Recommendation: Aperture or Photoshop Elements 8?

I've been using iPhoto '08 for the past year and find that it does 90% of what I need. For a few photos though, I want to be able to apply adjustments to certain areas of the photo, not to the whole photo like iPhoto does.
I shoot in RAW and would want to keep iPhoto for keeping my photos organized if possible.
I've downloaded the demo for Aperture and I'm thinking this is what I'm looking for, but is there any reason why I should consider PSE? From the demo it looks like PSE makes it's adjustments against JPEGs (from what I can see) and as a result if I applied a brighten or darken layer with a mask to a photo and set the adjustment too high it resulted in some awful pixelation in the images.
Anyway, given what I'm trying to do, what do you recommend?
Thanks!

Aperture is like iPhoto -- in that it manages your entire photo library and allows you to apply adjustments to the photos. Photoshop Elements doesn't manage photo libraries and is intended not only for 'adjustments' but for wholesale manipulation of a photo (e.g. major effects, adding objects or people to photos who weren't really in them, removing major items from a photo (not just minor things like blemishes, etc.)
iPhoto applies adjustments to the whole photo (and, generally speaking, so does Aperture), whereas in Photoshop you have to select an area in a photo in order to adjust it (and adjustments will only be applied to the selection.)
If you get Photoshop Elements, you can configure iPhoto to use it as an 'external editor'. By default all the quick adjustments you want to make are handled by iPhoto, but you can right click any photo and select "edit in external editor" and it would invoke whatever utility you want... such as Photoshop.

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Aperture or Photoshop Elements?

I am an amateur photographer and photography is a keen hobby of mine. I have recently been pondering the idea of purchasing a photo-editing package from the app store and have come across both Aperture and Photoshop elements. I enjoyed using iPhoto but it felt a little limited. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Aperture and Photoshop target different needs - if you are a serious photographer you should get them both, see Re: how to combine breketed photos in one like in photoshop
Aperture serves two purposes:
It is an excellent tool to manage and organize huge photo libraries for fast retrieval, tagging, geocoding, and efficient storage of different versions of the same photo.
And it has excellent image processing tools to develope high resolution photos (raw, tiff, jpeg) into a rendered version and to adjust the photo (noise reduction, contrast, retouche, white balance and color color correction, sharpening, ...).
But Aperture deals only with image files taken with a digital camera, not with graphics. It does not support transparency for example. For this the program offers an interface to use plug-ins or external editors, like Photoshop or the free Gimp.
Photoshop is a graphics compositing program; it offers basic image processing tools, but you can use it to add graphics annotations to your image or two combine parts of different images - it is great to work with transparency, layers, arbitrary shaped selections.
I use Aperture do organize my photos - my Aperture library now includes all images I own, reaching back to 1910, the including the first photos my greatgrandparents have taken. Developing the raw images or adjusting jpegs Aperture is very intuitive and easy to do. And if I need to do compositing I use a plug-in or Photoshop.
You may want to have a look at Gimp. It can do similar things as Photoshop, but is free. Also, have a look at the Aperture tutorials on the Aperture Support page: Aperture Support
Regards
Léonie

Moving photos from Aperture to Photoshop Elements

How do I move all my photo projects from Aperture to Photoshop Elements 12

What happens if you select both images in Aperture, and then click to Edit in External Editor?
Ernie

Aperture versus Photoshop Elements versus iPhoto

Please forgive my ignorance, I'm a lifelong PC user that has finally seen the light and converted to a MAC. I'm a bit confused on how I would use these three apps together. If I primarily take pictures, connect the camera to the MAC, edit/tag/organize photos, how do these apps work together and where are the files actually stored? Should I import into Iphoto first and then into Aperature, or straight into Aperture. Is there any purpose for using Photoshop Elements if I own Aperature?
thanks in advance,

Just to throw in my two cents, I am also a recent convert from the iPhoto/PSE combination to Aperture. Of course I still have PSE, but haven't needed to use it since I started using Aperture, as the editing tools are so powerful compared to those in iPhoto. Some key points I would make regarding aperture:
1. iPhoto is non-destructive, as was pointed out above. You can always revert to your original, and can even find the original in the finder if you open the iPhoto library package and navigate to it. But Aperture is much more flexible and space efficient because it seldom creates additional files unless you ask it to. It just previews what your edits look like - it doesn't save an edited version of your photo. This means the library takes up less space, and you can back out/turn on individual edits and see the effects. Very cool.
2. The iPhoto/PSE combination does not deal with editing of RAW format photos as well as Aperture. If you need to edit a RAW in PSE, editing is done in 8-bit color, and I believe saved as an 8-bit TIFF back to iPhoto. Aperture works in the full bit-depth and maintains the RAW file until you tell it to create something else. While I still have the "problem" (not to start a whole debate as to whether it is really a problem) of PSE only supporting 8-bit color for editing functions, I almost never need PSE. If I do I guess I can just put it at the end of my workflow and save my final jpeg or whatever.
3. Aperture supports editing plug-ins, so that it's editing capability can be expanded. Granted, many if not most of these plug-ins cost money, but you could purchase several and have capabilities in some areas that exceed that of PSE, but still invest less money that you would for full Photoshop and have the benefit of not having to leave Aperture to do these edits.
4. Aperture supports tethered shooting and remote control of your camera, if your camera supports these functions. It may be that only a minority of photographers are interested in these capabilities, but still, if you are one of them, it is important.
Steve
Message was edited by: StevenJD

Aperture vs Photoshop Elements

Hi everyone,
I am considering switching from Photoshop Elements to Aperature. How happy will I be?
Thanks for all your input!

Apps like Aperture and Lightroom are primarily images-management apps with limited editing capability; iPhoto is a free beginner version.
For significant editing but poor images-management one can use very expensive Adobe Photoshop, less expensive Adobe Photoshop Elements, Pixelmator or (free) GIMP.
IMO DSLR photogs should own/learn/use one app from each of the two categories above.
Specific to only removing distracting background elements are apps/plug-ins like KnockOut2.
You are using Elements, so editing is covered. For images management use iPhoto for free until it seems limiting. Only then embark on the one-time 30 day Aperture trial, realizing it it hardware-intensive (your MBP is adequate if RAM is maxxed).
HTH
-Allen Wicks

Exporting Photos From Aperture to Photoshop Elements for Layer-Editing

Back when I paired iPhoto with PSE to do layer editing, it was easy to export the first layer-picture from iPhoto, then click-and-drag the second photo directly on top of the first in PSE, then 'stretch to fit'.
I've since moved to Aperture 3, and although I can 'edit in Photoshop Elements' the first picture, I can't drag or export so that it superimposes ready for opacity adjustment and effects...

What happens if you select both images in Aperture, and then click to Edit in External Editor?
Ernie

Using iPhoto, Aperture 3 and Photoshop Elements 9 together...

Hi everyone,
I recently upgraded from iPhoto to Aperture. It does almost everything I need but there are some much more advanced editing tools in Photoshop Elements that I need occasionally and also I like to be able to quickly create attractive template based e-mails using iPhoto, so I need all three apps.
Currently I have my photo library in Aperture 3 but it's really clunky to create attractive photo emails using iPhoto because I have to click 'Show Aperture Library', which is very difficult to navigate and is pretty much unusable. My next attempt is going to be to see whether I keep all my pictures in an iPhoto library and then browse and edit them in Aperture and Photoshop Elements.
Has anyone got any tips on this topic?
Thanks,
Jim

Hi Ernie,
Thanks for your post. I will try to explain in a little more detail what the problem I'm having is. If I want to create an iPhoto picture template e-mail, say a postcard, then I select File/Show Aperture Library. A browser window pops up. If I browse to 'Projects' then the previews of each project are huge - about 6 fit on a screen with the window maximised. I can't find a way of zooming out in order that I can browse the hundreds of projects in my Aperture library. Is there a way of doing this? Also, I can't seem to control the sort order. The options in View/Sort Order seem to sort the iPhoto album, not the Aperture library browser.
If I select Photos from the navigation tree then I get previews of all my 13'000 pictures and about 100 fit on the screen. Again, I don't seem to be able to zoom in/out nor control the sort order.
What surprised me this morning is that I finally deleted my old iPhoto library and then opened iPhoto to see how it would react. I selected whatever the default was (forgot already!) and now I see my iPhoto library as it was before I deleted it. However, I can't find the library in my Pictures folder. Could it be that iPhoto is reading it from the trash can??
Finally - is there a way of adding pictures to my posts in this forum? Perhaps I could illustrate the views i'm getting in iPhoto's Aperture library browser.
Yours,
Jim

Problem Photoshop Elements 10 as ext. editor with Aperture

I use Aperture to manage my Photos und would like use Photoshop Elements 10 as editor.
In Aperture Preferences, Photoshop Elements 10 is setup as ext. editor.
When I choose a photo in Aperture and klick edit in the menue, Photoshop Elements 10 open correct, but no picture ist displayed.
The same problem with iPhoto.
Any help?
Thanks
Urs

Make sure you are linking to the application and not a shortcut.
Hidden fles in Lion:
http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/909/cpsid_90947.html

Loading files from Aperture 3 into Photoshop Elements 9

I am using an iMac with both Aperture and Photoshop Elements 9 loaded. My camera loads the images into Aperture. I select teh option to Edit with Photoshop Elements; Elements opens but the screen in blank. A PSD file is created in Aperture which I then have to export and manually load into Elements I have tried resetting the colour picker to Apple in Elements Preferences; I have tried resetting the options in Aperture to 9-bit, tried 16-bit, ensure the export option is PSD. Nothing works. Any ideas?

Do you mean they are still on the CD/DVD and you want to export them directly from CD/DVD?
That's not possible since the CD/DVD is not writeable. You have to move the photos to your hard drive first.

Photoshop elements and aperture

How do I edit using PS elements - I went to preferences, chose PS elements as the external editor, but the image stays in aperture and I can not seem to get the image in a place to edit using PSE. I have tried double clicking on the picture but that does not get to PSE.
Thank you

Have you found a fix for this yet?
I use Aperture with Photoshop Elements 6.
My example:
I have an original image say 20081212-33.jpg or 20081212-33.nef, in Aperture. I use referenced files.
Aperture will then create 20081212-33.tiff, and PE launches and I edit the image.
The problem comes with the save. Elements acts as if it needs a new filename. The one it suggests is usually 20081212.tif.
Right there is already a problem: PE uses a different extension from Aperture.
If I go ahead and save the file PE wants, it never shows up in Aperture.
If I click on the copy Aperture made, that works, but only on the first edit.
If I later decide to edit 20081212-33.tiff, Aperture doesn't create a new file for PE to use. I either overwrite the existing file (which can sometimes seem to screw things up in Aperture if I edit metadata), or I have to manually import an image I save somewhere like the desktop.
I can understand Aperture not creating a new file the second time. You already have an edited file so it assumes you want to edit again.
However, it would be nice if there were some way to make PE use the same extension.
Also, I frequently tell Aperture to make PSD files instead. Then when I'm done I want to add a final version to the stack in Aperture, and there is no convenient way to do that.
Any ideas appreciated.
It's not unworkable, it's just a little clunky.

Aperture vs. Photoshop Elements 4.0

Hi, I am a beginning photographer and I want an beginning piece of photo editing software. Does anyone have any suggestions. For example, how would you Aperture users compare Aperture to Photoshop Elements 4.0. If it helps I'm using a Canon Rebel XTi.

They are totally different apps but with a small amount of overlap.
You need (inexpensive) Photoshop Elements for individual image editing. PE is poor for management of batches of images.
Aperture and Adobe's Lightroom are (a bit more expensive) apps for the management of batches of captured digital images. You will want one of them (here we prefer Aperture) as you get into shooting substantial batches of DSLR captures. Aperture will deal with the editing issues of 98% of your images, but you definitely want PE for the 2% which will likely include your best shots.
-Allen Wicks

HOW TO LEARN Photoshop Elements "tutorial" or "book" ?

hello. newby here. can anyone recommend a good Photoshop Elements online "tutorial" or "book" that I can purchase to learn the "ins & outs" of PSE5.0? I'm not that tech savvy, but I do have enough knowledge to tool around PSE making fixes here and there using clone, brush, etc. I just can not find an efficient way to learn all about file specs, batching, converting to, etc. any help would be greatly appreciated. thank you!

Hi,
You should take a look at www.lynda.com. They made al lot of courses also about photoshop elements. I don't know if PSE 5.0 is still available, but you can always check. If i am right you can also see what the content is of the course. I watched a few of these courses and i think it's very good.
Hope it helps.
Kind regards,
Maarten.

Photoshop elements scanner HP

Hi! I My new scanner works fine,, but I cannot scan using Photoshop elements (MAc ox 10.10) Do I need a plug-in, or perhpas TWAIN driver?
Mammogod

Hi Mammogod,
Welcome to the HP Forums!
I see that your scanning works fine with your HP Officejet Pro 8625, but not with Photoshop Elements on Mac OS X 10.10. I am happy to help!
Since, the issue is with Photoshop Elements, I would have to recommend to visit, Photoshop Elements Learn & Support, as well as The Adobe Community Forums.
Hope this helps!
RnRMusicMan
I work on behalf of HP
Please click “Accept as Solution ” if you feel my post solved your issue, it will help others find the solution.
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Re Photoshop Elements 10 - who can recommend reference manuals about how to work between my existing Aperture 2.1.4 and my just purchased Photoshop Elements?

I shoot in Raw with a Canon G9 Compact - after rapidly ditching iPhoto in favour of Aperture, I now want to learn to use Photoshop Elements together with Aperture - I can obviously buy something like the "Dummies" or the "Missing Manual" books about Elements 10, but what can you recommend that will help me learn about the best ways to move images between the two, and how to combine the best features of Aperture and Elements? Thanks for any advice.

I will defer to Sierra Dragon, one of the strongest advocates of Referenced Masters on this forum, but I suspect that your upgrade would only engage about 32 GB of HD space.
I have always used a Managed Library because I like the import-and-forget security.
AP2 arranges each master, thumb, and preview into a single folder. AP3 rearranges things so that all of the masters are in one folder, thumbs another, and previews in another. This has the advantage of making it easier to find your masters, should you ever have to open the Package and look for them.
AP3 is very nice and, with at least 4 GB of RAM, tends to be very speedy. Were I thee, I would force a TM back up and then turn it off while you run the upgrade. Turn it back on only when you are sure that all is well.
If you search this forum for posts around the time that AP3 first came out, you will find that there was a list of cache and pref files that sometimes had to be deleted. I believe that subsequent versions of the AP3 incorporated this into the program as I have not heard of that trick being necessary for years.
In my case, I had a 150 GB Managed Master Library, so I copied it out on an external drive and ran the upgrade there. Once I was sure that it had worked (and it did, first time), I copied it back. As you might imagine, 150 GB over FW800 took some time, but I had three copies of my Library at all times.
A final note, if you are committed to using Referenced Masters (as I now am, having sprung for a SSD) remember that they are write once/read many. That is, they are NEVER rewritten once they are out on disk. I have mine on a dedicated 250 GB and it never fragments. Your Library, on the other hand, reads and writes all the time, keep it on your largest, fastest disk.
Best wishes.

Problem with editing Aperture photos with Photoshop Elements 10

When I try to edit with Photoshop Elements 10, Aperture makes a tiff file, starts Photoshop Elements 10 and get to a screen where I have a choice between "editing" or "managing" files. I select editing but when i finally get the editing screen there is no photo to edit. Process worked fine in Elements 9 and Aperture 3.1. Anybody been able to roundtrip with Aperture 3.2.1 and Photoshop Elements 10?

(Aperture 3 and PSE 10; Lion; using Referenced files in Aperture)
I tried Barbara's recommended method and PSE now opens with the image displayed and accepts edits. However, when I save the adjusted image, what I get in Aperture is a TIFF file of that name but with no edits displayed.
When I go to the directory in which the referenced files are located, the adjusted file exists and I can view it.
So, (at least as I have things configured), when accessing PSE from Aperture I am able to make adjustments and save the adjusted file, but the adjusted file does not display in Aperture.
Is anyone having success with Barbara's method using referenced files?
I hope it is not necessary to do a separate import to get the adjusted file to display in Aperture - which would make PSE totally impractical for use.
Thanks in advance for any help.

Recommendation: Aperture or Photoshop Elements 8?

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