new to post processing - which photoshop? CS4 or elements?

[Blackgoddess]

hey guys,
i'm starting to think about some post processing of photos. Now i know that photoshop is er...the most used software for post processing. Now, my question is : which photoshop is sufficient for new learners / amateur photographers like me? Photoshop elements? Photoshop CS4? i read that CS4 is more for serious amateur photographers and the price is waaayyy too high for me. Would Elements be sufficient?

Any recommendations? :think:

Thanks.

 

[diiva]

Why not download the trial of both cs4 and elements 7 and try out on your own to see which suits you better?

 

[CYRN]

cheap and easy one....

the one that comes with your cam.

 

[kevyan]

Please note that PhotoShop CS4 requires a fairly powerful PC and good graphic card to perform well. CS4 make use of the GPU and if you are using Nvidia gfx card, better still.

I am using PhotoShop CS4 now, and it's painful. Time to upgrade my PC.

 

[Danc]

If you take your pictures in RAW format, you can use Lightroom to either do single photo or batch processing. Another advantage of Lightroom is that the adjustments are saved as metadata which means your original RAW file is preserved. Thus, very easy to undo adjustments or change the photo to a different look.

 

[kevyan]

If cost is a concern, why not try GIMP?

http://www.gimp.org/

 

[Peano]

Would Elements be sufficient?

Definitely. You don't even need the latest version. I started with Elements 3.0 (when the current version was 5.0) and found it to be a very sophisticated set of tools. I used that for at least two years before buying CS2. Most of what I've learned about image editing was done on that outdated version of Elements. It ain't what you use, it's the way that you use it.