Adobe Photoshop CS3 or Lightroom?
Discussion
Hi guys and gals,
Simple question if I may? Adobe Photoshop CS3. Been trialing it and I like it. 30 day evalutaion is about to expire so I'm looking to purchase it. Then I spot Lightroom. Hmmm... which one should I get? I want to be able to take raw images from my Canon, correct them and convert them to JPEGs. Not so fussed about all the transformations available in CS3 but do want to be able to make the usual changes to images. Rotate, B&W conversion, fiddle with levels, filter noise etc...
I guess the other question is where did you get your copy or where would you look for the best price? More than happy to Google etc, just wondered if anyone here had any reliable websites? You know what it's like, 30 seconds after you buy something there's a deluge of posts about how you could have saved loads on the price etc. Would like to avoid that if at all possible
I'm on a Macbook Pro rather than a Windows machine in case that changes things. Price straight off of the Adobe website is £569.88 for CS3 /fills pants
Cheers for any pointers,
Andy
Simple question if I may? Adobe Photoshop CS3. Been trialing it and I like it. 30 day evalutaion is about to expire so I'm looking to purchase it. Then I spot Lightroom. Hmmm... which one should I get? I want to be able to take raw images from my Canon, correct them and convert them to JPEGs. Not so fussed about all the transformations available in CS3 but do want to be able to make the usual changes to images. Rotate, B&W conversion, fiddle with levels, filter noise etc...
I guess the other question is where did you get your copy or where would you look for the best price? More than happy to Google etc, just wondered if anyone here had any reliable websites? You know what it's like, 30 seconds after you buy something there's a deluge of posts about how you could have saved loads on the price etc. Would like to avoid that if at all possible
I'm on a Macbook Pro rather than a Windows machine in case that changes things. Price straight off of the Adobe website is £569.88 for CS3 /fills pants
Cheers for any pointers,
Andy
I do just about everything in Lightroom for batch purposes - contract/level/exposure adjustments etc, dust spot removal via a heal tool, cropping and rotating etc. It can also constrain size on export, effectively resizing.
Plus of course, it's a great library app too.
The only thing I use Photoshop for now is adding borders. Having said that, that's CS2. I've not tried CS3 yet.
You can get a trial of Lightroom as well - give it a whirl.
Plus of course, it's a great library app too.
The only thing I use Photoshop for now is adding borders. Having said that, that's CS2. I've not tried CS3 yet.
You can get a trial of Lightroom as well - give it a whirl.
Yeah, I process 95%+ of my photos using Lightroom, with only a couple with CS2. If you are just adjusting levels, cropping, removing dust, etc, then Lightroom should be fine (plus it's far easier to use and a decent library). If you want to do more powerful manipulation, then you will need something like Photoshop.
I was looking at upgrading Adobe software myself yesterday, Amazon will save you £48 on CS3 on the full standard version. Cheapest way to buy it is if you know a student who's eligible. A slight pain, but you may be able to continue working with the trial if you put the date back a month... works for the beta version.
IIRC, the RAW processing is now the same in both CS3 and Lightroom. The difference is you have much more control of the image after you've processed it with CS3 but it doesn't have the cataloguing features of Lightroom. Try them both.
IIRC, the RAW processing is now the same in both CS3 and Lightroom. The difference is you have much more control of the image after you've processed it with CS3 but it doesn't have the cataloguing features of Lightroom. Try them both.
Bacardi said:
IIRC, the RAW processing is now the same in both CS3 and Lightroom. The difference is you have much more control of the image after you've processed it with CS3 but it doesn't have the cataloguing features of Lightroom. Try them both.
This is true, CS3 RAW and Lightroom have the same internals.I've got both but never touch Lightroom any more...you pays your money and you takes your choise
Martin.
V6GTO said:
Bacardi said:
IIRC, the RAW processing is now the same in both CS3 and Lightroom. The difference is you have much more control of the image after you've processed it with CS3 but it doesn't have the cataloguing features of Lightroom. Try them both.
This is true, CS3 RAW and Lightroom have the same internals.I've got both but never touch Lightroom any more...you pays your money and you takes your choise
Martin.
Might even save on postage by handing it over on the boat?
Bacardi said:
IIRC, the RAW processing is now the same in both CS3 and Lightroom. The difference is you have much more control of the image after you've processed it with CS3 but it doesn't have the cataloguing features of Lightroom. Try them both.
How do you rate the RAW processing compared to Capture One?ehasler said:
Bacardi said:
IIRC, the RAW processing is now the same in both CS3 and Lightroom. The difference is you have much more control of the image after you've processed it with CS3 but it doesn't have the cataloguing features of Lightroom. Try them both.
How do you rate the RAW processing compared to Capture One?etc etc
Sure, you could do that before by processing to TIFF in Capture then taking it into Photoshop, but there's no need with Lightroom. Straight to JPG.
Hi Ed
I'm pretty sure I've tried just about all the RAW processors out there and in terms of what it extracts from the file in detail and colour, C1 wins every time for me. Things like the colour editor for creating custom profiles are very powerful way to adjust custom colours. I have read that some people can get better results out of Nikon or Canon's software but I haven't seen it. When it comes to interface (on a mac, the PC version sucks) and usability (compared to Canon or Nikon software), C1 easily wins again. Another big plus for me is being able to shoot tethered with Canon and C1. However, comparing C1 to Lightroom, they are slightly different horses for a slightly different courses. Just like cameras, use what you're most comfortable with.
All IMHO
ehasler said:
How do you rate the RAW processing compared to Capture One?
C1 doesn't have the cataloguing features of Lightroom or as many bells and whistles.... arguably too many when you open up all the panels and scroll up and down forever looking for what you want. Lightroom does have some nice features and I prefer it to it's nearest rival, Aperture. But I don't use either of them, just C1 for everything. Famous Graham said:
You can adjust all the colour channels, contrast is split into varying levels of shadows and highlights, the Recovery slider for blown highlights is excellent, fill-light can be handy.
Nothing you can't do in C1 but the sliders in Lightroom do make it much more user friendly . I find the sharpening and noise reduction in C1 better than ACR (or Lightroom). Also comes with a great DeMoirize plug in for PS (although most DSLRs have anti aliasing filters, moire can still be a problem). C1 is waaay slower than ACR for processing but, for batches, it works seamlessly in the background and it's worth the wait.I'm pretty sure I've tried just about all the RAW processors out there and in terms of what it extracts from the file in detail and colour, C1 wins every time for me. Things like the colour editor for creating custom profiles are very powerful way to adjust custom colours. I have read that some people can get better results out of Nikon or Canon's software but I haven't seen it. When it comes to interface (on a mac, the PC version sucks) and usability (compared to Canon or Nikon software), C1 easily wins again. Another big plus for me is being able to shoot tethered with Canon and C1. However, comparing C1 to Lightroom, they are slightly different horses for a slightly different courses. Just like cameras, use what you're most comfortable with.
All IMHO
Bacardi said:
Famous Graham said:
You can adjust all the colour channels, contrast is split into varying levels of shadows and highlights, the Recovery slider for blown highlights is excellent, fill-light can be handy.
Nothing you can't do in C1 but the sliders in Lightroom do make it much more user friendly Famous Graham said:
Really? I only ever saw the one Contrast adjustment slider/number interface in C1 when I used it.
There are three sliders, exposure, contrast and saturation. Other adjustments have to be done in levels or using curves, so like I said, not very intuitive if you don't know how to use them. Or using the very powerful color editor, but that's effectively another application so again, not that convenient.To be fair, I'm talking about the pro version of C1 on a mac. The LE version is limited but, I believe, still has all the sliders levels and curves. Also, the PC version is not the same as the mac. Apart from having a worse interface, it doesn't have so many features. Version 4 will see the same interface and features on mac and PC.
The differences between all these RAW converters are relatively minor when it comes to the quality of the output. You have to be really picky (I am), to appreciate the differences. They are all heaps better than in camera JPGs.
For less experienced users I would definitely recommend Lightroom. It is easier to use and easier to get a good result out of it quickly. Although they share many features, Lightroom feels a nicer place to be than in CS3 Camera RAW, IMO. Plus it has the extra bells like Library, slide shows, print templates, web etc. For conversion and archiving it's great but if the OP wants to manipulate or montage his pictures further and only wants to pay for one, then it has to be CS3.
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