Elements, CS5, or Lightroom?

[Ezookiel]

Considering this exact question was asked in 2009, about much older versions of these three, I thought it might be best to ask the question again rather than gravedig a very old thread.

Santa has given me permission to ask for some software for Christmas, but whatever I go with now, I'll probably have to stay with it for a long time to come so as to not have multiple learning curves. So I need to make sure Santa brings the right program to see me through my current, and future needs as my skills and knowledge improve.
So out of these three, which should I be asking for considering that

My needs are:
The usual RAW enhancement stuff to get the best out of a photo (sharpen, brightness, contrast, saturation, etc etc).
Basic touch ups such as clone/stamp etc to remove odd blemishes etc.
Stitching photos into panos (I do this a LOT).
Eventually basic HDR etc etc.

I don't have the need to fake up a crime scene or turn my 100 year old grandmother into Elle Macpherson, and so full Photoshop is definitely out of the equation. Besides ... it also has to be something that Santa can afford - (I am eligible to buy student versions of the software if one exists), but price isn't the major factor.

It would be especially good if it was something that I can use just the one piece of software to do the whole thing from camera right through. At the moment I'm doing the basics in DPP and the rest in GIMP or even switching to Photo Studio 5.5 (really old Canon software) to do some things, and that's something I really really want to stop having to do.

Thanks in advance for any light you can shed on the various options.

[98kellrs]

Download trial versions for them and see which you prefer? You can get them from the Adobe website.

Personally I'm a big fan of lightroom, I do have photoshop (CS3) but I find that too much effort when processing hundreds of images. I have never tried elements.

[Brian500au]

I have never tried Elements but I suppose it is what you need to do with the software. I use both LR3.5 and CS5 for all my editing. I import raw format in LR3.5, sort and mark images for editing. I then move them into CS5 - do most of my micro editing and then finish in LR3.5 again. With my work flow I could not do without either one of them as they both perform different functions in the editing / cataloguing process. CS5 is a steep learning curve, but once you are there it is a powerful piece of software.

[kiwi]

LR is different that photoshop, so, its not an "or" its a "LR and what pixel based editor, elements or CS5"

Elements for most is all youd need, so, that'd be the way Id go.

[peterking]

Simple answer. There isn't one.
As Kiwi says they are different.
I have Lightroom 3 to mange my catalogue of images. And it does it brilliantly but it has limited processing capabilities. as per your list. 1 is definitely available in LR whilst 2 and 3 are better handled by CS5. 4 I don't know about.
So CS5 is what you need as you want to stitch images and do PP.
Student versions of both are available and I'd advise you avail yourself of those.

[Ezookiel]

I have to say I was quite taken with CS5 from what I read of it on the Adobe website.
I had been using Picasa to catalogue my photos until recently. But for the price, I'd much prefer LR if it has some other features that make it worthwhile, and going by Brian's post, it does. So I guess I'll aim for CS5 and then at some stage grab a cheap copy of LR as well (seen it for $149 student, so hardly worth adding as a Chrissy present, they're normally the bigger things you can't quite justify buying any other time).

Thanks for the recommendations everyone. Pretty much helped me make my decision.

[kiwi]

just buy elements, i use it with LR, not a problem

[wmphoto]

I have used Elements for years and only recently got Lightroom........... haven't looked back since. Since getting LR I don't use Elements all that much other than for the "tricky" stuff. I looked at CS for a while but now I don't think I will bother as LR and Elements can do 99% of what I want.

LR is currently available online from the Adobe site for (what I consider) a very good price.

[Old Skool]

I use Lightroom 99% of the the time, now only go into Photoshop occassionally as it has a better clone tool.
Get Microsoft ICE, free download to stitch your panoramas and you have it all covered.

[cupic]

IMHO LR3 is a bang for your buck software some goodies from CS5 but with a smaller price-tag.
I have LR3 and use this more than CS5

cheers

[deef]

If you can get the student editions legitimately, why not get both CS5 and LR3? Adobe site has them at $201 and $122 respectively.

I use Lightroom for 90+% of my work flow. Love it. I'm a bit of a dinosaur as I still use PS7.

[WhoDo]

Another vote for PSE and LR in combo, especially since you can buy at the right price. LR3.5 is now about $125 and PSE $160 when I bought it in a bundle for my iMac. Student prices ought to be even better. :christmasparty:

Spend 99.9999% of my time in LR3.5 these days. PSE is there for the rest, if and when it's needed. As a GIMP user before the iMac, I also downloaded the Mac version of that, but find I don't even use it anymore. Just my personal experience, and I think it's awesome that I got it right even before kiwi's advice too! Must be a Nikon user synchronicity thing! :D

[Ezookiel]

Just waiting on my daughters to get some official documentation of their student status, and I'll be buying both LR and CS5 by the look of it. Sure can't go past the $201 price for CS5 at the moment. The seller on it was the very smart content aware clone out tool for removing things such as entire powerlines - even curved ones - with just a couple of clicks. I've spent WAY too many an hour cloning out powerlines by hand, to not be sold by a feature like that pretty quickly. That's probably in all the other programs too. But the video of how to do it on the very front page of the CS5 page on the Adobe website was a bit of a clincher for me.

So between Elements and CS5, which has more of the features of the full Photoshop. It seems odd to have two cut down versions of it.

[deef]

CS5 is the full Photoshop :)

[Ezookiel]

Is it?
I thought full PS was like $1200 or something stupid.
Ah, so now I see why they have CS5 as well as Elements.

[kiwi]

I actually prefer elements to cs5

[Ezookiel]

I'm about to give up the whole idea and choose another company to buy from. Adobe are so damned frustrating!!!!.
Even their "Live Chat" isn't live, but some dumb computer trying to pretend to be a human and attempting very poorly to answer your questions by spouting pat quotes from their website that actually don't answer the question.
I'm about to scrap the whole idea and walk into JB HiFi and buy any product NOT made by Adobe just in protest.
It's been like pulling hair and banging my head on a wall just for the fun of it because it feels good when you stop.

Nurse! NURSE! It's time for my MEDS!!!
Aaaahhhh.... that's better. Now to try again tomorrow and see if I can get anywhere with them.

[pghollis1]

Officeworks has CS5 Extended version (student & teacher) for $189. I've also seen it for $161 at CentreCom... Officeworks will beat any price by 5%... so perhaps try that.

[kiwi]

There's a reason 99% of professionals and advanced amateurs use adobe photoshop, stick with it

[Ezookiel]

To their credit, you can't get much help on their website, but on their facebook page, I had a response to the question very quickly.
I guess companies are diverting their resources to the social media sites over their webpages now.
But I might have to try Officeworks et al, if those are the kinds of prices they have.

[LJG]

just buy elements, i use it with LR, not a problem

I'm with Darren on this. LR3 is a great program and Elements has the things LR doesn't, so cost wise this is the best way to go.

[ameerat42]

CS5 is the full Photoshop :)

AFAIK, and more! CS stands for Creative Suite, which has more than just Photoshop in it.

If CS5 is that cheap, Y go for the relatively cut down Elements? (But then I've got CS2 Photoshop, so who knows how much more the latest Elements has got?)

[kiwi]

Sure, if you qualify for thew student verison of CS5 its about the same price as Elements and would make sense on most levels

But Elements is easier to use, more "help", wizards, template cd covers etc etc and now with layers etc still very capable

I still say Elements, mainly based on point 2

[Cyza]

Im on holidays in Poland now, and a few days prior to my trip I was issued with a free mini laptop from my school (cheers Kevin rudd)
but now I had the dilemma do I take my 15.6 inch laptop with CS5 or do I take the oversized netbook with elements on it.

In the the end due to battery life and convenience I took the school issued laptop with elements on it.

So far I've had no problems with elements on it.
Everything I ever did for PP on CS5 I've been able to do on this one.
playing around with raw settings in ACR
patching up things
applying gradient maps etc.
resizing
reducing noise
you name it.

Although the program seems somewhat simplistic after using the "real thing" I've really been enjoying it, and for someone who is new to it I'd strongly recommend starting with elements since I think the learning curve will be far less steep and chances are the extra things you will be paying for in CS5 you won't use much or at all

my late 2 cents

[Ezookiel]

My daughters are still waiting for their free laptops from Kevin Rudd.
Never seem to have eventuated. If they don't get them soon (i.e. by next week) it will be too late, they'll both have left school by then and be at Uni.

[SirLozalot]

I've been making do with CS3 & DPP. Based on comments here it sounds like I should check out Lightroom for cataloging. Thanks for feedback.

[peterb666]

I didn't like Lightroom but it comes in useful if you like doing a lot of batch processing.

I have CS5 and it has a long learning curve and is very powerful. I do most of my editing in the Adobe Camera RAW (ACR) utility that comes with CS5 and Elements. While ACR is the engine behind Lightroom, you don't have direct access to it in Lightroom and that is one of my main gripes about Lightroom (amongst other things).

So in summary, my recommendations:

Elements will probably serve you well but doesn't have "street cred". I would buy it if I didn't have a cheap copy of CS5.

CS5 is great if you can get it cheap but way overpriced if you cannot. It is the standard amongst enthusiasts.

Lightroom you either love or hate and there are plenty that love it but not me.

[Ezookiel]

Got CS5 Extended for $189 at OfficeWorks (thanks for the tip on that price pghollis1, I don't have a CentreCom anywhere near me that I know of, so couldn't really argue for OfficeWorks to match them).
We have sent off the scans of my daughter's ID and shouldn't have any problem getting approval eventually. Just have to use it in Trial mode for 30 days while we wait for the OK from Adobe.
In all honesty, for $189, I'm more than happy to put up with a steep learning curve and know that I won't outgrow my software, or find myself wanting to do something and being held back only by the lack of the right program. At that price it was worth going the whole hog I suppose.
To combat the learning curve, I'll be setting myself a new years resolution of one tutorial on here every week, and might even further investigate courses in Photoshop. There are a few places offering it.

The other big advantage is that when people here go to the trouble of tweaking an image of mine to show me what could be done with it, and they list the alterations they made to improve it, it will be something I can actually go and try out on my original RAW image. It's not much good when people tell you they set "shadows to 139" (or something like that it may not be an accurate example) when my existing software can only do shadows from -5 to +5. Because some of the improvements people here have made to my images have transformed them to ones I'd actually consider keeping.
I haven't grabbed LR yet - a $400 dentist bill I didn't expect to get, has pulled the reigns slightly on my budget - but that won't be too far off.
Thanks so much for all the input and suggestions. You were all really helpful in making the decision.

[OZAmateur]

a late addition to all of this.....
elements is a basic version of photoshop, and cs5 is photoshop with a heap of extra programs..is that correct?

if all i am playing with is photo editing on a basic level will i honestly notice the difference between cs5 and elements?

[ameerat42]

Though there is a lot of difference between Elements and Photoshop, you may perhaps not need the extras.
Am.

[astronobob]

Some very useful info here, thanks

[Miss Jane]

Thanks for all the great info on these programs. I have been trying to figure out the difference between them.
One question, does elements have RAW processing. I am starting out with infra red photography but need to use RAW and adjust the white balance and use channel mixers. I tried to to this in Paint Shop Pro but it didn't give me the full white balance capabilities.

[Speedway]

I am still using Elements 5 and after trialing both Elements 10 and Lightroom 3, I am still using Elements 5.
Keith.

[algywt]

I'm 14 and consider myself to be pretty good with photoshop (cs5). My school gave me a Netbook with elements on it and I needed it for a school project so I decided I would give it a try. long story short after spending over an hour doing something that would have taken me 10 minutes in CS5 I was ready to pull my hair out. I use Aperture to handle my masses of RAW files and then if I decide that something need to be edited I jump into CS5 and get the job done. You should get CS5 as it is just so much better than elements, one day you will need something in CS5 and will be happy you got it. Then just get a program to handle your masses of RAW files and you are done. I like aperture and I am assuming that because you are a photographer not a gamer that you have a Mac so get aperture. That's my 15 cents.

[peterb666]

In answer to some of the recent questions, Elements, Lightroom and CS5 all use Adobe Camera RAW as the raw processing engine. You can directly access Adobe Camera RAW in Elements and CS5. Lightroom sticks a workflow interface over the top. Adobe Camera RAW does an excellent job of processing RAW files.

I have CS5 and use Adobe Camera RAW for about 90% of my processing needs. The differences between CS5 and Elements is not great. All of these programs requre a decent PC and I wouldn't think of running any of them on a netbook. I use a laptop with a separate 1 GB dedicated graphics section and while it was fine when I started using it 2 years ago, it doesn't have the crunch to work with lots of layers that I occasionaly play with in CS5 and not too keen when I increse my image size from 12mp to 25mp.

[Speedway]

I just ordered P S Elements 10 with Premier Elements 10 from B&H for $101.61 delivered Adobe Australia want $243 for the the same thing. $81.61 for P S Elements 10 only delivered. Only problem is the offer ends tomorow 24th. I wasn't going to upgrade but when I saw the price in their newsletter I said why not.
Keith.

[Miss Jane]

What's B&H?

[Speedway]

B&H is an American photographic store.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/
For the offer, Here (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/822139-REG/Adobe_65136385_Photoshop_Elements_10_for.html) for Elements or here (http://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/822135-REG/Adobe_65136565_Photoshop_Elements_10.html) for both.
Keith.

[danny]

If you are a NSW Teacher CS5 masters collection = $85 delivered :th3:

[genuinesqueak]

I've been searching the threads and I think my question which is very similar to the original poster's question so thought I'd stick it in here.
I trialled CS6 (then the computer died after only four days of using the trial.. new computer... bugger?) but what I did get to play with I loved and am now wanting it. There's no way I can buy the full version (not in a lump sum yet anyway) I did see the student/teacher versions were a heap cheaper. I read who was eligible and although I am not, I do have children in school... Does that count? How would I go about buying a hard copy and proving it if it's ok?
I've only ever had Elements (quite a few years ago, version 5 I think?) and hadn't heard much of LR.
Thanks for any help.

[WhoDo]

How would I go about buying a hard copy and proving it if it's ok?
I've only ever had Elements (quite a few years ago, version 5 I think?) and hadn't heard much of LR.
For photography work, it is likely that the latest Elements will be more than enough for what you need. If you want to get into graphic art, then the full version is the way to go. You should have Lightroom either way, as it is just so easy to process lots of images. Both PSE and LR are a fraction of the cost of the full CS6.

You can download trial versions of all 3 from the Adobe website. If you decide to download CS6 be aware that it is several Gb in size and could take forever depending upon your connection. Otherwise check out the Adobe website for a retailer near you. Hope that helps.

[billyalphabet]

If I may toss in a curve ball, considder the Gimp. It is free and quite powerful. It does have a learning curve though.

[Ezookiel]

Kids in school counts, well it did for my kids in high school. I bought the student edition at Officeworks for $189, and it installs itself as a free 30 day trial, you then email Adobe a scan of a student ID, or several other types of proof of "student" status, and they send you a registration code that turns it to the full student edition. It's very easy. They're quite good to deal with, and the flexibility of the student system is remarkable - I bought it in my name, with my daughter's student ID, and my wife's credit card, and that caused no problems to them at all.
I do love CS5.5, so 6 would have to be excellent. It has been a heck of a learning curve though, but my theory was that I was going to have a learning curve whatever program I chose, as I've had very limited experience with photo software, so if there was going to be a curve whatever I did, then it may as well be a curve with what is traditionally seen as one of the best bits of software out there.

[genuinesqueak]

Thanks everyone for your replies.
I got the trial CS6 and four days later my computer has what seems like a virus so now I'm a little too scared to download any more trials in case it was something from the Adobe website. What I did get to use in CS6 was amazing and so simple. Has anyone else experienced virus's or strange computer behaviour after downloading anything from the adobe website? A friend told me she had a virus after downloading something from there only a week before I did, but it's Adobe, surely it'd be safe??
Ezookiel do you know if there is an age limit for the student. I'm worried I'd buy it then be rejected (my son is 7, haha) and then I'd have an expensive 30 day trial. ;)

[Ezookiel]

Not that I am aware of, but they would need something to show they're a student, and 7yo might not have ID cards yet, but there were other methods and means (school bills, reports etc from memory, you'd have to check their website). It also applies if you know anyone who teaches or works at a school too from memory. I'll see if I can find the splurb on their page that says what proof is required. I remember that part wasn't a simple search last time.
BTW, never had a virus from them, but my daughter got one from the ABC website the other night, and I got the same one several months back from some other innocent site, we both got one that pretends to be an anti-virus program that is popping up fake virus warnings and wants you to make a payment to the company before this software will remove the virus's it's supposedly found. I know it was a pain to get rid of, because it disables cntrl-alt-delete, and website searches, so had to use the still clean desktop computer to find the info on how to get it off the laptop. It was a little tedious to remove, and neither myself nor my daughter had clicked ok on anything dodgy, opened any odd sites or pages, clicked on any advertisements, just midstream while browsing the page, up it came, straight through our genuine anti-virus at the time too, which didn't impress me.
Lucky I generally know what I'm doing with computers, I suspect there would be people who would just pay the fee.

[genuinesqueak]

Oh no! I'm thinking it was one of those random type things. Thankfully my trusty four year old laptop is still working haha. I only had the computer for two weeks! We've had no pop ups or anything strange like that but kept getting the blue screen of death and a black screen saying something about "no bootable device - insert boot disk and retry"... It'll start up ok in the morning then freeze about 15 minutes in and then it's touch and go whether I can get it started or not for the rest of the day. Have uninstalled everything I downloaded from adobe (three days worth of CS6 downloading and installing because I have a slow connection haha) and still nothing.
Stupid computers!

[ROA44]

Just wondering if anyone uses Corel Paintshop, a guy @ work uses Corel Photopaint and says it can do almost all that photoshop does& 2 $70's for paintshop 5 that's not bad just not sure if photopaint & paintshop are the same still trying to check on that point.

[peterb666]

Just wondering if anyone uses Corel Paintshop, a guy @ work uses Corel Photopaint and says it can do almost all that photoshop does& 2 $70's for paintshop 5 that's not bad just not sure if photopaint & paintshop are the same still trying to check on that point.

I use Paintshop Pro and have been using various versions since Windows 3 days. I use it at work for graphics capture and editing of graphics. It works well and unlike most graphics software the capture process is integrated into the software - not a separate program.

I have a copy on my PC - it is about 2 versions old now and I sometimes use it but it is not my first choice in software. It is very different to use compared to CS5 and some things work very well indeed. It is cheaper than Photoshop Elements as well which is probably its real competitor.

[ROA44]

thank you Peter looks like photopaint is the professional version & about $450's still better than photoshop so may look at L/R

[peterb666]

I have never used Photopaint. Paintshop Pro was made by a company that Corel bought out and they have maintianed the product and continue to update it.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk 2

[Mark L]

...
I got the trial CS6 and four days later my computer has what seems like a virus so now I'm a little too scared to download any more trials in case it was something from the Adobe website......

Download the free edition of this ...... http://www.superantispyware.com/download.html
Then run a full scan, which while take some time. Then download the CS6 trial again, and run a quick scan.

[conscuba]

thanks Ezookiel,been holding off buying lr and ps ,but with 4 kids in school, will now go shopping :)