May 10, 2023

Cardinals and Elements

Wild Bird Wednesday

The male Northern Cardinal is an eye-catching bird with his bright red feathers. I chose him as the subject for my first test of Photoshop Elements, a program that I have not used in years. I've been using Adobe Photoshop instead, a more advanced software which has many great features. 

At some point, I had to start paying a monthly subscription fee. I don’t remember when that was because I used Photoshop CS6 for a long time, but Adobe wanted everyone to pay the monthly fee, so when I got a new laptop several years ago, I was not able to install CS6. Rather than struggle with a non-supported software, I installed the subscription-based version of Photoshop. It seemed worthwhile because I used Photoshop almost every day.

Until I didn’t. I got an iPhone that took very good photos and found that I could simply crop them using my built-in photos app. I stopped using Photoshop every day, and eventually found I was only using it about once a week.

I hesitated and procrastinated about canceling my subscription but finally I did. I purchased Photoshop’s little cousin, Elements. It does not require a subscription, just a one-time payment that’s pretty reasonable. I tried it out today and found it does most of what Photoshop did, except  not as smoothly. It does have a long list of filters available. I hadn’t seen the “Comics” one in Photoshop  so I tried it here.
The vertical picture is one that I finished with a poster edge filter. I probably won’t use that a lot; I was experimenting.

Overall, I think Elements is going to be fine for my purposes.

9 comments:

  1. ...I love to see them in our yard.

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  2. I was sorry when Picasa was discontinued. It was very easy to use and did everything I needed it to.

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  3. I actually saw his brother/cousin out on our sterile lawn today. The leaves from last year were all carted or blown by those noisy blowers, into a depression where the lawn couldn't be maintained. Hopefully there's enough organic matter there for bugs to survive. The squirrels aren't too happy this year.

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  4. Hello Linda :=) I have never heard of Elements. I'm glad you have discovered a photoshop that does not require a subscription, and that you are pleased with.

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  5. Thank you for the tip, I am going to look into Elements. I like the effects they make on your photos.

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  6. Thanks also for the information on how Snickersville got its name. Much appreciate the help.

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  7. Nice edits! I use Lightroom, have had the creative cloud subscription for years, but have yet to really dive into photoshop.

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