Lightroom 2 or PS CS4

[Joel Bookhammer]

So after trying the trial for acouple of days now, I really like the new heal and clone tool as well as the gradient tool (when it doesnt freeze). As far as the picture management topic I've only messed around with the library module and find it alittle confusing at the moment. I use a external hard drives and flash drivesas well as2 other larger drives as back ups, and have came up with a filing system that along with my monthly planner, I can find a picture or group of pictures fairly fast. From whatI have been hearing Lightroom may have a nice filing system, but sense I have came pretty accustemed to the filing system I use I dont find it to be a real benefit for me.


Another question I have, is there a way to downsize the image or group of imagesyou are working on while working with it in lightroom? I dont always need to work on a "raw" image size (family functions, church functions etc).


thanks again


joel

[Keith B]

I think you need both. And they work together very well.


Lightroom has brought order to my image files, and when I need photoshop for a certain plugin, or other need it is easily used. If I used Apple I would still use Lightroom over Aperture because of the ease of use and integration with other Adobe products. I do highly recommend Capture One as well, it is the best for tethered shooting and has excellent RAW processing.

Aperture does interact pretty seamlessly with PS. You can actually tell Aperture to open the RAW file in PS. It will send the tiff to PS you can do edits save it and Aperture will recognize the tiff as the new RAW. You can switch back and forth because the process is non destructive. If you are happy with the results Aperture will permanently replace it to reduce file size.


I find Aperture to have better RAW fine adjustments than PS RAW. I don't know about LR. After trying to work with clunky Bridge and PS Aperture is a breeze with its highly customizable file system. My only complaint about Aperture is that you can't just drag and drop one image. You have to go through the filing system.


Tethered shooting is a breeze with Aperture also.