Lightroom or CS4

[res3567]

Which is better?

Lightroom or CS4

I thought Lightroom was part of the Photoshop package, but it looks like it is its own program made by Adobe.

I have PS 7 and one day will upgrade to the CS series.

Just wanted to know should I get one or the other or both.

[redpigeons]

Both

altho you can do everything in PS but you will loose the ease of use of lightroom.

[eyou]

both programs have 1 month free trials i believe. after that you have to pay up or not use it. i suggest you try it.

lightroom is GREAT for organizing, browsing, and instant editting and also IT SAVES EVERY CHANGE YOU DO (unlike cs4 you lose change history after you quit/save right?). also much faster browsing cause of the way it catalogs the image previews.

however, if youre realy good at photoshop, there is nothing you can do in LR that you cant do in photoshop imaging editting wise (with myabe a few more clicks). photoshop does have that bridge program which is like a fake lightroom wanna-be (but still very usable)

that being said i use LR for 99% of my editting and photoshop for editting that i would need a mask for.

what is the exact difference between ps7 and cs4? cs4 is just newer? if you have ps7 maybe get LR first, cause i dunno how many changes are between the two. LR is a dumbed down photoshop made for photographers in mind, not graphic artists.

[Lainey]

I'd go for Lightroom too, its so easy to use, and as has already been said, great for cataloging your images etc. Best move I made, installing LR. all I use PS for now is image resizing and maybe some cloning, thats it.

[davemdsn]

If you only get one get Ps CS4. The only real thing Lr does that Bridge (which comes with Ps) doesn't do is catalog. Bridge even has the same web output options that Lr does. Basically, Ps/Bridge has almost all the functionality of Lr, but Lr doesn't have a fraction of the functionality of Ps.

That being said, if you can afford both I would recommend that. I believe Adobe does offer a discount on Lr when purchased with CS4.

[Venturi]

As has been suggested, download the trials for both and decide for yourself.

But, for the sake of argument I would posit that if you've already got PS7 and can do the upgrade path (I don't know if PS7 qualifies) then get CS4 and then save your pennies to get LR2 later. You will love the cataloging in LR2 once you get your brain around it.

If PS7 doesn't qualify for the upgrade then I would suggest going with LR2. LR2 will still talk to and play nice with PS7 just fine for handing off the heavy lifting but it costs a fraction of the full version of CS4 and PS7 has the majority of the tools of CS4 - albiet somewhat "primitive" versions.

[mel]

I have both, Lightroom and CS4. For me they are both indispensable for what they do. I wouldn't be happy with just one or the other.

[Wheatfield]

Originally Posted by Venturi

As has been suggested, download the trials for both and decide for yourself.

A word to the wise, if you run the trial version of PS and decide to buy, make sure you ininstall the trial copy before you install the bought copy, if you have to do it that way.
I don't recall exactly what happenned on my original CS3 install, but I had been running the try before buy to see if I thought it worthwhile to upgrade from CS2. I didn't uninstall the trial before running the upgrade, and after that I couldn't get either program to work. It took a little work to straighten out, and I found the answer easily at Adobe's website.

[Nubi]

But they are two different softwares!!

[Kaimarx]

Alot of people who use Ps do so in a professional capacity either for print or web work (photographers included). For the rest of the majority it is overkill. You already have Ps 7, the biggest addition Cs4 will offer you is speed enhancements. Were talking the difference between a number of minutes and seconds here. Lightroom on the other hand is made for multiple file handling/ viewing and editing, that in itself could save you hours if your going through alot of files in one sitting.

[Parallax]

Originally Posted by Nubi

But they are two different softwares!!

They are, but they use a common file (or files) for licensing verification. Wheatfield is right. It does complicate things if you do it in the wrong order.

[krypticide]

Lightroom is enough for 99% of my image needs. CS4 covers the rest. The advantage of LR is that your 14MP images stay around 10-14MB, whereas in PS when saved as a TIF and PSD, the minimum seems to be about 100MB per image.

[Gampa]

Originally Posted by krypticide

Lightroom is enough for 99% of my image needs. CS4 covers the rest. The advantage of LR is that your 14MP images stay around 10-14MB, whereas in PS when saved as a TIF and PSD, the minimum seems to be about 100MB per image.

I agree with Krypticide as I also use LR for the majority of my adjustments. Adding to what has already been said, another huge benefit of LR is that you can create virtual copies and work on them to your heart's content without creating actual additional files. The virtual copy is only a set of instructions and not an image so you save on disc space until you either export the instructions to PS or save them as an actual file in LR. The downside is you can't create and work on layers in LR, this must be done in PS or another image program.

[philbaum]

I was first introduced to Lightroom 1.0 by a professional photographer who does a lot of portraits and weddings. Then a audobon guy who does serious bird images and puts them on stock sites, gave some classes at our club on LR. Before that i had Corel and hated it, i was always having look things up on how to do them.

Lightroom is far more intuitive and easy to remember. It makes pp fun and allows a lot of creativity. But allows one to work fast and get back to the field.

Even more important, perhaps, is that one can easily get overwhelmed by the quantity of one's images. As one's files get larger, LR makes it easy to get more organized and to keep track of various versions of the same images. I love that about lightroom, i can make a color, BW, sepia version, in different aspects, and LR makes it easy to quickly pull out the different versions as wanted.

Lightroom will easily hand you off to the Elements that you now have for the more involved defect and object removals and any layers work. i find though that LR does about 98% of my work and i only use Elements for 2 percent. Hey, many professionals have switched to LR for the majority of their work for a reason.

[ftpaddict]

My vote goes towards Lightroom a lot faster and easier to use than Photoshop, and it covers almost all the needs I have. The GIMP fills in the rest.