Can I get by with Photoshop Elements?

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I really don't do a lot of image manipulation with my photos. Very little grapic design type stuff. Basically I do a little correction and that's it.

Here's what I use a lot from Photoshop (I had version 7):

Levels, Contrast, Saturation...

Magic wand, healing brush, patch tool...

Crop, resize, canvas size....

Lasso tools (all)

Eyedropper (? The color sample tool)

Blur filter

Text

I'm downloading the free trial as we speak but I'm wondering what I might really miss from my old version and whether I'll miss it $700 worth.

Any advice?

Thanks!

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I have Elements and I love it. Course, I am no professional like some other folks round here, but I've heard that there are tools in the pro version even people with mad skillz like you and Wolfie won't ever use.

I could be wrong.

Shewolf would be perfect to answer this. She has the Pro version. But her computer is sick and had to go to the doctor. She should be back on some time this week.

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I highly recommend the Open Source version-- the Gimp.

This is one of the best written pieces of software (in either the open source, or commerical worlds). There is plenty of documentation both in the program and online.

I use the Gimp professionally (I occasionally need images when my work calls for web page images).

You can get it, without strings, for free. Don't waste a single dollar on that other program.

http://www.gimp.org/

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I didn't like the Gimp.

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I know I didn't use 90% of what Photoshop 7 offered. Of the 10% I did use I probably only used 3% with any regularity.

Maybe because I learned on film but I'm pretty good at getting the shot I want without a lot of redo. With rare exception I don't want my photos to look like they've been altered when I do actually alter them.

Once in a while I like to goof around with "find edges" to do kind of comic book type pages but that's about as fancy as I get with the filters and such (other than blur - I have to have blur).

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Ooops. Missed you there ebrown!

I'm not opposed to something other than Photoshop but I'm worried that my learning curve is so slow that Elements might be a better investment. It is only about $150 for Elements 6 and Premiere Elements 4 bundled together.

Have you ever worked with Photoshop? How would you say Gimp differed? Is it easy to learn?

What was it about Gimp that you didn't like, Bella?

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I didn't like the interface.

I just didn't like the way it looked and was set up.

I have been a Photoshop fan from the beginning though and compare everything to Adobe.

Maybe you should try it. I mean, it is free and the worst that could happen is you don't like it.

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I may not be a good judge of learning curve on account of that I am a computer geek (and a cheap one at that).

I found the interface to be very usable and for me it was quite intuitive. There is a good users manual that is reachable from the help menu of the program and lots of good documentation on line.

There is no way I would spend over $100 for other photo software.

Bella... I love your avatar.

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Just installed and tried Gimp. Not bad. Not very different from any other image software...

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I have to admit -- after playing around with my free trial I'm pretty impressed with all the bells and whistles Elements offers. It has (so far) everything I was using on Photoshop 7 (though under different names and categorized a bit differently) plus some nifty little one click fixes. I LOVE the "proximity match" on the healing tool. And the auto fixes are much better than they were on 7.

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How in the heck do I get my guides to show up!!!???

Every year I do a certain study of Mo and it requires guides because the littlest fraction of something being offset really ruins the effect. I figured out grids but for the life of me I can't figure out how to do guides.

Any ideas?

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I'm now with Paint Shop X2 (updated it regularily since 4 or 5), use perhaps just 5% of it - and it's fast and good.

(Used it for a professional post: better results than by Photoshop.
[All my photos on this site done with Paint Shop - this pic

was used as poster, seize A0.])

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That's a great photo! I'll check out your site!

I have 18 days left on my free trial of Elements and I'm really getting spoiled by some of it's nifty, easy tricks.

Somewhere around here I have a copy of Photoshop 7 but I absolutely cannot find it and it looks like I didn't register it when we installed it. I don't want to buy it again.

Elements is cheap and easy but there are a few things about the bigger program that I miss -- like grids.

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Can I get by with Photoshop Elements?

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