Photoshop Elements 2

[robert]

My feeble system is currently running Photoshop Elements 2. Is anyone familiar with the book, " The Hidden Power of Photoshop Elements 2" by Richard Lynch ? The book explains in depth PE and the cd contains a collection of tools to expand PE. (also available in photoshop elements 1,3 and 4) Some of the tools include: curves...calculations.... channels...clipping paths...color balance...masking...color separations( RGB, CMYK and Lab) ...enhanced sharpening....snapshots....custom vectors...ect...ect. Has anyone used this program? And would it be suitable as a low cost alternative to CS2 for producing enlarged digital negatives? Thanks in advance

[Ted Harris]

If you are looking for a low cost alternative to CS2 I highly suggest you try LightZone (http://www.lightcrafts.com/products/lightzone/). You can download a free trial and the fiull version is $149 with a $99 educational price. LightZone was designed by photographers specifically for photographers (Lars Vinberg who is active here is one of the designers). It is based on th Zone System.

It doesn't do everything CS2 does but it does almost all of it that is nee by most photographers and in many ways does it better and easier. I use it extensively. The cover of this month's View Camera and all the images in the Alfred Cheney Johnston article as well as Mike Pry's images in the BTZS article were edited for publication using LightZone ... and in much less time to get the results I wanted than it would hav taken in PS CS2.

[Dick Hilker]

I think the key consideration is, as Ted said, whether you plan to have your images published. For personal work, including prints prepared for galleries and sale, you may find PSE2 all you need. I've used it that way for years, tried CS2 and found it much more cumbersome with its very steep learning curve, and decided to stay with the "tried and true." What you might lose in ultimate control may be compensated for by ease of use and being able to concentrate on art rather than science.

[Scott Davis]

Has anyone here used the new Aperture software from Apple? Any thoughts on your experiences with it? I'm looking at getting a new computer for the holidays, and I want to get a Mac again, after too many years slaving away on a PC. I'm quite used to Photoshop, and I'm wondering if some of the things I do with it (most importantly scanning) can be done in the same integrated fashion with Aperture, or does it only import from digicam files?

[robert]

Ted, Thanks for the tip. But they still have it listed as 249.95 on their website. It looks like a program that would interest me. The learning curve for photoshop CS2 looks quite overwhelming.

[jonf]

Has anyone here used the new Aperture software from Apple? Any thoughts on your experiences with it? I'm looking at getting a new computer for the holidays, and I want to get a Mac again, after too many years slaving away on a PC. I'm quite used to Photoshop, and I'm wondering if some of the things I do with it (most importantly scanning) can be done in the same integrated fashion with Aperture, or does it only import from digicam files?

good choice on the getting the mac.....

I have not used aperture yet, but they have a trial (believe it or not. it is unusual for apple to offer trials on their "pro" software). I have been using the beta versions of LightRoom (adobe) and am waiting to see version 1. Neither Aperture or LightRoom are designed to be deal with capture the same way PS is. They are really intended to deal with a bunch of already existant digital images (sort, modify, output).... There are Aperture vs. Lightroom threads all over both aperture and lightroom forums (as you would expect).

enjoy your mac.

[Michael Heald]

Hello! I use Elements 2 with Hidden Power. It is fairly easy to use and the Hidden Power Book is pretty straight forward.
I tried Light Zone 1.5, and I nearly bought it, but two things kept me - the clone tool was difficult to use in order to spot my 4x5 B&W negatives and and I couldn't invert from positive to negatives and back again. The second wasn't a big deal. The first was, since I had to import the images into Elements 2 to spot them anyway.
One advantage is that Light Zone works in 16 bit as opposed to 8 bit for Elements.
I've been using Silverfast to scan with my 4990. I can do a lot of 16 bit work in the scanner, and for negatives that are reasonably well exposed, the amount of editing I need to do is much reduced.
I was disappointed with the $249 price of Light Zone 2.0. I'll download it and see how it works. Shooting/scanning B&W means that I have much less need for layers, editing, etc. than I would for color, so I'm not sure the extra price will be worth switching to Light Zone, but I'll give it a try and see. I really like the interface. It is a lot more user friendly than Elements. Best regards.

Mike

[robert]

Michael, I was hoping Lightzone would be a good program for enlarged digital negatives. But if you can't invert the image then it doesn't sounds as promising.

[ronald moravec]

I scan 4x5 color negs and process with PSE2. Most all the plug-ins only help with accessing what is already there. Curves might be an exeption, but that is what backlight and flash fill mimic. Scanner programs have curves built into the scanning program and the few times I needed it, that is where I applied it ( Epson 4870 and Minolta 5400).

Color balance is done with levels, but you use the individual RBG channels selected at the top.

There is a back door masking that is done. Select the area you wish to work on from a background copy layer using the tool of your choice, at the top go to layer, new adjusment layer, then pick what you want, saturation, levels, brightness/contrast and a layer mask appears over the dup layer. Then make the adjustments with that layer active and all the corrections are confined to just the selected area. CS2 is just a step easier.

Send PM if you wish more help.

[Ted Harris]

Robert, I see that now. I believe it is new pricing for v2.x and I will checkand see the differences between the full and the retouching version ... will do that next week when I get a chance.