Photoshop element alteratives?

[gavinsiu]

Does anyone recommend a software to replace Photoshop? My wife is looking for some sort of photo editing software, She has been using Photoshop element, so that is an option and have use Photoshop in the past. She has tried using Gimp but does not like it. I was thinking Affinity? The trouble is that I don't do anything with photo so that makes evaluating the software harder.

[mrb09]

I switched from Lightroom to Darktable (open source). That’s more of a Lightroom replacement rather than Photoshop replacement, but you can do basic editing, and it seems to handle the usual suspect raw files.

[enad]

What issue does she have with Photoshop (might help to understand to point her in the right direction).

[gavinsiu]

What issue does she have with Photoshop (might help to understand to point her in the right direction).

The cost.

[enad]

What issue does she have with Photoshop (might help to understand to point her in the right direction).

The cost.

I was in the same boat and purchased an older version of the software i.e. Photoshop CS3 which was released in 2007. I bought my license in 2016 and use it to this day. The last update for it was in December 2024. The seller had to remove the registration from their Adobe account and enter my email address to transfer the license to me. Once I got the notice from Adobe, I was able to register the license in my Adobe Account. Maybe it's something worth looking into in order to keep costs down. The owner sent me the entire package including all the CD's, documentation, etc ...

[bogling]

gimp.org

[enad]

gimp.org

He said his wife tried gimp but did not like it

[bogling]

gimp.org

He said his wife tried gimp but did not like it

Maybe for these reasons with elements the compromise between photoshop and gimp.

https://thegimptutorials.com/gimp-vs-ph ... -elements/

[PottedPlant]

Pixelmator
Affinity
GraphicConverter

[LilyFleur]

This year I'm letting go of Photoshop. I purchased the Affinity suite one-time license for around $164. So far I've worked with Affinity Photo 2 almost daily for about a month (I google quite a bit, but overall find it fairly intuitive.) I've also started working with Affinity Publisher 2 for some newsletter work. I think it was a good decision.

Cancelling Photoshop is a process that isn't the most transparent.

[tibbitts]

Does anyone recommend a software to replace Photoshop? My wife is looking for some sort of photo editing software, She has been using Photoshop element, so that is an option and have use Photoshop in the past. She has tried using Gimp but does not like it. I was thinking Affinity? The trouble is that I don't do anything with photo so that makes evaluating the software harder.

If she uses the software, why are you evaluating it? She must have a list of specific features she uses. I use some editing software but not current versions so whatever I said wouldn't be applicable. It's pretty common for people to just buy a Creative Cloud subscription; I've never had one but the people I know who do like it, and it's fully compatible with what "everybody" else uses.

[JayB]

Does anyone recommend a software to replace Photoshop? My wife is looking for some sort of photo editing software, She has been using Photoshop element, so that is an option and have use Photoshop in the past. She has tried using Gimp but does not like it. I was thinking Affinity? The trouble is that I don't do anything with photo so that makes evaluating the software harder.

For heavy duty editing -- especially starting with Raw images -- I have used Capture One for the past decade. A thoroughly professional and feature-rich alternative to Lightroom and Photoshop that is available for Windows and Macs. If I want to do light editing of JPEGs, I often use FastStone Image Viewer, which is a free download for Windows and vastly superior to the Microsoft Photos app that comes with Windows machines.

[Watty]

One thing for people to understand is Photoshop Elements used to be purchased and you could pretty much use it for as long as you wanted.

I do not know when they changed it but Adobe changed Photoshop Elements is now only a three year license so you will have to buy a new version every three years and there is no telling what it will cost in three years.

I have a full version which does not expire which is just a few years old so I will likely stay with it until it stops working, but Adobe has made it hard to install on a new Win 11 PC.

It's pretty common for people to just buy a Creative Cloud subscription; I've never had one but the people I know who do like it, and it's fully compatible with what "everybody" else uses.

Adobe also just had a 50% price increase in the Lightroom/Photoshop bundle creative cloud subscription so that after a promotional period is almost $240 a year now which will be hard for many amateurs to justify.

Many people are also sort of locked into lightroom and it will be difficult for them to switch to something else.

[hunoraut]

The GIMP thing is funny. I'm a fairly proficient user of Photoshop (and Paint Shop Pro before that) and I've tried gimp on and off for over a decade and cannot even scratch its surface. It seems insanely unusable. I must have a special blindspot for it.

Anyway, for lightweight and simple image manipulation on Windows, Paint.NET is extremely good. For browser-based solution Photopea is a ridiculously capable Photoshop clone (and somehow superfast).

And if you're just into photo retouching (as opposed to generic image manipulation), all the image hosting tools like Google Photos or Apple Photos are beyond sufficient.

[Vinny_in_NJ]

There are a couple of programs out there that may work for your wife. My main program that I use is ON1 Photo RAW, some people like it and other's don't. It may be a resource hog but they give you a free trial to check it out, it is kind of a combo of Lightroom and Photoshop. Another program is Affinity Photo, it is more like Photoshop than ON1 and it's relatively inexpensive. Commands are very similar to Photoshop if not the same in a lot of functions. They were just bought out by another company but are offering their program for a relatively small amount and at least in the past has offered free updates for a long time on their product.

[gavinsiu]

Hi since I am reinstalling her new laptop I was trying to anticipated her needs. She does some photo editing but that is not her major use case. She usually needs some touch up on photo for articles, so a tool that is does touch up and is intuitive (not like gimp) will work. I will check if something like Google tool will work. Thanks.

[Designairohio]

Maybe look at pixelmator or luminar neo

[id0ntkn0wjack]

Affinity Photo is very robust. Bit of a learning curve, but that's true anytime one changes software:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

[bogling]

What are the main features folks are looking for from these programs? Is it just things like image resizing, cropping, color/light correction, and maybe occassional pdf creation or more like full flyer creation?

[bendix]

It´s many years ago that I was involved with photo editing, but back then you could

a) Buy a full price Photoshop
b) Buy a 2nd hand, couple of years old Photoshop license for small money
c) Use Gimp (which was an excellent piece of software at the time, albeit a bit more clunky than PS)
d) Consider Corel Paintshop Pro but I have absolutely no insight where that went

[MGBMartin]

In my opinion if your wife is just doing photo editing then Photoshop is way more than she needs to begin with.
Yes you can do photo editing with Photoshop but is really an image creation and editing tool.
There are lots of choices for photo editing that are replacements for Elements or Lightroom some are free or quite inexpensive.
YouTube has some very good comparison videos that might help.
I use an earlier version of DxO from when they were giving the earlier version away for free. I used Lightroom for several years but paying the annual subscription was too much for the small amount of editing I do.

[GoldStar]

It´s many years ago that I was involved with photo editing, but back then you could

a) Buy a full price Photoshop
b) Buy a 2nd hand, couple of years old Photoshop license for small money

These options have been replaced for many of us by buying an Adobe Photography Subscription plan. For $10 a month you get Lightroom, LightroomClassic, and Photoshop for $10.61 monthly. I consider it a bargain as I used to buy photoshop every few years for hundreds. Then started buying lightroom too.
Now I always have the latest features since I am always upgrading to the newest versions.
A lot of people don't like subscriptions but for many of us they come out cheaper.

Not sure about OPs budget.

[pomomojo]

Does anyone recommend a software to replace Photoshop? My wife is looking for some sort of photo editing software, She has been using Photoshop element, so that is an option and have use Photoshop in the past. She has tried using Gimp but does not like it. I was thinking Affinity? The trouble is that I don't do anything with photo so that makes evaluating the software harder.

CaptureOne offers a one time license fee. It offers editing features on par with Lightroom (e.g. >Photoshop Elements)

[pomomojo]

What are the main features folks are looking for from these programs? Is it just things like image resizing, cropping, color/light correction, and maybe occassional pdf creation or more like full flyer creation?

I find that the masking in Photoshop is easier than Lightroom with the ability to adjust the softness of the "brush", specifically when cleaning up skin blemishes. The same goes for controlled dodging and burning (e.g. the face on a portrait).

Photoshop is also recommended for composite images, though I'm a novice in that particular department.

[adamthesmythe]

The continuing subscription costs of Photoshop can be avoided by buying an old version.

Photoshop Elements does not appear to have a continuing subscription and may be enough.

The alternate software companies sometimes offer a limited-term trial. This provides a way to try before paying.

Gimp has been around for a long time. I have no experience, I have an old Photoshop version.

[Cyan]

Affinity Photo is very robust.

Yes, Affinity Photo is a very nice photo editing app.

It is offered at a reasonable one-time cost with no subscription, and gets regular (free) updates. Major updates, every 2 to 4 year, do have a modest update cost.

They offer a free trial too . . .
https://store.serif.com/en-us/checkout/ ... 8cc64f7a72

[TN_Boy]

Does anyone recommend a software to replace Photoshop? My wife is looking for some sort of photo editing software, She has been using Photoshop element, so that is an option and have use Photoshop in the past. She has tried using Gimp but does not like it. I was thinking Affinity? The trouble is that I don't do anything with photo so that makes evaluating the software harder.

Based on this and your extra info, it's likely overkill, but Goldstar is 100% correct; the $10 a month subscription for Adobe Photography is a fantastic value.

Lightroom desktop (I haven't played much with the cloud based version) is a superb photo organizing tool and for several years has also been an excellent photo editing tool -- even a working professional photographer could do most of their work using lightroom without going into photoshop. I also think it is (a lot) easier to use than photoshop for editing.

Photoshop is a high powered image/photo manipulation tool, of course, and I consider it and Affinity Photo as having similar roles.

It's quite possible that for $10 a month lightroom would be enough photo editing firepower and she could experiment with/try out the lightroom photo organization tools while having access to the full photoshop editing capabilities if needed. You can import a file into lightroom, then invoke photoshop from lightroom, then bring the result back into lightroom.

A lot of people don't like the subscription model (though .. $10 a month ... the price of maybe one lunch ...) for the value the Adobe subscription provides you is certainly the best money I've ever spent on photo "stuff." And Adobe is, at least so far, continuing to introduce new features into lightroom and photoshop. I believe you can have the software on two different computers activated at the same time, say a home desktop and a travel laptop.

[cjcerny]

Photopea

[quantAndHold]

I’ve tried them all. Affinity Photo is probably what she wants. It’s very reasonably priced, high quality software. Everything else is either more expensive, buggy, or bloated with ads.

And she is correct. gimp is absolute garbage.

[TN_Boy]

I’ve tried them all. Affinity Photo is probably what she wants. It’s very reasonably priced, high quality software. Everything else is either more expensive, buggy, or bloated with ads.

And she is correct. gimp is absolute garbage.

I think Affinity Photo is good software too, but if she goes for that much editing firepower, she needs to think hard about Affinity Photo versus the Adobe photography subscription ... for $10 a month you get lightroom and photoshop both. And photoshop will obviously be more similar to photoshop elements than Affinity Photo. And lightroom is easier to use than photoshop for just editing, in addition to the organizing abilities.

But from what the OP has said, it's not clear she needs or wants that much capability (more capability = more complexity).

[nisiprius]

...Photoshop Elements does not appear to have a continuing subscription and may be enough...

I've been a pretty happy Photoshop Elements users for... twenty years? I use both it and (macOS) GraphicConverter.

However, I'm flummoxed by this:



This "3 year term license" is something new, and very troubling. On the one hand, I've bought new versions of Photoshop Elements almost that often. And in general $33.33/year is more or less acceptable. But on the other hand, the idea of having a body of work in a proprietary format, and no way to open it after the license expires, is pretty disturbing. Adobe doesn't spell out exactly what happens when the license expires, but I assume the software will no longer do anything except tell you to upgrade.

[TN_Boy]

...Photoshop Elements does not appear to have a continuing subscription and may be enough...

I've been a pretty happy Photoshop Elements users for... twenty years? I use both it and (macOS) GraphicConverter.

However, I'm flummoxed by this:



This "3 year term license" is something new, and very troubling. On the one hand, I've bought new versions of Photoshop Elements almost that often. And in general $33.33/year is more or less acceptable. But on the other hand, the idea of having a body of work in a proprietary format, and no way to open it after the license expires, is pretty disturbing. Adobe doesn't spell out exactly what happens when the license expires, but I assume the software will no longer do anything except tell you to upgrade.

I *think* that if you have an Adobe Photography subscription and you let it lapse, then you can still access the photos, but you can no longer edit them. At least for LR. My wild guess is that the Elements license acts the same way, i.e. access but no changes. Another possibility is that you no longer get bug fixes and other updates, but the program still works.

As for having a body of work in a proprietary format, what solution is going to work better than Adobe? I don't think there is a standard format for storing editing changes "I.e. increase brightness by 20%, sharpen just the subject/this set of pixels by X amount, run your AI denoise on the picture and so forth." The different programs have different features, implemented differently I'm sure.

For any LR edited file you can both retain the original image/set of bits (to be edited by a new application) and export the changes as a jpg (to have the final version of the edited files to look at). Lightroom can save edit changes both in its central catalog and in a sidecar XML file, but again, I think the XML file is an adobe specific record of the net edit changes made to a particular file and only really useful to Adobe apps.

It would be somewhat of a disaster for me if I lost access to the Adobe programs (as it would to thousands and thousands of amateur and professional photographers). For me the loss of the LR's organizational tools would be about as serious as loss of the edit features.

[Watty]

These options have been replaced for many of us by buying an Adobe Photography Subscription plan. For $10 a month you get Lightroom, LightroomClassic, and Photoshop for $10.61 monthly. I consider it a bargain as I used to buy photoshop every few years for hundreds. Then started buying lightroom too.

That bundle is now 19.99 a month. $240 a year(ouch!) after an introductory period and as I recall it it has been a long time since it was $10 a month. It is possible that you are still grandfathered into the old rate but it would be good to double check what you are actually being charged.

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html

[MGBMartin]

These options have been replaced for many of us by buying an Adobe Photography Subscription plan. For $10 a month you get Lightroom, LightroomClassic, and Photoshop for $10.61 monthly. I consider it a bargain as I used to buy photoshop every few years for hundreds. Then started buying lightroom too.

That bundle is now 19.99 a month. $240 a year(ouch!) after an introductory period and as I recall it it has been a long time since it was $10 a month. It is possible that you are still grandfathered into the old rate but it would be good to double check what you are actually being charged.

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html

It’s been a while since my Adobe plan was active but when it was it included LR and PS for $10 a month.
I believe Adobe has since changed their plans so that the cheapest (Photography Plan) one only includes LR and the more expensive (Creative Cloud Plan) includes LR andPS.
Best Buy has a 1 year subscription for $120 that indicates it includes LR and PS which seems to not align with Adobe’s plans so that specifics.
https://www.bestbuy.com/site/adobe-crea ... Id=6475175

[GoldStar]

These options have been replaced for many of us by buying an Adobe Photography Subscription plan. For $10 a month you get Lightroom, LightroomClassic, and Photoshop for $10.61 monthly. I consider it a bargain as I used to buy photoshop every few years for hundreds. Then started buying lightroom too.

That bundle is now 19.99 a month. $240 a year(ouch!) after an introductory period and as I recall it it has been a long time since it was $10 a month. It is possible that you are still grandfathered into the old rate but it would be good to double check what you are actually being charged.

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html

Interesting. Thanks for the heads up. I just read up on this - it has NOT been a long time - the prices just went up on Jan 15 2025 as per this: https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/ ... -20gb.html

Also - looks like for those willing to pay annually - the $10 a month is retained (so pay $119.98 up front and get a year) which is likely what I will do. I just paid the $10 prior to Jan 15 so assume maybe they will email me or something soon to let me know of this price increase (looks like it is a $5 increase for first 6 months).
I have been enjoying this big bargain for years - too bad on the increase. I will likely switch to annual - $10/month still worth it to me even if I have to pay it up front for a year.

Edit Add: i just logged in and it says my next payment will be $9.99 in Feb so I don't know when they will raise the price for me. It says I am on the "Yearly Plan, billed monthly" - so maybe it won't change until I hit some yearly demarcation although I can't tell what that might be .. wait - just found I have been subscribed since June 2016 - so maybe my price increase (or need to change to annual upfront payment) will happen come June.

[atwnsw]

I was in the same situation and purchased Affinity...

[TN_Boy]

These options have been replaced for many of us by buying an Adobe Photography Subscription plan. For $10 a month you get Lightroom, LightroomClassic, and Photoshop for $10.61 monthly. I consider it a bargain as I used to buy photoshop every few years for hundreds. Then started buying lightroom too.

That bundle is now 19.99 a month. $240 a year(ouch!) after an introductory period and as I recall it it has been a long time since it was $10 a month. It is possible that you are still grandfathered into the old rate but it would be good to double check what you are actually being charged.

https://www.adobe.com/creativecloud/photography.html

It's confusing. It looks like the $10 plan is still available, only by paying yearly, for existing customers. New customers do not have that option:

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/ ... -20gb.html

I will say that the subscription is definitely worth $20 a month or more to me. But if they keep on raising prices (say to 30 and 40) it will become an issue. Then I'd have to figure out how or if to transition to another vendor, but that is an awful prospect.

Note that it would also be awful to switch from say Capture One to Adobe. Any switch would be painful. And Capture One (I'm just using this package as an example) is expensive ... or they have a subscription plan ...... If you are really into any of these ecosystems, switching vendors would be extremely painful.

[quantAndHold]

I’ve tried them all. Affinity Photo is probably what she wants. It’s very reasonably priced, high quality software. Everything else is either more expensive, buggy, or bloated with ads.

And she is correct. gimp is absolute garbage.

I think Affinity Photo is good software too, but if she goes for that much editing firepower, she needs to think hard about Affinity Photo versus the Adobe photography subscription ... for $10 a month you get lightroom and photoshop both. And photoshop will obviously be more similar to photoshop elements than Affinity Photo. And lightroom is easier to use than photoshop for just editing, in addition to the organizing abilities.

But from what the OP has said, it's not clear she needs or wants that much capability (more capability = more complexity).

Y’all who are quoting $10/month prices are stuck in a time warp. It hasn’t been that cheap for awhile.

At full price, Affinity Photo is $69, once. It also goes on sale for half price at regular intervals. The Photoshop/Lightroom bundle is $20/month, every month, forever, or at least until they raise the price again. And if she decides to cancel, has usurious cancellation fees. Even if she pays full price for affinity, she breaks even in 4 months.

Just Lightroom by itself is $12/month.

These products are not in the same league, pricewise. Even PS Elements is $99 for a 3 year license.

I stopped using Adobe products and switched to Affinity years ago when Adobe first started charging for subscriptions. I paid $35 for Affinity Photo 1, and another $35 several years later to upgrade to Affinity Photo 2. At this point, I’ve saved thousands, and my photos still look just as good.

[TN_Boy]

I think Affinity Photo is good software too, but if she goes for that much editing firepower, she needs to think hard about Affinity Photo versus the Adobe photography subscription ... for $10 a month you get lightroom and photoshop both. And photoshop will obviously be more similar to photoshop elements than Affinity Photo. And lightroom is easier to use than photoshop for just editing, in addition to the organizing abilities.

But from what the OP has said, it's not clear she needs or wants that much capability (more capability = more complexity).

Y’all who are quoting $10/month prices are stuck in a time warp. It hasn’t been that cheap for awhile.

At full price, Affinity Photo is $69, once. It also goes on sale for half price at regular intervals. The Photoshop/Lightroom bundle is $20/month, every month, forever, or at least until they raise the price again. And if she decides to cancel, has usurious cancellation fees. Even if she pays full price for affinity, she breaks even in 4 months.

Just Lightroom by itself is $12/month.

These products are not in the same league, pricewise. Even PS Elements is $99 for a 3 year license.

I stopped using Adobe products and switched to Affinity years ago when Adobe first started charging for subscriptions. I paid $35 for Affinity Photo 1, and another $35 several years later to upgrade to Affinity Photo 2. At this point, I’ve saved thousands, and my photos still look just as good.

I've been paying $10 a month for LR and PS for several years. As best I can tell from the links I've seen, I will be this year as well. So ... yes it has been that cheap for a while (the "20GB plan"). I'm on that plan, I know what it has been costing me.

Affinity photo is good software (I have it, though I really don't use it anymore) basically comparable to Photoshop; I haven't compared the feature sets lately.

But Affinity Photo does not have the photo organizing capabilities that LR does, which is a really big deal to many people. Comparing Affinity Photo to Photoshop AND Lightroom is assuredly not apples to apples; the combination of the two Adobe products clearly have more value. If I had to choose between Affinity Photo and Lightroom I'd pick LIghtroom every time. It has sufficient firepower now for the vast majority of photo editing I do, and it has the extensive photo management capabilities I want. I rarely need the extra set of editing capabilities PS provides over Lightroom.

The plan with both LR and PS has a lot of value to me. And I've been very pleased with the stream of feature improvements that Adobe has provided in recent years. If I wind up paying $20 a month, I'll do that without hesitation.

Though I suspect the OP's spouse doesn't need the full firepower of Affinity Photo or Photoshop, so this is likely a moot point, really.

[quantAndHold]

Y’all who are quoting $10/month prices are stuck in a time warp. It hasn’t been that cheap for awhile.

At full price, Affinity Photo is $69, once. It also goes on sale for half price at regular intervals. The Photoshop/Lightroom bundle is $20/month, every month, forever, or at least until they raise the price again. And if she decides to cancel, has usurious cancellation fees. Even if she pays full price for affinity, she breaks even in 4 months.

Just Lightroom by itself is $12/month.

These products are not in the same league, pricewise. Even PS Elements is $99 for a 3 year license.

I stopped using Adobe products and switched to Affinity years ago when Adobe first started charging for subscriptions. I paid $35 for Affinity Photo 1, and another $35 several years later to upgrade to Affinity Photo 2. At this point, I’ve saved thousands, and my photos still look just as good.

I've been paying $10 a month for LR and PS for several years. As best I can tell from the links I've seen, I will be this year as well. So ... yes it has been that cheap for a while (the "20GB plan"). I'm on that plan, I know what it has been costing me.

Affinity photo is good software (I have it, though I really don't use it anymore) basically comparable to Photoshop; I haven't compared the feature sets lately.

But Affinity Photo does not have the photo organizing capabilities that LR does, which is a really big deal to many people. Comparing Affinity Photo to Photoshop AND Lightroom is assuredly not apples to apples; the combination of the two Adobe products clearly have more value. If I had to choose between Affinity Photo and Lightroom I'd pick LIghtroom every time. It has sufficient firepower now for the vast majority of photo editing I do, and it has the extensive photo management capabilities I want. I rarely need the extra set of editing capabilities PS provides over Lightroom.

The plan with both LR and PS has a lot of value to me. And I've been very pleased with the stream of feature improvements that Adobe has provided in recent years. If I wind up paying $20 a month, I'll do that without hesitation.

Though I suspect the OP's spouse doesn't need the full firepower of Affinity Photo or Photoshop, so this is likely a moot point, really.

All things being equal, I’d pick Lightroom too. But all things aren’t equal. Lightroom is considerably more expensive, $15/month for new customers, and that $180/year just keeps going, forever. OP’s spouse may not need all of the features of Affinity, but it’s cheaper than the PS Elements that she is currently using, and will certainly do anything PS Elements does, at least as well as PS Elements does it. She isn’t required to use the advanced features.

[lthenderson]

I switched from Lightroom to Darktable (open source). That’s more of a Lightroom replacement rather than Photoshop replacement, but you can do basic editing, and it seems to handle the usual suspect raw files.

How easy is Darktable to use over Lightroom? I had Lightroom for many years but when I upgraded my PC last year, though owning my disk with 16 digit serial number, Lightroom wouldn't let me install it on the new computer saying I had to buy their software again using the subscription model. I hate subscription based software for something I only occasionally use so have GIMP but find it very difficult to use. I'm still in the market for something non-subscription based and much easier for my evidently challenged brain to operate.

[GoldStar]

Y’all who are quoting $10/month prices are stuck in a time warp. It hasn’t been that cheap for awhile.

As long as Adobe stays in the time warp with me I guess I don't mind. I am still paying $10 a month.

Also - the first item in the FAQ below says the price increase from $10 only went into effect 2025 Jan 15. Very short timeframe, hardly "awhile". I would call this "just happened". I don't believe my monthly cost will increase until my year mark comes around - at which point I will switch to annual and stick to the $10 effective monthly.

https://helpx.adobe.com/creative-cloud/ ... -20gb.html

Edit Add: Adobe does have other packages with more online storage (I don't use their storage) or more products bundled in. It is possible you might be thinking of one of those.

[TN_Boy]

deleted

All things being equal, I’d pick Lightroom too. But all things aren’t equal. Lightroom is considerably more expensive, $15/month for new customers, and that $180/year just keeps going, forever. OP’s spouse may not need all of the features of Affinity, but it’s cheaper than the PS Elements that she is currently using, and will certainly do anything PS Elements does, at least as well as PS Elements does it. She isn’t required to use the advanced features.

I agree with that; if you are just doing photo editing, then Affinity Photo has more advanced capabilities than Photoshop Elements. Though I haven't done a detailed feature comparison.

None of us know exactly why the OP's spouse is looking for a replacement for Photoshop Elements. Going to Affinity Photo would create a learning curve.

[TN_Boy]

I switched from Lightroom to Darktable (open source). That’s more of a Lightroom replacement rather than Photoshop replacement, but you can do basic editing, and it seems to handle the usual suspect raw files.

How easy is Darktable to use over Lightroom? I had Lightroom for many years but when I upgraded my PC last year, though owning my disk with 16 digit serial number, Lightroom wouldn't let me install it on the new computer saying I had to buy their software again using the subscription model. I hate subscription based software for something I only occasionally use so have GIMP but find it very difficult to use. I'm still in the market for something non-subscription based and much easier for my evidently challenged brain to operate.

For most photo editing I find LR about as easy as it gets. The more "advanced" editing solutions have a lot of inherent complexity. It takes a lot of good UI design to hide complexity while still giving the user the option to do whatever they want.

I get that many people don't like subscription pricing. But subscription model or not, at some point you have to upgrade software.

[lthenderson]

How easy is Darktable to use over Lightroom? I had Lightroom for many years but when I upgraded my PC last year, though owning my disk with 16 digit serial number, Lightroom wouldn't let me install it on the new computer saying I had to buy their software again using the subscription model. I hate subscription based software for something I only occasionally use so have GIMP but find it very difficult to use. I'm still in the market for something non-subscription based and much easier for my evidently challenged brain to operate.

For most photo editing I find LR about as easy as it gets. The more "advanced" editing solutions have a lot of inherent complexity. It takes a lot of good UI design to hide complexity while still giving the user the option to do whatever they want.

I get that many people don't like subscription pricing. But subscription model or not, at some point you have to upgrade software.

I found LR very easy to use which is why I paid what I thought was the premium price for it for the stand alone software which should have lasted me for a decade if not longer. It is not like photo editing software needs to worry about security risks. To only get to use it for a few years and then be told that I now have to pay a subscription now was more than I could stomach, especially since these days I maybe edit a dozen or so pictures a year. Fortunately, my few LR owning years were the years when I was digitizing most of my family pictures and those are done being processed at this point.

If I were a photographer selling my work, my view of subscribing to Lightroom would be completely different.

[TN_Boy]

For most photo editing I find LR about as easy as it gets. The more "advanced" editing solutions have a lot of inherent complexity. It takes a lot of good UI design to hide complexity while still giving the user the option to do whatever they want.

I get that many people don't like subscription pricing. But subscription model or not, at some point you have to upgrade software.

I found LR very easy to use which is why I paid what I thought was the premium price for it for the stand alone software which should have lasted me for a decade if not longer. It is not like photo editing software needs to worry about security risks. To only get to use it for a few years and then be told that I now have to pay a subscription now was more than I could stomach, especially since these days I maybe edit a dozen or so pictures a year. Fortunately, my few LR owning years were the years when I was digitizing most of my family pictures and those are done being processed at this point.

If I were a photographer selling my work, my view of subscribing to Lightroom would be completely different.

It definitely doesn't make sense for you. That said, there is no software package that I use, photo or otherwise, for which I assume I can buy it and use for 10 years. I wind up with compatibility issues (the software may not support the latest version of operating system X, or vice versa) or I simply want something with better features, such as integration with some other software package.

It's vexing sometimes, but I understand why it works that way. I tried to avoid the Adobe subscription for a while and kept a paid-up version of LR going for about a year longer than I should. But the new cool features kept rolling into the subscription version ... so I went to the Dark Side.

[mrb09]

I switched from Lightroom to Darktable (open source). That’s more of a Lightroom replacement rather than Photoshop replacement, but you can do basic editing, and it seems to handle the usual suspect raw files.

How easy is Darktable to use over Lightroom? I had Lightroom for many years but when I upgraded my PC last year, though owning my disk with 16 digit serial number, Lightroom wouldn't let me install it on the new computer saying I had to buy their software again using the subscription model. I hate subscription based software for something I only occasionally use so have GIMP but find it very difficult to use. I'm still in the market for something non-subscription based and much easier for my evidently challenged brain to operate.

The concepts are similar, in that you have a "light table" as if you're looking at slides, and go into develop mode for editing. I tend to do pretty simple stuff, crop, change color balance, bump up shadows, occasionally a mask, and they all work.

When I switched, I found my backups were a mess from switching computers over time, and my lightroom catalogs were all out of sync. So I just imported all of my raw photos -- about 5000, a mix of NEF, ORM, CR2 and DNG formats, and created a new darktable catalog. I lost my lightroom flags, but I had all my 4 star+ photos saved as jpg's, so if I want the original, I correlate by date -- darktable lets me list by date of capture time. My plan is to keep the darktable import catalog as an archive, and only use it if I want to reprint something.

I sold my last mirrorless camera and just use my phone now, so I'll be using darktable for new photos with a new catalog. One nice thing about darktable is it just has a sidecar file along with a photo, so as long as you keep them together the catalog can't go out of sync.

I'm definitely reminded of the old days of finding a 4x6 photo and trying to track down the original negative for a larger reprint

I'm also switching my online photos from Smugmug to Flickr, since I'm grandfathered in an old Smugmug plan that no longer exists and the new subscriptions are quite a bit higher. That doesn't really have anything to do with darktable, but it is part of the changes I'm doing.

[PottedPlant]

there is no software package that I use, photo or otherwise, for which I assume I can buy it and use for 10 years.

This is only partially true.
Exceptions that I know of, and have on my PC:
1. GraphicConverter - since 2002
2. BBEdit - since 1992
3. PCalc - since 1992
4. Path Finder - since 2001
5. OmniGraffle - since 2000
6. Moneyspire - since 2007
7. A Better Finder Rename - since the late 90s
8. BusyCal and BusyContacts - since 2007
9. Things - since 2007
10. PDFPen Pro - since 2003

[Rob5TCP]

One thing for people to understand is Photoshop Elements used to be purchased and you could pretty much use it for as long as you wanted.

I have a full version which does not expire which is just a few years old so I will likely stay with it until it stops working, but Adobe has made it hard to install on a new Win 11 PC.

I just purchased a new Dell. Took about 15 minutes to install elements on my new PC. I bought it online from Adobe and it was in my history purchases. I kept copy of the install file, just in case. I will probably buy a copy of the 2025 Elements (80 upgrade) and keep my old version, just in case that price doubles or triples in 3 years.

[TN_Boy]

there is no software package that I use, photo or otherwise, for which I assume I can buy it and use for 10 years.

This is only partially true.
Exceptions that I know of, and have on my PC:
1. GraphicConverter - since 2002
2. BBEdit - since 1992
3. PCalc - since 1992
4. Path Finder - since 2001
5. OmniGraffle - since 2000
6. Moneyspire - since 2007
7. A Better Finder Rename - since the late 90s
8. BusyCal and BusyContacts - since 2007
9. Things - since 2007
10. PDFPen Pro - since 2003

That's great, but I didn't say that no such packages existed . I said I didn't *assume* I could buy and use any given software package for 10 years. I should add the caveat, especially without updating/buying a new version. Sometimes you get free updates/upgrades, sometimes you don't. Software organizations do not like supporting software on dozens of OS variants, though sometimes they will, and sometimes the APIs and functionality of a package does continue to work across the years. The software under discussion there was LR, and I suspect really complicated packages like LR are particularly unlikely to just keep working without updates/upgrades.

I recently upgraded a machine (i.e. replaced it) because it was about 10 years old and *multiple* software packages I was using were either not being supported (say no security updates and a lot of apps use the internet) or they didn't work or I had issues like the LR version supported on the (old, no longer updated or supported) OS running on that machine had a different catalog format (and feature set and it ran like a dog, on the older machine) which caused problems when I was trying to do things like import from catalog from that machine to another machine.

Again, sure, some packages work practically forever. Some will not.