Home > Consumer Reviews > Adobe Photoshop CS Upgrade (Windows)

RAW support and curves alone justify the purchase price of this outstanding program. I am purchasing this program for digital photograhpy and use only a fraction of the cornucopia of its extraordinary features. With the help of Scott Kelby's "Photoshop CS for Digital Photographers" I am making steady progress and becoming reasonably capable in the "digital darkroom."

Realize that Photoshop Elements contains a substantial measure of the capabilities of Photoshop CS but only recently (version 3.0) acquired RAW support. Elements does not have the curves tool and that is the single most powerful photoediting tool that I use. I could not possibly give up that tool even though there are work arounds in Elements.

A complete review of this programs is beyond the scope of this "user review" and I would direct potential purchasers to the Adobe site at www.adobe.com for an exhaustive look at the program's features, but more importantly to try out a fully functional Photoshop CS for a 30 day trial period. I myself tried the trial program first and after realizing that I would miss it once the trial period was over I went ahead and ordered it.

So, what have you got to loose?! Go to the Adobe site and download the trial version and see for yourself what a great program this is. During the trial period I would recommend familiarizing yourself with the curves tool to begin to appreciate the power that CS brings to your desktop.

Good luck!

I've read complaints about activation, but I didn't have any problem with that. Of course, you need to be connected to the internet and you you can't let Aunt May borrow the disk to put on her computer so she can then give it to Grandma to put on hers, and so on and so on.... As far as the upgrades, the ability to work with the digital negatives (RAW files) it is worth the upgrade alone! I have a Canon 10D and the difference in my photos has greatly improved just by being able to tweak the little things (exposure, sharpness, shadows, etc.). I thought the file browser in versoin 7 was just a novelty, but the one here in CS is actually a powerfull tool. I stopped using ACDSee! I thought that although the healing brush is a cool tool, Photoshop didn't improve much going from 6 to 7, and I didn't expect much from CS in the way of changes. Boy was I wrong! This was the upgrade I was waiting for. Well done Adobe!

adobe photoshop just got stronger. I have used version 7.0 and I am now using cs. it is a lot better with a lot of new features.the lny bad thing about it is the welcome screen. it is killing me. it takes a year to show up.