CS4 - Do you need Lightroom / Aperture too ?

Defiance

Defiance

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Hi all, I'm thinking about updating our processing software when i update the PC. May stay with PC or may go to Mac. However, I'd like some advice please as i'm a bit of a software numpty :D

If I get CS4, does this negate the need for Lightroom or Aperture ? i.e. does CS4 perform all of or enough of the functions of either Lightroom or Aperture to make them largely redundant ? If not, what are the main advantages to owning and operating both software packages ?
 
You don't need lightroom, but it makes life a lot easier. Look at them as two different systems, photoshop for the difficult editing, the clever stuff, layers, cloning, cutting pasting etc, and lightroom for quick easy editing, ajustments, and catalogue.
Wayne
 
Personally I have found the Lightroom, although limited, is pretty much all I need for the majority of my work - CS(2 in my case) only gets used when some more in depth work is required. I suppose that if I could be bothered to learn it, I could do all that in The GIMP if I felt the need...
 
FWIW I have Lightroom and have only felt the need to dive into anything else on 2 images, both of cases were to merge separate exposures. As has been said many times, download the trials of all three and see what you get on with best...
 
Lightroom and photoshop are two different tools for two different jobs. Lightroom is excellent if you have a lot of photographs that need basic editing and you need to export them all resized. Photoshop is better if you have a few files that need quite advanced editing e.g. layers, blending images, cloning. I personally use lightroom and have elements for anything more taxing and I wouldn't swap it at all.
 
Thank you all for your help. It was a tough decision in the end.

I went for Aperture only for now. Will then see if there's anything left for CS4 to do :)
 
FWIW I have both CS4 and lightroom and I only really use lightroom for catalogue management. I hate the lightroom editing, it's no where near as good as PS and gives clunky course results.

I only really ever use lightroom editing as part of the workflow when I have lots of photos that I won't publish or share with people e.g. holiday snaps.

I wish lightroom used the same algorithms as PS because the interface and workflow setup is very good.
 
whats wrong with bridge?

I use it to browse all my images and you non destructive edit in adobe camera raw, passing on to photoshop if needed
 
Phobic said:
FWIW I have both CS4 and lightroom and I only really use lightroom for catalogue management. I hate the lightroom editing, it's no where near as good as PS and gives clunky course results.
Click to expand...

I've got Photoshop CS4, and don't know whether to invest in Lightroom 2.3, or to stay well clear and just use Picasa + PS. Any advice welcome on this.

When you say the results are course compared to PS, is this a big difference in quality? Where specifically does it perform below PS?
 
Forgot to add I've also got Adobe Bridge, but have not used it much as yet. Don't know if this is any better than Picasa for catalog stuff and keyword tags - still learning!
 
Check out Nik Software to work alongside either Aperture or Lightroom or indeed photoshop. This gives you some fantastic results without having to be a photoshop expert.

FYI I have a mac and both a Nikon and Fuji SLR. My process is to RAW convert in either NX2 or HU-V3 export a TIFF, process in photoshop (using Nik Plugins) export final version as a JPEG to iphoto.
 
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