Upgrading past Elements

[kgreen]

I have used Elements for years.. but I think I'm way over due for an upgrade, have some more creative control & not sure which software to purchase. I am checking into Adobe Photoshop CS6, or lightroom 4. I have used a trial of the Topaz bundle, & enjoyed the short time I was able to use it. Just wondering if anyone can shed some light on where I should go from here.

 

[JoeDif]

Currently I do about 95% of my PP in Lightroom and the Topaz and Nik plug ins. The only time I feel the need to use Photoshop is if I need to clone something out of an image or to add some sort of texture to an image.

 

[kgreen]

Thanks JoeDif! With lightroom, do all of your photos appear in an organizer or something of that nature. Just curious how that works.

 

[JoeDif]

Thanks JoeDif! With lightroom, do all of your photos appear in an organizer or something of that nature. Just curious how that works.

Yes, one of the best features of LR is it's photo management tools. As long as you tag your images with descriptive keywords keeping track of and finding images is a breeze.

You can download a fully functioning 30 day trial to see if it's something you would like to use.

 

[Cafeen]

Some of this will be down to what you actually want to do with your photos.

LR is great for organization and "development" types of tweaks (cropping, exposure, color balance, lens correction, brightness, saturation, contrast, spot removal, etc), but it will fall flat with higher end image editing functions (cloning, merging, layers, masks, etc). For those, you will need Photoshop (or Photoshop-esque) software.

I recently picked up elements (well, like, around March) and I barely use it (it was on sale at about $30, so I couldn't pass it up), 99% of my workflow is through Lightroom. That's mostly because I prefer to just touch up and tweak my photos than completely change them, and I'm too lazy to put in that much work .

(Though, you really can't beat the organization offered by LR...except with some of the categorization options...like the color labels... I hate the way that is setup).

 

[Pixel Dust]

I agree with what everyone else just said. Lightroom has a great workflow for organizing and quick development adjustments for photos. And Photoshop would be needed for actual manipulations like cloning, hdr, stitching.

With that said, B&H has a 24 hour deal ending tonight, $390 for BOTH! Full versions (not upgrades). Though student and teacher deals are better.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/buy/Lightroom-with-Photoshop-CS6/ci/19664/N/4085755801

 

[photo_chick]

Lightroom would not be an upgrade to Elements, it would be complimentary to it.

If Elements is coming up short for you to me Photoshop CS6 would be a natural progression. However, I'm not understanding what you mean by creative control because you have a lot in Elements. Especially if you're using Camera RAW to process your RAW files.

 

[kgreen]

Thanks for the all the info everyone much appreciated!!

 

[ukstitch]

Some of this will be down to what you actually want to do with your photos.

LR is great for organization and "development" types of tweaks (cropping, exposure, color balance, lens correction, brightness, saturation, contrast, spot removal, etc), but it will fall flat with higher end image editing functions (cloning, merging, layers, masks, etc). For those, you will need Photoshop (or Photoshop-esque) software.

I recently picked up elements (well, like, around March) and I barely use it (it was on sale at about $30, so I couldn't pass it up), 99% of my workflow is through Lightroom. That's mostly because I prefer to just touch up and tweak my photos than completely change them, and I'm too lazy to put in that much work .

(Though, you really can't beat the organization offered by LR...except with some of the categorization options...like the color labels... I hate the way that is setup).

This is exactly how I work - most of the work is in lightroom and then on the occasion I need to do something that's not easy/possible in lightroom (panoramics, HDR, pixel editting larger than simple spot removal) I send the picture to elements.

Both Lightroom and Photoshop CS6 have free trials available, so it would be worth downloading both of these to see what you think