[Leica] Re: Photoshop 5 LE files darker than they look

["Peter A. Klein" <pklein@2alpha.net>]

> Peter Klein posts:
> > 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:
 
Sonny says:
> That said, I really can't understand your complaints about
> Photoshop LE. The program is mostly available free with
> scanners and printers and other hardware, and the whole
> point of LE Photoshop (or any other Limited Edition) is to
> get you interested in buying the big package; essentially a
> demo version.

Sonny:

Thanks for the advice.  I have purchased programs at academic discount
when I worked at a university.  Taking courses isn't really an option
for me right now timewise, but I hadn't thought of the online/auction
route for software--thanks.

My issue with LE is that so many people says it's "all most people
need."  And while LE is bundled with scanners, etc., it also is a
product Adobe used to sell for $99.00, a similar price to other "full"
products.

Given that, I think it's inexcusable that LE is essentially "stealth
crippleware."  The PC gamma issue exists in both LE versions 4 and 5. 
There are numerous posts about it in the Adobe user's forum.  Adobe
could have fixed it if they wanted to.  Also, the 1.8 gamma is correct
for the Mac, so the progam is completely usable there.

If Adobe was up-front about it, that would be one thing.  But they don't
call the PC version of LE a "trial version that is visually crippled,"
or some marketing-speak to that effect.  They don't put a big DEMO
watermark on printed output.  Nor do they tell you anything about it in
the docs.  They simply allow the display to be incorrect for PC users,
and let you find out about it *after* you've already invested lots of
time in learning Photoshop.

Sorry, but given the gamma issue, your Leica CL analogy doesn't really
hold.  Things looking right on the screen is not an "advanced feature,"
it's a basic requirement of an image editing program.  It's more like if
the CL had a rangefinder that was always slightly out of focus and not
adjustable, and Leica neither fixed not documented it, so you had to buy
an M to get in-focus pictures. 

Photoshop Elements, on the other hand, appears to fix the gamma
problem.  It does "dumb down" the curves tool, and eliminates 16-bit
adjustments that LE had.  But they've made a perfectly viable product
for the home snapshooter and intermediate amateur, which has the
gamma/color space stuff LE lacks.  If it had retained the curve tool and
16-bit stuff, I would probably buy it in a minute.  But then it might
cut into full-Photoshop sales, I guess, because people like me wouldn't
need more.

Come to think of it, if I don't want to spring for full Photoshop, I
could get Elements, and then use LE 5 as a "front end" for the 16 bit
levels and curves adjustments.  Then once I get things basically right,
apply the gamma correction factor, save a 48-bit TIFF file in case
anything needs further tweaking later.  Then import the file into
Elements, esentially converting to 8-bit, and do dodging, burning,
spotting, etc. in Elements, where what you see is more like what you
get.  A little awkward, but doable.

Stay tuned for another chapter in the never-ending saga...

- --Peter Klein
Seattle, WA