Hi. I currently use LR for my post processing. I shoot Canon RAW. I am just adjusting exposure, fill, white balance, cropping, straighten, etc.

A few questions:

-How is the workflow with integrating Elements into LR?

-I've used the dust/spot removal tool to remove things. It works good, but it not really meant for removing objects. How is Elements for this? This is my primary reason for looking at Elements.

-Can it also turn photos into looking like oil paitnings, sketches, water colors, cartoons, etc? This isn't that important, but every now and then I get asked.

-How long has version 7 been out?

Although I would love something like CS4, I could not justify the cost since 95% of the time LR does everything I need. And, I'd rather buy gear instead.

Thank you,
B

edited to fix a typo

Anybody? I have been wondering the same thing.

You may have difficulty getting an answer on this forum as most people here use PS, not PS Elements.

That being said, I believe that while LR is intended to integrate with the full version of PS it should also work reasonably well with Elements. I haven't used Elements since version 4, but that version certainly wouldn't turn photos into oil paintings or the other things you mention. You should look at some of the Corel products for that sort of thing.

Elements does support layers and pixel manipulation so you will be able to do the sort of editing you mentioned.

Check out the Adobe site. They allow trial downloads of their products.

Hope this helps.

Thank you for your help. I'll probably download the demo. It's on sale this week at Best Buy ($30 off). I did go out and read the Adobe site, and it talked about merging photos e.g. taking several shots of a group photo and merging them all together to get everyone smiling. This isn't anything I'd need or try. I periodically just want to remove a branch or non circular shape, and LR's dust removal tool can do it, but it can be messy. I just need the dust/spot removal tool to offer a rectangular shape instead of a circle and this would meet 99% of what I need.

Thanks again.
B

Lightroom can be fully integrated with PSE7.