Do I Need To Update My Software?

[cyrillo07]

Hey,

I wonder if anyone could suggest an editing software that could meet my needs. At present, i've been using photoshop elements 4 for more than a year for basic processing only. I'm planning to buy another software that could do basic processing, RAW processing and excellent organizer.

Reading from this forum, it looks like Lightroom is good. Any pro's and con's with this software? or i will upgrade to elements 6. Any suggestions are highly appreciated.

BTW, i'm just a hobbiest with semi-pro toys, click my camera during weekends and do editing once in a while but willing to learn post processing to make my photos looks like professional.:)

[Damo77]

Lightroom is excellent, by all accounts.

Be aware that it will not replace Photoshop, but be an excellent companion to it. I'm sure there's lots of people on here who are using Lightroom and Elements together in a great workflow.

[davidcrebelxt]

Agree... with all of above.

Remember that (generally) Lightroom's adjustments are global, affecting the whole image. Whereas Elements and CS3 allow you to do selective adjustments, or pixel-edits. I MOSTLY use LR, but still output from there directly to Elements when needed.

Biggest shortfall so far for LR compared to Elements is the keyword tagging. In Elements it was simple and intuitive to search based on your keyword tags (ie: click checbox next to the tag to view only images with those tags, click two to see images containing both tags, and so on.) In LR, they apparently want you to use your keyboard skills, as you must type each tag in a search box... very poorly implemented.

The keyword tagging is clearly more robust in LR otherwise, but that blatant oversight on usability takes LR from an "A" to a "B-" in my book. I use LR over Elements as my organizer now, but begrudgingly since its not nearly as fun and easy as it was in Elements.

[toneyw]

I've used LR for over a year now and think it's great. Every once in a while, I will use PS if I need to do some cloning or layer work but those are very far and few.

[René Damkot]

Biggest shortfall so far for LR compared to Elements is the keyword tagging. In Elements it was simple and intuitive to search based on your keyword tags (ie: click checbox next to the tag to view only images with those tags, click two to see images containing both tags, and so on.) In LR, they apparently want you to use your keyboard skills, as you must type each tag in a search box... very poorly implemented.

Only difference I see in LR, is that when you click a second Keyword Tag, it is treated as 'keyword 1 OR keyword 2', whereas by your description Elements used 'keyword 1 AND keyword 2'..

That's what you mean?

(I still used iView for DAM, so have only just begun looking at this stuff in LR ;))

[cyrillo07]

thanks for the info. how about for Black and White conversion? which of the two is better?

[Keith R]

One of the things about LR is its ability to use presets like thee: http://www.ononesoftware.com/photopresets-wow.php

The B/W conversion presets included here are brilliant, if that's your thing.

Here's the demo: http://ononesoft.cachefly.net/video/photopresets/ch3/Chapter_3.html

[canonloader]

Buy a CS2 Upgrade. It can do everything you want and better. :)

[davidcrebelxt]

Only difference I see in LR, is that when you click a second Keyword Tag, it is treated as 'keyword 1 OR keyword 2', whereas by your description Elements used 'keyword 1 AND keyword 2'..

That's what you mean?

(I still used iView for DAM, so have only just begun looking at this stuff in LR ;))

Yes, that's what I mean. I think Elements even had a switch that let you toggle between AND or OR searches when using the checkboxes.( version 3... its been awhile since I've used it though)

I often know that there is a picture of my wife and my son in Chicago, for example... so by in Elements it was simple... check mark, check mark, check mark presto! I have the handful of images I'm looking for.

Say I then want to see pictures of only my WIFE in CHICAGO... I would uncheck the box next to my son's name. Presto! There they all are.

Doing the same in LR (by ctl-clicking multiple keywords) shows me ALL the pictures of my wife, ALL pictures of my son, and ALL pictures of Chicago... making me search through thousands of images.

Not nearly as fun to force an AND search in LR; as I have to remember the keywords I've assinged to images, and spell them correctly, and to modify the search - highlight and remove the keyword. Such a pain that I'm lagging behind by about 5 months in tagging my photos since its no longer fun to use keywords.

Seems to me the developers and in-house testers of LR are such "high-class" they've likely never USED Elements, as its below them... but in doing so missed out on the fact that they had a slick smooth way of searching for multiple keywords. (Or maybe they were just all Apple users... ;) so they never got to see the organizer aspect of Elements in action.) [That's my impression, at least... and no, I don't actually believe a word of what I just said is true... its just an impression. :p]

[PixelMagic]

David,

My experience with Lightroom is quite different; I can easily find the exact photo I'm looking for by using the ! and + operators in the text search box of the Find Panel.

But don't take my word for it; here's what Lightroom User Guide says on page 66:

Add an exclamation mark (!) before any word to exclude it from the results. Add a plus sign (+) before any word to enable the “StartingWith” rule to apply only to that word. Add a plus sign (+) after any word to enable the “Ending With” rule to apply only to that word.

Once you understand how those operators work you'd realize the power of the search function in Lightroom. To find a photo of your wife in Chicago you'd simply select "All Photographs" if you don't have a specific time period in mind, then type +Wife's Name +Chicago !Son's Name. Or better yet, you could use a combination of Keyword Tag and text search.

The beauty of the operators is that it allows you to perform searches using only fragment of keyword tags (Starting with and Ending with Rules)...that's very useful when you can't remember the exact keywords tags you used originally, or if you had misspelled your tags.


Yes, that's what I mean. I think Elements even had a switch that let you toggle between AND or OR searches when using the checkboxes.( version 3... its been awhile since I've used it though)

I often know that there is a picture of my wife and my son in Chicago, for example... so by in Elements it was simple... check mark, check mark, check mark presto! I have the handful of images I'm looking for.

Say I then want to see pictures of only my WIFE in CHICAGO... I would uncheck the box next to my son's name. Presto! There they all are.

Doing the same in LR (by ctl-clicking multiple keywords) shows me ALL the pictures of my wife, ALL pictures of my son, and ALL pictures of Chicago... making me search through thousands of images.

Not nearly as fun to force an AND search in LR; as I have to remember the keywords I've assinged to images, and spell them correctly, and to modify the search - highlight and remove the keyword. Such a pain that I'm lagging behind by about 5 months in tagging my photos since its no longer fun to use keywords.

Seems to me the developers and in-house testers of LR are such "high-class" they've likely never USED Elements, as its below them... but in doing so missed out on the fact that they had a slick smooth way of searching for multiple keywords. (Or maybe they were just all Apple users... ;) so they never got to see the organizer aspect of Elements in action.) [That's my impression, at least... and no, I don't actually believe a word of what I just said is true... its just an impression. :p]

[davidcrebelxt]

Yes, I understand that... I just prefer the fun of NO typing whatsoever to do my and/or searches.

I perfectly understand (and like) how much MORE LR can do with those operators... its just that there is no reason you couldn't have BOTH ways of doing that... or even have it so the checkboxes add (or remove) those keywords from the search field... meaning you only need to reorder the keywords (imagine keywords in search field being drag and drop tokens) and apply the desired operator before the keywords.

Its just that the real-time update of photos in Elements when you check/uncheck a box was SO intuitive and fun... that the hassle of typing in the field and all that nonsense for what used to be simple sucked the fun right out of it... I can't expect casual users like my wife to remember what operators to use, or what keywords I have applied.

I'm sure I helped sell several copies of Elements when showing friends and family how quickly I could find a particular photo and modify my search... not to mention my Mom, who only had just started figuring out how to turn on/off computer and send email... grasped the checkmark concept right away.