PS vs LR (vs freeware)

hi guys

i was talking to a friend, and he said "if you want to become a serious photographer, you need to learn photoshop". i think that is an interesting point of discussion... before people say "your friend doesnt know what he is talking about", i should say that he is not an artistic/creative type, so his opinion is simply that.

but, that got me thinking, is it true? in an age where LR (and Aperture) is a powerful tool for processing and touching up, is PS a necessity for most photogs, who do not need to do any composition outside of composing the shots itself? i am not talking about commercial photography or graphic design, but rather speaking to the serious hobbyists/amateurs, as well as pros who shoot weddings, models, etc

beyond that, are PS and LR the de-facto, must-have, software? where does freeware such as GIMP fall on the spectrum?

Personally for me LR is a must have. I also use CS5 PS for other tasks, but I just love the ease of use in LR for the basic tweaks. When it comes to cloning and specific retouching I think PS is a must. I have not used GIMP though, so I can't comment on that.

I'm a died-in-the-wool LR user and these days rarely resort to Photoshop, but I do have it and spent a lot of time and energy learning to use it in the pre-LR days.

I don't regret that, although if I was to do it over again I'd likely be quite happy with Photoshop Elements for the kinds of special tasks that require an actual image editor.

In all, if you are using Lightroom it will still benefit you to have an editor on hand for special tasks. You may rarely use it but on occasion you will likely have a photo that simply needs something that Lightroom can't do. Check out Photoshop Elements -- you can install a free trial and use it for a month. Take some time to learn what it can do, play around, and you may be pleased to at least know what is possible.

Gimp is another powerful photo editor you can check out -- it's free, but full-featured, although it takes a bit to put the pieces together and get up to speed with it. There are other simple free editors out there as well, and there are some that cost, such as Paint Shop Pro, that folks here use as well.

That depends on your goal as a photographer.
The Typical photographer doesn't need The full blow Photoshop CS5, and may not even need Lightroom. You might only need DPP which comes with all Canon EOS models. Other than that Photoshop Elements would IMHO be the next step if you need to take your Photo editing / Corrections any further than DPP is capable of.

If you are other than the average photography hobbyist then I would recommend Lightroom because it has abilities you might need other than editing and corrections. Such as Organizing, Cataloging, Tagging, rating, keywords, Printing and Web Templates etc.
If you invested in Photoshop Elements and then Lightroom you should have all that you need.

If you really have the need and want to invest the money, and I am hesitant to recommend, you can get Photoshop CS5 which is much more than a photo editing and correction application. Most photographers will ever only utilize maybe 5% of its full potential if all they ever use it for is photography. It is a graphics art application that just so happens you can use to perform photo edits/corrections, as well as some serious image manipulations. But IMHO, if that is all it is used for, then it is a waste of money and waste of some very powerful software.

Gimp is a GNU Manipulation application which is essentially a Photoshop Clone that can do many of the things; Not necessarily as good. But for many people that is all they really need if you ever need to work with layers to get creative and manipulate an image and can't justify the $699.00 cost of Photoshop CS5.

i downloaded the trial of CS5 extended.... its overwhelming. the sheer amount of tools, and the capability... i can see why users, including myself, would be intimidated to the point of not wanting to touch CS. i spent an hour just playing with the quick select/magic wand tools.....

Software tools actually fall into a number of functional categories...

1. Image import
   
2. Data management
   
3. RAW conversion
   
4. Picture editing tools
   
5. Graphical individual pixel manipulation tools
   
6. Output of graphic files
   
7. Printing of files
   
8. Viewing of 'slide sets' based upon arbitrary collections of shots

ekinnyc wrote in post #12353880
i downloaded the trial of CS5 extended.... its overwhelming. the sheer amount of tools, and the capability... i can see why users, including myself, would be intimidated to the point of not wanting to touch CS. i spent an hour just playing with the quick select/magic wand tools.....

To spend hours learning anything in Photoshop is nothing uncommon. People have spent months or have even taken college classes and still haven't learned enough about it. Just when you think you've got it something new will come about.

As a Photographer, for photo editing and corrections, you shouldn't need CS5 Extended. CS5 itself is very powerful with more tools and adjustment settings than most people ever even learn how to use let alone even find them all. CS5 Extended incorporates 3D as well as Video Editing and creation which in their-selves can be very intimidating.

Unless you are heavily into Graphics Art besides photography, you shouldn't need CS5, and especially not CS5 Extended. That's not to say it isn't nice to have.

The exception being if you take a lot of night shots for instance, or city scapes where you want to remove people.
PSCS5 Extended offers stack blend modes. PSCS5 does not.