So many Photoshops! Confusing!

[bloodhound31]

So, what is Photoshop CS2, 3, 4, 5, Lightroom, etc?

I only have experience with elements but would like the power of a full version of something instead of the cheap short versions.

But which to choose and why?

What's the skinny, the low-down, the G.O., the deal, the scoop? Let's put it into terms we can ALL understand hey? Some of our forum beginners could seriously benefit from such a thread methinks.

Baz.

[Octane (Humayun)]

You can only buy CS5 now.

Lightroom/ACR is a great way to not see what your $3,000 camera* truly captured.

Cynically, my opinion.

H

* Applicable to Canon users, as Canon makes their own sensor, unlike Nikon.

[RickS (Rick)]

CS2, CS3, CS4 and CS5 are successive versions of Photoshop (CS = Creative Suite or something similar). As H points out, CS5 is the latest and the one you will find on shop shelves.

Photoshop is a very powerful and complex application for image processing, retouching and painting.

Lightroom is a more accessible and less powerful program for retouching, organising and storing images.

Take a look at www.adobe.com for all the marketing guff you could want on both programs

[bloodhound31]

Thanks guys.

What are these different versions worth these days? Any good places to pick up a cheaper earlier version? What's the reasoning for paying two thousand dollars for a program?

Would version 2 or 3 be effective enough? Where is a bargain place to pick these up?

Baz.

[Octane (Humayun)]

As mentioned, you can only buy CS5, now.

Don't look on eBay, you'll get scammed.

H

[bloodhound31]

Ah well, it looks like I will never have Photoshop then. Over $2000.00 Australian. That's absolutely ridiculous.

[ZeroID (Brent)]

Does it have to be CS ?
Plenty of other cheaper and even free applications quite capable of doing what CS does.
Checkout www.snapfiles.com on the free tab (top right) for a pile of apps, Gimp, Serif, Pixela,
For much cheaper shareware or commercial apps try Paintshop Pro 10 or 11. Google is your friend.
There are just so many variations out there if you can't get one app to resolve your problem there is always another.
I've been using Paint Shop Pro 6 for years, relatively simple and fast for my motorsport photographic editting.
Don't get trapped by the big price, big name syndrome, there are plenty of options.

[gregbradley]

Sometimes 2nd hand versions of Photoshop are sold in Astromart.

I have Photoshop CS2. I am getting CS 4. I have used the trials of CS4 and 5. Basically CS2 did virtually everything so I did not see the need for an expensive upgrade.

Main advantage of CS4 and 5 over CS2 is in CS4 and 5 every tool you use to process the image creates a new layer so you can go back easily and alter an earlier step in your processing to see what effect that has.

In CS2 you could do that if you create a new layer every time you want to alter something, so its a convenience thing. I don't know if members here find that aspect a great advantage or something that makes the program want even more memory than it already does??

There's also a tool called vibrance which started I think in CS3 or 4. Its not bad but not worth a lot of money.

What is mostly useful in PS are curves and levels, layers, colour balance, histogram, shadows/highlights, selective colour occassionally, hue/saturation, high pass filter and that's about it. I am sure basic versions of PS can do those.

I am not even sure the 16bit nature of CS2 is important. I heard Rob Gendler does his processing in 8bit or used to.

Greg.

[troypiggo (Troy)]

I am a huge supporter of Gimp. I used it for years before buying PS and had always said that for the amateur, it's more than enough. There isn't much you can do in PS that you can't do in Gimp.

Until I started trying to process astro-images. We stretch the histogram so much doing what we do, that Gimp's 8 bit editing loses too much data. This is where PS's 16 bit editing does what Gimp can't. but that's a pretty specific case, although prevalent here on IIS obviously.

Still, for normal amateur image editing, I reckon Gimp is more than enough for most users in most mainstream/common applications.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by bloodhound31

Thanks guys.

What are these different versions worth these days? Any good places to pick up a cheaper earlier version? What's the reasoning for paying two thousand dollars for a program?

Would version 2 or 3 be effective enough? Where is a bargain place to pick these up?

Baz.

Pity you're not at uni Baz, you can get CS5 on an academic discount for about $300. Only thing it stops you from doing is using the software commercially. It's supposedly an academic license key you get with it.

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by troypiggo

I am a huge supporter of Gimp. I used it for years before buying PS and had always said that for the amateur, it's more than enough. There isn't much you can do in PS that you can't do in Gimp.

Until I started trying to process astro-images. We stretch the histogram so much doing what we do, that Gimp's 8 bit editing loses too much data. This is where PS's 16 bit editing does what Gimp can't. but that's a pretty specific case, although prevalent here on IIS obviously.

Still, for normal amateur image editing, I reckon Gimp is more than enough for most users in most mainstream/common applications.

Exactly...it's what I use myself.

Although I believe they maybe bringing out a version with 16bit editing. Maybe rumour, but you never know with the open source community.

[troypiggo (Troy)]

No, it's not a rumour. They are working on it with GEGL. It will come.

http://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#16bit

[renormalised (Carl)]

Originally Posted by troypiggo

No, it's not a rumour. They are working on it with GEGL. It will come.

http://www.gimp.org/docs/userfaq.html#16bit

Yeah, I just went to the site myself, as well. About time...although some bright spark wants to mention trying for 24bit processing

[koputai (Jason)]

Originally Posted by bloodhound31

Ah well, it looks like I will never have Photoshop then. Over $2000.00 Australian. That's absolutely ridiculous.

Baz, CS5 (full commercial version) is $1170 RRP. A lot less than $2000, but still pretty pricey.

If you already have a legit version of Elements, you can get the CS5 Upsell is $1005 RRP.

Cheers,
Jason.

[bloodhound31]

Thanks Jason. However, I think I just blew the only money I am going to have for the next 60 months on camera hardware. I guess I'll have to score a couple of wedding gigs...

Baz.