Should have done it ages ago

Mike Jackson

Mike Jackson

Billy Brownnose
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Mike
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When I got my new PC at the end of last year I ordered it with Photoshop elements 8. I've not found it that intuitive and really struggled to do much with it. A short while ago I got an offer on Lightroom 3 so bought and installed that. I've not got on any better with that.

Earlier this evening I finally gave in and upgraded to Photoshop CS5.1. I should have done it months ago. I've found it so much more intuitive to use. I thought elements would be more straightforward but CS5 is so much easier and I don't get the annoying choice of do I want to edit or organise.
 
Interesting!

I currently only have lightroom and have promised myself I'm going to invest the time and money in learning elements or CS5 to take my best photos up a notch or two. The dilemma I've been having is that I've read it takes a looooooong time to really learn CS5, and that's time I just don't have at the moment, so I've always dismissed the CS5 option. Perhaps you could elaborate on why you think it's more straightforward...?
 
i have elements 9 and i can do basic stuff, but when it comes to layers it seems hard to grasp, borrowed book from library, says on cover easy to follow :bang:..what did you struggle with mike
 
The first thing is the time it takes to load. CS5 loads up in about 10 seconds PSE takes at least 60. If I try and open PSE directly it insists on taking me to the splash screen where I have to choose between editing and organising which adds more time before I can get cracking.

Once I'm in the program the selection tool seems much more accurate in CS5 so I have to spend a lot more time refining the selection in PSE.

Next is the content aware fill. PSE 8 doesn't have anything like it and you're stuck using the clone tool which is a pain for larger areas. PSE 9 has supposedly got a similar feature using the spot healing brush but this doesn't sound anywhere near as good.

The main thing is that I've been getting very frustrated with PSE 8 as I've not been able to do what I want easily. As soon as I opened CS5 I found that I could get straight on with editing my pictures because the tools did what i expected them to.

It may be a matter of changing settings in PSE but I've persevered for 7 months and got nowhere so I just gave up and splashed the dosh on CS5.
 
I've had PSE9 for a few months now and have got fairly used to it, I've been going through Scott Kelby's retouching book but was getting annoyed at all the things missing in elements, anyway yesterday I downloaded the trial of CS5 and immediatley it felt better, more professional.
 
NeilG40 said:
I've had PSE9 for a few months now and have got fairly used to it, I've been going through Scott Kelby's retouching book but was getting annoyed at all the things missing in elements, anyway yesterday I downloaded the trial of CS5 and immediatley it felt better, more professional.
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only to-night ordered scott kelby's pe9, off of amazon, determined to get my head around it :bonk:
 
NeilG40 said:
I've had PSE9 for a few months now and have got fairly used to it, I've been going through Scott Kelby's retouching book but was getting annoyed at all the things missing in elements, anyway yesterday I downloaded the trial of CS5 and immediatley it felt better, more professional.
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Yeah, but my head always says:

a) think of the glass you could buy with the difference in cost.
b) think of the time you could spend taking photos, instead of learning professional software, when I'm not a professional.

If only CS5 didn't cost quite as much as it does ... maybe that would swing my decision :)
 
My thought processes run along similar lines but I need to edit some of my shots as I do a lot of dog portraiture and quite often the dogs need to be on a lead whilst I'm taking the photographs but the owners don't want the lead in the final picture. If I can reduce the time it takes me to edit those shots I get more time to shoot and stand to make more sales because I'm delivering what the customer wants.
 
wallyboy said:
oh dear that is a shame,
how did you get on with book,
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It's good in as far as it tells you what everything is and what it does but I think I learned more from his retouching book where it's a case of use this tool then that one and there's the result.
 
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