Photoshop

[eric s]

At the time I made the decision (when Elements was on version 2) the decision was much easier.

CS was much more powerful. It had curves, adjustment layers had been expanded, it had a RAW converter (well, it gained a RAW converter) and more I'm not thinking of.

But the big reason I got CS was that the majority of instruction I found on the web was for the full version of photoshop and not Elements. So when I was told how to do something the menu names were different and in different locations. It was confusing and annoying.

I still don't use even a medium portion of CS2 (I upgraded) but I'm happy I got it. It's over priced (IMO) but it's also feature rich. I wish they'd split it into multiple products and sell plugins or something to add functionality.

Their solution has been to improve Elements. With the greatly enhanced features in Elements 4, maybe I'd be happy with Elements... I don't know. But for me, there is no going back.

Eric

[VTphotog]

ZP wrote:

What do you use for editing and printing your pictures.

If all you want is something to crop, adjust exposure, and do minor touchups. then PS Elements, Paint Shop Pro, or Photoimpact will have more than einough features to satisfy you. For that matter, Google's Picasa, and other programs,can do these functions for free.

Full version of Photoshop was designed for graphics professionals. It has a long, slow learning curve, and is more than most of us need. I have been a Photoimpact user for quite some time, and have yet to need all of its capabilities. PSP and PI have free trials, and I think PSE does also, so you could download and try each one out before you buy, to see which suits you best.

brian