Photoshop Elements, or Corel PaintShop?

Who uses what and why?

Ta.

Photoshop for tricky stuff, paint.net for simple crops and resizing. Can’t see the point of lots of post-processing, though.

I use Lightroom 3.0 mostly for quick edits and CS5 when I want to edit on a deeper level.

lightroom +1

try software4students for getting it cheaper…if you have someone of school/student age in the house – I think you need proof from the school/college for adobe stuff.

IME Elements is the best all-round ‘budget’ photo-editing software. Very powerful, very stable and has many of the features of full-fat PS, but costs a fraction. The best intro to photo-editing, speshly if you may go on to use FF PS.

Comes bundled with scanners, tablets and stuff quite a bit.

Elements and Faststone Photo Resizer for batching web resize/sharpening/framing.

Depends what you want to do. Lightroom is going to be the best for developing/process as that’s what it’s intended for. You can’t chop things up in Lightroom (high heels on a badger, for example), so you’ll need something like CS for that. In Elements or CS, you can probably do many of the things that Lightroom offers, but the workflow is perfectly ordered and simplified in Lightroom.

Can’t see the point of lots of post-processing, though.

Even a small amount of good quality processing is easier/better with powerful, well-designed software.

I wouldn’t want to ‘chop’ anything up as you put it – merely interested in getting into developing skills and PP of images. Just seeing what can be done in Picasa with the pic I took of a tree on a compact has got me itching and I’ve been contemplating getting a DSLR for a while now…

The article in Junes Digital Photo mag about working with RAW on monochrome images has really caught my eye also.

Elfinsafety – Member

IME Elements is the best all-round ‘budget’ photo-editing software. Very powerful, very stable and has many of the features of full-fat PS, but costs a fraction. The best intro to photo-editing, speshly if you may go on to use FF PS.

Comes bundled with scanners, tablets and stuff quite a bit.

What features are missing in Elements, compared to the full monty, out of interest?

Gimp, because it’s free

Then I would recommend Lightroom. It has a simple workflow and is designed purely for developing/processing. You can get a free 30-day trial from the Adobe site.

Surely LR is much more expensive than Elements and hence a different proposition?

Gimp, +1. Find out how much you need it before splashing the cash.

What features are missing in Elements, compared to the full monty, out of interest?

There are certain functions to process batches of images (for example to add a border to every image in a folder, convert a whole batch of images from one format to another, create certain sized images etc), and some of the manipulation options have greater versatility and depth. Another thing that is important to me but maybe not to others, is CMYK mode for optimising images to be printed. Also, I work a lot in Illustrator, and i’m not sure if Elements deals with vector graphics in the same way. I understand there is a greater range of options and versatility when using brushes with a tablet.

But for general use, Elements can’t be beaten. GIMP is good, but not as good as Elements IMO. It is however free.

Gimp is a head-**** though. At least it was when I tried it years ago.

Surely LR is much more expensive than Elements and hence a different proposition?

Not if you get the education/charity discount. Lightroom is absolutely brilliant imo – I use it for 99% of stuff.

Surely LR is much more expensive than Elements and hence a different proposition?

Of course, but nobody has mentioned budget. I accept that LR is pricey, but it’s also absolutely brilliant and a real investment. If the OP is serious about getting into developing/processing, even to the point of going to DSLR and RAW, then I would actually recommend against getting the cheaper alternative, at least for now, and especially if the OP is on a tight budget. It makes more sense to get something like Gimp and whet the appetite, or see if interest is maintained, then make use of Adobe’s free trials to work out which PS application is best suited to their needs (and budget) if they find themselves bitten by the bug.

molgrips – Member
Gimp is a head-**** though. At least it was when I tried it years ago.

Having used GIMP for years now, I start to feel the same way about PS!

For the simpler PS style stuff http://www.pixlr.com might be worth a look.

slainte 😀 rob

I found gimp powerful enough it was just the layout that needed re-learning, free though so no complaints. I have cs3 but mostly just use PS7, I cut my teeth on PS6 when it was launched and PS7 does all I need with a better layout. Elements is great if you get it bundled free, it’s commonly used so advice is easily sought if you get stuck.

Elements is what, £70? Extreme VFM.

If you do get a Sony then DXO is the raw converter to have.