Photoshop vs. Photoshop Elements

I am at best an "advanced beginner" in photography. I ma already using Lightroom 5 for my post-processing. Is there any benefit to my getting Photoshop as well? If so, do I need "full blown" Photoshop or is Photoshop Elements enough? What are the main differences (other than $550) between the two? Are there other software alternatives?

for the main differnce between pse and photoshop CS6 see http://forums.adobe.co​m/message/4568487#4568​487
it takes time to get good grip on any post processing software (at least one year) whether it is CS6 or pse or anyother software
so if you go for pse you still can do a lot once you get good grip of the postprocessing then switching to CS4 or cs5 or cs6 will be
straightforward. but you can start with cs6 as well straight away.

how big difference is depends on your postprocessing skills. when postprocessing skills are elementry you will wonder why is huge
price difference between the two .once your postprocessing skill improve you will know why cs6 cost $550. if you are serius in
photography go for either pse or cs5 or 6 . there are thousands of free tutorials on the web for pse and cs6. but only few for any
other software this is one huge benefit of using pse or cs5 or cs6 over other brand.

Depends on your needs of course. What is it that LR is not doing for you? I'd guess by your post that Elements would suit you just fine. Download the trial version and check it out.

Thanks for you input Dennis. I haven't really had a huge need to do anything to my pictures that Lightroom doesn't already do for me. I do know that Photoshop does things like allowing you to pull things from one pic into another and combine pictures for a better end result. I assume that those basic features will be available in Elements without having to go to Photoshop

D Thompson wrote in post #16415876
Depends on your needs of course. What is it that LR is not doing for you? I'd guess by your post that Elements would suit you just fine. Download the trial version and check it out.

I agree. I'm still using PS7 along with a RAW converter & it does everything I need. Any program that has Layers, Adjustment Layers, & Blend Modes should keep you busy & happy for a long time.

PSE now pretty much has all the things that a photographer would need. They have finally fully implemented layers, 16 bit support is not great and the version of ACR included is very crippled compared to the full version. As you already have LR then you have the full functionality of ACR within that. The Elements version of ACR will still render images to Elements with full functionality so not a problem there. Also if you do all of the necessary colour correction within LR then you are not so limited by the lack of 16 bit support in Elements either. You used to need to use a pixel editor like Elements more with older versions of LR as the cloning tools were really basic, only allowing you to do circular spots of various size. The new tool in LR5 is apparently much better so even less need for a pixel editor. If I were purchasing now, already had LR5 then the latest version of Elements would be how I would spend my money.

Alan

Thanks Alan! That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Looks like I'm getting PSE

Lightroom is great, since I have it, I almost never touch photoshop.

Gimp is free and very good, there's some bugs now and then, but it does everything you need as a photographer.
PSE basically does the same things as Gimp, but it looks nicer and more professional.
PS is the real deal if you want to do crazy photo-manipulations, it has loads of advanced stuff like adjustment layers, that you probably won't use as a hobby photographer.

dhwachs wrote in post #16416034
Thanks Alan! That's exactly the kind of information I was looking for. Looks like I'm getting PSE

I would have to agree with Big Al. PSE is a solid package now for the photographer and it seems a tad easier to learn. I have tried a few times to spend time with PS and have gotten frustrated. My workflow is LR5 and for some "artistic" work at times PSE12.

Back before Lightroom came out, going from Elements to the "full" version of Photoshop was to me a no-brainer. But once Lightroom came out and was "stabilized", I found less and less of a want/need to do stuff in Photoshop, and newer versions of Lightroom have significantly brought great new improvements.

Today, if I had to choose, I'd go with Elements! And, as has been said, there are plenty of online resources to help you get underway!