Which Photoshop programme?

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matt_wright

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Matt Wright
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Hi, I am fairly new to photogrpahy, i purchased a 450d a few months ago and have been looking into the possibility of buying a photoshop programme.

Through reading severall magazines the most common programmes seem to be Elements and CS3.

What are the main differences between the two?

Looking at the price, the obvious one for me to choose would be the elements, but as i am a student (for 1 more year) i can purchase CS3 for around £125.

On that note, does anyone now how long the licence lasts on student copies?

thank in advanced, and sorry if this topic has been looked at numerous times before!

Matt
 
I've used both and without going into all the nitty gritties - it boils down to CS3 has much more bells and whistles (it's a professional piece of software) than Elements at usually a grossly inflated price. However if you can get it for £125 it should be worth the extra.

That being said - you should also consider Lightroom, also by Adobe and in my view far easier to learn and use and more effective in loads of ways.
 
So is there anything that is in Elements that is not in CS3?

Where does Lightroom fit in, I mean is it a software desgined to bridge the gap between the two, or is it a completly different idea?
 
matt_wright said:
So is there anything that is in Elements that is not in CS3?
Click to expand...

I can't answer with 100% certainty - but almsot certainly not. Elements is CS3 "Lite".

Where does Lightroom fit in, I mean is it a software desgined to bridge the gap between the two, or is it a completly different idea?
Click to expand...

If you read Adobe's marketing blurb it's designed to be used in conjunction with Photoshop. Well they would say that, wouldn't they? The difference is that Photoshop is a piece of graphics software which has been purloined by photographers to manipultate their images, and it does work well. Lightroom has been designed specifically for photography as an image enhancing/recovery package, which it also does very well. It does, to all intents and purposes what they used to do in the darkroom a few years back. It can be downloaded for free for a trial period from Adobe's website.
 
aberal said:
Lightroom has been designed specifically for photography as an image enhancing/recovery package,
Click to expand...

Sorry but I wouild have to disagree with that. Lightroom is designed as a photo management tool, it's primary pupose is for importing, organising and tagging large collections of photos. However recent versions are as you say very good at image enhacing and recovery, paticulary with Lightroom 2 which now gives you selective enhancing, which was missing from previous versions.

I use Lightroom for almost everything now, only very rarely going into PS
 
matt_wright said:
So is there anything that is in Elements that is not in CS3?

Where does Lightroom fit in, I mean is it a software desgined to bridge the gap between the two, or is it a completly different idea?
Click to expand...

You can download a 30 day trial of all three programs from the Adobe web site.

Lightroom is an image processing and cataloging applications. Whilst you can do a lot of image control functions in Lightroom, now with grads and even local controls, it's not a retouching program.

Photoshop has many of the image processing tools that lightroom has but from within Camera RAW. No real cataloging functions but you can do much of this in Bridge.

Where Lightroom scores is when you are working with multiple images. The corrections are seen in real time with no processing delay and are easily reversible. Only drawback is that to output the final image it has to be processed. that's dead time , but you will usually be out puting multiple images, so you simply take a coffee break. Personaly I love Lightroom but I also have Photoshop, for retouching and photo comps.

Photoshop does a lot more than elements. Elements is aimed at the Novice and average user. Photoshop is a heavyweight and does a hell of a lot more, but you don't get those "cute" little easy option tabs that Elements has.

Don't rush to get Photoshop yet. CS4 has just been announced with some nice additions.

Check the Adobe web site for student versions and T&C's

As I said download trial versions of each, start with Elements as the new version 7 is now available. Then try Photoshop. If you struggle with Photoshop stick to Elements
 
Why not give GIMP a try first and see if it does what you want/need? It's an Open source - i.e. FREE :) - PS-like program. If it does then you've saved yourself some money; if not then it hasn't cost you anything.

Personally, I've not found anything it can't do when I've followed PS tutorials (just need to learn the menu layout and terminology differences).
 
Chappers said:
Lightroom is an image processing and cataloging applications. Whilst you can do a lot of image control functions in Lightroom, now with grads and even local controls, it's not a retouching program.
Click to expand...

Now my turn to disagree :) - I think an image retouching program is precisely what Lightroom is. It's what I use it for. I own Elements 6 and have access to CS3 at work and can't remember the last time I needed to use them. I use Lightroom to both transform and enhance my pictures.

I suppose it boils down to what you want to use the software for. I have no interest in turning my pictures into watercolours or fine art or whatever and only look to getting the best out of what came out of the camera. I would never discourage anyone from utilising Photoshop because it can do amazing things - its just too overly complicated and convoluted for me.

But I agree - download them and try them out.
 
aberal said:
Now my turn to disagree :) - I think an image retouching program is precisely what Lightroom is. It's what I use it for. I own Elements 6 and have access to CS3 at work and can't remember the last time I needed to use them. I use Lightroom to both transform and enhance my pictures.

.
Click to expand...

I suppose it's what you define as an image retouching program. Lightroom can't do a number of functions that Photoshop does. It's difficult ( but not impossible) to clone parts of one image into another. Photocomps are out of the question, and Free Transform is only available in Photoshop.

But yes I can understand your argument. Lightroom is an excellent program. It's a pity we've had to wait so long for it
 
This is a decision I'm thinking about myself at the moment.

I rarely do anything more than convert/process the RAW image, crop to correct composition and use the cloning tools to remove sensor dust.

I think I'm swaying toward Lightroom 2 rather than Elements 7 (when it is released).
 
Another one to try is

Photofiltre, THe new version is very good, and for a first programme it is simple and easy to use. I have both Photoshop CS2 and Photofiltre which is free. I find Photofiltre much easyer to use however only use photoshop as I am thinking of taking graphic designing as a career and it will require me to now how to use photoshop

Have a look...

http://www.photofiltre-studio.com/download-en.htm

Full version.
 
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