Another software question

[Allan Dozier]

I read Chris’s post on which software to use for light photo editing but didn’t want to highjack it.

I plan on living forever, so far so good.

[Brian Moffitt]

Allan,

Great question!  The answer however isn’t really cut and dried.  As with most things computer related this answer is prefaced with “it depends”.  If the software which came with your camera is doing what you want then you probably don’t need anything more.  However, if you feel like the adjustments available aren’t quite what you want then you might want to upgrade.

That being said it depends on what you want to do as to what you choose to go with.  I got my parents Photoshop Elements 8 for Christmas and they really like it, but they aren’t heavy photo editors.  Just doing enough to make decent prints and uploads for the web.  That being said my dad did find he needed to get a book to really understand all the aspects of Elements and what he could do with it.

I on the other hand like the flexibility and power that come with Photoshop CS (just upgraded to 5) and Lightroom.  I’ve found that I now do almost 90% of my editing in Lighroom and only go to Photoshop for specific situations.  But Lightroom is about 100% more expensive than Elements.  Like my parents though my wife wants something simple so she uses Picassa (free) to handle photos.  She doesn’t do much editing but needed something that would catalog the images so she can easily find what she is looking for.

So, like I said at the beginning it really depends.  If the ACDsee software is working for you then there isn’t much reason to upgrade to something else.  On the other hand, if it isn’t quite doing everything you want and you aren’t happy with the results you are getting I’d look to Elements 8 or Lightroom (with the caveat that Lightroom 3 is coming out “soon” (release date not yet released by Adobe)).  I should note that as the other post noted Lightroom 3 Beta 2 is available for free so you could always download that and see how you like it before making a purchase commitment (there is also a trial of Photoshop Elements 8 available)).

That was a long response to an easy question, but the answer is that a standalone package quite likely has substantially more features than a package like ACDsee.

[Don Thompson]

The only thing I would add to Brian’s response would be that if I could only get Photoshop or Lightroom, I would chose Photoshop.

I use both because my wife is an employee at a university and she can get them both for very little money. I like Lightroom for it’s photo management and it does about 75%+ of what I need to do in editing. But it is that 25% that would make me chose Photoshop if I had to chose.

I could get by without the photo management that Lightroom offers, but I couldn’t do without the editing capabilities that Photoshop offers.

[callum ross]

Sorry for jumping in on this thread…

What advantages does Lightroom provide? There are a couple of mentions in regards to using Lightroom for a large part of the editing. What does it do well and what still needs to be done in Photoshop?

Cheers,

Callum

[Allan Dozier]

Thanks for the replies.

I plan on living forever, so far so good.

[Aaron Christensen]

Allan, I have Photoshop CS.

[Brian Moffitt]

Callum,

I find that I can do most of the edits I want to make to an image in Lighroom without going to Photoshop.

[callum ross]

Thanks Brian.

I currently use Photoshop and have slowly been working to build a better understanding of the software. I will download the beta to have a play.

Cheers,

Callum

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