Paint Shop Pro or Elements?

julianhj

julianhj

julianhj

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I'm about to take the plunge on one of these packages. I know virtually nothing about image editing, but plan on teaching myself (probably with the aid of a book or two and magazine features).

Is there a generally preferred option or are they pretty similar?
 
I'll probably splash the cash for the Ultimate X2 version if I go the PSP route, purely for the support, updates etc.

Gutted I didn't look around a month ago, as it was available for £35. It's now around £56. :(
 
julianhj said:
I'll probably splash the cash for the Ultimate X2 version if I go the PSP route, purely for the support, updates etc.

Gutted I didn't look around a month ago, as it was available for £35. It's now around £56. :(
Click to expand...
I wouldn't be surprised if there is a new PSP edition due out soon.
 
You can try Elements for a month free from Adobe, (download it) the latest version is excellent, so much so I bought a copy from OcUK a while back. :-)
 
I'd go for Elements as there are a shedload of guides for it and if you ever buy any camera/digital photography magazines the tutorials will invariably be based on Photoshop/Elements. It's also the most widely used so getting help on these or other forums is much easier.
 
A lot depends what you are going to do with it ie high power stuff or just crop a few photos. Photoshop is the best but expensive only any good if you are using it in a pro situation or your rich. PSP is simple to use. I would download free versions of each and try them for a month Gimp is another good one and thats free
 
Photoshop Elements is pretty good value for what you get, I agree that getting the full version is a waste of money for anyone not working on images a lot/professionally but you don't lose as much as some people think by going for Elements.

The other option is to look at something like Lightroom which is targeted specifically at photographers.
 
elements

Lightroom is about 4 x the price of elements...

I am playing with the demo at the moment as well as the demo of Elements..

I am very new to this stuff but it feels to me :-

Lightroom.

For organising LOTS of photo's, keeps the original and a DB of changes, editing RAW, before you play in some other editor... (does do lots of batch etc.)

Elements

editing JPEG, simple organisation of photo's, lots of creative effects...
 
Elements has a RAW plug in and handles RAW files as well. For me it does all the image correction and preparation I need before printing to A3 or sending to online printer.
 
9designs2 said:
Elements has a RAW plug in and handles RAW files as well. For me it does all the image correction and preparation I need before printing to A3 or sending to online printer.
Click to expand...

Lightroom is designed for RAW

Elements RAW manipulation is much simpler...
 
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