“Do We Need Photoshop?” is the title of a recent blog post on Rob Sheppard’s Nature and Photography blog. There is much discussion and complaining among photographers about Adobe’s decision to make its Creative Suite including Photoshop a cloud based product costing $40 a month ($20 a month for Photoshop by itself). As many of us are using Photoshop less, there is serious doubt about whether to sign up for the new cloud based Photoshop.
Rob believes that most photographers can do be very satisfied by using a combination of Lightroom, the latest version of Photoshop Elements, and Nik Software Viveza 2. The Nik software package, which is now owned by Google and is available for $149 and includes all six nik plugins Viveza 2,Color Efex Pro 4,Dfine 2, Sharpener Pro 3, HDR 2 and Sharpener Pro 3. This is exactly the choice I have made.
Read what Rob has to say at: Do We Need Photoshop? | Nature and Photography.
I would also suggest reading Michael Frye’s blog posts on Thoughts on the Adobe Creative Cloud and the new version of Lightroom with an improved Healing Brush Lightroom 5 Beta. Lightroom 5 is now out.
Natural History Wanderings 
I am not a big fan of Photoshop or other after market software to alter images taking one from a photographer to a graphic artist. I use software to touch and clean up images but massive alterations to images I find to be disturbing. The challenge of photography should be to capture images in a real world setting, not make something out of nothing. I am sure that there are others who understand this concept, perhaps we are pureists in a digital world. Spencer
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By: Spencer Westbrook on June 19, 2013
at 9:59 AM
Although I do respect digital artists (as long as they are clear that is what they are doing). My approach is very similar to yours.
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By: Sandy Steinman on June 19, 2013
at 10:29 AM