Elements v Lightroom

Hi All,
You can probably tell from the title that I am new to all of this. I have recently purchased a K10D and am thinking of doing more than just loading the images onto the computer.
I understand that there are various programmes out there but was just wondering about the two. Do they do the same thing? Is one preferable to the other or do you need both?

Thanks.

Welcome to the forum.

I started using Elements last year and think that it is a good programme.

We have the full blown Photoshop CS3 at work, but Elements seems to do everything that most people would want and is good value.

I cannot comment on Lightroom but I am sure that others will shortly.

Yes, you can't go far wrong with Elements, especially the latest version, it is a great program to get you started, has 95% of what you need.

I use CS3 & could not live without Bridge but it is a lot more expensive!
As to Lightroom, I have tried it and TBH the way it works ain't the way I think at all, it is a great package if you do a lot of bulk processing and does great slideshows but you will not have the editing power of Elements, perhaps I missed something!

Lilly

Welcome David, have a look here:

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/productinfo/faq/lr_bridge.html

In my view, choosing suitable software is getting much more difficult these days! Unless you expect to need professional "tools" I would give Elements a try as it does a lot for the money.

I bought Lightroom as I needed a RAW convertor as my current "home" copy of Photoshop (7) doesn't support RAW, and I managed to get Lightroom for the introductory price of £80.00! Lightroom has a great interface and is very nice to use but you still need another package for editing. Many of us are hoping that editing "plugins" will become available for Lightroom!

What platform do you use?

Vic.

Silkypix should be on your short list as well. It's an excellent RAW converter that costs under £80. I prefer its user interface to Lightroom's. Further editing if required can be done with a free program such as Gimp.

Also have a look at 'Paintshop Pro x2', it's less than £40 from Amazon and a few other retailers. It does most things that you might need

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/gb/en/Product/1184951547051

Have a look, maybe even try the free trial



Serendipity (Mick)

My support goes to SilkyPix for RAW conversion (recent convert to it myself) and PSP for image manipulation/finishing off.

I used to use Photoshop CS2, now having downloaded the trial of lightroom, I think I will be purchasing it. I have increased my workflow massively, and with photoshop as a backup I can easily edit in that as well for adjustments further than just colour and exposure over the whole image (certain areas etc). I sorted through 1000 photos from a recent holiday in under 4 hours today.

I have Photoshop Elements 2 and find it is reasonable for most of my 'serious' post processing needs.

Lightroom is a whole other kettle of fish though. It is a library, RAW developer, Print and Web publishing tool wrapped in a clean and efficient package. One of my best purchases.

I use lightroom exclusively. At the moment i don't need anything else but it depends on what you want to do. you can't 'photoshop' with light room, i.e. you can't paste one image onto another. so no penguins and polar bears, no using skies from one image with another.

But I've had several images in the top 5 of the weekly competition here using only lightroom.

Thanks to all for the responses and the welcome Hyram.

I think on balance it appears that Elements is the one to try as it appears to give greater flexibility on image manipulation along with being able to deal with RAW and has a 'filing system'.

The platform is Windows XP home Vic. Thanks for the link, it answered a lot of my queries about Lightroom. I had already done some reading about Elements.

I will have a lookat Silkypix but I would prefer something all in one package.

David