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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

CS1?

doug anderson

New member
Dear Forum:

Thinking of buying CS1. I've noticed that the price has come down, and that the customer reviews of CS2-4 complain about the updates not being very good. Naturally, I'm interested in professional opinions. I'm attracted to the price of CS1 and am looking for endorsements of its quality, reasons to buy/not buy, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Doug Anderson
 

John Angulat

pro member
Hi Doug,
I'm sure there's going to be a tremendous reply by all the pros to this thread, but my 2 cents worth is this:
If you are only editing images, buy Photoshop as a stand-alone. You have no need for the products included in Adobe's Creative Suite unless you are an Illustrator, Web Designer, etc.
Also, I'm assuming you meant Adobe CS when you say CS1. That's a very old piece of s/w and you won't find much printed tutorials around. Go with the latest version of PS.

Best,

John

http://www.lightsimage.com
 

Cem_Usakligil

Well-known member
Hi Doug,

Before you fantasize any further, you will need the Adobe Raw converter version 4.6 or higher to work with your new D90. Raw 4.6 runs on CS3 or Elements 6 only.
Raw 5.1 is for CS4 or Elements 6.0 or 7.0.

Cheers,
 

doug anderson

New member
Hi Doug,

Before you fantasize any further, you will need the Adobe Raw converter version 4.6 or higher to work with your new D90. Raw 4.6 runs on CS3 or Elements 6 only.
Raw 5.1 is for CS4 or Elements 6.0 or 7.0.

Cheers,

Thanks, Cem. I have a D300 too, which I will shoot most of the RAW with. Now I'm thinking of getting CS4. I may do some graphics as well. I'm sure there will be a learning curve.

D
 

Alan Rew

New member
Dear Forum:

Thinking of buying CS1. I've noticed that the price has come down, and that the customer reviews of CS2-4 complain about the updates not being very good. Naturally, I'm interested in professional opinions. I'm attracted to the price of CS1 and am looking for endorsements of its quality, reasons to buy/not buy, etc.

Thanks in advance.

Doug Anderson

Assuming that you mean Photoshop CS, and that you don't currently own any version of Photoshop...

If you can buy a genuine copy of PS CS very cheaply, then use it to upgrade to CS4, you could end up with a PS CS4 for less money than just buying it straight off. Investigate the prices.

PS CS needs to be activated over the Internet BTW (you have a 30-day grace period to do this, but I don't know whether Adobe would allow you to activate an upgrade version of CS4 in this period if you hadn't activated the version you are upgrading _from_).

WRT to you having a new model of camera, if you are really short of cash, and don't mind the relatively crude version of ACR that comes with PS CS, you could buy CS, then download the latest (free) Digital Negative Converter from the Adobe web site, convert your RAWs to DNG, and the ACR that comes with PS CS would happily work with the DNG files you generate. This is a useful trick for anyone who has an 'old' Photoshop release for which the ACR doesn't understand the RAW files for a new camera.

HTH

Alan
 

doug anderson

New member
Assuming that you mean Photoshop CS, and that you don't currently own any version of Photoshop...

If you can buy a genuine copy of PS CS very cheaply, then use it to upgrade to CS4, you could end up with a PS CS4 for less money than just buying it straight off. Investigate the prices.

PS CS needs to be activated over the Internet BTW (you have a 30-day grace period to do this, but I don't know whether Adobe would allow you to activate an upgrade version of CS4 in this period if you hadn't activated the version you are upgrading _from_).

WRT to you having a new model of camera, if you are really short of cash, and don't mind the relatively crude version of ACR that comes with PS CS, you could buy CS, then download the latest (free) Digital Negative Converter from the Adobe web site, convert your RAWs to DNG, and the ACR that comes with PS CS would happily work with the DNG files you generate. This is a useful trick for anyone who has an 'old' Photoshop release for which the ACR doesn't understand the RAW files for a new camera.

HTH

Alan

I bought CS4 as you recommended.

D
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Doug,

Not to knock the step you have taken, but for others in the wings, an inexpensive copy of Photoshop 7 or else of Elements will provide almost everything one would use to get mastery of Photoshop sufficient for presenting one's photographs. I say this because the software companies try to make us "gizmo-addicts", always trying to get us another "fix"!

I happen to use PS7 on my wife's computer as it's near where the food and my tea is! I can do almost anything I really need or find another way of doing what something in CS2 will provide. Frankly I don't have CS3 yet except for Web Design! CS4? Well that's a major package of stuff to learn that will be soon replaced by totally web-based Photoshop.

So for others who need Photoshop, be really critical of spending hard-earned money!

For those who buy CS4 it's a wonderful new software with a few more whizbang thing-me-jigs! The fun thing is to squeeze down an image laterally and the unimportant textures will drop out perfectly evenly and the picture will fit on to your magazine spread even though the models were separated, you can put them closer together as easily as dragging a border in!

You are lucky to have a relative to help you. With his help, you will enjoy your purchase, for sure!

Good luck!

Asher
 

doug anderson

New member
Doug,

Not to knock the step you have taken, but for others in the wings, an inexpensive copy of Photoshop 7 or else of Elements will provide almost everything one would use to get mastery of Photoshop sufficient for presenting one's photographs. I say this because the software companies try to make us "gizmo-addicts", always trying to get us another "fix"!

I happen to use PS7 on my wife's computer as it's near where the food and my tea is! I can do almost anything I really need or find another way of doing what something in CS2 will provide. Frankly I don't have CS3 yet except for Web Design! CS4? Well that's a major package of stuff to learn that will be soon replaced by totally web-based Photoshop.

So for others who need Photoshop, be really critical of spending hard-earned money!

For those who buy CS4 it's a wonderful new software with a few more whizbang thing-me-jigs! The fun thing is to squeeze down an image laterally and the unimportant textures will drop out perfectly evenly and the picture will fit on to your magazine spread even though the models were separated, you can put them closer together as easily as dragging a border in!

You are lucky to have a relative to help you. With his help, you will enjoy your purchase, for sure!

Good luck!

Asher

Web based Photoshop? Does that mean it will be less expensive? Would we subscribe annually rather than lay out a big chunk of change? My idea was to get the most recent software in order to not become obsolete so quickly.

I have some mastery of "curves" now, and am finding it fast and practical.
 
For those who buy CS4 it's a wonderful new software with a few more whizbang thing-me-jigs! The fun thing is to squeeze down an image laterally and the unimportant textures will drop out perfectly evenly and the picture will fit on to your magazine spread even though the models were separated, you can put them closer together as easily as dragging a border in!

The process is called "seam carving" and there are several free implementations available on the internet, for those without CS4.

Bart
 

Alan Rew

New member
Doug,
<snip>
CS4? Well that's a major package of stuff to learn that will be soon replaced by totally web-based Photoshop.
<snip>
Asher

This is one reason why I recently upgraded from CS to CS3, instead of CS4. There would be less new things to learn. Also, because CS3 was just about to be replaced, it was available more cheaply than CS4. A bit like getting a good deal on a just-superseded model of car.

Having to spend the time learning all the fancy features in a new PS release is a pain.

I don't intend upgrading PS again, unless there's a particular PS plug-in I really need that requires a later version of PS to work with. If Adobe didn't keep changing their plug-in interface, I wouldn't have to contemplate this. Maybe this is a deliberate strategy on their part :)

Regards,

Alan
 
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