What’s Your Preference?

jesslee511 · #1 (**permalink**) 10-02-2009, 02:43 PM

Hi all -

I'm new to the site, but have learned so much already just from browsing!! I am about to purchase my first PP software and want to start small. I am deciding between Elements and Lightroom. I have never used PP software before and heard Elements is a great place to start, but I find more people here prefer Lightroom.

Can anyone suggest the best way to go for a beginner who really wants to learn how to use a robust editing software w/o having to pay for the full CS4???

Thanks in advance!!

naeno · #2 (**permalink**) 10-02-2009, 03:36 PM

Get Gimp! It's free, and very functional! GIMP - The GNU Image Manipulation Program

kirbinster · #3 (**permalink**) 10-02-2009, 05:09 PM

It depends what you want to do with the software. If you want to do bit level editing and cut and pasting objects out of or into a picture tthen elements in the way to go. If you want a great raw processor, photodatabase program and great overall editor to do levels, curves, brushes, gradients, and other macro stuff then lightroom. I think you can get 30 day free trials of both products from adobe's web site. I would suggest lightroom. Once you have a few thousand photos you will be very happy to have a good database that lets you find that shot of junior taken on a cloudy day at XYZ park.

teaking · #4 (**permalink**) 10-02-2009, 06:20 PM

Yeah GIMP is a great piece of kit and it turns out its even easier to use now than it used to be... theres even a photoshop theme for it I think? so you can pretty much follow most photoshop tutorials with it.

It all does depend on your purposes for the software as Irfanview is lightweight fast and handles photoshop plugins. and theres a nice Smart Curves plugin... for curves lol and a high pass sharpening plugin for basic quick image editing it works great and like GIMP is free but a lot less powerful.

zappo · #5 (**permalink**) 10-03-2009, 09:20 AM

Just to make this clear: Elements and Lightroom are two complete different kinds of software! Elements is the small brother of Photoshop and therefore used for photomanipulation or enhancement.

Lightroom is built to cover the workflow from importing to showing them as print or on a website. Within Lightroom you can store your pictures (Tag them, categroize them etc.), enhance them in the raw processor (which actually is pretty powerfull) and then publish them. The only thing you can't do is photomanipulation.

Actually I would suggest getting Lightroom. It covers all your needs as a beginner, especially the ones for storing your pictures. Don't underestimate this part, if you're serious you will get a lot of picutres very fast. It won't help you if you don't find your best ones any more.

Also the posibilites to enhance your picures are very good in Lightroom. Actually they cover everything you will ever need, and they are muche easier to learn than PP, Elements or the GIMP.

jesslee511 · #6 (**permalink**) 10-03-2009, 12:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zappo

Just to make this clear: Elements and Lightroom are two complete different kinds of software! Elements is the small brother of Photoshop and therefore used for photomanipulation or enhancement.

Lightroom is built to cover the workflow from importing to showing them as print or on a website. Within Lightroom you can store your pictures (Tag them, categroize them etc.), enhance them in the raw processor (which actually is pretty powerfull) and then publish them. The only thing you can't do is photomanipulation.

Actually I would suggest getting Lightroom. It covers all your needs as a beginner, especially the ones for storing your pictures. Don't underestimate this part, if you're serious you will get a lot of picutres very fast. It won't help you if you don't find your best ones any more.

Also the posibilites to enhance your picures are very good in Lightroom. Actually they cover everything you will ever need, and they are muche easier to learn than PP, Elements or the GIMP.

Thank you Zappo - I think this is where I am confused...

So if what I am trying to accomplish on photos is simple retouches such as skin softening, eye brightening as well as backgroud retouches (sky brightening etc....) and then hopefully I can learn more complex things as I go, is lightroom still the right software?

zappo · #7 (**permalink**) 10-03-2009, 05:43 PM

As long as we talk about real simple retouches. Sure, brightening the sky, a little bit of skin softening Lightroom, can do that (That's called localized correnctions and has been implemented in V2). But you won't be able to do advanced beauty retouching, for that you will have to get Photoshop.

In fact Lightroom is strongest in getting the contrast right, color correction and so on. Take a look on this site, she sells presets for Lightroom: lightroom presets by rebecca lily

The before and after pictures will illustrate quite well what can be achieved with the development module in LR.

jesslee511 · #8 (**permalink**) 10-05-2009, 12:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zappo

As long as we talk about real simple retouches. Sure, brightening the sky, a little bit of skin softening Lightroom, can do that (That's called localized correnctions and has been implemented in V2). But you won't be able to do advanced beauty retouching, for that you will have to get Photoshop.

In fact Lightroom is strongest in getting the contrast right, color correction and so on. Take a look on this site, she sells presets for Lightroom: lightroom presets by rebecca lily

The before and after pictures will illustrate quite well what can be achieved with the development module in LR.

Zappo - thank you so much for your thoughtful replies. You've helped me tremendously!
And thanks for the site with the presets! How cool!!!

fletch · #9 (**permalink**) 10-05-2009, 01:17 PM

If you can only get one package I would sugest Elements.

It won't give you the simplest work flow or the best RAW conversion, thats Lightroom. It also won't give you a top of the range pixel editing tool, thats CS4.

However Elements will give you everything you need and has the widest range of tools vs price. It has a decent photo organisation tool that you can use for keywording and cataloguing like Lightroom. It can develop RAWs, edit pictures, clone and heal, use layers and masks, use filters and effects, add text etc. like CS4. There is nothing you can't do in Elements it just make take a little longer than the Lightroom CS4 combination but it's a hell of a lot cheaper.

Like others have said get the free trail versions and try it for your self but I would go with Elements.

(I use Elements and Lightroom and love them both. Lightroom is an amazing program but I couldn't live without Elements 100% of the time, GIMP is an option though but not one I'd choose)