elements 9 or Photoplus X4

[Nb74]

HI all,

I am looking to buy editing software, i use LR3 for all my photos, but I need some thing else to do basic touch up work, like smart clone etc. I do not want to spend hundreds which is why I have narrowed it down to these two, Elements I am familiar with but I know nothing of Photoplus X4, does anyone use this, if so what are your thoughts on it?

[GeoffWessex]

I definitely feel it's a wise choice to not pay hundreds for CS5..... I think both Elements and Photoplus will do a good job for you. Even the fact that you use Lightroom doesn't have a bearing on your choice, as you can choose which program to open files in from LR.

As to which is better...... I would have said Elements (having used different versions for about eight years now) but I think it's neck and neck between them. Elements has a couple of advantages - it's very like full Photoshop and can benefit from many of the same Actions and Plug-Ins; there are more books, magazines and web tutorials for Elements (and many of those based on CS can be used).

Photoplus has less going for it in the way of tutorials and books etc but it generally follows the same editing techniques, with layers and masks. It can also use the same plug-ins (but not Actions) and I think it's cheaper (69 pounds). It can do editing of 16-bit files (Elements, in the main, cannot). The Serif website has many free templates.

I don't think you can go wrong with either of them.

[Dagwood]

I'd endorse everything Geoff says but you might like to see if you can get a trial download of Photoplus X4. Having done so myself, about a week or so later, I got an e-mail offering me a massive discount on the original price which I think was then £72. Not 100% sure but I think it was about £46 I paid. Could be worth trying,
Good luck!
Dagwood

[GeoffWessex]

That's one thing about Serif - buy one item and the next version (not just an upgrade) is often offered at ridiculously low prices and, once you register, all their other programs - PagePlus, DrawPlus, WebPlus and MoviePlus - will be offered very cheaply. PagePlus is a very good DTP program - it was based on the (now defunct?) Pagemaker, but WebPlus has a few oddities and doesn't create 'normal' html pages (on the other hand, it's great value and only Dreamweaver comes close).

[Nb74]

Thanks for your replies, I have downloaded a trial of photoplus to see how I get on with it, as I only need the software to tidy the odd image that I cannot do in LR3 I may just let the price decide for me.
I will see how it goes.

[andrew720]

Since Serif have just released x5 version of Photoplus, they have been offering me x4 for £9.99 on offer.