Adobe Photoshop Elements 13 on Amazon.com for $59

Not very good ratings from folks on Amazon....not worth the risk, perhaps.
http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Photosh...dp_top_cm_cr_acr_img?ie=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

 

Many of the reviews just can't figure out how to use it. That's a problem for any Adobe product. Elements is the simplest of the bunch.

 

I think it's more that it just gets worse with every version. Every update seems to make the interface simpler yet somehow even less intuitive.

It used to be a quite good alternative for folks who didn't need the full power of Photoshop, but they've obviously run out of things they think they can add to it without eating into the full version and are just spinning their wheels. One of "major" new features for 13 was the ability to make Facebook cover photos.

The last version I purchased was 9 and it still runs just fine. I install the demo every time a new one comes out hoping for something interesting and I haven't felt the need to upgrade.

Photoshop is handy, though, and if you don't already have a version, that's a pretty good deal. It probably means a new version is just around the corner.

 

Ok, by that logic, on Amazon, why is Adobe's Lightroom favored with 5 stars and very few 1-star reviews? It is complex as well. Elements has as many 1-stars as 5-stars. I have LR versions 3,4 and 5. Gave LR 4-stars mainly because of 'auto' in develop module rarely works good, and some things I can do better with PaintShop Pro. I wouldn't generalize about all Adobe products. LR is very good, and Amazon reviews reflect that. I didn't get Elements because of the bad reviews.

 

I recently got the LR and PS subscription. I had been using PSE 6 for my photo organization. I was confused by LR's photo organization so I purchased PSE 13 for around $40. I was able to transfer all of my PSE 6 photos to PSE 13, but I'm not feeling the love. I got LR figured out to where it is now my database, and I rarely use PSE 13 anymore. I could now live without PSE 13 and PSE 6.

 

Yeah, I'm hugely disorganized, and the filing system in Lightroom has a big learning curve (I think higher than actually using the software). Now that I'm used to it though, it's great.

 

Elements is the easiest to use. LR has a much higher learning curve. I suspect the bad reviewers of PSE that complained about difficulty of use had never even tried LR.

 

Actually, I find LR pretty intuitive, with a few glaring exceptions, but I've never figured out how to do any of the more complex things Elements is capable of...

EM10•GX1•EP1•GF3•9mmBCL•17mm2.8•30mm2.8

 

PSE is designed for basic photo processing. It hits a wall once you get beyond the basics. In terms of being able to do sophisticated PP, LR (or even PS) is much better. I've used both, and I found the learning curve much higher for LR but definitely worth the effort.