Photoshop: verb?

Posted by Glyn Wade

When we search on the internet, we Google, when we vacuum the house we Hoover and now, seemingly, when we manipulate our images on our computers we Photoshop them.

Now you don’t need me to tell you that there are other search providers but somehow to Bing, Yahoo or Ask Jeeves something doesn’t sound quite right…unless the internet was called Jeeves of course….

And you don’t need me to tell you that there are other suckers to pick up your household dust (and cat hairs!)….but actually…. maybe ‘to Dyson’ might usurp Hoovering one day…

But there are also a number of other photo manipulation programmes that we can use to digitally alter our photographs in some way but Photoshop is becoming (or has become) the Hoover of this particular world.

There are those of us that swear by at and others that swear AT it but, and I throw this open to the floor, is there anything better? If it wasn’t so expensive even in subscription form wouldn’t everyone have it? Other programmes do niche things eg Photomatix but is anything as comprehensive as Photoshop?

At a recent committee meeting we had to correct ourselves to say ‘manipulated’ instead of ‘Photoshopped’ when discussing how much Photoshopping….I mean digital manipulation, would count if we were to have a separate Photo of the Month competition at the club. But that’s a topic for another day….

I’m off to lighten the lights and darken the darks….and maybe up the clarity a bit, do a bit of sharpening….and I definitely need a mask…..