Elements or Photoshop?? That is the question...

[guymetcalf]

Hello fellow life-experience recordists,

I am at a stage where I am debating whether to upgrade to to Elements or Photoshop.
I am inbetween an amateur and full-time photographer, and certainly dabble with editing. But I am wondering through everyones experiences, 1) what is going to be more beneficial, Elements vs Photoshop, (and yes I am aware that Photoshop does absolutely everything including washing my undies), but more so what aspects that are very useful does Photoshop do that Elements cant, and 2) I use both Pc and Mac, but what is the best format to do editing with? Generally screens are superior on the iMac, but any thoughts?

Many thanks for your time and thoughts on this.

Guy Metcalf

[jet_kit]

Hi Guy,
This question crops up with great rapidity on the forum, and there's no real answer.
You can pick up Elements for very little money (when you consider how powerful it is) but there are a few bits that CS5 does that Elements doesn't.
Having said that, most things can be done in different ways and you can probably replicate everything in Elements if you're prepared to put the effort in.
Now comes the question, should you jump now? I would say no. CS6 is out in Beta and has some pretty awesome tricks. By my guess it'll be on the market later this Summer with a gigantic price tag. This will be closely followed by Elements 11, which will have lots of stuff from CS5.
My suggestion would be grab a copy of Elements 11 (when it comes out). Once you register it with Adobe you'll be inundated with 'Special Offers' to upgrade to CS6 which will probably be a better deal that buying CS6 outright. Whether you take up these offers will depend on how you're progressing with Elements which you may find is quite adequate for your needs.
Many professionals are perfectly satisfied with Elements for the work they do.

[donoreo]

Odds are you will only need Elements, most people do not need the full blown version.

You can download trials of both from Adobe and try them out.

Just to confuse you more, take a look at Lightroom as well. They have a trial for that as well.

[wave01]

heres my take you should have a work flow. so i take my shots in RAW i use apples aperture 3 to process the RAW files and then onto elements 9 for all the rest. other people will use lightroom and photoshop. what i would do is down load the 30 day trails and try them see what suits you

[StephenBatey]

I only use about half a dozen features in Photoshop. One of them isn't in Elements, and it's essential for me.

It's your decision.

[GeoffWessex]

Originally Posted by StephenBatey

I only use about half a dozen features in Photoshop. One of them isn't in Elements, and it's essential for me.

It's your decision.

Which is the important feature that's in Photoshop but not Elements?

[donoreo]

I was going to ask that as well!

[beatnik69]

Originally Posted by wave01

heres my take you should have a work flow. so i take my shots in RAW i use apples aperture 3 to process the RAW files and then onto elements 9 for all the rest. other people will use lightroom and photoshop. what i would do is down load the 30 day trails and try them see what suits you

Wave, I'm pretty unorganised when it comes to workflow. What processing do you do to the raw files other than checking white ablance, exposure and recovery? I would sometimes adjust brightness contrast, saturation etc but these can all be done in Elements.

[StephenBatey]

Originally Posted by GeoffWessex

Which is the important feature that's in Photoshop but not Elements?

Unless it's been added in the latest version of Elements, it's the full blown curves function. I find that I need to make rather subtle use of curves.

My total PS repertoire is levels, curves, crop, clone tool, unsharp mask, history brush (rare), lasso tool. On rare occasions I will flip an image, and on even rarer ones rotate slightly. Using a large format camera on a tripod with a spirit level means I do quite often get thrings straigh at the outset. I think that that's complete. But note that I am a black and white film photographer who scans his 5x4 negatives, not a digital camera user who makes use of colour. I can see the value of layers and masks, but have yet to actually need/use them. I have tried the healing brush, but the clone stamp is superior for my work.

[GeoffWessex]

Originally Posted by StephenBatey

Unless it's been added in the latest version of Elements, it's the full blown curves function. I find that I need to make rather subtle use of curves.

My total PS repertoire is levels, curves, crop, clone tool, unsharp mask, history brush (rare), lasso tool. On rare occasions I will flip an image, and on even rarer ones rotate slightly. Using a large format camera on a tripod with a spirit level means I do quite often get thrings straigh at the outset. I think that that's complete. But note that I am a black and white film photographer who scans his 5x4 negatives, not a digital camera user who makes use of colour. I can see the value of layers and masks, but have yet to actually need/use them. I have tried the healing brush, but the clone stamp is superior for my work.

Oh, well if that's all, you can get free Curves Actions for Elements (and lots of other Actions as well). I've been using one on my PSE 6 for about five years. It's exactly the same as the Photoshop one........... check here. This isn't the one I've been using but it looks just as good. You can also get 'Channels' Actions and many others......... check out "Elements+" it's a whole suite of Actions - there's a free trial and that's probably got as much as you need.