Photoshop %0% off - is it worth it?

jakob · #1 25-08-2009, 07:26 AM

I am using Photoshop Elements 5 and like it, but it has limitations.
Now Adobe is offering an upgrade to CS4 for $700, I'm tempted but need a bit more convincing.
$700 is a lot of money for something that is probably superceded later.

Any views wellcome.

renormalised (Carl) · #2 25-08-2009, 07:40 AM

I'd buy it.....unless you wait at least 2 or more upgrades to Photoshop, you're not going to get that big a difference in the versions and it'll be some time before CS4 becomes completely superseded, so I would plonk the money down and get yourself the full shebang. Much better than Elements (which is good, but not the best).

bojan · #3 25-08-2009, 10:25 AM

Try Gimp, it is freeware.

renormalised (Carl) · #4 25-08-2009, 10:49 AM

Should've said that myself

It's what I use and it's very good

deadsimple (Ash) · #5 25-08-2009, 11:02 AM

$700 upgrade? Ouch!

I got sick of the GIMP's interface and lack of >8-bit channel support and bought the academic version of CS4 for about $300. Not sure I would have thrown down that much cash if it were more expensive!

leon · #6 25-08-2009, 11:28 AM

depends how far you want to go with Photoshop, I have CS2, and it suits me fine for what I do with it, and probably that is only 5% of its capacity.

If it ain't broke, then don't fix it, as the saying goes.

Leon

AdrianF (Adrian) · #7 25-08-2009, 12:27 PM

You know anyone that works for the Govt? If you do you can get CS4 for $48, no typo yes $48, for the full blown registerable program. I would offer but I have used my 2 purchase quota.

Adrian

Octane (Humayun) · #8 25-08-2009, 12:46 PM

Adrian,

Tell me more? I work for the federal gubmint.

Regards,
Humayun

dpastern (Dave Pastern) · #9 25-08-2009, 01:28 PM

Agreed.

Dave

Quote:

Originally Posted by leon

depends how far you want to go with Photoshop, I have CS2, and it suits me fine for what I do with it, and probably that is only 5% of its capacity.

If it ain't broke, then don't fix it, as the saying goes.

Leon

AdrianF (Adrian) · #10 25-08-2009, 01:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Octane

Adrian,

Tell me more? I work for the federal gubmint.

Regards,
Humayun

No problems.
I work for TAFE in Qld and we can get software eg Vista Ultimate MS Office And CS4, under a "Work at Home" licencing scheme. Vista cost me $58 MS office cost $48 and CS4 cost $48 from a company called Data3.

Adrian

Octane (Humayun) · #11 25-08-2009, 02:04 PM

Adrian,

Cheers, mate. I will look into it.

Regards,
Humayun

AdrianF (Adrian) · #12 25-08-2009, 03:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Octane

Adrian,

Cheers, mate. I will look into it.

Regards,
Humayun

If you call Data3 on the 1300 # ask for the work at home people.

Adrian

jakob · #13 25-08-2009, 04:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bojan

Try Gimp, it is freeware.

I'm intersted in Gimp. What drives me to look for something else than Elements is that I can't open the tiff files from DSS and does not support layers > 8bit.

Does Gimp allow > 8 bit?

I'm not keen to spend $700

bojan · #14 25-08-2009, 05:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakob

Does Gimp allow > 8 bit?

It doesn't..

Do you have a Canon camera? If yes, you have DPP. it supports 16bit TIFF.

jakob · #15 25-08-2009, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bojan

It doesn't..

Do you have a Canon camera? If yes, you have DPP. it supports 16bit TIFF.

No I have a Nikon

g__day (Matthew) · #16 25-08-2009, 09:59 PM

You can always download CS4 (any or all of the full suite) and try it free for a month to see if it does it for you.

bojan · #17 26-08-2009, 05:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by g__day

You can always download CS4 (any or all of the full suite) and try it free for a month to see if it does it for you.

Yes, that is true..
but we are talking about $700 here...... and suitable freeware to avoid that damage to a valet.

Well, then try IRIS: http://www.astrosurf.com/buil/us/iris/iris.htm .
It is a bit non- intuitive to learn, but it is a very powerful software, and you can use it for everything (stacking, editing, conversion.. photometry, spectrometry.. camera control.. you name it). And it is 100% freeware.

Then you have Pixinsight: http://pixinsight.com/download/LE/index.html

Another one is Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/), but I am not sure about its photoediting capabilities (in terms of what you want or need).. I know it will load 16bit tiff's though, and you have basic editing (brightness, sat etc). Just make sure you download all the plugins from website.
And it is also 100% freeware.

jakob · #18 26-08-2009, 07:06 AM

Thank you all for the advise.

I will be trying out Iris.

May be Humayun can comment on why he is still using PS after Iris? (I just read his post on how he processed the beautiful image of the Tarantula)

Octane (Humayun) · #19 26-08-2009, 06:36 PM

Jakob,

IRIS is, apart from everything bojan mentioned, a pre-processing tool.

There are certain things that Photoshop is best used for, such as masking (yes, I know IRIS can do this, but, it is not exactly what you call easy), and feathering selections which is very important if you don't want an effect to span the entire image.

Apart from all the pre-processing of images, I use IRIS to set my black point and RGB balance. Oftentimes, it still needs to be tweaked in Photoshop. In fact, sometimes I don't even bother with doing that in IRIS, I do it all in Photoshop.

Then, all my post-processing is done in Photoshop: levels, curves, saturation, colour balance, blurring, sharpening, et. al.

The GIMP, whilst good, is useless for us as it won't process 16-bit images. And, we all know that there is a lot of dynamic range in our astrophotographs. You could quite easily get away with editing family happy snaps in The GIMP. It just isn't suited to astrophotography (or, in my case, landscape work).

Regards,
Humayun

Quote:

Originally Posted by jakob

Thank you all for the advise.

I will be trying out Iris.

May be Humayun can comment on why he is still using PS after Iris? (I just read his post on how he processed the beautiful image of the Tarantula)

Ian Robinson · #20 26-08-2009, 07:22 PM

How's $80 sound for a NEW RETAIL copy of CS3 EXTENDED sound ?

Just snapped one up , been bidding on on Ebay for locally sold RETAIL versions of CS3 and CS4 (over 12 months since I got the 40D) and finally scored one.

Got CS3 Extended and a copy of Registax , is that enough image processing software firepower for me to have a reasonable chance of doing some image stacking and astroimage processing (once I've got some subs to stack and played with these packages) ?