Photoshop Elements 3.0

[Solafaa]

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopelmac/main.html

I gota say it looks really good. I have lots of photos and sometimes i need to change them for teh better, i dont use an SLR or a digital camera with god knows how many modes. I use ultra compact and as some of you know they need some editing after.

Does anyone have elements 3.0? do you recommend it? any tips?

 

[mocman]

I have photoshop cs installed on my mac and I purchased elements 3 after all the hype and I have not opened cs since. It does a great job on all my photo needs and is built for the novice in mind.

 

[Bear]

...

Does anyone have elements 3.0? do you recommend it? any tips?

If Photoshop 3 has all the features you need, go for it. A lot of people who previous would've needed the full version of Photoshop in the past no longer need the full version.

Although if someone already has Photoshop CS, it doesn't make sense to Purchase PS Elements 3.0. It might make sense to Purchase the next Elements upgrade although the full Photoshop upgrade is only a bit more money-wise.

 

[andrewfee]

Although if someone already has Photoshop CS, it doesn't make sense to Purchase PS Elements 3.0. It might make sense to Purchase the next Elements upgrade although the full Photoshop upgrade is only a bit more money-wise.

I get the feeling he didn't pay for Photoshop CS. 😉

Personally I use Elements 3.0 and it does just about everything I want it to. As I keep saying around here; it's probably 90% of the features of Photoshop for 10% of the price. Most (non-professional) users won't need the extras that Photoshop provides.

From what I've used, it's probably the best image editor you can buy for anything less than the cost of Photoshop CS. I actually think the interface is better than CS's and hope that CS2.0 will have the option to have one like Elements.

 

[Bear]

I get the feeling he didn't pay for Photoshop CS. 😉

Who knows. I just know that my system is clean license-wise. Getting the inital Photshop license was a bump moneywise, but I started with it before Elements was available and the upgrades have been reasonably priced so far.

Personally I use Elements 3.0 and it does just about everything I want it to. As I keep saying around here; it's probably 90% of the features of Photoshop for 10% of the price. Most (non-professional) users won't need the extras that Photoshop provides.

Quite correct and as I said, even some professionals no longer need the full version of photoshop.

From what I've used, it's probably the best image editor you can buy for anything less than the cost of Photoshop CS. I actually think the interface is better than CS's and hope that CS2.0 will have the option to have one like Elements.

If you can describe it simply, how does the interface differ? I haven't even looked that clasely at Elements since I have CS.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

I have been looking for a iphoto replacement for my PC. I guess this is the program?

 

[andrewfee]

Currently I don't have access to my mac, so I can't take comparison pics, but basically all the palettes can be docked into one sidebar. You can then hit an arrow next to them to collapse/show them, and they'll automatically resize to best make use of the height.
There's also a button that will hide them completely.

As much as I like Exposé, I tend not to use it with Photoshop, as it usually just gives me a long line of images rather than making good use of the screen. There's now a seperate palette that goes along the bottom of the screen with thumbnails of all your images, and you can drag and drop between them.

If someone with the Mac version could take a screenshot or two it would make things much easier to describe, I've only been able to find PC screenshots, and it looks so cluttered on Windows, lol.

You can of course have standard palettes if you want, but I find it a lot cleaner and more efficient this way.

I have been looking for a iphoto replacement for my PC. I guess this is the program?

No, that would be Picasa, which is (now) a free program similar to iPhoto. Sure, it's not as good, but it's the best I've found on a PC.

Edit: I did find a small osx screenshot, although it still doesn't look as clean as it does on my mac, as it's at its default settings. (and has mostly useless palettes and huge layer icons in it)

 

[Bear]

I have been looking for a iphoto replacement for my PC. I guess this is the program?

Probably.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Thanks andrewfee, iam looking into Picasa and just downloaded the manual. How can they do this free? Thanks you may have just saved me a 100 bucks!

 

[chameeeleon]

How can they do this free?

It's Google. What can I say - they're nice people, lol. Used to cost like $30 before they bought it out. Who knows what plans they have down the road with it.

 

[Bear]

Currently I don't have access to my mac, so I can't take comparison pics, but basically all the palettes can be docked into one sidebar. You can then hit an arrow next to them to collapse/show them, and they'll automatically resize to best make use of the height.
There's also a button that will hide them completely.

Yes, this wopuld be nicer (as I see from the screenshot) but since I'm used to the way it works, its's not a big deal for me. And in CS they do auto hide when photoshop is no longer the active program.

As much as I like Exposé, I tend not to use it with Photoshop, as it usually just gives me a long line of images rather than making good use of the screen. There's now a seperate palette that goes along the bottom of the screen with thumbnails of all your images, and you can drag and drop between them.

This is a very nice feature that I do wish CS had. (if it's there, I haven't been able to find it, and I just spent a few minutes looking.)

 

[andrewfee]

I'm pretty sure the "photo bin" as it's called is an Elements 3.0 only thing so far. Like I said, I expect CS2.0 to have this style of interface available when it's released.

Although CS is (obviously) more powerful I find I'm more productive in Elements due to its gui. (I've used a trial of Adobe CS)

 

[jelloshotsrule]

so elements 3 came out recently? and cs2 is looming...

can anyone give me a basic list of what full photoshop has that elements doesn't? trying to decide which to buy.

this thread came up in my search of the forums, perhaps i didn't look far enough back....

thanks in advance

 

[Bear]

so elements 3 came out recently? and cs2 is looming...

can anyone give me a basic list of what full photoshop has that elements doesn't? trying to decide which to buy.

Photoshop CS2 has a nasty activation system that CS doesn't have (CS does have an activation system for Windows, but it's not as bad as the new one, and the new one is also on the Macs.) CS2 also has a much higher price tag.

Did you check Adobe's website for product comparions? Photoshop Elements 3 handles a lot of stuff, odds are you won't need the full Photoshop.

 

[jelloshotsrule]

Photoshop CS2 has a nasty activation system that CS doesn't have (CS does have an activation system for Windows, but it's not as bad as the new one, and the new one is also on the Macs.) CS2 also has a much higher price tag.

Did you check Adobe's website for product comparions? Photoshop Elements 3 handles a lot of stuff, odds are you won't need the full Photoshop.

well the price tag is of course why i'm curious as to the comparisons. hah

as for checking their site, why would i do that?? 😛 but seriously, i'll do that

just was wondering if anyone had a list off the top of their head how full PS stacks up to PSE in general (like comparing FCP to FCE, etc)...

i'll come back and bug people after i check the official site. 🙂

 

[Westside guy]

Secrets in Elements

If you do some hunting around on the web, you can find extra "effects" for Elements that basically unlock some Photoshop-only features like Curves. These are apparently required in Elements so some of the nifty auto-tools will work; but Adobe (intentionally) did not provide a front-end for them.

I have Photoshop 7, which my employer paid for; but I find Elements 3 does everything I want photo-wise.

 

[jelloshotsrule]

so i got the demo of PSE 3, and i'm liking it so far... it can do most of what i think i'll need to do with it... just one question, am i missing something or is there no way to create actions?

that could be a clincher for me. not sure about a $500 clincher though. hmmm

 

[Westside guy]

so i got the demo of PSE 3, and i'm liking it so far... it can do most of what i think i'll need to do with it... just one question, am i missing something or is there no way to create actions?

That is specifically limited to the full version of Photoshop. You can run actions, but you can't create them.

 

[mkrishnan]

After playing with the demo, my copy of PSE3 just arrived. 😀

I have a question. I have a PowerShot S50, iPhoto 2 😱 and, in a moment, PSE3. It was a toss-up between getting iLife 05 for the latest iPhoto, and getting PSE3, and the latter won, since I really only use iTunes and iPhoto out of iLife. So anyway.....

Right now, I have been taking highest quality JPGs, importing them with iPhoto, and then dragging them to PSE to edit. This has the nice feature that iPhoto keeps an original.

But, I am trying to learn how to better use my camera, on the way to deciding if I want to upgrade (because I miss SLR from my predigital days -- another thread!), and as part of that, I might start using RAW instead of JPG. I saw on DPReview how much better some of the RAW mode effects (like noise reduction) are in PSE3 than the JPG mode ones.

The rub is that iPhoto 2 does not support RAW. I would like to keep my pictures primarily in it. I would like to continue to have pre-cropped/modded originals saved -- even if they are JPGs of the original, and not the RAWs.

So, is there any easy way to get a version that's close to the original into iPhoto2, but edit the RAW in PSE3 to get to the final version?

I guess I have these major options:

1) Buy iLife 05 🙂
2) Import each photo twice separately into iPhoto (so that I'd have albums of "originals" and I'd have my actual albums, but the originals would not be associated with their respective modded versions)
3) Store the originals outside iPhoto

Can anyone make any suggestions, please? 😀

 

[Westside guy]

Can anyone make any suggestions, please? 😀

Okay, this is just me... 🙄

I bought iPhoto 3 specifically because it handles RAW images. And for a brief time I used it - and I have no complaints, really. But there were a few issues with this:

- RAW files are really big, and since iPhoto 3 saves things non-destructively (meaning you can always go back to the original) your library gets big FAST.

- For the large majority of your photos (or mine anyway), there's no good reason to have the RAW version immediately at hand.

- If your iPhoto library gets hosed, and it's your only storage location for the originals, you're up a creek.

After I got back from Hawaii a few weeks ago, I quickly realized the "iPhoto as manager" system wasn't working for me. So now what I do is this:

- I download all my RAW files and store them, untouched, in a separate folder. These are my permanent digital negatives. These files will not be edited except as copies.

- I do a batch conversion to JPEG using Elements 3. These then get imported into iPhoto. This gets done in "high" quality, not "maximum" - on even a high-res computer screen you won't see the difference (try it).

Then, at my leisure (ha ha, actually when I get out of my usual lazy mode) I can quickly get back to the original RAW file for the few images that really matter, and optimize them manually. The rest get at most a quick crop in iPhoto, since other than for slideshows they're not going to be used for much.

 

[jelloshotsrule]

does PSE 3 work with raw at all? or is that another PS only feature?

last thing (i think)... is there an updgrade path from PSE to the full PS? would suck to get PSE 3, then a few months in realize i need PS and have to pay full (at least could get full minus the cost of PSE)... any ideas? thanks

 

[mkrishnan]

PSE3 has limited RAW support -- viz: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/adobeelements3/page2.asp

Some of the tools apparently work better on RAW images, such as the noise filter (there's an example in that review). Some tools available in CS are not in PSE3.

Westside, thanks for the suggestion. I think your idea is pretty solid. I might just discontinue saving unedited photos, otherwise, importing RAW into a folder, editing them, and then importing them in iPhoto. Right now, my iPhoto album is only 1.2 gigs, which is much smaller than my iTunes library, but it's been growing rapidly recently, and I don't have that much disk space to spare.

I don't want to give up on using iPhoto to manage my albums, though, if I can....

 

[mkrishnan]

Oooh, 'nother thing. I might be dense to have just noticed this after all this time....

Regarding iPhoto's integration with PSE3 (or anything else, I guess)... if you set your external editor, and then double-click or right-click to launch the photo in PSE3 from iPhoto, then iPhoto will retain an original. If you drag to the dock, then iPhoto will hand the original to PSE3, which will write over it. And you will not be left with an original to which you can revert.

Does this happen with all versions of iPhoto and PSE, or was this fixed in a newer version than mine?

 

[kingtj]

Picasa vs. iPhoto

Actually, does anyone know if Picasa is scheduled for release in an OS X version any time soon?

One of my friends with a new Mac Mini has been using Picasa on his laptop and the latest iPhoto on his Mini for weeks now - and he keeps complaining that iPhoto isn't as good as Picasa. (EG. Picasa is MUCH faster at skimming through screens of thumbnails, unless you make them so tiny in iPhoto that you can't see any detail in them.)

I haven't really tried Picasa yet myself, since I've pretty much tried to move all my graphics work over to my G5 and keep my Athlon tower for gaming and such -- but can you elaborate on why you'd claim Picasa isn't as nice as iPhoto?

CNo, that would be Picasa, which is (now) a free program similar to iPhoto. Sure, it's not as good, but it's the best I've found on a PC.

Edit: I did find a small osx screenshot, although it still doesn't look as clean as it does on my mac, as it's at its default settings. (and has mostly useless palettes and huge layer icons in it)

 

[applekid]

Should I upgrade?

I've been sticking to my Photoshop Elements 2.0 since I got my Wacom tablet. I know Elements 3.0 is out, but should I upgrade? Any compelling reasons or a really neat feature that's of use?

I'll probably wait for Elements 3.0 to drop in price though. 2.0 dropped rapidly. I expect the latest to do the same. And I'm quite content with 2.0. 🙂