Elements v CS (1 Viewer)

For the purposes of bird and general wildlife photography should I go for Elements 6 or save up for CS3? Are there key advantages to CS?

If anyone remembers a similar question / thread I'd be glad to read what has been said before but searching the forum has been unproductive so far (CS3 is too short a term!) so I'd be happy for a link!

Thanks

Roger P said:

For the purposes of bird and general wildlife photography should I go for Elements 6 or save up for CS3? Are there key advantages to CS?

If anyone remembers a similar question / thread I'd be glad to read what has been said before but searching the forum has been unproductive so far (CS3 is too short a term!) so I'd be happy for a link!

Thanks

Click to expand...

I'd be interested in hearing what people have to say about to this too. I do a lot of post-processing using PE6 and my guess is that for the "average" wildlife photographer CE3 would be overkill, but I'm definitely willing be contradicted on this by someone with experience of both programs.

To quote myself from an earlier thread:

"...I kind of object to people recommending Photoshop to beginners. It gives folks the impression that if you are "serious," you need to spend big bucks, which is definitely not the case. It's like home office users spending a lot for Microsoft Office because they'll feel more "professional," when OpenOffice would probably be more than enough.

"I do think that free products like Picasa are not sufficient for any kind of sophisticated web image creation - you need to be able to manipulate individual objects within images and move stuff around, which really requires layers, but for general photo enhancement, even these free, lesser products are usually fine. The intermediate products like Paint Shop Pro, Elements, and Gimp give you more control, and are also great for web design and sophistocated image manipulation like combining images, etc."

In other words, you definitely do not need CS. PaintShop Pro, Elements, Gimp, etc are MORE than enough, for beginners, intermediate, or even most advanced users.

You can read the entire thread, which discusses image software in general, here:
http://www.birdforum.net/showthread.php?t=108995

RAH, I got Elements 3.0 as a gift recently and I know this is an older elements, but I still have a lot to learn about it. I do like it.
Regards,Steve

Thanks for the link RAH, I'm not sure how a search would have got me there.

I take your point but I've been using Picasa for digiscoped pictures, now I've tried DSLR for a range of picture styles I've found Picasa rather crude and limited. I'm not fond of wasting money but have often found that going for budget options can be a false economy!

Still reading and thinking.

Roger I am a big fan of CS-3. It does a lot and there is probably nothing more capable.
I also use Elements 5 on my laptop for traveling. The main different is the more exotic stuff is not in elements. CYMK printing for commerical prints for example. There a just a few features I use in 3 that are not in elements 5.

The big question is how much do you want to get into Post Processing? CS-3 Photoshop requires a period of learning to get the most benefit. If you are only talking about cropping, sharpening and a little color and brightness adjusting, then there are many programs that have those functions at much less cost and time investment. I would recommend Elements 5 or 6 to start as they are not too pricey, easy to use and give you the best features of the bigger brother. And with either 5 or 6 you can download and upgrade to the latest Adobe Camera Raw for getting maximum benefit of shooting raw.
And should you decide to later step up what you learn in 5 or 6 will work the same in CS-3.

Roger P said:

now I've tried DSLR for a range of picture styles I've found Picasa rather crude and limited.

Click to expand...

Yes, you are absolutely correct, Picasa is limited. Programs like Picasa, XNView, Faststone, and IrfanView are mainly intended as browsers and viewers, not editors, although all can do editing.

For example, I use Irfanview as a viewer - when I know where my pictures are (in which folder) and I just want to look at some. It comes up fast and has many viewing options (e.g. full screen, etc).

If I'm trying to find an image, I'll usually use XNView, which has a nice thumbnail browser (Irfan does too, but not as nice).

If I want to EDIT an image, I'll usually use Paint Shop Pro, which I recommend. As I said, both it and Photoshop Elements are MORE than enough for most users (Paint Shop Pro is more powerful than Elements).

A new (to me) image editing program, Paint.net ( http://www.getpaint.net/ ) looks pretty nice too, and free. Also, GIMP is another free option which many people like.

Myself, as I say, I use freeware for browsing and viewing, and a relatively low-cost program for major editing. Seems like a good compromise to me.

mooreorless, I also use Elements 3. I have had Elements 4 and 5 and trailled 6 and none of them have the facility to "Browse folder/file in Editor". This means, to my uncertain knowledge, that you cannot get all of your shots up on the Editor at the same time. Hence it seems to take an eternity to go through the piccies.
P.S. I am also useless at any form of post processing so another reason for sticking with Elements 3 !

You can use the Organiser in Elements 6 (top right) to create viewable albums of thumbnails. Alternately, if you're a Windows user why not use the Explorer in Thumbnail view mode to browse your images?