Aloha!!!!!! Photoshop elements 10 or lightroom 4?????

[shmne]

Photoshop is not the best tool for working with photos. If you use photoshop to retouch your photos it's like using a $60,000 dollar video camera to film your little kid growing up. It can do that just fine, because it can do everything, but it's not really meant for that.

That's why there is Lightroom.

Don't use "all-in-one" tools to do a job. Use a specialized tools for each job instead.

Your mentality is a bit backwards xD As a professional in the field I can say extremely confidently that Photoshop is the specialized tool for editing images. However Lightroom is the pro-sumer answer for people who just need basic edits. In fact photoshop is very much intended to be used for editing photos, it has extremely powerful photo editing tools. Things like content aware scaling that allow you to stretch images withing stretching people (say you want the photo wider, you can make it wider without effecting the person.) There is a large list of things Lightroom could never hope to do.

With that said, I'd like to repeat what I just stated.

Photoshop is generally for professionals who require it to do high-quality professional work. Lightroom is a pro-sumer product aimed at consumer who desire more powerful products (just like the canon 60D is a pro-sumer DSLR)

Not trying to come off as angry or spiteful, just making sure there isn't any misinformation going around.

 

[bratkinson]

I've been a Photoshop'per since a free version (pretty basic) came with my Canon G-3 when it was new (2002? 2003?). It has served me well. It was a little tricky to get it to install under Windows XP, but I managed to do it.

I picked up Lightroom 3 shortly before LR 4 came out for $125 or so. All I can say is it does everything my ancient Photoshop LE did and a WHOLE lot more very, very easily.

This past Monday, I got an automatic newsletter email from B&H advertising PS Elements 10 for 1/2 off, one day only, $49.95. Sold! It arrived today! I'm finally in the 'big leagues' for editors. I'll be ready for Windows 7, as the Photoshop LE definitely will not work under Win 7.

Photoshop and/or CS is just way too pricey for my needs/tastes. Although I did pick up a used PS 6 about 18 months ago for a very reasonable price. I found it just too slow for my tastes. But, I find that Lightroom is really slow on my single processor XP3200 running Windows XP. It's time to upgrade...one of these days.

 

[MTVision]

Another reason to go with Lightroom over elements is because of the limited adobe camera raw plugin. ACR (adobe camera raw) is amazing and can do everything Lightroom can - like fixing exposure, fill light, contrast, sharpening, noise reduction, adjustment brush, etc. I think Lightroom has a couple more tools but basically lightroom and ACR are the same. With elements (at least version 9) the ACR that comes with it is very limited. It doesn't even compare to Photoshops ACR or Lightrooms develop module.