Photoshop or Lightroom?

Q

QPRMARK

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Name
Mark
Edit My Images
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Hi all,
For argument sake if you had a choice between learning one the these applications inside out over the other, which one would you chose/recommend? or is having knowledge of both the best way forward?

Cheers
 
I use both PS CS4 and LR2.2. If you held a gun to my head and said get rid of one. First - I would cry and whimper a lot and then second - I would get rid of PS.

I don't think I could live without Lightroom, especially now that LR2 has a lot more editing and retouching options than the previous versions. I rarely us Photoshop now - but there is still the odd occasion that LR is not up to the task and then you have to bring out the big guns.
 
Caledonia said:
I use both PS CS4 and LR2.2. If you held a gun to my head and said get rid of one. First - I would cry and whimper a lot and then second - I would get rid of PS.

I don't think I could live without Lightroom, especially now that LR2 has a lot more editing and retouching options than the previous versions. I rarely us Photoshop now - but there is still the odd occasion that LR is not up to the task and then you have to bring out the big guns.
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Thanks for the reply buddy. As I thought, it seems a decent grasp of both applications is probably the best way forward!
 
QPRMARK said:
Hi all,
For argument sake if you had a choice between learning one the these applications inside out over the other, which one would you chose/recommend? or is having knowledge of both the best way forward?

Cheers
Click to expand...

Both is the real answer, but if I had to learn one inside out it would Photoshop. Its learning curve is way steeper than Lightroom, which is very intuitive to use for the most part.
 
I'm in the only Lightroom camp. I find that it does everything I need and don't even have photoshop on my Mac.

Of course, this isn't really about what I/anyone else uses, it is what is best for you!

Which of these camps do you think applies to you more?

1 - You take lots of pictures and what to get them processed and uploaded as quickly as possible.

2 - You only process a few pictures, but you like to spend a long time processing them to absolute perfection.
 
LIGHTROOM!

All the way!

It's soo simple and easy but with such effective results
 
Photoshop, more chance of paid employment being a Photoshop expert than a lightroom one.
 
For me it's Photoshop, I did a course on Photoshop many years ago and know it well. I have tried Lightroom many times but just cant get my head round it.
 
Although I tend to use lightroom more than photoshop these days, I'd still go for photoshop if I had to pick one over the other. Photoshop does everything (from an image editing point of view) that lightroom does plus a gazillion things more. And I believe you get Bridge with Photoshop, and that's almost like the lightroom image management features.
 
I've hardly used PS since I got LR - unless I need to use layers or something like that then everything just gets run through LR
 
Personally I prefer Photoshop. I've used it since version 5 and I'm now on CS3 as I haven't felt the need (as yet) to move onto CS4.

I did get version 1 of Lightroom free from Adobe (courtesy of buying Rawshooter) but I could never get used to it. It almost felt like more of a datbase management tool than a photo manipulation program, if that makes any sense to anyone? I'm sure the current version is a lot better but on balance I prefer Photoshop.
 
I would learn photoshop... simply because everything I learnt in PS i can apply in LR.. but if I only learnt LR, I'd need to learn more to use PS.
 
I too have had Ps fropm an early version (V4) :)

I would have no hesitation though in recommending Lightroom. I still open Ps to view images (I like Bridge) but for my work I can edit my images in Lr, output the size of images I want, sharpen add contrast fix exposure (and do selective edits). I can also run presets that do all sorts of things from vignettes to frames, add saturation, create amazing B&W images etc etc etc.....

Sure Ps is a great program but I rarely find myself needing to edit that much as Lightroom rocks so much.
 
I use LR2 for organising, but do all my editing in Photoshop.
I could not imagine my workflow without either application.
 
I use lightroom for every picture, to get the best from my raw files, but still load any decent photos into ps cs3 to finish them. For me a photo isn't finished till its been through ps.
 
I use Lightroom for 90% of my processing, but if I could be master of either it'd be Photoshop. There not really comparable though, Lightroom's great because it's your library and editor in one programme. Photoshop is great for more advanced image manipulation. You could probably make a living by being very good with Photoshop, no amount of knowledge of Lightroom will get you gainful employment!
 
Photo shop is like a complete and comprehensive tool kit.
Remove all the commonly used tools and put them in an easily accessible box and you've got light room.

If all you`re going to use is the common tools then great, but come that time when you want to do something a little different then you're stuck.

Best bet is to go to adobe website, register with them and download the light room demo and try it out for a while to see if its enough.
 
I have Elements installed, but find that I can do pretty much everything I want in Lightroom so rarely open it.
 
Royston Vasey said:
For me it's Photoshop, I did a course on Photoshop many years ago and know it well. I have tried Lightroom many times but just cant get my head round it.
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That's me also but reading this I think I will look at lightroom again
 
since getting my mac would not be without my apperture great tool but love my photoshop!!
 
I use Lightroom for nearly everything now - it's RAW processing, library management etc are fantastic, plus it now has graduated filters and touch-up abilities so I almost never open up Photoshop unless I want to do something creative with cloning etc.
 
My first posting! I had the exact same issue last year...

I think the choice of software depends upon your style of photography :)

Lightroom is an excellent database program. If you deal with tons of various shoots its organisational abilities are superb. I understand that other software is available for this, but I believe they lack the great advantage (to me) of the ability work on raw/jpeg/tiff in a non destructive manner - with basic correcting of exposure/cropping etc. which is more than adequate for anyone who only needs to put finishing touches to their shots.

Elements then fills in at a respectable price if all you need is general image manipulation such as basic layer manipulation for colour popping for example.

The downfall for Elements are quite a few, for those that require 16bit support, elements is limited to 8bit for certain tools. CMYK output for pro labs is missing as is full support for tone curve adjustment for duotone etc. Those with more experience than I will easily add to this list..

Because Photoshop is a pixel manipulator it is more suited to the graphic artist than the photographer - Or are we all graphic artists?

Remember they can all be downloaded for 30 day trial via Adobe site if you need to decide...
 
Thats what I use to do with 35mm. Now I have gone Digital its more difficult to take a photograph, as everyone appears to expect you to alter it someway or other before you can call it a finished photograph, or is it just me?
PS is great to manipulate photos and blend one with another or add bits from one to the other, to make up your own results.
Lightroom is the darkroom for digital developing, you can change all the mayor parts without losing any quality
Hope this helps, I sure need lots of help:help:
 
Lightroom is photo management software, Photoshop is a very powerful, professional-quality image editor.

So whilst both will do similar things, they're really designed for different uses.

I use Photoshop because i've pretty much grown up with it since V4. I certainly don't profess to know
everything about it but i do now find it a lot easier to use than a lot of other 'Photo' software..
 
Rob_W said:
Lightroom is photo management software, Photoshop is a very powerful, professional-quality image editor.

So whilst both will do similar things, they're really designed for different uses.

I use Photoshop because i've pretty much grown up with it since V4. I certainly don't profess to know
everything about it but i do now find it a lot easier to use than a lot of other 'Photo' software..
Click to expand...

Whilst I agree, you can still edit (clone) images in Lr. Not maybe as much as in Ps but there's still a lot that can be edited in Lr.

I do agree with you though Both are different and have their uses.
 
I've been a longtime Photoshop user (on CS3 now) , I tried lightroom when it first came out and hated it as it did neither image managment or editing particualy well. But Lightroom 2.3 (which I have now purchased) is a completly different beast and does both extremely well.

Plus I love using virtual copies which I can make as many variations as I like of one image without using disc space but still print them or send them to the web even thought they do not physicly exist.

If I had to make a reccomendation now for the most cost effective way it would be Lightroom in conjunction with Elements for the rare occasion I would need to go outside lightroom.

With the new tools in lightroom I now find it possible with portraits to remove a distracing background , skin soften, remove blemishes and add eye sparkle all to a virtual copy where before it would have to be done in CS3.
 
Knowledge of both is the best thing to do.
But ultimately I'd take photoshop over lightroom as there are more possibilities in ps. But lightroom speeds up and greatly simplifies archiving and general editing.

I'm using both and can't believe I can't imagine losing one of the other.
 
Paul-S said:
I've been a longtime Photoshop user (on CS3 now) , I tried lightroom when it first came out and hated it as it did neither image managment or editing particualy well. But Lightroom 2.3 (which I have now purchased) is a completly different beast and does both extremely well.

Plus I love using virtual copies which I can make as many variations as I like of one image without using disc space but still print them or send them to the web even thought they do not physicly exist.

If I had to make a reccomendation now for the most cost effective way it would be Lightroom in conjunction with Elements for the rare occasion I would need to go outside lightroom.

With the new tools in lightroom I now find it possible with portraits to remove a distracing background , skin soften, remove blemishes and add eye sparkle all to a virtual copy where before it would have to be done in CS3.
Click to expand...

I've been happily using Photoshop for a number of years and I love it (Current Version CS3), but after reading your comments I am now considering purchasing LR. Virtual Copy sounds a brilliant and very convenient tool. From read the posts here It sound like although PS & LR are diferent tools they both complement one another very well. (y)
 
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