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uptick
Jan 29, 2008, 1:19 AM
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I'm currently using Elements 4. Slowly advancing my skills and am considering an upgrade. Assuming there isnt too much to be had in upgrading to Elements 6. Being I'm not a professional, not sure if it's really worth while to get CS3...So...giving an uneducated guess - looking at Lightroom or CS2.
What benefit does one program have over the other?
THX!
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slacklinejoe
Jan 29, 2008, 1:54 AM
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It really depends on what you are trying to do with it. What paticular features have you outgrown on elements that you want the upgrade? I.e. where are you heading with your skills or are you just put off by the fact your a couple versions behind?
I have cs3 (upgraded from cs2) and while nice it is hard to justify the price difference for a beginner. If you are, or know, a student lots of places have educational versions at a discount that are fully fledged.
Lightroom, in my mind anyway, is more set aside for those wanting to do lighting/color adjustments on RAW formats or for those trying to retain the shot as a whole with no modifications other than what you could have done with different lenses, exposures or some darkroom editing. It isn't really designed for if you ever need to cut a misc person out of the photo who happened to walk by at just the wrong time, for removing ropes, chalk ticks and has no room to really grow into the occasional advanced edit. All that said though, I never seem to need to use lightroom because I have photoshop and RAW files aren't common on my editing list.
Heck, for the money PaintShop Pro is actually really good. I've been using PSP since version 3. I kind of consider it the step between elements and photoshop. Mind you it isn't much below photoshop. There are only a couple things photoshop does better than PSP but all those little parts have a steep learning curve anyway.
GIMP is of course free but I only recommend that to people who are masochistic.
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wes_allen
Jan 29, 2008, 3:29 AM
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It depends on what you do, photography-wise. Do you take a lot of photos and need a good way to keep track of them? Just need basic global adjustments? Like to get creative with your photos, use layers, etc.?
For climbing/sports/nature stuff I almost never use my copy of CS3, as aperture can do all I need. CS3 is for getting creative.
uptick wrote: I'm currently using Elements 4. Slowly advancing my skills and am considering an upgrade. Assuming there isnt too much to be had in upgrading to Elements 6. Being I'm not a professional, not sure if it's really worth while to get CS3...So...giving an uneducated guess - looking at Lightroom or CS2. What benefit does one program have over the other? THX! |
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deepplaymedia
Jan 29, 2008, 11:26 AM
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as everyone seems to be saying, it depends what you want to do...
i recommend checking out adobe lightroom, if there is more 'full on' nitty gritty stuff you want to do then you can always add a copy of PS C# down the track but i suspect that lightroom will do everything you need
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uptick
Jan 29, 2008, 2:05 PM
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hahaha...seems to be a common denominator on the replies (actually, I deleted the last sentence of my post and it was...It probably depends on what I am trying to accomplish.)
Had my question half answered but am not familiar with the differences between the programs.
Assume CS2 will allow tagging and organizing. Not thrilled on the batch capabilities of Elements. Often I will take 200-300 photo's and it takes forever to go through the material.
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piton
Jan 29, 2008, 5:13 PM
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what kind of camera do you use?
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kriso9tails
Jan 29, 2008, 10:36 PM
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uptick wrote: hahaha...seems to be a common denominator on the replies (actually, I deleted the last sentence of my post and it was...It probably depends on what I am trying to accomplish.) Had my question half answered but am not familiar with the differences between the programs. Assume CS2 will allow tagging and organizing. Not thrilled on the batch capabilities of Elements. Often I will take 200-300 photo's and it takes forever to go through the material.
Well, I've never used elements and I've only used the batch features on CS1, CS3 Extended and Lightroom, but I'll comment for what it's worth.
Lightroom (Aperture as well), as mentioned is great for general correction and minor touch ups, organizing photos and streamlining your shooting process. Just about whatever it can do, it can do in batches, and as an added bonus it doesn't harm the original file in anyway. The export features and file management features are wonderful.
One particularly interesting feature is the spray paint tool. Basically, you can create presets for keywords, label, flag, rating, metadata, settings and rotation. Then, when you're looking at all the thumbnails you can just 'paint' them quickly with the tool to apply the preset.
Overall, it's a very flexible program once you adjust to it, but it should be taken into consideration that it is not an editing program. It is photo managing, and to a certain extent photo processing software. If you are looking to extend your photo editing power, this is likely not the best solution.
It should also be noted that it's somewhat RAM intensive. you won't see full benefit with less than a gig of RAM, but I've run it on half that before and still felt it was of some benefit... just laggy as hell.
Photoshop: Well, like I said, I've never used elements, so I just don't know what's missing from latter that is in the former. My suspicion is quite a bit. In terms of photo management, I know CS3 comes with the latest version of Bridge, which some people swear by, but I just haven't gotten around to playing with it. I don't know what the case is for CS2.
Batch processing can be quite powerful since it runs from the actions. So long as you define an action, you can batch process it, and provided said action doesn't require user input it will all be nicely automated.
If you tend to shoot events for the sake of recording them, then Lightroom may very well be the better solution should you only buy one program. It will allow you to manage larger numbers of photos at a higher quality/ shorter amount of time than in Photoshop on average. If, however, you are mostly producing images that are intended to stand alone (meaning if you shot two hundred you're likely only using a couple in the end) then Photoshop is probably the better option.
I'm being very general here, but I hope that's of some help.
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uptick
Jan 30, 2008, 5:07 AM
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I abuse a Fuji F30 & D200
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piton
Jan 30, 2008, 1:47 PM
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imo capture NX is great for the d200. not so sure for the fuji. i would think your best bet is CS2 or CS3, if you can qualify for the upgrade, otherwise it's real expensive.
if you're going to be using the nikon as your main camera check out the capture nx. you should be able to download a 30 day free trial version
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uptick
Jan 30, 2008, 2:18 PM
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Thanks for all the input. My plan:
Find some hot babe with a G5 that really knows her stuff in Photoshop.
Plan B: Go with CS2.
My brother-in-law has an extra copy of Photoshop 7 and believe I can get an upgrade fairly cheap or go the student version route. Assuming the student version has 99% of what I need.
Elements does a respectful job and plug-ins give me curves and other stuff it didnt originally come with. I want to get my photo's as good as possible out of the box and am a firm believer in shoot for the photo and not Photoshop. Photoshop is a noun, not a verb...
I do like play around with stuff on occasion and that is where my real limitations come in to play. Having some frustration on Elements on following scipts attempting to achieve certain results and they come out nothing as intended. Not sure if it is due to programs operating different or the process needing to be done in a different manner.
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uptick
Jan 30, 2008, 2:34 PM
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Capture NX comes free with the D300 and am seeing quite a few on eBay. Guess people are selling the program to offset the cost of the camera. Seem to be fetching about a buckfifty. I hear it is a nice program. A little hesitant to try simply because I have started to get proficient with the Photoshop short cuts and processes.
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piton
Jan 30, 2008, 7:53 PM
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that's why you download the Free trial version for Capture NX. try it out see if you like it. i think people were having problems w/ the D300 and the software so that may be why there is a bunch for sale on ebay.
if you do have PS7 then get the upgrade to CS3 not CS2. the RAW editor in CS3 does a great job
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mtengaio
Feb 1, 2008, 4:17 AM
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Go for Photoshop…you'll be happier in the end. I use CS2 at work everyday for ad design and it's great to be able to work on photos AND do design work. It's just a lot more flexible for creative people.
Certainly try the PS7 then upgrade to CS3. But if you can only buy one version, CS2 will work fine, and it comes with Bridge too.
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