Joechalmers Loc: Washington, DC

I've been using Elements for years, for organizing and tagging my collection, and for tweaking, improving, cropping, etc. I'm now on PSE 9. Seems to work fine.
But I keep seeing a lot about Lightroom, and I'm wondering what all the hoopla is about. Is there something that I'm missing?

Joe F.N. Loc: Oshawa, Ontario

Have a look here.
It's in our search category.

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/search.jsp?q=PSE+or+Lightroom&u=&s=0

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma

have you thought about going to youtube watch some the tutorials on it to get familar with it. then downloading the 30 day free trial.
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=lightroom+4+tutorial+for+beginners&oq=lightroom&gs_l=youtube.1.1.0l10.1816.5507.0.10417.9.5.0.4.4.0.208.872.0j4j1.5.0...0.0...1ac.1.11.youtube.ENhkhwwC4Rk

Sheila Loc: Arizona or New York

Lightroom and Elements have different approaches to handling your files. I use Lightroom for organizing, controlling and much of processing for my raw files. I started with Lightroom 3, upgraded to 4 and definitely will go to 5. The newest version of Lightroom offers several features 4 does not. I just saw a video on Adorama's web site about the new features. The organizational advantages of Lightroom and the basic processing steps are far better than Elements. The new healing brush and content aware fill in Lightroom 5 are well worth the cost of the upgrade.

I use IPhoto for quick work on jpegs but Lightroom even has better processing options there. If you like to add frames or text to your pictures Lightroom does not have the feature. This is why you have to have Elements.

There is a learning curve with Lightroom and I struggled a little in the beginning because I tried to use a book. There are a lot of videos available and one I watched a few of these the whole thing was a lot easier to understand.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

You need both. LR doesn't have layers. Do a search. This was discussed.

Db7423 Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

I agree with dirtpusher. Do a litte research on YouTube and try it Free for 30-days. Guarantee you will buy it. For nearly all your pp needs LR is faster and better than Elements. I have both and import to LR and only go PSE when I need (infrequently) to do something LR doesn't do like removing a power line that couldn't be avoided when taking the picture. ;)

Crwiwy Loc: Devon UK

Very good advice.
:thumbup: :thumbup: :thumbup:

oldtool2 Loc: South Jersey

Yes, there is a lot you are missing. Like you, I used elements for many years and now am using version 10. I tried LR 3 and hated it. Then version 4 came out tried it again and found they made many improvements to LR and bought it. I now use it for most of my PP and then go to PSE 10 if necessary, but that is not very often! I found that much of what I had been doing in PSE 10 I can now do quicker and better in LR. I haven't tried version 5 yet but understand it has been improved enough to make trying it worth while so will eventually give it a try.

Use the 30 day trial versions for yourself to decide if it would be worth your while. I don't think you will regret it.

Jim D

dirtpusher Loc: tulsa oklahoma