should i buy lightroom 4? Here is the thing i have elements 7 and know how to use it alittle but i can't open my raw files at all so a guy at the camera store suggested i buy light...

kurme Loc: Sudbury, Ont

Here is the thing i have elements 7 and know how to use it alittle but i can't open my raw files at all so a guy at the camera store suggested i buy light room 4. Do you think i should? I was wondering if you can do mostly the same thing with it as elements? Example vignette, watermarks stuff like that. thanks

mremery Loc: From Maine, living in Virginia

My church has a PC with Elements 10. That has Camera RAW on it and the RAW files open in that very well. I haven't played with it that much since I've used another tool, Irfanview (http://www.irfanview.com/) to perform batch conversions of the RAW to JPG. Consider upgrading Elements first and see if that can meet your needs.

GDRoth Loc: Southeast Michigan USA

At today's pricing, buy LR4.............

PrairieSeasons Loc: Red River of the North

http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4582

There are a lot of good reasons to by Lightroom 4, but if all you need is camera raw, it is available for Elements 7 at no cost (see link)

mvy Loc: New Hampshire

Lightroom 4's built-in presets are pleasing to work with. Overall, however, my advice to prospective purchasers is: Prepare to spend some time learning this application!

The procedures for saving and storing files in LR 4 are hard to master and at times confusing. So much so that I'm wondering if it's worth the effort.

My opinion is tainted by old age, and not applicable to folks who are young of heart and mind.

All the best,

Martin

Al Beatty Loc: Boise, Idaho

Hi,

Both Elements 10 and LR 4 are excellent programs. Before you purchase LR4 verify you have the version of Windows (assuming you are using a PC) that works with LR4. You need Vista or higher. Take care & ...

ToadSlayer Loc: England

Manufacturers of cameras that shoot RAW files, normally have their own RAW file processing programs available as free downloads from their main websites. Just enter 'downloads' in their website search box.

In answer to your title question, "Should I buy lightroom 4 ?"

Of course not; steal it !

Lorendn Loc: Jackson, WY

If you are managing large numbers of photos and need moderate to high level is post-processing capability - without layers - Light room is the way to go. If you shoot only a few hundred shots per year or are happy with in camera JPEGs, Picasa or other shareware should be fine. Light room excels in photo management and high volume, repetitive tasks and is very easy to learn. Far less complex than Photoshop but it handles image level adjustment very well (better) than Photoshop. It is not as powerful at pixel-level adjustments.

kurme Loc: Sudbury, Ont

I have windows 7 is that good enough? I tried downloading the raw at adobe and nothing is opening these files i am so frustrated i might just keep shooting jpeg lol

Lorendn Loc: Jackson, WY

What camera do you use? Most come with basic software that will get you started with RAW files. You can download free FastStone Image Viewer that will give you limited image processing and viewing. If you are really committing to photography, LightRoom is the way to go and it works seamlessly with Photoshop when you want to make the big leap!

CResQ Loc: Cobble Hill, BC

Lorendn wrote:

What camera do you use? Most come with basic software that will get you started with RAW files. You can download free FastStone Image Viewer that will give you limited image processing and viewing. If you are really committing to photography, LightRoom is the way to go and it works seamlessly with Photoshop when you want to make the big leap!

Not forgetting that you can download a fully working copy of LR4 to try it out free for 30 days. Cheers

Lorendn Loc: Jackson, WY

Good point!

Al Beatty Loc: Boise, Idaho

Hi

Windows 7 is great! Take care & ...

Weddingguy Loc: British Columbia - Canada

kurme wrote:

Here is the thing i have elements 7 and know how to use it alittle but i can't open my raw files at all so a guy at the camera store suggested i buy light room 4. Do you think i should? I was wondering if you can do mostly the same thing with it as elements? Example vignette, watermarks stuff like that. thanks

On an average wedding I have approx. 1500 images to process from RAW. Since Lightroom 4, I can now do 90% of that post processing in Lightroom much faster and with more control than in Photoshop.

Having said that, I still need Photoshop for retouching and "tweaking" many images for things that Lightroom is not designed to do.

I'd say buy Lightroom 4 (you won't be sorry) but don't give up your Elements 7. You'll still need it for many things beyond what Lightroom was designed to do.

jeep_daddy Loc: Prescott AZ

Weddingguy wrote:

quote=kurme Here is the thing i have elements 7 a... (show quote)

I couldn't agree more. While LR will let you watermark your images, it's very basic and you can't really create a custome watermark with a graphic designor do any layering or make adjustment layers . I'd suggest buying LR and PhotoshopElements 10 if you can afford it. LR is under $150 and PSE10 is about $69. Before you buy, you should let us know what camera you have or research Adobe to see if they support raw for your camera make an model. Almost every camera make AND model produce proprietary raw files that are different from each other. This makes it very difficult for software manufactures to reverse engineer the raw image for every make and model of camera. If your camera is fairly new and you have all that came with it, you should have a CD or DVD that came with it that will open, edit, view and let you save the edited image in several other common formats i.e. jpg, tif, png, psp etc.