Why Lightroom? I've been lurking in the background(somewhat)reading various posts and one "theme" I keep reading about is Lightroom. I've been using Photoshop since version 3.0. I...

GreenReaper

I've been lurking in the background(somewhat)reading various posts and one "theme" I keep reading about is Lightroom. I've been using Photoshop since version 3.0. I stopped at PS 7 and currently use PSE 6 (I know, way behind). So, why do I need or why should I change to Lightroom? Just looking for opinions(and maybe stir the pot a little :)) Keep smiling.

Bob Yankle Loc: Burlington, NC

A lot of it depends on whether or not you shoot in RAW mode while taking photographs. PSE6 will not handle RAW files whereas Lightroom excels at it.

brucewells Loc: Central Kentucky

GreenReaper wrote:

I've been lurking in the background(somewhat)reading various posts and one "theme" I keep reading about is Lightroom. I've been using Photoshop since version 3.0. I stopped at PS 7 and currently use PSE 6 (I know, way behind). So, why do I need or why should I change to Lightroom? Just looking for opinions(and maybe stir the pot a little :)) Keep smiling.

It's one thing to have the ability to edit (post-process) our images, and Photoshop is certainly capable, as are other tools. But, what do we do to keep track of all those photos? How do we organize them so that 5 years from now, we can go to a specific photo to show to someone?

Enter Lightroom. It is digital asset management software that allows us to organize our images in myriad ways. Oh, it also happens to have the Adobe Camera Raw technology that allows us to do a lot of our post-processing, as well. Not at the level of Photoshop, but it works for 75% of the work we'd do.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

GreenReaper wrote:

I've been lurking in the background(somewhat)reading various posts and one "theme" I keep reading about is Lightroom. I've been using Photoshop since version 3.0. I stopped at PS 7 and currently use PSE 6 (I know, way behind). So, why do I need or why should I change to Lightroom? Just looking for opinions(and maybe stir the pot a little :)) Keep smiling.

Here is my 02 cents on the whole thing.

PS is a Pixel editing piece of software. It's bailiwick is moving pixels around.

LR is a "digital darkroom" and it's mission is to "develop" digital film.

Both can be used to "develop" digital images but in my opinion LR is much much easier to understand when it comes to that and cheaper and faster at it.

So...in my opinion, developing images is the foundation of the digital image workflow...and because of that you can get away with just having LR unless you want to go farther into manipulating pixels than LR can.

And as was mentioned, it has a great built in organizer.

Db7423 Loc: Pittsburgh, PA

rpavich wrote:

Here is my 02 cents on the whole thing. br br PS ... (show quote)

Indeed. You said all that needs said. ;)

DavidPine Loc: Fredericksburg, TX

I like LR and Photoshop. Adobe Camera raw is virtually the same as LR except for the file management system. I shoot only in RAW so these are necessary programs as far as I'm concerned. I subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud and I am very happy with it. Others don't like the concept and that's fine by me.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

DavidPine wrote:

I like LR and Photoshop. Adobe Camera raw is virtually the same as LR except for the file management system. I shoot only in RAW so these are necessary programs as far as I'm concerned. I subscribe to Adobe's Creative Cloud and I am very happy with it. Others don't like the concept and that's fine by me.

I don't open images in Camera Raw so I don't know...does it have a radial filter and an adjustment brush and a graduated filter and a spot remover?

Just wondering; if not, then that's not a very accurate statement, if it does, then it seems to be.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

rpavich wrote:

I don't open images in Camera Raw so I don't know...does it have a radial filter and an adjustment brush and a graduated filter and a spot remover?

Just wondering; if not, then that's not a very accurate statement, if it does, then it seems to be.

Yes - the engine in ACR and Lightroom are identical. All those you mention are in ACR.

rpavich Loc: West Virginia

CaptainC wrote:

Yes - the engine in ACR and Lightroom are identical. All those you mention are in ACR.

Interesting! I never knew that.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

rpavich wrote:

Interesting! I never knew that.

It saves Adobe from having to write and support two different raw processing engines. The only difference is LR is gray and ACR is white. :-)

Rongnongno Loc: FL

brucewells wrote:

It's one thing to have the ability to edit (post-p... (show quote)

You use 'bridge' under Photoshop! :shock: :lol: :lol: :hunf:

Note that I get the feeling Adobe will merge Bridge and LR before long. They had no reason or incentive to add LR to the PS CC deal... :?: :?: :twisted:

Rongnongno Loc: FL

CaptainC wrote:

It saves Adobe from having to write and support two different raw processing engines. The only difference is LR is gray and ACR is white. :-)

If you have LR stand alone you have a seriously crippled ACR.

CaptainC Loc: Colorado, south of Denver

Rongnongno wrote:

If you have LR stand alone you have a seriously crippled ACR.

I don't understand. I was told by an Adobe trainer they were functionally identical.

But then I do not use LR. What is missing in LR?

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

GreenReaper wrote:

I've been lurking in the background(somewhat)reading various posts and one "theme" I keep reading about is Lightroom. I've been using Photoshop since version 3.0. I stopped at PS 7 and currently use PSE 6 (I know, way behind). So, why do I need or why should I change to Lightroom? Just looking for opinions(and maybe stir the pot a little :)) Keep smiling.

While you can use PSE6 to more or less accomplish most of the same things as Light Room, LR is a completely non destructive program specifically geared for raw images (although it will work on jpegs) primarily to enhance or fix exposures. It is not an object manipulation program. It is well suited for it's purpose. Many of us use it as a front end for Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Version 12 of PSE is currently available and version 13 will likely be available by Christmas. Version 6 is very, very long in the tooth.

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

CaptainC wrote:

I don't understand. I was told by an Adobe trainer they were functionally identical.

But then I do not use LR. What is missing in LR?

A seriously crippled ACR? I don't think so.