Photoshop or Photoshop Elements - Which is better? (Page 2): My understanding is that the two Elements products are developed by an entirely different team than the CS products. Look...

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

My understanding is that the two Elements products are developed by an entirely different team than the CS products. Look at the credits when they open and I think you'll see the the Elements products come from India.

Further, the CS development team aims their products at people who make a living with them. The Elements team aims at people that have fun with photography and video.

Both products will appear to have similar features and functions, but my bet is that there is no sharing of actual code. The CS team is not likely to send their work to India for striping down into a cheap version. More likely is that the folks in India may see a tool or technique in the Pro version and be allowed or encouraged to mimic it in Elements.

Bill

Jersey guy Loc: New Joisey

Ha! Technological advances have made life miserable!! I just acquired a Canon T4i (body) and am awaiting a particular lens for it. In the meantime, I am trying to work my way through a 370 page Inst. Man. (all in English...no other languages). I will die before I ever get to try all the features of this "amateur" camera. What the heck do Professionals do with their over-featured blunderbuses?

And then there's my new Smart Phone, followed by my new Computer. Oi Vey!

Jersey guy Loc: New Joisey

Ha! Technological advances have made life miserable!! I just acquired a Canon T4i (body) and am awaiting a particular lens for it. In the meantime, I am trying to work my way through a 370 page Inst. Man. (all in English...no other languages). I will die before I ever get to try all the features of this "amateur" camera. What the heck do Professionals do with their over-featured blunderbuses?

And then there's my new Smart Phone, followed by my new Computer. Oi Vey!

planepics Loc: St. Louis burbs, but originally Chicago burbs

-lois- wrote:

Elements, I believe, is more than a stripped down ... (show quote)

I've heard of the same thing about bells and whistles. One of the guys in my camera club used to be a professional graphics artist and put on a presentation of what a program like PS could do (i don't remember if it actually was PS or not, though). He said that every once in a while, one of the guys he worked with in the studio would come up to the others and tell them about this new discovery, whether it was just a faster way of doing a set of procedures or a completely "new" feature. Another club member, a retired catalog photographer gave me his no-longer-used copy of PS 7. I haven't really started to play with it yet. Still trying to decide which book to buy to explain all the stuff in it to me. I have been using Picasa (still do, actually)

susie-q-tip Loc: Mississippi/Texas

Thanks for all the input. In fact I just retired after 17 years of working in the nursing department at Mississippi University for Women (MUW) in Columbus, MS. I took advantage of free computer classes for employees several times including web classes. However, all they use in classes are PCs, never Macs. Technology changes so fast in this area that by the time you finish a class they've moved on to something new.

susie-q-tip Loc: Mississippi/Texas

bsprague wrote:

My understanding is that the two Elements products... (show quote)

Bill,

I did as you said and looked at the credits for PSE 4. After a very long list of names it ended with following sentence.

"And a special thanks to 'my name inserted here', a very special customer."

I thought that was a nice touch.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

susie-q-tip wrote:

I have an older Mac with Photoshop Elements 4 that I have been learning on for 2-3 years. I'm thinking of upgrading to a new computer this fall and was wondering what the difference is between Photoshop and Photoshop Elements. A new Mac should be able to use either. Is there anyone out there who can explain the difference to me?

I have both CS5 and PSE9. I couldn't begin to tell you all of the differences but I can tell you the ones that I noticed right away. I'll list the features that you can do in CS that you can NOT do in PSE that mattered to me.

Work in ProPhotoRGB color space
16 bit editing
more filters
way more adjustment layers including curves
(which is way better than color curves in PSE)
actions
channels
way better Camera Raw Editor
- to name a few.

RMM Loc: Suburban New York

A lot depends on how serious you are. PSE has the reputation of having 80 percent of Photoshop's features for 20 percent of the cost. As someone noted, PSE is more oriented towards consumers, amateurs.

I doubt that you'll find a pro using PSE. I've been using Photoshop (currently CS5) for well over 20 years. I'm still learning new features. The learning curve is steep, but you can do ANYTHING with it.

john vance Loc: Granbury,Texas

Corel does everything Elements does and to me easier
The one thing I like best on elements are printing options
every other program have set sizes with Elements I can adjust as needed

susie-q-tip Loc: Mississippi/Texas

I really appreciate everyone's input. Since I'm just an amateur hobby photographer, I guess I'll stick with PSE. It will probably do far more than I'll ever be able to master.

GideanT Loc: Woodstock, Georgia

I don't know if anyone mentioned this, but Adobe Lightroom is another alternative that falls somewhere between the other two. Price is good now on version 4, and there are some good tutorials out there (youtube). It's a photoshop version made specifically for photographers. And, if you're still not sure, Adobe usually gives you a trial period to test drive their products. Have fun with whatever you end up with!

-lois- Loc: Oregon

planepics wrote:

quote=-lois- Elements, I believe, is more than a ... (show quote)

The NICE thing is you can go to half dot com and get instruction books for old versions pretty reasonably (new...they are very high priced!) I suggest anything from Scott kelby and the photoshop bible (which is about 4 inches thick). Anything NAPP puts out is good. PS is a huge program...as a graphic artist I use it all the time. as a photographer I use it on every shot for something...and I will stick with it.

Photo One Loc: Clearwater Florida

I use PS Elements 10. You should be able to buy it for much less now that PSE 11 will be coming soon. I have a feeling that PSE 10 is what you will want. PS has a lot to offer, however you will be spending a lot more $$$$$$ for it.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

I saw PSE10 at Fry's for $49 on Sunday.

Festina Lente Loc: Florida & Missouri

I saw a full new version of Lightroom 4 (with 10x more features) on Amazon for $124.91 today.
And for just $76 if you are upgrading. I'm just sayin'.