Photoshop CS vs. Photoshop 6 or 7

[J. Cobble]

could someone explain what Photoshop CS is and how it differs from 6 or 7 and ........... which is better or more inclusive. I have 6 now. Do I need to spend more money?

[BobbyC]

I could go on forever about the differences. Just about every photo magazine has a review of CS in them right now.

My main likes about CS over 7 are:

The new Highlight / Shadow control, very nice.

Most (not all) of the standard editing options can now be performed in 16 bit mode.

A new Histogram palette lets you view the histogram at all times.

The browser and RAW file converter have been "updated", but I'm not real impressed with either.

Check the photo mags, there might be something else that blows your skirt up.

Cheers,
Bobby

[rickyd]

You will love the new CS photoshop!
HOWEVER!
If you have more than two computers to install it on you will hate coughing up another $170 to use it on additional computers. Both my wife and I shoot and work independantly on pictures so it got real expensive to go to CS. A poor PR move by Adobe in IMO.

[CoolToolGuy]

On the Windows side, there are also the operating system requirements to consider - you must be running Windows 2000 or XP. There are still some folks (like me) who are chugging along just fine on Windows ME (or maybe 98 ). But PS CS will not run there. :shock:

Have Fun
Rick 8)

[Mark Kemp]

Also CS uses online registration unlike 7 so it will not be possible to 'share' a friends copy and people will actually have to pay for it.

As a long time Paint Shop Pro user I will be interested to see how many people are actually prepared to pay full price for CS.

[martcol]

Photoshop is an absolute beast and CS seems to have a lot to commend it except... the price. And if you are upgrading from 6 to CS I doubt if even that will be cheap. I have thought about moving from PS 7 to CS but frankly, I can barely cope with 7 and it certainly meets all my needs! I think if you are doing high end production work you probably could do with it and would already have it. If like me your a serious, enthusiastic, obsessive, hobbyist then 6 or 7 will do. Spend your money on some camera trinkets instead!

Martin

In fact, in some ways I probably don't do much better with PS 7 than I ever did with Elements...

[J. Cobble]

good advice Martin

[kraterz]

Personally everything I need is available on PS7. I downloaded the trial verison of PS-CS and it runs at 30% the speed of PS-7 on my Pentium-III... horribly slow. I believe it is optimized for hyperthreading architectures and also does very well on PowerMac's. It absolutely sux on an older PC.

Also, this activation business is not something I like and even if PS-CS was 2x as fast as PS7 I wouldn't buy it. Sorry Adobe, but you shot yourself in the foot here. No money from me this time.

[Bubber Jones]

CS is nice. I jumped from PS 6 to CS. There's one thing that really bothers me. It's not the activation, I program for a living, so I see where there coming from.... It's just that it's so darn slow. It's not so bad now that I'm just doing my own work, but if I was still in the lab... It'd be a different story.

Over all it's great. I don't use a lot of it though. I mostly just correct pics for print, but that's all I've ever done with it...

If it could just teach me how to use the camera... I'd pay tons of money for it... :D

[cgratti]

Also CS uses online registration unlike 7 so it will not be possible to 'share' a friends copy and people will actually have to pay for it.



Dont say "it will not be possible"....

It can be done.....

TRUST ME.....

[PekkaM]

Dont say "it will not be possible"....

It can be done.....

TRUST ME.....

You know, the copy protection schemes are there only to make life difficult for legal users. The software pirates have so far found a way to circumvent every attempted protection.

Same goes to protected music "CD"'s.

[martcol]

From what I've read, PSCS does have some goodies up its sleeve including the DOF thingy, improved file browser and the exposure do-dah that helps recover shadow detail. These can all be achieved in PS 6, I guess (probably in Elements too) or PS 7 but take a bit of learning. They're not things I'd expect to use daily and the file browsing I do in Breezebrowser anyway. All in all, I'll wait until PSCS is the freebie disc with my new Canon 1Ds Extreme, Large Format Beast and we all do major photo editing on our wrist-watches (I just made the last bit up) :roll:

Martin

As for the 16 bit editing - I can make do until I learn colour management and get a kick-ass printer and monitor.

[Mark Kemp]

I didn't mean outright piracy would be impossible.

But anyone who really wants Photoshop now has to confront the actual act of piracy or the price.

There is a much smaller window for the 'grey' copies that are around the amateur community and justified by all sorts of excuses for not paying.

It now takes much more effort to get a 'free' copy and you have fewer excuses.

I am just curious to see how people will react.

Will PS7 become the normal tool for amateurs?

Will Elements be considered the next best thing?

Will Paint Shop Pro become more popular?

Or maybe one of the other editors?

Will a lot more people pay full price for CS?

Will people be prepared to obtain pirate copies of CS?

Personally I don't care - I prefer Paint Shop Pro anyway and have always considered PS overrated.

I will be watching future trends - just to see what happens :wink:

[w10d]

[quote="Mark Kemp" Personally I don't care - I prefer Paint Shop Pro anyway and have always considered PS overrated.

I will be watching future trends - just to see what happens :wink:[/quote]

I've always thought the biggest price you pay with PS is not money but time. It takes a big investment in time to get the full potential from PS. Compared to the price of a bunch of 'one trick' plug-ins PS is amazing value - I'm still finding things I can do after working with it for over 10 years.

Curious why you call it overrated?

[ashforth]

I just updated from PS 7 to CS and like the newer version. Anything that makes life easier and saves time is good! The shadow/highlight adjustment is quite an improvement. I've been digitizing hundreds of old slides and some were taken in bright sunlight and were considered "throw aways". With CD, I was amazed at how many of those slides were salvageable. The improved browser also lets you adjust the size of the thumbnail so it's actually useful.

I got my upgrade copy about two weeks ago for $30 off from Staples. Check fatwallet.com for rebates. Besides the $30 discount, they shipped free and delivered two days earlier than their promised delivery date.

Herb

[Mark Kemp]

Why do I think PS is overrated?

1) There is a perception that PS is 'pro' and no other program is worthy to lick the mud from its boots - see previous similar topics if you don't believe me.

2) It doesn't really actually do much that Paint Shop Pro and Photoimpact and all the others don't. Especially not anything useful to photographers.

3) The interface is hard to learn - Paint Shop Pro and suchlike seem to have more in common with general software like 'Word' and suchlike.

4) It makes a big deal out of a lot of things that don't need to be - i.e ppi and dpi and all that stuff. Have you seen how much confusion there is in the world over all that pipi dipi nonsense - mostly because of PS.

I can go on, but I am already in danger of being branded a heretic and burned at the stake for straying from the true faith.

I expect that there will now be many many replies pointing out the obvious stupidity of my position as clearly anything that costs 5 times the price must be better. (Especially if you are the one who just paid all that money!)

[evilenglishman]

Why do I think PS is overrated?

1) There is a perception that PS is 'pro' and no other program is worthy to lick the mud from its boots - see previous similar topics if you don't believe me.

2) It doesn't really actually do much that Paint Shop Pro and Photoimpact and all the others don't. Especially not anything useful to photographers.

3) The interface is hard to learn - Paint Shop Pro and suchlike seem to have more in common with general software like 'Word' and suchlike.

4) It makes a big deal out of a lot of things that don't need to be - i.e ppi and dpi and all that stuff. Have you seen how much confusion there is in the world over all that pipi dipi nonsense - mostly because of PS.

I can go on, but I am already in danger of being branded a heretic and burned at the stake for straying from the true faith.

I expect that there will now be many many replies pointing out the obvious stupidity of my position as clearly anything that costs 5 times the price must be better. (Especially if you are the one who just paid all that money!)


1. That is because it is true. Photoshop is industry standard and used by professionals. I don't know many (if any) pro designers, studios, agencies that use paint shop pro.

2. I think you are VERY much mistaken there.

3. I don't see how the interface is hard to learn? In fact the ui is quite simple for such a complex program.

4. How does a piece of software make a "big deal" out of anything???
The big deal over dpi has NOTHING to do with photoshop it is all about printing resolution/screen resolution etc - this was and is a big deal even if photoshop didn't exist :roll: :roll: :roll:

No one is going to brand you a heretic - just VERY misinformed about a lot of things.

[Belmondo]

Photoshop IS the de facto standard for image editing software. End of that discussion. If the lesser known (and lesser priced) programs did the same things and did them as well, that wouldn't be the case.

Professionals rely on their tools, and Photoshop is a tool, nothing more. If there was something better, or something as good for less money, it would quickly be adopted by professionals, and this conversation would be a lot more interesting. :!: :!: :!:

[iwatkins]

Mark,

I'm collecting the firewood as I speak. Burn him I say. :twisted:

Seriously, there are good points there. Much of the stuff you use everyday in PS (which ever version) you *can* find is Paintshop Pro etc.

I think it is the 5% of stuff you do in PS, that isn't available in Paintshop Pro that is important. RAW handling, Colour Management, 16-bit processing, prepress work etc.

For an amateur photographer, it is an easy call, Elements/PaintShop Pro etc. Perfect for JPEGs out of P&S digital cameras.

For the Professional working day in day out, dealing with prepress issues, combined with vector graphics work, again, easy call, Photoshop CS all the way.

It is for the serious enthusiast (i.e. most of us on this forum) that the call becomes a lot tougher.

Only thing you can do is list the things you want out of your package. Then compare against those features in each available package. Then go and buy that package, learn its ins and outs as much as time allows and extract the maximum benefit from it.

Cheers

Ian (PS CS user and very happy with the investment, but still use PSP8 on an almost daily basis as well)

[toglenn]

As far as I’m concerned, CS is on the same old band wagon…”New has to be Better!” and I don’t think that is true and especially with CS.

I’ve been using Photoshop since Version 5 and have found that many hyped up upgrade features are just rehashes of established practices and that includes Highlight and Shadow Recovery. A simple action using highlighting, inverting and blending combined with skillful use of curves can accomplish the same thing. The only thing I see that shows improvement is Raw file conversion and I already use C1 and hopefully the new Canon conversion software, if and when it becomes available.

CS does offer two important draw backs, very slow speed and limited registration, and I don’t need either of those plus a hefty increase in the upgrade cost. The idea that Adobe continues to include web and graphic design in the Photoshop package is something that I don’t need and they just takes up extra space on my computer.

When they get around to offering something really useful like good noise reduction, intelligent image sharpening and a less greedy way of licensing I might be interested. In the meantime Version 7 may be the end of the line for me!

toglenn

[evilenglishman]

...and have found that many hyped up upgrade features are just rehashes of established practices and that includes Highlight and Shadow Recovery. A simple action using highlighting, inverting and blending combined with skillful use of curves can accomplish the same thing.


Yes, but you could say that about any plug-in, action, script etc on the market. The point is that it cuts out a lengthy, manual process that you wouldn't be able to preview etc.


When they get around to offering something really useful like good noise reduction, intelligent image sharpening and a less greedy way of licensing I might be interested. In the meantime Version 7 may be the end of the line for me!
toglenn

But surely you can already do those things manually :wink:
I also agree with you to a certain extent that there isn't enough extras/features etc to warrant such a price/upgrade.

Maybe Adobe should offer two the programs (PS/Imageready) seperately or at least give people the choice.

[toglenn]

evilenglishman,

There really is nothing lengthy about the process, and the only thing manual is just controlling the amount of blending and that is monitored by preview and that is the only way I would want it.

Actually when making your own actions, you have more control and can insert or improve other functions, but of course CS allows that as well. I would use Curves are done whether or not the action is used.

My point is CS offers little improvement over Version 7 and does not justify the expense.

Cheers,
toglenn