Lightroom

S

Steve_o

Suspended / Banned
Messages
125
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi,

I was recently advised by a professional to get Lightroom 3 to begin editing of photos. (I currently use Elements 9 and only do basic editing with it).

I've looked on Amazon for Lightroom 3 and there appears to be 2 versions which differ a lot in price.

There is the full version for over £100 and a Teacher/Student version for £70.

Does anyone know the differences between the two?
 
johnnypanic said:
Actually you'll want Lightroom 4 (the latest and improved version).

Go here to get a 30 day trial. Would advise doing this before you decide to purchase the product.

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_lightroom&promoid&promoid=DTEML

Regarding the different versions, you need to prove (afaik) that you're a teacher / student to get educational discount.
Click to expand...

I did see Lightroom 4 but my professional friend advised that it takes up a lot of memory as it's a very large program and he has stuck with Lightroom 3 due to space.

My laptop wouldn't be able to cope with Lightroom 4. It's a 5 year old Macbook that is just coping.

Ah, the Teacher/Student version makes more sense. Looks like I'll be paying full price if I want it.
 
What is it that your friend thinks that you can't do in Elements?
 
Bristolian said:
What is it that your friend thinks that you can't do in Elements?
Click to expand...

It's not about the capabilities of Elements and Lightroom. He just felt that Lightroom would be better suited to my needs. I find Elements overwhelming and mainly just edit contrast, saturation, highlights etc.

I was advised that Photoshop is a Graphics Design program whereas Lightroom is specifically designed for photo editing. He said it would be easier for me to learn compared to Photoshop and that I could move up to P.S when I'm confident enough.
 
Why not download the 30 day trial of LR4 and see how it performs on your machine?
 
Lightroom is certainly much quicker and easier to handle large numbers of RAW files, and it's catalogue system is far superior (or to be accurate, was last time I compared them, which was LR2 vs PSE 6!), particularly as the number of images in the catalogue grew.
 
Steve_o said:
It's a 5 year old Macbook that is just coping.

and...


... I find Elements overwhelming and mainly just edit contrast, saturation, highlights etc.
Click to expand...

Have you tried iPhoto which will already be installed on your 5 year old MacBook? The editing features will still handle "contrast, saturation, highlights etc" as well as a few other things.
 
Steve_o said:
I did see Lightroom 4 but my professional friend advised that it takes up a lot of memory as it's a very large program and he has stuck with Lightroom 3 due to space.

My laptop wouldn't be able to cope with Lightroom 4. It's a 5 year old Macbook that is just coping.

Ah, the Teacher/Student version makes more sense. Looks like I'll be paying full price if I want it.
Click to expand...

Lightroom doesn't use much memory, it's more processor and disk access intensive.
 
Steve_o said:
I did see Lightroom 4 but my professional friend advised that it takes up a lot of memory as it's a very large program and he has stuck with Lightroom 3 due to space.

My laptop wouldn't be able to cope with Lightroom 4. It's a 5 year old Macbook that is just coping.

Ah, the Teacher/Student version makes more sense. Looks like I'll be paying full price if I want it.
Click to expand...

I sorted, catalogued and edited more then 10'000 photos over the summer using a MacBook Air 11" with a 1.4 core duo 2 processor and 2 Gb of ram. Lightroom 3 isn't a bad choice. Just got 4 but haven't even loaded it up yet. You might find an LR3 license going in classifieds. Could be a cheap option.
 
chromatin64 said:
Have you tried iPhoto which will already be installed on your 5 year old MacBook? The editing features will still handle "contrast, saturation, highlights etc" as well as a few other things.
Click to expand...

I do use Iphoto to organise my albums. I may sound like a contradiction but whilst Iphoto is good for contrast, highlights etc, I still like a creative element to editing my photos.

For example, Tilt-Shift effect, which isn't offered by Iphoto.

Thanks for the suggestions people, I will have a scout around.
 
Steve_o said:
I did see Lightroom 4 but my professional friend advised that it takes up a lot of memory as it's a very large program and he has stuck with Lightroom 3 due to space.
Click to expand...

He's a fool!

LR3 and LR4 are fairly similar in their hardware requirements. LR4, however, has a much improved processing engine.
 
Lightroom 3 ran ok on my comp, i tried Lightroom 4 and it slowed down to a stand still...I was pulling my hair out with frustration, before the trial ran out I threw a couple extra gig of ram in and it transformed it into much better programme with no lag...well worth the extra 20 quid is spent on the memory:thumbs:, much prefer 4 to 3 and well worth the money, it's far more intuitive :thumbs:
 
Is Darktable available for Macs?

An open source product that is similar to Lightroom.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top