Photoshop Elements

[lilrichie]

Hey all,

Was just woundering is Elements for mac actually any good i can't afford a copy of Photoshop and need something so bad to edit my photo's with post printing.

Also what is the lastesr version of Elements for mac.

Cheers
Rich

[P-Worm]

It's not the best, but you might want to GIMP. It's an open source program that aims to be like Photoshop. I personally find Photoshop Elements to be all I need and I am on a three year old version. I would try out GIMP because it is free then if it is not enough for you to look into other options.

P-Worm

[lilrichie]

Originally Posted by P-Worm

It's not the best, but you might want to GIMP. It's an open source program that aims to be like Photoshop. I personally find Photoshop Elements to be all I need and I am on a three year old version. I would try out GIMP because it is free then if it is not enough for you to look into other options.

P-Worm

Unfortunatley GIMP isn't an option until leopard comes out for me, basically becuase i got my powermac second hand and it didn't come with the tiger install disk don't ask me why so i can't install X11 which is a tad annoying.

Rich

[bmat]

Elements 4 is the latest Mac version.

It works fine for most photo editing, and can integrate with apps like Aperture pretty well.

[beige matchbox]

I use Elements 4, i find it, for the price, to be brilliant. Fairly good RAW support and enough gubbins to tweak most photos

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by lilrichie

Hey all,

Was just woundering is Elements for mac actually any good i can't afford a copy of Photoshop and need something so bad to edit my photo's with post printing.

Also what is the lastesr version of Elements for mac.

Cheers
Rich

Elements works well. The last version was 3. I think. Sells for about $90.
It is NOT native on Intel Macs. But mine's a G4 so I don't care.

One other to look at is "Gimp", It does everything Elements can do plus maybe more, runs native on Intel and is free see www.gimp.org

Hard to say whaich is best, Elements or Gimp. Depends on what you need.

[jlcharles]

If you're going to buy elements, you should just buy a wacom tablet. Elements comes with it for free. So you get elements and a wacom for the same price as just elements.

[lilrichie]

Originally Posted by jlcharles

If you're going to buy elements, you should just buy a wacom tablet. Elements comes with it for free. So you get elements and a wacom for the same price as just elements.

Which wacom comes with Elements?

[mkrishnan]

Agree with Beige and Jim -- (1) it's brilliant software. It really does the majors, until you get to issues like color separation for production and so on. The only really relevant things to photographers that it does not have, AFAIK, are a color mixer (important, but there are pretty good alternatives) and the ability to use Photoshop actions (important if you're high volume, also rules out automator). (2) look for alternative purchase options such as getting a tablet, purchasing an OEM copy (legal, and when PSE3 was current, you could get one for $40 from some sites... have to google around), or using academic pricing if you're eligible.

[jlcharles]

Originally Posted by lilrichie

Which wacom comes with Elements?

The 4x5 Graphire4 comes with elements 3.

http://www.wacom.com/graphire/4x5.cfm

[lilrichie]

would this be the same one, or just a good a one.

http://www.macwarehouse.co.uk/catalogue/item/WAC523

Rich

[mkrishnan]

Originally Posted by jlcharles

The 4x5 Graphire4 comes with elements 3.

My understanding is that PSE3 (which I have) is a huge improvement over PSE2 (from which one should stay away), and PSE4 is more of a gradual improvement over 3. But do note that this is not the current version of PSE.

[netdog]

I am beginning to wonder if this coming Adobe free online photo editor is replacing Elements (at least meaning that perhaps they aren't going to bother with a UB version).

I wonder what the financial model is for that site, or are they just trying to beat Google to it, keep their brand strong in this field, and figure out the money later?

[ChrisA]

Originally Posted by lilrichie

Unfortunatley GIMP isn't an option until leopard comes out for me, basically becuase i got my powermac second hand and it didn't come with the tiger install disk don't ask me why so i can't install X11 which is a tad annoying.

Rich

X11 is freely available. You can get it from many places. What Apple did was mostly "packaging". Others have packaged it up too. You can even get the source code to build it yourself. But no need for that as the "fink" project has done that for zillions of packages already, one being "X11"

http://www.finkproject.org/
http://pdb.finkproject.org/pdb/package.php/xfree86

[John T]

Hi,

I obtained Elements 4 (Mac) because my Photoshop CS doesn't support RAW files for the Canon 30D.

If you just want it for photographic purposes it's extremely good, both in features and value for money. Plus the fact that it comes with Bridge - I never use CS now!

[lilrichie]

I think i will get a Wacom and get elements free with it.

Thanks for the advice guys

[lilrichie]

I went ahead and ordered Elements from amazon it should be here tommorrow :-)

I got a book to go with it also so that should help out with any of the features i am un familliar with.

Thanks for all your advice.

Rich