Differences between LR,CS, and PSE

I have PSE 6, 8 and CS4. I use 6 most and secondly 8. I am just trying to figure out
CS4. I can do about what I want with 6 and 8. CS4 is capable of more but I have not
learned how to use it, other than the increased tools in the Raw converter. Use PSE 6
for a while learn how to use it before you think of upgrading. Photoshop anything is a
learning curve and believe me, you will not learn all about it in a short time.
Use the Raw converter to make global, (entire image) changes then learn how to
use all the tools in the editor section. This will keep you busy for a while.
There is a link elswhere in this section that will allow you to install a free plug-in
for layer masking in PSE 6,7, or 8. Install this plug-in and learn how to use it.
This will get you one step closer to being ready for CS4.
Study some of these free Photoshop tutorials.
http://www.thedigitalp​hotographyconnection.c​om/


Here is the link for the mask download.
http://graphicssoft.ab​out.com …ents/qt/layerma​sktool.htm

I use PSE 8 for Mac. If I understand correctly, I thus have the full-blown Bridge and the full-blown Adobe RAW Converter. Thus far (and I am but a novice), this is serving me well.

My question then, what would I gain with Lightroom 2 ?

I am not being cute here. Is there something major I'm missing by not having PS Lightroom 2?

frjeff wrote in post #9687630
I use PSE 8 for Mac. If I understand correctly, I thus have the full-blown Bridge and the full-blown Adobe RAW Converter. Thus far (and I am but a novice), this is serving me well.

My question then, what would I gain with Lightroom 2 ?

I am not being cute here. Is there something major I'm missing by not having PS Lightroom 2?

I'd say it depends on where you are with your workflow. Lightroom builds an interface around the Raw processor that it shares with ACR that makes various tasks easy and integrated. It works well for a high volume of pictures that need organization, basic processing and quick output, whether or not they require special editing in a processor such as PS/Elements. Photoshop was designed with the assumption that every pic was going to be edited in Photoshop whether Raw, jpeg, etc, whereas Lightroom was designed to offer a workflow around your photography rather than around a "pixel editor".

The two work together well if you like the "workflow central" idea of Lightroom, but it's up to how you want to work. Download the free trial of Lightroom and decide for yourself!

frjeff wrote in post #9687630
I use PSE 8 for Mac. If I understand correctly, I thus have the full-blown Bridge and the full-blown Adobe RAW Converter. Thus far (and I am but a novice), this is serving me well.

My question then, what would I gain with Lightroom 2 ?

I am not being cute here. Is there something major I'm missing by not having PS Lightroom 2?

Good question. Got me thinking about this in a way I hadn't previously.

Granted, I'm on a pc, so don't have full ACR; but I think (having used LR for several years now) that I would do it again even with full ACR in PSE.

With Bridge, you don't really have a catalog, do you? Bridge is more of a browser... browse to the folder containing desired picture, right? I like the catalog concept... having everything right there in one LIBRARY module interface, even though the images themselves are in a tiered structure on disk (or perhaps not even online - on external disk... but you still know they are they in the library.)

PSE for windows has catalog (and I liked it); but switching from catalog to full editor took some time going back and forth. With LR, jumping back and forth from Develop to Library module for me is almost instant. Add to that the easy transfer of settings in batch across images, and the virtual copies without using up disk space, and the fact that I rarely need to go into PSE at all anymore... those things alone would make me say LR is a benefit to me.

Agree completely with Tony above, though... its the type of thing you'd have to decide for yourself if it is advantageous for you.

I wonder when Adobe will change the name of LR from 'Adobe Photoshop Lightroom' to simply 'Adobe Lightroom.' Amazingly, I use LR all the time and yet I never use it for organizational purposes. I really like being able to set a custom white balance (using my X-rite Passport and shooting in RAW), then apply those settings to multiple images at once. Even though it's easy to set a custom WB in-camera, the results aren't as consistent as with my X-rite and LR post-processing). I do use Photoshop all the time too, just because that's what I was weaned on.