Choosing Editing Software

R
Posted By
ralph
Feb 13, 2006
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218
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5
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Closed
I am new to digital photography although I have a good background in film and in computers. I need help choosing editing software. I have downloaded and read the user guide for Microsoft Digital Image 2006 Suite and it appears to be suitable. However I need help choosing between it and Adobe Photoshop Elements v4.
1: Is the manual for Photoshop Elements available for downloading? 2: In general terms how do these two programs compare? Are there important features that one has but the other does not have?
thanks…..ralph

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Charley
Feb 13, 2006
If you haven’t done any digital photo editing before, a very good and reasonably cheap place to start is Elements. It is a trimmed version of Adobe’s Photoshop. Once you learn Elements you can easily move on to Photoshop. I’m not familiar with Microsoft Digital Image Suite 2006, but in the past it has been my opinion that Microsoft did not have a very good image editor. Adobe has been the photo editing leader and has been the choice of almost all commercial photo and printing businesses.


Charley

"ralph" wrote in message
I am new to digital photography although I have a good background in film and in computers. I need help choosing editing software. I have downloaded and read the user guide for Microsoft Digital Image 2006 Suite and it appears to be suitable. However I need help choosing between it and Adobe Photoshop Elements v4.
1: Is the manual for Photoshop Elements available for downloading? 2: In general terms how do these two programs compare? Are there important features that one has but the other does not have?
thanks…..ralph

DT
David Thompson
Feb 13, 2006
Adobe Elements is extremely powerful and popular, so the Internet is loaded with sites that will help you get up and running. The same is not true for the MS application.

As an aside, You may want to consider Elements version3 rather than 4. There are many enhancements for version3 that boost it to ~80% of the power of the "professional" Adobe CS2. Unfortunately, those enhancements can’t be used in version4. The only significant upgrade in version4 is an "extract" tool which isn’t very sophisticated, so doesn’t work very well for difficult subjects (like retaining a subject’s hair when extracting). So it doesn’t really do any more than your can do in version3, using different tools.

Regards,
David "Routemeister" Thompson
http://home.rochester.rr.com/backroads/

"ralph" wrote in message …
I am new to digital photography although I have a good background in film and in computers. I need help choosing editing software. I have downloaded and read the user guide for Microsoft Digital Image 2006 Suite and it appears to be suitable. However I need help choosing between it and Adobe Photoshop Elements v4. –Snip…
HC
Henry Carlson
Feb 17, 2006
Specifically, what enhancements are you speaking of.

"Routemeister" wrote in message
Adobe Elements is extremely powerful and popular, so the Internet is loaded with sites that will help you get up and running. The same is not true for the MS application.

As an aside, You may want to consider Elements version3 rather than 4. There are many enhancements for version3 that boost it to ~80% of the power of the "professional" Adobe CS2. Unfortunately, those enhancements can’t be used in version4. The only significant upgrade in version4 is an "extract" tool which isn’t very sophisticated, so doesn’t work very well for difficult subjects (like retaining a subject’s hair when extracting). So it doesn’t really do any more than your can do in version3, using different tools.

Regards,
David "Routemeister" Thompson
http://home.rochester.rr.com/backroads/

"ralph" wrote in message …
I am new to digital photography although I have a good background in film and in computers. I need help choosing editing software. I have downloaded and read the user guide for Microsoft Digital Image 2006 Suite and it appears to be suitable. However I need help choosing between it and Adobe Photoshop Elements v4. –Snip…

AB
Andrew Bealing
Feb 17, 2006
I would agree that Photoshop Elements is the way to go but it does take some learning. If you later decide to upgrade to the full package you won’t have wasted your time learning another one as the editor is basically the same with a few functions removed or reduced. There are also some good books which help as well as good training probably wherever you are as well as on the web because is such a standard.

Try this for some enhancements to Elements 3 which apparently do not work in v4.

http://www.earthboundlight.com/phototips/photoshop-elements- curves.html

I hope this helps.

Andrew

"Henry Carlson" wrote in message
Specifically, what enhancements are you speaking of.

"Routemeister" wrote in message
Adobe Elements is extremely powerful and popular, so the Internet is loaded with sites that will help you get up and running. The same is not true for the MS application.

As an aside, You may want to consider Elements version3 rather than 4. There are many enhancements for version3 that boost it to ~80% of the power of the "professional" Adobe CS2. Unfortunately, those enhancements can’t be used in version4. The only significant upgrade in version4 is an "extract" tool which isn’t very sophisticated, so doesn’t work very well for difficult subjects (like retaining a subject’s hair when extracting). So it doesn’t really do any more than your can do in version3, using different tools.

Regards,
David "Routemeister" Thompson
http://home.rochester.rr.com/backroads/

"ralph" wrote in message …
I am new to digital photography although I have a good background in film and in computers. I need help choosing editing software. I have downloaded and read the user guide for Microsoft Digital Image 2006 Suite and it appears to be suitable. However I need help choosing between it and Adobe Photoshop Elements v4. –Snip…

DT
David Thompson
Feb 18, 2006
These are the enhancements that I’ve added to Elements3: They are standard capabilities in the full version of Photoshop.
Color Channels
Channel mixer
Mask Layer
Curves adjustment Layer
Sharpen Layer
Expand Detail
Extract Luminosity
Infrared effect
Sepia
Quick Mask Mode
Custom Filter
High Pass Filter
Maximize filter
Minimize filter
Offset filter

Everything above is available free at Paul Shipley’s web site. including Help pages to get you started.
http://member.melbpc.org.au/~pshipley/

I would love to have access to LAB mode (it’s buried in Elements because all Adobe Photoshop transformations and effects actually happen in LAB
mode) but no one has "unburied" it yet.

"Henry Carlson" wrote in message
Specifically, what enhancements are you speaking of.

"Routemeister" wrote in message
Adobe Elements is extremely powerful and popular, so the Internet is loaded with sites that will help you get up and running. The same is not true for the MS application.

As an aside, You may want to consider Elements version3 rather than 4. There are many enhancements for version3 that boost it to ~80% of the power of the "professional" Adobe CS2. Unfortunately, those enhancements can’t be used in version4. The only significant upgrade in version4 is an "extract" tool which isn’t very sophisticated, so doesn’t work very well for difficult subjects (like retaining a subject’s hair when extracting). So it doesn’t really do any more than your can do in version3, using different tools.

Regards,
David "Routemeister" Thompson
http://home.rochester.rr.com/backroads/

"ralph" wrote in message …
I am new to digital photography although I have a good background in film and in computers. I need help choosing editing software. I have downloaded and read the user guide for Microsoft Digital Image 2006 Suite and it appears to be suitable. However I need help choosing between it and Adobe Photoshop Elements v4. –Snip…

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