hop_phan Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Hi, I just switched to digital ( Canon 5D ) and very new to the editingprograms. I start with Canon Digital Photo Professional ( comes with thecamera ) . I heard a lot about Photoshop. I do not have the money for PhotoshopCS2 , moreover I do not need that much ( I am an hobbyist ). I am thinking aboutgetting the Photoshop Element 5 . Anyone who has been using both programs (DPP and Photoshop Element 5 )please tell me which is better. Thank you for all the suggestions. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
peter_glass1 Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Canon used to bundle Photoshop Elements with their cameras, but apparently they don't anymore, as per you post. I don't know much about DPP, but others may. I think PS Elements is a fine program, and probably worth purchasing, especially if you later decide to expand your editing capabilities in a full Photoshop program. Elements 5 will probably perform all of your photo editing needs if you are new to the digital darkroom. It's relatively easy to use. That's what I would do, but others may have a different opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_swanson Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 I'd get elements. It will let you do a lot more with your images beyond the raw conversion. Does Adobe have a PSE5 trial available? If so give it a shot. The upshot of buying CS2 (and I'd wait for CS3 if you decide you want to go with full photoshop) is that it matches all the tutorials you find online. It is, however, a lot of money. DPP has its moments, btw. (Its color tends to be better by default.) I would keep it installed. Having multiple programs to do conversions can be useful. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronald_moravec1 Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 PSE 5 is nice for a hobbyist and many things can be done with it and it will meet 95% of your needs. CS2 has a few features I really wanted, so I erased the trial 5 and purchased CS2. There is a lens distortion correction filter, but you can get PTLens plug in for PSE5. Pt is easier to use, but pray Tom has calibrated the lens you wish to use. He is very fussy about what images he can sucessfully calibrate. Most Canon stuff is done. The curves and highlight/shadow functions are cut down versions in 5. ie they work, but not as precisely. CS2 has nicer selection tools Cs2 can balance individual colors You can use the tab key to make the tool bar and pallets disapper with cs. 5 requires a lot of clicking to unclutter the screen CS2 supports layer masking. Most all the extra cost for CS2 is for the Image ready, Illustrator, page layout, In Design and other graphic arts programs included, Not photo editing sofware. I suggest you download 5 and see what it can do compared to Canon. From what I remember, Canon only does global tweeking to images and converts raw files. you can`t do anything with layers or repairing small areas of an image like burning and dodging. The trial takes a one or two hour process to download and install. Pain in the ... It will work for a month. I say if you can afford a 5D, just buy 5 for $89 at Amazon.com and learn to use it. It will take you 6 months to learn WELL. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jwd Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 DPP is a useful tool for converting RAW images. It handles colour very well and generally does a good job on individual photos. I never used its batch processing features (I always have preferred RAWshooter for that, Adobe bought them out). I have recently tried Elements and still don't really like it. I hear good things about Elements, but given a choice between Elements and PaintshopPro though, I would recommend PSP instead. PSP is more powerful and costs about the same or less. If you can afford Photoshop go with that, chiefly because tutorial and informative books really lean on Photoshop for exemplars. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ronaldo_r Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 I only use Photoshop for image rotation (e.g to straighten horizons). Everything else can be done in DPP, including the clone tool, cropping, levels etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iambaxter Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 Never tried the Canon software but have used all most all versions of Photoshop and Elements. As was posted earlier you can down load a trial version of Elements. Give it a try, what have you got to loose. Elements 5 now has curves added, as well as a few other new features that make it a great yet inexpensive programme. Visit the Adobe main site to find the free Windows trial version. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ted_marcus1 Posted January 20, 2007 Share Posted January 20, 2007 The original poster seems to be asking about raw conversion software. DPP is a raw conversion program with some limited editing capability. Adobe Elements is a fairly powerful photo editing (and printing) program that also provides crippled access to Adobe Camera Raw, the excellent raw conversion utility that comes with CS2. They're two different critters entirely. But I'd have to call Elements "better" simply because it does more. Someone mentioned Paint Shop Pro as an alternative. While it has some useful features that Elements lacks, its built-in raw converter is very limited and is distinctly inferior to either DPP or Adobe Camera Raw. So you'd end up using DPP to convert raw files, and then completing the processing in PSP. I used PSP myself for seven years. I would no longer recommend it now that Corel has taken it over. I won't rehash the specific reasons for not recommending it because I have already written about it many times in these forums. Spend the hundred bucks for Elements. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
www.philwinterphotography. Posted January 21, 2007 Share Posted January 21, 2007 Get the 30 day free trial of PSE 5 and compare it with DPP. I did the 30 day free trial, and based on the trial, decided to purchase PSE 5. Here's why. 1. I like the RAW converted because it displays a large image in preview mode (my "old" RAW converter, Breezebrowser did not). 2. You can correct lens distortion a perspective problems very easily. 3. It has curves and allows RGB channel adjustment when converting to B&W. My only real gripe with PSE 5 is that it is slower on my aging laptop than was PSE 2. The browser feature in 5 is positively glacial in loading, so I prefer to use ACDSee or Breezebrowser for for locating and quickly viewing images. And the good news / bad news - PSE 5 will convert RAW images to 16 bit tiffs. That's the good. The bad is that when you open the 16 bit tiff, some features, like curves are not available. How dumb is that? Overall, I like PSE 5, as it does about 95% of what I want to do. Again, the 30 day free trial will help you decide whether or not PSE 5 is for you or not. Phil Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
hop_phan Posted January 21, 2007 Author Share Posted January 21, 2007 Thank you all for all the helpfull suggestions. That why I love this forum. What I will do is : I will purchase the Element 5 for editing and still use the DDP as RAW converter. Is it right ? Again, thank you. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robert_potts1 Posted January 22, 2007 Share Posted January 22, 2007 Costco has it for $59.99 with the coupon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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