I wanted to know what everyone uses to edit images.

I finally got a comment out of that Humfree guy and he said I should use freeware

Any good ones out there that compete with professional software?

I'm no expert at photo editing, and I don't generally do it all that often, but GIMP is the best free photo editor out there.

What makes it the best?

He also mentioned Paint.Met and Ive read some stuff that says its better.

I dont know so i felt like asking

Heh, well it's be best because it's the only one I use. It's also relatively easy to learn and to use.

not to be mean or anuthing but that doesnt help a hole lot

Hey, I gave you my opinion (that I use GIMP and it is good) so it's up to you to decide how to respond to that. If I were you, I'd just download both GIMP and Paint.Net and see which one you think is better. It's more important that YOU can use something rather than if WE can.

I did download both and have no clue which is better

All I know is gimp takes forever to load

I just wanted to know if people here have used them and knew more info

Also does anyone know what that humfree guy uses he said that he uses professional software but I have no clue what that means

FYI, GIMP is basically the free version of Photoshop. If thats any help.

Gimp is by far the better deal. You can't beat free. It has all the same functions as photoshop.

As for why it takes longer, because it is freeware, users can modify or add content so the program has to load extra resources to handle the possibility of those additions.

Of course, in the end, it comes down to which one fits your particular style better. Some swear by photoshop, others by other programs, simple because they like them. Personally, I went with GIMP. You'll just have to try them.

Yes, double-posting, I know, but I suspect that nobody would ever see this if I didn't.

Pretty simply, I've been practicing some new Photoshop techniques and wanted to know what you thought of it.
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If you're wondering how it was made, it started with me looking up on Google how to make lightning effects in Photoshop and running into one guy's odd but great method of doing so. It involves a black-to-white gradient, "difference clouds" in Photoshop's "filters" bar, inverting the colors, then adjusting the brightness/color levels a bit, which ended up in what looks a lot like a big surge of lightning going though a bunch of clouds at night. I then decided to use it for a scene in a part of a story I'm writing for MOCpages. NOTICE: much of what you'll see next is some rather "cheap" techniques. Well, I took a screenshot on LDD of that one mountainous background, edited out the sky part, darkened it up real nicely, added a somewhat corny "rain" effect found solely on Photoshop Elements (which is what I'm using), did a bit of manual work with the lights and darks, and finally added in my old SARC gunship.

Anyway, I'll be quiet now and wait for my scolding from Bio for double-posting...