Which Photoshop should I get?

michaelm

Was a Photoshop 6 user for a number of years - I'm upgrading my laptop and don't have the original disk so have to buy a new version. The products on offer have changed since my last purchase - what do people suggest I should get?

hussey

If money no problem CS3

if tight you can go for lightroom or elements (the slim-line versions of PS)

kjt

I'd go with Hussey on this. Also try out the 30day trial of both and see if you can justify the Cha-Ching for CS3 . You may only need elements & lightroom.

Best of luck!


EDIT: on a very very slight chance, if you still have your serial for photoshop6 you may be able to get an upgrade price for CS2/3. Although PS6 is quite old so maybe not, just an idea

Angelo Mercone

Hi,
I use lightroom and photoshop cs3. I strongly advice them!!!
cs4 is on the way.....
Angelo

JMcL

kjt wrote: »

EDIT: on a very very slight chance, if you still have your serial for photoshop6 you may be able to get an upgrade price for CS2/3. Although PS6 is quite old so maybe not, just an idea

Won't work I'm afraid! With CS3 they restricted the upgrade to 3 versions ago, so for CS3 you can upgrade from PS7, CS, or CS2.

For the OP, Lightroom is complimentary to PS, but can't replace it, ie no layers, localised corrections (though LR2 does have some though I haven't upgraded yet). As somebody suggested, try the 30 day evals. I tried Elements 5 for a while and it was very capable, Elements 6 is probably more so. I got a deal on upgrading to CS3 for half price from an old version of Elements 2 I got bundled with my 300D so I went that route, and it's great, but outrageously overpriced if you have to pay full whack for it

superflyninja

Angelo Mercone wrote: »

Hi,
I use lightroom and photoshop cs3. I strongly advice them!!!
cs4 is on the way.....
Angelo

i use cs3 but what exactly is lightroom for?

Angelo Mercone

Hi,
I find lightroom very good to manage large amount of photos.
It speeds up the workflow.It is like having a adobe bridge with camera raw included!!! Plus many more features.
You can download a free version at the adobe site. It will expire after a month though.

superflyninja

Angelo Mercone wrote: »

Hi,
I find lightroom very good to manage large amount of photos.
It speeds up the workflow.It is like having a adobe bridge with camera raw included!!! Plus many more features.
You can download a free version at the adobe site. It will expire after a month though.

ah so lightroom would be used mainly for batch processing? and it handles raw....Ive yet to shoot in raw....

Angelo Mercone

mmmmmm, the batch processing has to be done in photoshop.
You can run actions ( droplets) just on the exporting or importing of an image
in lightroom.
you could go on you tube and see a few video tutorials to see what can be done with lightroom.

One advice........ shoot raw shoot raw shoot raw!!!!

Angelo

superflyninja

Angelo Mercone wrote: »

mmmmmm, the batch processing has to be done in photoshop.
You can run actions ( droplets) just on the exporting or importing of an image
in lightroom.
you could go on you tube and see a few video tutorials to see what can be done with lightroom.

One advice........ shoot raw shoot raw shoot raw!!!!

Angelo

ah cool ill check it out then....yeah I know I should shoot raw......it would take effort though! ;p

Monasette

I have Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS3 and I find that I'm using CS3 less and less [I shoot mainly landscapes]. Lightroom is designed as a workflow tool and works best if you want to process a lot of images at a time - it's ideal for weddings, for example.

Lightroom has a very simplified, but powerful, set of controls for adjusting colour, contrast and exposure - which speeds up the adjustment process. The graduated filter (e.g. for bringing back detail into skies) is excellent and very simple to use. The local mask (for making adjustments on a particular area of an image) is just OK, IMO. I don't much like the spot-healer much (for removing dust spots). If you've ever seen one of Guy Gowan's tutorials on how to speed up image adjustments (and automating the processes via Photoshop Actions), that's what you get with Lightroom's control.

Every control in Lightroom is in CS3, and CS3 is, (again, just my opinion), much better for removing blemishes. Photoshop is also better for more intricate adjustments, and for creating composite images.

I know Photoshop Elements has some of the controls of CS3 and buying Elements and Lightroom is still much cheaper than CS3.

Br,
John

Kenno90

Best to get the CS3 , if you ever want to look up tutorials on the net , 90% of the time they'd be for CS3

Perfect fit

Angelo Mercone wrote: »

Hi,
I use lightroom and photoshop cs3. I strongly advice them!!!
cs4 is on the way.....
Angelo

cs4 is out, have it on my mac, or is it not out for windows??

pete4130

I've CS2, CS3, CS4 amd LR2. I use Nikons Capture NX for RAW processing.....I wouldn't touch PS for processing RAW's anymore, Capture NX is too good for Nikon's RAW files. After that it makes little to no difference if I use CS2, 3 or 4 for my editing purposes. Once you can edit/process your RAW files properly, i don't think it matters which PS you use. 70-80% of my editing is done on CS2 on my PC, the rest is on CS3 on my Macbook. No difference for me on the whole. I don't get LR either? Nikons ViewNX is a RAW viewer/editor/converter too.

melekalikimaka

lightroom really wipes the floor with PS these days, I barely use PS anymore...

CS4 is out but not worth it, the memory increases outweighs any gains, feck all for photographers in CS4

Ricky91t

You do know this thread is 4-5 monthes old...