photoshop V lightroom comments pls

[mantababe]

hi can someone explain whats the difference between photoshop and lightroom, im currently using an old PS to edit my underwater pics but was wondering if i should move to lightroom now ive got my new set up....S95 and recsea housing....i want to sort my pics the best i can....any suggestions please

 

[V&G]

Both of PS and LightRoom are picture editing tools. That's all about their similarity. It's like a difference between painting paper block and notepad with contour pictures for children coloring.

PS is a tool allows you to do anything with your picture but requires high professional skills level and experience.
LightRoom is a set of algorithms and tools allows you to achieve some common photography editing tasks with a minimum affords.

Look at this video, it might be useful for understanding what I'm talking about.

Back to your question should you move to lightroom? I think you will use both of them .

 

[Doubler]

Lightroom and Aperture allow the photographer to store and file photos AND make adjustments (white balance, tint, sharpness, color balance etc) Either of these will do satisfactory adjustments to probably 95% of your images. Unless you got hundreds of dollars and lot's of hours to learn a program you don't need full blown Photoshop. Photoshop Elements will do all you will need. You would use Elements to remove a lot of backscatter or combine images. There are also a lot of aftermarket filters that work with all of these programs that can be used to enhance your images. I use Aperture (Apple program), Photoshop Elements and Topaz filters. My Suggestion would be to Start with Lightroom (Mac or PC) or Aperture (Mac) and go from there.

 

[Warmwater Wank]

MB--You don't mention if you are shooting RAW but of course you would be, right? Either PS 5.0 or Lightroom 3.0 can open Canon CR2 (RAW) files. If I'm looking at a dive trip's worth of photos (ie--ZILLIONS) I like using Lightroom. It's browser seems more flexible and offers a couple viewing options. As noted, it will do basic editing and other tasks (slide shows etc.) so for lots of folks it could be all they need.

Might make sense to get Lightroom, as it will convert your RAW files to PSDs. That way if your PShop version is too old to deal w/ CR2s you could still use it after converting things. Kind of depends on how good you feel about using PShop now. Once I'm home and have selected pics that I really like, I'm working on them in PShop--but I've been messing w/ it a long time and enjoy goofing around in it.

If you are really curious why not download a free 30 day trial of each? Adobe - Downloads
BTW, PShop Education versions from Adobe are about 1/3 the list price (Lightroom also is available this way, cuts off about 1/3 of list price). They work identically to regular versions and are available to anyone taking credit classes in secondary schools or colleges, same goes for anyone employed at either. You don't have to be a teacher and you don't have to be a photography student etc. // ww

 

[bvanant]

Great advice from warmwater. Get the trial and play for 30 days. If you are a mac person also take a look at Aperture, now a lot cheaper on the mac app store.
Bill

 

[muzikbiz22]

Lightroom and Aperture allow the photographer to store and file photos AND make adjustments (white balance, tint, sharpness, color balance etc) Either of these will do satisfactory adjustments to probably 95% of your images. Unless you got hundreds of dollars and lot's of hours to learn a program you don't need full blown Photoshop. Photoshop Elements will do all you will need. You would use Elements to remove a lot of backscatter or combine images. There are also a lot of aftermarket filters that work with all of these programs that can be used to enhance your images. I use Aperture (Apple program), Photoshop Elements and Topaz filters. My Suggestion would be to Start with Lightroom (Mac or PC) or Aperture (Mac) and go from there.

Doubler,

Great reply/comments. Just curious, which Topaz filters are you working with ?

 

[Doubler]

Muzikbiz22,
I use Adjust and Detail mostly but I also have Clean, DeJPEG, Denoise,Infocus, Remask and Simpify. They work with PS, Aperture or Lightroom. Google Topaz Filters and download the free trail bundle. They are amazing.

 

[MauiScubaSteve]

my new laptop has photoshop cs3; old laptop with elements 4 is my favorite to work photos with.

both use free apple dng converter for the raw file download from card/camera to computer.

if you already know/use photoshop a newer elements is nice.

if you have money to splurge lightroom organizes really well.

 

[BluewaterPhoto]

Todd Winner wrote a great article on why you need Lightroom

Lightroom can definitely help you sort your photos - I highly recommend it.

good luck

Scott

 

[slowhands]

I have Lightroom and Photoshop and have barely scratched the surface of what they can do. It's silly to spend the money for a super complex tool if you don't need it. Photoshop Elements V9 is not reliable, according to reviews at Amazon. The last reliable version was PSE V7 but that's not good with Win7.

There are several really good free photo editors I'd recommend over Photoshop Elements.

Try Photoscape. It's free and people love it. I suggest you down load it from download.com and try it out. It's very popular too and the price is right - free.

Also, try Paint.NET if you have not already. Free and good.