don26812 Loc: South Bay of Los Angeles, CA

So far, everyone is discussing the Photo Editor in PSE. It also has an Organizer that that can do the same thing that Lightroom CC can when it comes to managing your photos/videos. And it does it with a simpler and easier to lean user interface.

I have used PSE since day 1. My current Catalog has about 70k photos/videos. I also have PS CC and Lightroom CC. I only use PS CC when I cannot do what I want with PSE, which is not that often for the type of photographer I am, which is not an expert.

To give PSE even more power, there is a plug-in called Elements++ that really adds a lot of features that are buried under the hood of PSE. PSE is like burying a Chevrolet. In the old days what was inside the body and under the hood was the same as the Cadillac.

So, I would buy it. And I would definitely use its Organizer.

BTW I recently converted my entire PSE Catalog to Lightroom, as a learning exercise. Internally the two programs are similar, being database managers. Still learning the details of LR CC.

FWIW

strawberry36 Loc: San Jose, CA

PE does support plug-ins, although I can't guarantee EVERY plug-in. Mine have worked well so far.
Bob

gvarner Loc: Central Oregon Coast

I’m with you on the Organizer with about the same amount of photos. I scanned all my old slides and lots of prints and quickly discovered the advantage of assigning date taken instead of date scanned to each photo. Puts the family heirloom photos in proper order.

rcarol

I have found that working in 8-bit often produces images with banding in the sky. Thus, I prefer to use 16-bit which alleviates the problem.

Bob Mevis Loc: Plymouth, Indiana

Thanks to all who responded.
I'm sure I'll have more questions as I explore RAW.
BOB

papakatz45 Loc: South Florida-West Palm Beach

Not much from what I can tell from a practical standpoint.

papakatz45 Loc: South Florida-West Palm Beach

Also OnOne.

coolhanduke Loc: Redondo Beach, CA

Bob,
Don't know about the plug-ins but you might look into a subscription to Kelby One on-line courses. Very intuitive and rather than referencing a book you can check on-line.

Don't know how many courses they have on Elements so you may go to the site and check it out. Also, they occasionally have specials on their subscription price.

Good luck!

jamesl Loc: Pennsylvania

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Yes it does support the plugins. I would recommend that you take a look at the "ElementsPlus" add on too. "ElementsPlus" is only $12 and it adds back in a lot of the Photoshop things that are missing in "Elements". You can see and read about the add on here http://elementsplus.net/

RichinSeattle

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

Would someone please post the same image processed in both 8 bit and 16 bit? Please be sure to do it so I can download the files for comparison. Thanks in advance.

don26812 Loc: South Bay of Los Angeles, CA

That's the plug-in I mistakenly called Elements++. :-)

Ysarex Loc: St. Louis

Here's an example where the difference between 8 and 16 bit is negligible. I took a raw file that was well exposed and from a scene that was reasonably well lit. I used Photoshop. I opened the raw file in ACR, set the WB, clicked auto and moved the file as 8 bit to PS. I re-opened the raw file and only changed the bit depth and sent a 16 bit file to PS.

Both files then received the exact same processing which was nothing too extreme. Don't push it and 8 bit is going to be OK. Both then saved as Max value JPEGs and here they are in Dropbox:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/a4rrdu32eogkyz9/8bit.jpg?dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/s/vt6wegot46uqb4z/16bit.jpg?dl=0

And if you want to examine the raw file:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/o69g27d7ye758ka/DSCF5233.RAF?dl=0

I have to run to the grocery store -- when I get back I'll see about finding you an example where the difference is more noticeable.

Joe

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

Do an online search and you'll find many Elements plug-ins. Just be a little careful that it's not an old one that's not compatible with a newer version of Elements.

Enjoy!

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

EDIT:



That might have been the case with five year old and older versions of Elements.... But it's not true with Elements 2019.

First, 8 bit is the correct color depth for most common uses of images. It's what you want for most printing processes, including a photo quality inkjet you might use at home. In fact, some printers require it. It's also what you should use for any online display or sharing of images.

16 bit color is useful during post-processing.... That's simply because it's better to have the palette with all those additional colors and tonalities while making adjustments and tweaks to your images. 8 bit color has 17 million distinct colors and tonalities. That's actually more than the human eye can distinguish and it sounds like an awful lot.... until you consider that 16 bit has 281 trillion distinct colors and tones!

When you set your camera to save JPEGs, they're 8 bit. When you save RAW, they're either 14 bit or 12 bit, but the RAW conversion software you use will interpolate them as 16 bit. This includes Elements, which at it's core uses the same Adobe Camera Raw images processing engine as Lightroom and Photoshop use. It's somewhat simplified in Elements, but very similar to Bridge in Photoshop. Older cameras made 12 bit RAW files, while most newer ones produce 14 bit (a few make full 16 bit, but mostly just medium format). Many Nikon models offer a choice of saving either 12 bit or 14 bit. I'd recommend the latter, unless you have a shortage of memory card storage space (but add'l memory cards aren't expensive, so there's little excuse for a shortage).

When you work with a RAW file in Elements, it's 16 bit. In fact, I think recent versions of Elements are able to save 16 bit TIFFs. I don't think it can save PSDs. And I believe some filters or feature might not be available in 16 bit mode. More info about 8 bit versus 16 bit color can be found here: https://www.photoshopessentials.com/essentials/16-bit/

Another limitation of Elements involves layers. It used to be that you needed Photoshop to use the powerful layers and masks tools to make selective adjustments to images. But now you can also do it in Elements. However, you can't save a file with layers from Elements (you can save a PSD file with unflattened layers in Photoshop... Lightroom doesn't allow you to work with layers at all). Basically this just means you have to complete any layers & masks work that you're doing in Elements, before saving and closing the file. With Photoshop you can save it unflattened, then reopen and do more work on it later.

But, perhaps more importantly, in Elements you can only work with layers in 8 bit mode. Not in 16 bit mode (which you can in Photoshop). This generally isn't a problem. Just do global work first in 16 bit, then do the selective work with layers and masks later in your post-processing work flow.

If you use Elements to open a 16 bit file that was left with unflattened layers, before you can do any further work on the file Elements will give you choice of either flattening the layers or converting the file to 8 bit. HOWEVER, since you can't save an unflattened file from Elements, it won't be a file that you created. It must have come from another source to be both 16 bit and have unflattened layers. This is not a situation most amateur photographers will encounter very often. It's more common for commercial work.

When you have completed work on your image, you'll usually want to convert it to 8 bit and save it as a JPEG. That will be correct for most non-commercial uses.