Lightroom/Elements vs. CS6

[JimmyTheGreek]

I know there are a million threads in the forum (and I think I've read most of them) regarding post-processors. So please forgive this noob for starting another one.

I've just gotten started on digital slr photography in the last 3 months after a lifetime of film and point-and-shoot digital. While I understand the exposure triangle, I am still learning the features of my new Nikon D3100, which could also be a lifelong project. I am going on a 10 day trip to Paris in April, after which I'd like to be able to edit and improve the shots I have taken there.

I'm basically sold on the Adobe products, but my question is: is 5 months enough time to come up to speed on CS6? I would not expect to become an expert in that time, just functional enough to edit pictures after the trip and then progressively improve. My alternative is to buy both Lightroom and Elements. Cost is not really an issue, as my son is a college student and the CS6 student price isn't much more.

I'm currently running an iMac with OS X 10.6.8 and 4 gigabytes of memory, and I am totally computer literate. There are relatively inexpensive courses in Photoshop available here also.

Thanks in advance.

 

[Mully]

Look at Adobe TV for some good info

 

[KmH]

The Develop (editing) module in Lightroom 4, and the Camera Raw plug-in in CS 6, both use Adobe Camera Raw 7 (ACR 7).

Elements 11 has a de-featured version of ACR 7. About 1/2 of what the full ACR 7 can do. Elements 11 has about 30% of the editing capabilites CS 6 has.
Both Elements and CS 6 can edit pixels. Lightroom can't edit pixels.
Elements is pretty much limited to only doing 8-bit depth edits.
An advantage to getting and registering a Student Edition of CS 6 is that it will qualify you for upgrade pricing as Adobe releases new versions (updates to CS 6 (or if you opt for Lightroom 4) are included with it)

Lightroom's Develop module by itself cannot make Layers, has no precision selection tools, and has rather crude masking capabilities.

Lightroom's main function is managing a large digital image database.

The quickest way to learn how use either Lightroom 4 or CS 6 is to get a good reference book written for photographers:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

Adobe Photoshop CS6 for Photographers: A professional image editor's guide to the creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC