Photoshop Recomendation

[A Scream]

I want photoshop. But I dunno where even to begin deciding on what I want. I have seen it go for $500 in previous years. I have amassed around 250 for it.

I dunno what version to get. You guys obviously know what you are doing here so I figured that you would know what version to get.

I want to be able to draw and have it not look like it just came from paint, and I want to be able to combine two images without it looking like to much of a copy and paste.

What should I get? And is photoshop even what I want?

thanks guys.

[einCe]

if you order online i think if you say you are a student you get it for about 170
but if all you want ids to combine images and stuff theres a free program called gimp that will do the job for you

[illmatik]

Before you shell out any hard earned $$$, like einCe said I would see if Gimp will do what you need. It's really come a long way since the first version and people are now really putting some serious development efforts into plugins and enhancements for it.

If you dont mind hands on learning through web-guides and forums (none of the gimp books I've seen have anything you cant find on the web), you might be very happy w/ it. If you need more structured guides and documentation, or specific functionality that you can only get in a photoshop or photoshop plugin, then try to get a student discount version (if you or a friend has a college id ;)

[A Scream]

I downloaded gimp. Working with that now. Is it about $170 via the student discount, for the latest version of photoshop?

[einCe]

last time i heard of it it was sub 200$ but i prefer to....*cough* aquire my versions of photoshop. /end sarcasm?