Photoshop Elements

[AndrewWG]

Exactly my thinking, Amy. Ansel Adams is a great example of what will be lacking in the future. Too bad. Anyways, enough of my soapbox ranting. I don't want to put a damper on this thread because I think you did an awesome job of getting those people out of the photo, and that is precisely the reason I have photoshop myself.

 

[boBQuincy]

I have a few Ansel Adams books, including "The Making of 40 Photographs". Although Adams didn't clone out people he did do an amazing amount of processing to make his prints look the way he envisioned the photograph.

Ansel Adams was a master at burning and dodging, quite good at using filters to alter tonal relationships, and very selective about which lens to use (he didn't really like "normal" lenses, thinking they often made the image look uninteresting).

My thoughts are: as long as we do not try to represent the photograph as something it isn't (like an uncrowded day at MK in this case), I am okay with making it look like what we envisioned.
Except for when we enter them in the weekly contest!

 

[AndrewWG]

My thoughts are: as long as we do not try to represent the photograph as something it isn't (like an uncrowded day at MK in this case), I am okay with making it look like what we envisioned.
Except for when we enter them in the weekly contest!

I totally agree with you.

I did not realize that Ansel Adams did so much processing of his photos. That scoundrel! just kidding I will have to read up on him some more, I guess. Thanks for that info.

As you said, I think that Amy's picture in this case is her vision of what the photo would come out like in the first place. Many times I have taken photos and then gone back and said "I did not even see that person, sign, etc. in the background when I took the photo". In cases like these, I have no problem making them disappear. Of course, (also as you said) these altered photos should NEVER be seen in any type of contest, here or anywhere else. Is there a way (program) that can tell you if a picture is altered in any way?

 

[jann1033]

straying from the op.....don't you think there is a difference as well with the intended use of the photo?...i remember reading how a photographer got in trouble for doctoring some shots...maybe presenting it as a portrayal of " news"( and even that might be ambiguous..ie... is sharpening ok but upping saturation a no no?) vs as a more artistic expression trying to get across what you felt or thought is different...at least to me it is kind of artistic license in the later case but while personally i would like to be able to fix something well in pp, i'd rather get it right when i take it...jmho

 

[Amy]

I have a few Ansel Adams books, including "The Making of 40 Photographs". Although Adams didn't clone out people he did do an amazing amount of processing to make his prints look the way he envisioned the photograph.

Ansel Adams was a master at burning and dodging, quite good at using filters to alter tonal relationships, and very selective about which lens to use (he didn't really like "normal" lenses, thinking they often made the image look uninteresting).

My thoughts are: as long as we do not try to represent the photograph as something it isn't (like an uncrowded day at MK in this case), I am okay with making it look like what we envisioned.
Except for when we enter them in the weekly contest!

Thanks Bob - like Andy, I didn't know that about Ansel Adams. I just figured he camped out for months at "the" spot waiting for just the right lighting and weather conditions. Hmm, maybe I'd better do some reading myself. And if you've seen some of my entries in the weekly contest, you can tell that they're straight from the camera. When I posted my villian picture yesterday (Darth Maul & Vader), I really didn't like it but it was the best one I had.

Is there a way (program) that can tell you if a picture is altered in any way?

I'm curious too - there has to be some way to tell? With digital, you can't even produce a negative to prove what the original looked like.

straying from the op.....don't you think there is a difference as well with the intended use of the photo?...i remember reading how a photographer got in trouble for doctoring some shots...maybe presenting it as a portrayal of " news"( and even that might be ambiguous..ie... is sharpening ok but upping saturation a no no?) vs as a more artistic expression trying to get across what you felt or thought is different...at least to me it is kind of artistic license in the later case but while personally i would like to be able to fix something well in pp, i'd rather get it right when i take it...jmho

I think I remember the photo you're talking about Jann - it was a photo of the aftermath of a bombing in Iraq/Afghanistan and they were pointing out how it was all staged, like the same person was in both pictures, etc.

Oh well. At least this is a friendly board and for the most part I think everybody follows the rules for the weekly contest. And if I remember, Dana had a week for Photoshopped photos last year to let everybody show off their creativity.

Ok, better get to work.....have a great day everyone!

 

[tinkamom]

I'd like to get DD25 one of these for her 26th birthday. Which one is better and/or more user friendly? One feature she is very interested in is adding a touch of color to a black and white photo. Thanks for any help, her birthday is this Sunday so I have to make a decision soon!

 

[Quicklabs]

I love Photoshop ELements 5. Very user friendly.
You can add a touch of color to virtually any B&W photo, but I did these with PSE 5.

 

[jann1033]

personally i found photoshop elements easier to use than paint shop ..you could do a quick free download of both and check them out. i don't know that either is really "better" I just found pse easier to master( well still haven't mastered it but....)

 

[tinkamom]

I love Photoshop ELements 5. Very user friendly.
You can add a touch of color to virtually any B&W photo, but I did these with PSE 5.

That is exactly what she wants to do! I actually bought photoshop elements 5.0 but returned it yesterday thinking the paint pro might be easier to learn! Then I started second quessing myself so I started this thread!

 

[tinkamom]

personally i found photoshop elements easier to use than paint shop ..you could do a quick free download of both and check them out. i don't know that either is really "better" I just found pse easier to master( well still haven't mastered it but....)

Unfortuntely, I already downloaded the trials at a very bust time so I didn't have much time to play with them! I thought paint shop was a bit more user friendly but I may be remembering wrong. Thats why I'm having so much trouble deciding now!

 

[Steve's Girl]

I tried Elements, but it kept locking up my computer. I'm sure it was more user error than anything else. But, it did get rather frustrating when I kept having to restart my computer and the edits didn't save, etc. So, I ended up with PSP simply because it runs better on my computer.

 

[Olaf]

Elements for sure. However, Elements works best if you have a lot of RAM.

 

[jann1033]

I tried Elements, but it kept locking up my computer. I'm sure it was more user error than anything else. But, it did get rather frustrating when I kept having to restart my computer and the edits didn't save, etc. So, I ended up with PSP simply because it runs better on my computer.

i was having a real problem as well till i did 3 things,1) move my 10,000+photos to a drive other than the one that had pse5 on it..had read larger catalogs can mess things up abit...@) get a hard disk copy instead of the download vesions 3) install the 5.2 update..one or a combination pretty much solved my problems( i have only 512 ram)

 

[cazzie]

I have Elements 4 and I have all the Paintshops since version 7. I love Paintshop and I reckon it is the best for sharpening photos. I don't find Elements as easy as Paint Shop but then I have been using Psp for years now so I suppose it's what I know better.

 

[photo_chick]

I tried Elements, but it kept locking up my computer. I'm sure it was more user error than anything else. But, it did get rather frustrating when I kept having to restart my computer and the edits didn't save, etc. So, I ended up with PSP simply because it runs better on my computer.

How much memory do you have? I have found PS ELements really needs 1 gb to run well. A decent video card can help too. (the video card will affect how well Photoshop renders certain effects)

As to the OP's question... I would get Photoshop Elements. It is not hard to use. I have been teaching my 6 year old DD and she is not having any problems. Well, except for running out of ink to print her work!

 

[MICKEY88]

I prefer Paint shop pro....it has an easy learning curve, many things can be done by beginners with one click, as you become better with the software you can do more things the long way

 

[GrumpyOne]

Is Lightroom an upgrade to Elements (does everything in Elements plus more) or are they complimentary products with little duplication?

I was considering buying the latest version of Elements and waffling between the basic or Elements 5 plus Premier 3 when I noticed Lightroom. The software itself seems to offer more than I know how to currently use with some intriguing features but I haven't been able to find a feature comparison between Lightroom and Elements.

At the moment, Lightroom is $200 through the end of April ($300 thereafter) while Elements 5 is $80 and Elements 5 bundled with Premier Elements 3 is $130 (all Amazon).

 

[KrazyPete]

If I were you I would download the lightroom free trial then watch these short videos:

PhotoshopUser.com: Lightroom Videos

I think that's as good an introduction to the product as you will find. Lightroom is very different from Photoshop (and I imagine elements).

 

[MarkBarbieri]

PSE is a photo editing program. Lightroom is a photo organizing and developing program. They are complimentary and they have a lot of overlap, but there is a lot that is different as well.

I use both Photoshop and Lightroom and love them both.

 

[photo_chick]

Both applications are different. They can do some of the same things, but they also both do different things. What kind of image editing do you want to do?