CS2 vs CS3

[LeeLeeMelis]

Ok so I'm making the purchase. I have been using a (shhhh) pirated version of CS2 and now that I'm running a business I am going to buy it. I am a portrait photographer who doesnt know NEARLY what she should about Photoshop. Should I stick with CS2 or just go for CS3.Or would I be fine with Elements? I am going to take the time to continue learning the ins and outs of the program but is it just more bells and whistles? Let me know what you think, thanks!

 

[Don Simon]

Well first I recommend editing that message and removing part of the second sentence...

As for which version to buy, all I can say is that CS2 is incredibly fully featured. I can see advantages to using CS2 over Elements (as Elements is missing some useful functions or has them 'disabled' or hidden), but I don't know if CS3 would be better enough to justify the extra cost.

 

[elsaspet]

I'm having CS3 shipping to me right now. If I understand correctly, you are supposed to be able to non destructively correct jpeg white balance and exposure, thus making jpeg just like raw.
For someone forced to shoot raw all the time (weddings) this would shave a day off my production......more time to play. Yay!

 

[cedew]

I would go for cs3. It seems to have most of lightroom built in, so it's almost like two programs in one. Also, I probably wouldn't fork out for the extended version, most of the features seem useless for the typical user, except one...

 

[burtharrris]

Holy crap. Is that feature in CS2?

 

[EOS_JD]

If I understand correctly, you are supposed to be able to non destructively correct jpeg white balance and exposure, thus making jpeg just like raw. For someone forced to shoot raw all the time (weddings) this would shave a day off my production......more time to play

Lightroom is way faster than Ps. I find ACR in CS3 ok but the speed of lightroom is unbelieveable. This is now my editing software package of choice. I didn't use the Beta much but this new software is shaving lots more time off my editing that CS3 does.

Photoshop is left for creative editing once I've corrected my RAW/JPG images for colour and exposure.