Photoshop Elements 9

Having spent hours reading threads on software I thought let me throw my question to the masses ....... I have very limited PC knowledge and I currently have Photoshop Elements 9, my question ....... I am looking to upgrade OR get a different program, What is the easiest software for a beginner ......... your input is greatly appreciated

Elements 9 was released in 2010... that's pretty old as far as photo software goes...

rather than just shoot recommendations at you... why not list the features in elements that you used, and want... and maybe someone here can help you refine your search...

Start with your budget...

I don't know Elements that well, but I think Lightroom is a good starting point that can also grow as your skills grow.


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I never cared for elements. I stuck with it for awhile, through version 13. I just never was comfortable with it. As soon as I tried Lightroom, I liked it. I like the tools and I like the organizer. You can download the trial, but I would suggest watching some on the many training videos on the Adobe site and elsewhere so you get off to a good start. There are tons, but look for the 'getting started' type videos. Be aware, Lightroom is now rental only (I think). Many of us feel we are getting good value though. $10/month for LR and PS. Also, Adobe just last week split Lightroom up into Lightroom Classic and Lightroom. 'Classic' is what most use. I don't like that they renamed the original to 'classic', hopefully its not a sign that it will go away anytime soon.

Lightroom is a good way to start. It can be used to organize your photos which I would suggest for everyone and the post processing can be used as a basic way to post process your photos and as you get used to it you can start branching out to the more sophisticated part of the program.

I started out with Photoshop Elements 9 and upgraded to 10. Then I bought a stand-alone version of Lightroom. Eventually I upgraded again to the PCC and Lightroom CC offer. There are differences between Elements and Photoshop CC.

If you edit NEF's, there are limitations in Elements--some tools and adjustments simply aren't there. I'm looking at Elements 10 now and don't see a way to get over to ACR (Adobe Camera RAW) once I am in the editing section of Elements. In PCC, I can go back and forth whenever I want. Possibly newer versions of Elements have more features.

Even though I have both PCC and Lightroom CC, I don't use Lightroom CC. Lightroom excels with organizing and cataloging which is a feature I don't use. Hopefully others can tell you the benefits of that. But the biggest thing for me is all the editing tools of Lightroom are available in PCC when I go to Adobe Camera RAW.

Once you learn the editing features of Lightroom, Photoshop CC offers many more things you simply can't do in LR. If you haven't yet learned a lot of the features that Elements offers, you might want to upgrade to a newer version of Elements. You will have some NEF editing capabilities plus some editing capabilities of Photoshop. Once you've used the program enough and feel it is lacking, that might tell you it's time to move onto one or both of the full versions.

I was fine with Elements but didn't know what I was missing until I went with PCC. Just about the only time I open Elements is to crop a screen shot because it loads faster on my computer than PCC. Files I've edited in PCC can be opened in Elements, but first they have to be converted from 16-bit to 8-bit...so for me there really isn't any point in doing so.