Which Photoshop to buy?

[LovinPowell]

I need some help deciding which photoshop to purchase. On their website they have many options:

Photoshop CS4
Photoshop CS4 Extended
Photoshop Lightroom 2

Under the Photoshop CS4 there are four other options:
Design Premium
Web Premium
Production Premium
Master Collection

So those of you who have used these programs, please help me out. I have used Photoshop elements in the past but I think that I want to get into a little bit more. I have a hard time putting out the kind of money that the Master Collection and the others are listed at, so I don't want to pay more for something that I wont be using too much.

Thanks in advance.

[TeamAllen]

I have one of the bundle suites. I think it is the web premium version. My son does some web design stuff.

Have you tried the Adobe site? It has a section to "help me choose"?
http://www.adobe.com/products/creati...?promoid=DNOWM

If you can qualify for an Education Discount, try this site for pricing.
http://www.academicsuperstore.com/products/Adobe?cat=1

Just having your children's student ID will usually be good verification to qualify.
Hope that helps?

[raythompson]

I need some help deciding which photoshop to purchase.

You don't need Lightroom unless you do a lot of processing with RAW images, custom white balances, and other photo corrections.

Photoshop CS4 Extended is probably the version you would be most interested in purchasing. The other version will contain a lot of extra stuff you will probably not need.

But I would seriously question why you would want to upgrade to Photoshop CS4 when you have Elements. Elements supports most of the functions of Photoshop including all the plugins. You can do layers, color and exposure correction, cropping, cutting and pasting, selective erasing, text overlays, masks, dodging and burning, etc. It is really a very capable program.

I do a lot with images. I take about 20K images a year give or take a few thousand. While I have Photoshop I find myself more and more using Photoshop Elements as the program is quicker, uses less resources, and does everything that I have ever needed.

Only really serious graphic designers will use and demand the capabilities of the full version of Photoshop. Give Elements version 7 a try. You can download a trial. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at the capabilities. You may save yourself a lot of money.

[jwanck11]

What are you going to use it for ie. what more do you want on top of the functionality in Elements?

[LovinPowell]

can I crop another person into a picture with elements? I've been told that to do that I would need the full blown program. Thanks for your advice, I'm not sure that I need anything more, but I want to make sure.

[Matt Garcia]

can I crop another person into a picture with elements? I've been told that to do that I would need the full blown program. Thanks for your advice, I'm not sure that I need anything more, but I want to make sure.

Yes.

[LovinPowell]

Yes.

How?

[raythompson]

How?

Open both images. Make the image with the object the top image. Select what you want to move to the other image by using the selection tools (magic wand, etc). Make sure you have the "sparkling snakes" around the selected object. Then using the free transform tool drag the selected object to the other image. Or you can also copy and the paste. Then size the image and complete the free transform. Also make sure that both images are the same ppi or dpi before the operation.

Another way is to use layers. Stack the image with the object you want as the top layer. Then erase from that layer all that you do not want. Problem is you cannot easily resize the object.

[LovinPowell]

Thanks, I think that I'll download elements 7, give it a try, and then decide. But it probably sounds like that should suffice for my needs.

[noworries]

Have you tried GIMP? Free, and very powerful.

[lee]

Who wants to be Gimp?

[LovinPowell]

Have you tried GIMP? Free, and very powerful.

I haven't tried it yet, but have been considering it. I have been at a wrestling tournament all weekend, so I haven't had time to take any further action. But will do so soon.