I have CS4 do I need Lightroom?

[maggiestampa]

I'm finding that post processing tutorials quite often talk about Lightroom and make it sound as though it is much better than using ACR 5.5. Is it really worth purchasing or can I do the same things in CS4 and Acr 5.5? If it is worth having, why? What does it do better? I usually shoot in RAW but occasionally use Jpeg.

[zona5101]

I don't know arc5.5 but before Lightroom, I did all my post processing in PS. Now I only use PS to do more complicated editing. I do all the everyday color correction, spotting etc in LR. As you have probably seen in the tutorials, LR loads a folder full of pics. It is quisck and easy to rate them, sort them edit them. At first I thought it added a lot more work to my workflow, but after spending some time with the tool I find it saves me time over the previous PS only workflow. I believe Adobe lets you download a trial version. Might be worth a couple hours to see how it feels to you.

[kirbinster]

Lightroom is a digital assett management program, that also does most editining you need to do. Photoshop is a bit level editor. While the two have overlap they are geared for different purposes.