Why Lightroom? I use Elements 8, Silver Efex and Professional Portrait. What are the reasons to add Lightroom?

lfdaly

I use Elements 8, Silver Efex and Professional Portrait. What are the reasons to add Lightroom?

snowbear

Lightroom is a cataloging program with basic editing capabilities. LR is useful for the "technical" end of workflow - sorting and rating the "keepers", adding keywords and other metadata, categorizing. It will also basic editing, such as exposure, cropping, leveling, dust removal, etc.

MtnMan Loc: ID

The Elements Organizer does all that so I have the same question.

I have a trial copy that came with Elements but don't even see why to try it.

Regards,
Larry Leach

snowbear wrote:

Lightroom is a cataloging program with basic editing capabilities. LR is useful for the "technical" end of workflow - sorting and rating the "keepers", adding keywords and other metadata, categorizing. It will also basic editing, such as exposure, cropping, leveling, dust removal, etc.

bkyser Loc: Fly over country in Indiana

I'm dying to get LR. I have elements 8 and just moved up to CS5. Elements organizer was OK when I had fewer pictures, I now have 180,000 (don't ask, I never pitch even a bad picture, a "bit" of a hoarder) Anyway, Elements organizer chokes on too many photos and crashes completely. From what I understand, LR can handle thousands, and may also help me to group them, and maybe even....gasp... delete some. :shock:

iresq Loc: Annapolis MD

bkyser wrote:

"bit" of a hoarder

Bit hoarder. Ha ha. Me too!

MtnMan Loc: ID

Ah, that would be a reason indeed.

I may have a few years yet.

Regards,
Larry Leach

bkyser wrote:

I'm dying to get LR. I have elements 8 and just moved up to CS5. Elements organizer was OK when I had fewer pictures, I now have 180,000 (don't ask, I never pitch even a bad picture, a "bit" of a hoarder) Anyway, Elements organizer chokes on too many photos and crashes completely. From what I understand, LR can handle thousands, and may also help me to group them, and maybe even....gasp... delete some. :shock:

Mickey88 Loc: Central Florida

I've been using Paint shop Pro and Portrait Professional for years, have always heard good things about Lightroom, but didn't see the need to spend 300 bucks since I was happy with my work. Back in August I shot a wedding for a friend, for some reason as I was working on the photos Lightroom kept popping into my head, i think it was the ease of batch adjusting photos, under similar lighting conditions. So I decided to download it and try if for 30 days,

I was amazed at the ease of fine tuning photos, and the difference that simply upping the blacks makes to most photos.., my 30 day trial expired and I started watching for sales..

last Friday newegg had lightroom on sale for 99 dollars, I almost hurt myself rushing to make the purchase..

LouMartin Loc: Houston

Elements will handle 16 Bit Color depth in RAW. I see no reason to try the free sample. Would enjoy 16 bit color depth in Elements . :mrgreen:

Sensei

I use Picasa for cataloging and asset management and some of its editing and email features. I most of the editing in Elements, and will use Picnik and Gimp. Picasa and Gimp are free, Picnik is on line but easily accesed from and comes wiith Picasa. A right click on the image in Picasa will let me chose other editing programs such as Elements of Photoshop. I don't really need lightroom,

travlnman46 Loc: Yakima WA

Hello Ifdaly... The major advantage of Lightroom3 is the ability to do batch processing and organization and cataloging in large quanities. By doing so it cuts down on post processing time. I purchased my copy of LR3 from a teacher of the program, that had left over unregistered copies, through Craigs List for $40.00. When I bought it I thought it would be just another version of Photo Shop, it's not. They do compliment one another, although they also overlap in some areas. I also have Gimp and Picasa plus Canon's digital photo professional that came with my Canon EOS 5D MarkII. I'm still looking at Photo Shops Elements 10 because it was recommended to me by a fellow UHH member that teaches Photo Shop. I guess it would come down to, how much volume of post processing you do.

Ceil Loc: St. Paul, MN

Can you edit a photo in Elements, then pull it into Lightroom for additional editing? Do you lose quality if you do that? (thinking it might be possible.)

travlnman46 Loc: Yakima WA

Hello Ceil I'm still learning LR3, it does have a pretty big learning curve. Having said that I'm learning new things about it every day and every time I use the program or find a new tutorial on it. I just found out today you can add music to your slideshow portion of LR3 then export it to the web. My understanding of how lightroom3 works, it treats each image imported to it like a film negative. In otherwords any changes to that image can be undone without any loss of quality. Also you can import an image from any file or drive, including a card reader or a tethered camera. Most people I've chatted with say they do most of their work in LR3 first then export it to a program like Elements, instead of the other way around.

MtnMan Loc: ID

Yes, it appears to me that there is much overlap between what the various programs do.

I don't know if anyone can be an expert on all the choices. I have tried Gimp and Picasa and settled on Elements 10.
It is important to understand that Elements 10 is really two programs: the editor and the organizer. The organizer itself has editing capabilties comparable to Picasa, though not as detailed as Gimp.

Lightroom seems to me to be more industrial strength; i.e. for a professional photographer. I have a trial copy of it that came with my Elements but I haven't even installed it. I am challenged enough to learn Elements.

Regards,
Larry Leach

travlnman46 wrote:

Hello Ifdaly... The major advantage of Lightroom3 ... (show quote)

snowbear

lleach wrote:

Yes, it appears to me that there is much overlap between what the various programs do.

Exactly. I think of it like a car - if you want the basics, you go with the base model. The next level up will give you more stuff or capabilities (upgraded audio, electric seat controls, performance package).

Ceil Loc: St. Paul, MN

travlnman46 wrote:

Hello Ceil I'm still learning LR3, it does have a ... (show quote)

Thanks for responding. I, like you, am on a high learning curve with LR. I love the software and the things I have discovered. I'm especially interested in cloning. But, I can't figure out how to do it in LR. Mainly I want to remove distracting background. That ranges from a telephone pole to a distracting highlight.

Any suggestions as to accomplishing this without Photoshop would be much appreciated. Hopefully, with a free program. Lightroom is the only editing software I own.

Thanks for sharing. Ceil