What's the difference..??

Seamaiden

Between Photoshop Elements and regular old Adobe Photoshop?

You see, I've discovered that my dear old dad has two CD's of Adobe that I know he no longer uses. Adobe Photoshop LE (I believe it's for 5.0), and Adobe Photoshop 5.0. I believe I also saw one that said Adobe Photoshop Elements (look Ma! See the elements for the circus?).

All this being said, I'm curious about this, as Rutt had kindly taken it upon himself to educate me regarding differences between Adobe and my Linux GIMP proggie, suggesting that I buy an old version of PS and then buy the upgrade (much as we did when upgrading some of the machines on our LAN from Win2K to WinXP). I have a feeling 5.0 is OLD, and understand essentially nothing else.

In the meantime, I'm trying to convince my father that if he's really serious about using that Nikon D70 for print work, he MUST invest in a decent monitor AND calibration tool. We'll just have to see about that, as I know he's gone and spent the money on a very nice Epson printer. (The man is an incorrigable impulse buyer!)

digismile

Probably some of the other Photoshop geeks will know this a bit better than me, but I seem to recall that Photoshop's current format with layers, adjustment layers, etc. came to be in version 5.5. So version 5 is likely pretty different from today's format in features and format.

Elements 1.0 came out a couple of years ago and was Adobe's answer to the many low priced photo programs (now 2.0). In this version, I believe they removed some of the features like curves, but added many functions to enhance usability for novice users, eg. red eye removal, but kept many of the features that makes Photoshop great. Removing red eye in regular Photoshop has always been a little more cumbersome (masks, selections, de-saturate, etc.). Some of the usability improvements in CS actually started in Elements.

That being said, if you had to choose between the 2 versions and no upgrade, I would probably pick Elements. It has many excellent wizards that help in many basic adjustments and is closer to todays full Photoshop. I think Elements would be a good fit for your dad. The learning curve is not as steep as regular Photoshop.

Elements is not eligible for Upgrade, but if it is indeed Photoshop 5 and not 5 LE, I believe this one can be upgraded for $169 to full CS (you should confirm this directly with Adobe).

I have both. My better half uses elements because she can do quick and dirty adjustments, resize for emailing, and create "picture packages".

Which one is better? Depends on you! Try them both out from Adobe and decide for yourself.

Brad

snapapple

Which program?

digismile wrote:

Probably some of the other Photoshop geeks will know this a bit better than me, but I seem to recall that Photoshop's current format with layers, adjustment layers, etc. came to be in version 5.5. So version 5 is likely pretty different from today's format in features and format.

Elements 1.0 came out a couple of years ago and was Adobe's answer to the many low priced photo programs (now 2.0). In this version, I believe they removed some of the features like curves, but added many functions to enhance usability for novice users, eg. red eye removal, but kept many of the features that makes Photoshop great. Removing red eye in regular Photoshop has always been a little more cumbersome (masks, selections, de-saturate, etc.). Some of the usability improvements in CS actually started in Elements.

That being said, if you had to choose between the 2 versions and no upgrade, I would probably pick Elements. It has many excellent wizards that help in many basic adjustments and is closer to todays full Photoshop. I think Elements would be a good fit for your dad. The learning curve is not as steep as regular Photoshop.

Elements is not eligible for Upgrade, but if it is indeed Photoshop 5 and not 5 LE, I believe this one can be upgraded for $169 to full CS (you should confirm this directly with Adobe).

I have both. My better half uses elements because she can do quick and dirty adjustments, resize for emailing, and create "picture packages".

Which one is better? Depends on you! Try them both out from Adobe and decide for yourself.

Brad

I have found Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 very easy to use. The reason I didn't get the full Photoshop program was, No. 1 - price, and No. 2- ease of use. It takes a long time to figure out all the complex steps to do some things like layers and layer masks. After using Photoshop Elements for a year or so, I read about Paint Shop Pro 8 having curves and few other things. I got PSP 8 for Christmas and discovered easy "one-button" things like borders and drop shadow for framing. I still find increasing the canvas size easier in Photoshop Elements. So, I switch back and forth. If I had many hours to do tutorials in Photoshop I might be able to learn it, but the complex steps to do things are still time consuming. I want to have fun and not spend hours on photo edits. This works for me.

wxwax

Photoshop 5 is the full version of Photoshop, three generations old. It's an incredibly powerful program. Even if you don't upgrade, you'll never, ever realize the program's full potential. That being said, I guess the upgrades add some stuff that will keep you in step with the instructions being given here.

Photoshop Elements is a mucho cut down version of Photoshop, both in price and in capability. Photoshop LE is its poorly designed predecessor. PS Elements is said to be a real bargain, and a great tool.

However, if you have a choice between Elements and Photoshop 5, it's no contest. Get the full program, buy a good book, and learn how to take advantage of its amazing capabilities. If you have the dosh, you might find the upgrade worthwhile.

Seamaiden

Argh, color me perturbed (with myself). Upon closer inspection it seems that both CDs I have are Photoshop Limited Edition.

I appreciate the input, and I know that we have Paint Shop Pro somewhere, I believe my sister's been going crazy with it lately, to hear my father tell it.

georges

A low priced alternative
Seamaiden -

If you're looking for a very accessible, low-priced, high value alternative go over to www.dl-c.com and check out Picture Window Pro.

If your activites are centered around photography, as opposed to drawing and painting, I think you will find it much better for many things than photoshop.

For the cost of two or three books on Photoshop, you can buy the full Pro version of Picture Window Pro. (less than $100)

There is a lot of info about the program on the www.dl-c.com and www.normankoren.com web sites. About 99% of the info people look for in those Photoshop books is available for free in the white papers and web pages on these two web sites. Frankly, once you work your way through the info from these two sources you'll learn more about photography and image manipulation than you can pick up in scores of step-by-step tutorials that are published in the many books and magazines on the newstand.

The big caution is that Picture Window Pro works on a completely different model than Photoshop. You have to give up the idea of layers. Many photoshop folks find this a hard thing to do.

Once you understand the difference in the two approaches, you can read photoshop tutorials and apply them to your work in Picture Window Pro.

I've used both programs for several years and Photoshop CS was the first version that I thought was worth purchasing for my work at home, and then only because I got an educational price. From the photographer's standpoint, CS is the first version that begins to provide the ease of use and Photographer oriented functions that have been in Picture Window Pro for years. (And to be fair, it adds some pretty snazzy stuff that I really like. The raw conversion and batch automation pushed me over the edge.)

I use both, but if I could only have one it would be Picture Window Pro.

Again, this is a recommendation based on my working style and what works for me.

wxwax

Georges, great to hear another point of view. I don't know the program, I'll have to read up on it.

Seamaiden

Yes, thank you! I haven't ever used Photoshop, only GIMP (and Irfanview), and only for really rudimentary tweaks. I've never even heard of this program, so this is even more helpful (not to mention the fact that you've pretty much described my needs - I do no drawing or painting through any program).

(I need to get Java installed so I can go back to using my favorite smilies.)

pathfinder

georges wrote:

Seamaiden -

If you're looking for a very accessible, low-priced, high value alternative go over to www.dl-c.com and check out Picture Window Pro.

If your activites are centered around photography, as opposed to drawing and painting, I think you will find it much better for many things than photoshop.

For the cost of two or three books on Photoshop, you can buy the full Pro version of Picture Window Pro. (less than $100)

There is a lot of info about the program on the www.dl-c.com and www.normankoren.com web sites. About 99% of the info people look for in those Photoshop books is available for free in the white papers and web pages on these two web sites. Frankly, once you work your way through the info from these two sources you'll learn more about photography and image manipulation than you can pick up in scores of step-by-step tutorials that are published in the many books and magazines on the newstand.

The big caution is that Picture Window Pro works on a completely different model than Photoshop. You have to give up the idea of layers. Many photoshop folks find this a hard thing to do.

Once you understand the difference in the two approaches, you can read photoshop tutorials and apply them to your work in Picture Window Pro.

I've used both programs for several years and Photoshop CS was the first version that I thought was worth purchasing for my work at home, and then only because I got an educational price. From the photographer's standpoint, CS is the first version that begins to provide the ease of use and Photographer oriented functions that have been in Picture Window Pro for years. (And to be fair, it adds some pretty snazzy stuff that I really like. The raw conversion and batch automation pushed me over the edge.)

I use both, but if I could only have one it would be Picture Window Pro.

Again, this is a recommendation based on my working style and what works for me.

I agree with the above - I suggested PictureWindow Pro back in April here --- http://www.dgrin.com/showpost.php?p=11096&postcount=3


Normen Koren uses PW Pro and speaks very highly of it.