Should I buy CS3?

[jmoors]

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Simple question. If it were cheaper, I wouldn't need to ask.

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The Leica Q3 is available for pre-order at B&H Photo Video and Adorama

[zeitz]

If you are serious about digital photography, you need it. It is challenging program to use. I relie on The Adobe Photoshop Book CS3 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby. You should also invest in the video From Camera to Print at the Luminous Landscape site if you want to see how the professionals are doing digial. You'll see you need more than CS3 if you want the best quality possible. By the time you add up all the software and hardware you need for a home digital darkroom, a Leica lens will look cheap.

[DTD]

See if you or your family qualify for education discount. If you're likely to want to use any of the other CS applications such as Illustrator or Acrobat, look at the collections as they're much cheaper.

 

Also well worth having a look at LightRoom or Aperture (on a mac) as if you mainly need workflow software this might be a better (and cheaper) option. Some people find Elements does enough for them.

 

I'd agree with zeitz about training materials. I think the best book for beginners is Adobe's own 'Classroom in a Book' as this gives you a good grounding.

 

Finally, PhotoShop CS4 is apparently being tested, so it might well be out this year.

[ericperlberg]

Simple question. If it were cheaper, I wouldn't need to ask.

 

To my mind Photoshop offers 5 powerful areas of manipulation for the photographer:

a) colour management

local area adjustments (curves, levels, saturation, contrast, etc) with masking

c) raw file manipulation

d) a large number of plugins ranging from b/w film grain simulation to noise reduction

e) layers and modes

 

To the extent that you agree, you have a few less expensive alternatives which can more or less accomplish the same results but to which you'll have to add the cost of support programs or plugins (true also for photoshop).

 

If you work on a Mac, Aperture will soon have a fairly robust set of photoshop like plugins

If you work on a PC, Picture Window Pro or Corel Paint Shop Pro Photo X2 are both powerful if somewhat niche players

And cross platform there's Lightzone and less powerful (compared to Photoshop) but very usable is Adobe's Lightroom.

 

As mentioned above, there's a ton of good support material available for learning Photoshop if you don't already know it. Depending on how intuitive you are with graphics software, you'll need it. There's less support material, at least in sheer volume, for the others.

 

Photoshop has historically been the only real game in town. That's starting to change. If I didn't already own Lightroom and Photoshop, personally I'd take a hard look at Aperture if money was an issue but to some extent choosing software is a personal reaction thing...

[Eoin]

If you are serious about digital photography, you need it......

 

Not to argue a point, but I'd have said "if your serious about digital image manipulation, you need it".

 

IMO, the vast majority of tasks can easily be done in many of the applications like Aperture, Lightroom Capture One and so on. These applications are very capable in enhancing and final output workflows. When one needs to get down to pixel enhancement such as skin smoothing, eye and teeth whitening, HDR and dramatic effects then PS3 comes into it's own. While I have all the applications mentioned I find 99% of my photography needs are met by Aperture. But when I need some very specialised tweaking then PS comes into it's own.

 

My motto is get it right in the camera = less time processing at home

[delander †]

Well like Leica stuff we would all like some thing for less money. I have had Photoshop for many years now. Personally I dont feel that it is that expensive when you consider what an amazing piece of software it is. It is much more expensive outside of the US and still worth it.

 

My advice is to buy it but bear in mind that that the current version is so advanced that there is little need to upgrade every time a new version comes out - except ACR only supports the latest cameras with the latest PS version. The free DNG converter offer a way around that although it adds to the workflow.

 

Get a couple of good books, the manual tells you what the tools do but dont tell you what you can do with them.

 

Jeff

[stunsworth]

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Another route to getting a cheaper copy of CS3 is to buy an older version on eBay - I think v7 onwards is ok, the Adobe web site should be able to confirm this - then buy the upgrade version.

 

Just make sure what you buy on eBay is a genuine unregistered version.

[abrewer]

I couldn't justify CS3 if I hadn't an educational discount through the affiliated university here, and already spent plenty of $$$ and time to learn it well.

 

It's not easy to master, it's expensive, and it does way more than you'll ever need to do.

 

For ninety percent of dig photog users, Elements is plenty; you can even download free plug-ins for curves, masks, etc (the add-ons that you're most likely to use).

 

I just bought a MAC and Aperture for my nephew (newbie to digital and photography in general) and he seems to be picking it up pretty quickly.

 

IMHO if you don't already have PS and can upgrade for a song, then strongly consider Lightroom or Aperture before taking the plunge.

 

Thanks

 

Allan

[thomasl.se]

When one needs to get down to pixel enhancement such as skin smoothing, eye and teeth whitening,

Worth mentioning that upcoming Lithroom 2 (30 days free beta) implements local adjustments via control points and auto masking, so you can easily do skin smoothing (clarity minus) and teeth witening within that app.

 

I still use CS3 with plugins, mostly for output sharpening and adding grain.

 

Thomas

[roguewave]

Simple answer. YES. Nothing else will do. It's what you don't know and haven't thought about that's the real treasure. Getting it right in the camera is always helpful. Data in, data out. But you can create data that wasn't input from the captured RAW file and manipulate existing data in ways unimagined with the tools in Photoshop. Even Ansell Adams spent more time in the darkroom than in the Sierras actually tripping his shutter.. He was systematic in his approach. Zone system is a great analogue to understanding the kinds of manipulations, alchemy or slight of hand that the digital domain offers to everyone invested in producing images. Not just photographers, but graphic artists, painters and other mixed media artists. I know many very fine watercolorists that use Photoshop to understand the nature of color & color blending and manipulation. It is an essential tool if you want to move beyond the tried & tired. I want ot stress that I personally hold very dear the old traditions of Black & White photography, If that is enough for you, fine. If you want to use those skills as a base to move into a different domain, Potoshop offers the the most sophisticated and comprehensive toolset for the job. Pay now or pay later.

[jmoors]

Okay, I'm convinced. The only problem now is the temptation to wait for August - given that it's a long term investement for me - and buy CS4

[ASpes]

Simple question. If it were cheaper, I wouldn't need to ask.

 

There's an upgrade path to CS3 from PS Elements (ver 3 and later) that is dealt directly by Adobe. Cost is more or less just around a CS3 upgrade or a little more, so you could save quite a bit of money if you qualify. I did it with the installation cd of PS-Elements v4 that came with my Digilux 3, one option points you to a special page of Adobe and got it in a few days via UPS.

 

Mind, you need to have a real PS-EL licence for this as you will have to type its serial on installing CS3. Btw, I seem to remember seeing a time limit around early September for this offer.

 

Best.

[sreidvt]

For me, nothing can replace Photoshop. But if one doesn't need the latest RAW support, CS or CS2 may do the trick.

 

Cheers,

 

Sean