Well personally I'd advise you if you had a fast internet connection or whatnot to actually download demos of both and try them out for yourself...see which one you are more comfortable with etc.. Personally I like photoshop, like what Ghostofmacbeth said it is also my opinion that it is very versitile. I use it to retouch rendered poser images and add FXs to them ^^...among other stuff. That and I actually know how to use it LOL. Thank goodness for art class ^^. As for deep paint, I've tried the demo, and it is easier to paint directly on a 3d model, and do bumps and shiney stuff....but I wasn't to comfortable with it. I'm not saying it's a bad program, it's all a matter of preference nods. Each program has it's own advantages and such, such as photoshop layer modes and channels and stuff like that, and deep paint's ability to work in 2d, 2d 1/2, and 3d modes...blah blah blah ^^ well that's my opinion ^^