iPhoto vs Photoshop Elements??

[wattage]

I was considering a purchase of Photoshop Elements based on an article I read concerning the disadvantages of editing and saving photos in jpeg format (losslessness and lost pixels). The article recommended saving in tiff or psd format (Machome 11/05 pg 28) I use iPhoto for minor editing, just personal pictures. I was told by a salesman that iPhoto and Elements were extremely close in function. Any recommendations? Is iPhoto good enough or is Elements worth $90 (no way I'm spending $600 on Photoshop CS!!!)

 

[Applespider]

PSE gives you a lot more options than iPhoto; including being able to control resizing your images etc and use other drawing tools.

If all you want to do is some basic retouching of your pics, iPhoto will be fine. Yes, there are issues about continually resaving jpgs. The answer is to try to make your changes in iPhoto in a single pass - don't keep saving and then going back in to make more changes.

You might be able to pick up PSE3 for less than that if you look around. I'm sure I've seen it for around $50-60

 

[MisterMe]

I was considering a purchase of Photoshop Elements based on an article I read concerning the disadvantages of editing and saving photos in jpeg format (losslessness and lost pixels). The article recommended saving in tiff or psd format (Machome 11/05 pg 28) I use iPhoto for minor editing, just personal pictures. I was told by a salesman that iPhoto and Elements were extremely close in function. Any recommendations? Is iPhoto good enough or is Elements worth $90 (no way I'm spending $600 on Photoshop CS!!!)

Do forget that there is another alternative. GraphicConverter does almost everything that Photoshop Elements does. Apple bundles it with most new Macs.

 

[Kernow]

I use both iPhoto and Photoshop Elements together, and I think the combination is quite a good one.

All simple alterations (rotation, cropping etc) can be done quickly in iPhoto, but if I need to do more detailed editing I use Elements. You can set Elements as the default editor in iPhoto so that when you double click on an image in iPhoto, it automatically opens in Elements.

You could also consider using GIMP. It is free, and does pretty much everything that Elements does, but the interface is not the standard Apple one, and for me, this makes it harder to work with.

 

[fayans]

Pardon me for being irrelevant to the topic of this thread.

I have PS7 which I rarely use. I just need to know a simple instruction on how to merge two pictures into one without losing its quality.

Thanks in advance

 

[Chundles]

Do forget that there is another alternative. GraphicConverter does almost everything that Photoshop Elements does. Apple bundles it with most new Macs.

Only the Pro Macs, none of the consumer Macs have it. We get Appleworks instead

 

[Applespider]

I have PS7 which I rarely use. I just need to know a simple instruction on how to merge two pictures into one without losing its quality.

Two images on top of each other or two images next to each other?

 

[fayans]

Say I cut an image and paste into another; either overwriting it or place it somewhere. I fool around with layers but still not sure of its function.

 

[prophet621]

Say I cut an image and paste into another; either overwriting it or place it somewhere. I fool around with layers but still not sure of its function.

A bit difficult to answer in a forum without more specific information. Photoshop will automatically create a layer when you cut/copy and paste or simply drag. Layers at first look are rather basic but in truth are not only incredibly handy but very powerful. Many effects can be accomplished by simply altering the layer modes or settings.

I'm still not clear on exctly what you want to do but you may consider making a post in the digital image forums here on Macrumors. Did you take only part of a picture and you want to merge it into another one (take a person out of one and put them into another) or merge two complete pictures (lay one entire image over another and have them both show).

I can't even begin to describe the features and power that Photoshop offers but with those features and power comes complexity, even those of us who have used Photoshop for years are still learning new and better ways of doing things and of course, trying to remember how we did them so we can do it again.

Without knowing more of what you want to accomplish exactly it's very difficult to point you in the right direction.


To the OP. As others have said, iphoto does a fair job at very basic image editing while Elements offers far more advanced editing but also makes it rather easy. The price tag may seem a bit steep for some but in my opinion it's worth it simply for the features it has and easy of use. Color correcting a washed out or over saturated photo (we've all had them) in iphoto is a lost cause where as Elements can help you make it apear as it should without much difficulty.

 

[fayans]

I'm still not clear on exctly what you want to do but you may consider making a post in the digital image forums here on Macrumors. Did you take only part of a picture and you want to merge it into another one (take a person out of one and put them into another)..

Sorry for being too general. But I'm referring to simple cut a portion of a picture and paste & merge it into another. Just that!

 

[carpe diem]

May be you can get an old copy of CS cheap.

 

[decksnap]

@ fayans-
Just make a selection of what you what to copy from one document and drag or copy and paste into the other document.

The only quality you would lose pixel-wise is by resaving as a jpeg, because it gets compressed again. Once you start playing with compositions of multiple elements in Photoshop, you want to be saving your files as PSDs, and your final flat files as tiffs. (usually)

If your two documents have two different dpis, the copied selection will scale to the working space. Scaling something up at that point would ruin your quality too.

 

[MisterMe]

Only the Pro Macs, none of the consumer Macs have it. We get Appleworks instead

I seem to remember GC's being bundled with two eMacs I bought last year, but I am willing to be corrected. Then too, these bundles change. If your machine is not bundled with GC, I highly recommend that you download it. The app is that good.