With me it was the culmination of a half-decade search for a small business affordable image editing suite for photo restoration. I started looking in the late 80s, but it still cost in the low 6 figures to break into the industry at that point. I bought my first Windows computer (I'd been using Unix up to that point) to try using Z-soft's PC Paintbrush (it was a waste of money at the time, but I guess it turned out well eventually).

A couple of years later I was in college (I started late) and a Chinese couple gave me their copy of Photoshop 2 in exchange for some computer help (they switched to Mac and didn't need their Win license anymore).

Well I was writing an Architectural Compatibility plan and had to use the only graphic software my office had…PowerPoint. Yes I used it to create the necessary graphics for the book…lots of pieces and lots of groupings. I became quite the master at creating complicated renderings with the geometric shapes of PowerPoint. While I was at a copy shop getting the document printed, I saw a technician editing some photos. I was amazed at how powerful the program was (heck not much would have amazed me considering I was doing all my graphic work with PowerPoint). I asked what the program was and found out it was Corel Draw. Shortly after that I purchased the program for myself and was a loyal owner for a couple of years. Then the military relocated me and I started a new job and this office had PhotoShop. I was a bit intimidated by the whole layer thing, but quickly got comfortable with the program. After that I wanted the program for myself, but ouch a full version was rather pricey. Lucky for me the printer I had just bought came with a great deal and allowed me to purchase PhotoShop’s full version for less than half the regular price. I have been using the program and upgrading to the newest versions ever since.

Mine was an easier process. My g/f wanted to start doing graphic work and had gotten fairly good at Paintshop Pro.

She wanted to try Photoshop and I had an old version so we were able to buy the upgrade for fairly little.

She did some training, and I kept watching her do some really cool effects with Photoshop and decided finally I didn't want to be left out :)

So I did the same training, did a TON of tutorials from the web and here I am now.

- Noel

Sorry, mine is much more mundane, I just went to the store and bought it. Ouch !

My nephew gave me V4, considering I'd just loaned him a car for his 4 years at uni I wonder who got the better bargain!

I started this hobby (obsession?) with Adobe PhotoDeluxe. As I got more and more hooked, I began surfing the Web trying to learn more about using it. I read in a forum somewhere (not this one) about someone who had upgraded from PhotoDeluxe to Photoshop and how much better PS was.

So, I downloaded a trial of PS 5.5 and after several hours of flailing dismissed it as "way too complicated and exceptionally unintuitave to learn" -- not to mention extremely expensive. At the time I didn't have a clue about the enormous learning curve and did not understand PS isn't intended to be learned considerable supplemental help.)

I ended up acquiring Corel PhotoPaint 10 (not much easier to learn, BTW, but it was considerably less expensive than Photoshop by way of an eBay purchase). PP10 was so buggy, I eventually gave up on it and gave Photoshop a second try. Five years later, I'm ever so thankful I did. :)

I'd been using MicroFrontier's Enhance and ColorIt!, and needed some more file conversions, so I picked up Photoshop 1.04LE. When 2.0 came out, I upgraded, and slowly migrated to using PS rather than the various other tools I had been.

Danny,

Interesting what you say about Photopaint, I ran it on W98 and NT and it fell over on a regular basis on both. Never did cure it.

Interesting what you say about Photopaint, I ran it on W98 and NT and it fell over on a regular basis on both. Never did cure it.

Never have had a problem with Photopaint - I've used it since v6 (now on v12). I prefer it over Photoshop, myself. Actually, I kind of find this topic a bit divisive as it presumes everyone here uses Photoshop. Shouldn't the topic have been more along the lines of how we discovered Digital Photography or retouching/restoring? Or is the tenor of the site going more towards "only Photoshop people allowed" these days? I know I'm not the only Photopaint user here, and there are PSP users here as well.

Never have had a problem with Photopaint - I've used it since v6 (now on v12). I prefer it over Photoshop, myself. Actually, I kind of find this topic a bit divisive as it presumes everyone here uses Photoshop. Shouldn't the topic have been more along the lines of how we discovered Digital Photography or retouching/restoring? Or is the tenor of the site going more towards "only Photoshop people allowed" these days? I know I'm not the only Photopaint user here, and there are PSP users here as well.

I'm not sure how you got from "How did you discover Photoshop?" to the presumption that all RetouchPRO members use it. Regardless, that's not an assumption I make. I'm well aware of the diversity of tools members use and have great respect for those who are skilled in using them.

I'm sure there are many happy PP users, otherwise Corel would stop cranking out new versions. Had my experiences with PP10 been more favorable, I would have stayed with it. I liked the overall functionality a lot. For me it just wasn't sufficiently reliable. (P4/1.4mHz, 1 GB RAM, Windows 2000 if you're wondering if it was a resource/environment issue. It wasn't.)

Whether well deserved or not, there's no denying the dominance of Photoshop in the industry/hobby. I've found the (over) abundance of tutorials, books, videos, formums, etc. for learning Photoshop to be a plus for me as my skills improved and interests diversified. That was the basis of my comment about being glad I ended up with Photoshop.

re: "Shouldn't the topic have been more along the lines of how we discovered Digital Photography or retouching/restoring?"

Not necessarily. There are no rules governing topic selection and any registered member can start a thread.

There's nothing stopping you from starting a new thread titled "How did you discover Digital Photography or retouching/restoring?" Go for it. I'm sure that one would generate a lot of interest.

re: "Or is the tenor of the site going more towards "only Photoshop people allowed" these days?"

Based on my three years of participation at this site, that has never, ever been the overt or underlying message. It's my opinion that hasn't changed and belief it won't change in the future.

If you took my remarks to be Photo-Paint bashing, my apologies. In the right hands it's a very capable program and I'm glad to hear it works for you.

Thanks for chipping in your .02. If you felt that way, perhaps others did too and it gave me a chance to set the records straight from my perspective.

I look forward to contributing to the new thead you start on DP and R/R.

~Danny~

No, I didn't get the feeling that you were bashing PP. I think I was just being a bit on the defensive side to those who are here who don't use PS. I think it's also me kind of wondering where things are going on here in general (which is probably best left for a different thread).