I use CS5 strictly for post processing of photographs, so this review does not apply to page layout or other design features. Over the years I have progressed from using Picasa to PS Elements and now to CS5. I waited several months to post a review, just so I could get past the ’wow’ factor and give some honest feedback. Also, between my kids and me we have three users who all needed to learn the new software.The transition from Elements to CS5 was really quite smooth.
A few things are in different places, but once you find the tools you use most often, it quickly becomes second nature. So if you are worried about the learning curve, it is minimal if you have some background in Elements or another Photoshop product. As far as new tools, features and techniques, there are a lot of them. This thing is powerful and there are endless combinations of tools to achieve your final goal. This might seem daunting, however the online community is huge! YouTube has many tutorials that are extremely helpful. Another area where I was concerned has to do with performance. My old version of Elements(v6) would get sluggish at times and even lock up.
My computer has plenty of space and processing power, so I just figured Elements was a resource hog and I worried that CS5 would be even more so. Happily, the opposite seems to be true. It performs well, runs smoothly and has never locked up.So in short, I am extremely happy with CS5! It is very powerful and let’s me get the most out of my images.