PS vs. Elements - Do I need to spend $700?

[megganholzer]

I just bought an awesome new computer...but, now I don't know what to do about Photoshop. I had gotten a free bootleg copy of PS from a friend for my old computer and loved it - unfortunately I passed the CD along to another friend and she lost it. I just can't afford $700 for a new copy of PS. Will Elements be good enough? I downloaded a free trial of Elements and it looks pretty good - but I haven't had a chance to play with it that much. Please help!

[roxygirl78]

I have PSE7 and have never used PS, so I don't know specifically what you'd be losing, but I can tell you that there has never been anything that I wanted to do in PSE that I couldn't. For what it is worth...I'm not advanced or anything. I just do simple photo editing, nothing major.

[dugarner]

I don't think you need PS unless you're very familiar with it and are fairly hard-core into designing, text on paths, and writing your own actions. I have CS3 and PSE 6.0 and use Elements almost exclusively. Every once in a while I've written an action in CS3 and that's what I use it for. I'm a lazy scrapper, meaning I'd rather buy it already done than do it myself. So I don't think it's worth paying for. If you use Elements for a while and get frustrated because there are things you wish you could do, then you could upgrade. But that's my two cents.

[maureenreynolds]

I think you will find that most of what you want to do is handled by PSE if you are into scrapping. Without knowing what you used your copy of PS for, it's hard to say. I have an old version that I bought as a student but as I am not seriously interested in editing photos up the gazoo, I am quite happy with my PSE6.

Like Sarah, I know I can figure out how to do a lot of things myself, e.g. brushes, templates and some elements, I have come to the conclusion that I am quite happy to pay someone else to design most of them. I plan to buy some more actions in 2010 that are designed fore PSE and I have Patti Knox for textpaths! That's enough to keep me happy.

imho, save your money till you are sure you NEED all the bells and whistles of CS4.

[iUma]

Just reading a new issue of Photoshop Creative and they say that PSE 8, the newest version, has a whole lot more than earlier versions and comes very close to PS in flexibility. At the price I'd go for the PSE and see if you are happy. Costco has had a sale on it recently... well a coupon. Amazon always has it at a good price. The Mac version is out too.

[deanie]

I've always used PSE and am thinking about upgrading to CS4. There are small things that I would enjoy having, like the warp tool, better masking capabilities etc. but I'm not sure it's worth the money just yet. PSE 8 has a lot of new features that look impressive. If you are into photography I would strongly recommend Lightroom for your major editing and cataloging tool. It's amazing.

[Jen D]

I have never owned elements... but if you are new to scrapbooking and don't want to invest that much money yet plenty of people are happy with elements.

Enjoy... whatever you decide!!!

[DonnaNJ]

I have PSE8 and love it.. from what I've read the primary differences between PSE and PS are that PSE has limited batch processing facilities.. in other words if you want to run 1500 photos from a wedding thru a series of actions, it's a problem, you can do some batch like running a whole folder thru a levels adjustment but I usually do them individually any way. It has very limitied ACTION capabilities. You can't create the sophisticated actions that you can in PS but you can run actions that were created in PS. So you could purchase PS CS3 actions and PSE can run them, you just can't create new ones of your own. If you're just starting out I think more than likely PSE will do what you need

[Joey_M]

I have PSE 5.0 and CS4. I just recently got CS4 for $300 (it was on sale), and found that there was a slight learning curve. You can look into Academic Superstore : Academic Software discounts for students, teachers and schools for student discounts (you might have to get creative in finding a student). I like being able to write/use actions for photos so CS4 is my new fave. I "survived" with PSE 5.0 for 2-3 years. I say, unless you want to use actions and write on paths or warp, go for the PSE and use the rest of the money for digital goodies!

[Scrapbird]

I use Elements and LOVE it! I teach a community (noncredit) digiscrapping class at our community college. It's been a popular class for 5 terms, and we use PSE 6.
Personally, I'd say it should provide more than you need, unless like Sarah says, you're into designing.
Try checking out the galleries of scrappers who use PSE, and see what you think.

[megganholzer]

Thank you all so much! From all the great feedback, it sounds like PSE will do everything I need. I visit a lot of different digi scrapping websites, but I think this one is definitely the best by far!

Scrapbird - I sure wish I was in Oregon so I could take your class. I don't think we have any here in Las Vegas.