Photoshop Elements

[Kelly Grannell]

I personally would use PSE 4 because I can use thousands of plugins available for photoshop. I don't know about Paint Shop Pro. Will it take Photoshop plugins?

 

[T. Lynn]

Amazon has Paint Shop Pro for around $87 but then has $50 in rebates, making the product $37. Should I jump on this? I only have till April 15th.

 

[T. Lynn]

What do you mean by Plugins?

Actually I wanted to compare Corel Paint Shop Pro (not photo shop) and PE 4. I have both trials on my computer right now and it seems with Paint Shop, you can do more.

 

[Kelly Grannell]

there are plugins to do magical things on photoshop such as

- Alien Skin Image Doctor (visit alienskin.com) to remove scratches and other stuff (much faster and easier than using Photoshop's own tool)

- onOne Genuine Fractals 4.1 to enlarge an image up to 800% its original size (much faster and better quality than Photoshop's own bicubic enlargement)

- IC Net Filters Unlimited (300+ photo filters, aging kit etc, not available inside photoshop)

- Imagenomic Noiseware (to get rid of high-ISO noise)

- Kodak Airbrush Pro, to get rid of wrinkles WITHOUT blurring the rest of the pic such as hair and eyebrows.

There are literally hundreds more that I use on daily basis.

 

[rwodonnell]

I'd actually love to hear myself from a PhotoShop pro who has used PaintShopPro and could tell us the differences. I am sure there are a number, otherwise it could never justify the cost difference.

Since I am pretty familiar though with PaintShopPro, I can talk to that. I have not upgraded to version 10, so I am still on PSP 9. I have used it since version 4 or so for web graphics, icon creation, photo editing, etc. It has many of the same features that PhotoShop does. My sense is that it trails PhotoShop by a version or so in many ways - features, reading PhotoShop files, handling PhotoShop plugins. If it can't handle the newest PhotoShop plugins, often the vendor has a PSP specific plugin. Again, though, most of these are out of my price-range, and I find a way to do what I want to do within the bounds of the product usually, and it's amazing what you can do with it.

If you can get it for under $40, I personally think it's a deal! It aims to be like PhotoShop, and it's close enough for most people without hurting the wallet quite so badly. I don't know much about Photoshop Elements and how stripped down it is from Photoshop itself. If it's a major step-down, I would imagine PSP would be better (and it sounds like it's less expensive as well.)

 

[MICKEY88]

I use Paint Shop Pro X and love it, before purchasing I looked for reviews online and found a lot of reviews by professionals, they all pretty much stated the same thing. PAint shop pro x will basically do everything that photo shop will do at a fraction of the cost,

photo shop has been the industry standard for years, because it is advanced as far as the grahics/printing end of the software,

for the average/pro photographer, paint shop pro will do just fine


adobe has also done a much better job over the years of placing photo shop in stores and getting trial versions bundled on new pcs...



there are plugins available for paint shop pro, some can be found online for free others can be founds on ebay,

their are thousands of frames and tubes available for free online, just takes a little time searching...


PSP X has some great new tools such as brush on suntan

one click blemish and wrinkle remover, shooting a lot of teens, I find the blemish remover saves a lot of time when editing

there is also a one click teeth whitener tool that is incredible...

online tutorials might not be as plentiful for PSP X but they are out there, plus the full version comes with tutorial videos...



from what I've read PSP X gives you more bang for your buck than elements does, but it all depends on how advanced a program you want or how simplified you want it to be

 

[garris3404]

Could anybody recommend any books for learning PhotoShop Elements 4?

 

[ducklite]

I don't know if they've got an Elements 4 book (but I can't imagine they don't) but I've always really liked the SAMS Publishing books for great step by step easy to understand instructions in Photoshop.

Anne

 

[Lachesis00]

Look for Scott Kelby books. They are THE best for new users. I bought the one for CS2... amazing book.

 

[PhotobearSam]

Any sites where I can do tutorals and get some info...DH just picked it up for me the other day so I would have something to keep me occupied while he is in the Hospital for 10 days getting a knee replacement...Is he sweet or what? He was worried about me...


Thanks for any and all advice.

 

[Dan Murphy]

What a great guy Richard is, Sam. You have a keeper there. And good wishes all goes well with the replacement and recovery goes smoothly and well.

How about this site??

http://www.photoshopsupport.com/elements/tutorials.html

 

[jenny2]

Here's another good site for Elements (toutorials, downloads, etc):

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/

 

[PhotobearSam]

Thank you both so much...

Richard is doing ok but they say it's going to be 10 days not 7...

 

[amid chaos]

Here's the link to the plug in for a layer mask tool
http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/p/layermasks.htm

I'm doing fine until this part in the installation..

Next, go to the folder Program Files\Adobe\Photoshop Elements\Previews\Cache\Effects Cache and delete the following three files before restarting Photoshop Elements:
CatagoryCache.che
ListCache.che
ThumbNailCache.che

The effects cache is empty, nothing to delete and the plug in is not in Elements anywhere.

any suggestions? Thanks.

 

[handicap18]

I've had the same problem. I gave up a while back, but if someone knows what to do, I'd try it again.

 

[amid chaos]

Kyle.....I found this...maybe this will work?

http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/qt/layermasks.htm

Faking Layer Masks in Photoshop Elements
Layer masks are one of the features in Photoshop that Adobe did not carry over to Photoshop Elements. However, it's easy to duplicate this effect by grouping your layer with an adjustment layer. Here's how:
1...If the layer you want to mask is the background, first convert it to a regular layer, by double-clicking the background layer in the layers palette. 2...Type a name for the layer and click OK.
3...Add a solid color adjustment layer using any color as the fill.
4...Drag the color fill layer below the layer you want to mask. in the layer's palette, select the layer above that you want to mask, and press Ctrl-G to group it with the color fill layer. Your layers palette should look like the image shown on this page.
5...Now the mask of the color fill layer will act as a mask on the layer above.
6...Paint or fill with black on the mask to erase, white to reveal.

 

[amid chaos]

Kyle...it works..but be very specific in labeling your layers because you will be working with double the number.

 

[JR6ooo4]

did you try a standard windows search for those files to see if they are elsewhere?

 

[handicap18]

Kyle...it works..but be very specific in labeling your layers because you will be working with double the number.

Good to know. Next time I get a chance I'll check it out. Thanks!

 

[amid chaos]

did you try a standard windows search for those files to see if they are elsewhere?

Thanks..ran another search and there they were..I kind of "back doored" it to get there..LOL. But I was able to get the plug in where in belonged. Thanks for suggesting I give it another try.