Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 Why won't it work with 16 Bit Tiff files?

[GaryMarsh]

I have recently acquired Adobe Photoshop Elements 9 and I have encountered a major obstacle in my quest for saving my images with the ultimate detail. My workflow consist of processing my Nikon Raw files in Capture NX2 then saving them as 16 Bit Tiffs which is fine, the problem arises when I want to further edit my saved Tiffs in Adobe Elements 9. I have experimented with 8 Bit Tiffs and I can edit these no problem, but I don't want 8 bit Tiffs. Although it will open the 16 Bit Tiff files it will not let me edit them is this normal with Elements 9? is there anyway round this problem such as a plug-in for instance, if not then I am snookered as I cannot afford the crazy price of Adobe Photoshop CS5.

Any help as always much appreciated!
Regards
Gary

[Fit]

I believe they limit 16bit editing to the full Photoshop and not Elements.

A quick Google of some other Adobe and Camera forums seems to confirm that while you can open and do some basics, full-on manipulation is reserved for PS.

[GaryMarsh]

Hello Chris
Thank you for your reply it's much appreciated! I guess I'll have to start saving up for the full version of Photoshop, probably CS10 by the time I get there
Take care
Gary

[sleist]

It does work quite well with 8 bit tiff files. I know it's not ideal by some people's point of view, but for my purposes and uses the difference between 16 and 8 bit was very difficult to see. Not to mention the fact that 8 bit files are much smaller. 8 bit tiffs are still lossless as compared to jpgs so you still have a huge advantage using even 8 bit tiffs over jpgs. Also, if the level of editing available in Elements is OK with you, you might want to look into Lightroom rather than CS5. It's currently on sale now from Adobe at $200. (reg $300)

My 2 cents

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Gary,

Assuming the Elements 9 was retail purchased and you registered it with Adobe, you may well get an e-mail from Adobe in a few days or weeks offering CS5 at half the "crazy" price

That's how I went, 3 hundred and something is better than 6 hundred and something for what is arguably 'the ultimate' image editor.

Now they are tempting me with LR3 ...

Cheers,

[sleist]

same happened to me -

$99 for Elements 9
Offered CS5 for $299 as an Elements 9 user.
Offered free upgrade to CS5.5, but instead got free CS5 extended upgrade (only 5.1 though)
Then got Lightroom 3 for $179 at NewEgg. (best deal I've seem for it)

Just let Adobe send offers in the email.

[Colin Southern]

Hi Gary,

The biggest advantage of using 16 bit is when you're making big corrections to levels. And in reality, you should be doing pretty much ALL of your big corrections in your RAW converter. So assuming that's the case, you probably won't be able to tell the difference between 8 & 16 bit editing from the time you export your files out of NX2.

As with many things in photography, there's a lot of good-sounding theory, but often the practice is entirely different.

[Odille]

Don't know someone in the educational field do you? I was lucky enough to buy my version of PS4 when working at a college so could get the education price.

[Colin Southern]

Don't know someone in the educational field do you? I was lucky enough to buy my version of PS4 when working at a college so could get the education price.

Just be careful - although it may work regardless, it doesn't make using it legal if you're not the person who meets the educational requirements.

[GaryMarsh]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to respond to my question and gave me the answers I was looking for.