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Having never played with either, what benefits do either of those two products bring above and beyond what Photoshop Elements gives me? With PSE8 I seem to be able to do just about everything I need for my basic image management/editing, but there does seem a fair amount of photographers who go on and on about LR and Aperture. So, what are they and why are they different/better than Photoshop/PSE?
Aperture....
First up you need an " Apple Mac " computer to run that, Because they can't be arsed to write a Windows version.....!!!
Lightroom on the other hand is available for both Windows & Apple platforms.
LR is a complete workflow program, Can't compare it to PSE8......
Why not download the " FREE " ( nice word that ) Beta version of Lightroom 3.
Its a release version 2 of the beta version, Not sure how long its available for, Probably until they release the full public version.
Anyhow bottom line you get to test drive LR3, That will save me typing the 5 or 6 pages on explaining the difference between the 2 programs......
The free BETA was what prompted me to ask!!
I have a Mac so Aperture is still an option, but I gotta figure out what it/they give me.
Mmm... installed Lightroom, 10 minutes in.... still not sure whether it's really offering me anything PSE can't do....
I'm a Mac user with Aperture and its a great way of managing large libraries of your images. I could waffle on about the pros and cons, but I would recommend you take a look at the Apple website as it offers loads of different tutorials on Aperture.
I am really impressed with Aperture 3 and raw images.
I will.
But do you use it along with Photoshop, instead of photoshop, or what? My point is that both Aperture and Lightroom seem to be an overlap of what Photoshop Elements largely give me.
I've already uninstalled Lightroom. Wasn't that impressed that it would bring me any life-changing benefits.
To be honest I'm not a massive user of Photoshop yet, I only really tweak my images at the moment to correct a few things and so far all of this I have been able to do in Aperture.
In Aperture 3 they have added some new functionality, like brushes, I went into a Apple store and asked for a quick demo and was quite impressed with the new stuff.
If you want more of the advanced photoshop stuff then Aperture might not be enough for you.
Apple do a trial version, so download it and give it a try.
Forgive me, but how the heck do you evaluate a complex program like LR in an hour or so?
I dipped in and out of it for quite some time (weeks) before the penny dropped and now I wouldn't use anything else.
Yes I still use CS4 for some tasks, but always in tandem with LR.
But then you pays yer money and takes yer choice!!
Primarily because I'm not likely to buy Lightroom (well, it's way down my shopping list of expensive stuff, put it that way), I'm simply trying to understand what it is. And from what I saw it's kind of like bits of the stuff photoshop can do, and bits of other stuff, put into a product that is designed around the photographer. Is that right?
I just use Photoshop Elements, and it seems to do a lot of what I *think* these two other products do, perhaps not in quite such a straightforward way. PSE converts RAW, it does all kinds of things to images, and so on. My guess is that Photoshop/PSE is good for manipulating individual files, whereas LR and Aperture are more for bulk-editing.
?
I use LR for my workflow and simple adjustments, and elements for more important stuff. Blur and noise reduction are done on elements
I cannot STAND aperture. It just annoys me to the death I tell you! I got a Mac today you see, and I have sincerely decided not to get aperture, as my friend has it and it just infuriates me. I cannot recommend Lightroom enough, splendid piece of work. On a Mac it looks amazing, and it has a very simple set out and has better editing skills than Aperture
Jonah
the key reason i use lr is it is non destrictive so you can exit anytime and have all the shots in a strip for quick viewing cant do that in cs/elements lr/aperture are (photo) editing software and not graphic editing.there is almost nothing i cant do in lr (photography)
Ah see now this is where it confuses me because PSE also has the ability to organise, tag, 'star' photos etc. So some of that can be done in PSE too.
Quote: Ah see now this is where it confuses me because PSE also has the ability to organise, tag, 'star' photos etc. So some of that can be done in PSE too.
there is a lot of overlap between the products. IIRC the main difference is that PSE/Bridge is a viewer so will allow you to organize a directory when you browse to it. Ligtroom is a database, so it can remember and manage files that are on any drive in your system, even ones that arn't switched on.
A bit more about it here
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