Photoshop CS5 or Elements 8

I'm trying to decide to buy PS CS5 or Elements 8. I don't shoot professionally but I do shoot tons of photos of family and friends. I would like to use an editor that's capable of correcting things.

What exactly would be the limitations of Elements 8 compared to PS CS5?
Are you able to pass photos from Lightroom to Elements 8 the same way it does to PS?

If you are a PS user, what features will you not be able to live without if you had to use Elements?

Thanks for the wisdom

I take it you already have Lightroom from your question. If so then Elements will probably be more than enough. I have CS5 and even given that my job requires it, I still don't use everything it has.

The best thing to do is download 30 day trials of both and play around. They will install side by side so you can compare.

When you refer to "tons of photos", it brings up the major shortfall of Elements for that type of stuff: the ability to handle volumes of photos via the Image Processor and the ability to record Actions. I've heard that you can use some actions that have been developed for/in CSx, but you still lack the recording and the "batch" capabilities.

So, the key question is, what is your workflow built around? If you find Lightroom good for most of your photo needs but occasionally would like an external editor for "special" needs then Elements can fit that bill really well, and you can do the Lightroom "Edit in Photoshop (Elements)" function. If you find though that the editor is a central part of your workflow, and that you find batches of photos that you would like to automate certain tasks in your editor, then you will eventually want to look toward CSx. Plus, CS5 has all sorts of new goodies!

I'd say start with Elements, maybe the free trial, and see if it does meet your needs. You can always upgrade to CSx at a discount.

HankScorpio wrote in post #10332505
I take it you already have Lightroom from your question. If so then Elements will probably be more than enough. I have CS5 and even given that my job requires it, I still don't use everything it has.

The best thing to do is download 30 day trials of both and play around. They will install side by side so you can compare.

That's a good idea. I will download them and try it out.

tonylong wrote in post #10332852
When you refer to "tons of photos", it brings up the major shortfall of Elements for that type of stuff: the ability to handle volumes of photos via the Image Processor and the ability to record Actions. I've heard that you can use some actions that have been developed for/in CSx, but you still lack the recording and the "batch" capabilities.

So, the key question is, what is your workflow built around? If you find Lightroom good for most of your photo needs but occasionally would like an external editor for "special" needs then Elements can fit that bill really well, and you can do the Lightroom "Edit in Photoshop (Elements)" function. If you find though that the editor is a central part of your workflow, and that you find batches of photos that you would like to automate certain tasks in your editor, then you will eventually want to look toward CSx. Plus, CS5 has all sorts of new goodies!

I'd say start with Elements, maybe the free trial, and see if it does meet your needs. You can always upgrade to CSx at a discount.

I do have Lightroom. I do use the batch functions in Lightroom for white balance, exposure, etc. Photoshop will probably be used for a few special photos. I haven't discovered the power of Actions yet.

ironchef31 wrote in post #10333041
I do have Lightroom. I do use the batch functions in Lightroom for white balance, exposure, etc. Photoshop will probably be used for a few special photos. I haven't discovered the power of Actions yet.

Well then, you are set for Elements, and should be good to go, just don't read any forum posts about fancy CS5 stuff!

Read up on the Nik 5 plug-in (complete collection) for Lightroom 2. Awesome software that I just got recently myself. I used Elements 6 for about 2 years. Got Lightoom recently and added the Nik plug ins. I am happy with it and won't be using Elements 6 anymore. Nor will I be buying CS5. Many ways to go about things. But I would suggest reading up on Nik's plug-in bundle before buying any other software.

From page 10 in the LR3 thread...

DANATTHEROCK wrote in post #10334225
Regarding Nik plug-ins...



The Nik complete collection is 5 plug-ins that do different things. Noise reduction, sharpen, 52 filters in Color efex, adjustments to specific areas of the image in Viveva, and Silver efex which makes black and whites idiot proof. Just click a button type of thing if you want it to be. Same for the noise and sharpening. It does much more of course, but for a new guy to pp, it can be a one click adjustment with very impressive results. For $199, this is a very powerful collection of software. It is normally $299, but the discount code PPS makes it $199. Read more on the Nik website. I have Lightroom 2 and the Nik collection. I won't be buying Photoshop. Until recently, that was the plan. Read into that what you will.

http://www.niksoftware​.com …ction/usa/entry​.php?tab=0

https://photography-on-the.net …hp?t=883231&hig​hlight=nik

I have both...long story, but if I could only have one, it would be a tough choice. If I had LightRoom (which I don't), It would make the choice easier..I'd use it with Elements 8...ESPECIALLY if I were using it in the way you described you'd use it.

CS5 has some features that Elements doesn't, (rumor is it does, just disabled)...and it's really about what you need...Plus Elements has two other "quick" editing modes that walk you through so it makes 99% of what you'd do that much easier. And most importantly ..faster!

I've had the older (pre-"CS" versions of Photoshop)..The the first version of CS (no number), CS2, and then gave up on it and didn't really have an interest in it since I didn't have a need for it...I used film until a year ago for stuff I cared about...and did more with Photoshop that had nothing to do with photography than it did with graphic design..after all, really it's a graphics program, and in fact I know just one person who uses Photoshop all day every day and I don't think she uses it for photo manipulation more than a few times a year..She designs logos and stuff like that...no photography involved...For her it's more like painting without the mess and clean-up.


Just last April (a year ago) I got my first dSLR, and realized I'd need to bone up on post processing...So I bought Elements after downloading the trial versions of both PSE8 and CS5...couldn't justify the expense of CS5...But I ended up with a free version so now I'm struggling to learn it, and while I enjoy the challenge, I can tell that even having used PS for a decade, the learning curve is steep. While they did make the interface a bit more "user friendly", they also made the program so much more complex that it's not any easier to use (they actually combined two programs into one..PhotoShop and ImageReady..so it has to be bigger and more intricate.

Recently I couldn't find my favorite picture of my wife...just a tiny little color print. Fortunately I had sent her brother a copy when I got the prints back from being developed years ago, and he still had it..it was in rough shape, but he took it to Walgreens or some place like that....had a copy made and mailed it to me. I tried my best to restore it using both CS5 and Elements and couldn't get it right. I took it to the guy in town who works at a high end camera shop and rarely comes out from the back where he does post processing for the people who rather pay to have it done (very affluent area).

He got the picture to look better than ever...I was hoping he could take this tiny print and make it look decent at 5x7 or so...it looked so good at 5x7, I had him send the file to the lab and blew it up to 11x14...which I have now and want to get an even bigger enlargement... (I was widowed at a ridiculously early age, so it means a lot to me)...I'll probably keep blowing it up until it's nothing but grain.

He did ALL the restoration using LightRoom.

The 30 day free trials will give you a better idea than anyone here can give you, so I'll just give you this link for some entertainment...It's just over one minute long condensed probably of hours of work getting ready to shoot a headshot of a model....there's just a few seconds (don't blink) of Photoshop being used at the end....although what's done can be certainly be done with Elements...and the truth is I'm only guessing it's Photoshop, and not Elements..could truly be either. Very entertaining.... Enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com …G19UUWBi0&featu​re=related


Peace,
D.

I have been a big proponent of doing 99% of my post processing in Lightroom and then the bit I needed past that using PE8.

That being said I have been looking at some of the VERY neat things that CS5 does and I have been working quite a bit with the trial version of CS5 Extended and am very impressed.

I'd say, if you can swing it, get CS5 and don't look back.