Help! Switching from CS to Elements 3

[bigkidjr]

Hello all.

I'm having a little crisis over here and hoping for some advice. My computer had a mini "crash" last night. I was able to get everything up and working except photoshop CS. It's telling me I need to reactivate it. But it turns out I can't because Adobe is telling me my serial number is invalid. (I bought the program over Ebay, and it worked fine the first time I activated it about a year ago, but now it just won't activate.)

Anyway, I have photo-editing jobs I need to complete (and I'm going through some kind of weird photoshop withdrawal...). I can't afford to buy a whole new version of CS, so I'm considering moving to Elements3 (which I can just go out and buy today at the store, for under $100).

Any advice on what I can expect to lose by going this route? In CS, I make heavy use of the healing brush, selective color, levels, fading out the effects of filters and brushes, and the art history brush. I have LOTS of plugins, and I have a bunch of presets from Trimoon tutorials that I'd like to be able to continue to use.

I don't use paths too much, nor channels or curves, nor actions.

I'm hoping someone is out there who is familiar enough with the 2 programs -- and can tell me whether or not I'll be able to cope with Elements 3...


Thanks for any help you can provide!

bigkidjr

[Doug Nelson]

If you don't need CMYK or advanced color management it sounds like the full version of PS would be a waste of your money.

Of course, my next question is why don't you use paths, channels, curves, etc.

[bigkidjr]

you know, I'm really not sure why I don't use paths, channels, etc. probably because i am completely self-taught on this program and found "easier" ways around it, e.g., using "save selection", selective color and variations, etc. I know I'm missing something by not using channels, but for some reason I have a hard time understanding how to use them.

The good news is that when I sent out my SOS earlier today about CS crashing, I had completely forgotten about the fact that I have photoshop 7 on disk. I had removed it from my computer when I installed CS, and then totally forgot about it. I just reinstalled and everything is working fine! I feel like an idiot , mind you, but am glad I got the situation pretty much resolved....

bkid