Adobe Photoshop CS5 or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

<p>Hello. I am looking for softbware to process my digital pictures also very interested in High Dynamic Range (HDR). Which software should I purchase? Adobe Photoshop CS5 or Adobe Photoshop Lightroom? What is the difference? Thank you. Camera Buff</p>

<p>Two completely different animals. Lightroom (LR) is for organizing and basic processing of your pictures, incl. RAW files. Photoshop is for serious editing. LR itself cannot do HDR - only in conjunction with PS or other HDR software. I use both and would not want to miss either.</p>

<p>Thank you Juergen very helpful.</p>

<p>In a nut shell, Lightroom will do much of what you ever need to do. Except, working in layers and HDR. Lightroom is also a file management application and will only do "nondistructive" editing. Which is very very good. It will allow you to manage your workflow and work with RAW JPEG TIFF and many other formats seamlessly.<br>

CS5 However, is a pixel editor and has many more features and overall power than you will likely ever need or could think of useing. Unless you get into graphic design, video, and such. It also does HDR, but there are much lower cost products out there that do just as well (if not better in some cases). It is not nondistructive, unless you know how to use layers properly and that can make file sizes rather large.<br>

I use both, but this is only because Lightroom will not do layers and some work requires that.</p>

<p>If you are starting out, you may want to try Photoshop elements (not sure of the current version) and also some of the HDR programs out there. Like Photomatix. I do think they have a plug-in that will allow you to use it in Lightroom. I have the standalone version.</p>

<p>Jason</p>

<p>Jason gives good advice. Current version of Elements is 9.0, and for the first time it includes layer masks. It, combined with Lightroom, will probably do 99.9% of what you need to do for photo editing, and Elements is somewhat easier to learn than the full PS program.</p>

<p>I have to go with Jason here. lightroom is a fairly powerful editing program with a number of very substantial limitations--in particular, no selections, masks, or layers. However, when you don't need those, its editing is quite complete (although its curves tool is a toy). I find that LR is sufficient for the great majority of my images, because for what I do, I often don't need what it lacks. It is also a powerful tool for organizing, but to be honest, I have never had the time to take advantage of most of those capabilities.</p>

<p>Re HDR: CS5 has HDR built in, but my one try with it left me highly dissatisfied because of color distortions. In general, I prefer exposure blending to HDR (google it). This can be done very simply in LR with a plugin called Enfuse.</p>

<p>If you are shooting raw (I assume you are, if you are asking about LR), one option might be to start with LR and a cheaper pixel editor, such as ELements or paint shop pro. Problem with that is that you have to relearn a lot if you switch to photoshop down the road, as I did.</p>

<p>To make this concrete, I'll post two images below. Both are combining two images, handheld.</p>

<p>Using only Lightroom and Enfuse for exposure blending:<br>

<img src="http://dkoretz.smugmug.com/Nature/Outdoors/MG5044-blended/962954318_yKUb7-L.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Using HDR in photoshop CS5:<br>

<img src="http://dkoretz.smugmug.com/Other/test-shots/50442HDR2/960908746_c5zpr-L.jpg" alt="" /></p>

 

<p>Short answear, both. <br>

they are two different softwares for different things.<br>

lightroom will help with keeping up with a large workflow, and getting those great pictures to a Near finished state. its great for organization and can even link to photoshop. i do most of my processing here, and most portraits that i do dont even see Cs5, as lightroom does a pretty good job.<br>

Photoshop cs5, is heavy editing. if you know how to use it properly, there is no limit to the possibilities. it is a great place to perfect your pictures. in my landscapes i use content aware fill very often, to edit out birds, dust spots, people and even cars from some photos. photoshop is the "if you can dream it you can do it" software and is essential for all pro photographers.<br>

if you are just starting i would go with lightroom, it is much easier to use and has presets that can help you understand the finer points of image editing. you really need to take a class to understand all that photoshop has to offer, i have been using it for years and i still am finding new things. <br>

hope this helps<br>

ryan</p>

<p>I use both and after initially loading images into Lightroom and carrying out the first and often biggest steps in post processing there , I inevitably export images into Photoshop because there are things that Lightroom won't do as well as Photoshop. Part of this, inevitably, is that fact that I'm not a master of either programme . That said i do want to sharpen in Photoshop, soft proof before printing in photoshop and do any necessary cloning in Photoshop and equally you could say that a lot of the things Lightroom does can be done virtually identically within Adobe Camera Raw ( part of PS) and Bridge (also part of PS) . </p>

<p>But part of what I do is driven by the fact I had PS first and so benefit from upgrade pricing as long as I do so every few years. Were I starting over, I'm pretty convinced I'd be giving a combination or Lightroom and the low cost Elements a try before deciding if there was anything important missing that would make me buy PS</p>