lightroom is it worth it?

They are different animals. Whilst some elements (sorry about the pun) overlap, they are designed to do different jobs.

Why not download the free trials and check out which (if either) does the most of what you want?

Anthony.
 
If you regularly come back from shoots with hundred of images, then in my opinion yes.
Now that it also allows you to do a fair bit of post processing work, consequently, I rarely use Photoshop any more.
 
After having a trial with lightroom a bought a copy. Got it for £58 on ebay. I think Amazon have it for £99.

It now looks like my lightroom is a fake. Buy from Amazon.
 
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Well I was just looking through. Im currently after some software myself. Having had a little break from photography and I never had any software then, ive decided I need some. Now im looking at either Lightroom or Photoshop elements. So im keeping a close eye on what people are saying.
 
aha i have been told that lightroom is betta then photoshop witch is why i ask it is also cheaper thats why i wanted to know if its worth it i generly do come back with loads of pictures cos once i get started i just cant stop lol
 
Doca said:
After having a trial with lightroom a bought a copy. Got it for £58 on ebay. I think Amazon have it for £99.

It now looks like my lightroom is a fake. Buy from Amazon.
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Ouch! When you buy lightroom you are basically just buying a serial number (and licence) as you would still actually download the software from adobe (even if you buy a CD).

Presumably the serial number you purchased got rejected when you entered it?
 
If you are thinking of actually purchasing lightroom - Download the Beta version of 4 as that has a license valid until the end of March... helping your cash flow :-)

Then simply purchase the official version once released. I would personally not purchase LR3 when it is about to be upgraded. Also, LR4 will deal with videos and allow the actual editing of them.
 
I was thinking of buying the student version from PC world where they are currently doing it for £39.97 (£39.99 on amazon) but was going to wait till v4 was out and get a free upgrade, anyone know when v4 is due and how much "grace time" adobe given between buying an old version and new?
 
Wow - just checked on Amazon - £99 is a very good price for a fully copy of LR3... might be worth getting that, and then upgrading to version 4 at a later date.

Theres's no free upgrade from LR3 to LR4. Just download LR4 trial version direct from adobe and its valid for another 2 months on the beta license.
 
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Yes that is a good price. I don't do video editing so think lr3 will be fine. My only hold back is if it will restrict editing.
 
Can lightroom do editing in certain areas? Can you rub areas out on a picture that you don't want? Can you change colours of items? Say if had a sofa in red, could you change it to brown say?
 
Nick, Lightroom offers local adjustments, but perhaps not in the way you are thinking.

Yes you can change the colour of a sofa. by painting over the sofa with an adjustment.

Yes you can 'rub an area out' if you mean using the clone brush or spot healing brush.
THe area you can select for the clone or spot tool is circular only. Therefore, you cannot make a selection of the sofa, delete it and swap it for another sofa.
Lightroom is not really designed to handle photo manipulation, more photo tweaking, and as a hub of your workflow.

Is it worth it? I couldnt work without it...
 
treeman said:
Only the new version 4.0 is Beta, the current version is 3.0, which if you buy now, you'll be able to upgrade when the V4.0 finally comes out.
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:lol::lol: (the OP wrote "betta" meaning "better" not "beta")
 
I've just order the student/teacher edition of lightroom version 3 from Amazon (for less than £40 as said above by stavvy). When version 4 comes out I think the student/teacher version will be back to full price at around £80. Most people were happy with v3 before they tried v4 and found features they didn't know they needed, so I think having the older version will suit my hobbyist needs just fine.
 
DPBP said:
Wow - just checked on Amazon - £99 is a very good price for a fully copy of LR3... might be worth getting that, and then upgrading to version 4 at a later date.

Theres's no free upgrade from LR3 to LR4. Just download LR4 trial version direct from adobe and its valid for another 2 months on the beta license.
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If you go down this route you need to be aware that you may not be able to move your catalog from the beta to the real version of Lightroom 4, as it is a beta product for testing.

I'd suggest buying Lightroom 3 while it is cheap and getting the upgrade to Lightroom 4, I think LR2 to LR3 was £85. So could work out cheaper than just buying LR4. Although I'm not sure that this option is available with student versions.

My advice is that if you take a lot of pictures and process all of them Lightroom is a better bet, if you want to process a few images to perfection, using layers etc, Elements is a much better bet.

Personally I have both, I couldn't get by without Lightroom, and only to Elements on about 5% of images.

Before you make a decision try the free trials.
 
I got LR3 free with a camera when I was bought a Panasonic fz45. I sold the camera back to the shop to upgrade it but kept LR. They bought the camera back for £50 less than I paid so LR cost me £50 effectively.

I guess this will only benefit you if you are planning to upgrade or change your camera but it may be a work around for some.
 
On the forums at Adobe the general feeling is that at the end of the Beta License, you simply pay the fee, input the serial number and your catalogue carries on. The one issue with using Beta 4 is that it won't work backwards with a catalogue from LR3 (Once the full version is out it will do)

You know you've bought a fake product the moment you have to use a Keygen program! thats the one downfall with ebay...
 
no discussion of keygens etc please guys :)
 
Craikeybaby said:
My advice is that if you take a lot of pictures and process all of them Lightroom is a better bet, if you want to process a few images to perfection, using layers etc, Elements is a much better bet.
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This ^^

I love Lightroom. It does all the nice stuff from Photoshop that you would typically want to do, sharpening, exposure, straightening, gradients etc, and it does it easily & quickly. :love:
 
If I downloaded lightroom 3 trial version and started my catologues of pictures, if I then upgrade to the full version will my catologues still be there?
 
Yes, it's only the beta version of Lightroom 4 that Adobe say you may not be able to upgrade.

With the trials it is just a case of entering the serial number when you get it, no need to reinstall etc.
 
Excellant. I've downloaded the trial so here goes.
 
DPBP said:
On the forums at Adobe the general feeling is that at the end of the Beta License, you simply pay the fee, input the serial number and your catalogue carries on. The one issue with using Beta 4 is that it won't work backwards with a catalogue from LR3 (Once the full version is out it will do)
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I think there is some misinformation here.

Once LR4 is released (not the beta version) it will be necessary to download that version; either as an upgrade if you have an earlier version or as a full copy. You will not be able - nor should you - enter a serial number into the beta version (it's a BETA version) and has known bugs and a ton of additional coding to do with being a beta. The release version will be optimised and streamlined.

Anthony
 
Anthony.Ralph said:
I think there is some misinformation here.

Once LR4 is released (not the beta version) it will be necessary to download that version; either as an upgrade if you have an earlier version or as a full copy. You will not be able - nor should you - enter a serial number into the beta version (it's a BETA version) and has known bugs and a ton of additional coding to do with being a beta. The release version will be optimised and streamlined.

Anthony
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Exactly! Adobe also state that it shouldn't be used for important images as it is a beta version, for testing only and any errors you find should be reported to Adobe.
 
in regards to the OP it completely depends on your workflow.

Lightroom is great (IMO) for orgnaising, rating and applying bulk or global adjustments (as a RAW developer) where I feel it lacks is in local adjustments. It just isn't as easy as using layers and masks.

Its also worth thinking about whether the other options might suit you better i.e. Photo Mechanic, Capture One, Bridge (mini-bridge acts as a viewer within PS) and to a lesser degree Aperture.

I find I just use LR3 (I'm not sure if I'll upgrade to 4, softproofing is the only feature I yearn for) for organisation and bulk actions/flagging I then use PS (elements would be fine) as my external editor which then deposits the file back in LR for export. However I find LRs output sharpening to be a bit lacking, there's nowhere near as much control as with PS where you can have high pass, unsharp mask etc.
 
Anthony.Ralph said:
I think there is some misinformation here.

Once LR4 is released (not the beta version) it will be necessary to download that version; either as an upgrade if you have an earlier version or as a full copy. You will not be able - nor should you - enter a serial number into the beta version (it's a BETA version) and has known bugs and a ton of additional coding to do with being a beta. The release version will be optimised and streamlined.

Anthony
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Fully agree with that however you will be able to use the catalogue you have created in the BETA version (if you wanted to use that)
 
EOS_JD said:
Fully agree with that however you will be able to use the catalogue you have created in the BETA version (if you wanted to use that)
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I think the caveat is that you *should* be able to use it. Adobe specifically do not guarantee that a beta derived catalogue will be compatible with the final version's catalogue.

Anthony.
 
Anthony.Ralph said:
I think the caveat is that you *should* be able to use it. Adobe specifically do not guarantee that a beta derived catalogue will be compatible with the final version's catalogue.

Anthony.
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Interesting to note. I will continue with a bit more caution regarding my catalogue until the official LR4 comes out then :-)
 
Anthony.Ralph said:
I think the caveat is that you *should* be able to use it. Adobe specifically do not guarantee that a beta derived catalogue will be compatible with the final version's catalogue.

Anthony.
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Fair point yes. the Lr3 beta catalogues worked fine with Lr3 but I agree "should" is a better word :)
 
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