On1Photo Editor vs Photoshop

[srmoment]

I use On1Photo Editor as a plug in for Elements and it works great; however, recently I've been using On1 by itself as a standalone because it does a great job of handling noise and sharpness, and provides many useful filters. It has layers and a wide variety of tools that are much easier to use, with a greater variety of features then Elements.

I was considering making the jump to On1 from Elements, but am wondering if the full version of Photoshop has the same features and ease of use?

You might ask, why not keep On1 as a plug-in for Elements?  answer - the cost to maintain both is going up year by year, and Elements2024 seems to have a number of bugs that are very irritating (i.e. after using the selection tool, or using a plug-in, the picture no longer shows up on the layer - it's completely blank, although it is still there.  After the last update, PE2024 will not load, if I have already loaded it once, and then quit - I have to reboot my computer...)

[bnk1953]

I have never used Photoshop. I do use On1 2024 and Elements 2024 with On1 being my major workflow. I have only heard that if you move to Photoshop - it is a major learning curve as it has so many different ways to affect photographs and that you have to "dig down" to find many of those. I am sure that others will come along and give their insights.  You might try a trial version of photoshop to give you a "feel" for that program.  I believe from Elements you can get a 30 day free trial of the main photoshop program.

[srmoment]

Good to know! Thanks!

[Andy]

I use all of them. I got hooked on Lightroom and when Adobe when to the subscription service, that gave me Photoshop. So I started getting to know it, but I find it is overkill and I've gone back to using PSE more. Whether it is LR, PS, or PSE, I've used On1 as a plugin. I really like it, but I find it to be more buggy than the Adobe products. Through many versions, I've found it crashes/freezes more often, and I've had issues with how the organizer handles date/time stamps. So I've kept it as a plugin only.

[Chris]

Likewise I am using On1 as a plug in to Elements. My main workflow is the older Lightroom 6 (stand-alone) and Elements 2020 and more recently 2024. You can get a lot more features in PSE using the Elements+ or Elements XXL plugin. The one plugin I can now not live without is Topaz Photo AI.

For me, Photoshop CC is overkill, and I refuse to purchase subscription software. Although Photoshop CC has a lot of extra features I feel I can live without them. I also don't need to edit 16 bit files with layers.

Kind regards
Chris

[megapixel]

As I said in another post, I used Photoshop (CS2) in my astro imaging days, as Elements didn't have some of the 'tools' that I needed. However, in my opinion, for the amateur/hobby photographer, Photoshop is very much 'overkill', as he or she will only ever use a fraction of the 'tools' it provides. I can't comment on ON1 as I have never used it. For me, as a lifelong serious amateur photographer, Elements meets my needs, albeit the early versions were quite limited (basic), but more of the 'tools'' from photoshop have been included as time has gone by. Yes, it is not without its Bugs, I currently have an issue with printing from the Editor with v2024. The noise reduction filters in Elements are about as effective as a 'Chocolate Fireguard', and I use Neat Image as a plug in. I have Lightroom, but much prefer using Elements, as some of the ''tools' I like to use are not in Lightroom. I see Lightroom as being primarily aimed at professional photographers who need to quickly batch process and catalogue large numbers of images, such as wedding and cruise ship photographers etc.