Lightroom and CS5

[steveb44]

I'm a new DSLR owner (D5000) and am looking to purchase some post processing software. I've read a lot of the Lightroom and CS4/5 discussions and am leaning towards getting CS5 (with a student discount, it's $299 for CS5 Extended). Is there anything that Lightroom does that cannot be done in CS5?

Thanks in advance for your help.

[jdepould]

Originally Posted by steveb44

I'm a new DSLR owner (D5000) and am looking to purchase some post processing software. I've read a lot of the Lightroom and CS4/5 discussions and am leaning towards getting CS5 (with a student discount, it's $299 for CS5 Extended). Is there anything that Lightroom does that cannot be done in CS5?

Thanks in advance for your help.

Photoshop doesn't have the database features that LR does, so you would need to manually organize all of your images.

[jgomez65]

LR is a complement to PS. Much easier to use and faster to learn, however it is also limited on what you can do with it.
My recommendation is to download the free trial first then see if it is something that you would use on a regular basis.

[steveb44]

Thanks for the suggestions. I'm going to buy CS5 and I'll try the trial of Lightroom to see if I'll really use it.

[JMarro]

I would go with lightroom first. Especially if your new to DSLR photography. Photoshop is if you really want to get in depth and specifically fix different things in your photos, but if you want to fix up your photos as a whole, lightroom is better and takes care of all your photos. Lightroom enhancements are much faster as that is what the program was developed for. Up to you, but personally lightroom would be my first choice, although I started out using photoshop for a few years as a graphic designer before going into photography. Once I started photography I got lightroom and now use it much more then photoshop.

[inkista]

This is just my opinion, but to me the emphasis should be on Lightroom if you're primarily a photographer, and on Photoshop if you're primarily a digital artist.

Lightroom is a photographer's piece of software, designed around a photography workflow from downloading the photos off the camera/card through to a delivery of those photos to a customer/website/prints. It lets you organize your photos in a database for easy retrieval, and while its digital darkroom capabilities are smaller than Photoshop's, you can think of it as the 10% of Photoshop you use 90% of the time.

Photoshop is a digital artist's piece of software, designed around pixel manipulation. The tasks it accomplishes with ease that are not in Lightroom revolve more around compositing and specific-area retouching, and colorspace manipulation. Photoshop is more specific and powerful than Lightroom, but a great many of the functions in Photoshop are not necessary to someone who simply wants to touch up a few photos, rather than make a collage of digital artwork, of which photos are merely a single element.

BTW, the educational pricing on LR3 is only $89.

[kirbinster]

+1 on Lightroom!

[WadeCourtney]

I am new to photography as well, but not new to photoshop and new to lightroom. I like being able to see all my photos laid out so I can quickly move through them and apply changes as needed. So far I've only used PS for some advanced techniques like multiplicity and HDR.

Wade