Software choice?

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Barneyc2001

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Morning all, Currently I have the software that came with my 600d and thats it. Ive been looking at lightroom 4 and elements and am undecided about which to get or if I should be getting something else? I cant afford both right now.Can anyone shed any light on differences, I havent used any photo editing before so I don't know what I want to do. In my head I think I want to change images the least amount possible, however that may change when I start to see what the software can do...

As allways any help appreciated.

cheers

Barney
 
I'd say one of the main differences is that Lightroom is more about cataloguing and workflow than actually editing images. Elements is more like a baby version of Photoshop and more suited to image manipulation.
If you are new to both and don't have either then I would be more tempted to go with Elements as most of the tutorials run on the CD's/DVD's of the various camera mags tend to focus on Elements and Photoshop - most of the stuff they are teaching in Photoshop can be applied to Elements too.
 
Lightroom is great for cataloging but it is also a very powerful RAW processor.
The latest version Lightroom 4 is very versatile and has very intuitive sliders and the processing does not take too long to learn.
The library side is rather more complicated but you should not be put off by this, get a decent book with it and you will soon learn it.

Remember RAW files are not an image yet, just data so you have a lot more flexibilty of what you can adjust with things like white balance, hue and saturation, shadows and highlights etc without degrading an image.

You can also crop, add graduated filters etc. Many people do not use any other software to process images. You also have a complete history of your developing so you can always undo what you have done.

Lightroom though is designed to go hand in hand with photoshop and you can export direct to this from LR.

Photoshop is better for manipulation than LR and is great if you wish to use layers (LR does not do layers) so you can make a new layer, edit, make a new layer, clone, etc and you can always hide layers or delete. If you wished to use advanced masking techniques to help work on a certain area without affecting another.
PS also comes with Adobe Camera RAW which actually uses the same processing as LR and does pretty much the same stuff actually, but that is the full blown Photoshop.
Plus PS does so much more than lightroom than I cannot begin to explain here.
Elements is like a condensed version of PS so is limited but still does most of what a photographer will need but you will be missing things like adjustment layers, but this is something not to worry about until much later if ever.

So, the choice? You need to decde what you arew going to do with your images, if you think you may wish to be creative do compositing of images or wish to go beyond basic editing then you will need Elements, if you think you will shoot in RAW and only do basic editing and colour adjustments / cropping etc then LR is more than adequate and you will not be disapointed.

Or get Lightroom first, learn to shoot and manage RAW files and catalogue and wen you are ready get Elements which is not too expensive.
 
You dont need to shoot raw to use adobe camera raw (the processing software in lightroom), it can be used on jpg's as well and very effectively I might add.

I find no matter whether I shoot raw or jpg, 99% of my processing is done in adobe camera raw with the remaining 1% done in photoshop
 
Lightroom.

Edit: the only significant thing LR doesn't do is layers, export to a PS plug-in for that if needs be. Most users that change to LR use nothing else. It does 99% of what most professionals need, and it does it very well plus a load of other advantages. Industry standard for photographers these days, and the recent big price reduction makes it very affordable. Download the free trial :thumbs:

Double-edit: you really need a book to get the best out of advanaced programmes like this. The basic stuff is very easy and intuitive with LR, but there's so much more if you dig a little deeper. Scott Kelby's books tend to be favourite.
 
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I am looking at LR4 to go with my PS Elements 10.

A very important benefit of LR is that it is non destructive. The changes are saved not the changed image. IIRC PSE does not work this way.

I therefore intend to run LR as catalogue and RAW conversion/edit before importing to PSE. Just the pervbilable hill to climb in learning how to use both programs.
 
Download the trial versions and see which 1 you get along with best!
From what you have said I would say Lightroom!
 
Also have a look at free photoeditors, eg

Paint.Net,
Irfanview,
FastStone,
Photoscape,
GIMP

I use the last two.

Photoscape does not have a lot of features but often I find it is all I need and is very easy to use. The RAW converter is not that good but the software that came with your camera will do that.

GIMP does probably all you are likely to need. It is more difficult to learn but that is probably true of any well featured editor.

Dave
 
I have Photoshop elements 10 and have recently tried the demo of light room, in all honesty I prefer Canon's DPP that came with the camera, recent updates are providing more features all the time, it does all I need and is fairly simple to use, along with the Zoombrowser software that also came with the camera I need nothing more.
 
I'd stick with Canon DPP. Its probably more analogous to Lightroom (minus the cataloging) and does the basic edits that you mention and costs you nothing. The more extensive edits then go with Elements.

I went DPP > GIMP > Elements 10 > LR4.

DPP and GIMP will cover most bases for free if a bit clunky. Adobe feels more polished and LR also allows imports into Elements too, I wasn't certain if that import feature was an exclusive Photoshop feature.
 
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Thanks everyone, I've downloaded elements and am having a play now. I was wondering if I could use zoombrowser to organise and elements to tweak. I'll see how I get on.
 
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