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09/07/2012 11:14:00 AM · #1
Well, maybe.

I have used the same version of Paint ShopPro (7) for as long as I can remember.

I'm in a position where I can finally break down and get photoshop, but I'm wondering if my laptop will crash and burn. I guess I *could* get a new laptop; it is not entirely out of the question, but I really don't want to.

My main concern is that it runs Vista, which has caused me "issues" with other things.

So, I guess my question is -- what is the minimum I need on my laptop to make PS run as smoothly as possible AND which of the Adobe products should I get?
09/07/2012 11:24:46 AM · #2
Sorry, I don't have much input regarding computer specs.

My opinion on Adobe products is to skip photoshop until you are absolutely certain you need it (meaning you most likely don't). I recently switched from using Photoshop to using Lightroom 4 & Photoshop Elements 10. It's taking a little time to get used to it, but it easily does everything I need it to ... at a MUCH cheaper cost than Photoshop.
09/07/2012 11:31:53 AM · #3
I used CS2 for a couple years, the bought PSE8, upgraded to PSE9, and the PSE10. I will probably never get full CS, though I did get LR4 to play with.......I haven't figured it out hardly at all, though......

Elements is a VERY powerful editing tool.
09/07/2012 11:42:58 AM · #4
Karma, what brand/model of laptop do you have? If you right-click on "My Computer" and select properties, what does it tell you about the processor, and how much memory is installed?
09/07/2012 11:46:25 AM · #5
I would definately get PS CS6......However, Vista....OOOOOO. I wouldn't run anything on vista. The probs that you have had in the past prob had to do with lack of RAM (memory issues). Vista is a memory hog....My advice is either downgrade to windows XP or upgrade to windows 7 or 8 (8 is coming out soon) Depending on how old your laptop is...it prob does not need to be replaced.
09/07/2012 11:50:14 AM · #6
Heres my experience with Cs5 in a nutshell

I used it on an
intel gen1 i5 processor at about 2.5 ghz
4 gigs of ram
1 gig 360m(i think) GPU

it runs most of the time. if i get beyond 15-20 layers, it slows down quite a bit.
If you have less than 4 Gigs of ram for a recent version of photoshop and want to do heavy lifting, I doubt it'll be spiffy. I hope this is helpful. A scratch disk may help speed things a little.

Message edited by author 2012-09-07 11:50:42.
09/07/2012 11:50:38 AM · #7
Originally posted by cowboy221977:

I would definately get PS CS6.

Why?

Elements 10 is way more than prolly most of us on DPC can utilize to its fullest extent......for less than $100.
09/07/2012 11:51:31 AM · #8
Have you looked at the GIMP?
I posit there's nothing Photoshop can do that it can't. You might need to jump through more hoops, or download specific plug-ins, but it's all there. At the cost of free, it's hard to beat.

(Look for my name in the source code, I'm in there many times for bugs fixes.)
09/07/2012 11:53:06 AM · #9
i dont know if elements has the advantage of content aware tools and masking, but i find those useful in speeding up some work related edits, so i'ld recommend really figuring out your "most used" tools and making a purchased based on that. If you believe youll be better served with the latest version with all the bells and whistles, then by all means
09/07/2012 12:17:56 PM · #10
Originally posted by Devinder:

i dont know if elements has the advantage of content aware tools and masking, but i find those useful in speeding up some work related edits, so i'ld recommend really figuring out your "most used" tools and making a purchased based on that. If you believe youll be better served with the latest version with all the bells and whistles, then by all means

Yah....I get that and all, but you're talking about an accomplished photog who's venturing into a completely different format. Elements is cheap, and gets you a discount towards the upgrade if you want to move up. I know I found that the more experience I got as a photographer, the less editing I've needed to do, hence PSE 10 has been wonderful. I don't miss all the features I didn't use anyway.

Just my personal experience.......YMMV
09/07/2012 12:29:26 PM · #11
Originally posted by NikonJeb:

Originally posted by cowboy221977:

I would definately get PS CS6.

Why?

Elements 10 is way more than prolly most of us on DPC can utilize to its fullest extent......for less than $100.


i've definitely got to get *something* -- I outgrew PSP7 about 6 years ago. :P

I am needing to do something that aren't "DPC" -- dpc probably only constitutes about 5% of my photography these days.

I'llform a more coherent response later. In a workshop right now -- supposed to be listening to smething else right now. haha

(ooh yea -- i get ed. discount on PS so cost isn't as much a factor(
09/07/2012 01:18:17 PM · #12
Originally posted by Venser:

Have you looked at the GIMP?
I posit there's nothing Photoshop can do that it can't. You might need to jump through more hoops, or download specific plug-ins, but it's all there. At the cost of free, it's hard to beat.

(Look for my name in the source code, I'm in there many times for bugs fixes.)


Bless you. Once the rains set in and I hit the hard liquor I'll try the GIMP again, and try not to hold you too much to account.
09/07/2012 01:44:43 PM · #13
Originally posted by karmat:

(ooh yea -- i get ed. discount on PS so cost isn't as much a factor(


That does take the bite out! Keep in mind, if you get on the "upgrade train" with Ps, Adobe probably still intends to implement what they tried last year, that is, to only allow upgrade pricing for owners of the last-current version. Why does that matter, you ask?
If you take up Ps, you will at some point probably want to upgrade, but it's very unlikely you will want to shell out the upgrade cost for every new version. And if you don't, you wind up having to pay full price when you upgrade. So this new policy is an important consideration.
Look carefully at whether PSE will do what you need to do, now and in the future. It's much more capable than it used to be. If it will do what you want, it may be your best bet. For RAW processing and workflow/library management I wholeheartedly recommend Lightroom... though again the hardware question raises it's head. Lr 4.x will only run on a 64-bit OS, and I'm betting your Vista installation is 32-bit. Ps CS6 will run on a 32-bit OS AFAIK, but there will be performance impacts.
09/07/2012 01:58:23 PM · #14
Originally posted by kirbic:

Originally posted by karmat:

(ooh yea -- i get ed. discount on PS so cost isn't as much a factor(


That does take the bite out! Keep in mind, if you get on the "upgrade train" with Ps, Adobe probably still intends to implement what they tried last year, that is, to only allow upgrade pricing for owners of the last-current version. Why does that matter, you ask?
If you take up Ps, you will at some point probably want to upgrade, but it's very unlikely you will want to shell out the upgrade cost for every new version. And if you don't, you wind up having to pay full price when you upgrade. So this new policy is an important consideration.
Look carefully at whether PSE will do what you need to do, now and in the future. It's much more capable than it used to be. If it will do what you want, it may be your best bet. For RAW processing and workflow/library management I wholeheartedly recommend Lightroom... though again the hardware question raises it's head. Lr 4.x will only run on a 64-bit OS, and I'm betting your Vista installation is 32-bit. Ps CS6 will run on a 32-bit OS AFAIK, but there will be performance impacts.


Historically, I'm not much of an "upgrader," (hence my current use of PSP7) but your are right, it is a consideration.

Some specs (not that I'm entirely sure what I'm saying, it is 32 bit, though, not 64 -- that I *think* I can tell)

Gateway T-1628
Vista Service Pack 1
Processor: AMD Turion 64 x2 Mobile Technology TL-60 2.00 GHz

I was wondering about another RAW converter. Right now, I use DPP, and well, I think it sucks. I say think because I am assuming other things work better. I've tweaked settings, changed settings, read tutorials, read *stuff," and no matter what I do, the converted RAW files look worse than the jpegs, so, I shoot in jpg a lot (especially stuff that I know I will not be editing more than just slight exposure adjustments)

09/07/2012 02:08:01 PM · #15
Karma why not try Lightroom 4. You can get it for $99 I think with the ed. discount. And it works great. I use it for everything but final editing.
09/07/2012 02:20:25 PM · #16
I just went through the scenario you are looking at. I had CS2 and Windows Vista. I purchased CS6 and called Adobe for support because Adobe Bridge would not open. Adobe"s support said they wouldn't offer me support because I was using Vista. They said they would support XP and 7.

Soooo...I upgraded to Windows 7 and got CS6 with Bridge working great. I am still trying to add some of my plugins to the filter tab.

So far I like CS6 but it took a couple weeks to get all of this figured out.
09/07/2012 02:30:53 PM · #17
Karmat.....I would definitely look at Lightroom. If it's work related have them buy it for you. If not....Lightroom is definitely more economical. As for the computer you need to push past Vista and at least look at Win7 (64bit) The 64 bit version allows you additional memory board on your motherboard (8-16gb). However, just having onboard memory isn't enough anymore. The work load is being pushed off of the MB CPU and back to the Graphics card (formerly known as the video card) So if you can .....buy as much Graphics card as you can afford. You won't be disappointed. I've built many computers for Photoshop use and as of today RAM memory and Graphics card gives you the best results with any photo editing program. One last add....GIMP was mentioned....and it's pretty good for free. Don't overlook Picasa and PaintShopPro. Both have grown into very viable choices for the thrifty photographer.
09/07/2012 02:34:23 PM · #18
Lightroom 4 has restrictions on your Operating software as well. I forgot I had to upgrade to windows 7 from XP to use Lightroom 4. Not sure if they do Vista or not. I was not going to go to Vista. :(

Matt
09/07/2012 02:57:34 PM · #19
Originally posted by NikonJeb:

... PSE 10 has been wonderful. I don't miss all the features I didn't use anyway.

My biggest objection to PSE (vs. Photoshop) is the continuing omission of the Curves Adjustment (Layer) — a far more powerful tone/color adjustment tool than Levels.
09/07/2012 03:40:56 PM · #20
I have used PSE 7 and then 9 but I found it a bit wearing (it maybe me). So I switched to Paint Shop Pro X4 Ultimate and I find that much easier to use and the newly released PSP X5 Ultimate is just £18 to upgrade to.

Try the 30 day free trial and see how good it is :)

Paint Shop Pro X5 Ultimate - trial download

09/07/2012 03:54:06 PM · #21
Originally posted by GeneralE:

My biggest objection to PSE (vs. Photoshop) is the continuing omission of the Curves Adjustment (Layer) — a far more powerful tone/color adjustment tool than Levels.

I believe PSE 10 does have a form of curves albeit it very simplified.
09/07/2012 03:55:30 PM · #22
Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by NikonJeb:

... PSE 10 has been wonderful. I don't miss all the features I didn't use anyway.

My biggest objection to PSE (vs. Photoshop) is the continuing omission of the Curves Adjustment (Layer) — a far more powerful tone/color adjustment tool than Levels.


That would surely be a show-stopper for me as well. Given that Karma has access to Ps at the educational price, there's almost no reason for her to consider a lesser alternative. That said, there's the question of how it's going to run on her hardware...

Karma,
It looks like your hardware can handle a 64-bit OS; you'd want to confirm this, and also confirm whether you can upgrade RAM to 8GB. Find out for certain prior to starting an OS upgrade. If you can get educational pricing on software, your upgrade path to Win7 Professional 64-bit should be pretty inexpensive as well. If your hardware upgrade path is clear, then do it, install CS6 and never look back. I'd also consider Lightroom as your RAW processing and library management tool.

Important note: unlike Ps, Lr *must* have a 64-bit OS to install.

ETA:
I confirmed that the machine will run a 64-bit OS The machine comes configured with 3GB of RAM (1 1GB and 1 2GB stick). A set of two 2GB sticks is only $62 USD. That's the good news. The bad news is, it has only two RAM slots, both of which are filled, so you need to start over with RAM, and it will only take a 2GB stick, so the maximum installed RAM on this machine is 4GB. That's pretty marginal for running Ps.

Message edited by author 2012-09-07 16:08:06.
09/07/2012 06:54:23 PM · #23
Originally posted by kirbic:

Originally posted by GeneralE:

Originally posted by NikonJeb:

... PSE 10 has been wonderful. I don't miss all the features I didn't use anyway.

My biggest objection to PSE (vs. Photoshop) is the continuing omission of the Curves Adjustment (Layer) — a far more powerful tone/color adjustment tool than Levels.


That would surely be a show-stopper for me as well. Given that Karma has access to Ps at the educational price, there's almost no reason for her to consider a lesser alternative. That said, there's the question of how it's going to run on her hardware...

Karma,
It looks like your hardware can handle a 64-bit OS; you'd want to confirm this, and also confirm whether you can upgrade RAM to 8GB. Find out for certain prior to starting an OS upgrade. If you can get educational pricing on software, your upgrade path to Win7 Professional 64-bit should be pretty inexpensive as well. If your hardware upgrade path is clear, then do it, install CS6 and never look back. I'd also consider Lightroom as your RAW processing and library management tool.

Important note: unlike Ps, Lr *must* have a 64-bit OS to install.

ETA:
I confirmed that the machine will run a 64-bit OS The machine comes configured with 3GB of RAM (1 1GB and 1 2GB stick). A set of two 2GB sticks is only $62 USD. That's the good news. The bad news is, it has only two RAM slots, both of which are filled, so you need to start over with RAM, and it will only take a 2GB stick, so the maximum installed RAM on this machine is 4GB. That's pretty marginal for running Ps.


I just built this system it has Windows 7 Pro and 8GB of memory. I'm using the 32 bit application, and I have NO issues with LR 4.1 currently.

I'm not sure where you get that it has to be 64 to run lightroom.
09/07/2012 07:24:06 PM · #24
Originally posted by MattO:

I'm not sure where you get that it has to be 64 to run lightroom.


You're correct it will apparently run on Win7 32-bit, and perhaps Vista as well, but not on *any* flavor of XP. There are some reports of misbehavior when running on 32-bit systems, which stands to reason, as Lr is pretty memory intensive and it would be pretty limited on a 32-bit OS.
09/07/2012 09:36:51 PM · #25
Originally posted by kirbic:

Originally posted by MattO:

I'm not sure where you get that it has to be 64 to run lightroom.


You're correct it will apparently run on Win7 32-bit, and perhaps Vista as well, but not on *any* flavor of XP. There are some reports of misbehavior when running on 32-bit systems, which stands to reason, as Lr is pretty memory intensive and it would be pretty limited on a 32-bit OS.


Right, when I upgraded my LR4 I didn't see that it would only run Vista or higher. So I bought the upgrade and then discovered it on trying to install. So I bought W7 Pro and upgraded to 8GB the max my MB will support, and have been good ever since. I have no issues with either raw files from my D3x or D4 files while importing and editing 200-300 files at a time.

Matt
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