Lightroom and/or PSE?

[Brownbear]

Glen just so you know, I imported my first set of photos into light room... and I've started reviewing the tutorials... Thank you.

[John Morton]

My favourite author on LR is Martin Evening. I have his books on LR2 and LR3, and will likely get the LR4 one.

Glenn

Martin Evening is an excellent source for photographic advice. I've really enjoyed his "Adobe Photoshop for Photographers" and will no doubt get the latest version when I finally upgrade from PS 4 Extended ;-)

I've never used Lightroom but of course we've all heard great things about it. My usual workflow (using a Nikon D700) is to download from my camera by way of Nikon Transfer; and this will automatically open Nikon's View NX software when images are done downloading. I label the folders for my downloaded images by season and year (since I do mainly landscape work) or by subject for specific shoots.

I always shoot in RAW format and I do my initial edits using Nikon's Capture NX2 software. This would be similar to using Lightroom or any other program that is geared toward converting RAW files; and this is where I check the color temperature of my white balance and bring detail back into highlights and shadows because, I can save an adjustment file for these basic edits here and apply it to all the photos from one shoot so that they are all starting from the same processing point.

This is a strong point for any good program that can convert RAW files and this is why such programs should be used first, before going into Photoshop or equivalent programs: it can be a HUGE time saver being able to do all the initial edits to a series of photos using the same adjustment file.

Then I convert my processed RAW files into TIFFs and save those away from the archive of downloaded RAW files; because I like to work on TIFFs and I don't like continually sorting through all the files from a shoot when I have already selected the photos I want to work with. This is made easier by the fact that I have partitioned the drives in my photo editing computer so that My C:/ drive doesn't hold any images; instead, I have set up drives for Images, Projects, Archives, and Text. So I might download photos as RAW files from my camera into my Images drive, pick and pre-process select photos that end up as TIFFs in my Projects drive, and then store the end results I have after post processing in Photoshop to my Archive drive.

This way I can find original RAW files (Images, with files named as they are from/by the camera), versions and stages in processing (Projects, with stages in post processing noted as 1a, 1b, 1c - 2a, 2b, 2c -3a, 3b, 3c and so on depending on whether a minor change or a major change is being saved) and final versions (Archive, using actual names describing the photographs) easily; but this is definitely a one-way workflow: once I have a file in my Archive, I don't change it (I'll redo the whole process from an earlier point rather than redo a final version); once I've started into post processing a TIFF I'll stick to doing that in Photoshop; and I never permanently change a RAW file but convert it with my initial pre-processing edits into a TIFF that I work on in Photoshop.

This way, I can pretty much tell at a glance where any photo file on my computer comes from within my editing process.

[lenelg]

I was able to buy CS4 at a student discount, but that is no longer an option, so when it runs out of steam I am looking at LR + Elements as the obvious alternative. However, one concern I have is missing CS's ability to record Actions. I have built up a collection which I use quite frequently in my current workflow.

[russellsnr]

I was able to buy CS4 at a student discount, but that is no longer an option, so when it runs out of steam I am looking at LR + Elements as the obvious alternative. However, one concern I have is missing CS's ability to record Actions. I have built up a collection which I use quite frequently in my current workflow.

Hi, Can you explain what you mean when as you say "when it runs out of steam " If you mean it gets old I don't think that for a photographer that can use it will cause much heartache, I for one would rather have PS CS4 than PSE as at the end of the day PS CS has so much more to offer.
Russ

[Polar01]

Lennart: If you have a registered copy of CS4 student edition, you can upgrade it to CS6, not the extended version but the standard one, for the upgrade price. I did this as a had a copy of CS5 extended (student), could not upgrade to CS6 extended (Student), but it had items that I did not need so the standard CS6 was perfect for me at a cost of $200.00 Canadian.

Cheers:

Allan

[John Morton]

I was able to buy CS4 at a student discount, but that is no longer an option, so when it runs out of steam I am looking at LR + Elements as the obvious alternative. However, one concern I have is missing CS's ability to record Actions. I have built up a collection which I use quite frequently in my current workflow.

I started out using Aldus Photostyler, and switched to Adobe with a student discount version of Photoshop 7. Needless to say, any upgrade installs on a new computer are somewhat long an tedious, as I have to start with Version 7 and install everything after until i get to the new version.

I like my old photo editing computer, which was custom built and has had innumerable component upgrades over the years; but, it is a 32 bit system so my thought is that I will buy a full version of Photoshop when I eventually purchase a 64 bit computer. Until then, Photoshop CS4 Extended is fine for me as I actually use plug-in filters for a lot of what I do in photo editing. There are still little corners of the Photoshop editing process that I haven't explored yet in version CS4 and lots of editing techniques I haven't experimented with yet, so I am not in a rush to upgrade anyway.

I've heard people refer to Photoshop as a "battleship," meaning it has a lot of power but perhaps is a little too unwieldy for everyday use. There is a good point there in the 'less is more' philosophy of Lightroom and Photoshop Elements: for many people who are not working commercially and do not need the full range and power of Photoshop, simpler and more efficient image editors are a smarter choice. I'm not working commercially but I still like having all the options Photoshop provides open to me; and Actions is certainly one of them. I don't think I could live with an image editor that didn't have Actions; not for my own projects, but when someone else wants me to photograph an event for them: at the end of the day, just being able to automate the conversion of the Adobe RGB 16 bit TIFFs that I use into the sRGB 8 bit JPEGs that they need is justification enough for owning Photoshop!