Alan: Thank you! The Adobe forums cleared up the mystery. Indeed, PS 5
LE is set to a display gamma of 1.8, which can't be changed. Now Photoshop
Elements does have the color management and gamma correction stuff. What
PS Elements doesn't have, according to the specs and user comments I read,
is a curve tool, and the ability to adjust levels in 16-bit mode. These
are serious deficiencies, and the addition of lots of hand-holding features
don't make up for it.
The curve tool is partially replaced by some "user-friendly" things called
"backlighting" and "fill flash," among others. But the loss of 16-bit data
means you're in serious trouble unless you get it exactly right in the
initial scan, because you'll be forced to fix things in 8-bit mode, with
the risk of posterization that entails. NikonScan does have a curve tool,
but I much prefer VueScan, which doesn't.
All this means that basically Adobe has made sure that a serious
photographer who uses Windows will have to buy the full $600 Photoshop, or
make the choice between:
- Editing things that don't look right on the screen so they'll look right
on the Web (LE)
- Give up the curve tool and 16-bit functionality (Elements).
Or use a non-Adobe product. It's tempting. Anybody out there use other
programs. Paint Shop Pro looks good, but doesn't handle 16-bit data. What
about Ulead PhotoImpact, Corel Photo-Paint, Micrographix Picture Publisher,
etc. ?
--Peter Klein
Seattle, WA
I wrote:
><snip>
> > I think PS 5 LE is using either a default gamma, or a default color
> > space that you can't change. Or both. Regardless, PS 5 LE is
> > operating in a different universe than everything else on my system,
> which is
>just
> > sending RGB pixels to the monitor unadulterated. And unlike the full
> > version, there are no obvious adjustments to make everything the same.
> > There's no Adobe Gamma, and no File, Colors menu.
><snip>
At 09:41 PM 08/20/2001 +0100, "Alan Rew" <arew@patrol.i-way.co.uk> wrote:
>I recall a comment on another mailing list that Adobe PS5LE has a
>working space with a gamma of 1.8, which you can't change. My limited
>understanding is then as follows: as PS LE doesn't display using monitor
>compensation (unlike full PS), the resulting gamma isn't what you'd
>expect on a PC (2.2). Hence the need for the correction factor of 1.22
>(=2.2/1.8).
>
>Nowadays there is a cheaper alternative than buying the full version of
>PhotoShop - namely the relatively new product Adobe PhotoShop Elements.
>This includes colour management features and so should enable you do get
>a lot further than PS LE (or any of it's price competitors) without
>spending a lot of money. I believe it comes with Adobe Gamma tool which
>enables some manual adjustment of your monitor.
>
>For questions about the colour capabilities of PhotoShop programs, try
>the Adobe Colour Management forum,
>accessible from
>
>and look for the heading 'color management'. There's a simple
>registration procedure.
