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Archive 2010 · Elements or LightRoom?

  
 
saaketham
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Elements or LightRoom?


I currently use LightRoom 2 which I bought sometime back and enjoy using. But, a colleague of mine argued that Elements 6/7 is as good as LightRoom for most people. Now, I couldn't find any feature comparison between LR and PSE. PSE also has the advantage of having some of PS's features in addition to LR's. I'm not looking to "sidegrade" or "downgrade" or "upgrade" from LR to PSE, but am curious about why LR is so costly when PSE does nearly the same as LR and then some. Thanks.


Apr 07, 2010 at 01:41 PM
butchM
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Elements or LightRoom?


Depends on your style and workflow. I wouldn't say one is better or worse than the other ... only that the flow of how the work is accomplished seem much more fluid in LR as opposed to many other options.

If you are dealing with more than a few dozen RAW images in a single work session, I find LR to be a great time saving solution vs. Bridge/ACR/PS route. In fact only about 10% of my images ever see PS these days ... with that time savings in LR, the price differential with PSE is moot ... for me at least ...



Apr 07, 2010 at 02:30 PM
GC5
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Elements or LightRoom?



+1. I find LR to have much better workflow even if it doesn't do much that you can't do in Elements. To me, it's just much more user friendly for both organizing and editing.

If cost were an issue, I'd tell someone just to get Elements. If not, LR is a better platform from which to organize. (Caveat, I haven't tried Elements 8 so don't know if it's changed in some way).



Apr 07, 2010 at 03:18 PM
saaketham
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Elements or LightRoom?


From what little we discussed, all the features I use in LR seems to be also in PSE (according to my colleague). So ... if in the future, I feel like upgrading, then why not just stick with PSE 9 .. is what I'm thinking.


Apr 07, 2010 at 03:33 PM
v.bampton
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Elements or LightRoom?


Different tools for different jobs.

Elements (and Photoshop) are designed primarily for pixel based editing on small numbers of images, whereas Lightroom is designed primarily for managing and metadata based editing on large numbers of images. They compliment each other.



Apr 07, 2010 at 04:23 PM
anthonygh
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Elements or LightRoom?


With LR you can get by with older versions of PS..these might be obtainable cheaply...so working exclusively with pro software might be a consideration! Best bet is to try the free trials and see what you think!


Apr 07, 2010 at 05:16 PM
saaketham
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Elements or LightRoom?


As I mentioned, I already bought LR several months back and enjoy using it. It is slow on my iMac, but not horribly slow. It is just that I am curious why PSE is so powerful and cheap while LR is only slightly more powerful and costly. I may be missing something here. Wish there was a comparison chart between PSE and LR. If I ever decide to upgrade to a new LR version, then I might just stick with PSE if it is equally powerful as LR for the features I need.

I mainly do hierarchical keywords, some edits in the Develop module, web galleries using flash (for a quick and dirty FTP upload for some gallery). Maybe PSE is all I need for these.



Apr 07, 2010 at 05:21 PM
GC5
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p.1 #8 · p.1 #8 · Elements or LightRoom?




Proofs, print sets, printing, web pages, slideshows, mass-editing are all much easier in LR (if possible at all in PSE). It's main benefit is in file management.



Apr 07, 2010 at 07:10 PM
butchM
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p.1 #9 · p.1 #9 · Elements or LightRoom?


saaketham wrote:
It is just that I am curious why PSE is so powerful and cheap while LR is only slightly more powerful and costly. I may be missing something here.


Download and compare the Lightroom 3 public beta.

The new noise reduction is well worth the price difference IMHO. If you already have a LR license, the upgrade price will be well worth the investment .... not to mention other features, and possibly some surprises that may be in store for the final release of v3 that may not be in the beta ...

I don't know which iMac you have, but I am using an older 24" 2.16 Ghz Core2Duo with 3 GB RAM and LR flows rather smoothly. While I know LR can perform much better on a maxed out Mac Pro, I don't feel I am overloading the system, as my main catalog has over 100K images ...



Apr 07, 2010 at 07:29 PM
SteveTuerk
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p.1 #10 · p.1 #10 · Elements or LightRoom?


I think it's very possible that with Elements Adobe is working a form of the Gillette business model.

They sell their Ellements program in order to capture the market of those users who become adept with Elements and want more, enough more to stimulate them to move up to Photoshop.

Lightroom is an organization tool for large numbers of images but with some limited edit tools thrown in for those who need only those basic pieces.

It does seem that the three programs are moving closer together; it is not as easy to tell them apart as it once was even though each continues to develop or refine it's 'specialty' with each version.

Adobe is coming at us from every direction



Apr 07, 2010 at 07:58 PM
michael49
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p.1 #11 · p.1 #11 · Elements or LightRoom?


I do 95% of my PP in LR nowadays. I would much rather have LR.


Apr 08, 2010 at 07:24 AM
briangg
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p.1 #12 · p.1 #12 · Elements or LightRoom?


I use both Elements 8 and LR2, and now LR3 Beta. Where Elements really shines is for the photographer who "works" his images. I like to work my shots. The ability to isolate certain parts of the image or a certain object in an image is huge. And a necessity for the landscape photographer in different lighting conditions. I also like the "save for web" and resizing options in PS.

LR for me provides a nice smooth work flow that prepares my image for later more direct edits. The upgrades in LR3 just make that work flow even more better. If I had to drop one, I would drop lightroom because the editing is not as direct as I would like or need to reach a finished image. I really like LR3 though, and it all comes down with how much creativity you like to express with your images to reach your vision.

Brian



Apr 20, 2010 at 07:47 PM
Littlefield
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p.1 #13 · p.1 #13 · Elements or LightRoom?


michael49 wrote:
I do 95% of my PP in LR nowadays. I would much rather have LR.

I agree LR blows away PSE ,no comparision .

http://www.thedigitalphotographyconnection.com/LFDP.php?accesscheck=%2FLFDP2.php



Apr 23, 2010 at 11:33 PM





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