russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

The way I look at it, based solely on 20 years of experience with Adobe products is this:

Photoshop - The biggest and the baddest, the best. Does everything for everyone, including artists, graphic designers, etc. I now use it instead of CorelDraw, instead of Elements, instead of Lightroom, instead of Photo-Paint, instead of PaintShop Pro, instead of Picassa, instead of Gimp, instead of Illustrator. It does everything that all those programs do, and it is very convenient to be able to do everything in one program. No more upgrading multiple programs, either, which saves quite a bit of money.

Elements - A subset of Photoshop. Can do more than simply post-processing individual pictures.

Lightroom - Another subset of Photoshop, but also a subset of Elements. Mostly for post-processing individual pictures although with some specialized plug-ins can do a little more, but not as much as Elements or Photoshop. In many cases, Lightroom is all a hobbyist photographer (and even some professionals) would ever need.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

If someone were just starting out, I would recommend LR first. You just work down the right column and make adjustments. Elements is "elements" from the full PS program, and it can do quite a bit at a lower price. If someone is serious ($$) about messing with images, then PS is the way to go.

To make them look a lot better, Lightroom gives you the best bang for your buck. Of course, there are other companies, like Corel, that offer excellent processing programs at reasonable prices.

birdpix Loc: South East Pennsylvania

http://www.uglyhedgehog.com/t-36632-1.html will take you to a topic I posted a while back that will answer your questions about the differences between Light room and Elements.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Thanks. That's another topic I bookmarked.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

I have my own take on these programs.

LR is your entry point into post-processing. It has two main functions: cataloging and developing (post-processing). Although Elements has some cataloging capability, LR is much more powerful. Without going in to details, you can find any photo by many different criteria. This is very powerful. Too bad it does not have the face recognition that PSE has.

LR has powerful but limited editing functions. As a practical matter, I do 90% of my editing in LR. Depending upon what I want to do, the rest of my editing is in Viveza, PSE, or PS in that order.

PSE is a great program. It has many of the features of LR and PS but is far easier to use than PS. PS is not just for photography but for working with bitmaps in general. It has some features that LR and PSE do not have but also has many that you will never use. And it is a devil to learn.

My advice is to start with LR but be prepared to buy PSE once you find out that LR cannot do all you want. PSE has great wizards and features that make outputting photos a lot of fun. You may never need PS.

Regarding other products, none of them really do all that the market leaders, LR and PSE, do. Another extremely significant advantage of the Adobe products is the copious online tutorials and demos. Well worth the money.

PS I am not a fan of Adobe but have to admit their products are the best except CorelDraw beats Illustrator by far.

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

Totally agree with that, although I am finding that, so far, everything that I've been doing for 20 years in CorelDraw, I can do in Photoshop. Sometimes not as easily, but Actions and templates can make the ease much, much easier.

abc1234 Loc: Elk Grove Village, Illinois

Illustrator/CorelDraw and Photoshop/PhotoPaint are not interchangeable although people think the are. The former create images out of vector and the latter, out of bitmaps. When one understands the differences, then one can pick the right tool.

EPS/AI/CDR files are much smaller than the corresponding bitmap files and so much easier to work with. The illustration programs have superior tools for those kinds of files.

bsprague Loc: Lacey, WA, USA

I think there are a few more main functions. Exporting and Printing are high on my list.

You can even export a "video". In other words, you can combine photos into a "slide show" and post it on YouTube. Some may remember having to invite friends over to watch you slides on a Kodak Carousel.

Terry White is another Adobe Evangislist like Julienne Kost. He recently put together a demo of how LR 5 has reached the point that Photoshop is less necessary. It't fun to watch his techniques. http://tv.adobe.com/watch/adobe-evangelists-terry-white/how-to-do-a-complete-portrait-retouch-in-lightroom-5/

russelray Loc: La Mesa CA

I'm not sure that's entirely true. The shapes I create in Photoshop are very much vector shapes and not bitmaps. When a bitmap is enlarged as large as I make some things, they would be very irregular and jagged at the corners. Vector shapes are not.

When I was completely prejudiced and biased in favor of CorelDraw, I 100% agreed with you. Now that I've re-created a lot (not all, yet, but I'm working on it!) of my CorelDraw work in Photoshop, I can see that it will be able to do everything that I do now in CorelDraw.

Nikon_DonB Loc: Chicago

Save your money and download the free trial for Corel Paintshop Pro.
You will be glad you did.

Im not dissing adobe. Just their price. Corel will do just about all you will need. The new x6 version is 64bit and works great in a 64bit environment.
But should you have a bunch of $$$, with nothing to do with it or have to have the biggest, baddest and most expensive, Adobe is the wat to go....

Pepsiman Loc: New York City

The price... Try Picasa...It's free...

Daisy61 Loc: New Hampshire

I have Lightroom 5 and love it!

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

PSE12 $50-$80
CS6 $800-$1000
LR5 $150
Photoshop CC $29.99/month

PSE12 can edit raw images, do layering and filtering but is mostly limited to 8-bit editing. Can organize images but if the catalog becomes too large it really bogs down.

LR5 can edit all raw images plus other image formats and it organizes your catalog of images with ease. It's like Adobe Camera Raw which is included with Photoshop CS and CC but on steroids. It includes a history of undo feature and easier to use interface than CS and CC. Can not layer, filter or do text

CS and CC are just about the same except that CC is rented month to month and will include updates that will eventually make CS obsolete. Full blow features that any editing software company wishes they had. CS comes plain or Extended. Extended include more 3D features for more graphic editing etc. CC comes with that feature.

georgevedwards Loc: Essex, Maryland.

True, but since CS can do a thousand things, 10% is a hundred things elements can't do, and they are all the juicy advanced goodies. Not for the average user.