I have a very old version of photoshop and want to upgrade but I am confused by the choices... i think I have narrowed it down to lightroom 4 or cs6... I currently have CS2 and still have a lot to learn about the more complicated processes. Any suggestions? I am an amateur photographer doing photography mostly for self enjoyment, friends and family with some paid gigs on the side of my day job :-) .
Lightroom and Photoshop serve separate purposes for the most part. Already having CS2, I'd go for lightroom. Lightroom does some basic processing, but is more for organizing your photo library, and RAW processing. I'd highly recommend a good book to learn lightroom if you get it as it can be a bit difficult to figure out on your own.
I'm sure someone else will be able to breakdown the improvements from CS2 to CS4 for you, can't help there.
I have CS6, and its an amazing piece of software. It also has some functionality with organizing shots with the mini bridge application in it. Camera Raw 7 is also essential (previous versions wont read files from the D800).
You might want to give the adobe creative cloud a look. For one monthly price, in some cases as low as 19.99 you get the latest and greatest forever. I did a lot of looking and decided to go that way because I hate shelling out 600 dollars for something that will be out of date as soon as the next version comes out. With this new adobe program, if you are a subscriber as soon as the new version comes out you have it. Hard to beat. Plus there are lots of options. One program, a few programs or even All programs.
You download it and then you can work off line all you want. Best of all the first 30 days are free so give it a try. You can try both CS 6 and Lightroom completely free.
because I hate shelling out 600 dollars for something that will be out of date as soon as the next version comes out.
Part of why I stick with PaintShop Pro. It's not as all-powerful as full Photoshop but way above the level of Elements. Newest version usually sells for about $80 when it comes out and after 6 months I can get it for $50 or less. For a while I was considering a switch, when X3 came out and was just marketing fluff, bells & whistles. X4 fixed most of the complaints and has been solid for me. X5 came out a couple of months back.
The painshop pro looks interesting.It also looks like it only runs on windows. I have a mac.
update: well poo. I found one I love that does everything I need/ want for less than 100 but AGAIN only for windows. Whats up with that? I thought macs were supposed to be better for video and image software. Anyway here is the program //www.serif.com/photoplus/
I'd go with CS6, handsdown. Lightroom is cool, but limited -- I found I needed photoshop to finish things up. So I just do it all in photoshop.
As far as it being obsolete when the next one comes out -- nope. I used CS4, skipped 5 and didn't really miss it. I found a good deal on CS6, and I'm glad I upgraded, but I could have been still living happily with CS4 without a problem. The plugins that I use were still all compatible.
The painshop pro looks interesting.It also looks like it only runs on windows. I have a mac.
update: well poo. I found one I love that does everything I need/ want for less than 100 but AGAIN only for windows. Whats up with that? I thought macs were supposed to be better for video and image software. Anyway here is the program //www.serif.com/photoplus/
if you have problems deciding, you can always try the open source version of photoshop (gimp) and lightroom (darktable) so you get familiar with the basics capabilities of each software and see what is more convenient to your needs. Both are free of cost and Mac friendly.
I've been getting a lot of gimp recommendations from friends. I guess I'll try that first and if not it will probebly be cs6 hopefully I can find a good deal. Thanks for all your help guys!!! So appreciated.
I just got PS Elements 10 ( 75€) and I´m really satisfied with the possibilities. Layers, masking, lots of filters and possibilities to combine freely, aditionally all kind of "supporting assistants" for quick image improvement. Wouldn´t recommend PS Elements 11 which was released recently: PSE 10 is much closer to PS CS haptic and possibilities.
I took my decision to buy PSE 10 after trying out with the test version (1 month)
I think Photoshop Elements 10 or 11 is a good one to start with. It is not as expensive as CS 6 and it offers quite a lot of tools to work on your images, including all types of layers and layer masks. When you're shooting in RAW PE1x also offers a simple version of Adobe Camera RAW. Do you want the full version then you can buy Lightroom 4. It's as expensive as PE 1x. Having both PE 1x and Lightroom 4 gives you almost the full potential of CS 6 but it's much cheaper.
