Which editing software is right for me?

[satans worm]

Ok, so I just bought the EOS 6 d yesterday which is now busy recharging it's battery, so I'm looking at the software that came bundled with it, Lightroom and ps elements
Being a bit of an apple boy the hardware it will be used with is iMac, iPhone, iPad.
I only want to make the effort to learn one system, which should it be? Lightroom 5, PS, PS elements 12 or aperture?
Would it be possible for someone to list each ones disadvantageous so I can see if one is missing something I think I would like/ use
I'm currently thinking aperture as I assume it will work with my apple set up better?

[tenohfive]

Can only comment on Lightroom and Elements.

Elements can do a few bits that Lightroom can't do but Lightroom absolutely nails all the basics and a lot of the more advanced stuff too. With the way it's laid out it lays out your workflow for you in a very sensible order and does it in a more intuitive way. With the adjustment brush and basic clone/healing tools it is very rare that I need to dip into Elements.

LR is certainly not a beginners tool, but it's much more beginner friendly than any other serious photo editing software I've used.

[Turn7]

Im not sure I agree. i think, to a beginner, none of the above appear as user friendly. Certainly not intuitive.

[flat-planedCrank]

Personally, I'd stick with LR and PS:E if you have those already.


Aperture is a LR rival - it's asset management and mainly 'global level' if changes like contrast, brigthtness, etc (though the likes of LR do offer more specific control these days too).

PS:E would work alongside LR / Aperture. It offers 'pixel level' editing and supports layers to allow more complex editing.

I'd guess that LR would do 90% of what you want for most of your shots


Imo LR is more approachable than PS:E, it's mainly controlled with sliders and it doesn't alter your original files so you haven't lost anything.

Lots of free training for LR and PS:E on Adobe TV - http://tv.adobe.com/


Hope this helps.

[corozin]

I like Lightroom. It has all the corrections I need 99% of the time and the workflow design of the product I find excellent when dealing with large numbers of shots as you can (for example) copy all the tweaks you made to one shot to others easily.

[satans worm]

Thanks for the replies, I guess having lr already does make it an easier choice, so will go down that route.
Will check that tutorial out as there was no beginners guide with the software, and being an old dog new tricks come hard :-)

[budfox]

Lightroom is absolutely a beginners tool. It is simple, intuitive, inexpensive, comprehensive and most importantly, non-destructive.

It's brilliance though is that despite the above, it is also the only post-production tool that the vast majority of photographers would be need.

That's not to say there's no place for the superb photoshop, but they are VERY different beasts.

[Colin RedGriff]

This site is good for tips and tricks with LR

http://www.lightroomqueen.com/

Also if you have to LR5.4 there is a free Ipad version you can use for basic selecting and editing of your catalog, but I think you need a subscription to synchronise the photos between your mac and iPad

[flat-planedCrank]

satans worm said:

Thanks for the replies, I guess having lr already does make it an easier choice, so will go down that route.
Will check that tutorial out as there was no beginners guide with the software, and being an old dog new tricks come hard :-)

Many free video tutorials here (ignore the Lightroom Mobile videos) - http://tv.adobe.com/show/learn-lightroom-5/

[mojitomax]

If all of your kit is apple it may be worth considering aperture for it's integration with icloud and photostream?

[Craikeybaby]

I use both Lightroom and Elements on my Mac, Lightroom for 90% of what I do and only go into Elements for the few images which need layers. In your case I'd concentrate on getting the basics nailed with Lightroom.

The only reason I'd suggest Aperture is if you are already really familiar with iPhoto, my understanding is that they are similar to use.

With regards to Lightroom Mobile, you need a subscription to use it, which isn't much good if you already had Lightroom bundled with your camera - there's no point in paying for it twice. I actually prefer Photosmith to work with my Lightroom catalog on my iPad, you can't do the editing - I'd rather do it on my large calibrated screen at home, but it is great for going through a set of images and adding metadata to them before you get home.

[toasty]

If it's the same package I got with my 5D, it's Premiere Elements which is video editing software and LR5.

Photoshop Elements would have been more useful to me but I use LR5 99.9% of the time anyway.

[Mr Whippy]

LR.

[TheRealFingers99]

You might look at Gimp. Easily as good as Elements, lots of tutorials out there, free as in Open Source and beer.

[Mr Whippy]

If you are a photographer and do photographer type stuff a lot, then LR is infinitely faster and more useful as a tool than PS/PSE/Gimp type software.

It's also cheap as chips and you'll tend to use all the software features all the time, while in PS/PSE you'll have 90% of the features you'll never even know existed but cost you the money to own!

Dave

[johnnymire]

mojitomax said:

If all of your kit is apple it may be worth considering aperture for it's integration with icloud and photostream?

Good point. However if you go the Lightroom approach, you can always use something like Google Drive, Dropbox, box.com etc. to sync your photos.

Note that if you are wishing to edit your shots from the Canon on the iDevices, make sure you shoot in RAW and MPEG, and then use the Camera Connection Kit. AFAIK, these devices still (and probably won't ever) support RAW.

[budfox]

Absolutely everyone who takes digital photographs should, at the very least, give Lightroom a trial.

It is a totally superb piece of software, and when combined with shooting RAW files the power is increased dramatically.

I've never encountered a piece of software that was better suited to a task.