Ok,,,,, Picasa or Gimp or what?

[Peggy Scroggins]

I cannot get gimp to download and getting frustrated. I am bored with picmonkey and need something more to learn. So is picasa easy for beginners and free. I do not know anything about layers etc. so need something to explain it for a true beginner. Any suggestions or site address I can download? HELP!!!

[Debs Stott]

Hi Penny
Picasa is free and easy but does not do anything with layers and I think you'll find the effects similar to PicMonkey.
Perfect Effects has a free version which uses layers of sorts but nothing as powerful as PS or Gimp. You may just need to persevere with Gimp if you want to learn layer stuff.
Not sure if others have any advice.

[Jo]

Try the 30 day free trial for Lightroom.

[Phil Howcroft]

Gimp for me , open source, free, lots of online tutorials and help.
Keep trying peggy, you will not regret it.

@miata2u

[Mr. T]

I like Gimp as well when needing something a bit more. But a friend told me about this: http://apps.pixlr.com/editor/ yesterday and said he enjoys it for image manipulation. I haven't tried it yet and didn't get into it with him more what it can do but I'd like to try it out soon.

[Stephomy]

What issues are you having with downloading GIMP?

[Lisa Poland]

For general editing, I use Picasa. It's free and easy to use. For heavier editing, I use Photoshop Elements. It does more, but is very complicated at times.

[Peggy Scroggins]

@dibzgreasley @jo13 @phil_howcroft @geocacheking @stephomy @homeschoolmom Thank you all for responding. I needed the help for sure.

[Peggy Scroggins]

@phil_howcroft so what did you download to get gimp. I have tried 2.8 for beginners but cannot get it to load. Any suggestions? Do I just go go yahoo and then gimp?

[Peggy Scroggins]

@stephomy just cannot get it to load. Do you have an addy that works. I read that alot of people are having the same problem.

[Peggy Scroggins]

@geocacheking Thank you for the new site, I will see if I can figure it out.

[Phil Howcroft]

@miata2u Peggy, everything you need for GIMP is here...


http://www.gimp.org/
http://www.gimp.org/downloads/

[DawnLouise]

Like someone else said, Picasa is similar to PicMonkey - very easy and user friendly. I've learned how to do things on Gimp through online tutorials and have been able to do some interesting things like levitation photos through there - it's pretty cool. Not hard to learn once you get the hang of it!

[Simply Amanda]

Gimp is good with Layering. Online tutorials are great!

[Daryl O'Hare]

@jo13 YES, as Jo says, but heed our warnings, right Jo?: Learn how to import and properly organize your photos up front. ;) Lordy! I love Lightroom, and it's worth the money. Picasa is great as a freebie though.

[Michelle]

I've used Picasa for years, it is very easy to use and you can do a lot of great things with it considering it is free. I've just got my hands on Lightroom/Photoshop and am having alot of trouble getting my head around it but will stick at it because I know it will be worth it. You can pay by the month for photoshop/lightroom through adobe for $15.

[Jo]

@darylo You are SOOOO right Daryl, to this day I regret not having watched a tutorial before I dived in and the result is photos everywhere in total chaos, but that said as an editing tool its fantastic, just NEVER move your pics around outside lightroom...NEVER!!!

[Peggy Scroggins]

Thank you all so much for all the help. I went with Gimp but will have to figure out how to copy and layer. It will come.