Backgrounds Help/Photoshop worth it?

[Nathan]

Okay guys, I've known for a while that I really suck at creating backgrounds but I've never really found any decent instructions or tutorials on how to do them well. For a reference of my past attempts at backgrounds have a look at my gallery on this site or my deviantART gallery (link in my signature). So I've seen some nice looking backgrounds from you guys so I wonder if you'd be able to either give me some advice or direct me to a good tutorial or whatever.Also I'm considering getting Photoshop, but I'm not sure since even with a student discount its $200, of course I could just torrent it or something but yeah... I'm currently using GIMP but with the latest update I'm kind of sick of it, I'm not sure whether its something that went wrong in installing it but now its more difficult to switch brush sizes, you can't just choose a smaller brush because it will stay the same size you have to go into tool options and change the size there (which is stupid). I know there's quite a few other free or cheaper alternatives to Photoshop out there so your opinions on those would be good too before I go downloading them.

[Blake]

Can't help with the backgrounds thing, but I didn't have trouble with brush sizes on GIMP.Re-download me thinks?

[Nathan]

Re-download me thinks?

Sounds like it, thought it might have been. Still considering other programs though just for more advanced features and stuff and the whole thing with it not supporting my tablet, even though my tablet is pretty standard (Wacom Bamboo Fun, loads of people have problems with it in Gimp and not anything else)