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Hi-de-hi !
I'm relatively new to digital photography, but getting on quite well.
I'm using Corel Paintshop Pro. I'm thinking of buying Elements 9, as it seems to be the preferred choice by so many. Should I bother spending my hard earned dosh, or stick with PSP? Any advice would be welcome. There doesn't seem to me, to be much that Elements can do that PSP can't ! Confused.
Ta
Jeanette
Not used Paintshop pro in a few years but always found it to be superior to elements, It had layers before elements for example, The reason I changed was the fact most tutoriels in the magazines and on the net was for PS, I would have not changed otherwise.
I should imagine that there is very little difference between them now so quality wise you would find little difference to your workflow and images but if like me you wished to learn from the wealth of tutoriels for elements then it would be a good move.
Thank you Kev, I think that the fact that there are so many tutorials about for Elements, that I thought I must be missing summat!
I think I'll stick with PSP for now. The Help files & Learning Centre on it seem to be quite good, so I guess If it ain't broke...... don't fix it!
Thanks again.
For what it's worth . . .
I've never used Elements or PSP but I used to use Serif PhotoPlus which, I'm told, is pretty similar to Elements.
During that time, I followed and used tutorials for all sorts of editors, I could never find any specific ones for Serif but all of the others told me what I wanted to know.
It's through using all of these "wrong" tutorials that I'm now teaching myself to use Photoshop so don't be put off if you can't find a particular PSP tutorial.
Just use another one. The tools might have different names and/or be in a different place but the theory will always be the same.
Jester.
I've used PSP for several years and found it to meet my needs. I do competitive photo competition in digital and print presentations. I've found it to be user friendly and if you do read about various technices which can be done with elements or advanced Photoshop programs it is easy enought to translate the concepts into PSP methods.
I've thought about changing, but never do. I do wish at times some specific controls were more user friendly, but still a product I believe in.
PSP was great right up to version 7 when it was still under JASC software......
After Corel got hold of it, It became the " Bloatware " that we see today, Would not touch it with several digital barge poles, Its RAW engine might have improved but its still way behind Adobes " Camera Raw " and thats not quite as good as Capture One V6, Also nothing like as good as the Raw handling from makers own softwares provided free.....!!!
Adobe Photoshop Elements version XXX, Has pretty much everything you find in the full Photoshop version, Learning Elements can help those who may at some time graduate to the full program.
A few advantages with Elements, Much better Raw file engine, That is regularly updated with new camera models ( almost as fast as they hit the shelves ).
The plethora of tutorials, Even full photoshop tutorials can apply, Full and proper compatability with all the mainstream operating systems.
Does not hog resources as much as PSP the Corel version.....
Just before you run of with the idea that I'm an Adobe Fan Boy......
Perish the thought.....
I still use the JASC " PaintShop Pro " version 7 ( Anniversary edition ) to this very day..... It runs sweet as a nut on Windows 7 Ultimate ( 64bit ), In fact because it was written to run on much earlier and slower computers from years ago, It runs like an express train on steroids with the latest machines.....
Gotta luv that old JASC version......
Quote: PSP was great right up to version 7 when it was still under JASC software......
After Corel got hold of it, It became the " Bloatware " that we see today, Would not touch it with several digital barge poles, Its RAW engine might have improved but its still way behind Adobes " Camera Raw " and thats not quite as good as Capture One V6, Also nothing like as good as the Raw handling from makers own softwares provided free.....!!!
Adobe Photoshop Elements version XXX, Has pretty much everything you find in the full Photoshop version, Learning Elements can help those who may at some time graduate to the full program.
A few advantages with Elements, Much better Raw file engine, That is regularly updated with new camera models ( almost as fast as they hit the shelves ).
The plethora of tutorials, Even full photoshop tutorials can apply, Full and proper compatability with all the mainstream operating systems.
Does not hog resources as much as PSP the Corel version.....
Just before you run of with the idea that I'm an Adobe Fan Boy...... Perish the thought.....
I still use the JASC " PaintShop Pro " version 7 ( Anniversary edition ) to this very day..... It runs sweet as a nut on Windows 7 Ultimate ( 64bit ), In fact because it was written to run on much earlier and slower computers from years ago, It runs like an express train on steroids with the latest machines.....
Gotta luv that old JASC version......
What he said
I "grew up" on JASC PSP, stopped using it much after Corel got their hands on it. I still use it for some simple stuff, as I find it faster for some things, but never EVER print from it, because the printer profile support in PSP sucks big time.
I have used PSP since version 8 and now have version X3 (up to Version 9 was produced by JASC and their versions were much better). It is a very well spec'd piece of software and does a great job. However, like all complex software it does take a bit of learning and this is where PSE9 comes in to it's own. Although I still have PSPX3 on my machine I now mostly use PSE9 because of the support available. Almost every magazine, web site, blog etc, etc assumes you have it (or the full version of Photoshop) and this makes learning the more advanced functions so much easier.
PSP has much to commend it but the support available to help you learn PSE swings it for me. Since installing PSE9 I have barely used PSP.
Good luck with your choice.
Ewan
I did use PSP V7 buy then moved straight to PS. At the time Jasc PSP was often unstable even though it had an excellent set of features. I would imagine that under Coral control PSP is much more stable and well supported. If you are getting on well with it, I am not sure you should change unless you are specifically aware of features in Elements that you need but currently do not have. If you changed to Elements, you would have to learn to navigate a different interface but most of the basic tools and processes are similar. For example, once you understand why you would want to use levels and how to use levels there is little difference between PSP and Elements. I would suggest you carry on using PSP for now but perhaps find out more about the alternatives and determine whether you would benefit from changing. If you do decide a change is right for you then you can usually download 30 day trials for most editing software though you could not expect to fully evaluate in 30 days.
Dave
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