PSE 15 vs Paintshop pro x9

[mark4583]

I have been using PSE 6 for sometime now and I am thinking of upgrading to a current version PSE 15, are there any major improvements from 6 to 15 and how do they compare to Paintshop Pro x9?

[dje]

I have been using PSE 6 for sometime now and I am thinking of upgrading to a current version PSE 15, are there any major improvements from 6 to 15 and how do they compare to Paintshop Pro x9?

Mark I haven't used PSE for a long time so I can't comment on that. I do own a copy of Paintshop Pro X9 but I haven't used it much as i have been using Affinity Photo mainly lately. The choice depends to a large extent on what you want to do with editing software. My guess is that Paintshop or Affinity are better value than PSE (ie you get more bang for your buck). But you would be best to evaluate the free trials against your editing requirements.

Note that Corel are in the process of releasing a new version of Paintshop Pro, entitled Paintshop Pro 2018.

Dave

[rpcrowe]

I am sure that it was "operator error" but, when I attempted to use Photoshop Elements several years ago, I had a problem keeping track of my images. PSE had its own library system which was not conducive to my ways of working with images...

[mark4583]

PSE 15 have Channels?

[Dave Humphries]

Hi Mark,

Can't you try it for 30 days?
PSE15 I mean, but may also apply to PSP9.
They usually do 'free intro' periods.

I'm sure it'll have a lot of advances between V6 and V15, I think I started with V6 in 2007-8, then moved to 8.

Like Richard, I didn't get on with the library and just used the editor section, but you probably already resolved that issue (one way or the other) if you use V6 (then PS CS5, PS CS6 and now PS CC).

If you're using a version that old, I assume you're either not processing RAW (shooting jpg?), or are opening RAW via DNG conversion?

Dave

[JohnRostron]

Like Dave Ellis I would also suggest that you try Affinity Photo. Unfortunately the free trial is only ten days, but it is worth looking at. There is also an excellent support forum.

John

[tclune]

It's my understanding that PSE still does not support 16-bits per channel image processing, which is a deal-breaker for me. PSP does. PSP also has limited support for Adobe plug-ins (Topaz and Focus Magic work without any problems, but not all plug-ins do.) If plug-ins are important to your workflow, find out whether either program properly supports the ones you use before making a choice.

[mark4583]

I shoot raw, I use the Nikon software but PSE 6 will also open them

[Cogito]

I started using PSP while it was still JASC software. I stayed with them on and off 'til PSP X2. I was tempted by PSP X9 and spent a bit of cash on it. Big learning curve from X2 bur worth it! As an addition you also get Corel AfterShot 3 - a useful addition.
As for PSE, have never been impressed but that's just me.

[Pica]

Mark I haven't used PSE for a long time so I can't comment on that. I do own a copy of Paintshop Pro X9 but I haven't used it much as i have been using Affinity Photo mainly lately. The choice depends to a large extent on what you want to do with editing software. My guess is that Paintshop or Affinity are better value than PSE (ie you get more bang for your buck). But you would be best to evaluate the free trials against your editing requirements.

Note that Corel are in the process of releasing a new version of Paintshop Pro, entitled Paintshop Pro 2018.

Dave

Hello again Dave, Everyone,
Background: I am advanced user of SW and this it to let you know that I found your text above interesting.

Especially the part: "I do own a copy of Paintshop Pro X9 but I haven't used it much as i have been using Affinity Photo mainly lately".

Since I interpret you have experiences regarding both Paintshop Pro and Affinity Photo: Can you (everyone) elaborate please: How come you decided to migrate to Affinity (pros and cons)? Thank you.

[dje]

How come you decided to migrate to Affinity (pros and cons)? Thank you.

Hi Pica
I had been using Photoshop CS6 for some time and had been quite happy with it however I started to realise that I would have to upgrade to something newer at some time. As I was not keen on the Adobe subscription model, I started looking around at other products such as Capture One and DXO Optics. Then earlier this year I read about a Windows version of Affinity Photo being released (it had been mac only until then). So I decided to try it out and, as there was a special deal going at the time, I decided to buy it for $80AU.

It basically does everything that PS did for me in terms of adjustments, layers and masks, area selection tools, smart filters, HDR merging, panaoramic stitching, perspective correction etc. In the main, it does these very well too. For me then, it is very good value for money which is important to me (I do have Scottish heritage you know).

It also contains a raw converter which I am not so keen on for two reasons

• It is slow to develop a raw file
• It is not parametric – once you have finished in the raw Develop area, you have to “burn in” the adjustments before you can go further.

As a result, I am using a different raw converter, AfterShot Pro 3, which I am much happier with as it is much faster and is parametric. It in itself is a competitor to Lightroom. I can send images I develop in AfterShot Pro 3 straight to Affinity Photo for further editing.

AfterShot Pro 3 is a Corel product and the reason I have Paintshop Pro is that I bought AfterShot Pro as part of a very good value package deal which included Paintshop Pro. I have yet to explore Paintshop Pro properly so I would rather not comment on it.

Dave

[Pica]

Hello Dave (everyone),
I am in a similar position as you were (and I do not favour Adobes subscriptions model either. As a former systems engineer I like to "posses" my software on HDD).

Thank you for your informative reply (since I am a seasoned SW user and post-processor). I do appreciate it.

I would like to ask you the following follow-up questions before I perhaps take Affinity out for a test run, please:

(i) Referring to your words below: "I started looking around at other products such as ..."
Did you every look at ON1 Photo RAW as a candidate? If so what pros and cons did you discover when comparing it with Affinity?

(ii) Since you are a user of PS CS6: When I photograph my aim is always to “get it right in the camera”. However, sometime I have to make advanced “Spot healing” when I discover something that shouldn’t be there. E.g. shiny air pipes in a beautiful garden of flowers; and which may be rather tricky connected to the garden itself.

Compared with e.g. PS and PSE, how good are the features for “Spot healing” and “Content-aware-fill” etc, do you believe? (And do they work in 16-bit?)

(iii) Sometimes, which is key, we have to re-load the PC (Windows) when we are out with the camera in the wilderness where there is no internet. Do Affinity say OK to this – like many other software do – or is internet demanded (frequently or during the installation like for Adobe) which isn’t very user friendly when photographing wildlife?


Looking forward to your reply. All the best from the Nordic Countries!

Hi Pica
I had been using Photoshop CS6 for some time and had been quite happy with it however I started to realise that I would have to upgrade to something newer at some time. As I was not keen on the Adobe subscription model, I started looking around at other products such as Capture One and DXO Optics. Then earlier this year I read about a Windows version of Affinity Photo being released (it had been mac only until then). So I decided to try it out and, as there was a special deal going at the time, I decided to buy it for $80AU.

It basically does everything that PS did for me in terms of adjustments, layers and masks, area selection tools, smart filters, HDR merging, panaoramic stitching, perspective correction etc. In the main, it does these very well too. For me then, it is very good value for money which is important to me (I do have Scottish heritage you know).

It also contains a raw converter which I am not so keen on for two reasons

• It is slow to develop a raw file
• It is not parametric – once you have finished in the raw Develop area, you have to “burn in” the adjustments before you can go further.

As a result, I am using a different raw converter, AfterShot Pro 3, which I am much happier with as it is much faster and is parametric. It in itself is a competitor to Lightroom. I can send images I develop in AfterShot Pro 3 straight to Affinity Photo for further editing.

AfterShot Pro 3 is a Corel product and the reason I have Paintshop Pro is that I bought AfterShot Pro as part of a very good value package deal which included Paintshop Pro. I have yet to explore Paintshop Pro properly so I would rather not comment on it.

Dave

[Manfred M]

Hello Dave (everyone),
I am in a similar position as you were (and I do not favour Adobes subscriptions model either. As a former systems engineer I like to "posses" my software on HDD).

Strangely enough, my Adobe software resides on my HDD. I won't get into the arguments about the subscription model here; that is a personal choice. Once the software is installed, Adobe does do updates to it from time to time (just like it did when the software was distributed on media). It does require a brief internet connection every few months for validation, but it does not require require very frequent connectivity. I was away in fairly isolated parts of the world for several weeks at a time with no internet connectivity and ran Photoshop almost every day.

(i) Referring to your words below: "I started looking around at other products such as ..."
Did you every look at ON1 Photo RAW as a candidate? If so what pros and cons did you discover when comparing it with Affinity?

I haven't checked lately, but the early reviews of ON1 Photo RAW were quite negative. The general feeling was that the product was not ready and the product that was shipped was really a beta product.

(ii) Since you are a user of PS CS6: When I photograph my aim is always to “get it right in the camera”. However, sometime I have to make advanced “Spot healing” when I discover something that shouldn’t be there. E.g. shiny air pipes in a beautiful garden of flowers; and which may be rather tricky connected to the garden itself.




Compared with e.g. PS and PSE, how good are the features for “Spot healing” and “Content-aware-fill” etc, do you believe? (And do they work in 16-bit?)

I did use the trial of Affinity for a few weeks. It has a lot of the functionality of Photoshop, but in general it seems to run more slowly. For the price (which is about the same as Elements), I would probably recommend Affinity. There seems to be better value for money there. I would hope that we see the development team optimize the software some more over time. The healing and content aware capabilities were quite good, but again, I found them to be a quite a bit slower than I am used to with Photoshop CC.

For my personal workflow, it is missing some key features that Photoshop has, like SmartObjects and a good integrated raw processor. Like Dave, I found the raw processor to be marginal. I believe that as it was originally an Apple product, it used the Aperture raw engine and they had to write a new engine for Windows.

(iii) Sometimes, which is key, we have to re-load the PC (Windows) when we are out with the camera in the wilderness where there is no internet. Do Affinity say OK to this – like many other software do – or is internet demanded (frequently or during the installation like for Adobe) which isn’t very user friendly when photographing wildlife?

I'm really not quite sure what you are writing about here? If by reload, are you referring to reinstalling software? If so, the Infinity download will reside on your hard disk and you can reinstall it. That being said, I have not had to reinstall any software due to Windows operating system problems in a very long time; certainly not since the time that Vista came out.

[JohnRostron]

I have been a regular Affinity user for well over a year now and I wouldn't look back. I admit that I have never used smart objects in Photoshop, I have never found the need for them. Affinity's live adjustment layers do have many of the advantages of Smart Objects. It also develops my Sony AWR files to my satisfaction. When the program starts, it does use the internet to see if an update is available, but does not worry if it cannot connect. I changed over to get out of the Adobe subscription model. The price is around £50 in the UK. This is determined by matching it to what Apple sells it for, so international prices are fixed by Apple.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, there is an excellent and responsive user forum.

John

[dje]

(i) Referring to your words below: "I started looking around at other products such as ..."
Did you every look at ON1 Photo RAW as a candidate? If so what pros and cons did you discover when comparing it with Affinity?

(ii) Since you are a user of PS CS6: When I photograph my aim is always to “get it right in the camera”. However, sometime I have to make advanced “Spot healing” when I discover something that shouldn’t be there. E.g. shiny air pipes in a beautiful garden of flowers; and which may be rather tricky connected to the garden itself.

Compared with e.g. PS and PSE, how good are the features for “Spot healing” and “Content-aware-fill” etc, do you believe? (And do they work in 16-bit?)

(iii) Sometimes, which is key, we have to re-load the PC (Windows) when we are out with the camera in the wilderness where there is no internet. Do Affinity say OK to this – like many other software do – or is internet demanded (frequently or during the installation like for Adobe) which isn’t very user friendly when photographing wildlife?

Hi Pica

In response to your questions

(i) No I haven't looked at On1 but like Manfred I have heard some negative reports.

(ii) I haven't used the Content Aware tool much yet but it seems to work quite well, albeit a little slow on my Windows machine. It's actually called the Inpainting tool in Affinity and you can see it at work in this video
.

This is a Serif video tutorial which is one of many made by the company and a full list can be found here. They are quite good and give a good overview of what the software can do.
As far as I know, everything can be done in 16 bit in Affinity Photo.

(iii) I'm not totally sure what you mean here either but the software is installed like most (non-subscription) software and only uses the internet for initial activation. I've never had to re-install it so I can't really say what happens in that situation.

Finally, a couple of comments on adjustments and filters. I find it very good with these. When you make an Adjustment, it automatically creates an adjustment layer which can be re-adjusted at any time. With Filters, you have a choice of either applying the filter once (without the possibility of further setting changes), or you can create a Live Filter for most filter types and these can have their settings changed at any time.

Dave

[Shadowman]

I am sure that it was "operator error" but, when I attempted to use Photoshop Elements several years ago, I had a problem keeping track of my images. PSE had its own library system which was not conducive to my ways of working with images...

PSE uses Organizer to keep track of images, it is slow as heck though as I believe when launched it searches your system for all available images.

[Pica]

Hello Dave, John, Manfred and Everyone,
Thank you for your replies.

BACKGROUND: I am experienced software user, and after over a decade with Adobe's programs I am thinking about, doing something that I never thought I would do, migrating. Example: We bought the latest Photoshop and Premiere Elements combo. I was excited, especially over some new features, which worked well even in 16-bit. After a week I begun to see faults in features, which had worked well before. I did research (e.g. on Adobes's forum) and found that several have reported this a long time ago. However, stated that they had not heard anything vital in return. No fault correcting patches have been release since PSE 15 for Windows was released almost one year ago.

Then I recalled the PSE PRE combo we bought prior to this. Version 13. It has got a very serious feature fault concerning burning Blu-ray. The fault, same story, well known. Talked a lot about in the forums; and we the customers who have invested money in the version 13 SW did not receive the necessary patch there either. You had to buy the next version!


To something more positive .

THANK YOU for the information on Affinty Photo. It is good news that the "healing tools" (which function is key and I use to remove trash and pipes in e.g. gardens) works well (even if stated slow).

Thank you for the video Dave.

Hi Pica
(ii) I haven't used the Content Aware tool much yet but it seems to work quite well, albeit a little slow on my Windows machine. It's actually called the Inpainting tool in Affinity and you can see it at work in this video ...
Dave

The healing and content aware capabilities were quite good, but again, I found them to be a quite a bit slower than I am used to with Photoshop CC.

John, most interesting to read:

I have been a regular Affinity user for well over a year now and I wouldn't look back. ... It also develops my Sony AWR files to my satisfaction.

Concerning item (iii)

John, valuable read for me too:

When the program starts, it does use the internet to see if an update is available, but does not worry if it cannot connect.

John, this answers parts of my question well. To clarify further as you asked Dave:

1) When a buyer has received the SW product key, is the key the only thing necessary to begin using Affinity after the first installation (or do the program need access to the internet during the installation procedure)?
2) Comparing with the user-friendly installation procedure of the review winning tool Easy HDR as well as other SW: Can we the buyers, obtain the key via another internet connected computer (e.g. in town) and then activate the actual PC without the internet in the wilderness?

I changed over to get out of the Adobe subscription model.
As I mentioned in my earlier post, there is an excellent and responsive user forum.
John

Me too. Good news about your experiences with the forum.


- Looking forward to the reply on item (iii). Take care for now.