Photoshop 6.0 vs LE vs. Elements

[nicole46381]

Hello all.

Can someone please explain the difference between Photoshop 6.0, LE, and elements? I know there's a price difference, but what can one do that another can't?

I have 5.0 (upgraded from 4), but I am not too familiar with it. It seems a bit bulky for me.

Nicole

 

[Ric Blessing]

Elements is sort of an update to LE, but with more user friendly features. 6.o Photoshop is an important upgrade to current users, but if you feel 5.0 is too bulky I'd stay away from 6.0. Do you have a Canon camera? If so LE probably came with it. If I understand it it's Photoshop 4 stripped of some print options and option for third party support (plugins). If you're using this for photos I'd say buy a good cheap simple book. Photoshop 5 is worth knowing. And even if you only learn resizing, color and contrast settings and sharpening it can make your photos really pop. I've had Photoshop 6 and Elements installed for some time, but Elements seems to offer no advantages (except maybe a very few built-in extras like red-eye reduction), over even the most basic uses of Photoshop. Add all the free plugins, fliters, actions (if 5 supports this- I think it does) and Photoshop does more automatically. Hope this helps.

Hello all.

Can someone please explain the difference between Photoshop 6.0,
LE, and elements? I know there's a price difference, but what can
one do that another can't?

I have 5.0 (upgraded from 4), but I am not too familiar with it.
It seems a bit bulky for me.

Nicole

 

[nicole46381]

I think I may be a bit confused by your response.

I was under the assumption that 6.0 was the full robust version and Elements is a stripped version. Does Elements offer some functionality that 6.0 doesn't?

Do you think it would be worth upgrading from 5.0 (which is an upgrade from 4.0) to 6.0? I'm not big on the upgrade on an upgrade, but I certainly don't want to buy the full version as the price is only slightly cheaper than rumplestilskin's price...

Thanks,

nicole

Elements is sort of an update to LE, but with more user friendly
features. 6.o Photoshop is an important upgrade to current users,
but if you feel 5.0 is too bulky I'd stay away from 6.0. Do you
have a Canon camera? If so LE probably came with it. If I
understand it it's Photoshop 4 stripped of some print options and
option for third party support (plugins). If you're using this for
photos I'd say buy a good cheap simple book. Photoshop 5 is worth
knowing. And even if you only learn resizing, color and contrast
settings and sharpening it can make your photos really pop. I've
had Photoshop 6 and Elements installed for some time, but Elements
seems to offer no advantages (except maybe a very few built-in
extras like red-eye reduction), over even the most basic uses of
Photoshop. Add all the free plugins, fliters, actions (if 5
supports this- I think it does) and Photoshop does more
automatically. Hope this helps.

 

[Ric Blessing]

6.0 is the most robust and has some new features including improved text and vector support. I'd get use to 5.0 first, then upgrade if you feel it's necessary. It is expensive and 5.0 has 95% of 6.0 (as does the cheaper PaintShop Pro) Some features in Elements are easier to find than in any version of Photoshop, but is restricted in how it can grow. For example as mentioned before there's a red eye reduction selection in Elements. There is none in PS, but you can do the same in several different ways in PS and even download the automatic action free at http://www.fredmiranda.com/Action_profilesPage/index.html (near bottom). You cannot though load these into Elements. I guess think of it this way- a few add-ons are built in, but you can't add any more. And at the above link you can download a sharpening action, a red-eye action, buy a g1/g2 noise reducer for a couple bucks, travel over to Adobe Xchange and download a hundred others. Plus you already own it. Hope this helps.

I was under the assumption that 6.0 was the full robust version and
Elements is a stripped version. Does Elements offer some
functionality that 6.0 doesn't?

Do you think it would be worth upgrading from 5.0 (which is an
upgrade from 4.0) to 6.0? I'm not big on the upgrade on an
upgrade, but I certainly don't want to buy the full version as the
price is only slightly cheaper than rumplestilskin's price...

Thanks,

nicole

Elements is sort of an update to LE, but with more user friendly
features. 6.o Photoshop is an important upgrade to current users,
but if you feel 5.0 is too bulky I'd stay away from 6.0. Do you
have a Canon camera? If so LE probably came with it. If I
understand it it's Photoshop 4 stripped of some print options and
option for third party support (plugins). If you're using this for
photos I'd say buy a good cheap simple book. Photoshop 5 is worth
knowing. And even if you only learn resizing, color and contrast
settings and sharpening it can make your photos really pop. I've
had Photoshop 6 and Elements installed for some time, but Elements
seems to offer no advantages (except maybe a very few built-in
extras like red-eye reduction), over even the most basic uses of
Photoshop. Add all the free plugins, fliters, actions (if 5
supports this- I think it does) and Photoshop does more
automatically. Hope this helps.

 

[Bob Topp]

Ric,

As I have read through this exchange, I noticed that the LE suffix has been dropped in most of the references. Point: my new G2 came with 5.0LE. Question: What does a user get with full Photoshop over LE?

I agree that a book on Photoshop would be invaluable. The help in LE is more like hints, far from explaining things for a beginner. I had played with PaintShop Pro and Corel PhotoPaint, so I knew a few things that I ought to be able to do, but working with layers is one of the most powerful features of Photoshop and one of the least, or poorest, explained in the help screens. I ran across auto-level adjust by sheer accident and found it to be one of the most useful functions in the program. From there, it is easier to migrate to manual adjust once you see what the adjustments can do. I'm rambling now, but back to the differences between full-blown and LE, there's so much in LE, I'm not sure what the full blown version could offer more.

Regards,

Bob Topp

I was under the assumption that 6.0 was the full robust version and
Elements is a stripped version. Does Elements offer some
functionality that 6.0 doesn't?

Do you think it would be worth upgrading from 5.0 (which is an
upgrade from 4.0) to 6.0? I'm not big on the upgrade on an
upgrade, but I certainly don't want to buy the full version as the
price is only slightly cheaper than rumplestilskin's price...

Thanks,

nicole

Elements is sort of an update to LE, but with more user friendly
features. 6.o Photoshop is an important upgrade to current users,
but if you feel 5.0 is too bulky I'd stay away from 6.0. Do you
have a Canon camera? If so LE probably came with it. If I
understand it it's Photoshop 4 stripped of some print options and
option for third party support (plugins). If you're using this for
photos I'd say buy a good cheap simple book. Photoshop 5 is worth
knowing. And even if you only learn resizing, color and contrast
settings and sharpening it can make your photos really pop. I've
had Photoshop 6 and Elements installed for some time, but Elements
seems to offer no advantages (except maybe a very few built-in
extras like red-eye reduction), over even the most basic uses of
Photoshop. Add all the free plugins, fliters, actions (if 5
supports this- I think it does) and Photoshop does more
automatically. Hope this helps.

 

[Ric Blessing]

To be honest I haven't played with LE for a couple years (but have played with their "upgrade" Elements). A disadvantages of LE is the lack of expandibility with third party or self-created actions. For Elements it's that and no support for filters (though some are built in). In some cases filters can be used with the cheaper PaintShop Pro or free Photo-Brush ( http://www.mediachance.com/digicam/ ). Also PS 6 has vector support, but if you use Illustrator or Freehand this is of limited use, and very little use to digital photographers. Some versions (and possibly all) of LE do not have the history palate. I'm also not sure about CYMK support (know Elements does not, not sure about LE). Same with Curves and Elements (but LE seemed to have them). There may be some people out there that have recently switched and can better tell about the differences. Sorry it's just been so long (and I sold the LE with my G1 on eBay for $50 to help pay for the camera).

Take a look at the following pdf. Page four has a comparison of Photoshop, Elements (the stated LE upgrade), and PhotoDeluxe their lower product. It's mostly a marketing deal, but of some use. Part of the pluses of Photoshop in the document is the inclusion of ImageReady as part of PS (it's more for webdesign than photo work).
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel/pdfs/digitalbro.pdf

And yeah, it seems a good deal of what any of us learn from PS is sheer accident. It's not the simplist tool out there.

As I have read through this exchange, I noticed that the LE suffix
has been dropped in most of the references. Point: my new G2 came
with 5.0LE. Question: What does a user get with full Photoshop
over LE?

I agree that a book on Photoshop would be invaluable. The help in
LE is more like hints, far from explaining things for a beginner.
I had played with PaintShop Pro and Corel PhotoPaint, so I knew a
few things that I ought to be able to do, but working with layers
is one of the most powerful features of Photoshop and one of the
least, or poorest, explained in the help screens. I ran across
auto-level adjust by sheer accident and found it to be one of the
most useful functions in the program. From there, it is easier to
migrate to manual adjust once you see what the adjustments can do.
I'm rambling now, but back to the differences between full-blown
and LE, there's so much in LE, I'm not sure what the full blown
version could offer more.

Regards,

Bob Topp

I was under the assumption that 6.0 was the full robust version and
Elements is a stripped version. Does Elements offer some
functionality that 6.0 doesn't?

Do you think it would be worth upgrading from 5.0 (which is an
upgrade from 4.0) to 6.0? I'm not big on the upgrade on an
upgrade, but I certainly don't want to buy the full version as the
price is only slightly cheaper than rumplestilskin's price...

Thanks,

nicole

Elements is sort of an update to LE, but with more user friendly
features. 6.o Photoshop is an important upgrade to current users,
but if you feel 5.0 is too bulky I'd stay away from 6.0. Do you
have a Canon camera? If so LE probably came with it. If I
understand it it's Photoshop 4 stripped of some print options and
option for third party support (plugins). If you're using this for
photos I'd say buy a good cheap simple book. Photoshop 5 is worth
knowing. And even if you only learn resizing, color and contrast
settings and sharpening it can make your photos really pop. I've
had Photoshop 6 and Elements installed for some time, but Elements
seems to offer no advantages (except maybe a very few built-in
extras like red-eye reduction), over even the most basic uses of
Photoshop. Add all the free plugins, fliters, actions (if 5
supports this- I think it does) and Photoshop does more
automatically. Hope this helps.

 

[nicole46381]

How about this... any Pros out there want to give us a REALLY BRIEF lesson in the basic functions you use in photoshop? Like red eye reduction, contrast/brightness, layers (still haven't figured that one out)...

Even if it is just to tell us the tools you use most frequently so we can research it ourselves...

And any suggestions to a good photoshop book?

 

[Blue60407]

Elements does not have curves. That, for me, is a reason to buy PS 6.

Hello all.

Can someone please explain the difference between Photoshop 6.0,
LE, and elements? I know there's a price difference, but what can
one do that another can't?

I have 5.0 (upgraded from 4), but I am not too familiar with it.
It seems a bit bulky for me.

Nicole

--Blue http://www.pbase.com/image/859189

 

[JohnM31499]

How about this... any Pros out there want to give us a REALLY
BRIEF lesson in the basic functions you use in photoshop? Like red
eye reduction, contrast/brightness, layers (still haven't figured
that one out)...

Even if it is just to tell us the tools you use most frequently so
we can research it ourselves...

And any suggestions to a good photoshop book?

I'm not a pro, but I use curves & masking all the time, which are not available in Elements.

I also have a bunch of GREAT ps actions that also don't work in Elements.

 

[JohnM31499]

http://www.dpreview.com/forums/read.asp?forum=1007&message=1981902

I never really understood how useful curves are for color correction until working through this tutorial.

 

[Ric Blessing]

It might be easier to find what you're looking for on the web. There's a lot of sites out there. There are sites devoted exclusively to layers for instance. Here are some sites that came up in Yahoo for brief lessons.

http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/photoshopbasics/
http://www.wsu.edu/~lhelkey/phshtips.html
http://www.ricks.edu/Ricks/employee/WILLIAMSL/whome.htm
http://homepage.mac.com/markstrange1/photoshop/photo~index.html

Also the retouching forum deals with some of these issues.

It might be good to find peoples favorite tips site also. I know there's gotta be some good ones.

How about this... any Pros out there want to give us a REALLY
BRIEF lesson in the basic functions you use in photoshop? Like red
eye reduction, contrast/brightness, layers (still haven't figured
that one out)...

Even if it is just to tell us the tools you use most frequently so
we can research it ourselves...

And any suggestions to a good photoshop book?

 

[Andrew Langley]

I downloaded the red eye reduction add-on from http://www.fredmiranda.com/Action_profilesPage/index.html .....but I'm not sure how to install it. How is this done? It's an ATN file. It seems nothing is ever easy in PS

6.0 is the most robust and has some new features including improved
text and vector support. I'd get use to 5.0 first, then upgrade if
you feel it's necessary. It is expensive and 5.0 has 95% of 6.0 (as
does the cheaper PaintShop Pro) Some features in Elements are
easier to find than in any version of Photoshop, but is restricted
in how it can grow. For example as mentioned before there's a red
eye reduction selection in Elements. There is none in PS, but you
can do the same in several different ways in PS and even download
the automatic action free at
http://www.fredmiranda.com/Action_profilesPage/index.html (near
bottom). You cannot though load these into Elements. I guess think
of it this way- a few add-ons are built in, but you can't add any
more. And at the above link you can download a sharpening action, a
red-eye action, buy a g1/g2 noise reducer for a couple bucks,
travel over to Adobe Xchange and download a hundred others. Plus
you already own it. Hope this helps.

 

[Ric Blessing]

Did you try the load action selection from the action palette (it's the arrow key)? Which version do you have?

6.0 is the most robust and has some new features including improved
text and vector support. I'd get use to 5.0 first, then upgrade if
you feel it's necessary. It is expensive and 5.0 has 95% of 6.0 (as
does the cheaper PaintShop Pro) Some features in Elements are
easier to find than in any version of Photoshop, but is restricted
in how it can grow. For example as mentioned before there's a red
eye reduction selection in Elements. There is none in PS, but you
can do the same in several different ways in PS and even download
the automatic action free at
http://www.fredmiranda.com/Action_profilesPage/index.html (near
bottom). You cannot though load these into Elements. I guess think
of it this way- a few add-ons are built in, but you can't add any
more. And at the above link you can download a sharpening action, a
red-eye action, buy a g1/g2 noise reducer for a couple bucks,
travel over to Adobe Xchange and download a hundred others. Plus
you already own it. Hope this helps.

 

[Andrew Langley]

I have PS 6. I know very little about this feature rich program but thanks to your tip I now know how to install add-ons. This one works great!

thanks

6.0 is the most robust and has some new features including improved
text and vector support. I'd get use to 5.0 first, then upgrade if
you feel it's necessary. It is expensive and 5.0 has 95% of 6.0 (as
does the cheaper PaintShop Pro) Some features in Elements are
easier to find than in any version of Photoshop, but is restricted
in how it can grow. For example as mentioned before there's a red
eye reduction selection in Elements. There is none in PS, but you
can do the same in several different ways in PS and even download
the automatic action free at
http://www.fredmiranda.com/Action_profilesPage/index.html (near
bottom). You cannot though load these into Elements. I guess think
of it this way- a few add-ons are built in, but you can't add any
more. And at the above link you can download a sharpening action, a
red-eye action, buy a g1/g2 noise reducer for a couple bucks,
travel over to Adobe Xchange and download a hundred others. Plus
you already own it. Hope this helps.

 

[Bob Topp]

Thanks for the response, Ric.

Bob

Take a look at the following pdf. Page four has a comparison of
Photoshop, Elements (the stated LE upgrade), and PhotoDeluxe their
lower product. It's mostly a marketing deal, but of some use. Part
of the pluses of Photoshop in the document is the inclusion of
ImageReady as part of PS (it's more for webdesign than photo work).
http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshopel/pdfs/digitalbro.pdf

And yeah, it seems a good deal of what any of us learn from PS is
sheer accident. It's not the simplist tool out there.

As I have read through this exchange, I noticed that the LE suffix
has been dropped in most of the references. Point: my new G2 came
with 5.0LE. Question: What does a user get with full Photoshop
over LE?

I agree that a book on Photoshop would be invaluable. The help in
LE is more like hints, far from explaining things for a beginner.
I had played with PaintShop Pro and Corel PhotoPaint, so I knew a
few things that I ought to be able to do, but working with layers
is one of the most powerful features of Photoshop and one of the
least, or poorest, explained in the help screens. I ran across
auto-level adjust by sheer accident and found it to be one of the
most useful functions in the program. From there, it is easier to
migrate to manual adjust once you see what the adjustments can do.
I'm rambling now, but back to the differences between full-blown
and LE, there's so much in LE, I'm not sure what the full blown
version could offer more.

Regards,

Bob Topp

I was under the assumption that 6.0 was the full robust version and
Elements is a stripped version. Does Elements offer some
functionality that 6.0 doesn't?

Do you think it would be worth upgrading from 5.0 (which is an
upgrade from 4.0) to 6.0? I'm not big on the upgrade on an
upgrade, but I certainly don't want to buy the full version as the
price is only slightly cheaper than rumplestilskin's price...

Thanks,

nicole

Elements is sort of an update to LE, but with more user friendly
features. 6.o Photoshop is an important upgrade to current users,
but if you feel 5.0 is too bulky I'd stay away from 6.0. Do you
have a Canon camera? If so LE probably came with it. If I
understand it it's Photoshop 4 stripped of some print options and
option for third party support (plugins). If you're using this for
photos I'd say buy a good cheap simple book. Photoshop 5 is worth
knowing. And even if you only learn resizing, color and contrast
settings and sharpening it can make your photos really pop. I've
had Photoshop 6 and Elements installed for some time, but Elements
seems to offer no advantages (except maybe a very few built-in
extras like red-eye reduction), over even the most basic uses of
Photoshop. Add all the free plugins, fliters, actions (if 5
supports this- I think it does) and Photoshop does more
automatically. Hope this helps.

 

[nicole46381]

Most of you have mentioned curves...

Can someone briefly explain to me what this does and why it is useful? The word 'curves' doesn't bring any self-explanatory thoughts to mind... this is one reason I find photoshop (along with illustrator) somewhat challenging. I'm pretty good at sitting down and learning any software package, but adobe's software is always more challenging b/c it isn't intuitive (to me anyway).

Nicole

Hello all.

Can someone please explain the difference between Photoshop 6.0,
LE, and elements? I know there's a price difference, but what can
one do that another can't?

I have 5.0 (upgraded from 4), but I am not too familiar with it.
It seems a bit bulky for me.

Nicole

--
Blue
http://www.pbase.com/image/859189

 

[Adam2]

Ric,

It is not exactly true that you can't create "add-ons" for Elements. Some actions will work when installed in PSE (you have to make a small but easy hack to do this) and you can create "recipes" as well.

You were correct about LE. It does have curves (PSE doesn't but you can still use the Histogram, which is essentially a 3 point curve) but lacks the history and can't normally use actions (I haven't tried to hack it the way you can with PSE). CMYK and LAB isn't there either.

I had PS4 and really couldn't afford the $300 upgrade. PSE has fit the bill quite nicely for the kind of work I am doing at the present time. There is not doubt that for professionals, PS is the way to go. But, for the rest of us, PSE affords great utility, usability, and is cost-effective (IMHO).

 

[Adam2]

The curves command allows you to individually adjust/replace each and every color in an image. PSE omits this feature, although you can adjust colors via channels (RBG) three points each using the Histogram. Not nearly as precise, but for the majority of non-professionals, this is usually more than adequate.

Hello all.

Can someone please explain the difference between Photoshop 6.0,
LE, and elements? I know there's a price difference, but what can
one do that another can't?

I have 5.0 (upgraded from 4), but I am not too familiar with it.
It seems a bit bulky for me.

Nicole

--
Blue
http://www.pbase.com/image/859189

 

[nicole46381]

Ahhh HA!!!!

That does sound like a great feature. Can't wait to check it out...

Thanks Adam,

Nicole

 

[King Sachmo]

Most of you have mentioned curves...

Can someone briefly explain to me what this does and why it is
useful? The word 'curves' doesn't bring any self-explanatory
thoughts to mind... this is one reason I find photoshop (along with
illustrator) somewhat challenging. I'm pretty good at sitting down
and learning any software package, but adobe's software is always
more challenging b/c it isn't intuitive (to me anyway).

Nicole
I definitely agree!

Personally I'm not a fan of Adobe. Any software develpement company that has been in the business this long, enjoys such a large market share, & is so ridiculously profitable, and still can't produce a product that is even somewhat user friendly, definitely will not gain my respect.

That is why I use other products that are easier & more intuitive. Other packages will allow you to spend more time taking photos with your camera than spending eons reading help screens you don't understand, or spending hours searching the web for all those fantastic sites that explain how to use the software. Get the picture.

Nicole

Hello all.

Can someone please explain the difference between Photoshop 6.0,
LE, and elements? I know there's a price difference, but what can
one do that another can't?

I have 5.0 (upgraded from 4), but I am not too familiar with it.
It seems a bit bulky for me.

Nicole

--
Blue
http://www.pbase.com/image/859189