Why Lightroom Users Should Seriously Consider Adding Photoshop Elements To Their Workflow
Most Lightroom users find themselves occasionally needing to step outside of its non-destructive workflow and use a “pixel pushing” (i.e. destructive) editor to finish processing a photo. The obvious choice for that task is Photoshop. But do you really need all that power if 99% of your work has already been done in Lightroom?
Unless you are a full time photographer the answer is likely no. I’m an amateur photographer and find that Photoshop’s cutdown version – Photoshop Elements – meets all of my needs and there is no compelling reason to move to the full version. But there is one compelling reason to choose Photoshop Elements over Photoshop. The price.
Its large enough in the US, but internationally the price difference between Photoshop Elements and Photoshop is remarkable. At the Adobe Store Photoshop CS4 costs* $699 USD or $1415 AUD ($1180 USD) and Photoshop CS4 Extended $999 USD or $2019 AUD ($1690 USD). Photoshop Elements costs $99.99 USD or $165 AUD ($140 USD). This means Photoshop Elements costs Australian consumers a little more than 1/10th of the price of the most basic Photoshop CS4 version. Its no wondering the Photoshop Elements community is growing so quickly outside of the US!
Photoshop vs Photoshop Elements
A recent post at Lightroom Secrets compared the features of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements to help users understand the incremental benefit of buying the full version. The essence of that comparison (and my own research) is Photoshop provides:
- Customisation – Photoshop allows customisation of the UI via keyboard shortcuts, menus, workspaces, presets, actions, and (official) support for scripting
- Enhanced 16-bit – Additional Photoshop fliters supports 16-bit images
- Enhanced Colour – Photoshop supports CMYK and Lab colour modes, and custom curves
- Enhanced Layers – Photoshop includes layer masks, additional adjustment layers, and full support for smart objects
- Enhanced Selection – Photoshop includes paths, pen tools and quick masks
- Additional Tools – Photoshop includes additional features such as HDR and content aware scaling
- Enhanced Tools – Photoshop includes more advanced versions of some tools such as Camera Raw and Camera Distortion
The importance of many of these features diminishes when you are using Lightroom as your primary editor and only dipping into Photoshop every now and then. Other features (e.g. Content Aware Scaling) would be nice to have, but as an amateur photographer I don’t think they are worth the additional $1250 AUD I’d have to spend to “upsize” from Photoshop Elements 7 to Photoshop CS4.
Bottom line? Most photographers using Lightroom won’t miss the features they lose by choosing Photoshop Elements over Photoshop. But the money they save could go a long way towards a new lens or flash that could make a significant difference to their photography.
Improved Photoshop Elements Integration With Lightroom
Another benefit of Photoshop is the level of integration it enjoys with Lightroom. Photoshop Elements is added as an external editor, while Photoshop has a number of menu items dedicated to improving workflow when it is combined with Lightroom. To close this functionality gap I’ve created an Elemental plugin for Lightroom which provides Photoshop Elements users roughly the same level of integration Photoshop users get "out of the box".
The Elemental plugin adds 5 new menu items to the File –> Plug-in Extras and Library –> Plug-In Extras menus, emulating the integration available to Photoshop users. This includes letting the user select photos and launch them directly into the Photomerge dialog, or open them as Smart Objects (a feature Adobe doesn’t advertise as available in Photoshop Elements). It even adds some new options for good measure, namely Remove Lens Distortion and the ability to directly Open in PSE. And it does this all while avoiding the Camera Raw dialog which should be redundant as Lightroom’s Develop module contains a superset of the options available in PSE’s version of Camera Raw. The only feature that can’t be reproduced is Merge to HDR in Photoshop because Photoshop Elements does not include this feature. As many Photoshop users utilise an external HDR tool rather than the one supplied with Photoshop this hopefully won’t prove too much of an issue.
Where Do I Sign?
If you are ready to take the plunge and add Photoshop Elements to your workflow, Adobe sells the products online and may have specials running so please try the Special Offers page before using one of the direct purchase links has a number of specials running at any given time that can (North America only) specials running till August 10. Links are included below for your convenience and by purchasing through these you will be helping support the ongoing development of my Elemental plugin.
UK readers can use the following links to support my plugin development while purchasing the products but unfortunately no discounts or coupons are currently available: Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 & Adobe Premiere Elements 7 – Full,
Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 – Full and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Macintosh – Full
.
If you aren’t quite convinced why not download a trial copy of either the Windows or Mac version and find out firsthand whether it suits your workflow? I’m sure you’ll find, like me, that Photoshop Elements covers all of your main “pixel pushing” requirements without doing too much damage to your bank account!
* Note: All prices were converted using Google’s current exchange rates on August 3, 2009.
15 Responses to “Why Lightroom Users Should Seriously Consider Adding Photoshop Elements To Their Workflow”
[Editor's Note: Comment has been left as submitted, but as noted below the feedback is misguided and not based upon a realistic workflow.]
What terrible advice!
Photoshop Elements is only 8-bit – so, if you use it as an external editor, you’re going to lose ~4 bits of information (most digital cameras today are 12-bit).
Major fail.
@Roland, Not true. Certain filters are 8-bit only but given the feedback I see on forums it appears the same issue applies to the full version of Photoshop as well.
Photoshop Elements 6 and onwards can definitely open images in 16 bits and you can work with them. I do it all the time. But thanks for pointing this out as another differentiator between the two versions. I’ve added an “Enhanced 16-bit” item to the list as a result of your feedback.
The features/filters people want to use are only 8-bit, heh:
http://photo.net/digital-darkroom-forum/00RqlE
;>
@Roland, As I commented in the post, if you are using Lightroom as your initial editor then many of the differences become less important. The thread you point to mentions that Spot Healing will only work in 8-bit. As Lightroom will allow you to Spot Heal at 16-bit I don’t see this as being a show stopper. My fundamental assumption here is you will use Lightroom to do as much of the editing as possible, and only step into Photoshop Elements (or Photoshop) for features not available in Lightroom. I think many people would be willing to do this to save a not insignificant amount of money.
Does this mean that I can use photoshop elements 8, as the prime editor in lightroom to get access to acr 5.5?
I like lightroom but am still happy with photoshop cs3 I use all the major features of cs3 photoshop like masks etc etc that elements doesn’t have. I assume I would just save any changes in lightroom and then open file seperately in cs3.
@Danny, You can use PSE as the primary editor but by default Lightroom will treat PSE8 as just another editor. e.g. will always render files as TIFFs or PSDs before invoking PSE. Despite being an Adobe application it doesn’t get integrated as tightly with Lightroom as CS4 does.
The Elemental plugin published on this site allows PSE6 and PSE7 to be accessed from Lightroom 2 similarly to how CS4 is. I haven’t tested the plugin with the LR3 beta or PSE8 yet but will soon (possibly today). I don’t expect any problems because it doesn’t need the part so the SDK that seem to have changed.
Hi, Thanks for great advice! Will now purchase Elements instead of LightRoom
@Elise, Not exactly the reaction I expected from the post, but if Elements fits your needs better than Lightroom then go for it! Personally I find them complementary rather than one being a replacement for the other.
I was having a hell of a time trying to merge to panorama from LR to PSE until I downloaded your plug-in. And then voila – I got that seamless transition that I had read about between LR and CS3 but never actually achieved. This is a terrific plug-in and if you ever come out to Vancouver I will buy you that drink or two. Thanks a bunch!
@Mike, I’m glad it worked for you and thanks for dropping by to let us know!
Adobe Photoshop is simply the best photo editing tool on the market. I often use it a lot on my photo studio and also in webpage design |
@Nigel, I agree Photoshop is a great piece of software. I’m just suggesting that Photoshop Elements is good enough for many hobbyists and their photography would be better served by putting the extra dollars towards a better lens etc. Only you can determine which of the options best suits your individual needs though.
I really like the integration that your plugin provides between LR and PSE7. I only wish that the later one was not such a resource hog.
Thanks for the great job.
Have you tested your plugin with LR3 and PE8?
@Dave, yes I tested this with LR3 and PSE8 during the beta cycle. It worked fine during the tests. Are you curious or do you have an issue to report?
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