CS3 to LR6?

In CS3 I usually work with Layers, Curves, Exposure layer, Photo filters, spot healing brush and a high pass filter. I use Photomatix for HDR and Helicon for focus stacking.

Is there any reason that would make it worthwhile to switch? Does LR6 do a better job at any of the things I use CS3 for?

Not not really, LR6 is a parametric RAW processor, which uses the same Adobe Processing engine as ACR. If you are shooting RAW and using ACR to process your RAW files before processing them in PS then LR6 does offer significant improvements in RAW processing over the version of ACR included with CS3. It might be that those improvements in RAW processing will mean that you actually have to do less in PS, but only PS offers layers etc. You will still need to have a pixel editing program such as PS in addition to LR.

As well as the RAW processing LR also offers very robust image cataloguing functions, with multiple ways to categorise and sort your images, including Facial recognition in the just released version 6. It also includes Geolocation tools for tagging your images. There is also a very good printing system, IMO far better than printing from PS, along with Web Gallery, Slideshow and Picture Book generation. So LR is a lot more than just a RAW processor, it is a complete workflow system offering good integration between most of the things that you might ever want to do with your images.

Alan

+1 to what Alan said. I'm a big LR fan and use it for 99% of my editing... but I seldom do anything that requires layers or detailed cloning. If I did then I would use Photoshop.