A graphic artist who wants to combine multiple images, draw on them, add text, and creative effects should get a subscription to the full version of Photoshop CC, which includes Lightroom CC. It will cost you $120/year to 'rent' the CC package.
But for the photographer who wants a digital darkroom to make a final product which still looks like a photograph, then Photoshop Elements is plenty powerful to get the job done.
I've been doing almost all of my editing in Adobe Photoshop Elements for about 5 years, now. I paid $50 for version 10 in 2011, which is what I'm still using. The current version is 14, and sells for about $80 (and you own it).
But forget about prices. I must emphasize that the dollars you spend on any decent photo editing software is insignificant compared to the hours you will invest learning to master it.
After 5 years, I'm still discovering new aspects of Elements, and in no way have I outgrown it. Elements has a few user interface quirks that are annoying, but there is absolutely nothing I've ever wanted to do that the software was not capable of. For organizing, keywords, etc, I'm still using an older version of iPhoto, but looking for a replacement, obviously.
More recently, I've been fooling around with Affinity Photo. ($50, Apple App Store). In many ways Affinity Photo (AP) is much more powerful than Adobe Elements, and considering the price difference, AP is a better value. However, there are some things that Elements can do better than AP. For example, when bringing out details in underexposed shadows and/or recovering details from overexposed highlights, I prefer the results I get in Elements, compared to AP. On the other hand, I like (most of) the AP interface better than Elements, and AP offers some very exciting features that makes Elements feature set look somewhat basic.
For now, Elements is still my go-to editor, mostly because I'm comfortable with it. However, if you are not already invested in the Adobe Way of doing things, I believe AP has the potential to be the better editor, regardless of it's lower cost. Affinity Photo is still under active development, and upgrades have been no cost (so far). When Adobe upgrades Elements, you pretty much have to buy the latest version to get the added features.
Another issue with AP for me is this: because the software is relatively new, there are fewer books (maybe none!) to help you learn how to use it. Affinity does provide a pretty good Help menu, and numerous video tutorials on their website. In contrast, Photoshop and it's variations have been around for along time, and there are MANY ways to get help learning it. One of my favorite authors for Photoshop reference books is Scott Kelby. I usually recommend the 'Missing Manual' series, especially if written by David Pogue, but for Elements the Scott Kelby books are better.
Last edited by runswithsizzers; 03-01-2016 at 05:26 PM.
Reason: added comments