photoshop vs elements

In article <d458rt$rki$>, "rob" wrote:

Id like to snap up a copy of elements, mainly for manipulating photographs, and some really basic stuff.

Im curious to know what the differences are, for the amateur to intermediate user? Is elements powerful enough to enable one to do a vast range of things, or so cut down and powerless its not worth bothering about?
Im a casual user, and would prefer to buy an original.

Elements or Microsoft’s Picture It! would likely suit your needs just fine.

Elements or Microsoft’s Picture It! would likely suit your needs just fine.

I know. But from the advanced user (who is not one-track-minded "only the best will do") im keen on hearing an unbiased opinion with a little technical explanation…. just how powerful is the latest version of elements?

What is it suited to? What are its limitations? Can one spend a considerable amount of time learning its functions, and still have plenty of new things to learn, and features to use. Or is it quite limited even from the perspective of the advanced user 🙂

~Rob

I have both, an although I use PS there are some cool things about Elements that will surely suit the
casual user. Elements has a great selection of filters that have sample display to show you what they do.
Also, the magic wand seems to work better for some reason, but that could just be me.
Overall, Elements is just a dumbed down PS mad easier for novices. It comes bundled with a lot of different hardware (printers, scanners, etc. I think anyone’s best bet would be to get a copy of PS7 and use that. No doubt there are those here that can be more specific on the differences, and will be.

"rob" wrote in message

Id like to snap up a copy of elements, mainly for manipulating

photographs,

and some really basic stuff.

Im curious to know what the differences are, for the amateur to

intermediate

user? Is elements powerful enough to enable one to do a vast range of things, or so cut down and powerless its not worth bothering about?
Im a casual user, and would prefer to buy an original.

Rob Owen-Wahl
Designfish Studio Ltd
Web design London UK
www.DesignfishStudio.com

I am a professional photographer and besides using Photoshop CS in the studio, I also teach it. I have had several pros study with me and they only had Elements. They were all able to follow along with what I was showing them. A lot of features are similar. The most glaring difference is that elements does not have layer masks .. only adjustment masks. I would always recommend elements to amateurs and full photoshop to pro photographers and graphics pros.

Craig Flory

"Craig Flory" wrote in message

I am a professional photographer and besides using Photoshop CS in the studio, I also teach it. I have had several pros study with me and they

only

had Elements. They were all able to follow along with what I was showing them. A lot of features are similar. The most glaring difference is that elements does not have layer masks .. only adjustment masks. I would

always

recommend elements to amateurs and full photoshop to pro photographers and graphics pros.

Craig Flory

Or maybe even us rank amateurs that want to pretend to be pros.

I have never used Elements. Photoshop is not an easy program to learn quickly. If you only need simple tasks like resizing, fixing exposure, redeye, cropping, etc, My Roxio EZ-CD software has a really good edit program that has some nice filters, borders, photo story editor. it’s quite simple to use and I was surprised at how easy it was to use and how much it could do similar to PS.

"rob" wrote in message

Id like to snap up a copy of elements, mainly for manipulating photographs, and some really basic stuff.

Im curious to know what the differences are, for the amateur to intermediate user? Is elements powerful enough to enable one to do a vast range of things, or so cut down and powerless its not worth bothering about?

Im a casual user, and would prefer to buy an original.

Rob Owen-Wahl
Designfish Studio Ltd
Web design London UK
www.DesignfishStudio.com

I am a professional photographer and besides using Photoshop CS in the studio, I also teach it. I have had several pros study with me and they only
had Elements. They were all able to follow along with what I was showing them. A lot of features are similar. The most glaring difference is that elements does not have layer masks .. only adjustment masks. I would always
recommend elements to amateurs and full photoshop to pro photographers and graphics pros.

Cheers for the replys – its interesting reading though, if anyone has more comments Id love to hear them 🙂

—
Rob Owen-Wahl
Designfish Studio Ltd
Web design London UK
www.DesignfishStudio.com

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 16:16:44 +0000 (UTC), "rob" wrote:

I am a professional photographer and besides using Photoshop CS in the studio, I also teach it. I have had several pros study with me and they only
had Elements. They were all able to follow along with what I was showing them. A lot of features are similar. The most glaring difference is that elements does not have layer masks .. only adjustment masks. I would always
recommend elements to amateurs and full photoshop to pro photographers and graphics pros.

Cheers for the replys – its interesting reading though, if anyone has more comments Id love to hear them 🙂

It depends on how much you really want to do and why you want to do it. Professional printing is missing from Elements, but if you don’t need it you won’t miss. The one thing I would miss is curves, plus, from what I’ve been reading several features in CS2.

What it really comes down to are a few questions?:

Can you justify the expense?
Is it necessary for your particular needs?
Can you afford the time it takes to learn how to do things properly? (I.e. if all you want is something where you can use a lot of plug ins, you’re probably better off with Elements).

—

Hecate – The Real One

Fashion: Buying things you don’t need, with money
you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like…

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 22:34:00 +0100, Hecate wrote:

On Wed, 20 Apr 2005 16:16:44 +0000 (UTC), "rob" wrote:

I am a professional photographer and besides using Photoshop CS in the studio, I also teach it. I have had several pros study with me and they only
had Elements. They were all able to follow along with what I was showing them. A lot of features are similar. The most glaring difference is that elements does not have layer masks .. only adjustment masks. I would always
recommend elements to amateurs and full photoshop to pro photographers and graphics pros.

Cheers for the replys – its interesting reading though, if anyone has more comments Id love to hear them 🙂

It depends on how much you really want to do and why you want to do it. Professional printing is missing from Elements, but if you don’t need it you won’t miss. The one thing I would miss is curves, plus, from what I’ve been reading several features in CS2.

For under $30 you can get curves and a bunch more that brings Elements a lot closer to CS. Comes with the book Hidden Powers of Photoshop Elements.

What it really comes down to are a few questions?:

Can you justify the expense?
Is it necessary for your particular needs?
Can you afford the time it takes to learn how to do things properly? (I.e. if all you want is something where you can use a lot of plug ins, you’re probably better off with Elements).

—

Hecate – The Real One

Fashion: Buying things you don’t need, with money
you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like…

On Thu, 21 Apr 2005 02:24:49 -0400, Oliver Costich
wrote:

It depends on how much you really want to do and why you want to do it. Professional printing is missing from Elements, but if you don’t need it you won’t miss. The one thing I would miss is curves, plus, from what I’ve been reading several features in CS2.

For under $30 you can get curves and a bunch more that brings Elements a lot closer to CS. Comes with the book Hidden Powers of Photoshop Elements.

Still doesn’t really make it a sensible solution fro professional work.

—

Hecate – The Real One

Fashion: Buying things you don’t need, with money
you don’t have, to impress people you don’t like…