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Having recently rekindled my motivation I am waiting for a scanner but in the mean time I was wondering what the general consensus of opinion is regarding software for image editing? Joanna highly recommends Photoshop CS2 and I downloaded a trial copy last night and was totally overwhelmed I am concerned that much of the (fantastic) functions offered by CS2 are far in excess of what I will actually need. My question - should I consider Photoshop Elements? I propose to use the software to replicate a traditional black and white darkroom with some colour work - but no heavy-duty manipulation (image warping/wrapping .. whatever that means!). Will Elements suffice? Thanks in advance Paul

Photoshop CS2 introduced a new tool which did not exist in previous versions, the Spot Healing Tool. It was a more automated enhancement of the old healing tool. IMHO it's worth it's weight in gold for spotting scanned trannies and negatives, the amount of time it saves is phenomenal.

PAUL O wrote:I am concerned that much of the (fantastic) functions offered by CS2 are far in excess of what I will actually need.

Photoshop offers more functions that almost everyone needs , even many imaging professionals who do nothing but Photoshop all day don't use or often even know half of what Photoshop is capable of. There are some things in it that are very useful though that are not in Elements.

PAUL O wrote:Will Elements suffice?

Photoshop Elements users have often bemoaned the lack of the "Curves" function, and I think the "gradient" and "quickmask" functions in Elements, I understand these have finally been added in the recently released Elements 5.

Photoshop CS3 is just about to be released, so if you're considering buying the full package, you might consider waiting a month or two to save yourself an upgrade fee later.