Well, I just wasted some money.....

[hjoseph7]

<p>I also don't have the money to plunk down hundreds of dollars for PS5, but after using PSE 9 for a while, I might just have to bite the bullet someday.</p>

<p>PSE has some nice automatic features that are missing in Photoshop, but they often lack the fine tuning that PS provides. Some of the tools that are there don't work as well as they do in Photoshop either. I often have to transfer my images to PS, because PSE does not handle them well.</p>

<p>Some of the tools I miss are the dodging/burning tool, the Color Balance which is very important to me. The Layers in PSE are not as extensive in PSE, neither are the sharpening tools. PSE does not have a colored filter set which I like to warm up, or cool down an image. Of course Color Management is very limited on PSE. </p>

<p>The "Border" function is not as straight forward, or as flexible in PSE.Luckilly, PSE works fine on my computer, it is blazing fast compared to the Photoshop CS2 version I have. To me, PSE vs 7 was the best version that ever came out, especially when it came to printing that's why I still use it. </p>

[cabbiinc]

<p>Find out how much RAM you have, and how much you can put into your computer. Shop around and find some decent priced RAM if you need it. RAM is pretty cheap these days and I for one see it as the easiest upgrade for your current computer you can make. And having a tech install it for you usually isn't too much more expensive than the regular RAM if you just don't want to open the unit up yourself.</p>

<p>For that matter you should find out your computer's Windows Experience Index base score. Click Start > Control Panel > System and Maintenance > Performance and information tools. There you should see an index score. If you've never done it, you should click Update my score for an up to date reading. I've got a 3.6 on my computer, it started out with a 2.0. If you have anything close or better you should be able to run either program and I wouldn't be surprised if a couple of guys laughed at my score of 3.6. I was running PSP X on my computer when it was a score of 2.0.</p>

<p>That being said, Corel Paint Shop Pro X2 (and X3, and previous versions) will only use up to 2gb of memory. That's one big gripe about it on the Corel Forums. You can have all the RAM available on a screaming fast decked out machine and it will only use 2gb. Hopefully X4 will fix this. Photoshop Elements however is allowed to use more RAM, so it's actually not surprising that it is worse on your system. There are posts on how to set up Elements to utilize your system's ram in the most efficient manner (or at least there should be), maybe do a little search for it.</p>

<p>There are things you can do to free up your cpu and RAM and make the most out of what you have. Tell us your score and we can go from there.</p>

[wade_thompson]

<p>all good advice.<br>

I think I'll make an upgrade in RAM to 4GB to start with and see where that takes me.<br>

I do get paid for my photography but I tend to never hesitate to buy lenses, but slow to spend those same kind of bucks on software...but maybe I should.</p>

 

[randy_cooprider1]

<p>Wade,<br>

Before you buy new software, install the ram and tune the computer as described. Then check out the speed. If it is still slow, maybe it needs to be looked at by a pro. If it is not up to par new software (CS5 or something else) will not fix it.</p>

[jay_poel]

<p>Specs on your system would be really helpfu; - processor, motherboard, memory, harddrives. How old is it out of curiousity? Elements runs excellent on my newer system and fine on my wife's older system. </p>

[porter]

Why not spend no money and get GIMP? I've used it for quite some time and love it. Works very similar to photo shop :)

[wade_thompson]

<p>what is GIMP?</p>

 

[htarragon]

<p>Harry, PSE 6 has the dodge/burn tool in the toolbar and has the cooling/warming filters under Filters, so I would think 9 must have them somewhere.<br>

Wade - I definitely agree that you need more RAM. I have an XP desktop w/ 4Gb and a Vista laptop w/ a core duo CPU and 2.0 GB of RAM and PSE6 works fine. Now that I see I only have 2GB on the laptop, I'll probably buy some memory.</p>

[indraneel]

<p>GIMP is that piece of image editing software that it's developers took out of the race while waiting for someone else to perfect a 16bit/channel imaging library. Hopefully in 2013 it'll give CSx (and everyone else) a run for it's money. (It does have every conceivable thing if all you shoot are jpegs.)</p>

<p>http://gimp.org</p>

[jim_ducey]

<p><a href="http://www.gimp.org/">http://www.gimp.org/</a> You may want to check out the website and the manual, I still use it occasionally even though I have PS 5. The big advantage of Gimp over other freeware is the layers feature. Have you posted your computer specs? Knowing what you have for a motherboard processor and memory would help us in making recommendations<br>

Jim</p>

[wade_thompson]

<p>250GB HD, 2.4GHz AMD, 1GB Ram,</p>

[hjoseph7]

<p>@Howard<br>

I found the Photo filters under FILTERS>>ADJUSTMENTS>>Photo Filters<br>

I found the Dodge/Burn Tool under the Sponge tool , thanks </p>

[hjoseph7]

<p>For $200 or less I would try Picture Window Pro vs5 . There is a steep learning curve and the way it works is kind of dorky, but once you get use to it its not bad for the money. The good thing about it is that it does not hog up allot of space on your computer. Perfect for lap-top in the field editing. Another good thing is that it handles all types of RAW files without downloading a bunch of complicated plug-ins. </p>

[cabbiinc]

<p>Finding the most your computer can use and upgrading your RAM is likely to give you a very much needed boost to your workflow.</p>

[lornesunley]

<p>Wade, if you have only 1 GB of RAM, that is probably the main cause of the slowdown. 2 GB is kind of a minimum for most commercial image editing programs , 4GB is best, although only 3 GB will be used by Windows owing to the arcane memory mapping for I/O devices using up 1 GB of address space. Most motherboards require the memory slots to be filled with equal size RAM sticks so you end up putting in 4GB even though Windows will only use 3 of them. When I had only 1 GB of RAM in a Windows XP machine NX2 was a dog, increasing the RAM to 4 made it work many times faster.</p>

<p>I have since moved to an iMac and that is much nicer to use.</p>

[henryp]

<blockquote>

<p>@Henry - would that be 6 GB (giga-bytes) and 4 GB of RAM?</p>

</blockquote>

<p>Yep. Sorry = brain freeze.:-)</p>

[joann_golden]

<p>I have Elements 9, but find no problem with it. I am using a mac i3 desktop, and PSE9 runs very fast; have no trouble when multiple windows are open. I think your problem is your computer; the program needs at least 4GB RAM. The previous version I had was on a much older Windows PC, and it was very, very slow. PSE9 is an amazing editing program, it just takes time and patience to learn all it can do.</p>