Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2 how well do they work togather?

[thomas_wortman]

<p>I'm looking to buy Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2 to do my editing. I have read a lot of reviews and like the new features in both. Lightroom you can convert your raw files with that software right? I looked on Adobe and Camera Raw 5 does come with Photoshop? or do you need to buy that plug-in?<br>

Thomas</p>

[howard_m]

<p>most people who use both seem to gravitate toward using LR for organization and usually most of their editing. However, there are times when you want to do something complex that just basically demands PS.</p>

<p>Depends on how heavily you post-process. Yes, CameraRaw comes w/ LR & PS.</p>

<p>Both offer trials. get the LR trial and see. you may well find that you dont need PS (at least right now)</p>

[don_bryant2]

<p>ACR is part of PS CS4. Both LR and CS4 ACR share the same RAW processing engine and both work virtually the same rendering a RAW file. LR offers non destructible image editing as does PS though LR does it a lot more seamlessly. There are features that PS have the LR doesn't of course. I use both. However these days I prefer Capture 1 Pro for RAW processing, IME C1P renders RAW files much sharper and has better output scaling than ACR.<br>

In short I can recommend LR and CS4. If you want or need the latest Adobe editing apps then go with them you'll probly be happy.</p>

[stephen_asprey2]

<p>Donald...What do I lose by buying CS4 elements as opposed to CS4 and LR2? I don't have hundreds of images to process...just selected portraits. I use Capture NX2 to do my Nikon Raw to tiff and Breezebrowser to do post. What important add ons to CS4 work with Elements as well? I'm only learning at this stage.</p>