DSLR Photography Forum
Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Printable Version

+- DSLR Photography Forum (https://www.shuttertalk.com/forums)
+-- Forum: Digital Photography Forum (https://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/forum-4.html)
+--- Forum: Main Photography Discussion (https://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/forum-17.html)
+--- Thread: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop (/thread-15494.html)

Pages: 1 2


Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Nov 6, 2014

RobS has raised a question elsewhere which I think will be worth exploring in a specific thread. I can't immediately see previous threads on this topic but if there are some, maybe you could provide links. This is what Rob S said:

"I use Lightroom, which I am slowly getting to know, and I'd hoped that it would be all I'd ever need. This thread has convinced me that it's not quite enough.... I found Anthony Morganti's videos really helpful in getting me going with Lightroom and I'm hoping he'll be as helpful with Photoshop. The issue for me now is whether I start off with Elements. I'd be interested in knowing what you decide to do. Rob"

You will no doubt have your own questions on this topic - which please share - but for me the key questions at this point are something like:

* What are the best learning resources available for elements, lightroom and photoshop? Morganti as RobS mentions?
* What the key benefits of using each of these suites? How do they relate?
* Is it best to start with elements, learn them sequentially, use all three or more, or simply go whole hog with Photoshop?
* Is it really worth the effort to learn and use Photoshop? It looks fearsome...
* How much do you rely on editing anyway and how to avoid over reliance on editing....?

In my case, I started with elements, am learning Lightroom through Digital Camera videos, and poised to get started with Photoshop but not sure how..so, I'm eagerly awaiting all your responses...Regards all, have a great day, Jeff



RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - EdMak - Nov 6, 2014

I have amassed 14Gb of various online tutorials, Video and Text. many text were from here,

http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/category/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/

copied and pasted into Word doc
. I downloaded from Adobe, a 707 page CS4e book, that covers a lot.
I have only used CS4e, so no comments on Lightroom etc.
I would start with what I intend to finish with, now Adobe Cloud can be "Rented" for approx£2 weekly, giving you all. And updated to latest.

I found it difficult at first, was fortunate to get tuition, free, ad from an expert, put me on the correct road. I appear in the minority, as a lot say it was easy to get started!! Well worth, to me, the effort.

My experience is that any pic can be improved, with editing, (Not necessarily P/S), to fine tune.
Over editing, well that's personal, even Monitor differences can "Cause" this, again, to me.
The person to please is you!!

Here is a Link to my first real success with P/S, it did open my eyes.

http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/Thread-Photoshop-Revelation

This I would have binned, until I tried P/S.

http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/Thread-Trial-Swanhttp://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/Thread-Trial-Swan

Cheers. Ed.




RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - RobS - Nov 6, 2014

Thanks for posting this Jeff. I need to make a decision about software so am hoping this attracts plenty of discussion.

When I started to become really interested in photography a year or so ago, I vowed that I would not be spending hours in post production staring at a screen - I'd done too much of that in my job. But it wasn't long before I realised, as Ed points out, that most photos can be improved in some way. You just need to avoid getting carried away and of course to become proficient with the software, ie fast, which I'm certainly not.

I found Lightroom quite daunting, but it's gradually making more sense. As with my camera, I suspect I will never take advantage of all of its functionality. But now I have identified certain things that it cannot do, such as replacing skies, and my inclination is to buy Elements and work up to PS, while continuing to do most of the work and the filing through Lightroom. I'm open to all advice though!

Cheers,

Rob


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - EdMak - Nov 7, 2014

Update, wrong Link, to Swan, now corrected. Ed.

http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/Thread-Trial-Swan


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - hfb46 - Nov 15, 2014

(Nov 6, 2014, 07:34)RobS Wrote:  Thanks for posting this Jeff. I need to make a decision about software so am hoping this attracts plenty of discussion.

When I started to become really interested in photography a year or so ago, I vowed that I would not be spending hours in post production staring at a screen - I'd done too much of that in my job. But it wasn't long before I realised, as Ed points out, that most photos can be improved in some way. You just need to avoid getting carried away and of course to become proficient with the software, ie fast, which I'm certainly not.

I found Lightroom quite daunting, but it's gradually making more sense. As with my camera, I suspect I will never take advantage of all of its functionality. But now I have identified certain things that it cannot do, such as replacing skies, and my inclination is to buy Elements and work up to PS, while continuing to do most of the work and the filing through Lightroom. I'm open to all advice though!

Cheers,

Rob

I use LR5 and Photoshop Elements 11, the latter as an external editor for Lightroom. At the time this was the most economical means of meeting my photo editing requirements and I prefer the non-destructive editing of Lightroom. However, If I was doing it now I would take advantage of Adobe's Lightroom/Photoshop package for ca £9/m. In the context of an external editor I believe Photoshop is significantly more powerful for a variety of edits, eg panorama, actions and so on.

Howard



RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Nov 15, 2014

[

I use LR5 and Photoshop Elements 11, the latter as an external editor for Lightroom. At the time this was the most economical means of meeting my photo editing requirements and I prefer the non-destructive editing of Lightroom. However, If I was doing it now I would take advantage of Adobe's Lightroom/Photoshop package for ca £9/m. In the context of an external editor I believe Photoshop is significantly more powerful for a variety of edits, eg panorama, actions and so on.

Howard

[/quote]

Well, I absolutely agree, I went for that Adobe package and am making some progress with Lightroom but need to acquire some resource or other to take me systematically through Photoshop - we have some suggestions above but keen to know if there are other options. Regards jeff



RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Nov 15, 2014

Hi all

I have a question on Lightroom catalogue and if anyone can help with it I will be most grateful. My PC has two hard drives - the C drive is small and the G drive is 2TB. Lightroom maintains its catalogue on C drive which is now full. How can I redirect the catalogue saving process to G drive?

Cheers, Jeff




RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - hfb46 - Nov 15, 2014

(Nov 15, 2014, 11:21)Freeman Wrote:  Hi all

I have a question on Lightroom catalogue and if anyone can help with it I will be most grateful. My PC has two hard drives - the C drive is small and the G drive is 2TB. Lightroom maintains its catalogue on C drive which is now full. How can I redirect the catalogue saving process to G drive?

Cheers, Jeff

Jeff,

I think it should be fairly simple to move all your images to the 2TB drive but make sure you do it from within Lightroom, assuming you only want the one catalogue. You will find plenty of youtube videos to guide you through the process.

Howard


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Nov 19, 2014

Thanks, Howard. I did wonder about using two or more catalogues. Will have to check that out also...Cheers Jeff



RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Nov 19, 2014

[quote='EdMak' pid='97781' dateline='1415349926']
Update, wrong Link, to Swan, now corrected. Ed.

Ed Did you mean to give us a (further) link to a resource for acquainting with Photoshop??? Your swan seems to be in the wrong stream? (That is in addition to your link elsewhere to http://www.digitalcameraworld.com/category/tutorials/photoshop-tutorials/) Cheers Jeff




RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - EdMak - Nov 19, 2014

The Link was meant to illustrate P/S potential.I threw away this pic, before I discovered P/S, will post the original if you wish. Regards. Ed.


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Nov 19, 2014

Aha, sorry to have failed to realise...actually there is a thread on this forum which contains some helpful links to photoshop and various other resources: http://www.shuttertalk.com/forums/Thread-Technique-Resources-on-the-Web. Or just go to Forum, then Important Threads... Cheers Jeff






RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Alan Scharf - Nov 22, 2014

(Nov 15, 2014, 11:21)Freeman Wrote:  Hi all

I have a question on Lightroom catalogue and if anyone can help with it I will be most grateful. My PC has two hard drives - the C drive is small and the G drive is 2TB. Lightroom maintains its catalogue on C drive which is now full. How can I redirect the catalogue saving process to G drive?

Cheers, Jeff




RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Alan Scharf - Nov 22, 2014

Why bother with Lightroom catalogs. Just delete them and your life will be better. I have used Lightroom for about 5 years and have never found a need.

Alan Scharf


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Nov 24, 2014

Oooh, very interesting, must think about that. So what process do you follow, Alan? Regards Jeff


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - RobS - Nov 29, 2014

Jeff, you may find this video by Anthony Morganti interesting. He doesn't use the C drive. I only wish I'd started out that way.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A0W8rZOoWgI&list=PLllFqBuTM0WI0fC_PujkGoLMyXWXd3yF7&index=13

Lightroom finally started to make sense when I came across Morganti's videos. He's not so good on Elements though and I've had to resort to some one-to-one tuition to get me going with the 'expert' module. The trouble is that the software crashes every time I start to do anything and Adobe have been staggeringly unhelpful.

Cheers, Rob



RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Alan Scharf - Dec 5, 2014

I find Elements very poor in a number of ways. Until a some years ago, Paint Shop Pro was vastly superior with great service, but no longer. -- Alan Scharf


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Dec 6, 2014

(Nov 29, 2014, 05:39)RobS Wrote:  Jeff, you may find this video by Anthony Morganti interesting. He doesn't use the C drive. I only wish I'd started out that way.

Cheers, Rob

Yep, I watched the video and I shall now change tactics and follow the Morganti way. Much better,

I'll also likely use his tutorials for Lightroom and Photoshop also.

Million thanks, Rob.

Jeff




RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Dec 6, 2014


Yep, I watched the video and I shall now change tactics and follow the Morganti way. Much better,

I'll also likely use his tutorials for Lightroom and Photoshop also.

Million thanks, Rob.

Jeff




RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - Freeman - Dec 15, 2014

Rob and all... I have been using the Morganti way for importing images and also have made a start with his tutorials. I tried another way of importing images from my SD cards also: import to Lightroom but change the designated folder to a specific folder on G drive (top right hand corner of Lightroom screen) and then half way down the right hand side change the 'further copy to' designation to J drive which is my permanently linked 2TB remote backup drive. After import, I then find the latest import file on the left hand side of the Lightroom screen and rename. This has the added benefit of an immediate back up copy. But what I am not sure about is whether I now have three copies of the import? The reason I tried this is because I was not quite sure when following the Morhganti procedure how to open imported images at a later date for editing in Lightroom. Any thoughts? Cheers, Jeff


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - RobS - Dec 21, 2014

Jeff, I think we may be a bit short on Lightroom experts! I rely on periodic synchronising with an external hard drive using Microsoft's SyncToy, but I'm sure there are more efficient ways of managing storage. It might be worth emailing Tony@AnthonyMorganti.com.

I've at last managed to stop my new Elements software crashing with Windows 8.1. It was after advice from the folks on the Photoshop Forum, who suggested I disable Microsoft's OneDrive. It did the trick, but I've no idea why. The photo here is my first attempt at changing a sky, which was one of the reasons I particularly wanted the software. It's not a great sky, but an improvement I hope on the previous plain blue. I thought the uneven skyline would be rather too challenging for a first attempt, but Morganti's video talked me through it.

Cheers, Rob




RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - EdMak - Dec 21, 2014

Great Rob, just want tilted a tad to the left, for uprights, cooking by gas. Ed.


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - RobS - Dec 22, 2014

Thanks Ed. You've encouraged me to have a play with the manual perspective controls in Lightroom, which I've never done before. I hope the attached looks better to your eye. Rob


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - EdMak - Dec 22, 2014

Much better, to me, accentuates the shadows on the church. Here it is as I see it, not a lot of difference. Well done, keep at it. Merry Xmas. Ed.


RE: Making sense of Elements, Lightroom, and Photoshop - RobS - Dec 22, 2014

Well that certainly packs a bit more of a punch, thank you. Merry Xmas to you too! Rob