Photoshop Elements

[sisiblum]

I strongly recommend you download a free trial version and try it first to see how it works for you.
I´m glad I did, because I found PSE8 crashes A LOT (I mean A LOT REALLY). Google about it and you will see dozens of complaints about it.
the Adobe support is useless and I finally gave up buying PSE after one week of crashes and frustration...

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Thanks for the heads up. I'll download the trial tonight.

What did you go to instead of PSE?

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Oooh.

Went to Office Max today at lunch to get ink for my printer. Got $30 in free gift cards for the ink I got.

So

PSElements 8 would be $39.99 (on sale for $69.99, plus the $30 in gift cards) then I could buy the upgrade version of Photoshop CS5 for $199.

So Photoshop CS5 for $238.98 would be a steal.

(yes, PSE 8 is one of the elligible products to upgrade from). Sure as heck beats paying $699 at office max for the full version of Photoshop CS5.

 

[squirrel]

Update

I found out that I needed Quick Time installed and I needed a codec to get it to work.

Since I never hooked the laptop up to the internet and the software was already installed, I didn't know it needed Quick Time to run.

Dell finally sent out Photoshop 7.

 

[AlbertZeroK]

Make sure adobe is up to date.

BSOD can be caused by bad memory, try running either Microsoft's Memory Test or MemTest86. Dell may also have a memory test diagnostics in the laptop.

programs quiting like that could be a bunch of things, and it's not an easy issue to fix.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Well, I downloaded the 30-day trial version of Photoshop Elements 9 tonight and just finished installing it.

Will see if it's worth putting on my Christmas wish list or not.

 

[RadioNate]

Costco has it on sale for $49

 

[Spaceace5150]

Please let me know how it goes for you... I am always looking for opinions.

Is it the new version on sale at Costco?

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

Well, I fired it up for the first time last night and spent about a couple of hours with it.

I found the interface pretty straight forward to make easy changes, and there was a LOT of menus and sub menus for doing more complicated stuff. The magic "Auto-Fix" button worked pretty well on a couple of the shots I tried. The only thing that annoyed me was that for certain adjustments it was just a slider. Well, that means you have to have good mouse dexterity for fine changes.

Looks like there is a lot of power under the hood.

I REALLY liked the fact that it was directly tied in with ShutterFly for photobook creation. I've always wanted to do it, but never wanted to strictly use the web interface at shutterfly.com.

I don't know about costco, I don't have a membership there.

Normally the software is $99. There is currently a $20 mail in rebate and if you buy it on the adobe.com website, they throw in a $20 shutterfly gift card. Not quite the $49.99 at costco, but comparable if you don't have a costco membership.

Adobe gives you a free 30-day trial, it's about a 2 gig download.

 

[Spaceace5150]

One other question...

Are you able to install it on multiple computers in my household? Or is there something that would prevent you from doing that?

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

To go from the trial version to the full version you have to enter an activation code.

So I would imagine you can't or there is a limited version. Dunno.

 

[RadioNate]

Costco has PS Elements 9. I think that is the latest. There was nothing about multi licenses either way. DH wanted it for work so he looked because he wanted to put it on both his laptop and desktop, both he works from.

We couldn't find any allowances or prohibitions for installing on multiple machines. Because he was going to install it in a corporate setting, we ended up buying a 2nd copy. His employer reimbursed for the one on his employer owned desktop and since his laptop is his personal property we bought the 2nd copy.

 

[MarkBarbieri]

I don't know much about the licensing for PS Elements, but for the full blown versions of Photoshop and Lightroom, you are licensed for two machines. The intent is to allow a person to use it on their primary computer and on a secondary computer like a laptop.

 

[ChiSoxKeith]

According to the EULA (which is online here)

2.5 Portable or Home Computer Use. Subject to the important restrictions set forth in Section 2.6, the primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed under Section 2.2 (“Primary User”) may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a portable Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided that the Software on the portable or home computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer.

So you can install it on a second computer you can, you just aren't allowed to run it at the same time.