rfmaude41 Loc: Lancaster, Texas (DFW area)

"Not necessarily so", if all of the changes were stored in layers, the individual layer(s) can be "trashed" or just "turned off"...

BuddhaRunner Loc: Worcester, Massachusetts

Thank you everybody very much for all the great advice and tips. I went with the subscription service of Lightroom and PS together for $10/month. I do find Lightroom's cataloging system very confusing but I've just started so I cetainly don't expect to be proficient right away :-). Will definitely check out the YouTube videos and will look on Amazon for any "Dummies" book pertaining to Lightroom, too.
Thanks again, you guys and gals are great!

warrior Loc: Paso Robles CA

Light room 5 and PSE 14 here

don26812 Loc: South Bay of Los Angeles, CA

I agree mostly with what others have said. If you are in it for the long hall, I would choose LR. But recognize, this program has a learning curve that is significantly steeper than PSE 14, because it can do so much more. The points made re. LR and PSE working well together, are indeed true. But remember, when you begin to use LR to manage your images, you do not want to continue using the Organizer of PSE 14. You will use PSE 14's Photo Editor as Photoshop users us it with LR.

If you switch to LR, there is a command there that will convert your PSE 14 Catalog to LR.

One final comment, as others have suggested, if you are planning to go with LR, I would get the PSCC and LR CC subscription. Then, after a time, you will probably find that you use PSE 14 only on those occasions when you want to make use of their Guided Edits. FWIW

topcat Loc: Alameda, CA

Lightroom is a great organizer and processor. It works a lot like the traditional darkroom. With Lightroom you can do almost all the processing that you need.
Coupled with Photoshop or elements, makes for almost everything that you will need. Add NIK to the mix, and you have everything.
NIK is great, and now that it is free, there is no reason for anyone not to use it.

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

If you use layers and smart objects, layer grouping, etc, you can edit in a non-destructive fashion in Photoshop, so you don't necessarily have to "bake in" your adjustments. But as has already been noted, you are working on a a bitmap (pixel based) version of the image. Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw uses the camera's recorded data (not yet an image) and allows you to parametrically make adjustments similar to your camera settings for tone, contrast, saturation, white balance, color balance, sharpening, color space, but with greater precision that in camera settings. You also have the ability to apply different settings to different images with ease, unlike the camera settings - which people generally set once. It is a true pain to adjust all the parameters before each shutter click.

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

Pay particular attention to the mode you use to import - Move will take images and put then where you tell it too, and delete them from their current locations. Copy will do the same but leave the originals where they were. Add will leave the originals in their location and merely add them to the catalog. You will use the Add option to add your current images to the catalog, provided your images are nicely organized in a folder scheme that makes sense and has no duplicates. Copy is best used when you have your files on a card and want to put them in the computer and in the catalog. I never use move.

You have two ways to place images in your computer and the catalog. You can create the folder outside of LR, add the files, then open LR and add the folder to the catalog. Or you can use the import dialog to import the images to your computer and the catalog. If you don't already have a folder location for the new images, you can mouse over the upper left corner to open a dialog that allows you to create a folder on the fly.

LR is slow to let you review your images for culling. When I have a large set of images (in the hundreds) I just copy the images outside of LR, and use either PHotoMechanic, ON1 Browse, or FastStone to quickly bring up previews to evaluate images for sharpness blur, exposure, etc. culling and deleting along the way. Both PHotoMechanic and On1 Browse allow you to tag your images with keywords and rate them with colors and stars - all of which are compliant with PHotoshop and LR. Faststone is a bit more primitive.