which editing program

photoshop cs3, lightroom, or elements. which is best? what do you get for the extra money in cs3 vs elements?

photoshop cs3, lightroom, or elements. which is best? what do you get for the extra money in cs3 vs elements?

If you do a search I think you will find a bunch of threads on this.

If you want one piece of software that imports, sorts, classifies, does 90% of your edits, exports, prints, uploads to web etc, get Lightroom. (Aperture is my preference if you have a Mac) There are many people who say they rarely use PS once they have Lightroom, so unless you have plans for complex editing, get Lightroom.

photoshop cs3, lightroom, or elements. which is best? what do you get for the extra money in cs3 vs elements?

I think it depends on what you want to do with your images. Lightroom is a great program both as a library program and for basic manipulation, and I have found I can do 90% of readying images (sharpening, color balance, spot removal, etc) for print or monitor with it.

If I want to really "play" with my images, CS3 is a must.

I don't really know elements so cannot speak to that from a users perspective, but from looking at the features section on the adobe site, I believe your $99 would be better spent on a basic copy of photoshop. Anything you can imagine can be accomplished in photoshop, so you are never constrained as you might be with elements. With that said, the learning curve in photoshop is never-ending which I find fascinating, others frustrating.

I agree with Matthew, but if I were to choose only one program, particularly starting out, it would be Lightroom, with the understanding that if you choose to get more involved in editing, CS3 is still the gold standard.

i do use a mac. i basically want to color correct underwater shots, crop, and do some basic layering effect like adding a watermark. my concern is that the algorithms used in lightroom or photoshop elements won't be as good as cs3.

I use Lightroom, only because it is a more complete package that lets you just about everything from managing the library, adjustments and exporting of the photos. That said, it my opinion is is very poor for RAW adjustments because it ignores the camera defaults. I use it in spite of all this.

i do use a mac. i basically want to color correct underwater shots, crop, and do some basic layering effect like adding a watermark. my concern is that the algorithms used in lightroom or photoshop elements won't be as good as cs3.

I would still start with Lightroom or Aperture if you have a Mac (you can download trials of both).

The reason being that these are much better for sorting, cataloguing and keeping your photographs properly organized from the beginning. You cannot do layers in Aperture or Lightroom, but both are non-destructive editing programs so you can keep versions of your original with all the different edits that you might do, without touching your original RAW or JPEG image. For basic color correcting, cropping, contrast adjustments, watermark - all can be done and more in both Aperture and Lightroom. I have not followed Lightroom for a while, but Aperture has now introduced plug-in ability so many more Photoshop features are being added almost daily. If money is not an issue buy Aperture or Lightroom and Photoshop. If you want one program for around $200 that will do just about everything and make your life so much easier from a sorting and storing perspective, buy Lightroom or Aperture. here is also some useful Aperture info here http://apertureprofessional.com/index.php

as well as the Apple site. Even though my preference is Aperture, I think Lightroom is pretty similar and because of it's Adobe connection probably has a much larger user base.

I use Lightroom, only because it is a more complete package that lets you just about everything from managing the library, adjustments and exporting of the photos. That said, it my opinion is is very poor for RAW adjustments because it ignores the camera defaults. I use it in spite of all this.

Some RAW image afficionados believe strongly that Capture NX is a superior RAW convertor (for Nikon of course) than Lightroom, and they import into NX before going to Lightroom. I have not been able to see any quality issues that bother me with Aperture camera presets.

Some RAW image afficionados believe strongly that Capture NX is a superior RAW convertor (for Nikon of course) than Lightroom, and they import into NX before going to Lightroom. I have not been able to see any quality issues that bother me with Aperture camera presets.

I very much agree that CaptureNX is better than Lightroom for RAW conversion. It is for that reason that I now shoot raw+jpg. I import into Lightroom with the zeroed defaults and use the jpg as a guide to how the image should look. I apply presets to the NEF and can compare back to the jpg for any adjustments. If I can't get the image looking correct in Lightroom, I externally edit it in CaptureNX and use the tif for the final adjustments in Lightroom.

I very much agree that CaptureNX is better than Lightroom for RAW conversion.

As a Nikon shooter, I will tell you that any image from the newest Nikon cameras will be better processed in NX. ACR takes a while to catch up with mfg's proprietary conversion. However, if you compare the D200 in NX & ACR now that the camera has been around for a while, there is very little difference (in my opinion). The D3 however... startling difference.

I always import all images using lightroom, pick the images I want to work on then export RAW copies into a folder on my desktop and have NX batch process them to TIFF, while deleting the RAWs in that folder (not the original RAW's!) I can then import the TIFFs into lightroom and work them from there.

I always import all images using lightroom, pick the images I want to work on then export RAW copies into a folder on my desktop and have NX batch process them to TIFF, while deleting the RAWs in that folder (not the original RAW's!) I can then import the TIFFs into lightroom and work them from there.

My method is quite similar to yours, in principle, I just go about it a different way. I have configured Lightroom to externally edit the raw files in NX, but trick Lightroom into thinking it is just working with the TIFF.

See: Lightroom: Externally editing a raw file