Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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228 of 234 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
A waste of upgrade dollars for Mac users, November 9, 2004
If you already have version 2 of Photoshop Elements, don't waste your money upgrading to version 3 unless you want to pay the full amount to use a healing brush insted of the cloning stamp.
Most of the new functionality is geared towards Windows users with the new Organizer and its cataloging, scrapbooking, cards, and calendars features. The Organizer is NOT available to Mac users. Photoshop Elements remains great software for digital darkroom work, but Adobe has elected to leave Mac users out in the cold with respect to providing tools to easily do something creative with the pictures once they have been digitally processed.
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145 of 152 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
OS X users: an update - now down to 2 stars, November 30, 2004
I trashed Elements 3 in an earlier review and went back to Elements 2. Apparently I can't change the 3 star rating above. So at this point, its 2 stars and a waste of money.
The following is the update:
I bought Elements 3 to try to obtain better browser performance than Elements 2. The program had so many idiosyncrasies that I ignored it until I had sufficient time to attempt to learn it.
This program has too many issues:
The window size cannot be changed if the pallet bin is open. It takes up the entire screen. When closed it leaves a border right down the right side of the screen where my task bar is and constantly gets in the way. If its accidently clicked, the pallet bin opens covering everything I intended to get to.
I assume it cannot work with OS X permissions. Any file created or modified in Graphic Converter cannot be saved in Elements. The files come up as locked, even though they are not.
Working with files that originated on different computers (web downloads) are an exercise in frustration.
These issues appear on both our 10.3.9 and 10.4.3 Mac's.
Elements 2 is fine. Does as good a job on editing as 3 without the problems. For browsing, just about any OS X compliant photo browser will run circles around Elements.
The following is my original review:
I'm on a Mac and have used Adobe Elements 2.0 for years to edit photos. I just upgraded to 3.0.
For editing both are very similar and good.
My major reason for upgrading was to improve the performance of the image browser. I had been using Graphic Converter to browse and Elements to edit (at the same time and a pain). Unfortunately 3.0 is no improvement in browsing. Its slooooow, it can't deal with large folders (500 pix+) and it dies/crashes on anything but a perfect file (no end of file will crash it). For those with images downloaded off the web, its a pain to use.
Back to Graphic Converter.
A good package for editing but the browser is still pretty useless.
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38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More Than iPhoto, Better Than Elements 2.0, March 6, 2005
I had 2.0 and was quite happy with it. When 3.0 came out, I went for it although not knowing much about half the things they said they were improving.
What I can tell you is that the auto features have visibly improved: auto color, levels, contrast etc., and the addition of "auto smart fix," "adjust smart fix" [with a slider] and "shadows & highlights." These improved/added features make it worth it to me, and I think to most advanced [non-pro] digital photo users. So if you're using iPhoto and aren't satisfied with the results, I would strongly recommend it. I don't even use iPhoto, because I find that if I'm going to send out a picture, I want it to be properly edited, and that means PE3 for me.
It's true what some other reviews have said--documentation is sparse, and help online can be confusing. But I haven't seen anything out there for near the price [for Mac] that is capable of making such dramatic improvements to your photos. It's simple enough to start with right away and teach yourself as you go, and complex enough to handle 95% of what you'd want to do with your pictures regardless.
There are all kinds of books out there to help you get the most out of it--and I'm sure I'd benefit by reading them. But my style is more self-taught, and you can definitely teach yourself on PE3.
To be more specific on the difference the upgrade makes from PE2, it is most noticeable when you go to "Save For Web:" when I did that with 2, I'd have to overcompensate with saturation/contrast etc. as it would noticeably degrade those elements by about 15-20% in the process. Now the Save For Web feature produces a result that is uncannily close to the original, even when at "50%" quality compression.
Purists, pedestrians, and professionals will have numerous things to point to as failings. I think the vast majority not in those categories have much to appreciate about the program, and its' improvements over 2.0.
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