Photoshop vs. Elements vs. CS6? I'm confused!

[Natureluvr3]

Hello,

I have been researching getting Photoshop CS6 and it seems the more I research I do, the more questions I have!

I am going to be taking a photography class next semester at my local community college and we will be using CS6. I was first researching to see if my laptop would be able to support the student version of CS6. Then I was going to start researching maybe adding more RAM (and whatever else I may need) onto my laptop because I really can't afford a new computer at this time.

Then my brother in law told me he has Photoshop 10 and that I could load that onto my laptop with no problems. So then I started researching to see if CS6 and Photoshop 10 were compatible. And now I have even more questions than when I started

So, I guess my first question would be is Photoshop 10 and Photoshop 10 Elements the same thing? When I did a search asking what the difference was between CS6 and 10, Elements kept popping up which lead me to think that Photoshop 10 and Photoshop 10 Elements are one in the same?

Then, I guess my next question would be, is "10" (whether it's Elements 10 or Photoshop 10) compatible with CS6? If I am going to be working in class with one version and working at home in another version, this may be a problem, correct?

Can someone be so kind as to help me sort through all of this? I would really appreciate it!!!

Thank you in advance!!!

Carol

[Mark von Kanel]

Carol,

i think it will be photoshop elements 10 and photoshop cs6 that you are talking about. Elements is a thinned down version of cs6 which caters more towards photographers whilst cs6 is for graphic designers and other digital artists as well. without knowing the specification of your laptop im struggling to help you to know if either will run well on your system.

remember your student discount!

[Andrew1]

I would suggest you take a look at the Adobe website and familiarize yourself with the description of the software packages. The better information you have the better choice you will make. Second, call the facility and either talk to the instructor or leave a message to find out which is best for what you will be doing.

If this is as you indicate a photography course for a semester I would doubt the full CS package would be utilized for even a portion of what it can do. Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Lightroom have evolved greatly in the past few years and may have more than enough to get you through. If there is a little on the course that delves into the full CS then perhaps the trial period will do.

There are also free editing software options as well that may be exactly what you need.

[Donald]

Carol - Just to add to what Mark has already said - Elements is the more 'basic' package that does an awful lot, if not all, of what the vast majority of photographers will want or need.

CS6 is the full blown, bells and whistles, 'it's got the lot' package that will cook your dinner and tuck you up in bed at night, if you speak to it nicely.

If you can afford CS6, then the question is not one of money. Instead it is do you see yourself developing your interest, knowledge and skills to the level where you'd be frustrated by the limitations of Elements and will want to stretch yourself into the rarified atmosphere of CS6 (and it's successors of course - all of which will cost money to upgrade to).

EDIT - I see that Andrew has come in with comments as I've been typing this and covered some of what I added.

[Andrew1]

Great minds......

[Natureluvr3]

Hi Mark,

The class that I'll be taking next semester is Foundations of Digital Photography -- Explores the techniques and applications of acquiring, manipulating and outputting digitized photographic images utilizing Adobe Photoshop. I'm told that this class will use CS6, but you're saying PSE10 is more for photographers?

As far as my system, I wasn't going to even go there until I straightened out the confusion I had about the versions of Photoshop

I can get what my brother-in-law is calling Photoshop 10 for free. He will let me borrow the discs to load on my laptop. CS6, student edition will cost me somewhere around $250 or $300.

My main concern is that I don't want to spend 5 days a week at school because I don't have what I need on my computer at home to do my homework.

I'm not at home right now, but when I go home I can look up the specs on my laptop and I will post them here. I can almost guarantee I don't have a good enough system to run CS6.

Thanks Mark!!

[Natureluvr3]

Oh more responses - thanks you guys!!!

I will definately call the school's photography department to find out for sure what they're using! No instructor has been assigned yet, but the instructor of my current class tells me it's CS6.

I do know that I am going to continue with my interest in photography, but I have a LONG way to go!!

There is so much to learn, but I'm enjoying every minute of it!!!

Once I get back home I will post the specs of my current laptop, but I'm almost positive it's not going to be good enough. It's something like 6 years old now!!!

Thanks again!

Carol

[Loose Canon]

I can get what my brother-in-law is calling Photoshop 10 for free. He will let me borrow the discs to load on my laptop. CS6, student edition will cost me somewhere around $250 or $300.

Hi Carol,

If you do this, and if you care, you will be running askew of Adobe's EULA. I wouldn't advise doing this and if I did go ahead and do it anyway, I wouldn't advise posting as much on a public website.

Just don't want to see anyone getting in trouble Carol!

Sorry.

[Andrew1]

If the instructor says it's CS6 then you seem to already have your answer. Check the system requirements against your laptop or have someone knowledgeable do it for you.

[russellsnr]

Hi, Just my 10 cents worth, but in the first place I feel it is wrong of the school in the first place to be using CS6 for student photography work, the school may well be able to afford CS6 but students probably cannot, surly it would be better for the school to use L/R4 and maybe PSE 10, that is unless they are going to teach graphic work etc etc in there class. Photographers IMO do not need to have CS6 as a starting application there is far to much inside it's brain that photographers will probably never use, is that not one of the reasons Adobe upgraded L/R to do what it can albeit without layers?.
Plenty of other cheaper options for additional requirements like layers out there.
Russ

[Manfred M]

Carol - I've taken a number of photography releated courses at the local community college. The instructors. courses and tools were usually the same ones that were used by the people enrolled in the photography diploma courses. If it is the same where you are taking the course, you should assume that you will be using the full version of Photoshop CS6. You should be able to pick an education version up for a very good price at the college book store / computer shop. The education version is identical to the commercial version , with the main difference being that you are not licenced to use it for commercial purposes.

The following is a link to the Adobe website that gives the minimum machine requirements for Photoshop CS6; and really you don't need a particularly powerful machine to use it. Check to see how your machine measures up.

http://www.adobe.com/ca/products/pho...ech-specs.html

My guess is that Elements will likely not be acceptable from a course standpoint. The user interface is quite different from Photoshop CS6.

[dje]

Carol

With Photoshop, either Elements or CS6, you can save your work in a PSD file. This saves any layers that you may have used in editing your image. As far as I'm aware, a PSD file created in CS6 can be opened in Elements. However if you've used a layer type in CS6 that isn't available in Elements, you will have a problem. Also, you can do all your editing in CS6 in 16 bit however you can't do much with 16 bit images in Elements and you would have to convert the image in Elements to 8 bit to do much editing. Elements wont handle Smart Objects either. Nevertheless, there is pretty good compatibility between the two for all the basic stuff.

It might be worth discussing with your instructor because it depends a bit how advanced you get with CS6 on the course.

Dave

PS Just noticed Manfred's post - he makes a good point about the user interfaces being different. This will add to your complexities in learning.

[Natureluvr3]

Thank you all so much for your responses! I need the dummies book for computers when it comes to the hardware end of things!!

Manfred - I did see that link you posted before and I printed it, but I'm still not sure if I have of what I need to install CS6 on my laptop. I found something else that also came from the Adobe website that looks to contradict what's at that link you posted. For instance in that link it says 1 gb RAM, but on this other sheet I printe, it eludes to needing 4 gb. I say eludes because on this other sheet its a good, better, best scenario of what is needed to run CS6. I also know I can pick up the education edition for a lot cheaper and that's probably the way I'll go, if my laptop can support it.

Here is what I have:
Microsoft Windows XP Professional, Version 2002 with service pack 3. It's a Dell Inspiron 1520, with Intel Core 2 Duo CPU, T7500 @ 2.20GHz. 2.19 GHz, 2.00 GB RAM. Then it says "Physical Address Extension"? I'm getting this from right-clicking on the My Computer window and clicking Properties so I typed this word for word.

Then, I think it also matters what type of screen I have too, which is NVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS. I can choose either 16 bit or 32 bit and the screen resolution goes up to 1440x900 pixels.

Terry - my brother-in-law doesn't have PS installed on his computer anymore so I thought it would be okay because he's not using it anymore? Maybe I'm wrong?

Any other comments, suggestions, opinions?

Thanks so much everyone!!!

Carol

[dje]

Carol I can't comment on how well your computer will run CS6 but you can download it from the Adobe website (large file) and try it for free for a month. You might like to consider that option, although perhaps wait until a bit closer to when the course starts.

Dave

[Natureluvr3]

Dave,

That's a good idea, if it will be able to be run on my computer. I think I may be able to do some upgrades on the laptop too. Someone said I may just need a graphics card? I have no clue whatsoever! I wish I knew someone personally that can help me with all the hardware related stuff!! It would be so much easier, LOL!!!

Carol

[Andrew76]

Hi Carol - I'm not a computer guru either, but I would seriously look into possibly upgrading. I have a fairly new laptop, with a quad core processor (yours is a dual core), and mine has 8G of RAM (yours has 2). CS5 runs fairly slowly, even on mine when it's performing some complicated tasks. I've even checked to see how much RAM it's using at these times, and it ranges between 3, and 5G, so considerably more than yours has.

Just a suggestion, but you may find it extremely frustrating if the computer can't handle the program. I know for me, it is.

I wonder why the course wants you to have CS6 for a 'Foundations' course. But hey, I'm not a college Instructor!!

[Manfred M]

Carol - your graphics are built in on a laptop and there really is no way to upgrade it. Win XP on most machines is a 32-bit operating system, so 4GB is the most memory you can install on the machine; I don't have any XP machines around any more, so I can't confirm, but I think if you right click on the My Computer icon and click on the properties button, it should tell you. I think Dave's suggestion of downloading the trial version is an excellent idea, that way you know how well it will work. If you buy the student version later on, all you will have to do is enter the unlock code and activate it an it will keep on running for you.

Then play around with it (and get thoroughly confused), that way you will be in much better shape during the course to understand how to use this software

[Natureluvr3]

Andrew, I was kind of thinking I'd need a new computer, but geez I sure can't afford that right now!!! Unless or course I have a winning lottery ticket in my purse

This one sheet I printed out from Adobe shows a good, better, best as far as OS. The Best scenario recommends Dual 8-core Intel processor, Windows 7 SP1, 16 GB RAM (and then it states "PP/MC*:24GB". The * denotes "Unless otherwise specified, assumes usage of CS6 Design Standard or Design & Web Premium. Production Premium and Master Collection requirements, which might be higher for certain items, are designated with PP/MC".) Then it goes on to recommend 1TB of hard drive storage. Then is says for PP/MC additional hard drives are necessary? The video card in the Best scenario is Quadro 5000 or for PP/MC a NVIDIA Telsa C2075.

I think I may be spending a lot of nights at school next semester, because I really can't afford this at the moment!!! I think my first thing will be to call and talk to someone at school about all of this. Who knows, they may give you enough time in class to get this stuff done! But I really do need something at home too!

Wow, lots to think about I guess!!!

BTW - Manfred - I'm sure I will get thoroughly confused!!!! I used Photoshop briefly for work back in the mid 90's and I remember it was not the easiest software to figure out. They sent me to school for it, but that was for a completely different application. I used it for graphics design back then.

Anyway - thanks again everyone!

Carol

[Andrew1]

Manfred is correct in his statement that you can only add 4GB of RAM to an XP machine hardware wise. Unfortunately, logically, only 3GB (2.91) is recognized for use. Adobe shows 2 is required and 4 is recommended. http://www.adobe.com/products/creati...ech-specs.html

[xpatUSA]

I think my first thing will be to call and talk to someone at school about all of this. Who knows, they may give you enough time in class to get this stuff done! But I really do need something at home too!

Yes, you should indeed establish that ownership of CS6 is a pre-requisite for attending the course.

It seems odd to me that a community college course would demand so much post-processing power, but I'm not from here and shouldn't really be passing an opinion . . .

I mean, PSE 10 is probably too much for some folks round here . . ;-)