How does PS Camera Raw compare to LR?

I have just recently gotten into the habit of shooting in RAW and working on the RAW file via PS Camera Raw (as it came with my PSE 9) before working in PS. With all of the good things I read about LR, I am wondering if working on the RAW files in LR would be enough of a significant upgrade for me to buy it (vs. keep using Camera Raw, which I already own).

Note, I don't do enough photo session work to really need one of the benefits of LR, being able to load and process photos in batches. I am asking strictly about the RAW editing capabilities of the two programs.

Adobe Camera Raw and LR are the same "technically", just dressed up differently.

Photoshop Elements has a "stripped down" version of Camera Raw. I haven't used Elements since its much earlier PSE 5, but I gather it still has limited capabilities.

Lightroom has the "full" Camera Raw "engine" so more capabilities.

But, before you dash off to grab Lightroom, you should realize that it is a "workflow manager" more than just a Raw processor. This means that right off the bat you will be faced with choices and "tasks" about organizing your images before you get to the Raw processing part.

You may initially decide to ignore these things, and many people do, but later they have a way of "catching up", and then you either just "bite the bullet" or you get frustrated and decide that LR was just a waste of time and money.

So, if you really want to start working with Lightroom, I'd suggest getting one of the Lightroom "primers" and working through it, and doing some online research and studying some of the many LR tutorials and articles that can walk you through the various features. Plus, do yourself a favor and work through the Lightroom Help, both the "module" and a pdf version are available, and it is the only "official" Users Guide, and is in fact very well put together. Walking through Help chaper by chapter will really get you up and running!

If, though, you don't want to take the LR management features "seriously" you may be better served looking elswhere for simple Raw processing. The Canon Raw processing software Digital Photo Professional (DPP) is actually nice software for Raw processing without the "baggage" of Lightroom, and it's simple to process a Raw file in DPP and then to convert and save a tiff to open in the Elements editor for further processing!

Saying that, I have been Lightroom-centered for several years, and if you want the management features really, it is top-of-the-line!

If we're just talking Adobe Camera Raw versus Lightroom, then Lightroom is going to be much more versatile and user friendly in the way their editor is set up. I don't know if it's a fair comparison, however, because with Elements (or Photoshop) you can then further edit the photo in a far more capable photo editor than Lightroom. So, if you're not interested in the workflow capabilities of LR, then I wouldn't buy it just for it's raw file editing capabilities.

What I'd recommend is going to the Adobe website and downloading the free trial version of Lightroom. I think it's a 2 week trial, and it's the full version, so you'll get a good idea of what LR is capable of. You also may learn to love the workflow capabilities. . .once you get a handle on using them, of course. LR uses a different construct than most people are used to, and it definitely took me awhile to wrap my brain around it.

I was fortunate in that I studied up on Lightroom before it first came out while at the time I was happily using Photoshop (CS2 at the time then CS3) and so I had a good Raw processor and didn't "need" Lightroom for the Raw processing.

But, I had gotten very active in my photography, especially after getting my first DSLR, so the subject of Digital Asset Management and a good Raw Workflow really interested me, and the more I read about Lightroom's "plan" the more sense it made.

So, when the LR Beta came out I grabbed it, but because it was "buggy" I didn't use it heavily -- by then CS3 was out so I had the same Raw processor. So I continued my "normal" workflow with CS3 but watched as the early releases came out. By LR1.2 I heard very good reports and pounced on it, and it has been my "workflow central" ever since. I had gotten the first version of the Scott Kelby Lightroom 1 book and so was prepared to wade in!

It's kind of like these early days of LR4 -- things are still a bit buggy so someone new to Lightroom might hit bumps along the way and think it's not worth it, whereas most of us who have upgraded from LR3 seem to be happy with LR4 even despite the bumps, and LR3 sits lonely in our hard drives!

You know, it's interesting in reflection -- I got my first DSLR, the Canon 30D, a year before I joined POTN! As I said, I was reading up on LR (and all things photography) and my photography had been picking up speed!

My forum activity for the next year was the Adobe Lightroom Users forum, which was a real benefit for us new LR users, as forums are! Then I heard about POTN, and have become quite a stranger to the LR forum!