nospam wrote:
In article , Me
wrote:

I use Nikon Capture NX, but I need healing and patch
tools. A friend suggested I try GIMP. Any comments?
photoshop elements is a much better choice. another alternative is
adobe lightroom, which can edit images nondestructively as well as
manage image libraries.
Why is elements a better choice for that?

it does more and it is much faster than gimp. also, camera raw is
highly regarded and can now mimic the look of other raw processors,
notably the camera maker's own software.

ACR isn't as good as Nikon's Capture NX for raw conversion in general -
and nowhere near as good with the latest generation of cameras with
auto-ca correction, ADL, vignette control, and standard and customisable
picture controls (able to be shared/used with jpeg & raw in camera - or
in Nx) (I'm not sure if auto ca correction is in the D90). With other
makes of camera YMMV - it might be as good as anything else.

"Faster" than gimp? Not sure what that means. Gimp seems fast enough
rendering large image files. Like full photoshop, there's a learning
curve. Recent versions seem very stable.

Gimp has some better features than photoshop. The perspective clone
tool and perspective correction tools are IMO better. Resizing /
resampling is better, with Lanczos interpolation included. Jpeg
compression options and preview is also IMO better. Gimp is also now
ICC colour aware. The only real downsides are that it's limited to 8
bit colour, and totally useless (IMO) for printing.