PhotoShop, PhotoShop Elements, Bridge, Lightroom

[deep diver]

Of the four Adobe products (PhotoShop, PhotoShop Elements, Bridge, Lightroom) which combination do you like best or find most useful and why.

I am eligible for academic pricing so cost is not an issue. I not able to go with Aperture.

 

[snberk103]

Lightroom with Photoshop. Both of these are more full-featured than the alternatives you listed. TBH, I've not tried Elements and Bridge. I also get academic pricing, and when I researched what I wanted to use, I decided to get the full-featured products over the less-featured.

I also have Aperture (from the MAS, so $ was minimal) simply for creating books. I export selected images from LR into a folder, import into Aperture and go from there.

Hope this helps.

 

[tmagman]

Lightroom and Photoshop as well. I work almost entirely in the Lightroom environment but I do do quite a bit of photo-merging and some other non-photographic work in PS. The 'edit in photoshop' or 'send to photo-merge' built right into LR makes it a really streamlines connection between the two (and your possibilities of what you can do is nearly endless).

At education pricing its a no-brainer to go with those two. I think its like $320 for LR3 and PS CS5X combined.

Edit: Bridge is included in Photoshop however I don't use it very much since it's really a stripped down file browser of Lightroom. But it works fine for finding your other files on your computer.

 

[Photoshopper]

lightroom and photoshop as well. Bridge is included in photoshop. But it works fine for finding your other files on your computer.

++1

Lightroom is tops. There's no substitute for PS. Bridge is handy as well.

 

[acearchie]

Just out of interest when do you guys move from lightroom to photoshop.

I have only really dabbled with lightroom in the last 8 months but feel that I am now using it to it's full potential (i.e. I have an understanding of what all the features do, although I'm not 100% sure as to when best to use them but I seem to do ok).

What I really want to know is if you only really dip into photoshop for the images that need more composite style work or there are some other features that are much more advanced than the tools in lightroom?

 

[snberk103]

Just out of interest when do you guys move from lightroom to photoshop.

I have only really dabbled with lightroom in the last 8 months but feel that I am now using it to it's full potential (i.e. I have an understanding of what all the features do, although I'm not 100% sure as to when best to use them but I seem to do ok).

What I really want to know is if you only really dip into photoshop for the images that need more composite style work or there are some other features that are much more advanced than the tools in lightroom?

I dip into PS for two reasons, 98% of the time. One - is that I need to do serious editing on single images. For example, working to minimize somebody's double chin. Two - If I am creating a new composition by combinine a number of images (my fine-art work).

The rest of the time I'm in LR. Do check out the Help pages for LR at the Adobe site. There are loads of good "how to's" on the more advanced features of LR. It's how I learn new things with it. Sometimes, if I have time I just skim and browse. I'll always find that I can do something new, that I didn't know before.

Update: To finish answering your question.... The tools I use in PS are clone-stamp, masking, lots of layers, the free-transform tools, etc. I actually find LR does a better job with exposure, curves, sharpening, colour shifting, etc than PS. Well, "better" as in I find the tools easier to use so I feel I can do a "better" job.

 

[Badrottie]

I have Adobe Photoshop CS3 on my windows desktop PC and Element on my MBP…also have LR on both machines. Right now I am still learning about LR. I use Photoshop for touch up/cloning..manipulating photo. That is it…

 

[acearchie]

Update: To finish answering your question.... The tools I use in PS are clone-stamp, masking, lots of layers, the free-transform tools, etc. I actually find LR does a better job with exposure, curves, sharpening, colour shifting, etc than PS. Well, "better" as in I find the tools easier to use so I feel I can do a "better" job.

Thanks for that. Makes me feel like I'm not missing out on much in Photoshop!