Should i upgrade to PS Elements 10?

[donaldamacmillan]

<p>Hello folks</p>

<p>I've been using Elements 6 for quite a while now and i am fairly used to using it for the very basic editing that i usually do. Should i upgrade now to Elements 10? Is Elements 10 significantly better than Elements 6? What can Elements 10 do that 6 can't do so good or even at all? I'm not interested in 'digital art', only in improved photo-editing, particularly black and white conversions, and yes i always 'shoot' in raw. </p>

<p>Looking forward to any advice/thoughts .... </p>

<p>Kindest regards,<br>

Donaldo</p>

 

[stephen_hipperson]

<p>No,<br>

I'm sure you're able to visit the adobe web site to find the facilities that 10 offers. Does it have anything you don't already have - probably not. Abilities to crop, straighten, wiggle contrast/levels/colour and sharpen exist in 6 I believe - what more do you need - now if it offered curves....... <br>

Yes.<br>

It's newer and you have the dollars to go and buy a newer version what more do you need. <br>

BTW - will there be implications for running a newer version on your existing system. </p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>For what it's worth, each successive upgrade since Photoshop Elements 6 has been rather underwhelming - mainly adding tools to make "big" edits easier, but no substantial additions to the core tools. However, skipping in total 4 versions, you may find quite a bit of (useful) novelties.<br /> Given your description of the use of the software, the most interesting might be the fact that you can use the recent versions of Adobe Camera RAW. As far as I have seen, it is improved quite a lot with the 6.x versions, so it might give you better quality from your RAW images.</p>

[daverhaas]

<p>I typically skip the Even versions - upgrading on the Odd versions. </p>

<p>I'm a power user though and the changes from 5 to 7 were enough to sell me on it. </p>

<p>Dave</p>

 

[john_deerfield]

<p>OMG, YES!</p>

<p>Of course there are features you haven't used, how could you without having them?! The largest impact between v6 and v10 is that v10 includes <em>layer masks.</em> Actually, layer masks were introduced in v9. I don't know how you are currently doing selective editing (selective sharpening, selective color, selective blurring, <em>any</em> selective effect) but the layer mask will make your editing life infinitely easier. There are a host of other improvements, but the layer mask tops them. For what it is worth,I teach a community course using v6 because that is what is on the school computers. However I always have at least one student with a laptop and v9 and I bring mine with v9 for at least one night and the differences are significant and worthwhile. Now if you were thinking of upgrading from 9 to 10, I would say save your money. But from 6? It's a no brainer.</p>

[jcuknz]

<p>V10 doesn't have curves? Amazing. Somebody pulling our legs? Maybe you should look at PSP which has had curves for yonks. I tried to be clever with my computer, lost my latter version, and now working with PSP8, that is about five versions 'below' the current and using curves frequently. The RAW question could be the clincher for you, and layer masks/adjustment layers I'd hate to be without for serious editing.</p>

[nick_marzinski]

<p>Possibly. I'm using PSE 8, and I'm considering upgrading for the content aware fill. Truthfully, there's a cheat to get layer masks in earlier versions of Elements (if you group an adjustment layer to an image layer, you can paint on the adjustment layer mask and it will mask the image it's grouped to), so although adding true layer masks is nice, it's not like we haven't been able to use them. Agree with several of the posters re: curves. I'd upgrade for a curves adjustment layer in a heartbeat, and it's frustrating that Adobe hasn't included them in Elements. </p>

<p>If I were you, I'd also seriously consider Lightroom. It's a bit more expensive than Elements (though I've been seeing it on sale recently). Lightroom has the full version of Adobe Camera Raw (with a crop tool, sharpener, excellent noise reducer, curve editor, and black-and-white converter), and now that I have it, I find that about 95% of my editing gets done in Lightroom with only periodic jumps over to Elements to handle something Lightroom can't do.</p>

[Wouter Willemse]

<p>Layer masks can be added to older versions of PS Elements by inserting an <a href="http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/pselements/qt/layermasktool.htm">action made in Photoshop (full)</a> that creates a layer mask - works perfectly OK. Or simply <a href="http://www.photoshopessentials.com/basics/elements/fake-layer-mask/">fake it a little</a>.<br>

Curves, there is a free plug-in called <a href="http://free.pages.at/easyfilter/curves.html">SmartCurve</a>. Works fine, but it cannot be used as adjustement layer.</p>

<p>I agree with Nick that for photographers, Lightroom is a lot more interesting.</p>