CS4 Is it worth it????

chauncey wrote in post #7351141
Kinda boils down to the question "are you a photographer that aspires to be an artist" or a photographer that wants to improve his photographs.

Are you new to this forum? It's "are you a photographer with an expendable income?"

chauncey wrote in post #7351141
Kinda boils down to the question "are you a photographer that aspires to be an artist" or a photographer that wants to improve his photographs.

Agreed.

adrian5127, why not download the CS4 trial an see if it is worth it for you and your needs.

Am I the only person who was totally blown away by the improved feature set in CS4 vs. Elements 6?

Just being able to work in 16-bit/channel mode after RAW conversion was big enough, but three other things that had really disappointed me in Elements were the inability to create a layer mask, and no non-destructive curves and channel mixer. Throw in my first HDR experience in CS4, and I was one happy camper.

I need to pull the trigger on the upgrade while it's still cheap this month, but I've got a hard time turning it down.

I think one of the biggest advantages for me was that the various tutorials, etc. that I've found are largely targeted at the full version of Photoshop. While there are ways to accomplish the same tasks in Elements, if you are looking for a tutorial, it's because you don't know the workaround. Having to look up a workaround to reference a tutorial you finally managed to find kinda kills the workflow.

But then again, I've been known to be a bit of an odd duck...

For me the jump from cs2 to cs3 wasn't anything to write home about, but from cs3 to cs4 it was bigtime.... If you have a computer that can take advantage of all the features cs4 has to offer it's a no brainer..

Love my CS4. I went from CS2 to CS4. The upgrade price wasn't too bad but expensive for a full version. Alot more powerful then Elements but more to learn so make time for it. It will worth the price.

Shooting wrote in post #7348385
I have CS3 and went to CS4 and what a waste..if there are any good reasons to go from CS3 to CS4 they are negligible..now if you have elements or CS2 and skip 3 and go to 4 it would be worth it.

The only problem with doing it that way is it is cheaper to by a CS2->CS3 upgrade and a CS3->CS4 upgrade than it is to pay full price to upgrade from CS2 to CS4.

If that makes sense.:p

Makes total sense.

Many find a combination of Lightroom + Elements (or LR + older photoshop) to be enough. LR is great for rapidly fixing a batch of photos as well as catalog functions. There are ways I believe to do layer masks in Elements, just a bit more work http://graphicssoft.ab​out.com …ents/qt/layerma​sktool.htm

KarlMarsh wrote in post #7354342
The only problem with doing it that way is it is cheaper to by a CS2->CS3 upgrade and a CS3->CS4 upgrade than it is to pay full price to upgrade from CS2 to CS4.

If that makes sense.:p

Not quite: You can upgrade PSCS2 to PSCS4 fine. In fact, I did.
Costs the same as the upgrade from CS3 to CS4.

lungdoc wrote in post #7355333
Many find a combination of Lightroom + Elements (or LR + older photoshop) to be enough. LR is great for rapidly fixing a batch of photos as well as catalog functions. There are ways I believe to do layer masks in Elements, just a bit more work http://graphicssoft.ab​out.com …ents/qt/layerma​sktool.htm

That's very cool, thank you for pointing that out.

I just sent in my payment for the CS4 upgrade. I was about to spring for faster shipping when I realized I had enough time left on the demo to wait out the delay in shipping. Yes, I asked for the physical box. I can't believe I'm already becoming a throwback, but I really don't believe I own a license until I hold the box in my hand.

Just found something else in CS that blew me away vs. Elements. I'm new to the whole animated GIF game, and Elements limits your output image dimensions when doing an animated GIF, and the ability to adjust frame delay is broken in the OSX version.

Playing around with the animation panel in CS4 was too cool for words. It took me about 1/2 an hour to actually get it to animate, but once you figure it out, the control is amazing. I had originally signed up for the 5D2 pre-order, so when I went for the 1D3 instead, I was afraid I might miss the video aspect. True, I don't have sound and it's only 10fps, but it's 10fps at 10MP.


Either I'm having too much fun or I need to get out more...
:p