LR and PSE Catalogs - need to learn

Long post i know but it does have a question... or a few

Ok so I use(d) PSE (Photoshop Elements 9) for a while now since my wife bought it for me knowing I already had Lightroom 3. She got it for me due to the bundled version with Adobe Premiere and was a great price..

anyway.. this is a hobby for me... kids sports and school functions... I always shot JPG as it was good enough for me... i know i know.. RAW is the only way..
I have since switched to RAW+JPG so the wife can have access to the JPG for quick facebook posts and the sort.... now I have been starting to try and edit the RAW files for low light sports and like tonight.. my son is in a play.. and lighting will be horrid...

LR - i know your gonna scratch your head but just follow me...
so I started using LR by just importing in the files im going to work with.. then i delete them from the bottom of the preview area when im done with editing the pics and exporting as JPG. I dont care about the catalog at all nor features it has.

PSE - Same thing..
Double Click ACR file and it opens up as a RAW to edit.. i prefer LR on editing....
I couldnt figure out how to process multiple RAW files in PSE so I did figure I need to Import as you do in LR... Face Recognition, ratings, tags, etc seem nice to use

I have a folder structure on a server and that is where everything is kept...
\\Server\photos\2011\m​onth no.month

example
\\server\photos\2011\1​.January
\\server\photos\2011\2​.February

this keeps them all in physical month order.....

I started playing with the PSE import feature and the face recognition.
I have used the LR importer but as stated always right click them at the bottom and choose delete and remove from LR.


so for 2012 I am thinking of maybe going forward..... I do like PSE more than LR so would like to stick with it...

now my questions...
1. who actually uses the PSE organizer?
2. Who actually uses its features like face recognition?
3. Do you use Face recognition, tags, ratings?
4. processing on a laptop but ability to copy catalog out for backups to my server. what is needed to be done?
5. Once items are placed into the catalog... you cant really move the files then right? so folder structure is highly needed up front? my wife likes moving stuff around as seen fit...

I am just not sure if I need any of the features that catalogs have..... maybe im missing something?

so if you feel LR does some of this better please let me know.... like i said I like the JPG editing of PSE and RAW editing of LR... trying to figure out what to do...

or stick with what i do all the time and not care?

thanks for trying to clear up my cluttered head...

Well, I moved from Elements 4 to CS2 back I think in '06...then I have focused on Lightroom since its early days.

I did like some of the features of the Elements Organizer, which Bridge lacked. Lightroom did pick up on some, such as Collections, and Lightroom has the integrated graphical User Interface which is a good thing.

But these days I can't tell you -- I haven't touched Elements in several years and don't know what it offers. And, I've heard that Bridge has some new features that bring it into closer "competition" with Lightroom.

I do like Lightroom because it is more efficient in working with a quantity of images without needing to jump through different dialogs, hoops -- unless I need a Photoshop function I just don't bother.

^^ thank you that helps... i was hoping to take a photoshop elements class at the local college as they dont have a LR class.... thus pushing my direction to PSE more....

found this.. and this is what im looking for...
http://www.johnrellis.​com …#_Converting_to​_Lightroom


a guy that used the PSE organizer... then moved to LR3 and his reasons are contained within...
hmmm now i have to decide if i just want to do LR3 mainly.. and use PSE for that PSD templates that I so dearly like...

Well, Elements is great for the capabilities of the editor. Folks that take image organizing seriously (as well as Raw processing) seem to prefer Lightroom, but I'm just speculating here since I no longer use Elements!