Is Photoshop CSx overkill?

I have Photoshop CS2 and find it similar to the average domestic DVD recorder (or dishwasher, for that matter) in that I only use a fraction of what it is capable of. So my question is - surely PS Elements 7 is enough for the average photographer? Especially in the view of the price and, with CSx, you are paying for a lot of stuff that you'll never use.

I'd be interested to know your thoughts.

CS3 (and I'm sure 4) is overkill for most people. It's a professional graphics program. It's not really aimed at casual photo editors at all. Having said that, it's the most powerful photo editing software you can buy. If you can get past the huge learning curve, it's an amazing tool. If you're happy with what elements can do for you though, there's no reason to upgrade.

It's not the learning curve I'm worried about. I know how to use most of what CS2 offers, but I just don't use most of it. I've never actually used Elements but, from what I've read, it offers everything even the keenest amateur photographer could want. When you consider the vast difference in price between the two programs, it would appear to me that Elements is the sensible option.

I don’t think that there is going to be a right or wrong answer,. It’s your call. If you’re not going to use the features and are comfortable with Elements feature set, then you can save a ton and just Elements.

I tend to agree with you Roy. I have never used elements to any extent but it seems to offer a good bit of what CS does. The main reason I upgraded to CS2 at home was that Adobe didn't support the 5D in ACR. On the other hand when I use CS3 at work I often think of another upgrade, some features are very useful. I'm a cheap bastard though and probably will not upgrade for a while.

I also agree that CS3 (which is what I am currently using) is far more capable than I am. However, it does allow me to open my 40D RAW files directly, without using DPP, which I couldn't get on with, or converting to DNG which is what I had to do with PS7.

That alone makes it worthwhile for me to use.

Opening RAW files is a good point but I forgot to mention that I also use Lightroom 2, which opens them fine. It seems that, with LR2, the full Photoshop package is even less necessary.

Excellent point Roy and spot on for photographers. CS3 is loaded with things photographers will never use. If I haven't been using photoshop for the last 10 years, Elements and Lightroom would be more than sufficient.

If you have never used CS, then Elements will do everything that you need. But if you have used CS for a little while, you will find that you use one thing that CS offers that Elements doesn't that you suddenly can't live without, even if you don't use the other 3,786,298,107 features that CS offers.

Sure it's overkill but nice to have. LR2 does everything for me, but I find myself editing things in CS3 every so often.

SolidxSnake wrote in post #6465941
Sure it's overkill but nice to have. LR2 does everything for me, but I find myself editing things in CS3 every so often.

But the point is, could you do it (the editing) just as well in Elements 7?

Doesn’t it really all come down to what you want in your tool box? Some people go through life and never have anything more than a screw driver and a small hammer in a kitchen drawer and they are perfectly happy. It does everything they ever need done. Others have entire rooms devoted to holding their tools (me) and though they are not used often, they are at times used. PS is like the room full of tools. They are not used often but they are nice to have when one gets the urge to do something more than just adjust the basic settings.

I only have CS3 thanks to a generous friend in the industry, and I only use a tiny fraction of what I'm sure it's capable of. I found it very daunting at first, but now I'm glad I have it. I'm still learning about it every day.

I just posted this in another thread but I have LR2 and think it's amazing, and will add Elements 7 as soon as it comes out for the Mac. Watching a friend use Elements the other day made me realize that with LR2 it's the perfect completion for what I want to achieve in PP. And they don't require me to upgrade my computer which still seems new to me at a year and a half.

Roy Mathers wrote in post #6466080
But the point is, could you do it (the editing) just as well in Elements 7?

For photo editing... possibly. I do more than just photo editing in photoshop (I do more non-photo stuff in photoshop) and as said before by someone else, that one feature that CS3 has that elements doesn't have bugs the HELL out of you. I haven't used anything lower than Photoshop 7.0 in years though, so I'm not sure what I'm missing or not.