Photoshop question

sillyspook13

sillyspook13

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Just wondering.....

How does Photoshop Elements compare to Photoshop?

Should I spend the $60 for the "condensed" version? Or would it be wise to blow the $600+ for the real deal? Feedback please!:)
 
imagineer99

imagineer99

New Member
Originally posted by sillyspook13
Just wondering.....

How does Photoshop Elements compare to Photoshop?

Should I spend the $60 for the "condensed" version? Or would it be wise to blow the $600+ for the real deal? Feedback please!:)
Click to expand...

First Off, Adobe products are probably the biggest ripoff in the entire industry. However, they do make EXCELLENT software.

I've been trying to save up for Premiere, but $800 for one program seems like so much...

Anyways, back to the orginal question...

I currently have Elements. I have worked with the full version of Photoshop, and I must say that Elements does pretty much everything you need to do. Granted, Photoshop does offer some nifty extras, but Elements gives you the opportunity to use all the photoshop filters and tools. It also gives you many brushes.

When you compare it to the giant price tag of photoshop, it just seems more reasonable.

Both are great programs...can't go wrong either way (however your wallet probably won't like the full photoshop:))
 
NowInc

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Ripoff? Hardly.

Yes..pricey at first..but professionals make that back with one project...My annual software fees used to exceed over 25,000 between Maya, XSI, Lightwave, Photoshop, Illustrator, Combustion, Premiere, After FX, and a few others.

I was never in debt tho. They are high priced to keep them "high user" leveled...they arent home consumer products.
 
C

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
Yes..pricey at first..but professionals make that back with one project
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Yeah, maybe if you are freelancing. But try and justify it when you have twenty architects who need to use it to make presentation boards, and you can only afford a couple of copies.

I also have to say about the "high user" levels - the kids who came from college where they played with pirated versions could do so much more than those who were properly trained on the software. Same thing with AutoCAD. I am going to be blunt and say that I think it's full of baloney any that it is only a way to market your product as being professional and be able to sell lots of training and add ons. Whether the program is cheap or expensive doesn't make a whole lot of difference as to how one person is going to learn how to use the program - that's up to their initiative.

Plus I hate their support - "Oh,we don't support our programs being used on a network". Well how the heck do you think any company today operates - an individual computer unhooked to anything?

Sorry, just venting. To your original question, we dealt with this at my last place of employment. Ultimately if you really need to ask, you can probably get away with Elements. There are a few highewr end features that it doesn't have, but if you are going to get into those you probably would be already dealing with professional tools and such.

For some reason I remember there being one little hitch...

Oh yeah, one other anoying thing - there's absolutely no other program out there that even comes close to doing the job like Photoshop can.
 
imagineer99

imagineer99

New Member
Originally posted by NowInc
Ripoff? Hardly.

Yes..pricey at first..but professionals make that back with one project...My annual software fees used to exceed over 25,000 between Maya, XSI, Lightwave, Photoshop, Illustrator, Combustion, Premiere, After FX, and a few others.

I was never in debt tho. They are high priced to keep them "high user" leveled...they arent home consumer products.
Click to expand...

I was simply venting...

I understand the reason for the pricey nature of the products. Delving in digital art is simply a hobby, I'm no where near your level of expertise on the subject of digital media. In turn, I can't justify dropping so much cash, because frankly the return wouldn't materialize.

However, as a person who loves to make amatuer films and digital art, I simply can't afford Adobe's more advanced products. As a result, I must settle for Pinnacle Studio (versus premiere) and Elements (versus photoshop). I think adobe (which makes some great products) needs to try to access the common computer user a little more.
 
sillyspook13

sillyspook13

Well-Known Member
Original Poster
Thanks for the help!

I plan on doing mostly freelance work for now, so it sounds like elements may be right for me.:D
 
NowInc

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by imagineer99
I was simply venting...

I understand the reason for the pricey nature of the products. Delving in digital art is simply a hobby, I'm no where near your level of expertise on the subject of digital media. In turn, I can't justify dropping so much cash, because frankly the return wouldn't materialize.

However, as a person who loves to make amatuer films and digital art, I simply can't afford Adobe's more advanced products. As a result, I must settle for Pinnacle Studio (versus premiere) and Elements (versus photoshop). I think adobe (which makes some great products) needs to try to access the common computer user a little more.
Click to expand...

Actuall..adobe is taking steps to cater to the "ameature" artist. Elements was the first step in that. They are looking into making video products with a similar nature.

The way I look at it..and i dont want to come off as being arogant or mean, is if you cant afford the software, then you shouldnt be using it. I do view the situation from the standpoint of a firm with many artists working, and a lot of companies do sell cheaper "licences" for many users...so that problem also isnt being ignored.

I do have beef with the increasing # of pirated users out there making money from using software they didnt legally pay for. Its not only disrespectfull, but it creats higher prices for the legal users such as myself. Ive worked for too many companies who tried getting away with using illegal copies, and every last one of them ended up with heavy fines, usually resulting in them going out of buisness.

Microsoft is currently testing new anti-piracy measures that hopefully will work to solve these problems.
 
imagineer99

imagineer99

New Member
Originally posted by NowInc

The way I look at it..and i dont want to come off as being arogant or mean, is if you cant afford the software, then you shouldnt be using it.
Click to expand...

This is kind of like the chicken and the egg argument.

If I'm never able to afford the product, then how am I ever going to become familar with the product enough so that a purchase would be warranted?

Anyways...back on topic.

Sillyspook, I'd go with elements. It truly is an amazing program for the price.

Side Question to NowInc:

I'm plannning on purchasing a drawing program. Would you suggest Adobe's Illustrator or Macromedia's Freehand MX? or Corel Draw?
 
NowInc

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by imagineer99
This is kind of like the chicken and the egg argument.

If I'm never able to afford the product, then how am I ever going to become familar with the product enough so that a purchase would be warranted?
Click to expand...

Go to college :D



Side Question to NowInc:

I'm plannning on purchasing a drawing program. Would you suggest Adobe's Illustrator or Macromedia's Freehand MX? or Corel Draw?
Click to expand...

Definatly illustrator, especially if you are already an adobe product user. Im personally very anti macromedia, and corel isnt really all its cracked up to be either.
 
C

cloudboy

Well-Known Member
If you are in college I would check around for the educational versions - they are usually cheaper, but often don't come with manuals. And you have to provide proof that you are a college student.

Colleges seem to be the place where most of the pirated software comes from. Any respectable decent sized - firm should not be using pirated software anymore - I can't imagine any of them taking that kind of risk.

I understand that there is a certain desire to keep programs like Photoshop and Illustrator at a high level, but really somehow I just find that that is completely against the whole idea of what the computer, the information age, and progress are supposed to be - allowing people to do more and do it better and have access to better tools. Kind of elitist on one hand, and just plain greedy on another. Mind you, I don't think Adobe is the worst at this, but they are bad at it (look at Acrobat - it could be a great tool and really useful to a lot of people but they price it so far out of reach that everyone uses other programs).

Any idea if they are looking at a lite version of Illustrator?
 
NowInc

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Originally posted by imagineer99
I just looked this up in Amazon...the price looks right.

However, would you consider it a viable vector drawing program?
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Its no where near what illustrator is..its more for people who draw freehandidly. I used it back in college for a trace bitmap type feature (since im not a big fan of flash)..its got a pretty decent toolset for what most people would need to do. Wont really recommend it if you are planning on doing heavy duty ad work tho. There MAY be a demo floating around on the adobe webpage...even tho the full version is pretty cheap.
 
NowInc

NowInc

Well-Known Member
Not meaning to triple post..but i wanted to add that if you can afford it..getting the adobe creative suite is definatly worth it. Its got all the essential design programs all in one package and they work seemlessly together (you can drag and drop files from application to application seemlessly...really neat)
 
imagineer99

imagineer99

New Member
Thanks for the info. The free trial sounds like a great way to figure things out.

So the creative suite comes with what?

I'm assuming: Illustrator, Photoshop, Image Ready, and ?????:confused:
 
imagineer99

imagineer99

New Member
Sorry to double post...

I just looked up Adobe's suite, and for the price, you get a really amazing set of programs.

However, I'm not too fond of Go Live. I think Dreamweaver is a better program.

What's your take on the web development software?
 

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