated and it will work with newer plugins like those from Nik.

Another thing I cannot do is purchase Photoshop Actions... PSP has a scripting language so you can creating your own "actions" but the two systems are not interchangable.

PSP can read Photoshop PSD files and preserve most layering (not sure it can handle adjustment layers from a PSD, and don't know that I've ever tried it). Photoshop template files seem to be hit or miss on how well they are loaded in PSP... but since I rarely use them, its not really on my radar. I prefer to create things for my own use rather than purchase something that could end up looking like everyone else.

Bottom line: I'm frugal. I work with what works and spend money on the "luxury" items where it really matters to me. I shoot a 5D classic with L glass, but I use off brand flashes and cheap imported radio triggers. Most of the time, I would rather build a set than purchase a background and I have built my own hotlights on more than one occasion.

Paint Shop Pro works for me. It does what I need it to do and I know how to use it. For me, upgrading to either Photoshop or Lightroom is a huge expense in both money and time (to relearn how to do what I already do) that gains me very little in my eyes.

(And by that same argument, I would *never* suggest someone make the switch the other direction... if you already have and know how to use Photoshop, by all means, keep doing it.)

[brad]

And just as a sample of what I'm doing with PSP X2 right now... I'm still working it a little, but this is a senior I shot a couple days ago.

The background is using the new HDR program I mentioned.. and I think there is a little bit of Topaz Adjust mixed in there.. the masking of her was done with Corel Knockout 2... other than that, everything is done in PSPX2.

[kenw]

good message, Brad, and pretty much parallels my experience. The 1st version I used was a freeby that came with a scanner we used at work in the early 90s, and I've been w/PSP ever since. Tried to move over to PS a couple of times but it never stuck. My last upgrade was simply due to the fact that my existing version couldn't see Canon's newer .CR2 raw files.

For sharpening a localized area, I usually just use a layer as I find it easier to blend separate layers. There are quite a few forums out there that share PSP 'scripts', aka PS actions. There are a lot of sites that will have a PS action for a specific function as well as the equivalent PSP script.

[Hardrock]

Great info thanks a bunch! Have you guys used the software for slideshows and if so how do you like it. The only reason I ask is the slideshow specific software Im looking at is double the price and doesn't have as many options.

Thanks again, Trey

[brad]

Sharpening a specific area... I have a script I use that duplicates the layer I'm on twice... then selects the lower duplicate and sharpens the entire layer... it then selects the top duplicate so I can erase the parts I want sharpened... I use it to make eyes pop.

[kenw]

for slideshows (definitely on the low edge budget-wise) I use Picasa, free from Google. It renders RAWs quite well without any futzing on my part, and does so directly from the card without importing. Any changes I make it keeps independent and does not affect the original RAW file. It is great for immediate slide shows after a field session over lunch or whatever. I've used it during a reception to show some selected shots from the just-completed wedding. For a permanent slideshow to sell or distribute I would definitely use something else.