PhotoShop or LightRoom?

[JJM]

What are the thoughts on Adobe LightRoom as an alternative to PS or Elements?

I am very much a beginner with PS had have used Elements 8 for the last 6 months for simple stuff like cropping and fixing lens distortion.

However I have spent the past 30 days using the trial version of CS5, which has been very impressive, especially with features such as "Content Aware Fill".

Does anyone on here use LightRoom and does it have any obvious limitations compared to PS?


Cheers,

Jon

Edited by JJM on Tuesday 16th November 12:54

[Colin RedGriff]

LR has some image correction tools but only a few and nothing like what is available in PS.

I use both, I use LR to import and catlog my files. Then I do basic correction to the raw files (I use RAW files most of the time). If I want to do major image manipulation then I will jump into PS to do that from Lightroom). However most of the time I am doing minor image tweaks and sharpening in Lightroom and then outputting jpegs for loading on Flickr or printing. I'll print directly from LR for contact sheets and quick stuff.

I've not used the web and slideshow parts of LR very much yet.

I use PS for anything that needs layers or filters or where I am going to be combining images. I aslo use PS to print when quality is really important (mostly college work)

[14-7]

I have always used PS and tried Lightroom for about a week last year.

I really could not get on with it so went back to PS.

A lot of people seem to like the 'work flow' of Lightroom but maybe I'm just stuck in my ways.

There is a free trial of Lightroom from Adobe https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?produ... to download which it says is fully functioning.

[JJM]

Cheers, now my PS5 trial has ended I'll give LR3 a try.

[xrrr]

Colin RedGriff said:

LR has some image correction tools but only a few and nothing like what is available in PS.

I use both, I use LR to import and catlog my files. Then I do basic correction to the raw files (I use RAW files most of the time). If I want to do major image manipulation then I will jump into PS to do that from Lightroom). However most of the time I am doing minor image tweaks and sharpening in Lightroom and then outputting jpegs for loading on Flickr or printing. I'll print directly from LR for contact sheets and quick stuff.

I've not used the web and slideshow parts of LR very much yet.

I use PS for anything that needs layers or filters or where I am going to be combining images. I aslo use PS to print when quality is really important (mostly college work)

Pretty much identical to me. Started with Lightroom and then progressed to Photoshop when I wanted to do more. LR is more akin to iPhoto and Picasa and great for organising and RAW conversion. The attempts to do some basic PS tools in LR (e.g. dodge and burn) are a bit pants IMO. You can do the RAW conversion in PS but I find it very faffy.

So, if you want to be able to tag, export in various formats, organise, creatively convert RAW, etc then use LR. If you want to physically manipulate the images (other than tweak the colours, contrast) then you need PS (or Gimp).

[gary71]

Both

That doesn't really help does it

I use Lightroom for 90% of stuff, but for that final tweek, or anything creative you have to drop into Photoshop.

[Hairy Cornflake]

I use both LR3 and CS5.

LR3 does 90% of what I need for down loading the RAW files, converting to DNG, cataloguing and post processing. I only use CS5 for stitching pictures together or resizing using Genuine Fractals.

I find LR3 is a simpler work flow than CS5.

HTH

[ian in lancs]

As many others I use LR for library management and most editing and swop to PSE if I need to dore healing, cloning or more extensive editing.

[andy-xr]

LR for catalogue and initial adjustments; WB, exposure, saturation and contrast, then export to PS for anything a bit more detaied or requiring layers, and save as hi and lo res jpegs