Version 4.0 vs 3.0

Joseph,

I recently upgraded from 3 to 4. While I still keep version 2 on my machine because it is the fastest of the three, 4 has been improved to the point that I think I’m ready to leave 2.0 behind.

LIKES:

– Seems to load a little faster than 3.

– Love the new magic extractor for selecting objects, such as people (though it’s not as foolproof as the Adobe marketing makes it seem, unless the background is highly contrasted).

– "Snappy" mouse dragging fixed. In 3.0, when dragging the mouse, the entire image would scroll quickly off the screen when the mouse got somewhat near the edge. In my opinion it scrolled too early and too fast–it was extremely annoying to me. This problem is gone in 4.

– One thing I looked forward to in 3.0 is that I could open Canon raw files (CRW) directly. In 3, the conversion was very disappointing to me because of excessive noise in dark colors and the image being too dark. I could never adjust the PSE conversion settings to make it look as good as the CRW->TIFF conversion in IMatch was able to do without any manual intervention. Because of this, I never opened CRW’s in PSE 3. My initial impression is that PSE 4 does a much better job, though I have not done a detailed comparison yet.

– I’ve always taken care of my own photo downloads from my camera and found it rude when the PSE 3 downloader butted in without asking. The PSE 4 downloader still does this by default, but it is easier to turn off in the Preferences.

STILL BUGS ME:

– I like the combined editor and organizer for those who use PSE as their main photo software, and I even recommend it for that purpose. BUT, I have been using IMatch for years to manage my photo and have no interest in Organizer for myself. I find it extremely frustrating that it cannot be turned off. There are certain menu commands in the Editor that if I click it, it brings up Organizer (such as File > Print Multiple Photos). Until I learn which functions do this, it is very frustrating (especially if the click was accidental) as I watch the slow progress of the Organizer workspace loading. In addition, when I save a file in the Editor, the checkbox to add it to the Organizer is selected by default. I can deselect for each save, but have not found a global setting so I can tell it not to do that. In summary, integration of the two products is great, but there should be a way to disable one or the other.

– I guess that is the only remaining thing that bugs me–a definite improvement from 3.0.

Charlie

http://FlyingSamPhoto.com
Got digital photos? Show them off!

Joseph,

One more thing I like in PSE 4 is that File > Place supports all image types now. This makes it much simpler to place multiple images into a file.

To see the difference in steps, take a look at this article I wrote. I have the steps for each version of PSE listed:

http://flyingsamphoto.com/digital-photo-guide-art-filmstrip. shtml

Charlie

Charles Kerekes wrote:

Joseph,

I recently upgraded from 3 to 4. While I still keep version 2 on my machine because it is the fastest of the three, 4 has been improved to the point that I think I’m ready to leave 2.0 behind.

LIKES:

– Seems to load a little faster than 3.

It almost has to be faster.

– Love the new magic extractor for selecting objects, such as people (though it’s not as foolproof as the Adobe marketing makes it seem, unless the background is highly contrasted).

I saw that, I was wondering how much of it was hype. Good to know what it is useful.

– "Snappy" mouse dragging fixed. In 3.0, when dragging the mouse, the entire image would scroll quickly off the screen when the mouse got somewhat near the edge. In my opinion it scrolled too early and too fast–it was extremely annoying to me. This problem is gone in 4.

I hated that. I have seen it in some other programs as well, but it was the biggest problem in Elements.

– One thing I looked forward to in 3.0 is that I could open Canon raw files (CRW) directly. In 3, the conversion was very disappointing to me because of excessive noise in dark colors and the image being too dark. I could never adjust the PSE conversion settings to make it look as good as the CRW->TIFF conversion in IMatch was able to do without any manual intervention. Because of this, I never opened CRW’s in PSE 3. My initial impression is that PSE 4 does a much better job, though I have not done a detailed comparison yet.

Glad to hear that since I am a Cannon user.

– I’ve always taken care of my own photo downloads from my camera and found it rude when the PSE 3 downloader butted in without asking. The PSE 4 downloader still does this by default, but it is easier to turn off in the Preferences.

STILL BUGS ME:

– I like the combined editor and organizer for those who use PSE as their main photo software, and I even recommend it for that purpose. BUT, I have been using IMatch for years to manage my photo and have no interest in Organizer for myself. I find it extremely frustrating that it cannot be turned off. There are certain menu commands in the Editor that if I click it, it brings up Organizer (such as File > Print Multiple Photos). Until I learn which functions do this, it is very frustrating (especially if the click was accidental) as I watch the slow progress of the Organizer workspace loading. In addition, when I save a file in the Editor, the checkbox to add it to the Organizer is selected by default. I can deselect for each save, but have not found a global setting so I can tell it not to do that. In summary, integration of the two products is great, but there should be a way to disable one or the other.

– I guess that is the only remaining thing that bugs me–a definite improvement from 3.0.

Charlie

http://FlyingSamPhoto.com
Got digital photos? Show them off!

Thanks.

—
Joseph Meehan

Dia duit