PS CS3 vs LR+PS EL

[Markrad]

Hi Friends,
Recently, there have been articles proclaiming the benefits and ease of use of Lightroom. I wonder if anyone has any thoughts or experience using lightroom with PS Elements? What does the newest version of elements lack that is found in CS3 or 4? I'm particularly interested since my son has convinced me to switch to IMAC and I don't think my PS3 lic. can be transferred. Thanks in advance for all the help.

Mark

[John DeMott]

I switched from PC to Mac earlier this year. Adobe will allow you to transfer the license for Photoshop to the new operating system. You have to contact customer service and they will outline the procedure. It is a little bit of a hassle but not a real problem. You can either download the Mac version or, for a small charge (I think it was $10) Adobe will send you a new CD. You do have to give up the PC license in exchange.

Here is a site that has a brief comparison of Photoshop and Elements: http://graphicssoft.about.com/cs/pho...ntscompare.htm

Adobe usually has free trials of their software so you could probably do your own comparison and see what works for you. For my own purposes, I've tried Lightroom and haven't seen any compelling reason to move from the familiar package of PS, ACR and Bridge. YMMV.

[MurryG]

I've watched some LR tutorials by Mark Johnson and a couple others and I don't feel the need to expend more money on another Adobe product. I think if I were shooting lots of similar photos like portraits, high school class photos, etc. it would probably make sense to streamline the workflow with LR? But since I shoot everthing all the time I use my camera manufacturers RAW conversion program and PSCS3 for my processing. I suspect I could live with the latest version of Elements but I've always upgraded to the latest PS version through CS3. Since I'm 72 I think I'm done doing that also

[MurryG]

I received this today and thought it might help you?
Tim Grey's DDQ - 11/3/08 - CS4 Upgrade or Lightroom
Okay, great response directed towards Rob Sheppard's article. Now the question that many of us have is: what, in your (humble) opinion, is the decision criteria for all of us facing a CS4 update versus a Lightroom purchase?
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This is really more about your preferred workflow than it is about the particular capabilities of Photoshop CS4 or Lightroom, for the most part. There's no question you could accomplish most tasks photographers need to perform using either Lightroom or the combination of Photoshop, Bridge, and Adobe Camera Raw. Obviously there are differences. You'll find some features in Lightroom that can't be reproduced in Photoshop/Bridge/ACR, and there are naturally things you can accomplish in Photoshop that aren't possible in Lightroom. But in a general sense, you can get most of your work done with either tool.
In my mind, the core question comes down to whether it is more important for you to have all the power and flexibility of Photoshop (and prefer a layer-based approach to optimizing your images) or if it is more important to have a database-driven image management tool. For me personally, while I very much appreciate the image management features of Lightroom, and consider it a superior tool for keeping my images organized, I also very much prefer a layer-based image optimization approach. As a result, I use a hybrid approach (as do many photographers today), with Lightroom serving as an image management tool and Photoshop serving as an image-optimization tool.
If you're trying to decide between purchasing Photoshop CS4 or Lightroom 2.0, and you specifically don't want to purchase both, then you need to determine your priorities in the context of the additional features offered by each new version. If you already have a workflow that is working just fine and you value the power of Photoshop for optimizing your images, then perhaps you don't need Lightroom. If, however, you really want a better workflow solution (and especially if you can take advantage of Lightroom's sharing tools in the Web and Slideshow modules) then you might want to add Lightroom to your digital darkroom.
If you think you can take advantage of what Lightroom has to offer, my personal recommendation if you could only make one purchase would be to go with Lightroom, on the assumption that you already have Photoshop CS3, and thus have most of the power available there. In other words, I think most photographers would probably benefit more by adding Lightroom to their workflow than by upgrading from Photoshop CS3 to CS4. But naturally this is going to be different for every photographer.
In the next issue of Digital Darkroom Quarterly (Winter 2009) I'm going to be addressing the new features of Photoshop CS4, with an emphasis on helping you make a decision about whether to upgrade (and to know how to put the latest features to use if you do decide to upgrade). Since Photoshop CS4 is already out, I'm going to move up the production schedule for this issue of Digital Darkroom Quarterly, so it will go out in early December rather than early January. If you're not already a subscriber and want to be sure to receive this issue, you can sign up here:
www.timgrey.com/ddqp/

[Markrad]

Thanks for the informative responses. I called Adobe and can switch from PC to Mac by paying the upgrade cost for CS4. It also requires that the program be removed from my laptop pc. Hopefully, I'll get the winter DDQ in time to help with my decision about lightroom.

Mark

[PixAlchemy]

Hi Mark,

While I'm not up on features of the current PS Elements, I use Lightroom extensively, and know it can easily use Elements as an external editor.

Three good things about Lightroom. It is laid out in a logical workflow progression with several integrated modules that help to focus my attention on the particular task at hand. It is in fact quite easy to use, being built from scratch to serve the photographic community. The third good thing is that there are lots and lots of online resources, everything from tutorials, to tips to free presets.

I guess the best part of all, is that Lightroom has dramatically reduced the number of images that ever need to be processed in an external editor. Perhaps 20% still go into Photoshop for one reason or another.

I hope this helps, and I encourage you to download a demo of Lightroom and try it on for size.

Best pixels,

Bruce