Buying Lightroom 5

At the moment, I use mostly PSE8 photo editing and am quite happy doing that. I am, though, considering buying Lightroom 5.x mainly because folks keep telling me that they use it for all their photo editing, so being a sheep maybe I should consider using it for mine.

A couple of questions for those who use Lightroom (esp with Elements) .......

1) Although I am not into compositing as a rule, I do want to keep the option to do stuff like swapping in a new sky. Can I successfully use PSE8 as an external editor with Lightroom or do I really need a later version (if so, why)? Does it work well? When Lightroom fires up an external editor, will it be a 16bit or 8bit image that is passed to PSE? Are there any "gotchas" I need to know about?

2) I use DSCL to produce 16"x12" (usually) prints for camera club competitions. Before saving a JEPG to upload to DSCL, I convert the output profile to suit DSCL's printers and the paper/ink they use. I do this in Rawtherapee, because PSE will only do the conversion when printing to a local printer. I know it's only a few key presses in CS6, but it's way too expensive to buy just for that reason - will Lightroom do output profile conversions and allow a JPEG to be saved with a custom profile?

Andrew

1. Can't tell u how Lightroom interfaces with PSE8 as I don't have it. But this might help

http://www.photokaboom.com/photography/learn/Lightroom/h_more/edit_in_PSE.htm

As to DSCL, from lightroom I export to JPEG the image I want. Re-sizing it, and setting the matt paper profile from the DSCL webpage. There is also an option for sharpening for prints which I use

Why not just upgrade to Elements 11.

I have both Elements 11 and lightroom but as I don't catalogue my pictures Lightroom was really just a waste of money as there is a lot elements can do that Lightroom cannot.

Andrew you can export as a 16bit PSD or TIFF and open that up in any version of Photoshop.

Lightroom is really good for applying lots of edits to lots of RAW files. It is a lot of money for what it is though, I agree.

That's very interesting. I have PSE11 and was using the Lightroom 5 demo until it ran out yesterday. Was less than convinced i would get anything extra out of LR5 but put that down to not knowing its true potential. Don't want to waste £100 on something that won't add that much extra. Especially as i would also like a new tripod, so would rather the £100 went in that direction. I'll stick with just PSE11 and Topaz Adjust.

For PSE8, I already have plug-ins or actions for curves, channel mixer, layer masks (all Grant's Tools), perspective correction, lens correction, CA correction (all PTLens), noise reduction (Colormancer).

Other than for the improved "Refine Edge" function for complex selections, is there any "must have" stuff in Elements 11? Is 16bit image editing still as limited as in PSE8 (Magic Wand, Selection Brush, Healing Brush, Clone and others, only available for 8 bit images)? Are layers (without cheating) still only available for 8 bit images?


Andrew

Thanks for that.

PSE has only limited functionality for 16 bit images, so I guess I would only want to export to PSD or TIFF for editing in PSE if I absolutely had to - as the files are more than 5 times the size of the original DNG.

Doing all the RAW edits non-destructively in Lightroom and only exporting to a final JPEG intended for print has some attractions.

Andrew

Always interesting to read how differently we all view things and approach pp work.

Me - since buying LR4 6 months ago - I have not opened PSE once.

Carl

Total convert to Lightroom. Only use PSE for stitched images. If you shoot raw, the full RAW converter in LR knocks spots off the crippled one in PSE. LR handles 16 bit images a treat, but doesn't do layers. However its curves support is as full PS I understand.

Paul

Oh no my head hurts. I made up my mind i didn't need LR5 but my initial thoughts were right, i just wasn't getting the most from it on the trial period. I suppose the new tripod can go on hold.

I use LR5 and wouldn't be without it, I've only just bought Elements 11 since it's drop in price.
I only use elements for stitching Panoramas and complicated cloning, I find I can do everything else in LR.
If you're a photographer get LR if you're a graphic designer get Photoshop

As above

I use Lightroom and wouldn't be without it too.



yes, and you can choose what bit depth Tiff lightroom sends to the external editor/plugins. I use 16bit TIFFs.

The way lightroom edits, it kind of does use internal layers. i.e it oesnt' matter waht order you apply changes it's all non destructive and you can enable or disable various edit modules at any time for comparison purposes. Lightroom applies edits in "real time" i.e when change somethign everything is updated.