Editing your images is a necessary part of the creative process, but is Photoshop worth it for the casual photographer? Before Adobe decided to make all Photoshop products cloud-based subscription packages, it was a much easier question to answer, but now?

Let’s explore the pros and cons and let you decide...

Photoshop is an incredibly powerful tool in skilled hands, but it has a huge learning curve and requires dedication to make the most of it. As an amateur photographer, you might find yourself only using a few of the tools, or you may dive in and unlock its potential – it depends largely on available time and your dedication to your art.

If you’re the kind of photographer who shoots jpegs and rarely post-processes beyond a quick crop, it’s probably pretty pointless buying Photoshop. If, on the other hand, your interest is landscapes or fashion photography, you would benefit from the powerful masking tools Photoshop provides.

There are other considerations before you subscribe to a Photoshop package. To get the most from it you’ll need a PC or laptop with a decent spec – this is especially true if your camera produces large RAW files. Even a high-spec PC costing thousands will start to creak under the pressure of a 30MP file that’s being edited with multiple layers.

Photoshop is just under £20 a month in the UK which is a reasonable price if you’re using it regularly, but for the casual user it might be worth picking up an older version to try out first.

Of course, you may find that Photoshop is overkill for you...

Even a professional photographer will probably find that Lightroom is perfect for 90% of editing needs... and it’s much more user-friendly. Lightroom allows you to edit with simple sliders, and catalogue your images with ease. It’s currently available for less than £10 per month with 1TB of cloud storage – plenty for the average photographer.

When it comes to deciding on your post-processing software, the biggest question you need to ask is ‘Do I plan on using layer masks and advanced editing techniques?’. If you’re only doing the basics, Lightroom is probably all you’ll ever need, but if you’re the type of photographer who needs advanced healing and retouching or loves to create panoramas and HDRs, then invest in both.

So, yes, Photoshop is worth it for amateur photographers, but only if you have advanced editing needs – isn’t that simple!?