CS and Lightroom???

[Clark White]

So here is the deal, I already have CS5 and am getting it figured out fairly well. However, I was talking to a friend of mine who is trying to start a photo business and we had both noticed that a lot of pictures we both really like were edited in Lightroom, not Photoshop. We downloaded the 30 day trial of LR and are both hooked, but also totally confused. CS5 seems much more capable (except for noise reduction, why does CS5 have such horrible NR compared to LR's amazing NR?), but LR is so simple to use. What confuses us most about LR is the whole import export thing. I understand import, and that what you do in LR stays in LR, but what about if I have to do something more and use PS? Do I then have to re-import the PS'd version into LR? If I actually knew what I was doing how much less capable is LR then PS? What about having two computers, will LR sync between them and keep them both on the same page?

Any observations would be greatly appreciated by the both of us!

Thanks!
Clark White

P.S. Keep in mind we both already have CS5, so were considering LR as an addition, not an either or. The reason I ask about syncing between laptop and desktop is because when I'm on trips I'm obviously editing on the laptop, but at home I edit on the desk top, hence the organizational issues between them.

 

[Tucson T4R]

I love LR and do 95% of my editing, organizing, exporting & printing with LR.

If you want to do additional editing of an image that's in LR in CS5 just right click on the image and select the "edit in" option and select CS5. That will open a copy in CS5 and when you are done in CS5 it will then save back to LR a TIFF copy of the edited image and add it to the LR catalog.

If you decide to use LR a lot I highly recommend Scott Kelby's book, "Lightroom3 book for Digital Photographers". It's loaded with excellent tips and suggestions to get the most out of LR.


I haven't tried to sync two computers but I know you can export the LR catalog. I would think you would have to export the catalog and also copy the actual image files from one PC to the other. Just a guess though.

To me the biggest benefit of CS over LR is the ability to do layers and masking. LR does not have that capability. For everything else I think LR covers it.

 

[nwoods]

To me the biggest benefit of CS over LR is the ability to do layers and masking.

...and the content aware brush tools! Be willing to sell that old copy of Scott Kelby's book? I bought LR3 a few months ago, haven't even installed it. It intimidates me, and I haven't had a block of time available to throw at it.

 

[Tucson T4R]

...and the content aware brush tools! Be willing to sell that old copy of Scott Kelby's book? I bought LR3 a few months ago, haven't even installed it. It intimidates me, and I haven't had a block of time available to throw at it.

I have to keep the book. I keep referring back to it too much to let it go. As I remember it wasn't too pricey. I think I got it through Amazon.

I understand not having the block of time. Once you do start playing with LR it is pretty intuitive and easy to pick up.

 

[ywen]

Just think of LR as a 1st pass, and Photoshop as 2nd pass for any additional touch up work that you couldn't perform in LR.. Many cases, the output from LR is sufficient for what you need.

 

[Lost Canadian]

...and the content aware brush tools! Be willing to sell that old copy of Scott Kelby's book? I bought LR3 a few months ago, haven't even installed it. It intimidates me, and I haven't had a block of time available to throw at it.

LR is basically ACR with a few more tricks. If you're good with PS you'll have no problem with LR. The other stuff like the print, and web features are tabbed so you don't even have to look at them, but if you do they are straight forward and easy to use. You'd probably like the library, you can drag and drop images right into your smugmug account and publish them to any gallery with one click of a button.

 

[Pathfinder]

I use LR3 and CS5 both.

I use LR3 for Raw processing and global editing, even though I grew up using ACR for this.

Today, I only use CS5/ACR when I know I will need more than one rendering of a RAW file to create a blended image, or I will need to do local selections for local editing.

One area where Lightroom3 really outshines CS5, is the ease of printing your own images on your inkjet printer. If you take the time to learn to use the Print panel in Lightroom, you won't go back to CS5 for printing. I betcha.

The need for a database for finding your images really becomes apparent after 4 or 5 years of shooting digital files. Lightroom3's database function can really help here as well.