Which Photoshop?

youknowwho

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy photoshop for an amateur photographer for Xmas but I'm not sure which version of elements to get. I assumed that Elements 12 was the most up to date but I note that it is cheaper than Elements 11 and older versions. Can anyone give me a steer please?

Thanks in advance.

7upfree

youknowwho wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy photoshop for an amateur photographer for Xmas but I'm not sure which version of elements to get. I assumed that Elements 12 was the most up to date but I note that it is cheaper than Elements 11 and older versions. Can anyone give me a steer please?

Thanks in advance.

Make sure it isn't an upgrade version (you would need to have the earlier version installed - thus cheaper). Elements 11 is excellent.

Rainbowsend

Have you considered Lightroom? A much easier photo processing software in my opinion, and Lightroom 5 has all the tools needed for processing both RAW and JPEG files.

youknowwho

I hadn't but I'll look into it, thanks.

D.S.

youknowwho wrote: »

Hi all,

I'm looking to buy photoshop for an amateur photographer for Xmas but I'm not sure which version of elements to get. I assumed that Elements 12 was the most up to date but I note that it is cheaper than Elements 11 and older versions. Can anyone give me a steer please?

Thanks in advance.

It really depends on what type of management / editing you want to do. Adobe Photoshop lightroom is IMHO great for managing your photos in one place (using the database driven library mgt module) while also being able to make edits (mostly global) in the develop module. There are also book and slideshow modules, however, I find these weak enough.

Adobe Photoshop Elements is a great light version of Adobe Photoshop CS/CC while Adobe Photoshop CC or the older CS versions are the kings in terms of graphic design and/or photo manipulation.

I use lightroom and recently got photoshop CC (through the $10 per month offer). I use lightroom for management of my photos (tagging, creating collections, making global edits which suffice for 90% of my shots) and then use Adobe photoshop CC for making local edits on images that need more finesse (e.g. content aware fill is amazing when stitching panos).

However, there are other options - Apeture, Capture One. I was at a B&W photography session last night here in Melbourne where a Nationally renowned photographer here swears by Capture One (despite having the full adobe suite). I had never used it before and when i asked him about his workflow after the session, he took me over to his laptop and walked me through it. It certainly appeared to be a much more sophisticated tool for making global edits (and some local edits) than Adobe's Camera Raw engine (which sits behind lightroom / elements / bridge / photoshop). However, this guy still uses the Adobe suite for certain types of edits (blend modes, content aware fill etc).

Which all takes us back to where we started. It depends on the type of editing/management you want to do and the ultimate end vision you are trying to achieve with your captures. I recommend Adobe but it's not perfect. Lightroom should get you by for photo management (if you want this) and 90% of your edits. Lightroom's also great for managing/editing many shots at the one time. Photoshop Elements or Photoshop CC is about just that the one image. Elements will get you some more of the way, but depending on what you want to do you may need CC. If the $10 a month deal is still on offer - I think it's a no brainer personally. Cheaper than upgrading every few years and you are guaranteed the latest versions of the lightroom/photoshop software. If you ever stop paying, you'll lose the ability to use the software but you won't lose your portfolio if save / back up your work in DNG / TIFF formats.