Before you buy Photoshop...

A lot of people are buying Photoshop these days, convinced that soon they'll be "Photoshopping" away and making funny pictures, complex web pages and transforming the boring old scrap books of old with new pictures featuring funny captions, creative background designs and nifty borders.

Well people, you're buying the wrong product.

Photoshop is, and has always been meant to be a product for, graphic designers and professional photographers. It's simply not engineered to be the product for amateurs to use. Adobe has recognized that amateur family photo-bugs would like to "Photoshop" their pictures, and has thusly created a program priced for and built for such users.

I blame the Internet.

OK, so obviously EVERYONE is selling pirated Photoshop these days. Now the problem just got worse because people are buying these copies and not getting a book. You don't understand people, the book is important! There are literally thousands of ways to manipulate a photograph and they're all explained in the book. It's a good book. A helping, friendly book. It's the keys to the automobile that is Photoshop.

So, what's so special about it?

First off, Photoshop has complete color libraries, modes and calibrations for offset printing. What's that? Printing presses. Everyone! Show of hands from everyone who's box is hooked up to a 40" 6-color Heidelberg. Have you ever seen a 40" 6-Color Heidelberg? If you haven't, then you probably don't need Photoshop. You're wasting hard-drive property with Photoshop. You don't even need CMYK to print to an inkjet.

Next, for the non-design foks (aka the Photographers), Photoshop allows near complete manipulation of levels, channels and lighting. OK, to be honest, it contains more uses for photgraphers than I can summarize. I'm a designer.

The point is, Photoshop is packed full of features that will scare and confuse you and there's a good chance that you'll accidentally screw up a picture by playing with the features.

Take a look at Photoshop Elements.

Adobe is a good company, they're not out to screw people over in any way. Photoshop Elements is not a piece of junk software package. It's probably THE BEST photo manipulation tool for the amateur photographer. It allows a lot of the functionality of the full scale Photoshop without the bloat that home users will ever need.

It's not just a taste of Photoshop, it's a good sized portion. It's going to make more sense to you, help you get yourself more accustomed to graphic manipulation and just may prepare yourself to make that big leap over to full-scale Photoshop. And you won't be clogging any forums with stupid questions.

So please folks, be kind and help out the cause:

1. Don't buy from pirates. They continue to hurt the cause by forcing Adobe to spend more time combatting piracy than adding useful new features.

2. Buy Photoshop Elements. Just trust me on this one, you'll feel much better about yourself. You'll be the smart one of the group.

3. Read the F'n manual or use Google before posting the message. Both are great places to get detailed help that no one in a forum is going to take the time to write. If you can't figure it out, chances are that enough other people have had the same problem and someone posted the answer.

Thanks for your time. If I convince just one of you, my existance has had meaning.

hi there,
when i decided to learn the guitar, i bought the best money could buy...after spending tons of cash..and knowing i had the best guitar; it motivated me to learn. photoshop is like that for me also...knowing you have such a powerful tool encourages you to explore more and keep going to the next level. when i began the guitar...i bought all the books...most were childish or confusing..so i watched people play asked for help and plugged away...after awhile the music theory books started to sink in. photoshop books are the same..even the simplest tutorial can baffle you if you are new to photoshop. i really do not mind novice questions on the forum... i just think it is great that all sorts of people are into the graphics thing. i remember struggling with the guitar..now i can play in the dark...but i used to ask really silly questions. i have had lots of help with photoshop from forums and friends over the years, now i like to give a little back.

Not a valid argument. Buying a guitar is different because you can readily enjoy all the features of a guitar.

Do you ever find yourself in need of adding a spot channel? When is the last time you had to worry about trapping order? You can make any and all adjustments with Elements, it just doesn't have all the bloat. And its easier to use.

Or, if for some reason you really think you need Photoshop, take a course on it at school. Understand rasterized imagery and pixel counts.

hi there,
you obviously do not play the guitar. at the top of this page it says "photoshop help" that includes "photoshop elements" so i guess the novices are going to be asking questions anyway. i love the "bloat" in photoshop cs because i know that no matter what i might need to do i can probably find it in the bloat. below is a list of bloat missing in elements...
CMYK color support
16-bit image support
Channels Palette
Recording Actions (for batch processing)
Adjustments: Curves, Color Balance, Match Color
Layer Masks and Quick Mask mode
Healing Brush and Patch Tool
Extract Filter
Some adjustment layers (curves, color balance, selective color, channel mixer, photo filter)
Editing History Log
Text on a Path
Live Histogram Palette
Advanced Layer Style manipulation
Advanced Color Management
Advanced Web features and ImageReady (rollovers, slicing)
so there are a few strings missing from elements...notes that will never be played...chords you cannot fret....on and on..take care

CMYK color support - Not needed for home use.

16-bit image support - If you have a 16 bit camera or scanner, you're not an amateur. If you think you're getting 16 bits simply because you select that mode, you need to do your homework. Besides, PS full version doesn't actually support higher than 15 bit, according to Chris Cox.

Channels Palette - Not needed for home use.

Recording Actions (for batch processing) - Useful and should be included.

Adjustments: Curves, Color Balance, Match Color - Elements 3.0 has auto tools.

Layer Masks and Quick Mask mode - Useful and should be included, but very few people understand them to begin with.

Healing Brush and Patch Tool - Now in 3.0

Extract Filter - Useless even for pro users.

Some adjustment layers (curves, color balance, selective color, channel mixer, photo filter) - Effects can be duplicated without these tools.

Editing History Log - Semi-Useless until Adobe adds a "Save History Log" option.

Text on a Path - Not exactly easy even for pro users.

Live Histogram Palette - How many people here even know what a histogram is and why it should be manipulated?

Advanced Layer Style manipulation - Such as?

Advanced Color Management - Such as?

Advanced Web features and ImageReady (rollovers, slicing) - Rollovers can be done manually easier than they can be done in ImageReady.

hi there,
all of this is according to you...the thing is, you are killing...some ..novice, sensitive people....you have to get off your pulpit. try and be a bit nicer. take care

cool thing bout photoshop is that you dont have to be @ a printing press, or professional facility to use its features, thats whats also so cool about the internet is that you can author or edit something at home and then send that file via various means to any number of professionals.


also i find that the extract filter is one of my most oft used tools.

thats just my opinion though, i could be wrong

Hey - let's not get hot around the collar! Photoshop is a huge programme. I have been using it for years and I agree that as an amateur I will only scrape the suface. BUT the enjoyment I get from experimenting with different effects is endless. Just poking around and trying to see what difference this or that will make to my image is part of the fun. In terms of the manual - well I have searched high and low for a decent text. Most treatments set out to be user friendly but before you know it it gets all techie and looses the non techie reader. I use a combination of text. I agree totally with the issue of pirate materials and I would not advise a casual user to payout their hard earned dosh needlessly unless they have their mind set on it. But I wouldn't want to put off someone's effort of wanting to express their creative side either. One last point - forums. I thought that the whole point of being able to place a question on a forum was what forums are all about - or have I missed something here? I work and train in a technical environment and one important lesson I have learnt is that just cos I know it and it is easy for me, doesn't make someone else's 'stupid' question any less valid. The whole point of knowledge, to my way of thinking at least, is to be able to share this with others in a postive way. 'Knowledge is power' - something that the world of IT needs to work it's way through - long way to go still. The real power is to share that knowledge with others! There is no such thing as a stupid question - just the arrogance of the person who looks down on such a person. Here endith the lesson ....