Why do you use Photoshop? 

Why is Photoshop worth the investment?

I am interested in purchasing...should I get the suite? or just the CS3?

I want to move into more illustration/graphics/3d...and am looking to tool up, I would like to also learn to create 3d symbols, objects, and characters.  I have been involved in residential design for several years...and have used Chief Architect for most work so far, some CAD.

You can see some of my  work at www.erhoff.net

I have ACDsee, Chief Architect VI, Carrara 6 (just learning), DAZ studio, Bryce 5.5, a demo copy of SketchUp ($500 to get Pro), Demo copy of Adobe Photoshop...(30 days).  I would like some input from those who are familiar with Adobe and what they would reccomend.
I have a 36" HP color printer and would like to possibly do some prints of computer rendered work and some copies of painting originals...etc.

What have you found useful with Adobe/Photoshop or suits...like Design Premium...

Thank you.
Eric

I'm the wrong person to ask, since I am a photographer who logged onto this site mere days ago to learn 3d, but if you're interested, I can answer more specific questions from you regarding which packages/products you're thinking about.

.:I love adobe bridge which comes with Photoshop. I also love photoshop's ability to automate things and apply actions to thousands of images at once -

But after viewing your work you may be better off with something like abobe illustrator or corel draw?:.

I don't see anything in EROC's gallery. What work of his did you see?

.:Well based on the site the work looks predominately architectural - Illustrator files (custom shapes) can be imported into many CAD and other 3D programs. If you're looking at just beautifying your images then try Photoshop elements before you invest the money in a full professional version of Photoshop:.

Quote - .:Well based on the site..:.

Call me a fool for not realizing Erhoff had posted a link to a website....now that I've had a look, I definitely do not think Erhoff needs the full version of PS.

Oh, and Erhoff? Two comments about your website: portions of it are not showing up as you laid out in Firefox 2.0.0.7, and you might want to sub-catagorize your Art images. It takes a long time to upload.

Photoshop is the undisputed champ in the professional world of photo corrections, compositing, and manipulation. None of the work I do can be presented without going through PS first to finish them off.

That being said, the folks above are right - it looks like your needs would be better suited in Illustrator or CorelDraw. Any photo corrections and manipulations you needed in the images in the link above could have been done in Elements - which retails for about $100.

Unless you're going into more hardcore manipulation and compositing, you don't need to spend the money - just get Photoshop Elements for your basic photo editing.

Good luck - hope that helps-
-Lew ;-)

I use photoshop daily for work and also for personal use.
If you are serious about your art, it is an investment, I have been using it for about 6 years and I have only scratched the surface.
I have tried to learn gimp, painshop pro and others to get a feel, but I found that I always go back.
Some people say it has a difficult learning curve, and in part I agree, but I think is not so much hard but very time consuming. You need to really play with it for a veeeery long time before you get the hang of it properly, but once you do, you will suddenly realise you could never have done without it.

Elements is a nice app, but I have had a look and it feels very basic, you only get 10% of what you get in photoshop for a 3rd of the price.
if you really can't afford it, I would go for painshop pro or CorelDraw.
Of these two I would reccomend Paintshop, I did try it years ago and found it to be the closest to photoshop and the easiest to use, and it does have a good price tag too.

Yeah Eroc, hi. Went to your website, had no problem with viewing it and thumbs/everything loaded quite quickly. Why would you want Photoshop? So you could let people know how great your aviation paintings are. I like them but they are in serious need of some color correction. They are all suffering from lack of lumens. If you were going to clean up and finish off the "Super Mom" logo, Photoshop would be a great place to do that. As an architect perhaps you're used to using a mouse. You would want to get a wacom tablet and pen. I'm sure that can't be daunting to you as you had plenty of drawings/painting on your site. I have always loved Painter for its custom brushes' ability to mimic old world media but when it comes to the more serious business of manipulating the image Photoshop has been honed over many years to provide the ultimate image editing environment. I'm sounding like a brochure now so I'll stop. Good Luck, Don

I could not do anything I do without Photoshop. Simple as that. I've been using it since V3, and couldn't imagine working without it, though I also have PSP, Art Rage, Painter, Coreldraw and Photopaint. But Photoshop, well, if I said I have the program open every day, it would be an understatement. Even working in 3d max, I often have photoshop open at the same time so as to be able to adjust textures on the fly. It's an absolute necessity for me.