[Pavel]

Too much work for the old dogs to learn new tricks, ha? Well, I just bought upgrades to Lightroom (mostly for my wife for her pp baby steps) and PS5. It arrived yesterday and i still do not know what i am doing. You get a tiny bit discount if you by the two upgrades together and I lusted for the new RAW converter and the more powerful masking, but mostly for a new toy. I just posted a couple of photos on Flickr. PS5 seems to (subjectively) run faster on my computer, and i delude myself into believing I am getting better colors . I played with the Lightroom 3 as well a bit, but mainly to help my wife a bit . It seems to have similar interface and a host new features since version 1.

[Toad]

I have LR2 and PS CS5 as well. I have had CS5 too soon to know how much better it is for my purposes and I haven't used it enough to get a feel for the relative speed.

I process everything via Lightroom first and then goto PhotoShop for anything tricky that I do.

[Kombisaurus]

I love LR3, but haven't tried PS CS5 yet. I'm looking forward to using CS5 eventually too, but these days I do 80% of my stuff in LR and don't push CS4 to the limits anyway.
I think by LR5 I won't even have much use for Photoshop at all, but I'm sure Adobe will come up with some reason to keep us suckers buying both products..

[Irma]

At the moment I don't feel like I need to upgrade my programs, or new gear. I am happy with what I have...

[Pavel]

Thanks guys. You know when you hit the wall when you think that the only thing that could get you going again is a new toy. Enjoy the summer all of you and make it a creative one. I will try to get off my ass and do something useful.

Pavel

[enviroguy]

Hi, Pavel,

As posible answers to your original query:

1. Perhaps existing software is perfectly OK;

2. New software or upgrades may be costly; could be saving for a different toy;

3. Lust can be scary.

Regards.....Dennis

[matthew]

I think I'm with Irma on this one - I have a 'leave well enough alone' attitude toward software. Lightroom is almost an exception, since I jump on the commercial release almost right away, but won't bother with the betas any more. (I was on the initial Lightroom at the Beta 3 stage.) But for this I had to upgrade my OS, which is a 'kicking and screaming' scenario. It's been a couple of weeks, and I'm still learning how to print again.

Maybe software just isn't as fun as camera gear - or upgrades aren't as interesting? Sure, I updated my scanner software last week - the OS upgrade disabled the old one, don't know why - but going from CS3 to CS5 just doesn't leave me unable to sleep for the anticipation.

[Toad]

don't know why - but going from CS3 to CS5 just doesn't leave me unable to sleep for the anticipation.

Aye.. but going from CS to CS5 is major....

[shuttertalk]

Coz it ain't shiny!

And something about old dogs...

[Wedding Shooter]

I upgrade software from time to time when I think it is worth it. LR3 is the one piece of software I always try and keep up to date as I also do a majority of work in it.

[EnglishBob]

Haven't gotten the latest and probably won't.

I got CS4 and it runs horribly on my machine, so horrible that I do 95% of my processing in CS2.

[Don Schaeffer]

I use paintshop pro2 for everything including RAW processing. I just remain increasingly outclassed.

[NT73]

I have CS installed and also CS3 but am too lazy to put it in.
I also have iLife 09, but it says you have to back everything up, and I can't seem to get my desktop clear.

Does anyone know what exactly you need to back up. Would your home folder be enough?

[pixbyjnjphotos]

I use paintshop pro2 for everything including RAW processing. I just remain increasingly outclassed.

I am with you Don. I have used Paint Shop Pro since JASC version 7. I presently upgraded to X5 Ultimate. I love it and have no reason to spend a bundle of money on anything else. The HDR module in X5 works pretty well too. Does everything I need.

[Korry]

This thread made me think about the reasons why I'm using specific software. I know my way around it. That's mostly it.
Few of my friends are using several (mostly freeware) tools to achieve what they want. I am, on the other hand, quite loyal to my CS suite and not willing to change that.
Not so long time ago I've tried the latest ACDsee, and found out that my PC is way happier with it than with PS, and postprocessing results are the same. Still, old habits die hard and I believe I'll rather upgrade my PC than move to another software

[jinko]

I'm also quite lazy to learn completely new software, and I mean truly new, not just upgrades. I know my way around PS and to lesser extent other products of Adobe CS and feel that they are enough together with LR, so there's no need for other programs.