Author Topic: Photoshop Elements Organizer (Read 3596 times)

stockastic · « **on:** December 18, 2009, 17:47 »

I just got PhotoShop Elements 8.0 (I've done all my past work with Capture NX and Paint Shop Pro) and while the Editor part is obvious, the Organizer is not. So far, all the tutorial and explanatory material I've found (including Adobe's) is just the usual "new features" "tips", keyboard shortcuts, guides to using the interface, etc. Nowhere do I find an actual explanation of what it does, what it's good for, how it might fit in to serious work.

Particularly irritating are all the sites telling you how it's different from 7.0. That does me no good.

I understand it isn't just another viewer, it's a cataloging program, and wants to be informed of locations of all the images on your system; it builds its own database of images, with which you can keyword, group, index, etc and probably more besides. Not something you're going to want to just leap into, without a clear plan, if you already have thousands of images.

Where is "Photshop Elements For People Who Aren't Dummies"?

Stu49 · « **Reply #1 on:** December 18, 2009, 18:06 »

Read the Book ! Scott Kelby is usually a good start, I have Elements 5 book and it's very good. Now reading his Lightroom2 and CS4 books. I moved from Elements to Lightroom, and what a difference !!
So much better to work with, I found Elements a bit basic (amateurish) !?

What made u choose that route ?

stockastic · « **Reply #2 on:** December 18, 2009, 18:19 »

Like everyone who's remained outside the Adobe circle, I'm endlessly confused by the difference between Elements and Lightroom, and about why Adobe has 2 overlapping products. My understanding was the Elements contains the heavy-duty editing functions, like the clone brush, so I could do all the things I used to do with Paint Shop Pro.

I'm looking for material that assumes no knowledge of prior versions.

dbvirago · « **Reply #3 on:** December 18, 2009, 19:01 »

I used Elements for years. Depending on how much editing you need/want to do, it can do 70-80% of what you need for 10-20% of the price. Unfortunately, once you graduate to Lightroom or CS, you can't go home again. When I was using Elements, I didn't use organizer. I was using a third party software for organizing and keywording.

Agree with previous. Find a Kelby book. He's the best, a lot of info, good read, and easy to digest.

While speaking of overlapping products. I finally got sick of Bridge and bought Lightroom. Lightroom is what Bridge should have been. (To OP, Bridge is to Photoshop what organizer is to Elements)

Stu49 · « **Reply #4 on:** December 18, 2009, 23:34 »

Quote from: stockastic on December 18, 2009, 18:19

Like everyone who's remained outside the Adobe circle, I'm endlessly confused by the difference between Elements and Lightroom, and about why Adobe has 2 overlapping products. My understanding was the Elements contains the heavy-duty editing functions, like the clone brush, so I could do all the things I used to do with Paint Shop Pro.

I'm looking for material that assumes no knowledge of prior versions.

Elements will do 70% of what PS can do (maybe scaled down a bit) but I found the organiser a bit of a pain ! LR will do the organiser bit (very well) and has Camera Raw built in, so does 70% of my (simple) edits. I also have CS4 for the fancy bits, but rarely need it

Hope this helps and Amazon are doing Kelby books for half price at the moment (just bought 2, LR2 & CS4), he's very good and starts from scratch each time. There is of course a lot online, have u tried Adobe site for Videos of Elements ??

Stu