Priority for upgrading: CS2 to CS3 or Lightroom

[greglynch]

I hope this doesn't sound too dumb. I have been using Photoshop for quite a

while, and am now using CS2. I have recently (4-6 months ago) started

shooting exclusively in Raw. I've been using Breezebrowser to do my initial

selection for keep or delete as well as for Raw conversion. I've never used

ACR for that purpose. And finally, I still consider myself to be on the

learning curve with all of this. So here's the question, or questions:

 

Should I keep doing what I'm doing (since that's free), or should I upgrade my

PS version from CS2 to CS3, and should I get into Lightroom instead of what

I'm doing now or what is available to me in ACR and Bridge? I guess the real

issue is at what point to upgrade without it really being a waste of time and

money. See, I told you it might be dumb, but I would really appreciate some

advice on this. Thanks in advance.

[ellis_vener_photography]

What computer system?

[akajohndoe]

Not that CS3 does not have features that CS2 does not, but do you want or need those features to the tune of the upgrade fee?

 

Likewise, do you want to spend the money for Lightroom?

 

The answers may be yes or no.

 

However, for zero additional cash outlay, you can run your RAW through the free Adobe Digital Negative Converter and use the DNG throughout your workflow with CS2 and Bridge.

 

Just another possibility.

[garry_anderson3]

Lightroom doesn't replace CS3 although CS3 can replace Lightroom. It will depend on your workflow. Think of Lightroom as a "front end" for CS3. It can do all your RAW conversion, basic editing and croping, set up galleries, basic printing and of course archiving.

 

It cannot do major edits, comping images, selective or area edits, or serious picture manilpulation.

 

When I first heard about Lightroom, as a "dyed in the wool" Photoshop user, I couldn't see how it would be any benefit to my workflow.

 

Eventually curiosity got the better of me and I downloaded the demo to have a look at what it could do, and now I use it as my "front end".

 

If you work like me to get as much right "in camera" as possible, you can do about 85% of you need in Lightroom. Also the "batch importing" is a much more efficient way to prepare images, it's streets ahead of using CS3Bridge.

 

It also interfaces well with CS3.

 

Download the Demo and have a look at it. It's more usefull than It first appears.

[robert_martin5]

Download both CS3 and Lightroom and check them out. You will find the RAW converter is much improved over CS2 and both ACR (CS3 RAW converter) and Lightroom have basically the same capabilities. I use CS3 and find it more than adequate. You should update the RAW converter to the latest available on the Adobe site - ACR is release 4.3.1, I don't know the latest version for Lightroom. Adobe increased the capability with one of the ACR updates, which is not normal - they generally just add new cameras.

[greglynch]

Ellis - I'm on Windows XP (SP2) - 160G hard drive and 2G of RAM.

[gdanmitchell]

For me, some of the new features in CS3 would make that the better choice, but it depends

on how you work, I think. I tend to scan new (and old images in Bridge and I'm fine with that.

If you tend to work "production style," going through hundreds of images quickly so that you

can turn them around on a deadline, a tool like Lightroom might be useful.

 

Dan

[t_n1]

Since you already have CS2, I'd rather add Lightroom to the mix instead of simply upgrading from CS2 to CS3. The additional benefits of CS3 from CS2 are rather minor. The additional benefits of Lightroom over Breezebrowser are night/day differences.

[greglynch]

Thanks for all the info - I'll download the Lightroom trial and see how that works with CS2 before I do anything else. This has been really helpful.

[Brad_]

On upgrading CS2 to CS3, it certainly makes a lot of sense if you're mac-based and

upgrading from a G5 to an Intel Mac...

 

If not, and if $$$ are important, then I'd keep CS2 and explore Lightroom for it's asset

management capabilities, and the ability to generate nice web-based gallery presentations.

[kelly_flanigan1]

Here I have found that *Bridge* is better; way quicker with CS3 than Cs2; on Pc's.