“What’s the difference between the different Photoshops?”

We’ve seen this question sooo many times, we just had to write a complete article about it.  With four different members of the Adobe Photoshop family, it can be confusing what is what and which to get…  And now that Photoshop Elements 10 has just been released, it’s a good time to look at this.

If you ask Adobe, they’ll tell you:

Q:  How do Adobe Photoshop, Photoshop Extended, Photoshop Elements, and Photoshop Lightroom software differ?

A:  Photoshop Elements 10 (US$99) is designed for people who are just getting started with digital photo editing, and delivers powerful yet easy-to-use options that help you organize, edit, create, share, and help protect your personal photos.

Photoshop CS5 (US$699, actually CS5.1) is the professional standard for creating and manipulating powerful images, and Photoshop CS5 Extended (US$999) delivers every­thing in Photoshop plus tools for creating and editing 3D and motion-based images.

Photoshop Lightroom 3 (US$299) addresses the workflow needs of professional and serious amateur photographers, enabling them to import, process, organize, and showcase large volumes of digital photographs quickly.

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Adobe’s Student and Teacher Editions are already a pretty sweet deal. If you’re eligible, you can get huge discounts off Adobe’s normal prices for software that works the same as the standard editions.

Now, for a limited time only, Adobe is offering an additional $50 off their CS5.5 premium suites for students and educators, on top of the regular discount – and no coupon or promotion code is required, plus you get free shipping via FedEx direct from Adobe…

So now the pricing works out as follows (see all the applications in each of these suites):

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It’s been a few months now since Adobe Photoshop Elements 10 was officially released, so let’s take a look at what the reviews out there are saying…

First, for a quick overview of the new version, check out our Elements 10 Release Guide, as well as What’s New in PSE 10 vs. 9, 8, 7, or 6?

And if you’re wondering which edition of Photoshop is right for you, see: What’s the Difference between Photoshop CS5 vs. Elements 10 vs. Lightroom 3?

OK, so now on to the reviews for Photoshop Elements 10:

PC Magazine writes, “If you’re mostly concerned about doing interesting and creative things with your images, but don’t want to invest the time and money in learning Photoshop, Photoshop Elements 10 is an excellent option… Competitors don’t come close to matching Photoshop Elements’ array of dazzling photo effects, organizational tools like face tagging, and sharing and output options. Photoshop Elements 10’s tools for perfecting your digital images are unrivaled, making it our Editors’ Choice for prosumer photo editing.”

About.com says, “Each new update to Photoshop Elements has always brought strong new features to the program. Photoshop Elements 10 is no exception… Elements remains an extremely powerful and useful photo editing program for anyone who doesn’t need the graphic editing feature of CS or its high price tag. Whether you are a beginner or ‘old hand’ at photo editing, Photoshop Elements 10 offers strong tools for a very reasonable price.”

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Adobe’s Creative Suite 5.5 has been out since May, and has generally been well-reviewed and even lauded as a must-have release…  Nevertheless, some folks are still looking for or require older versions of the software, like CS5.0 or CS4.  Why?

Two common reasons are the higher system requirements – 64-bit for some components of CS5 like After Effects & Premiere Pro, as well as cases where the rest of a customer’s site is still running an older version and would like to add a new setup with the same compatibility. And occasionally some folks say they prefer the earlier, simpler versions over newer ones with more features.

The challenge is, once a new release comes out, Adobe no longer officially sells the older version. So if you need a prior release, what do you do?

If you want the trial version to use for 30 days, that’s easy – Adobe actually keeps most older original trials still available for download on their servers – including all of CS4 and CS5, plus earlier releases of Acrobat, Lightroom, Elements, etc… You can find those trials all linked for download here.

But how about when you want to actually buy CS4 or CS5.0?

If you ask Adobe, they’ll usually tell you to check their official list of authorized resellers & retailers to see if someone still has the version you want in stock. The problem is it’s inconvenient to search as often those stocks are thin or sold out, and no longer available.

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[UPDATE – Also see our new Lightroom 4 Giveaway!]

Welcome 2012!  Last year we gave away a lot of software, so to kick off the new year right, we’re going to be giving away a brand new boxed copy of the Adobe Creative Suite 5.5 Web Premium suite. This is one of the top-selling CS editions and the second largest prize we’ve ever done…

Creative Suite 5.5 was officially released in May, and contains a large number of new product features and improvements over CS5.  But this giveaway is not an upgrade or an education version – it is the shrinkwrapped, full commercial English version of CS 5.5.

CS5.5 Web Premium sells for $1,799 / €1,999 / £1,429 and includes the popular applications Photoshop Extended, Dreamweaver, Illustrator, Acrobat X Pro, Flash Pro/Catalyst, Fireworks, among others… (see the complete list of products it contains)  If you want to try it out first and install it on your computer, that’s easy as the free trial is available for download for both Windows and Mac OS.

Owning Creative Suite 5.5 would also make you eligible to upgrade to CS6 when that product line eventually releases.

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Adobe has two major new products in free public beta right now – Adobe Edge for developing HTML5 animations (like Flash Pro but outputs HTML5) and Adobe Muse which allows designers to create websites as easily as creating a layout for print. Adobe says interest in these betas has far exceeded their expectations.

Both tools will be shipping in their first official release in 2012. And while it’s been known for a while that Muse would be “subscription-only,” we now know too that Edge will likely follow the same path. Furthermore, neither will be included in the Creative Suite.

At a recent Adobe Analyst meeting during the question and answer session, it was revealed that Adobe is planning for both new design tools to be available only via subscription or through their optional “Creative Cloud” software rental offering – and neither will be a part of CS6 – in other words, they will only be sold separately.

Here it is at the 33-minute mark of the Q&A:

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It’s the season for holiday deals – and so it also can be a season for order changes and returns… Although naturally, this can happen at any time of year.

Sometimes even despite using Adobe’s free trial downloads to try out the software before buying, customers may want to exchange an Adobe product and get something else – say swapping Photoshop for Lightroom, or returning Photoshop CS5 Extended and getting the full CS5.5 Design Premium suite instead (which includes eight applications instead of one).

So did you know that Adobe offers a full money-back guarantee policy on almost all current products? This includes CS5, Lightroom, Photoshop Elements, Acrobat, and so on. This offer applies even after you’ve already opened the box and/or installed the software – and what’s more, it applies even if you happened to buy the software from somewhere else besides Adobe direct (like an from authorized reseller or store in North America – though not eBay).

Yes, it’s true – if you aren’t able to return or exchange your product via any other means, you can simply contact Adobe within 30 days and provided you follow the procedure, they will take it back (after being uninstalled and deactivated from your computers, if applicable) and then issue you a refund.

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If you missed the deals Adobe had running for Black Friday, not to worry as there are more great holiday specials going for December through Christmas, Boxing Day, and on to New Year’s and beyond – and here’s your guide…

Adobe has a dozen major offers in multiple countries covering popular products – including saving 10-20% on Creative Suite 5 and 5.5 products, 30% on either Lightroom 3 or the new Photoshop & Premiere Elements 10, 10% additional discount in the Education Store, plus free shipping. The deals have various expiration dates Europe/UK, Australia/NZ, and North America. Note that you do need to use individual coupon codes (linked below) for many of them.

All the holiday offers and some of their graphics are detailed below, and are available only for direct purchases.  This end-of-year sale will probably mark Adobe’s last discounts for a while, so if you’ve been waiting to make a move – especially with the recent changes in Creative Suite upgrade policy – then now could be your time…

Note that if you buy either Photoshop or a CS5.5 suite together with Adobe Lightroom, then these coupon codes are stackable with an additional 30% off Lightroom 3 offer! (valid worldwide until December 31st, 2011)

If you prefer to try before buying, you can instantly download any Adobe product you want as a fully-working 30-day free tryout, then later purchase/activate it within the savings period to get the discount.

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Time-lapse photography videos are all the rage these days…  Here is one of our recent favorites from Norwegian landscape photographer Terje Sorgjerd – incredibly beautiful and perfect for the season (watch full-screen):

Photoshop isn’t normally known for its video capabilities, but it’s actually quite easy to take a series of still photographs (edited as desired) and then create your own timelapse video using Photoshop Extended… This will work in the CS5, CS4, or CS3 versions.

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Some folks think it might be a good idea to try to save a few bucks and buy Adobe software from eBay, Craigslist, or Amazon Marketplace.  It could be CS5.5, Photoshop, Lightroom, Acrobat, or any other.

But it’s actually not a very good idea at all.  Why?

The first problem is that Adobe does not recognize these venues as valid resellers. So as a result, it’s like Adobe will not officially recognize any of those buyers as actually owning their software. Yes, you read that right.

Meaning, you think you own the genuine article but effectively you don’t. You can’t provide an accepted proof of purchase – so you can’t formally prove you own the products, can’t ever legally transfer the software to someone else, may not be able to get technical support or ever upgrade to the next version, and so on.

Why doesn’t Adobe recognize the people that go through those places? Doesn’t that seem unfair?

The simple reason is – and the real problem is – that 90% of the software sold on places like eBay is counterfeit! Yes, it’s true. And it’s not a new problem.

So you can be pretty sure that what someone’s getting on those auction and vendor sites is not legitimate, not able to be legally transferred, and possibly even quite unsafe.

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