Intro and advice

[allenho456]

Hi,
I am a recent convert to Digital SLR although I have used SLR and small digital cameras for some years. To give you some idea of my photograpihic naiveté, I have only just managed to figure out how to use white balance.
What I am struggling with at the moment is a decision on software. I have and used PS6 for some years (yeh I know it went out with the buggy whip) but find that it does not support the RAW plugins that give me camera settings when I view a RAW image. I find that facility handy. I spoke to the guys at Adobe and needless to say they suggested that I buy Lightroom2. I have trialed LR2 and find it good in as far as I can modify whole images quickly but will nonetheless need to revert to PS6 when I want to edit the image in more detail. So I am not convinced of the value of LR2 to a novice like me.
So the advice I would like from the collected expereince of this forum is; should I buy CS4 because it supports the RAW plugins that I want, or buy LS2 (at half the price) and use it in conjunction with PS6? Is CS4 that great a leap in the application to justify upgrading at great expense from PS6. Or should I simply spend hours jotting details down from my camera on a piece of paper which I will doubtlessly lose when i need it most
What do you knowledgeable folk advise?

 

[decaphotography]

Hi and welcome.

I am not an expert but I do use Lightroom 1 and PS CS3. My preference would be to have a program that has the plug-ins because it just makes my life a whole lot easier. Every now and then I bite the bullet and upgrade to keep up.

I'm sure you will get better advice than this from others on the forum.