Hi Laurenz:
Yes, what you say about the two programs is essentially true. However, the format in which PSP saves its files is not acceptible to the publishing/advertising industry. Photoshop was not originally designed for photographers, that evolved much later. Photoshop was designed for graphic artists, hence its widly accepted use in both publishing and advertising. PSP does do all you say it does, but the publishers, art directors, and other indusrty artists prefer Photoshop which is the long-accepted standard.
Best,
Blair
Howard,I have been trying Photoshop Elements (version 2), and might giver version 4 a try as this seems to be able to deal with the raw plugin.Apart from the raw-issue, I'm very satisfied with Paintshop Pro, which costs about as much as Photoshop Elements, but offers just about the same functionality as Photoshop CS. From advanced layers to curves, 16 bit support etc., everything is there and I've seen some tests suggesting that several of the PSP tools are even yielding better results than Photoshop.There are, of course, some differences: for a long time, only Photoshop supported CMYK colour management. According to Corel, PSP X now does as well, but I never used this, so I couldn't really tell how this works.Neither do I use vector graphics which seem to be only supported by PSP, not Photoshop.I don't use an Apple computer (which nowadays can run a native windows).In the end, I doubt that even experienced users will ever need more than a tiny part of the tools and functions both programmes offer.
Actually, I tried the evaluation version of Photoshop and did not find anything that I preferred to PSP. Of course, I'm now accustomed to that programme and it takes time to really get into a new complex software.The one thing that annoyed me with PSP was that some tools don't work properly with 16 bit images, but then I read that this is the same for Photoshop...I somehow doubt that anyone can distinguish whether a finished photo has been produced with PSP or Photoshop.Does anyone here use Photoshop Elements 4? How does it perform?2006/4/7, Blair Howard <blairhwrd@xxxxxxxxx>:Hi Laurenz:The industry standard for converting raw files is Photoshop. If you ever have any ambitions of selling your images for publication, you must use either Photoshop (very expensive) or Photoshop Elements (about $100 online). If you use anything else, the chances are your work will not be considered by editors, art directors, or even stock photo agencies (I'm not sure about online agencies). So, if you'r gong to do things properly, I recommend you purchase Photoshop elements. It's an extremely comprehensive program and will do all you need it to do and more. Hope this helps.BlairI'm very happy with my new Minolta 7d and especially the RAW files it produces. I find that I almost always prefer the result of a few adjustments to the jpg file the camera takes at the same time.However, I'm not quite sure about the perfect software for converting and adjusting raw files.Currently I'm mostly using an evaluation copy of the Dimage Master Software, which is easy to use and gives great results.On the other hand, it's quite expensive and the user interface is a nightmare: loads of palettes cluttering the space on my monitor.The Dimage viewer that comes with the camera is pretty useless.I have also tried Raw Shooter essentials, but although the interface is much tidier, I miss some functions like the histogramme in Dimage Master.Any recommendations from list embers more experienced with working on raw files?Laurenz
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