OK, first of all, don't shell out the money for Lightroom, as it is basically the Adobe equivalent of Aperture, so you wouldn't be getting much for your money.

I use Aperture2, and have CS2. But I also do some drawing and graphics design, so CS2 made sense (I actually had PS before getting Aperture.)

Aperture3 expanded the pp capabilities by a fair margin. What Aperture does that PS doesn't do is help you organize your photos.

My advice is to stay with Aperture3 and learn as much pp there as you can. You'll know when the application begins to limit your capabilities.

After that, it's going to take a judgement call on your part. For most people, the full version of Photoshop is more than they'll ever need. However if money isn't an object and/ or you think you may want to learn Photoshop above and beyond photograpic processes, then I'd hate to discourage you.

For most people though, Photoshop Elements provides all the pp power they'll ever need in the digital imaging arena.

- Joe U.