Element or Lightroom?

Ben:

Ben:

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Ben
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Hey
Looking for good 'semi pro' quality editing software.
I've been using a copy of CS3 which was great, never used it to its full potential I'm sure but want something with similar features.

I've now received my Dell desktop back and will soon calibrate the 20" monitor.

I only really mainly use clone, spot healing tool, crop, curves and all the other light/contrast changing tools.

Sadly don't have enough £££ for cs5 :P

Can someone please point me in the right direction.
Thanks
Ben
 
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Either would be fine for what you require and both allow for expansion should you develop and need more options later. Personally I would go for Elements a good all round program with many CS tools but at a fraction of the cost and quit a bit cheaper than lightroom too.

Steve
 
Hmm, price wise I would be tempted by the advice of Steve, however if you sort your workflow properly through lightroom it helps more than elements likely would overall, it would also be cheap enough to add elements afterwards if you found you really needed it.
Depends on your buget I suppose but guessing you cannot stretch to both having asked the question ;(
Also depends if you shoot much RAW, if so then I would go Lightroom, if not then maybe not so useful for your particular workflow.
 
I would be shooting more in RAW as I am aiming for the highest quality images, hopefully eventually for presenting/selling etc.
 
Lightroom only has limited curves ajustment, also for my money the clone and healing tools aren't as good the ones in photoshop proper, they are alright for dust spots etc but I woulnd't use them for tricky clone jobs.
I would suggest you download the trial version and see if it does what you need.
 
swanseamale47 said:
Lightroom only has limited curves ajustment, also for my money the clone and healing tools aren't as good the ones in photoshop proper, they are alright for dust spots etc but I woulnd't use them for tricky clone jobs.
I would suggest you download the trial version and see if it does what you need.
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Thanks now downloading a trial :)

Is Elements 9 the entry level software? Then Lightroom 3?
 
What about Aperture?
Was going for about £45 from the app store..
It has a clone and healing tool, I rarely use PS these days for standard editing!
 
I'm a big fan of Aperture and hardly ever fire up Photoshop now but I think it's mac only
 
Elements is a stripped down version of the full photoshop (with a few additions) it's aimed at beginners but is often used by experienced/pro photographers as well. The full photoshop is aimed at pro photographers/graphic designers but is often overkill depending on what your doing.
 
swanseamale47 said:
Elements is a stripped down version of the full photoshop (with a few additions) it's aimed at beginners but is often used by experienced/pro photographers as well. The full photoshop is aimed at pro photographers/graphic designers but is often overkill depending on what your doing.
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Full photoshop is out of the question due to not having about £600.
If elements contains many features of photoshop this seems like a good option.

kokakaste2 said:
I would go for Lightroom, but only because I have Photoshop for editing what Lightroom can't.
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Lightroom is alot more money, and from what I've read is mainly 'light changing/organiser' rather than an actual editor.

Super Simple said:
CS3 is pretty good. Why not transfer the license to the new machine?
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I enjoyed using cs3 hence leaning towards elements. Not sure cs3 was a genuine version :shrug::thumbsdown:
 
I use Lightroom for everything... It handles my workflow, RAW imports/conversion, crops, wb & exposure adjustment, noise reduction, lens distortion fixes and curves. The clone & heal tools are basic but more than enough for simple spot removal.

It's not an image editing package if you want layers, lasso tools, sharpening masks or special effects but it is an amazing tool for a photographer who wants to make the most of their shots without it turning into a marathon editing session.

If you need the PS tools that come with Elements then you don't have a choice but if you can live without them I'd say Lightroom will keep you more focussed on the actual photography and have more of a general impact on your images.
 
incapete said:
I use Lightroom for everything... It handles my workflow, RAW imports/conversion, crops, wb & exposure adjustment, noise reduction, lens distortion fixes and curves. The clone & heal tools are basic but more than enough for simple spot removal.

It's not an image editing package if you want layers, lasso tools, sharpening masks or special effects but it is an amazing tool for a photographer who wants to make the most of their shots without it turning into a marathon editing session.

If you need the PS tools that come with Elements then you don't have a choice but if you can live without them I'd say Lightroom will keep you more focussed on the actual photography and have more of a general impact on your images.
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Hmm that's good advice, just been having a play with the Lightroom trial and like you say, there's no 'editing' tools. But if I can take 'good' photos I should only need 'slight' adjustments like tones, colours, crops etc. Tbh I never use lasso and other editing tools to cut and chop different photos together.
And the organiser does seem good too, with the tags etc.

BUT can Elements do most of these things PLUS editing tools? Lightroom is quite abit more money.
 
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I have both lightroom and elements...and never use elements!

The organiser in elements is rubbish by comparison. Its considerably slower and more clunky/steps to do everything.and, crucially, lightroom is non destructive - you always have your originals to go back to, or steps you can cut out.

For photographers, use lightroom. For digital artists, use full photoshop. Elements is just cheap and nasty - gimp and picassa are free...
 
flossie said:
I have both lightroom and elements...and never use elements!

The organiser in elements is rubbish by comparison. Its considerably slower and more clunky/steps to do everything.and, crucially, lightroom is non destructive - you always have your originals to go back to, or steps you can cut out.

For photographers, use lightroom. For digital artists, use full photoshop. Elements is just cheap and nasty - gimp and picassa are free...
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More helpful advice :) thankyou.

Like you said Lightroom for photographers...Take a GOOD picture, organise properly, adjust tones, contrast, lighting in general, DONE.
PS/Elements is more geared up for CHANGING an image.

I think my mind is made up :)
Lightroom it is.
Just got to find it at the right price...:thinking:
 
Hi Ben, I notice you are 20. Are you a student, if so you can get Lightroom at a fraction of the cost.
 
Hi, no I'm not a student, self employed.
The price difference is crazy!
 
This would certainly be my first and preferred option :p
 
Ben: said:
I enjoyed using cs3 hence leaning towards elements. Not sure cs3 was a genuine version :shrug::thumbsdown:
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That would put a damper on things. If you got it on ebay, well, nuff said I suppose. If you got it on a used computer, you could try contacting the person who sold it to you to see if they have the information for the license.

Good luck with whatever you end up going with though.
 
Go for both if you can afford it, IMO I'd go for lightroom first as it offers a very nice, quick and intuitive interface in which to edit your photos. I'd echo what SM says that it doesn't offer the ability to really "get into" the images with it's array of tools like pshop elements has, so when you can afford it - go for that too!

I run both in tandem and find I don't need anything else.
 
kokakaste2 said:
Not really, Lightroom can edit ALOT. Look at this guy - http://www.flickr.com/photos/sadjina/ He uses Lightroom3 quite a lot, look for before and after to see what Lightroom can do to a RAW file.
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Wow thanks for that link, impressive!

I think I'll go for Lightroom to start off with and in the future if I feel I need more editing tools I'll get elements or cs5.
Thanks.
 
Lightroom is great for batch editing for the basics (colour/exposure etc) it's tools for image editing are pretty much the same as you have in the camera raw part of CS3 (with a better interface) if your into more advanced editing that needs layers, proper curves, cutting and pasting then you probably need elements.
I could live without lightroom but I couldn't live without photoshop, although they compliment rather than replace each other, and I'm happier with both.
 
My honest opinion is to have both, lightroom does a great and fast job of adjusting levels etc and elements for cloning lasso tool etc.

Why not buy lightroom and an older version of elements, currently I'm using a trial of lightroom and was given elements 6
for free and find it covers most jobs and I hardly use elements now.

If I had to make a choice and only have one it would be lightroom, im 3 weeks in to my 4 week trial and feel I can't do without it now..
 
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suggs said:
If I had to make a choice and only have one it would be lightroom, im 3 weeks in to my 4 week trial and feel I can't do without it now..
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clever people, aren't they.. :naughty:

I'm sure they made vast amounts of Lightroom 3 sales thanks to having it free in Beta for about 6 months beforehand - it certainly worked for me!

However, rather than pay £200 just for lightroom, I used tesco tokens to sign up for an OU course, got Lightroom at Student Rates as well as a free copy of Elements 8 from the course. Total resulting cost for all of the above - about £100. :clap:
 
Yeah they are clever, get you hooked with freebies.

I've been thinking about getting the student version, racking my brains to think of a student to buy it for me lol. Interesting about the course you did, what ou one was it that excepts tescos vouchers?
 
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Last time I checked, you can use all Tesco clubcard vouchers for any First year course, and its 1:3 (1 voucher = £3), but best to check on their website first - used to be a lot more generous than that, sadly.

The short 10-point courses are the cheapest/easiest, the one I did was T189 which is their only photography course (hence the free copy of Elements). I was away from home on work for almost the entire course, and so hardly put anything into it - yet still passed with 85% :eek:...
 
not sure what the others have said but my 2 cents is that lightroom is 100% worth it, even on top of photoshop.

photoshop and lightroom are made for different things - lightroom being much more specific to photo editing and batch processing - if i had to keep one if would obviously be photoshop but thats because i dont just do photography, i do a whole host of designing - but if i had to choose one for photography? lightroom all the way, photoshop takes far too long to batch process photographs.
 
Lightroom 3 + Elements 9 is best bang for buck compared to paying full price for CS5 and I doubt you would miss any features unless you are into graphics/vector work.:)
 
I have Photoshop Elements 9 and it does the job for me :thumbs:

Les :D
 
Personally I use a combination of Lightroom (95%) and Elements (5%) but, it really boils down to your style.

I do a lot of motorsports photography, so need to get images out the door quickly, Lightroom is great for this it's quick, but the processing isn't 100% there. However, if you are the type who would rather spend ages really perfecting one image in Photoshop Elements would be a better bet. It also comes with Bridge for organising files.
 
Also bear in mind that if Amazon.co.uk repeat their Black Friday sale as last year both will be available at large discount, lightroom IIRC was around £130 and Elements was around £22.
If that helps which to go for now and maybe add the other in a few months?
 
Thanks for all the responses guys. After everything thats been said I think Lightroom would be best for me.
What's this about Black Friday you say? When? :D
 
Ben: said:
What's this about Black Friday you say? When? :D
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Its an american shopping sale to coincide with Thanksgiving. Basically stock-clearance and massive loss leaders to make people go shopping and clear inventory before xmas. Their version of our Boxing Day sales...
 
I thought Black Friday - was any friday that fell on the 13th of the month:eek:


Les :thumbs:
 
It's actually the day following thanksgiving (which is November 24, 2011), so the next proper black friday is November 25 2011
 
So basically....too long for me to wait.
Lightroom it is.
 
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