Photoshop CS or Elements

[chunky]

Ok, question to all the togs, I need to get myself a copy of photoshop, do I go for the fully fledged CS version at ?500 notes or elements at a slightly cheaper ?70. There are obviously more considerations than cost, so your thoughts please chaps (and chapesses).

[eduardo]

.........or get a copy of the full thing of ebay like I did for a tenner.

[Jacques]

What do you want to do with it?

Basic image editing or fancy stuff? Do you need to handle RAW files?

[chunky]

Looking to shoot RAW from now on. Learnt a great deal in a limited time and RAW is definitely the way to go for me. Not looking to do terribly complex stuff, just a tool to optimise my pictures

[Jacques]

Photoshop CS (preferably CS2) then as Elements does not support RAW. And you'll need the Adobe DNG Convertor

[Alex L]

I've been trying to get to grips with Photoshop and the latest version of Elements, v3.0 is ok with raw.

[Jacques]

Alex L wrote:

> latest
> version of Elements, v3.0 is ok with raw.
>

I stand corrected - I was not aware of that.

[Bob Singleton]

I've have both (got Elements v3 while I was waiting for my insurance company to replace my copy of CS2) and can confirm that Elements does handle RAW.

The thing I dislike about Elements is it wanting to organise everything for you... great if you are generally disorganised yourself, but I like doing things my way and I hate software that thinks it knows what I want better than I do.

CS2 is great if you have the time to learn how to use it, but the learning curve can be pretty steep at times.

More often than not, once I've converted a RAW image into a jpg I use Paint Shop Pro which I find easier and more intuitive.

[The Last Word]

Always prefered PSP to Photoshop, but then Corel seem to know how to make applications far more user friendly than Adobe's over fiddly approach. Their mighty, frighteningly addictive Painter IX being all the evidence you'd ever need.

[Mountpleasant]

Photoshop CS is by far the best photosuite, second to none.
The professionals use it and the Police. Can't be beaten. If you download
the full demo version from the site, find someone with a good key generator, it's cost you nothing.