Lightroom v's PS Elements - Mac

ninjakatt

ninjakatt

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Sarah
Edit My Images
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Hiah - I am looking at upgrading my photo editing software... I previously used Fireworks as it integrated so well with Dreamweaver but I no longer design the website I used to run so this is not neccesary now...

What is the difference between these two and which would you reccomend...?

Do they both have different purposes in life? I'm thinking PS is more about manipulating images to create completely new effects (If req'd) whereas LR is able to brighten/sharpen to improve an existing image without drastically changing it...?

I already have aperture 2... But find the way it stores files hard to get my head round... obviously have the iphoto package which comes with a Macbook which is where/how I store the photos..
 
Lightroom is more like Aperture, if you like what you can do in Aperture, but not the way it does it, try the 30 day Lightroom trial. If you think that Aperture doesn't let you modify your images enough, try the 30 day Elements trial.
 
You are absolutely correct in your assessments of the two - PS is image manipulation software for graphics artists and LR is more akin to what photographers in ye olde dayes did in the darkroom. I much prefer LR personally, but it boils down to how much fiddling around you want to do with your images. Both are free to download for trial periods of 30 days - I reckon you would very quickly assess which one suits you best.
 
I have lightroom 2.3 and love it to death! It is perfect for adjusting photo images and even when you convert to B&W you can still use all the sliders to change how your image looks. Great programme.

However.. i do enjoy doing things with images that need layers and a host of other things that Lightroom can't do. I use the GIMP for all this stuff but it's not a nice programme to work with. I have just ordered Elements 6 for Mac so i can have just about all i need. I have been told they work very well together.
 
LR over Elements any day - I used to exclusively use Photoshop for all my straight editing (not layers etc) but you waste so much of the program (the graphic design side of it) that LR makes a great option because it's the good bits for photographers wrapped in an easy-to-use package. I think I prefer it to Aperture but they are very close in what they can do and I think the choice between LR and Aperture would purely come down to the interface and if you like it.

As someone's pointed out, if you do a lot of layer masking and exposure blending then Photoshop (or Elements) is very handy - I have only used Elements 2 so don't know how much it's moved on in respect to utilising new Photoshop technology but it has its fan base so must be okay.
 
AndyWest said:
I have lightroom 2.3 and love it to death!
Click to expand...

Time to update, we're on 2.5 now!

For me, I went from LR to Aperture based on the organisational side of things, then went back to LR where I'm now happy. Other than the orgaisation, healing and cloning tools, I think LR is far superior in every way, although it does have a less than friendly interface.

I think the 2.5 update is the last one, so maybe they're now gearing up towards 3.0, which should be something special.
 
So whats different from 2.3 to 2.5?
 
Bear in mind that you can get a 30 day trial of both packages anyway so why not give them both a try. I use LR2 with CS4 using the later when I need to do more complicated stuff like cloning etc. LR2 is certainly up to both tasks.
 
Im a Photoshop user, but ive just got the Lightroom demo. Had a little play with it and im very impressed, you can easily create some good effects without to much thought or effort and has all the tonal corrections that PS has, plus some excellent pre-sets. Import and export is a breeze, and great file management.
Can't comment on Elements as ive never used it.
 
I am on day 4 of a 30 day trial of Lightroom and am loving it!

Although as with most things on a Mac I find the organisation/filing cumbersome... I do miss the structured Folders within folders of Windows sometimes...
 
The organisation is the same on PC and Mac for Lightroom ;)

You can also use folders to navigate your files, it's on the left in the Library module.

My advice though is to get out of the "Windows" way of thinking, keywrds and meta data searches are a much more efficient way to find images, especially using the filters in the Library module (press \), this will be more noticable as your library grows.

I also think there are a few threads on here where people are describing how they organise their files within Lightroom.
 
I have recently gone to aperture on mac over LR on PC. I like both but aperture is working really well for me at the moment, think I am going to stick with it, esp wth things like noise ninja plugin etc. Only thinkg I can't seem to do is batch, which is a bit of a pin if I am honest, but working on ways round it. Seems silly to shell out for LR, go with Aperture for a hiwle and see if you need anything more in terms of editing, then if so go for elements.
 
I have just got lightroom 2.4 and im stuggling with it abit. I have upgraded from photoshop 7.0 that i have had for a few years and im finding it quite different!

Ive not found on there yet if you can resize images!
 
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