Which Photoshop??

I am trying to figure the basic differences between Photoshop, Elements, and Lightroom. I always assumed that Lightroom was just a stripped down photoshop, is that the case? Which would you recommend? I have Paintshop Pro right now, but find its file handling capabilities and saving functions to be frustrating. Also, I would rather have the industry standard to make the most use out of the plethora of tutorials online and in magazines. Also I can find tons of books at the local library to teach photoshop.

I agree with the mentality of shooting better and less photoshopping. So most of my editing will be in terms of cropping, resizing, adjusting the photo if un-level, adjusting colors and clarity. I would like to be able to remove unwanted background objects with ease. ( telephone poles, light poles, people , cars etc. )

Any advice would be useful. I know that photoshop would be way more than I need but if I was going to spend the money, I would rather get something that I can grow with as opposed to having to upgrade and waste more money.

I can't help with elements, as I've never used it.

No, LR is not stripped-down photoshop. They are complementary programs. LR was designed as a digital workflow/organizing program (although it does have some editing capability) and it can link to photoshop for much more advanced editing capability.

If you or anyone in your family is a student or faculty anywhere (including grade school), you can get significant discounts on photoshop and/or lightroom.

Yeah, I was thinking of trying to do something like that, but unfortunately, there are no students in my immediate family. I just want to be sure that spending the money is on what I will need the most. I also like that cs4 has adobe bridge for orginzing my photos as well.

To be honest, I know of friend that could get me photoshop for free, but I am trying to be an honest professional ( well once I did get to the professional level )

Also, do you know how many computers it will allow you to place photoshop on? Like if you have 2 desktops and a laptop? Or is it one computer per purchase?

G edge wrote: So most of my editing will be in terms of cropping, resizing, adjusting the photo if un-level, adjusting colors and clarity. I would like to be able to remove unwanted background objects with ease. ( telephone poles, light poles, people , cars etc. )

I don't know anything about Elements. I'm using Photoshop CS4 and LR2, so my info isn't up to date, but I think it's still basically accurate. I do consider Lightroom to be sort of Photoshop condensed down to what photographers mainly need. Photoshop covers a lot of fields besides photography. Lightroom is about photograph processing and organizing. In Lightroom Adobe took the Photoshop tools and techniques that were becoming somewhat standard in digital photo processing, and tried to put them into an easier to use interface. I can do the same processing in CS as I do LR, but it takes more steps or I have to make an action. LR automatically handles non-destructive processing. It's sharpening tool is derived from Bruce Fraser's techniques (late author of Real World Sharpening With Adobe Photoshop) which are the ones I, and many others, would be using in Photoshop. They took the channel mixer, and gave it even more options, and so on.... I can completely process almost all of my photos using the tools available in Lightroom. Lightroom covers most of the traditional darkroom techniques, and a few new ones. It has everything you mention in your first sentence quoted above. It even has a patch tool/clone stamp sort of tool that works pretty good most of the time. The cataloging system in LR blows Bridge away.

I really only need Photoshop to stitch photos, warp photos, combine exposures (HDR or otherwise), some weird sharpening, or other techniques that LR can't do. Photoshop does allow for more complex removal of background objects. The healing brush (or whatever they call it) in LR doesn't have the precision control available in CS (selection tools, layer masks, content aware fill, etc...).

For the price I think Lightroom is a great deal, and will handle most of your needs. Download a trial. There are a few tools that it doesn't have, and you would need CS or some other software for.

Yes, Lr is a very solid tool for professionals (especially for cataloging). If you need to do more than it can do, PSE would be plenty. Don't buy PSE though as it comes free with many scanners and tablets (ex. wacom).

Matthew

G edge wrote:


Also, do you know how many computers it will allow you to place photoshop on? Like if you have 2 desktops and a laptop? Or is it one computer per purchase?

I believe its two......

I used Elements initialy, it is a great piece of software, but now that I have CS5 (legitimately), it is far superior and worth every penny, it does come with bridge but I never use it, no particular reason, I have lightroom 3 and use that to catalogue and do all the basic adjustments before moving into CS5,
In CS5 I do more elaborate work to selected photographs, the spot healing brush has content aware and makes removing objects so much easier, other than that I have now taken to burning and dodging images to get the effect I require, but only on certain photos, as has been said if you get it right in camera you can save yourself a lot of work.

My advice if you can afford it then get it.

legion 1 wrote: I can't help with elements, as I've never used it.

No, LR is not stripped-down photoshop. They are complementary programs. LR was designed as a digital workflow/organizing program (although it does have some editing capability) and it can link to photoshop for much more advanced editing capability.

If you or anyone in your family is a student or faculty anywhere (including grade school), you can get significant discounts on photoshop and/or lightroom.

Thats how I got my Pshop version. college discount then it's only $200 to upgrade when they come out with new versions. I'm waiting for CS6 since I didn't upgrade to CS5 yet.

G edge wrote: Yeah, I was thinking of trying to do something like that, but unfortunately, there are no students in my immediate family. I just want to be sure that spending the money is on what I will need the most. I also like that cs4 has adobe bridge for orginzing my photos as well.

To be honest, I know of friend that could get me photoshop for free, but I am trying to be an honest professional ( well once I did get to the professional level )

Also, do you know how many computers it will allow you to place photoshop on? Like if you have 2 desktops and a laptop? Or is it one computer per purchase?

Photoshop allows 2 downloads, if you change computers you need to deactivate it then reactivate it on the new one. If you have a Hard drive failure, you just need to call them.

I have Lightroom and never use it. I know others swear by it. But I hated the cataloging folder it has. When I get use to using something like Photoshop Cs4 then I seem to stick with it. I like Adobe bridge, you can still do a search by using the key words you attached to your photos to find them. you can rate them like LR. I can do all my adjustments in adobe bridge to several photos at one time. It has many extras, plus I have a bunch of free neat presets from OnOne software in bridge that has cool effects. Don't even need to go into Photoshop if you don't want. But I always seem to , for use of my other software.

photobod wrote: I used Elements initialy, it is a great piece of software, but now that I have CS5 (legitimately),

My advice if you can afford it then get it.

Sorry, but I find that hilarious!!! I know you can get it other ways, but that was bloody brilliant!!!

Our company uses all versions of Photoshop to make sure we can help all customers who use our products with different versions. Note, Photoshop CS and Elements are similar in function, whereas Lightroom is a different animal. We use it as well, but in conjunction with Photoshop. For much of what you want to do, Lightroom will be fine, though, when it comes to editing, such as removing trees from the background (or adding them in!) or removing blemishes from skin, or making someone skinny, for example, then you'll use the tools of Photoshop, which are quite amazing. So, think of Lightroom as a quick adjustment software (with beautiful results), but Photoshop as a true, full editing software where the sky is the limit (thus, the price difference).

The major difference between Elements and CS is in the details. Elements is an excellent software, though the more and more you want to do with your photos, the more and more you may find that Elements has its limitations. For example, if you want to add a drop shadow to an image or text, Elements only gives you so many control options to adjust that drop shadow...you can add the shadow, but the detail in which you can adjust it will not be as endless as with CS, where you can really fine tune any detail with incredible precision. Also, note, some styles, such as adding an inner-shadow to your image, such as to tone down the light on your subject's edges, are not able to be adjusted in Elements...yes, you have the option to add an inner-shadow, but you've only got six pre-set options...whereas CS will allow you to adjust an inner-shadow any way you want.

These types of differences are throughout the softwares. For example, in the background eraser tool, CS gives you the tool as does Elements, but the tool has four features for fine-tuning its use in CS and only three in Elements...but that extra feature can really make that tool easier to use.

All that being said, for the most part, there's usually a way in Elements to replicate what you can do in CS, though CS makes it so much easier. For example the Liquify tool is incredible in CS, but it's not in Elements. However, in Elements, you can get just about the same effect with the Smudge tool...but the Liquify tool is just so much smoother and easier to use, much more forgiving...which allows for a much better workflow...and less frustration.

So, it really comes down to how much editing you want to do on your photos. We talk to professional photographers every day that only use Elements, because for them, their clients don't demand that every wrinkle is cleaned up or every photo looks like it's from a Hollywood magazine... Sure, they want to add photos to Holiday Cards or other templates we offer, and change the text and colors, etc....and Photoshop Elements can do that without issue...so for them, there's no need for CS.

As another poster said, if you can afford it, might as well go with CS and grow into it than go with Elements and grow out of it...but if money is a factor, go with Elements, see how much you need something more powerful and upgrade from there. Hope this helps!