Until April 4 users of Photoshop Elements (the last three versions) can buy CS5 for $299. They say the regular price is $699.
Is Photoshop in general or CS5 in particular ever available for less than $299?
$299 is still $299, though, so I wonder if anyone here has actually used both Elements and Photoshop enough to know whether there's enough more in Photoshop to make it worth it.
Thank you for any input.
Posted by Luke Ormand on March 23, 2011 at 12:56 PM
CS5 is only available cheaper than the upgrade price for students or teachers. I got mine with a student/teacher discount for $200
Posted by David Bostedo on March 23, 2011 at 1:18 PM
Sometimes you can get a CS-to-CS upgrade for less (like this), but I think that's the best price I've seen for an Elements-to-CS upgrade. (And it's what I paid to go from Elements 4 to CS4.)
I think my upgrade was well worth it to have the complete version of ACR, as well as complete 16-bit functionality and action functionality.
Posted by Paul DeCesare on March 23, 2011 at 1:36 PM
If you're not a student or teacher, that $299 upgrade is the absolute best price you will legally get, and if it's in your budget, don't even walk, RUN to your PC and order the real Photoshop for that price. There's no comparison between the two. If you're serious about your photo work Barbara, which I believe you are based on your enthusiastic participation in this forum, you'll want to invest in the proper tools. Yes, you can do a lot in Photoshop Elements and I think it's a great way to get exposed to Photoshop (it's really Photoshop, just feature-limited). But the real Photoshop gives you an enormous amount of features that are to numerous to list, and in fact, there are three that are worth the purchase price alone: One is the Camera Raw that comes with real Photoshop... the Local Adjusment brush is a tool I use on almost every image. I recently discovered also how good the noise reduction is in CS5's Camera RAW, often I don't need Noise Ninja now. Second feature in the real PS is the Refine Edge command. This new one is mind-blowing, you can actually select HAIR or wheat in a field, perfectly, so you can move that selection to another layer, etc. That was never possible before. You can also save selections and reload them which recently became a huge part of my workflow. Third, you have more tools that support Content-Aware Fill, another mind-blower.
You also get Layer Styles for all types of editing per layer. Another huge addition is Adobe Bridge which has finally become the powerful utility it was meant to be. Have a look at this video and you'll see a 9-minute video of the power of the real Photoshop. THEN, there's the whole graphics capability that you don't get in Elements which is all gravy!
Just to close, there is also Lightroom which many people like very much. It's especially good for organizing your images if you don't want to make your own workflow. However, it does not support Layers, you can only work on the image straight away, so for me personally it's not a good choice as I use Layers on practically every image (to not have Blending Modes would drive me batty, lol). Anyway, there's my $.02 plus tax, hope it adds a bit to your research. Let us know what you finally do!
Thanks for the responses, everyone. Paul (or anyone), Elements does have Camera Raw, at least a subset of it. I use it to process my raw files. But I don't think there's a Local Adjustment Brush. Elements also has Refine Edge, but I haven't ever figured out how to make it really make a difference. It also has the ability to save selections and reload them. It has Layers, and I always make a Levels Adjustment Layer. I'm going to watch the video you linked to, though. Thank you very much.
Posted by David Bostedo on March 23, 2011 at 3:16 PM
FWIW, I think the full version of ACR is the single best reason to upgrade, compared to the version of ACR that I had in Elements 4 (I'm not sure how much they've added in newer Elements versions, but I suspect it's still pretty bare bones.)
I think that Elements is plenty powerful enough for you at this stage of the game, Barbara.
That Elements->PS upgrade offer is always available at Adobe. I've seen it for at least 5 years now.
David B. took advantage of it quite awhile ago, I believe.
When you feel you've truly outgrown Elements, that offer will always be there for you.
Putting the $299 toward a better lens in the future would be a much wiser investment, IMO.
Posted by David Bostedo on March 23, 2011 at 6:05 PM
Yup - it was October 2008 that I bought CS4. One thing to be careful of though - the default price if you go through the front of the Adobe store, is $599.00.
You have to use the link John posted in this thread to get the $299 price. And no, I still have no idea why that works, but it's what I used.
Posted by Dan Roberts on March 23, 2011 at 7:27 PM
I'm still functioning with Elements 6. With pluggins for curves and noise reduction I've been getting along well. From everything I've gathered to date, I am able to do everything I'm capable of and needed at my level of skill but it is more labor intensive that full blown PS. I just downloaded a trial of PSE 9 a few days ago and from what I've seen so far it doesn't even warrant spending the $79 to upgrade from PSE 6. As others have said, if you process a lot of images and the efficiency is useful to you it may be worth it. Personally I've got the time and opt to spend the money on field gear. It's all good....
Posted by Paul DeCesare on March 24, 2011 at 2:28 PM
Barbara, ACR in Elements is a declawed cat, if you DO choose to utilize ACR as a big part of your post workflow, the real version is worth it.
HOWEVER, John has a very good point, actually the best point: you really don't need Photoshop until you need Photoshop, if that makes any sense. Working on the image capture is foremost, and putting the absolute best glass in front of your sensor will do way more that a better version of ACR. For instance, the Canon 70-200mm f/4 for $650 on a tripod will give you outrageous image quality, or even replacing the 18-55mm kit lens with the 17-40mm. As John said, good glass is essential. The first time I shot with my new 70-200mm/2.8 in November iof last year I was totally blown away with the detail on my screen. ACR versions didn't matter at that point!
Discussion
9 repliesIs Photoshop in general or CS5 in particular ever available for less than $299?
$299 is still $299, though, so I wonder if anyone here has actually used both Elements and Photoshop enough to know whether there's enough more in Photoshop to make it worth it.
Thank you for any input.
I think my upgrade was well worth it to have the complete version of ACR, as well as complete 16-bit functionality and action functionality.
You also get Layer Styles for all types of editing per layer. Another huge addition is Adobe Bridge which has finally become the powerful utility it was meant to be. Have a look at this video and you'll see a 9-minute video of the power of the real Photoshop. THEN, there's the whole graphics capability that you don't get in Elements which is all gravy!
Just to close, there is also Lightroom which many people like very much. It's especially good for organizing your images if you don't want to make your own workflow. However, it does not support Layers, you can only work on the image straight away, so for me personally it's not a good choice as I use Layers on practically every image (to not have Blending Modes would drive me batty, lol). Anyway, there's my $.02 plus tax, hope it adds a bit to your research. Let us know what you finally do!
That Elements->PS upgrade offer is always available at Adobe. I've seen it for at least 5 years now.
David B. took advantage of it quite awhile ago, I believe.
When you feel you've truly outgrown Elements, that offer will always be there for you.
Putting the $299 toward a better lens in the future would be a much wiser investment, IMO.
You have to use the link John posted in this thread to get the $299 price. And no, I still have no idea why that works, but it's what I used.
HOWEVER, John has a very good point, actually the best point: you really don't need Photoshop until you need Photoshop, if that makes any sense. Working on the image capture is foremost, and putting the absolute best glass in front of your sensor will do way more that a better version of ACR. For instance, the Canon 70-200mm f/4 for $650 on a tripod will give you outrageous image quality, or even replacing the 18-55mm kit lens with the 17-40mm. As John said, good glass is essential. The first time I shot with my new 70-200mm/2.8 in November iof last year I was totally blown away with the detail on my screen. ACR versions didn't matter at that point!