gfreire Loc: Chapin, South Carolina

I have had Photoshop Elements 6 for several years, however very seldom used. For my needs until recently, Picassa was just fine.

Now that I have a much better new camera (Nikon D5500), my interest in photography has gone up many times over. I am going to spend a lot more time with this hobby, my question is:

Is Photoshop Elements 6 still a good Photo processor for my needs or should I buy the latest version (13 ?) or Lightroom?

Which one is the easiest to relearn and work with. ( I really never learned Elements 6 to the point I felt confortable in handling it).

Thanks for your suggestions.

George

dannac Loc: 60 miles SW of New Orleans

Lightroom is very popular and will probably do all the editing you need.
There is a learning curve though.

Elements would only be needed for things like layers and masking.
I'm not familiar with Elements ver 6.

I have ver 12 and it is very easy to use. It has 3 levels built-in to the program.

Quick
Guided
Expert

FrumCA

I agree with dannac that Lightroom would be something to consider. The LR learning curve is relatively easy but it does take a little work particularly with the cataloging system (it's a database). There are a lot of on-line tutorials including what I think is one of the best and that's the free one from Adobe that is hosted by Julieanne Kost. You can download a free trial to check it out.
Good luck.

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

To echo what was said, Lightroom will do a great job for editing, plus it gives you a very good management system that is database based instead of file browsing based.

You might want to look seriously at the Adobe Creative Cloud offer - 9.99 a month for Lightroom and Photoshop CC - top of the line and will always be updated to the latest version as long as you subscribe - for 10.00 a month it is a sweet deal.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

George,

On edit, I see I was slow at typing and have been preceded by some experts. I want to add something to what I wrote. It is that, with well organized learning, the "learning curve" is downward sloping and can be a fun ride.

Your avatar suggest you may be in the same age bracket as I am. So, my thoughts, are solely based on my personal experience. I paid no attention to digital photography until a couple years ago.

I suggest you sign up for the Adobe Creative Cloud plan for Photographers. It will cost you $10 a month for as long as you care to use it. It provides use of Lightroom and Photoshop.

Next I would sign up for "school" at Lynda.com where they will train you in all the amazing things you can do.

Why? 1) There are more learning resources for Lightroom and Photoshop than anything else. 2) The joy of learning this stuff is wonderful. 3) The $10 per month for Adobe is cheaper than a trip to McDonald's for two. 4) Going to school at Lynda.com puts your learning process into an organized pattern that makes for rapid progress. 5) I've never had so much fun with photography in 50 years of taking pictures.

Good luck!

mwsilvers Loc: Central New Jersey

What operating system are you using? Since you still have the very very old Elements 6 loaded, I presume it's an old computer. Assuming you are using Windows, the current version of Lightroom, Lightroom 6, will only work on Windows 7 or Windows 8. The previous version, Lightroom 5 , will not work on Windows Vista or earlier operating systems. And Lightroom 4 won't work on Windows XP or earlier operating systems. If you are still running Windows xp you will need to find a copy of Lightroom 3 somewhere if you want to use Lightroom. I'm not sure of operating system requirements for the newer versions of Elements.

gfreire Loc: Chapin, South Carolina

Thank you all, dannac, FrumCA, Dngallagher,bsprague and mwsilvers for all your suggestions.

I definitely think the best rout for me,(as suggested by most of you),is to go with the Adobe creative cloud offer for Lightroom and Photoshop CC. For $10.00/month you can't go wrong.

In fact I spent the last hour or so downloading it and can even experiment with the package for 30 days free.

mwsilvers, to answer your question:

I have two PC computers, one with windows 7 and one with windows 8.1, plua a laptop with windows 8.i.

My PC's are top of the line, which I built.(I have been helping friends, family and other people with computer advice as well as repair or solving problems). I have built about 35 PC's for them all.

I believe that Adobe has on line tutorials for both Lightroom and Photoshop.

Do you think that if I decide later that Lightroom is just enough for me, can I drop the monthly setup and buy it instead ?

Thanks again to all of you for the sound advice.

George

Dngallagher Loc: Wilmington De.

The subscription to Creative Cloud is for 12 months - however they offer your money back if you want out within the first 30 days I believe. After that you are on board for a year.

jethro779 Loc: Tucson, AZ

Lightroom 6 will be the last stand alone version of Lightroom. If you feel that you might not want to keep the cloud thing I suggest that you buy the stand alone Lightroom and use it. You might even find a version of Lightroom 5 for sale and buy it. instead.

sueyeisert Loc: New Jersey

Having used elements and lightroom, I would start with Lightroom. Learn the program so you don't make a mess of your organization then if you need it use elements for editing only with layers and the other things Lightroom can't do.Watch these. Scroll down it's free. Doesn't matter that it's lightroom 4.
http://en.elephorm.com/tuto-lightroom-4-complete-training.html

Way2slk Loc: Bluffton SC

I love the FREE editor.... GIMP. youtube videos will teach you all kinds of tricks. Fantastic for sharpening, color, white balance, masking, layers. I love it. www.gimp.org. You can always uninstall if you don't like it.

Gene51 Loc: Yonkers, NY, now in LSD (LowerSlowerDelaware)

Lightroom, if used properly, is not a replacement for a pixel level editor - but it does complement one. PSE 13 is considerably better than what you now have, and the best deal in town is LR+PS for $10/month. You won't need all the features and functions of PS, and you can certainly only learn and use those that you need at a basic level. LR does not involve a learning curve on the editing side - not much there. But you can make the basic adjustments to an image - preferably a raw image, in less time and with less effort and better results than if you tried to do it in a pixel editor. PSE has a stripped down version of the raw converter, and PS has the same raw converter, but both have a similar interface that is "clunkier" than the one in LR.

The newest versions of these will support your camera's raw files. Your old software will only do jpeg and tif files out of the camera and psd files while editing if you create layers.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

Aside from those selling you Lightroom. I have PSE 7 on my LapTop from when I bought it. I just put a copy of PSE 9 that came with a Scanner or Printer on our new PC. PSE 9 ain't bad, but 7 was crap. I use full Ps CS6 regularly. Lr5 or Lr6 is more for cataloging than editing / processing. You'd probably be happy with PSE 13. They all have learning curves. Also not sure you could easily use PSE 6 with a newer O/S or find a Raw converter update for a newer camera and that old a version of PSE for the Adobe Camera Raw Converter with PSE 6. Might not work. Gene51 has a handle on it.

lamiaceae Loc: San Luis Obispo County, CA

That is another set of important points.

BooIsMyCat Loc: Somewhere

IF you shoot in RAW with your new camera, PSE version 6 will probably not support that format. Each version of PSE will allow you to upgrade the RAW Codec to a certain level and I think version 6 is so old that it will not allow you to view any RAW images that come from your new camera. I still have PSE 12 and can't upgrade beyond RAW Codec 8.5