Micheal, if you look at the names when you start up Photoshop, you will see exactly who designed it. I'm afraid if looking at your screen is difficult enough for you that you need to post on a forum to ask who designed the program, then life itself is user unfriendly and you should complian to god for designing you.
John Knoll is a freakin' genious, and Photoshop is a great piece of software and very user friendly. Photoshop has greatly evolved since version 1, and more features are added with each release. Personally, I started with version 2 (when I was 11). I found it very easy to use, and with lots of room to grow and lots to learn. I met a photographer lady who went on and on about how she was going to take a photo into Photoshop and make it sepia tinted. She was boasting about herself and how difficult it was and how cutting edge she was. I told her Photoshop is very easy to use. She became furious, explaining it was not easy to use and she had spent thousands of dollars learning how to use it. No, it's easy.
I've never owned Photoshop. I've never even seen a Photoshop manual. It's so user friendly, it needs no manual. Anyone who spends money on classes, actions, uses a tutorial let alone needs a manual is a moron.
Photoshop is more user friendly now then it ever has been. Almost feels like a cheap toy (like the Filter Gallery in CS).
Photoshop 2 had no layers. Yup. No layers. And I was REALLY into compositing then (when I was 11/12). I put my friends heads on dollar bills and what not, created dramatic sunsets (painted in photoshop, not photo's) with 100's of layered elements. Back then, if you wanted to composite, you created two files. Then you cut and paste between those files. You saved countless versions of a single file. As the Saturday Night Live skit goes, "And we liked it!".
But seriously, with the current Photoshop, you can create as many layers as you need in a single file. You can create adjustment layers (you could not imagine what a time saver that is. Oh my god). Oh yeah, and how about History! How freakin' great is that? You can do several things, working on some random tangent, and then say, "nah, I'll just step back till where I cropped it". Blink. There you are.
Alright, last issues, price. $800 (it doesn't cost that much, it's $649) is a fair price. If you run a photography business and use photoshop for every image you make and sell, it's a true bargain! A single current DSLR without a lens is more than Photoshop. Also, Photoshop is intended for the pro market. If you think it's expensive (and especially if you think Photoshop Elements is better) DON'T BUY IT! You DO NOT need to buy to try it. Photoshop is freely available as a tryout on Adobe.com.
Personally, I like a minimalist approach to Photoshop now. I use it for photo's, and don't do much without an equivalent in a darkroom. When I was a pre-teen, I'd go crazy with effects, composites, etc. Now, I just make some color adjustment, a little burning or dodging if need be, and that's about it. When I started, I was using it on a 66mhz computer with 24MB of ram (that was actually a lot of ram then). Later, I worked at a digital prepress shop in Junior High (which had the fastest machines available then..80Mhz). We printed lots of posters for tradeshows among other things. For some effects or adjustments, we would have to wait nearly an hour for photoshop to finish. Back then, you tested out idea's on low res versions, and when you figured out what you needed, then applied that to the full res file. A lot of those files were (in todays terms) 50MP's.
Today, I use PS on a laptop (Apples cheapest), with a 1.2GHZ G4, and 768MB of ram, and flies through Photoshop. And this is no speed champ in the computing world! Pro's use Dual 2.5GHZ G5's with up to 8GB's of RAM. But, I'm only working with 12MP files. There's nearly no waiting for anything I do. I can just delve into a file, layer after layer, rotate, blah blah blah, and it's done. Unbelievable. I mean, truly amazing. Not to mention I can put all this power in a friggen paperbag and walk to an f'ing park and edit some photos.
Clearly with all the power, simplicity, and affordability of cutting edge media creation today, it clearly separates the pros from the amateurs. If you think PS is expensive, hard to use, or that computers are too slow to handle your $850 digital SLR's 8MP file, then great. Stop using any of it, and go back to watching TV instead.
Also, this is a "pro" forum, and not the place for this type of thread. Try image retouching. I am not a pro, but couldn't help but share my views (as I have done in the past) on Photoshop and idiots.
-¥akuza
Who designed this thing, a blind monkey on LSD, and they have the
nerve to charge almost 800 U.S. for it ! I vote it as the "worlds
most user unfriendly softwear" Elements 3 is better because it
promts you to certain functions. Want to become the next Bill
Gates ? Design a photo edit platform that you don't need 2
lifetimes to master.
