Anyone know the difference between Photoshop 7 and Photoshop elements? I spent 3 hours on the phone with the "experts" at Adobe and no one had an answer.

(unless you call this an answer...."Photoshop 7 is more for professionals").

Can anyone give me your 1 or 2 biggest things that Photoshop 7 can do that Photoshop Elements cannot?

Elements does not support alpha channels and has no color management... If that's all, I wonder where the difference of the price comes from?

I have 'em both. Perhaps the biggest difference is that the full version is CMYK-capable, which is where you go if you want to use a real press for your final product. There is a boatload of special effects and filters, too, but that may not be important to a lot of people. Some, however, such as the "Healing Brush" and the "Patch Tool" are worth their weight in gold.

For me, having Alpha capability is a huge thing. Removing it simply crippled Elements for me. It's like using MS Works as a word processor: it has a lot of great tools, but by removing the ability to maintain "Styles", it makes it useless for a serious writer.

But I would say for the photo enthusiast, and even serious photographer, Elements is easily more than enough. It adds a whole bunch of Wizards, updateable "recipes" for doing special things, built in previewing, and so on.

I figure that with all the competing new digital-camera Paint products, Adobe felt it was time to get back some of the market share in the low to middle-end. There are a lot of people who just won't or can't pay the big bucks for PhotoShop. ... Mike

Guys,

Sorry for the stupid question, but what are Alpha Channels?

And Andre,

What did app did you use for your graphics on the Pronto? (LOVE IT, by the way!)
Could Photoshop Elements do the same thing?

Thanks in advance

Doug,
maybe the three pictures below can explain a little bit how alpha channels work. They are like masks. You can use them to create cutouts or for filter effects which should only be applied to a specific area of the picture (in this example, only the white area gets cut out). white means 100% effect, black no effect.


In my ccf (glad you like it) I used Photoshop only to convert it to the Prontoscale or to cut the buttons out of the pictures. (I used alpha channels for that, too ;-) ) The main work was done with 3D Studio Max, which I can use at work. Fortunately.
André




This message was edited by André du Fresne on 05/05/02 21:50.53.

Andre,

Thanks for the comparision chart. Now because you used Alpha for conversion, does that mean if the main work was still done with 3D Studio but you DIDN'T have Photoshop 7 for the alpha (Pronto Conversion) and only had Elements to work with, that you wouldn't be able to convert those type graphics for the Pronto?

Also, (sorry, I really have no clue about this stuff yet) how does 3D Studio compare to Photoshop? My guess is that 3D Studio is much better. Cost of 3D?

And..how close could you get your type graphics with...
A) Just Photoshop elements (Main work and Pronto conversion)
B) Just Photoshop 7 (Main work and Pronto conversion)

How long did it take you (Start to Finish) to do the Pronto Graphics?

Hey Andre,

Thanks much for all the help. I really like your style graphics, and am just in the learning phases in the graphics dept. Answers to these questions would really be a big help.

Doug

Amazing! No-one has mentioned Paint Shop Pro.






Ooops! yes they have.

This message was edited by djy on 05/06/02 04:59.19.

Doug,
I guess you wouldn't absolutely need PS 7 to do so. If you look at my panels, almost all pictures are screen sized. I pasted them as a background, and placed the button-bmps - which are rectangles anyway -over it. You don't use alpha channels for this, ergo elements should work.

Sorry, to disappoint you. 3D Studio MAX is in no way to be compared to PS. With this prog, you create three dimensional elements. These you can view from any angle you desire. You can make highly sophisticated stuff like adding reflections, lights and so called texture mappings. 3D Studio is also used for creating animations. The dinosaurs in Jurassic Park, for example, were created entirely in the computer (they didn't use MAX, but the principle is the same).
Unfortunately you have to pay quite a lot of money. Don't know for sure, but should be around 3.500 - 4.000 US$. That's why I can only use it at work... :-(

Type Graphics? If you mean the channel buttons, they were also made in MAX. I took a gif of the station logo and applied this to the buttons (this procedure is the above mentioned texture mapping).

Took me about 2 weeks from scratch to the final version. Final version? There'll never be such thing as you all know.

I am trying to make a 3D gallery, because the one great disadvantage of my ccf is, that it can't be modified too easily. If you're interested in it, let me know, I'll send you a copy when (if) I'm finished.

André

PhotoImpact 7 from www.ulead.com is a great program as well. I like it better than Elements and PaintShopPro.

G.

Andre,

If you took just the bitmap portion tools of 3D Studio Max, how would they compare to just the bitmap tools in Photoshop?

(Putting all the animation benefits of 3D Studio Max aside)

Doug,
seems like I failed to explain the differences between those two programmes. OK, I'll try a different approach. 3D Software is used to create 3 dimensional objects on the computer. You'll get those elements by using simple primitives like cubes, geospeheres, pyramids and the like. These primitives can be modified to fit your needs. When finished, the programme calculates how these elements would look, when you took a picture of them, sort of like a virtual camera. This process is called rendering.
Photoshop on the other side is used to modify or enhance images, either scanned in, taken by a digital camera or rendered by programmes like a 3D application.
That's why you can't compare PS and 3D Max. The latter doesn't even have bitmap tools.
Hope I did better this time ;-)

If you want to know more, visit 3D Café or have a look at this modelling tutorial.
Good luck and have fun!
André

Andre,

Understood. Thanks. Now your quote

"Photoshop on the other side is used to modify or enhance images, either scanned in, taken by a digital camera or rendered by programmes like a 3D application."

brings up another question for me. Does this mean that if you don't have 3D software you can't create a bitmap from scratch with Photoshop?

And, if this is true, what 3D software would you recommend (free to $50.00) to import these images?

Doug,
you sure do have powerful tools in PS with which you can create pictures, but to achieve photorealism you nearly have to be a graphics wizard. PS is best when being used to improve or combine pictures, modify them, apply creative filters to them etc.
The name says it all: it needs photos (or something alike) to work with. Vector graphic programmes like Illustrator or Corel Draw can export to file formats PS knows (like jpg, tiff, bmp). If I didn't have access to a 3D suite, I'd use those programmes to create the picture, then import them into PS to enhance them. Which brings me to your next question.
To my knowledge, there is no 3D rendering free/shareware, nor is there something for the price mentioned.
There are however programmes cheaper than MAX. Cinema4D is one of them. Then there is a German Company called Oberheim. Their product is called Monzoom and it is -as far as I know- the cheapest. Costs about 200 US$, but I don't know, if they're still in business (their website seems pretty outdated).
Maybe there are light or demo versions of other programmes to start with, it's worth a try anyway.
André

Andre,

I want to make a simple square button (for Pronto)
and make it look "wet" and texture mapped, can Photoshop do all these things including making a square button?

Doug,
yes it can, it needs a little bit of tweaking, though.
I'd be glad to help you, just send me an email.
André