Is it time to move from CS3 to Elements?

[Russy]

So I "acquired" a copy of CS3 some years ago and it's still my workhorse for image processing. The thread from 19ninety got me wondering, "is it worth moving to Elements 11 which although newer, doesn't necessarily contain much in the way of features over CS3"

What are your thoughts? Is it worth paying out for software when what I have appears to be fine if not a little cumbersome at times (Have to convert CR2 to DNG to process)



As a sidenote, what's the purpose of Lightroom?

 

[russellsnr]

So I "acquired" a copy of CS3 some years ago and it's still my workhorse for image processing. The thread from 19ninety got me wondering, "is it worth moving to Elements 11 which although newer, doesn't necessarily contain much in the way of features over CS3"

What are your thoughts? Is it worth paying out for software when what I have appears to be fine if not a little cumbersome at times (Have to convert CR2 to DNG to process)



As a sidenote, what's the purpose of Lightroom?

DAM!!!!

 

[Russy]

DAM!!!!

thanks for your input...

 

[russellsnr]

Hi, Digital Asset Manager (DAM)
At least you found it amusing.
Anyways if you go here http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html
There is all the info on L/R you will need.
IMO. If you stick with CS3 and add L/R 5 you will be good to go!!!!
Russ

 

[Russy]

Ah thanks for clearing that up namesake, I'll look into it some more

 

[Steve-T]

Hi, Digital Asset Manager (DAM)
At least you found it amusing.
Anyways if you go here http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html
There is all the info on L/R you will need.
IMO. If you stick with CS3 and add L/R 5 you will be good to go!!!!
Russ

+1 You will not enjoy Elements if you are used to using adjustment layers and such. Stick with CS3 + LR until it no longer works for you

 

[Pookeyhead]

I can't help you with Elements.. never used it.

As a sidenote, what's the purpose of Lightroom?

It's a RAW editing program. It allows basic editing, such as exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, highlight recover, shadow recovery etc. It also allows basic retouching, spotting, and LR 5 has a heal brush, but they're pretty crude in operation compared to photoshop.. the advantage though, is that working on the RAW means it's completely reversible. Having said that, so is working in a layer in PS.

I don't use Lightroom to retouch... it's too crude. You can't zoom in as close for fine work, and the way the brushes work themselves is crude in comparison.

I use both. I do global adjustments in LR... levels, curves, highlight recovery, white balance, lens corrections etc... then export as a 16bit TIFF into PS if retouching needs doing.

You can get all manner of plug ins for lightroom... mainly effects, retouching for lazy people etc... People rate Niks Color Effects, and Silver Effects, but whenever I've used it, I fail to see what it gives over just using Lightroom. After all, it seems to be using processes that lightroom and photoshop both have already to create it's effects anyway... so just do it yourself. Learning is fun! Most Plug-Ins have a list of your image pre-processed down the side to chose from, which I suspect is the real reason most use it.

Lightroom and Photoshop compliment one another for me. They do different things. While you can do all the RAW adjustments in Adobe Camera RAW in Photoshop, you can't retouch effectively in Lightroom... so if you had to choose one or the other, I'd still go with Photoshop.

 

[Steve-T]

I can't help you with Elements.. never used it.





It's a RAW editing program. It allows basic editing, such as exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, highlight recover, shadow recovery etc. It also allows basic retouching, spotting, and LR 5 has a heal brush, but they're pretty crude in operation compared to photoshop.. the advantage though, is that working on the RAW means it's completely reversible. Having said that, so is working in a layer in PS.

I don't use Lightroom to retouch... it's too crude. You can't zoom in as close for fine work, and the way the brushes work themselves is crude in comparison.

I use both. I do global adjustments in LR... levels, curves, highlight recovery, white balance, lens corrections etc... then export as a 16bit TIFF into PS if retouching needs doing.

You can get all manner of plug ins for lightroom... mainly effects, retouching for lazy people etc... People rate Niks Color Effects, and Silver Effects, but whenever I've used it, I fail to see what it gives over just using Lightroom. After all, it seems to be using processes that lightroom and photoshop both have already to create it's effects anyway... so just do it yourself. Learning is fun! Most Plug-Ins have a list of your image pre-processed down the side to chose from, which I suspect is the real reason most use it.

Lightroom and Photoshop compliment one another for me. They do different things. While you can do all the RAW adjustments in Adobe Camera RAW in Photoshop, you can't retouch effectively in Lightroom... so if you had to choose one or the other, I'd still go with Photoshop.

Agree with all of above and my workflow seems to be the same or very close, LR and PS do compliment each other well.
Never used Nik but it does just seem that you are paying for just an easy way of doing what PS can do anyway.