Software Upgrade Path

[Duffy Pratt]

I may be upgrading my post-processing software.

I currently use PS CS to edit pictures, and Elements 3.0 for its organizer. The main plug-in I use is Noiseware.

I'm considering either upgrading Photoshop to CS3, or getting Lightroom to replace Elements as the organizer (and to use the RAW processing). I've heard that Lightroom is a resource hog, and I'm only using a 4 year old laptop right now, so that worries me a little.

If you had to choose between these upgrades, which would you do?

Also, are there any other plug-ins I should consider as an alternative? The main one that I might be interested in is the sharpening tool developed by Bruce Fraser (I forget the name right now).

Thanks,

Duffy

[johnastovall]

PhotoKit Sharpener is a must have. I would go with CS3 and get Lightroom on a faster machine with lots of disk space.

[jeffkohn]

IMHO CS3 is a lot more useful than Lightroom. And you may find that Bridge is good enough to be your DAM, it's come a long way since CS.

As to how CS3 will run on your laptop I can't say. Probably not too much different than CS but I suppose it could use a bit more RAM than the older version.

[picman]

Here is a quick overview of the Bridge CS3 by Russell Brown

http://av.adobe.com/russellbrown/BasicBridgeSM.mov

[adirty1]

much better than cs2. I might even think about moving up to cs3 after that.

[SaundraU]

Lightroom all the way. I have CS2 and I can almost everything in lightroom now w/ minor things in CS2 and it has speed up my PP.

[BrianY]

I use both LR and PS CS3. They're great complements to each other.

That being said, if I had to choose one or the other, I'd go with Lightroom. With it, I find that I'm spending less time to organize & process my images. You can always throw some of the images back to photoshop for the artistic fine tuning.

[Duffy Pratt]

Thanks for the advice. Lightroom will have to wait. In the end, I'd much rather have the best tools available for manipulation, and sacrifice my "filing" system (or deal with headaches there). I ordered CS3 today, on the Canon/Elements upgrade path for $299.

I will also probably get the Photokit Sharpener in the near future. On that one, I'm also a bit concerned about its resource consumption. From what I've read, I may need to get a new computer before I can really take advantage of that one. On any image that really requires it, though, its always possible to do almost all the same work just using Fraser's book combined with USM and some creative masking.

Thanks again for all the input.

Duffy