what to buy first? LR or PS CS4?

I am unsure which product I should start off with. I am currently using PSE 7 and I don't use it to it's full potential, but at the same time I find myself wanting features of CS4. A simple layer mask was a PIA in PSE until I found a neat little action to create a layer mask the right way. (http://graphicssoft.ab​out.com …ents/qt/layerma​sktool.htm) Even though I am just learning I find my self wanting to tinker with channels and other things that PSE doesn't have... I watch tutorials to learn and can't try much because they don't apply to PSE. Now on the other hand I have been playing around with LR 3 beta and LR 2 trial and find that so much can be done to a RAW photo prior to photoshop. I know ACR 5.5 added features similar to LR like painting in settings where needed but it seems easier to do in LR. I also you PSE organizer to sort and tag my 19,000+ photos, so I may not necessarily use LR for organization although LR does have very good Metadata search capabilities. I am strictly a hobbyist so neither product is a need, plus I still have a lot to learn. I was planning to wait for LR 3 to come out and take advantage of the free beta. (If I go the LR route) Otherwise l am hoping Adobe offers a $299 upgrade for PSE users like they did the last 2 years.( of course I missed that boat, found out too late) I would love to hear what you guys and gals think?

Have you downloaded the trials of both and played with them? LR2 did nothing for me, but I have been using the LR3 trial and like it. Bridge in PS CS4 is much improved.

Kafn8td wrote in post #9181159
Have you downloaded the trials of both and played with them? LR2 did nothing for me, but I have been using the LR3 trial and like it. Bridge in PS CS4 is much improved.

yea I am using both LR2 trial and LR3 beta and I also installed CS4 trial but only have 13 days left I want to get what I'll use more often and I am unsure at this point.. I have been leaning towards LR but I'd wait till LR3 was released first. and by the time it does come out I will probably change my mind 10 times

PS4 includes Bridge, which does many of the things that Lightroom does. LR is cheaper. It really depends if you need to do pixel level editing.

Lightroom is more a digital asset management tool with editing capabilities. CS4 is a heavy duty editing tool. The complement one another.
Eventually you should use both. It may be useful to go to the Luminous Landscape site and check out the tutorial on digital asset management capabilities http://store.luminous-landscape.com …o&cPath=2&produ​cts_id=225

There is also a good tutorial on Lightroom.

If you are serious about photography and managing your digital images you will eventually want both.

Don't forget that there are versions of previous Photoshops still for sale at a fraction of the original price. Very useful if you don't need the very latest gimmicks.

I was curious to see which program people used more often, but it seems like from everything I read they are usually used together, starting in LR and finishing in PS.

dmward wrote in post #9183149
Lightroom is more a digital asset management tool with editing capabilities. CS4 is a heavy duty editing tool. The complement one another.
Eventually you should use both. It may be useful to go to the Luminous Landscape site and check out the tutorial on digital asset management capabilities http://store.luminous-landscape.com …o&cPath=2&produ​cts_id=225

There is also a good tutorial on Lightroom.

If you are serious about photography and managing your digital images you will eventually want both.

I'll check it out, and yes I will eventually end up with both. I guess I should start with Lightroom since I already have Photoshop Elements. Then later I can upgrade to CS4 when I can get a deal.

Lowner wrote in post #9183165
Don't forget that there are versions of previous Photoshops still for sale at a fraction of the original price. Very useful if you don't need the very latest gimmicks.

I was looking for an old version, but I couldn't find any. Then I'd be able to upgrade to the newer versions at a discount.

jay415 wrote in post #9184177
I was curious to see which program people used more often, but it seems like from everything I read they are usually used together, starting in LR and finishing in PS.

No necessarily. Lightroom is a Raw converter and Digital Asset Management tool. If you don't shoot large amounts of RAW images you will find that Lightroom is of limited usefulness to you. With the exception of two features, all the functionality of Lightroom is also built into Adobe Bridge which ships with Photoshop.

There are lots of photographers who work exclusively in Adobe Bridge/Photoshop.

PixelMagic wrote in post #9184225
No necessarily. Lightroom is a Raw converter and Digital Asset Management tool. If you don't shoot large amounts of RAW images you will find that Lightroom is of limited usefulness to you. With the exception of two features, all the functionality of Lightroom is also built into Adobe Bridge which ships with Photoshop.

There are lots of photographers who work exclusively in Adobe Bridge/Photoshop.

I guess I should check out bridge before my trial runs out. At least I'll have an idea of the differences. I recently started shooting RAW, I love the flexibility of editing.

jay415 wrote in post #9184261
I guess I should check out bridge before my trial runs out. At least I'll have an idea of the differences. I recently started shooting RAW, I love the flexibility of editing.

i've seen sone very good photographers who use LR only. if i were to use just one program it would probably be LR.

i also use CS3 for some things like resizing and sharpening and cloning. basically the final touches.

like someone else said you can use LR with older versions of PS and elements because LR is your raw converter.

ed rader

besides organization, based strictly on RAW editing can Lightroom do anything that ACR 5.5 can't do? Certain features I didn't think ACR had and I found out it does. (like the Targeted Adjustment Tool)

I purchased both at the same time (had CS2 before). I must say that now that I have gotten over the learning curve, I really like Lightroom. I probably do 85-90% of my image editing in Lightroom and use CS4 for only a few things. Clone and patch tool, mostly, but occasionally Shadow/highlight, smart sharpen and noise reduction. Also, the save to web with the specific size limit I use all the time to size photos for POTN and other web sites. Having said that, I would go with Lightroom and if budget is important, get a cheaper copy of CS3. I still don't have much use for bridge-too slow and with Lightroom you really don't need it much.

Apart from digital asset management, there are two things Lightroom can do and Bridge/Photoshop cannot:
1. Match Total Exposures
2. Virtual Copies

Other than those two features, the functionality in terms of RAW development is identical.

So it all boils down to whether you need to manage a large amount of RAW files, have tight deadlines, etc.

And while I've been a Lightroom user and supporter even before the first betas were publicly available, Bridge/Photoshop can do everything Lightroom does but the reverse isn't true. I have yet to see anyone select a pixel in Lightroom.

jay415 wrote in post #9184646
besides organization, based strictly on RAW editing can Lightroom do anything that ACR 5.5 can't do? Certain features I didn't think ACR had and I found out it does. (like the Targeted Adjustment Tool)

jay415,

There are several adverts around on the net, old stock of CS2 for example at £100-£200. Whether thats low enough to make it worth it for a discount on CS4 I don't know.

I'm still using PS7 perfectly happily. The only thing it lacks for me is the ability to use my sharpening plug-in at 16 bit, because layers will only work in 8 bit.

I was using LR 2 trial today and imported about 45 photos just doing minor white balance, exposure, and some brush and gradient exposures. I noticed each time I went to the next picture it seems to get ever so slightly slower and it finally just hung up about 20 pictures in. I had to force close LR. I wonder if I should just upgrade my PC first. (It has been almost 4 years since I've done that )

P4 3.0 ghz
2 gb ram

dual monitors on
ASUS EN6600/TD/256 GeForce 6600 256MB 128-bit DDR PCI Express x16 Video Card