(no subject)

[dakegra]

quick question: what's the difference (other than the price) between Photoshop Elements and full-blown Photoshop (CS3?)

Comments

[thebabynancy.livejournal.com]

bloat.

[caitirin.livejournal.com]

A lot of fancy features you probably won't need or use.

[nalsa.livejournal.com]

Most useful missing bit for me is Curves & levels, AIUI. I could be wrong - the copy of Elements I have is very out of date and I've not installed CS3 yet.

Mostly because I'm gearing myself up to buying a new iMac...

[genevra.livejournal.com]

Elements has Curves & levels.

[genevra.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure. I know it has levels.

[nextian-cutie.livejournal.com]

Curves, a lot of the layer options, many of the filters, some of the masking...BUT...there's a very steep learning curve with PS-CS3. I've been using Photoshop since version 2.5 (egads, that's like 16 years!), have gone to numerous seminars and even belong to the National Assn of Photoshop Professionals and I still learn something new nearly every time I open the program!

For basic photo editing and even a little retouching, you should be just fine with Elements. They have a new version coming out shortly. Unless you're going to be doing heavy duty manipulation, retouching or real design, you'd probably be best sticking to Elements rather than CS3.

Now, something that might be a good addition to your arsenal is Lightroom. I love that program! It works hand in hand with whichever Photoshop editing program you have. It does the bulk of the work of adjusting your exposures, sharpening, color correcting and most importantly cataloging and tagging your images. You may find that Lightroom can do most of the things you need without even bringing the images into Elements. But having both is wonderful! You should download trial versions and see if you like them. I'm upgrading to Lightroom 2.0 today since my CD just arrived!

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

it's the cost which scares me - CS3 is crazily expensive - even lightroom is nearly 200 quid!

[nextian-cutie.livejournal.com]

what you do, is buy a used LEGAL copy of one of the full edition older versions then just do upgrades.

[dakegra.livejournal.com]

cunning. How would you know that the used copy is legal though?

*worries*

[nextian-cutie.livejournal.com]

Usually having all the documentation and it being the original CD and case should be sufficient. It does need to be the full version though, so you do have to watch for that.

[hellziggy.livejournal.com]

Or you may be able to buy the "education" version. Here in the U.S. you're eligible for the education pricing not just if you're a college student, but also if you have any children in school.
And yes, I agree with nextian_cutie's assessment of Lightroom. :) I haven't shelled out the dough to upgrade mine yet though.

[nextian-cutie.livejournal.com]

Here's a link that describes the differences:

http://photo-editing-software-review.toptenreviews.com/photoshop-elements-and-photoshop-cs3-comparison.html

[elaby.livejournal.com]

The only thing I've noticed so far (but from a lineart/drawing perspective) is that there's no "quick mask" mode. I'm not even positive what quick mask mode does (I'm so helpful!) but I use it to put scanned lineart, with black and white bits, onto its own layer, with just the black bits.

I have been UTTERLY happy with Elements, though :)