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which to choose... help please :)


aimmitt

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HI! i'm brand new to this forum and would love some direction. I just finished a trial of Photoshop Elements 10 but not certain that this is the best software yet ... there are so many and I'm a little confused. I am just launching my photography business and want to ensure that the people & children that I shoot are delivered in the best way possible to my future clients. hoping to purchase a user friendly software since right now, i'm teaching myself and I'm sure you can help guide me! Thanks much!
 
if it is purely for a photography based editor you will want to invest in Adobe lightroom 3 Which is the current version but if you want a bigger demo then they have released adobe lightroom 4 beta which i think is good to use for a year just remember it is not a finished product.

Google it and you should find the download link for it through adobe labs

if you want to lean towards heavy photo editing then adobe photoshop cs5 will be the best option but if purchasing it and you can wait a couple of months I am sensing cs6 will be released in MAy
 
thanks for your quick reply! would you stay away from elements 10? i'm an amateur with hopes to grow into something. I like most of my shots as is but would want to soften and do a bit more to make them extra special for future clients.. not thinking anything to extravagent. i was told cs5 is good but wondering if I can handle it.....??
 
elements is a good basic all round editing software so I hear lol and is cheap. Adobe lightroom is probably the leading software for digital darkroom eding processing and production if your not wanting to do photoshop manipulations (I am not sure what elements can or cant do ) then yes Adobe lightroom is the path you want to go down

Phaseone do similar software called capture 1 I have tried the demo of it and do not like it as much as lightroom but then I guess I have always used adobe products so know my way around them.

Lightroom is good for newbies to professionals it is just a case of slifing sliders to correct images with so much more creativity once you learn more about it. If I was you while it is in the beta testing mode download it for free because it will cost a couple of hundred dollars when it is released so try it out while it is free and then search youtube for tutorials.

I often do most of my photo editing in lightroom (has lots of presets filters as well) but then if I want to get creative with pictures I will use photoshop cs5 to do it. I am sure you will be pleased with lightroom many professional photographers do about 90% of there work just using lightroom. But as you grow and want to learn more you may want to also get elements or if you can afford it photoshop cs5\6 when released
 
so what would you say are the main differences between lightroom and cs5?

I mainly shoot babies and children...if that matters between the two...

lots of great info and I'm so appreciative!
 
well most things you do in lightroom can be done in photoshop I doubt it with elements though.

The main advantages is lightroom is built for photographers it is quick and easy work flow with batch processing

for example you open up an album of 200 photos from 1 shoot
you used the same lighting\ white balance exposure etc
you open up 1 of the images make all your edits, sharpness \soft focus colour boost warmth crop it to a size even resize it colour correction exposure adjustments etc then click the sync button and hey presto it will apply all your settings from that 1 photo to all 200 photos in that album.

It then lets you create web galleries etc if you want to upload it to a website even flickr or facebook it will upload all your photos for you at a touch of a button.

There are a lot of functions and filters that are not available in photoshop especially preset effects which you can make your own and save them if you have your own style. Making it easy to apply to any future pictures with just 1 click. Or you can go to adobe exchange and download from thousands of presets users from all around the world have uploaded.


Now most people who can use photoshop can duplicate the same effects as lightroom but lightroom has its own version adobe camera raw which is more powerfull and with the option to only edit 1 picture and apply it to every picture in the folder it is less time consuming.
 
to sum up if you just want to enhance photos of any nature and you want a quick work flow then I would choose lightroom you can do all your editing in there and get plugins for specialist effects that work with it.

If you want to do compositions blending photos together, changing backgrounds adding special effects like flowers and stuff (so much more) or even enhance your models either loose weight body shaping even things like making lips and eyes bigger and stuff then photoshop is your best option.


in an ideal world you will want to use both but that will cost around $1000 for both bits of software but they work hand in hand with each other.

It depends on your budget and the capabilities of photoshop elements maybe that would be a good combination to begin with lightroom especially as you can get it for free at the moment and elements if you are on a tight budget.

or Download lightroom while it is free (beta version of course) and buy photoshop cs5 and in a year or so you can buy lightroom 4 full version.
 
adobe lightroom is actually called adobe photoshop lightroom it is basically taking all the best features for photo editing that photoshop has and making it all available through a simpler interface and improving the quality of the features.

Lightroom is for developing photos enhancing them in a quick and easy way but not really designed to manipulate the photos.

Photoshop lets you enhance photos but it is not as easy as lightroom. Lightroom has a menu bar down the side that lets you do each step of photo enhancement in order via sliders

Photoshop has the similar features but not as powerful and are scattered all around the program.

Photoshop lets you take your photos further than just a photo ie adverts graphic elements added physically changing the pixels etc.

Lightroom will let you edit 100's of pictures at a time and export them all to a folder where the size resolution etc are all the same or you can use it to upload directly to social networking sites or create web galleries.

Lightroom has 100's of preset photo styles at a click of a button.
 
Elements, CS5, and Lightroom are all Adobe products.
Photoshop Elements is basically Photoshop CS5 Lite.

"Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3 software helps you bring out the best in your photographs, whether you're perfecting one image, searching for ten, processing hundreds, or organizing thousands."

Lightroom also has photo-editing capabilities but doesn't touch CS5 in overall image manipulation, something you may not need.
 
Photoshop can provide you with the best photo editing solution. Since you have already tried Elements, you can easily learn to use it effectively to edit/manipulate your photos.
 

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