Photoshop CS2 Vs. Photoshop Lightroom

[charlie88]

Okay so not only am I a newbie in DSLR but also in programs like Photoshop CS2 &. Photoshop Lightroom. I recently download both of the free trials, but what would be your experience with either of these product? If you can compare and contrast. There Pros and Cons. Please, Thank you.

 

[Digital Matt]

They are not two competing programs. They are designed to work together as a complete digital photography workflow. Lightroom is only in a beta stage right now, so it's not even worth mentioning. It has a long way to go before final production.

Photoshop can do minor editing and finishing, or it can completely transform an image. It's a very powerful professional program, and is the industry standard image editor.

What is your experience in photography? What types of things do you photograph, and what is your intended output?

 

[charlie88]

I have very little experience in photography. Mostly I photograph Landscapes & portraits. I hope to one to get the hang of photography as a hobby.

 

[Iron Flatline]

Hey, you're in LA. Luck is on your side. The town is FULL of great courses on how to use Photoshop (and SLRs, too, btw.)

Check out UCLA Extension for good classes, as well as Julia Dean. both have their new schedules up, and many of the best classes are weeknights. (EDIT - Julia Dean doesn't have the new schedule up, but it will be posted in the next few days.)

Do you know the basics of photography, but are new to digital? Then you MUST take a really killer class at UCLA by Craig Mohr called Intermediate Digital Photography. Run a search for Course No. S5041U - best money ever spent. There's also one or two days of Photoshop, but there are other more intensive classes at UCLA covering that. Run a search on the words photography on their site, or photoshop.

Julia Dean has a ton of great classes, check out all the Photoshop ones, and they have a full computer lab (with pen-tablets!) at their locations.

For what it's worth, I'm really good with computers and software, and I couldn't figure out PS without some real education. Take a class, it will accelerate your learning curve and make it much more fun. And as a plus, they start in 3 weeks

 

[charlie88]

Check out UCLA Extension for good classes, as well as Julia Dean. both have their new schedules up, and many of the best classes are weeknights. (EDIT - Julia Dean doesn't have the new schedule up, but it will be posted in the next few days.)

This sounds like a great and amazing idea. I'm might take it up. It might turn out to be a great investment.

 

[ANDS!]

I wouldnt say CS vs Lightroom - I would say CS AND Picassa (as Picassa does what Lightroom looks to be trying to accomplish). CS2 costs money, Picassa is free.

If you do MINOR - and I mean MINOR - alterations to your photographs, then Picassa may well be all you need.

 

[Alex_B]

I wouldnt say CS vs Lightroom - I would say CS AND Picassa (as Picassa does what Lightroom looks to be trying to accomplish). CS2 costs money, Picassa is free.

Adobe Lightroom is a workflow optimised RAW-Converter, and as such plays in the league of Apple Aperture, Phase One, Bibble, Breeze Browser and such.

Picasa is more a program to organise your JPEGs as far as I understand. There are probably hundreds of other free and not so free programs which allow you to do that. These programs all do not replace the darkroom of the old days as the RAW converters do.

 

[gizmo2071]

GIMP is a free photo editing suite.
Pretty good aswell

 

[Alex_B]

GIMP is a free photo editing suite.
Pretty good aswell

yes, but we have to compare programs which actually are the same sort of programs.

-GIMP and Photoshop are in the group of graphic/editing/manipulation programs .. which have poor (if any) RAW conversion capabilities.

-Lightroom and Aperture and all those are programs specifically designed for "developing digital negatives" (RAW) in an optimised workflow for photographers.

-Picasa, XnView, ACDsee are image viewer with limited (if any) image manipulation features, often based on rather poor algorithms.

 

[Tyson]

I need a link to gimp, I can't get it to download.

 

[Alex_B]

I need a link to gimp, I can't get it to download.

http://www.google.com/search?hl=de&q=gimp+windows+download

 

[charlie88]

I wouldnt say CS vs Lightroom - I would say CS AND Picassa (as Picassa does what Lightroom looks to be trying to accomplish). CS2 costs money, Picassa is free.

If you do MINOR - and I mean MINOR - alterations to your photographs, then Picassa may well be all you need.

I don't know yet if they'll be minor or major alterations, just simply because I'm so new to DSLR. But Picassa sound great ( a finish program and free!)... Thank you for the suggestions.

 

[Tyson]

I am new here and i hate to ask but do you guys Photoshop everything???
Does anyone just take pictures anymore????



I use Picassa I love it.

 

[PetersCreek]

Yep, I Photoshop everything. You say that like it's a bad thing.

I process my RAW files in CS2/ACR...tweak 'em if necessary...fold, spindle, and mutilate 'em if I desire. No matter how little or how much I process an image, Photoshop does what I need it to do. So I don't need another program to do less. But that's just me. YMMV.

 

[Groupcaptainbonzo]

Photoshop is the "Darkroom" of digital Photography.
As with film, you don't show people your negs. If you are a serious photographer, you don't take your film to boots / walmart etc and put them on the wall. What you do is you construct your ideas (in your mind) , create the image (in the camera), develope the film in the chemicals, and then make your prints. Here, you can over or under expose certain areas (Dodge / Burn), use filters or chemical processes, tone, soft focus etc, etc, etc, ad infinitum. The developing and the printing, are where the darkroom takes over. If you want to take grannie on the beach, or if you believe that ALL processing MUST take place in the camera (A very valid view, but not one to which I subscribe). then you don't need image manipulation software as modern digital cameras do a pretty good job of producing a recogniseable image.
But they are not perfect. If , you want to do any fine tuning like colour (Sorry about the Colour spelling , but I am English, and we invented it first !!) Balancing and contrast adjustment, to combineing several images and creating shots of babies in the womb, Insects eating four course dinners with knives and forks while wareing Prada. Or whatever, then PhotoShop is the main tool you will need. There are many others as well, but PhotoShop is the main industry standard. Once you start to find your way around you will get hooked on the possibilities.