Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4 Vs. CS3

[brendanryder]

so i read another post about a wacom fun tablet and i decided to get one. i read on the wacom site that the bambo fun comes with adobe photshop elements 4 for mac. i need photoshop for my photography class and we are being taught on cs3. i know that CS3 costa like 700$ so its out of my range. i was just wondering what the difference is between Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4 and CS3?
thanks



Cheers

 

[snickelfritz]

It's night and day; don't even bother.
PSCS3 Extended is $300 from Journeyed.com (academic discount)
I'm assuming you are a student.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

...at least wait until March and try PSE6 first... that's miles ahead of PSE4... PSE4 isn't even universal and runs extremely poorly on Intel Macs.

I still recommend one of the CS3 editions, though... if you're a student or otherwise can afford it. There's all kinds of goodies in those CS3 packs...

 

[ChrisA]

... i need photoshop for my photography class and we are being taught on cs3. i know that CS3 costa like 700$ so its out of my range. i was just wondering what the difference is between Adobe PhotoShop Elements 4 and CS3?

I have both program installed on my mac right now. Here are some observations...

1) CS3 is a universal binary while PSE 4 is still a PPC only program that runs in Rosetta. CS3 is faster but PSE 4 is still usable on my 2.16Ghz Intel iMac even for 100MB tiff files. CS3 is faster but I don't think 2X faster.

2) The basic concepts and the interfaces are similar. PS CS3 has many features not aimed at photography.

3) You can do most every normal kind of correction with PSE 4 but CS3 has even more options in it's menus. Many of these don't effct the final result but make life easier. Like CS3's abilty to turn a filer into an adjustment layer. That's neat. But the PSE4 user can simply save his work and use the "un-do" or "back" button, Having a live adjustment layer s just nice to have. there are hundred os things like this.

4) In PS CS3 all the tools work in 16-bit per channel color mode in PSE 4 many of the tools only work in 8-bit color een though the program can handle "high color"

While PSE4 has only about 20% or PS CS3's features, it has the 20% that most people need. A lot of people would never miss wha't missing. But if you are going to take a CS3 class you will likey need CS3 to follow along

 

[brendanryder]

thanks for the tips
i cant wait till march because my class will be half over
i went out and bought a wacom fun
so it will do me for now
thanks guys

cheers

 

[mashny]

Which program to buy depends on what features you need, and on how much you want to "grow into" your program. I use Photoshop both at work and as a hobby and there are quite a few Photoshop features missing in Elements, any one of which would cause me not to buy Elements. If you plan to use the program for a photography class, and then afterwards for your own photography, I would recommend full Photoshop. As suggested, as a student you can probably get a nice discount on the program. For most casual users though, Elements is a great program.

Though it discusses Photoshop CS vs, Elements 3, this link might help: http://www.photoshopelementsuser.com...p_compared.pdf

I'm sure there's a more recent comparison you could find on the web.