I use LR3, would PSE 10 be handy

I use and am quite happy with LR3, but wondering if PSE10 would be worth it as an extra. I've looked at the Adobe site, but am still unsure if it would be worth it. What would I gain from PSE10. With using layers does it give me more options in my PP. As far as organizing my files I'm fine with LR3.

Thanks in advance, Claude

There is no way to do pixel level editing with LR3.

Sorry I don't understand what that means.

I would probably skip PS unless you really want to get crazy with layers and sophisticated editing effects. If you tend to get good exposures out of your camera that require minimal PP, then something like LR is all you need.

They are very different tools. Lightroom is not really a photo editor but a level adjusting tool along with a cataloging tool. It's a fantastic tool if you are looking to make adjustments to shooting parameters, display parameters, and some very limited selective adjustments.

PS/PSE on the other hand is a image editor. It is useful if you are looking to change the picture such as adding/removing elements from the image, combining several images into one image, or creating new images from several others. It has much more advanced adjustment capabilities as well. They really are different tools.

If you are happy with the final product you are producing, you may not need it. As your experience increases, you needs may as well. By then, there may be a new version available.

Analogy -
You have a car (LR) and it gets you from A-B.
Later your travel path changes and your driving habits also change (rocky roads). So you upgrade your car to an SUV (PSE)...

Thank you for the replies. Sounds like it would give me a different set of tools to play with. For what PSE10 cost I may look in to it.

Photoshop lightroom is primarily aimed at making global editing to the whole of a photo along with library and organisational benefits. It is also non-destructive editing in that changes made in lightroom on each photo are not made to the photo itself, but rather saved to a separate file; whereupon each time that photo is accessed by lightroom from that point that file is also accessed and the changes reapplied.

The nature of editing in lightroom is also mostly global; that is to say it affects the whole of the photo (barring some selective options such as the spot heal tool). This limits the possibilities since you can't go in and make small or major changes to single areas of the shot itself.


This is when a separate Editing software option is ideal. Elements is a great starting point (and also more affordable than the big CS5) and offers you the ability to use a wider range of editing methods as well as layers and also layermasks to mask off specific areas so that your changes are local not global.
Elements will also work with most 3rd party photoshop plugin software so that allows you access to sharpening, editing and noise reduction as well as HDR and other photo editing plugins.

Changes in Elements are however known a destructive; that is to say that the original photo data is changed and saved as a finale file as opposed to in lightroom where the changes are (as said) saved to an external file. However some file formats (eg PSD or TIFF) will save your "layers" in elements; which means if you copy your base layer you can then make changes to your photo, whilst also retaining a base layer that is untouched direct from lightroom in that photos layer pallet (very useful for referring back to where you started from).

Lightroom is designed to support and editing software option such as Elements or CS5

Northontguy wrote in post #13534542
I use and am quite happy with LR3, but wondering if PSE10 would be worth it as an extra. I've looked at the Adobe site, but am still unsure if it would be worth it. What would I gain from PSE10. With using layers does it give me more options in my PP. As far as organizing my files I'm fine with LR3.

Thanks in advance, Claude

I use LR for about 99% of my PP, but it won't do the other 1% that PSE can. Besides layers and masking, PSE will allow you to merge shots for panoramas, do things like "multiple personality" shots (such as in this thread, etc. It also offers you a lot more options when adding text to your photos (such as making posters), making collages and other more creative things, etc. If you don't do (or plan on doing) any of those things, PSE isn't necessary and LR will do everything you need - but since PSE isn't that expensive, it's nice to have the option. You could always download a free 30-day trial from Adobe and try it out to see if it seems worth it to you.

I'd say Elements is a great toolkit to have along with Lightroom. In fact, as far as I'm concerned, an image editor such as Elements will be a necessity alongside of a Raw processor like Lightroom. Although there are a variety of image editors available, Elements has a whole lot going on for it -- Internet support and tutorials as well a "books" are abundant, since it has a large user base because it is related to the Standard Photoshop CSx, and has inherited many of the PS capabilities.

Just so you understand the difference:

Programs like Elements are designed to work with images that have been rendered into RGB pixels from Raw data -- either in the camera or a Raw processor such as Lightroom, Digital Photo Professional, or Camera Raw, a version of which is packaged with Elements along with Photoshop CSx.

Elements "manipulates" those pixels, going from very basic things like lightening or darkening tones and shifting colors to more obviously graphical functions like have been mentioned, sophisticated cloning and image merging and such. So, by nature, what it can't do with the simple stuff it can do in the more powerful tools. There are limits to how much you can do "basic" adjustments with the RGB images, so when you run up against those limits you resort to the "tougher" tools.

Lightroom (and Camera Raw) are designed fundamentally to work with Raw data, and to be able to adjust how that data is rendered into the RGB preview and eventual RGB image file. It does this without changing the actual Raw data -- unless you carry out an operation that LR can properly translate into a text of instructions, rather than actually changing the Raw data, then LR won't do it. In fact, even an LR operation like cloning or the local adjustment brushes are able to be translated into a textual description. But the underlying Raw data remains unchanged.

Elements, on the other hand, actually makes material changes to the RGB pixels it uses, in fact, if you don't make a practice of saving your work in Elements prior to finalizing changes, you can regret the fact that you have changed all those pixes and can't undo/redo them, wereas with Lightroom you can always go back and undo or redo things (as long as you've kept the Raw files).

So, maybe I've given you a bit of understanding. The two apps are designed to do two fundamentally different things. Raw processors are best at doing what they do, but they can't do things like Elements and other RGB image editors are designed to do pretty easily!

Thanks to all of you very much for taking the time to answer my question. I will be buying PSE 10. This place is amazing.

Northontguy wrote in post #13537110
Thanks to all of you very much for taking the time to answer my question. I will be buying PSE 10. This place is amazing.

It's on sale at Amazon for $50 right now:
http://www.amazon.com …7&creativeASIN=​B005MMMT6E