PE9 or lightroom

[j3w3ll3r]

hiya

i did a search but cound't really find any answers, although im sure they are there a 100 times over

Im new to this lark and a bit confused really

I have downloaded the trial versions of both PE9 and Lightroom 3,

From what I can work out they are both made by Adobe and Lightroom cost more than the PE9, so I would assume that Lightroom is better Yes/no....

However im pretty sure there's more to it than that, I shoot Jpeg and Raw and would like a basic program to touch up my photos and maybe keep a track of them for me, although I have never used a tagging system before

One thing I have noticed is there seems to be more help and magazine articles on PE9 or am I just missing the Lightroom Stuff

Im pretty sure this is a Nikon/Canon style debate and those that love one loath the other, but would love to hear feedback to try and help me decide which way to go. I also understand that Lightroom 4 is on its way

Cheers

Stephen

 

[Chappers]

Lightroom is a powerful cataloging application with excellent image processing tools. PSE9 on the other hand is a very good pixel editing program that can do a lot of things that Lightroom cannot.

If you have a modest number of images to process, and don't have time constraints ( Editors breathing down you neck ) then PSE9 is an excellent choice.

On the other hand if you have tens of thousands , or even hundreds of thousands of images., that you need to sort catalog and find. Plus need excellent image processing software then it's Lightroom all the way. Having said that there are several occasions you'll need pixel editing capability, cloning, comping and so on you will probably need Photoshop in one form or another. Either the full blown version or the elements option.

I use Lightroom extensively and find I need to drop into Photoshop every now and again. But for what I do If I didn't already have CS4 of the machine I think I'd consider PSE9 instead.

As far as magazine support is concerned, I think this is down to the fact PSE9 has more image manipulating tools and these can be the things that a lot of people like to learn. Plus to be honest Lightroom isn't that difficult to get you head round. Although a good book helps.

So you pays your money and takes your choice. But if you can only have one, then I'd opt for PSE9 in your circumstances.

 

[j3w3ll3r]

Thanks for that, I don't have editors to worry about and I have a catalogue of about 1000 pics a most(although I plan to take more)

My initial thinking was PE9 but saw a lot of people using Lightroom

However I think your points made are inline with my original thinking and PE9 is the way forward for me

 

[wavefront]

If you have a trial version I'd give lightroom a whirl for a few days. For processing and cataloguing it's unbeatable especially for the price. You can easily track your images which is essential when you end up with thousands of pix and for that worth it alone. As for processing I find I can do all I need in Lightroom for 80% of my shots - which is essentially toning, balancing, colour grading, cleaning up, and cropping.

I only use Photoshop (or elements) for actual manipulation where you want to start playing around with the actual makeup of the image or need to make use of layers, if you're comping two images together for example. It has powerful tools, but more geared towards retouching and manipulation.

Hope this helps,

Mark

 

[j3w3ll3r]

I tried Lightroom again

But in the end decided i wouldn't use the catalogue features, so i bought PE9

if im wrong i can always buy L3 later, at least i would have wasted the cheaper of the 2