I'm a real beginner to digital image processing (I've had a digital camera for 6 years, but have only had a computer for 2, and I'd fallen into the habit of only making prints from my CF cards at a camera store).
There's no way, as a hobbyist and a person of modest income, that I can justify the purchase of CS2 right now. However, it seems that PSE can do a lot of the things that CS2 can do, and makes more sense for someone at my level of learning. I checked out the user reviews of PSE 4.0 on Amazon, and there were many comments that said that 4.0 was not a significant improvement over 3.0, and in many ways represented a step down. There are unregistered copies of 3.0 on sale at ebay at prices I can definitely afford.
What have been the experiences of people here with version 4.0? Any complaints? I'm particularly concerned about amazon user comments that it caused system freezes and crashes, because I don't have a very souped-up computer (HP Notebook with 1.87-GHz Athlon processor, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, running Windows XP).
Hi Rina. Welcome to NPN. Hope you enjoy yourself here.
I used PSE 3 for a few years and was very happy with it. As a matter of fact, even though I have upgraded to CS2 on my desk top, I still use it onmy lap top as it takes up a lot less HD space. I also find that the "organizer" part of the program is outstanding. It is based on PS Album. I back up my images on a DVD then load thumbnails from the DVD to PSE 3 Organizer. From here Orgaizer allows me to tag the thumbs with searchable names or ID so I can locate any image years from now. I can actually look at thumbnails of the images as I am searching. I believe that PSE 4 has a less user friendly organzing system.
You will have to download the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw so PSE3 can recognize your camera. The latest ACR version is totally compatable with PSE3.
Last suggestion is to consider buying an external monitor to attach to your notebook. Notebook monitors are less than ideal for image editing as they are hard to keep consistant with their tilting angles. It is not impossible, just not ideal using a notebook monitor.
Hope this helps.
Posted by Mel Ladewig on August 28, 2006 at 9:03 AM
Rina,
I've used both. I did not notice significant differences between them, but believe that PSE 4 added some additional 16 bit support that was not in PSE 3. It also added an annoying red-eye fix tool that tries to fix ALL of your photos when you load them. Not very useful if like me, you don't take many photos with flash and people in them.
Also, PSE 3 allowed some actions to be added that would give you some of the full photoshop functions, namely curves. Look at Earthbound Light's website. Unfortunately, PSE 4 blocked this capability. In addition, PSE 4 can only be run on XP regardless of processor speed, while PSE 3 could be run on Windows 2000 and other apps.
In my mind, I really don't see any advantages to using PSE 4, while I do see some downsides. I'd go for PSE 3 myself.
Posted by Bill Chambers on August 28, 2006 at 11:53 AM
Good advice Rina. I started off with PSE2, purchased off ebay for $20 after PSE3 came out. I have since upgraded to CS2, but PSE will do much of what CS2 can do and for a lot less money. A great way to start.
You can edit your shots in PSE and still download them to photofinisher if you wish.
Thanks, Ed, Mel, and Bill! Your comments confirmed the other opinions I'd read: that PSE4 was not an improvement over PSE3, and that 3 would be the better value. I've just purchased PSE3 on ebay. I'm so excited to get started with it! The little bit of editing I've done with PhotoImpression (came with my computer) has made me very aware of its limitations.
I'm very impressed with the kindness everyone here has shown to me, as I'm such a beginner. There's absolutely no hint of "eye-rolling". I know I'm going to learn a great deal on this web site, and really improve my photography.
Posted by Bill Chambers on August 28, 2006 at 2:40 PM
Rina, you're right about NPN - there are a bunch of very nice and helpful people here and it sounds like you're going to fit right in. Hope to see you post some images soon, if you haven't already. Be sure to participate by adding comments to other images as well as this is a great way to learn while enjoying others work.
You also might want to ask around about the memory of your laptop. I was running PSE2 on my old desktop (Pentium 1 or 2 I think, with 512K RAM, and it ran pretty darn slow on what I then thought were large files (Scanned files) There's no way I could have run RAW files thru I don't believe. Even today with 2GB RAM CS2 runs pretty slow on really big files.
There are times I wish I had CS2, and I'll upgrade sometime (probably after CS3 comes out, though), but PSE does most of what I need.
I don't know about PSE 3&4, but there are hacks to get use of Layer Masks (on image layers) in PSE 1&2, and I would never give those up. (Note, PSE allows layer masks on adjustment layers by default--it's the masks on image layers that need the hacks.) If PSE 3/4 haven't added that feature, and if there isn't a hack, I wouldn't want them!
I seem to recall reading that CS doesn't have the selection brush tool that is in PSE2. That would be unfortunate, if true, as I wouldn't want to give that up. (Unlike layer masks, I could live without it, but I would prefer to have it.)
I'm very impressed with the kindness everyone here has shown to me, as I'm such a beginner. There's absolutely no hint of "eye-rolling". I know I'm going to learn a great deal on this web site, and really improve my photography.
We were all beginners once. I started with this site about 4 years ago and have seen my images improve quite a bit due to the help from other members on NPN. One thing about nature photography is that we are all still learning. If we ever "get it right" there would be new challanges to overcome.
Discussion
7 repliesThere's no way, as a hobbyist and a person of modest income, that I can justify the purchase of CS2 right now. However, it seems that PSE can do a lot of the things that CS2 can do, and makes more sense for someone at my level of learning. I checked out the user reviews of PSE 4.0 on Amazon, and there were many comments that said that 4.0 was not a significant improvement over 3.0, and in many ways represented a step down. There are unregistered copies of 3.0 on sale at ebay at prices I can definitely afford.
What have been the experiences of people here with version 4.0? Any complaints? I'm particularly concerned about amazon user comments that it caused system freezes and crashes, because I don't have a very souped-up computer (HP Notebook with 1.87-GHz Athlon processor, 512 MB RAM, 40 GB Hard Drive, running Windows XP).
Thanks for your help!
I used PSE 3 for a few years and was very happy with it. As a matter of fact, even though I have upgraded to CS2 on my desk top, I still use it onmy lap top as it takes up a lot less HD space. I also find that the "organizer" part of the program is outstanding. It is based on PS Album. I back up my images on a DVD then load thumbnails from the DVD to PSE 3 Organizer. From here Orgaizer allows me to tag the thumbs with searchable names or ID so I can locate any image years from now. I can actually look at thumbnails of the images as I am searching. I believe that PSE 4 has a less user friendly organzing system.
You will have to download the latest version of Adobe Camera Raw so PSE3 can recognize your camera. The latest ACR version is totally compatable with PSE3.
Last suggestion is to consider buying an external monitor to attach to your notebook. Notebook monitors are less than ideal for image editing as they are hard to keep consistant with their tilting angles. It is not impossible, just not ideal using a notebook monitor.
Hope this helps.
I've used both. I did not notice significant differences between them, but believe that PSE 4 added some additional 16 bit support that was not in PSE 3. It also added an annoying red-eye fix tool that tries to fix ALL of your photos when you load them. Not very useful if like me, you don't take many photos with flash and people in them.
Also, PSE 3 allowed some actions to be added that would give you some of the full photoshop functions, namely curves. Look at Earthbound Light's website. Unfortunately, PSE 4 blocked this capability. In addition, PSE 4 can only be run on XP regardless of processor speed, while PSE 3 could be run on Windows 2000 and other apps.
In my mind, I really don't see any advantages to using PSE 4, while I do see some downsides. I'd go for PSE 3 myself.
You can edit your shots in PSE and still download them to photofinisher if you wish.
I'm very impressed with the kindness everyone here has shown to me, as I'm such a beginner. There's absolutely no hint of "eye-rolling". I know I'm going to learn a great deal on this web site, and really improve my photography.
You also might want to ask around about the memory of your laptop. I was running PSE2 on my old desktop (Pentium 1 or 2 I think, with 512K RAM, and it ran pretty darn slow on what I then thought were large files (Scanned files) There's no way I could have run RAW files thru I don't believe. Even today with 2GB RAM CS2 runs pretty slow on really big files.
There are times I wish I had CS2, and I'll upgrade sometime (probably after CS3 comes out, though), but PSE does most of what I need.
I don't know about PSE 3&4, but there are hacks to get use of Layer Masks (on image layers) in PSE 1&2, and I would never give those up. (Note, PSE allows layer masks on adjustment layers by default--it's the masks on image layers that need the hacks.) If PSE 3/4 haven't added that feature, and if there isn't a hack, I wouldn't want them!
I seem to recall reading that CS doesn't have the selection brush tool that is in PSE2. That would be unfortunate, if true, as I wouldn't want to give that up. (Unlike layer masks, I could live without it, but I would prefer to have it.)
-Paul
We were all beginners once. I started with this site about 4 years ago and have seen my images improve quite a bit due to the help from other members on NPN. One thing about nature photography is that we are all still learning. If we ever "get it right" there would be new challanges to overcome.
Enjoy,
Ed