Photoshop CS vs Elements?

This questions has probably been asked a few times. But any way: I'm a beginner with underwater photography and would like to edit my photo's. I have no experience with photo editing and am looking into these two options. Which would be better for basic uwp editting??

Any other good options besides photoshop??

tnx for the info...

I would recommend that you start with the new version of Elements.

Cheers

James

James,

Can you comment on any important limitations in RAW processing in Elements 3 compared with CS? In particular, does it have the sort of capabilites you discussed in your aberrant feature?

(I still have Elements 2, do RAW with Nikon software).

Thanks,

Chris

Check out Peter Schulz's assessment of Elements on his website. It's www.splashdowndivers.com or something like that.

It does not have near the same RAW processing power as CS - it sounds like you are asking for an Advanced feature Chris - something I'd look to CS to provide, not Elements.

Cheers

James

I have not yet had time to get into Elements 3, (on my list of things to do) but I did a comparison for my Digital Workflow course of Photoshop and Elements 2. Keep in mind that some of this may have changed with version 3.

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2 or Adobe Photoshop

* Elements 2 offers more "short-cut" solutions to color correction with automatic features. Not necessarily that useful for underwater shots.

* Elements 2 has more automatic special effects and filters in the forefront. These effects can also be achieved in Photoshop, but are given less priority.

* Both have excellent built-in Help Tools & Tips. Elements 2 offers a bit more hand-holding than Photoshop. For example, The Recipes palette (How To) provides links to tips on how to accomplish specific tasks that the novice might not already be familiar with. The Hints palette shows you how to use the tools that are available. You can display Tips with the dialog box of each tool you use.

* Photoshop has more color spaces available for working with images for print (CMYK) and other formats.

* Elements 2 does not have the Curves command available in all versions of Photoshop

* Elements 2 does not have the Selective Color command available in Photoshop

* Elements 2 does not have the Color Balance command available in Photoshop

* Elements 2 does not have the Healing Brush and History Brush available in Photoshop

* Elements 2 does not have the Fade Filter

* Elements 2 does not have a Channels Palette available in Photoshop

* Elements 2 does not have Quick Mask available in Photoshop, but it does allow you to paint a selection and save that selection.

* Photoshop adds the option to save a particular color correction made in commands like Levels and Hue/Saturation so you can apply them later to different images.

* Photoshop allows you to adjust the options in the Levels command to modify the affects of the Auto option.

* Photoshop has more options when using Layers and Layer Masks.

Of course this is only a partial list of some of the more obvious differences in those tools and commands we used in the course. I've got the Elements 3 program now and will be doing an update shortly.

Elements has many of the features found in Photoshop and is a great program in itself. If you don't have any experience with an image editing program, you may be overwhelmed by all the options available in the full version of Photoshop. Might not be a bad idea to start with Elements 3 and eventually upgrade to the full version of Photoshop. You'll have much of your learning curve out of the way.

Hope this helps!

Bonnie

Re "Keep in mind that some of this may have changed with version 3. "

In fact 3 is a much better program than 2 and now includes RAW support and the healing brush. So for people only needing a photo editing program and not a graphics program, Elements 3 is probably all that is needed.

Thanks, guys.

I'm really looking forward to trying it out... just need a new computer to run the program

Jacqueline