Which is best for an enthusiast Photo Shop or Lightroom: If this is in the wrong section please accept my apology. I feel that i need to get some sort of software to use for editing...

unclestu Loc: NJ

If this is in the wrong section please accept my apology. I feel that i need to get some sort of software to use for editing and correcting my photos and doing some creaative things in the computer. I see a lot mentioned about two different products. Photo Shop and Lightroom. I am not a pro photographer with a large nuber of photos to process. This is just my hobby. Which do you think would be best for a person such as myself, Photo Shop or Lightroom?
Thanks
Stu

Rongnongno Loc: FL

They come together for 9.99 so why thinking one or the other?

wisner Loc: The planet Twylo

Lightroom, it is designed for photographers. Photoshop, while a fantastic editing tool, has a steep learning curve and has many features designed for the graphic arts industry. Since you have lots of images to process, Lightroom, in my opinion, is the best choice.
You can subscribe to Adobe Creative Cloud Lightroom and Photoshop for $10.00 month. When you are ready for Photoshop, it will be there for you. You can also buy lightroom as a standalone program.
There are other similar programs that other Hoggers can recommend that may suit you.
Good luck!

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

one theory..

http://digital-photography-school.com/photoshop-versus-lightroom-which-is-right-for-you/

speters Loc: Grangeville/Idaho

unclestu wrote:

If this is in the wrong section please accept my apology. I feel that i need to get some sort of software to use for editing and correcting my photos and doing some creaative things in the computer. I see a lot mentioned about two different products. Photo Shop and Lightroom. I am not a pro photographer with a large nuber of photos to process. This is just my hobby. Which do you think would be best for a person such as myself, Photo Shop or Lightroom?
Thanks
Stu

If you're into top notch editing (were you can let your fantasy run wild), than there is no substitute for Photoshop, if you just like basic editing, Lightroom will provide more than you need!

minniev Loc: MIssissippi

Lightroom excels for photo cataloguing, raw development and general editing. Photoshop is needed for tasks such as removing unwanted objects, swapping out skies or backgrounds, complex editing with layer masks, etc. Many photographers, even hobbyists like me, use both.

There are also other options, some less expensive if money is any issue. If you told more about your budget, and your computer platform, you would probably get more ideas.

Rick36203 Loc: Northeast Alabama

I like dirtpusher's link for listing the strengths of each application.

I have the monthly subscription with both.

If I were going to choose only one, for me it would be Photoshop. You get many of the same organizer functions as Lightroom, and even more powerful editing capability.

But again, why choose when you can have both?

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

for ownersgip. i would get lightroom and ps elements.

Racmanaz Loc: Sunny Tucson!

unclestu, if you are just going to do a few photos then might want to save your hard earned money and get one of many very good free editing software. I have the Lightzone 4 and it's a great editing software and FREE!

Gimp - http://www.gimp.org/downloads/
Picasa- http://picasa.google.com/
Lightzone- http://lightzoneproject.org/

Allen Hirsch Loc: Oakland, CA

If you don't have pp skills already, Lightroom will be much easier to learn than Photoshop.

But the Cloud deal gets you both of them for a bundled subscription price, as mentioned above.

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

Photoshop sets the standard by which all other editing software is gauged and assessed. You will travel an awful long way to find a pro photographer or graphics house tthat does not use Photoshop heavily.
Lightroom is a well designed relatively easy to use data base program to catalog your photo collection. Packaged along with it are some useful and again easy to use editing tools. It has severe limitations once you wish to seriously post process or create digital art. Changing a sky cutting people from one photo and placing them in another are both Photoshop territory for instance.
The difference is if you starting from scratch LR can be mastered in a few weeks Photoshop takes the determined student possibly two years to become comfortable and confident with it.
I have no desire to catalog my photos or the need to give them pretty colored flags etc so although I have LR I never open it. When I try after a few adjustments to an image I hit its limitations. That being said I have used Photoshop for over 10 years so can work my way around it and am reasonably confident.

unclestu Loc: NJ

minniev wrote:

Lightroom excels for photo cataloguing, raw development and general editing. Photoshop is needed for tasks such as removing unwanted objects, swapping out skies or backgrounds, complex editing with layer masks, etc. Many photographers, even hobbyists like me, use both.

There are also other options, some less expensive if money is any issue. If you told more about your budget, and your computer platform, you would probably get more ideas.

Thank you and everyone else forthe helpful information. Just to illustrate how out of touch I have become I didn't even know that you can get these programs on a monthly subscription basis. I think that might be a good option for one such as myself.
I have a Dell Inspiron laptop and am using windows 7.
If I opt for a monthly cloud subscription does that mean that all of my photo data will be stored on the cloud or will the photos still be stored in files on my hard drive?
From what I understand so far is that Lightroom might be more appropriate for me to start off with as Photo Shop seems more for advanced applications.
Can the two programs be used in conjunction with one another?

Billyspad Loc: The Philippines

unclestu wrote:

Thank you and everyone else forthe helpful informa... (show quote)

Photos will be on your PC and the two programs seamlessly integrate.
Your laptop will require 4 gigs of ram to run Photoshop without problems

jcboy3

dirtpusher wrote:

for ownersgip. i would get lightroom and ps elements.

PS Elements is only 8-bit for most tools, so if you shoot RAW and want to preserve the bit depth, it is no good.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

dirtpusher wrote:

for ownership. i would get lightroom and ps elements.

Right. It's the least expensive way to go, and you have them both in your possession. PS is probably more than you need, so PSE would be good.

If you decide you want Photoshop, you can't buy the program anymore. It's got to be through their cloud subscription. You stop paying, and you stop using it. Not a good plan for me.