The tagging systems are mutually incompatible.
Sorry.
Why? PSA has been out for a long time, has the name Photoshop, links to Photoshop for an editor, why is it different?
Can you compare and contrast the two, or point me somewhere that does? I have to assume CS does it better than PSA, but when you assume….
(I like PSA because my wife and kids can use it easily and it has just enough to keep me happy.)
Fred
You really can’t compare the 2 products, as they have entirely different aims.
PSA is a tool to organise lots of pics and provides some very basic [but, IMHO, very effective] correction/adjustment facilities. The main limitation is that they can only be applied to the whole image.
The next step in complexity/sophistication is Photoshop Elements [PSE], which links in nicely with PSA. The big advantages are more image control, with layers and stuff, and the possibility to make adjustments to parts of images. PSE is cheap and fantastic value for money.
PS CS is the latest version of the "pro" package. It’s very new – PS 7 is the widely used version [that I have]. This adds all kinds of things to PSE, but you pay for it in complexity and $$$. For me, I love the flexibility that layer masks provide.
Hope this clarifies matters for you.
Colin, I understand that, but they all share the name Photoshop. I’ve used PS for years and won’t give it up.
But when 2 products share the same first name and do the same function that is very labor intensive (tag pictures) my first impression is that they would allow the database to be shared.
Now if PSA was called Adobe PhotAlbum it would be a different story. But is it PHOTOSHOP Album – that implies an album function for Photoshop, doesn’t it? And then when Photoshop actually gets an album function, well, shouldn’t they work together?
I’m not looking for excuses or even answers, what it is it is, and now that it’s out I don’t expect it to ever change, but you can understand my frustration. With this and activation I may just sit CS out for a while and see what happens.
So much for consistency.
I guess it’s time to bite the bullet and go to iMatch rather than PSA2.
Fred
PSA does integrate with both PSE and PS 7 …
Can’t imagine why you’d seek an alternative.
Your point about the naming is well made. I guess it’s all about branding. PS is Adobe’s brand for digital imaging stuff …
PSA integrates with PSE and PS7 for editing, but Adobe is touting their new tagging function in PS CS. Why they would not use a compatible system is beyond me.
I’d like to hear from Adobe why there is a difference?
Fred
Well, Fred, there’s no good answer. Mostly it’s because that tagging information is kept in a separate database by Album and there wasn’t time to add compatibility with that database to Photoshop. Photoshop CS adds the keywords to the file metadata itself.
-Scott
Hi Scott:
Given the difference in approaches implemented for supporting tags in Album and Photoshop CS, do you think it would be possible for Adobe to provide a script that would process the Album database and update
the image file metadata with the tags from Album [as keywords I suppose] ?
Despite its ease of use the time invested in tagging images in Album is significant. It would be great if that investment could be salvaged by automating the process of moving the tag data into a form usable in the CS environment.
cheers
-jg-
It’s goofy, I know, but there won’t be a solution coming soon. We do understand that there is now an overlap in user base between the two programs and a solution has to happen. It won’t happen overnight, I’m afraid. And I don’t think there is a way of scripting things to the point of being able to automate the synchronization without internal program support in Album.
-Scott
