Photoshop (Full Version) vs. Photoshop Elements 2.0

slackulaslackula
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I am considering purchasing one of these two software packages in the near future and from my reading think that Elements should do most of what I need for digital imaging.



My question to you all is: What are the features that you "can't live without" which are in the full version of Photoshop but are not in the Elements version?



Thanks!



Comments

  • Reply 1 of 6
    curiousuburbcuriousuburb Posts: 3,325member
    Adobe does offer an "upgrade trade-in" if you decide to start with Elements and then go up.

    Basically they rebate you the price of Elements towards the cost of the full PS

    1-800-88-FONTS if you have upgrade questions.



    As for the most noticeable feature set differences:

    Elements doesn't support CMYK, so if you want to colour correct for print, you'll need the full version.

    Some filters and adjustments are not supported by Elements (in part due to colour mode support)



    If you're a digital photographer, raw EXIF data support in the new PS CS doesn't exist in PSE



    depends what you want to do with them... if for professional uses, go pro.

    if for home/casual use, or to get your feet wet first, consider Elements



    I think PSE has a free 30 day trial download, so you could see if it fits your needs.
  • Reply 2 of 6
    digitaldavedigitaldave Posts: 445member
    Also...



    Elements doesn't support Photoshop Actions, so you won't be able to do much automation (e.g. batch processing of images), and you won't be able to use any of the actions that are available from many places.



    Elements doesn't support the curves feature. To be honest, I don't really know what this is for, but I'm sure someone here will know and can fill you in .



    However, despite having fewer features than Photoshop, Elements is a very powerful package. I'm very happy with it . As curiousuburb said, there's a trial version available for download, so if your internet connection is up to the job, give it a try.



    Hope that helps



    Dave.
  • Reply 3 of 6
    shagstlmshagstlm Posts: 112member
    I worked in a portrait studio for a couple of years and they use Photoshop and I have elements at home and I would definately say go for the real thing if you can afford it. It is so much better and powerful in many ways. Elements has a lot of finaky things that you can really only do one way but with photoshop you can pretty much do anything about 100 different ways. It is a much better program and im trying to convince myself that i need it (which i do) but like i said if you can afford it go for it because it rocks. If you've never used it consider taking a class or getting a book because it can be a bit daunting...



    chris
  • Reply 4 of 6
    cbothcboth Posts: 16member
    I have had Elements for about a year and find it a very useful program for the money. However, my daughter just upgraded me to Photoshop CS and that's a whole new world. I really don't need that much, but sure am having fun playing and learning with it.
  • Reply 5 of 6
    buonrottobuonrotto Posts: 6,368member
    The only 2 things I really miss in PSE from full PS are curves and masks. Preset recipes in PSE use masks but they're not accessible to the user normally. I can live without CMYK support and some other tools since I'm not a pro by any means.
  • Reply 6 of 6
    4fx4fx Posts: 258member
    Layer masks alone are worth the price of PS vs. PSE if you are doing any advanced compositing. However, most beginner users dont even know how to use masks, so unless you are willing to spend some money on books and time with the program, it wont really benifit you.



    Similarly, curves (think of it as an "advanced levels") are difficult for beginners (and even quite a few pro users) to figure out. For most color correction, levels does just fine, but curves does come in handy often if you are doing a lot of advanced color correction.



    Actions probably wont be an issue that you will have to worry about. Unless you are working with a lot of images that need the same edit(s), it isnt worth your time to record an actionscript.



    These are probably the biggest 3, though Ive only used Elements a couple of times so there could be more that Im missing (I think someone mentioned not all the filters are included), perhaps it doesnt have an advnaced brush options pallete?



    The upgrade route that was mentioned might be a good option. Also too, you can download a full version of PS7 and Elements2 and test them out against each other. PS8 has some new features over PS7, but chances are you wont use them anyway so PS7 is a decent measurement to compare the two.
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