Which route should I go??

[ryno]

Should I buy:

Option 1: Lightroom 3 & CS4

or

Option 2: Lightroom 3 & PS Elements 9


...so basically I need help on the CS4 vs PS Elements, besides the money factor.

[dmarty78]

Are you going to buy the CS4 used? You may be able to get a good deal on it that way. I never used PSE, therefore can't give any advice on that. I'm sure some others can help you out with that.

[Rson]

LR and save for PS CS5, or get CS3. CS4 is a dog as far as performance.

[Cajungaltx]

LR3 & CS4 is my suggestion...

I have only had people with Elements complain about what it couldn't do....which isn't an issue with CS4...

[Cajungaltx]

Originally Posted by Rson

LR and save for PS CS5, or get CS3. CS4 is a dog as far as performance.

Really? I bought the adobe web CS4 - and I def like it more than CS3... why is it a dog?

[dmarty78]

Originally Posted by Cajungaltx

Really? I bought the adobe web CS4 - and I def like it more than CS3... why is it a dog?

+1 i never had problems with it.

[Rson]

Originally Posted by Cajungaltx

Really? I bought the adobe web CS4 - and I def like it more than CS3... why is it a dog?

They added in more features that used the processor more and boasted that it now uses the video card....reality the card isn't used much and the new features and GUI used more resources even in 64bit. CS4 just seemed to blog down more than cs3...this could totally be a first version of a new package like Vista was for MS.

I had both in my system and CS3 ran better. Now CS5, that rocks, they worked out the bugs.

[ldelacruz]

I use Lightroom 2 and PSE 6. Although I have CS5 I rarely use it.

[Daniel W.]

What will you be doing as far as post-processing goes?

If you're just doing basic adjusts (exposure, contrast, color, very basic retouch/fix) LR3 would be all that you need.

From my experience PSE does a fair bit more than LR, minus the organization and export aspects, but not enough to justify costs of both.

I had LR3+CS4 but upgraded to 5 simply because it was a pain to convert my RAW files to TIFF before editing. That and some of the new content-aware stuff is pretty useful in certain applications. That being said, I know I don't use CS5 to it's full capacity, and if need be could get by with just Lightroom for 70% of what I do. The other 30 includes retouching, compositing, graphic design...something PS is better at over PSE or LR.

[venchka]

Buy Lightroom. Learn how to use EVERYTHING Lightroom can do for you. If/when you find some reason to NEED Photoshop, then get Photoshop. You may NEED Photoshop soon. Or you may never NEED photoshop. It depends.

How's that for a balanced approach? No Photoshop bashing here.

[ryno]

thanks everyone for your input. I am going to get lightroom 3 and learn the in's & out's then take on CS4/CS5 later on down the road.

[Gildersleeve]

My suggestion is to sign up for a Photoshop Class at a local community college. After you get registered for class, or if you have a student in your family, you can get the full blown software package really cheap! (Like $600.00 for the Adobe Master Collection, reg. priced at $2,600.00) I had to buy Lightroom separately, under $100.00. If you want just the Photoshop, you can buy that cheap, but I don't remember what the price was. Good Luck!!

[ryno]

Originally Posted by Gildersleeve

My suggestion is to sign up for a Photoshop Class at a local community college. After you get registered for class, or if you have a student in your family, you can get the full blown software package really cheap! (Like $600.00 for the Adobe Master Collection, reg. priced at $2,600.00) I had to buy Lightroom separately, under $100.00. If you want just the Photoshop, you can buy that cheap, but I don't remember what the price was. Good Luck!!

good idea