How do you get even lighting with several subjects?

[NigelD]

I used to know a pro photographer who always swore by Photoshop and then when Lightroom came out he said that for a photographer it was much more intuitive to use if you only wanted to do basic tweaks, levels, crop, red-eye etc. Well I think it's come a long way since the original version - I use it as a tool of preference but if I need to do anything in layers, although you can do it in Lightroom, I switch to Photoshop.
You pays your money and you takes your chance!

[Myk]

I think you were looking at the full Creative Suite for $1300 USD; Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Acrobat and some other stuff. Just Photoshop CS5 should be $699 USD from Adobe.
You could test drive CS5, Lightroom, or Elements for the 30 day trial, just to see the difference.

[speedneeder]

I could afford 20% of $700. Now I just need to enroll in school full time!

[Crovean]

I could afford 20% of $700. Now I just need to enroll in school full time!

I don't think you need to be full time to avail it. I think all they need from you is an ID, report card, or transcript.

[speedneeder]

Thanks for the edit Dave.
I may try the 30 day trial of elements or cs5 soon. I did the trial for lightroom once, I only used it once or twice and didn't see any advantages beyond using GIMP except for some nifty noise reduction stuff. I understand that a pro could definitely see advantages, but for my amateur use, not so much.