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

[Colin Southern]

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

I believe it's quite a common pre-requisite -- but then again, I'm not surprised because it is the gold-standard and also the industry standard - and for approved courses Adobe make it available for a mere fraction of the normal cost. No brainer IMO.

[Natureluvr3]

Well, I haven't called the school yet. I will call next week, after Thanksgiving break.

I did go look at laptops last night! Now even if I don't load Photoshop software at all, I still want a new computer

I was looking at ASUS. Can anyone give me their thoughts on that brand? I hadn't heard of them until recently with all the research I've been doing. I was looking at a Gamer's Edition laptop. The model is G75 and this is the specs:

3rd Gen Intel® Core™ i7-3630QM processor
8GB DDR3 memory
(what's the DDR3 - what does that mean?)
Multiformat DVD±RW/CD-RW drive
17.3" LED-backlit TFT-LCD high-definition widescreen display
1TB hard drive (5400 rpm)
NVIDIA GeForce GTX 660M graphics
Multiformat media reader
4 USB 3.0 ports
Built-in Intel® high-speed wireless LAN (802.11n)
Integrated 10/100/1000 Mbps Fast Ethernet LAN
Microsoft Windows 8 64-bit operating system preinstalled

I don’t know if I actually need a 1TB of hard drive space because I am constantly backing up to an external anyway. Especially all of my photos.

I am sure I will be getting some edition of Photoshop because I have been getting more and more into photography, with hopes of doing something with it professionally down the road. I went to Alaska for a couple of weeks over the summer and have dozens of shots that I would love to see what I can do with some editing to make them even more remarkable.

So bottom line is I will need a new laptop sooner rather than later and whatever I get I want to make sure it’s got what I need so I don’t have to make additions to it or have to go buy a new one in a year.

Thanks again for everyone’s input!

Carol

[dje]

Carol for what it's worth, my current desktop has an ASUS motherboard as did several before it. I've had no problems with this brand (it's a fairly "big brand" in the pc business). My wife has had an ASUS laptop for the last 12 months and no problems either.

The model you describe above seems to have a fairly high spec and should last more than a year. There may be a more economical version that suits your needs but you'd need to talk that through with a pc expert. I wouldn't be concerend about the 1TB drive, storage is cheap and the more the better in my opinion. 8GB of RAM should be fine. Looks like it has a pretty good screen which is important for photo editing.

Dave

[Manfred M]

I remember reading a review of laptop quality stats a few months ago, based on the warranty return stats. ASUS was ranked second best, right behind Toshiba (best) and Lenovo (in third place, just below ASUS). All three rated higher than Apple.

[Scott Stephen]

I was under the impression from sites selling Photoshop that the "student" version requires you to be basically a full-time student on a degree track of some kind, and that a person just taking a single community college photography course for a hobby would not qualify.

But perhaps they don't actually enforce that as rigidly as they make it sound.

[Manfred M]

I was under the impression from sites selling Photoshop that the "student" version requires you to be basically a full-time student on a degree track of some kind, and that a person just taking a single community college photography course for a hobby would not qualify.

But perhaps they don't actually enforce that as rigidly as they make it sound.

The college bookstores that I am aware of require the purchaser to prove that they are currently enrolled as a student at the educational institution before they sell you a copy, whether it is full-time or part-time even if the student is not enrolled in a degree or diploma stream. This certainly makes sense to me; if you are taking a course where this a required part of the course materials.

[Colin Southern]

I was under the impression from sites selling Photoshop that the "student" version requires you to be basically a full-time student on a degree track of some kind, and that a person just taking a single community college photography course for a hobby would not qualify.

But perhaps they don't actually enforce that as rigidly as they make it sound.

I posted a link to their requirements above

[ldasignup]

My understanding is that a valid Student-ID is pretty much all that is required to quality for the Student version. Part time student is fine, but "consider the source" as I haven't done this.

The pricing for the Student version is So Much Lower than normal pricing that you really should get CS6 rather than PS-Elements. I don't think there is a Student version of PSE, so the CS6 version may be about the same as the latest PSE.

I've thought about taking a community college course in photography (or any subject I suppose) just to quality for student pricing.