steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

I don't think! you could classify Adobe Elements, as quite Idiot friendly. As I know a few of those, and a can opener is too complicated for them.

I am what you call an Impatient Camper, when it goes past some very basic editing, I don't go there. If it is not pretty good out of the camera, poof! - it goes in that little can icon, on my desktop.

So Elements has features I will never use, much less master, but they are there if I should ever decide to. I would have no use for, much less spend the money on, anything! more complex.

photogrl57 Loc: Tennessee

It's those ones that are meant for the dumpster that are so much fun to try the effects out on ... afterall what have you got to lose ?

steve40 Loc: Asheville/Canton, NC, USA

Time; I am 71 and fast running out of that, so I need to use it sparingly. :)

Old Timer Loc: Greenfield, In.

At 76 it just takes little longer to soak in this old hard head.

DavidT Loc: Maryland

One interesting thing coming out of these discussions is the realization that Elements is a powerful program, but it is hard to learn all its components and how they can be applied. If you have its bigger brothers (i.e., CS5 and LR3), and have learned how to use them with relative proficiency, then you will be able to best make use of the simplified version in Elements. Does this make any sense?

Acruseiii

I do and have used the 'Adjustment Brush.' However, if my photograph requires local enhancements I do the efficient and effective thing, and that is to move it over into CS5.

MtnMan Loc: ID

My "the photoshop elements 10 book for digital photographers" by Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski arrived today...two days early. It is pretty much what I expected from Kelby based on his other great books: practical, clear, and something you can use right away. If you only used it you might indeed get the impression Elements is easy. Wish I had it when I started.

I strongly recommend it as a first Elements 10 book for anyone who hasn't used Elements before. I also recommend it as a text for anyone teaching Elements. The photos he uses are available on line to try exactly what he shows although he recommends trying the methods on your own photos.

That said it isn't the end all for exploiting the power of Elements. Kelby takes you step by step through doing certain things. It is great for doing those things. But those things are a small faction of what you can accomplish with Elements. And many of the ones he includes do not interest me and those or others may not interest you.

I also have to say that for many of the procedures he does go through I have trouble telling much difference between his before and after. He goes after more subtle things than I would notice.

So I also recommend Jeff Carlson's "Elements 10" book as a necessary complement. It gives you all the details on all the features and functions.

Someone asked how to get into Camera Raw with Elements...I think on this thread. I hate finding out how straightforward it is because it was something I was wondering also. You can open any kind of image in the Editor by using "Open as" (File menu) and selecting "Camera Raw" as the type to open. If you browse to a jpeg to open you are actually converting a jpeg back to a raw formatted file. Kind of cool. I ran across that in Kelby's book. I knew I had seen it in Carlson's but couldn't find it checking back.

photogrl57 Loc: Tennessee

I totally blew what I was trying to accomplish today by shooting in RAW .... I forgot I had the camera set that way for yesterday and then I started messing with the shutter speed and for the life of me I can't seem to get any of the photos I just took to look half way decent .... Maybe it was the setting of the sun I'm not sure. For someone who truly enjoys a good post processing session .... I suck at it today LOL.

Acruseiii

Adobe Camera Raw will edit Jpegs even though the main function is Raw conversion and editing. In CS5 or Elements just go to File then open and choose the Raw file and Elements or CS5 will open the Raw file in the ACR editor.

DavidT Loc: Maryland

One last word on this topic (at least from me)...lleach was asking why he should install Lightroom 3 when he already has Elements (i.e., Were there any compelling reasons for doing so when Elements seems to have almost the same capability as LR3?). I'll get back to this question later in this response.

As lleach states above, sometimes it seems the adjustments are so minor that one can hardly notice any difference. I agree, but those subtle adjustments are what often make the final image pop! When you make each adjustment, it can be difficult to see what the impact of the change is. Taken as a whole, these subtle changes have a dramatic effect. LR3 has a key stroke (backslash \) that compares the current image to the original. It's easy to see the effect of the changes. If you don't like the change, you can back step and try another one.

LR3 also keeps the original RAW file as is, but it lets you keep the "saved" keystrokes of the final image in the RAW file format. On the other hand (correct me if I'm wrong), Elements makes you save the final adjusted RAW file in a DNG format (or other format) and cannot save the changes you made in the RAW file format.

Old Timer Loc: Greenfield, In.

I use dpp that comes with Canon and it does the same thing. You can batch process or individually and change back to camera settings. If you want to change to jpeg or any other use save as or convert and save and you still have your original to work with later and you do not loose your info. I Find it easy after I under stood it. I also have Elements 8 but I am used to dpp. Just read the direction when ever thing else fails.

tainkc Loc: Kansas City

It is real simple Qeeny. Ya' messed up. I do it all the time.

photogrl57 Loc: Tennessee

Good to know I'm human huh .... just makes me pay more attention the next time.

BboH Loc: s of 2/21, Ellicott City, MD

I certainly agree -
What happened is that Photoshop caught the public eye faster than the Corel (originally Jasc) PaintShop did.
Thus more were sold faster and because of that it became the default editing program.

tomireland Loc: Louisville, Tennessee

WOW! From the mouth of babes! I absolutely agree with you. I joined this forum in December and thought it was absolutely an excellent resource for tips and technique. But lately, that's all I've seen is the sniping back and forth about trivia. Give it a rest or you're going to drive away a lot of us new members.