[R12ax7]

Background: I am a somewhat new DSLR owner and while I have gotten a pretty good handle on some of the basic shooting techniques, I am 100% clueless on photoshop. I have been trying to find a copy from a friend but have only been able to find much older versions. Yesterday I saw this deal at newegg for Photoshop Elements 9 & Premiere Elements 9: <http://www.techdealdigger.com/pr/cheap-adobe-photoshop-elements-9--premiere-elements-9-winmac-deals/5005>.

My question is this: What exactly does "elements" lack that the full version has? I may want to try doing some HDRs and might want the photomatrix plugin - will both of these be possible? This appears to be a good deal, I have been fumbling around with Corel PaintShop Pro X3, but there just isnt the support for it online and its features seem far less robust (and less intuitive) than my impression of photoshop.


Thanks for any input

[vachss]

You very likely only need Elements. Here's a link describing some of the differences: http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/pho...ntscompare.htm
There is an issue with Photomatix though. Apparently Elements doesn't support 32 bit images while full Photoshop does. This means that if you're going to use the Photomatix plug in with Elements you'll have a more limited tone mapping range. The alternative is to use the stand-alone version of Photomatix for HDR and then export the final result after tone mapping into Elements.

[M_Six]

Originally Posted by vachss

You very likely only need Elements. Here's a link describing some of the differences: http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/pho...ntscompare.htm
There is an issue with Photomatix though. Apparently Elements doesn't support 32 bit images while full Photoshop does. This means that if you're going to use the Photomatix plug in with Elements you'll have a more limited tone mapping range. The alternative is to use the stand-alone version of Photomatix for HDR and then export the final result after tone mapping into Elements.

Agreed. I use the stand-alone version of Photomatix and I have CS5. It's not a big deal to do some work in Photomatix and then put some finishing touches on in Photoshop (or PS Elements). Photomatix has its own steep learning curve unless you just use the auto settings. So if you're new to both Photomatix and Photoshop, you've got some learning to do.

[adrean8j]

^^^I also use photomatix alone and then CS4 afterwards

[Spoolin335]

I use Photomatix Pro 3 then tweak in CS3.