Is Lightroom 4 so much better than Elements 10

DayDreamer

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John
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I have always used Elements now on latest version 10. I can't download Lightroom 4 as my laptop is still on XP but hope to buy a new one (laptop) in the next few weeks/months. I am happy to fiddle around, on a photo by photo basis, and have no need for batch processing with I understand is one of the key features of Lightroom.

So I would like to know:

1) If (when I get a better laptop ) Lightroom will give me better end results than my PE10.

2) I often open Jpegs as RAW in PE10 but not sure if that will give a better end result than just opening them as normal as a Jpeg.
 
1. LR 4 uses the new process 2012 which is better that the 2010 version in your elements, whether it's better enough will depend on what your doing, it's better at recovering highlight detail and pulls back shadows well, it also has better noise reduction and improved sharpening.

2. The only real advantage of opening jpegs in camera raw is to access the tools there, theres no real quality advantage if that what your wondering.
The bigger question is whather LR is suitable for you, it's a totally different workflow, you might be better to wait till elements 11 comes out which I understand will have the process 2012 in it's camera raw, so you'll have the same raw processing engine as lightroom but in the format your used to.
 
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Thanks Wayne for such a good in depth reply :thumbs:

I will be better when I get a new laptop as mine is quite old and probably not the best of screens. I have a more modern desktop with a much better screen but I'm not able to sit at it very easily :shake:
 
As far as I know, (I don't use Elements) the Camera Raw included with Elements is a cut down version of the one with Photoshop CS*, and so also the one in LightRoom.

The Camera Raw processing engine in CS6 should be the same as LightRoom 4 when it comes out, and Elements 11 should have the same processing engine as LR4, but I think it will still be a cut down version. Whether the stuff that's missing is stuff you'd need or use, only you can say.

Hopefully someone who uses both LR or ACR in Photoshop CS* and Elements can go into more detail as to what is missing from the ACR Elements version. :shrug: I can't easily find a website which demonstrates the differences.
 
You can also download the latest Camera Raw from Adobe's web site.
 
Thanks redhed & Ploddles :thumbs:
 
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