CS3 to Elements 8 ?

[Jelster]

I have been looking at the latest version of Photoshop Elements. I have Lightroom 2 and am used to using PS CS3. Will I see any advantages of moving to Elements 8 over what I have been using ?

I'd like to get CS5 but I can't justify the £600 plus price tag right now, especially as the "photography fund" will be hit by an expensive lens purchase very soon.

Steve

 

[swag72]

I did the same move from CS3 to PSE8. Did I see any advantages? No, not in a processing sense. PSE8 is more limiting than CS3 is. I would be asking why you feel the need to make the move? What is there on CS3 that is holding you back?

My reason was more to be legal with PSE8 than not with CS3.

 

[Paul Male]

I can't see any advantages of moving over. I only use Elements as I do very little post processing so I find that it fills my needs. Lightroom, Elements and Photomatix is all that I find I need to creat some great pic's.

 

[Jelster]

I did the same move from CS3 to PSE8. Did I see any advantages? No, not in a processing sense. PSE8 is more limiting than CS3 is. I would be asking why you feel the need to make the move? What is there on CS3 that is holding you back?

My reason was more to be legal with PSE8 than not with CS3.

Like I said, I have access to CS3, it's not mine. Also, CS3 cannot support the Raw files from my 7D.

Maybe I should have asked "what am I likely to miss/lose"

Steve

 

[swag72]

I miss the ability to change over the colour channels on PSE8 as I have an IR modded camera where this needs to be done. There is no facility to do this on PSE8 - So still need to use CS3 for that.

 

[whiteflyer]

I did the same move from CS3 to PSE8. Did I see any advantages? No, not in a processing sense. PSE8 is more limiting than CS3 is. I would be asking why you feel the need to make the move? What is there on CS3 that is holding you back?

My reason was more to be legal with PSE8 than not with CS3.

I did the move for the same reason, and because I moved from windows to a mac.

PSE 8 does not have all the bells and whistles of CS3 but is OK for the basic stuff. One thing to note is that PSE 8 is VERY limiting if you want to work on 16bit files, you only get all the functions with 8bit.

The good news is that on the Mac version you do get a full blown version of Bridge CS4.

 

[diggerz]

You could download adobe DNG converter to convert your 7D raw files to allow you to work on them in CS3.

 

[BE Photography]

Not sure how relevant it is, but I got 50D and Elements 6 does not support the RAW files. So you might find that PSE8 Does not support the files.

I do the RAW editing side on lightroom convert to JPG and the continue to edit in Elements where I want to enhance photos further, add layers, textures, watermarks etc.

 

[Sonyguy]

I miss the ability to change over the colour channels on PSE8 as I have an IR modded camera where this needs to be done. There is no facility to do this on PSE8 - So still need to use CS3 for that.

There are plugins which will allow you to access the colour channels more directly in PSE - I got one on the disc with Mark Galer's book. In practice there is very little you can't do with Elements that you can do with Full Fat Photoshop. It just requires some ingenuity, and a bit of Googling, and so is a little less convenient. Authoring actions in Elements has defeated me so far, for instance. But, Elements is a lot more powerful than a lot of people give it credit for, and worth every penny, nothing comes near at the price.