Have Photoshop PS5 & Lightroom 3

[frownsarefun]

Admittedly, about a month ago, I was using iPhoto to edit thru my photos. Not professional photos, but just the stuff I was walking around shooting and it does fill my needs rather quickly and easily.

I recently purchased Lightroom 3 and my parents got me the latest version of Photoshop. I`m not sure that I need both, let alone where to start to dive in to switching from iPhoto to either of these more powerful, useful tools.

I currently have all my raw filed photos stored in a Raw Folder (3 copies of it).

What I am really wondering is which of these two programs should I use - Photoshop AND Lightroom, or one over the other. The thing I like about Photoshop, to be honest, is that it`s not a database program, so when I make changes to an image, I can easily store it right back in the Raw Folder with all my raw files.

To keep the highest possible quality of photo from raw to Photoshop, what version of file should I saw to? In iPhoto I was going from raw to tiff.

With Lightroom, I don`t know what my choices are because there are sets, and libraries and other names that start to sound confusing, but it seems similar in a way to iPhoto in that you can edit and store libraries.

Just not sure best file type to keep best imaging. I do have some jpeg files, too. Guessing those just stay as jpeg and no reason to change them to anything else.

[3bayjunkie]

honestly i can put my photos in organized folders on my own. Bridge works well with photoshop. So i only use Photoshop.

[DanielLane]

Photoshop FTW!

[Biomech]

Both. Photoshop makes pictures, Lightroom makes photos.

I use Lightroom for 99% of my work - it's not just a catelogue software. When it comes down to chopping off heads, replacing body parts and cloning out detailed sections - then I break out photoshop.

You'll be amazed at how much more you can do in LR with RAW. JPEG is just pointless for PP. But don't forget, JPG is a lossy compression - the quality deteriorates as you open, resave, edit etc. If you want to keep them tastey you're better off saving as something like TIFF

Just to expand a bit:

What I am really wondering is which of these two programs should I use - Photoshop AND Lightroom, or one over the other. The thing I like about Photoshop, to be honest, is that it`s not a database program, so when I make changes to an image, I can easily store it right back in the Raw Folder with all my raw files.

When you save each version from Photoshop, you have more files - sometimes huge - and unless you save them as PSD's of TIFF's with layers (VERY BIG files) you start again when you edit. Lightroom never touches your RAW files. It simple has a list of the changes you have made so you can go back/forward, experiment etc much much easier. In laymans terms, I guess you could say that Lightroom has a set of "instructions" for each file on what you'd done instead of duplicate files.

[Bruce A]

You can go back to your RAW file after Processing in Photoshop as well - as long as you keep it!
When I process, I open the Raw file from Camera, part process in Camera Raw, open in CS5 process, save as as PSD. Then save as a Jpeg in high quality, I also save as another Jpeg with my sig if required. I can then always go back to my out of camera raw file, open in Camera Raw and take it back to it's original form if required.

[Biomech]

Seems like a lot of effort to me :P
I import all the new photos to lightroom, process them all, export them all in one go for whatever purpose (fb etc) at the right sizes in JPG. Then I have the RAWs still there and the JPGs in a temp folder ready to be removed once I've finished uploading.

In Lightroom you can also right click - edit in Photoshop; which will create a PSD/TIFF in your RAW folder and include it in the LR library. Plus it makes it sooo much easier for culling. I literally import them, then right arrow through them marking them rejected (x) as I go. Filter -> select all rejected -> delete.

[kirbinster]

Lightroom much better for most work. As others have said 90%+ of your work will be done there and you only go to photoshop for the bit level stuff - which most photos don't need.

[dvtldav]

I started out using PS and thought Bridge was great, then I got LR and now use it for 99% of the stuff that I do. As stated earlier if I want to clone out something or combine 2 photos then I use PS but for exposure adjustments, color adjustments, cropping, etc. I use LR.

Dave

[sk66]

I use both, but, IMO if you NEED to go to PS to make your pictures decent....you really need to be focusing on "photography" and not post work.

[NathanFranke]

Ditto most of the other people. I only have lightroom. It's good for 96% of my stuff. For the other 4%, I really wish I had photoshop. I no longer have to worry about destroying my original files--lightroom keeps track of that for me.