For anyone looking to try an alternative photo editors, the public can beta test the newest edition of OnOne software.
It's a great, affordable, easy to use alternative to photoshop. I use it alongside Lightroom. Particularly strengths are: very easy to use portrait cleanup (skin smoothing, eye brightening, etc), very effective masking/layering (great if you need to replace an overcast sky with a nice blue sky). The newest edition also has a content aware eraser brush. I've been experimenting with it, and it performs ok so far.
Then of course, you also have lots of filters, effects, etc.
Anyway, it's a nice way to play with it while it's free.
It's a great, affordable, easy to use alternative to photoshop. I use it alongside Lightroom. Particularly strengths are: very easy to use portrait cleanup (skin smoothing, eye brightening, etc), very effective masking/layering (great if you need to replace an overcast sky with a nice blue sky). The newest edition also has a content aware eraser brush. I've been experimenting with it, and it performs ok so far.
Then of course, you also have lots of filters, effects, etc.
Anyway, it's a nice way to play with it while it's free.