Moving to Photoshop Elements

[Mohamed Ellozy]

I think the time has come for me to add a "real" photo editor to my toolkit. Picasa does a few things very well, but it is time to add some capabilities. So a couple of questions to the more experienced users:

• I can invoke the Elements editor from within Picasa, and thus use Picasa as an organizer and Elements as an editor. Is there anything to gain by moving over completely to Elements, using it as both organizer and editor?
• Could you recommend a good book on Elements? Amazon lists a "Missing Manual" and a "For Dummies" as the two most popular books; unless I get a clear recommendation I will toss a coin
• I have Kindle on my PC, but have never yet read a graphics-intensive book on it. Having the book and the program on my screen simultaneously (I have a desktop with a large screen) seems very attractive, but how well will the book render?

I am obviously assuming that Elements is the choice upgrade path, but would be happy to hear of other possibilities. GIMP is free in a financial sense, but I understand that it has an expensive learning curve! I have absolutely no desire to take out a mortgage to buy the full Photoshop

 

[zman]

very happy with "Missing Manual"

Hi Mohamed

I have used PS Elements in combination with PS Light Room for many years- Re: PSE, I have found the "Missing Manual” a life saver. "Dummies gives you the very basics but that’s as far as it goes. I would recommend Missing Manual without hesitation...but if you just want the basics, Dummies may be more than adequate- Depending on what type of editing you want to do, you might want to look at Light Room as well.

Re: Kindle, I have a Nook color as well as the pc version- Personally, I don’t like reading on my computer but for software manuals its fine, particularly when viewing the sample images- If you have more specific questions I’d be happy to add more of my 2 cents.
Marty

 

[Daniel Eagan]

Mohamed, love your site.

I use Photoshop at work, mostly cropping and resizing photos for the web and some basic correcting, and Elements at home. I am not by any means a power user, but I've found Elements is pretty intuitive for most of what I need to do. Plus it has good tutorials and help. The learning curve may not be that steep for you.

 

[Billy]

Mohamed, you might find some useful info here

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

Mohamed, you might find some useful info here

Many thanks, I had been looking for this post all over the Exposure forum, never thought it might be in General Backcountry!