Elements -vs- Lightroom

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Gary Briggs

mamiyaDude
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What are the strengths of these two ?
I want to get one, can't make up my mind.
I'm not real big on a lot of PP, simple things like exposure, contrast, shadows, just basic adjustments.
Thanks all
 
I got a free copy of Elements with a Panasonic camera but I don't use it as my needs are similar to yours. i am using Lightroom 4 and it does everything I want. I import my raw files directly into LR where it catalogs them by date (this can be user defined if required), I then do any adjustments before exporting to a jpeg for uploading to Photobucket. You can get many free presets for LR and if you want to spash out you can integrate Silver Efex Pro . LR is non destructive which means that you can always step back if you don't like the end result.

Elements will have dedicated users and hopefully they can tell us the benefitss over LR.
 
What you are describing is what Lightroom is best at - it's better at organising your collection, is easy to use and is great for the basic adjustments. Elements is a cut down version of Photoshop - probably the only reason you'd choose this over lightroom is if you absolutely need layers.
 
Gary Briggs said:
I'm not real big on a lot of PP, simple things like exposure, contrast, shadows, just basic adjustments.
Click to expand...

Me neither, have Lightroom and am very happy with it. Bought Elements a while back too, but like others use it minimally. Lightroom is king for photographers, Photoshop is more a tool for graphic designers/ fine art photographers, or perhaps those who now know it and are uncomfortable with learning other software, in my opinion.
 
Gary Briggs said:
What are the strengths of these two ?
I want to get one, can't make up my mind.
I'm not real big on a lot of PP, simple things like exposure, contrast, shadows, just basic adjustments.
Thanks all
Click to expand...


Buying Guide Version Comparison


In a (very oversimplified) nutshell: Photoshop Elements was meant to be used by those who found Photoshop too complex. Lightroom is originally meant to be used as a batch-processing studio without the complexity of Photoshop or Photoshop Elements. Less complexity = less flexibility.
 
Besides layers, PSE is useful for cloning out undesirable or distracting objects. Of course one would not do this for PJ or documentary work. But cloning is quite useful for portraiture for instance.

For clients LR alone meets about 75% of my needs. Otherwise I rarely have to other applications.
 
I use Elements and I used Lightroom when it was in Beta (and it has changed much since then). I don't like the Elements' organization feature although it is probably good; I just haven't become used to it. For organization and simple adjustments I use Picasa3.3 and then go to Elements for levels, color correction (although Picasa has one), and I like the sharpening in Elements (because you can turn it way down. I have a curves plug-in but don't use it much, and I like to a canvas for printing, plus the Elements skew, transform, and perspective features.
 
I use Elements + Silver Efex Pro 2. That combo can do all I want for B&W conversion and the little color work I do.
 
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