Photoshop Elements 14
Photoshop Elements 14
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Ari

Original Poster:

19,765 posts

239 months

Monday 12th September 2016
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Looking for some photo editing software for my Mac. Is PE14 still regarded as about the best (without spending a fortune)?

Did a quick search but nothing came up.

LC2

254 posts

197 months

Monday 12th September 2016
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Photoshop CC subscription...
£8.57 per month for Light Room and Photoshop, so that's around £100pa

Elements is updated yearly, so to keep it up to date you're looking at £50pa minimum, and it's a lot less powerful.

conkerman

3,494 posts

159 months

Monday 12th September 2016
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You can get 20% off CC by registering with Serge. I'm wondering whether it will be worthwhile.

singlecoil

35,781 posts

270 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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conkerman said:
You can get 20% off CC by registering with Serge. I'm wondering whether it will be worthwhile.
Thing is, it doesn't cost very much to find out, and its a good way of finding out how far you want to take it.

Mutley

3,178 posts

283 months

Tuesday 13th September 2016
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OP, yes, PSe 14 is good, it will do most of what the average user requires. But as above, get it on a monthly trial and see how you go.

(Personally, I cannot get on with Lightroom, mainly as it is aimed at batch processing, and that is about 5% of what I do.)

tenohfive

6,276 posts

206 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
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Mutley said:
OP, yes, PSe 14 is good, it will do most of what the average user requires. But as above, get it on a monthly trial and see how you go.

(Personally, I cannot get on with Lightroom, mainly as it is aimed at batch processing, and that is about 5% of what I do.)
Conversely I made the jump from PSE to LR and never looked back. Much more intuitive controls and workflow on LR and with the amount of selective processing available now I very, very rarely need to touch my old copy of Elements.

Like you I don't do much batch processing.

Just my 2p but LR is worth the extra.

jmorgan

36,010 posts

308 months

Thursday 15th September 2016
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Still up in the air myself but looked at light room and here is a trial to try. Before you buy.

Don't like the cloud option.

Craikeybaby

11,825 posts

249 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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Mutley said:
OP, yes, PSe 14 is good, it will do most of what the average user requires. But as above, get it on a monthly trial and see how you go.

(Personally, I cannot get on with Lightroom, mainly as it is aimed at batch processing, and that is about 5% of what I do.)
Batch processing is a good feature of Lightroom, but I wouldn't say it is the main aim. It is rare that I need to use anything other than Lightroom to process images now that it can stitch panoramas.

GetCarter

30,817 posts

303 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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Lightroom is the dogs for photo editing. First month free last time I looked. Just download it, watch a youtube tutorial... you won't look back.

PS will do the same but with many more mouse clicks.

DibblyDobbler

11,443 posts

221 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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I had a quick lok at Lightroom but was a bit lost as to where everything was! What are the main things it *can't* do compared to PS?


GetCarter

30,817 posts

303 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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DibblyDobbler said:
I had a quick lok at Lightroom but was a bit lost as to where everything was! What are the main things it *can't* do compared to PS?
I was lost when I got it Mike, but watched a youtube by https://www.youtube.com/user/terrywhitetechblog and suddenly realised how quick/good it is. PS will do everything Lightroom does, but PS is (as you know) mainly/also a graphic designer's tool, not specifically aimed at photographers. Lightroom is just Adobe's photo only tool.

If you are used to PS and have a'workflow' you are used to, then I'd stay there, but for anyone who wants quick easy results, then Lightroom is well worth a look. Shift+Whites, Shift+Blacks, Shift+Shadows, Shift+Highlights and you are 99% to a really good raw develop in 4 clicks.

Edited by GetCarter on Friday 16th September 12:58

DibblyDobbler

11,443 posts

221 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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Cheers - might give the free trial a go as I know PSE but I wouldn't say I like it!

singlecoil

35,781 posts

270 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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Lightroom is good for organising your photos, especially if you are punctilious about keywording, and it's good for editing photos if you don't need to actually change something in the picture. If you do need to, then PS will get the job done.

The organising bit isn't really an issue for me, but changing stuff is, so I rarely use LR except for printing as the Canon plug-in for my printer doesn't work with the latest version of PS yet.

GetCarter

30,817 posts

303 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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singlecoil said:
it's good for editing photos if you don't need to actually change something in the picture. If you do need to, then PS will get the job done.
This is absolutely right... if you need to lose telegraph poles etc... then PS is the best way to go. LR is just photo development, not photo manipulation. I use both and LR is just much better at easy development of raw files. If you need to do further adjustments LR will open the file in PS, lose the telegraph pole - and then back to LR seamlessly. Clever stuff.

tenohfive

6,276 posts

206 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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For extensive/delicate cloning, yes, but I'm actually quite a fan of LR's healing tool. For minor adjustments (unwanted background heads above horizons etc) it seems fine. It does have it's limits though; and for those 1% or so of photo's I've got an older copy of Elements (10 or 11 I think) to use. If I could only have one I'd take LR for the sheer amount of time I've saved and how happy I am with the results.

Really should make more of using the Nik collection of plugins with it though - currently all I use is Silver Efex.

Turn7

25,361 posts

245 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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DibblyDobbler said:
Cheers - might give the free trial a go as I know PSE but I wouldn't say I like it!
Mike,I was an Elements user until I made the switch to LR.
I wouldn't touch ps now .
LR is soooooo much more intuitive than ps and as long as you don't want major composite type work,then will be fine.

Try it,you'll love it.

PS- I bought Kelbys book as I can understand what he means and found it very useable.

DibblyDobbler

11,443 posts

221 months

Friday 16th September 2016
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Cheers - I will give it a go smile

steveatesh

5,316 posts

188 months

Saturday 17th September 2016
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Another LR user here but the standalone version as I rarely need the features of a Photoshop type program.

I've found LR to be excellent in sorting, filtering and processing photos, and there is plenty on YouTube in the way of tutorials, e.g. serge Ramelli.

For those odd occasions I have a complex need such as merging two photos into one to paint out some of it, or to use content aware removal of unwanted elements in the photo I use Pixelmator, a cheap but powerful Mac only program.

Works for me as an enthusiast anyway!

conkerman

3,494 posts

159 months

Tuesday 20th September 2016
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I signed up to the Creative cloud last night.

Lets see how we get on over the next year...

Looks like I'll need to start shooting RAW.