Beautiful Minds wrote:
Most of my experience has been using Lightroom. I have some photoshop experience, but what is the top of the line retouching software? I love Lightroom but wanted to decide if I should consider upgrading or sticking with it.

Lightroom is not what I would normally consider retouching software. It can perform some minimal edits to photos but it's more of a workflow management application than it is for actual retouching. The granddaddy of all retouching applications is Photoshop though.

As far as I'm concerned, it's the only real program out there for serious work. There are some alternatives such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements or even Gimp, but they just don't measure up.

What I'm curious about is you list yourself as being an experience photographer. How do you not know this? It's like saying you don't know what a shutter speed is.

Shot By Adam wrote:
As far as I'm concerned, it's the only real program out there for serious work. There are some alternatives such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements or even Gimp, but they just don't measure up.

This.

There's Photoshop and there's everything else.  You can do some things, sometimes even most things that Photoshop can do, but there's nothing out there that can do everything Photoshop can do, and there's nothing out there that has 1% of the tutorials and community support that Photoshop has.

Beautiful Minds wrote:
I don't see how my experience should be called into question. I simply asked if there were other software out there that may be worth getting into besides lightroom and photoshop. Just an inquiry about whats on the market these days.

SEI Photos wrote:
You might consider Portrait Pro, but just be wary of its face sculpting tools because the default is always too much.  You can use Paint Shop Pro and Photoshop to do the same things, but it takes more steps to do so.  Portrait Pro actually does a good job with most head shots with minimal effort and works quickly.  However, it's not that useful for 3/4 or full-length shots or where the image is environmental.  But if I was a head shot specialist, doing studio work mostly, I would probably use it for 95% of the editing.

Agree, default is waaaay toooo much.

Looknsee Photography wrote:
I guess that something in the Photoshop family is wildly popular.  However, I find Photoshop to be very complex, with a poor user interface, and very expensive.

Actually, I find the interface to be really quite intuitive and very easy to use. And expensive? Seriously? It's 10 bucks a month for the latest version of Photoshop and that's even bundled with Lightroom. Personally, I find it to be one of the greatest values of any investment I make in my photography business.

Beautiful Minds wrote:
Most of my experience has been using Lightroom. I have some photoshop experience, but what is the top of the line retouching software? I love Lightroom but wanted to decide if I should consider upgrading or sticking with it.

Shot By Adam wrote:
Lightroom is not what I would normally consider retouching software. It can perform some minimal edits to photos but it's more of a workflow management application than it is for actual retouching. The granddaddy of all retouching applications is Photoshop though.

As far as I'm concerned, it's the only real program out there for serious work. There are some alternatives such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements or even Gimp, but they just don't measure up.

What I'm curious about is you list yourself as being an experience photographer. How do you not know this? It's like saying you don't know what a shutter speed is.

+1

To OP: Lightroom is a RAW converter, not an application for photo retouching. If your concerns are budgetary, consider Elements. I've never even tried Elements, but I hear it does the majority of functions typically performed by photographers in Photoshop.

Looknsee Photography wrote:
I guess that something in the Photoshop family is wildly popular.  However, I find Photoshop to be very complex, with a poor user interface, and very expensive.  And in general, Photoshop has many more features than I want or need.

I've been using Corel's (formerly Jasc's) Paint Shop Pro -- it's slightly more affordable, and it does everything I need.  It's capable of using filters designed for Photoshop.  But you can find more documentation, how-to books, and tutorials for Photoshop.

In general, I hate so-called subscription software, where you pay a monthly fee and get "free" upgrades whenever the manufacturer chooses.  I tend to skip every other update, so subscription software is even more expensive for me.

I find Photoshop to be incredibly complex as well. I avoided it for almost 2 full years when I first began taking pictures then working as a photographer, and even til this very day I still only use it for 1/3rd of my workflow when I'm retouching photos! I convert my RAW captures in Capture One 7 (soon to be C1 Pro 8), then I do a large number of common steps in retouching using Sagelight Professional 4.4h - which I bought a license for about 4 years ago for $40! But what I do in PS I can *only do in PS. Or I can only do *well in PS.

I found Photoshop mind-numbingly unintuitive, so I rarely would use it. I started with PS 7. As in, version 7.0   Then, CS2. Up to CS5.1 Extended, where I was going to stay once CC was released. (I was awaiting CS7!) I figured, "hey I might as well have the final version released - so I can hold-off from buying into CC as long as possible" and I bought CS6 as an upgrade. I'm glad I did, because 90% of my work this winter has been from Video Photography - which CS6 does a great job of!

Shot By Adam wrote:

Actually, I find the interface to be really quite intuitive and very easy to use. And expensive? Seriously? It's 10 bucks a month for the latest version of Photoshop and that's even bundled with Lightroom. Personally, I find it to be one of the greatest values of any investment I make in my photography business.

Its price is much higher than just about every other similar product out there.  I mean, GIMP is free.  And most other products don't use subscriptions, so if you pay once, you know the total cost, whereas with Photshop, you're going to have to pay as long as you want to keep using it.

But that's price.  When you include value into the equation, Photoshop is way up on the list.  GIMP is free, and its value is more than zero, but it's less valuable than Photoshop.  At least it is to me, and almost every other photographer I know.

Brian Diaz wrote:

Its price is much higher than just about every other similar product out there.  I mean, GIMP is free.  And most other products don't use subscriptions, so if you pay once, you know the total cost, whereas with Photshop, you're going to have to pay as long as you want to keep using it.

But that's price.  When you include value into the equation, Photoshop is way up on the list.  GIMP is free, and its value is more than zero, but it's less valuable than Photoshop.  At least it is to me, and almost every other photographer I know.

If you're an amateur photographer who just wants to edit photos as a hobby, there are certainly other alternatives. If you are a professional or an amateur wanting to accomplish something of a higher quality result, there simply is no substitute for Photoshop.

As for subscription-based software, that's the way everything is going now, so it's better to just accept that. Just some of the monthly subscription-based programs I use are Photoshop, Illustrator, Muse, Lightroom, Office, Echosign, Boomerang, and a few others.

Beautiful Minds wrote:
I don't see how my experience should be called into question. I simply asked if there were other software out there that may be worth getting into besides lightroom and photoshop. Just an inquiry about whats on the market these days.

Do not worry about someone trying to question your experience.  There are some photographers that have no need to retouch or digitally manipulate their images.  I normally do very little retouching of my images. 

Personally, my idea of retouching is the removal of scars, warts and Crows feet around the eyes.  Most of the things can typically be handled within Lightroom.  When I have the need for serious retouching and / or digital manipulate, which I very very rarely do, I use Photoshop.  I try as hard as I can to get the image as I want it in the camera.  But, of course, to each their own!