Of course, you must be realistic and work with your budget, and make the most of what you have. That being said, if you work with RAW digital image files, PS CS2 comes with ACR raw converter, and the PS CS tools just keep getting better from lens correction to smartsharpen. PS CS is the industry standard.

That being said, many powerful images have been make with less that cutting-edge equipment, and PSP is a powerful program. Unless there is something that you really need, use what you had & go make some images!

The question that you must ask yourself is: is there some tool in PS CS that I must have? Probably not. Or, if you plan to work with PS CS professionally, you might as well start now. If you are a student, you can get an educational version that is cheap, and you can upgrade to a real version with the next upgrade. Also, you can buy a NIB old version and upgrade to PS CS2 - check with Adobe for what is do-able.

Paul

www.chaplo.com
www.paulchaplo.com
www.imagestock.us

I started w/ Paintshop Pro and was very happy w/ it. I only bought CS2 because I took a digital imaging class that, of course, taught Photoshop.

Paul, can you tell me what the difference is between regular Photoshop and the education version? I thought they were the same functionaly, with differences being only in the licensing agreement for use on multiple computers.

Quote:
I started w/ Paintshop Pro and was very happy w/ it. I only bought CS2 because I took a digital imaging class that, of course, taught Photoshop.

Paul, can you tell me what the difference is between regular Photoshop and the education version? I thought they were the same functionaly, with differences being only in the licensing agreement for use on multiple computers.

Hi there is no difference bedtween the "teacher/student" version of Photoshop and the regular version. It's merely a very large discount.

I have been a beta tester for PSP for some time now and it is a quite powerful program, especially the current version.
However, PS does have more verstility in 16 bit and RAW processing, although PSP X does come with a free RAW conversion program which is quite good, IF it covers your camera.

In many ways PSP X is an easier program to use, and has a better batching feature than PS.

As the program is updated in future issues, the functional differences between the two programs I am sure will lessen,
especially with 16 bit and RAW processing.