Help-Lightroom 4 - Stu/Teacher edition?

[Liz]

I'm thinking about purchasing Lightroom 4, but the price is too high for my budget right now.

The Student Teacher Edition is half the price. Does anyone know if this edition is missing too much to be worth it? IOW - what is the difference?

I recently purchased PSElements 10 which is still in the box, but I might sell it cheap if the above edition of lightroom is better.

Thanks

Liz

[Medley]

Usually, student editions are the same software, but you need credentials to buy them. In most cases, a .edu email address suffices for downloads, but physical credentials of some sort are required for 'off the shelf' box purchases.

Also, student editions are not "supposed" to be used for any paid work. Not sure how enforceable that one is though...

- Joe U.

[n8]

According to Adobe's site, you need to provide a transcript, ID, current tuition bill, etc..., but the version is same as retail. Considering PSE is what, $90? LR4 being $150 seems to be a steal in comparison.

[Liz]

Thanks Joe and N8.......

I guess I'll stick with the PSElements 10 for now. I was in a photography store yesterday and spoke to a salesperson - he gave me the impression that anyone could buy and use the software which did not make sense to me for obvious reasons.

Thanks for clarifying.

As the saying goes.......if it sounds too good to be true.........:idea:

Liz

[Greg McCary]

Liz if you know a full time student. My son is full time if you want I will see if he and I can find you a copy maybe buy it for you. Let me know. It is worth every penny.

[Liz]

Liz if you know a full time student. My son is full time if you want I will see if he and I can find you a copy maybe buy it for you. Let me know. It is worth every penny.

Thanks so much Greg.....

However, I do have friends in college who are into photography. Amazon has the student edition for $29 - so I could even buy it for them and try it out. Then if I like it, buy the regular version the next time there is a sale.

However, I still have a big concern - in addition to this.

I'm hesitating again after reading more about it - since yesterday. I think it is too complicated for me. A friend who has Lightroom 4 said it is very difficult to comprehend, much more so than Elements. I need something that is simple because I can't sit at the computer for very long due to a back/neck problem, not to mention the fact that I'm a "show and tell" person, and don't do well with "read and apply."

Thanks again.

Liz

[n8]

I don't use Lightroom for everything it can do, but what it does do...it does very well. PSE gives you more of the pixel based editing that you're not going to have in LR. There are no layers or deep pixel based editing options. However, if you're working on a more global aspect, i.e. adjusting color, contrast, exposure, etc...LR is great. It is also very nice for organizing your photos. There is a bit of a learning curve, but don't discount youtube for demonstrations either.

[Liz]

I don't use Lightroom for everything it can do, but what it does do...it does very well. PSE gives you more of the pixel based editing that you're not going to have in LR. There are no layers or deep pixel based editing options. However, if you're working on a more global aspect, i.e. adjusting color, contrast, exposure, etc...LR is great. It is also very nice for organizing your photos. There is a bit of a learning curve, but don't discount youtube for demonstrations either.

Thank you! After reading your post and Greg's encouragement, it is tempting!

Just one question - when just doing the "global aspect" which is basically what I do, how steep is the learning curve in the beginning - for just using these basics?

Thanks again.

Liz

[Greg McCary]

Thank you! After reading your post and Greg's encouragement, it is tempting!

Just one question - when just doing the "global aspect" which is basically what I do, how steep is the learning curve in the beginning - for just using these basics?

Thanks again.

Liz

It's real easy to use. Nothing like photoshop. It is more or less a bunch of sliders. You can get a free trial.

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/i...shop_lightroom

[Liz]

It's real easy to use. Nothing like photoshop. It is more or less a bunch of sliders. You can get a free trial.

https://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/i...shop_lightroom

Wow! Thanks Greg! I think I will give this a "shot" - thanks for the link.

Liz

[Greg McCary]

Wow! Thanks Greg! I think I will give this a "shot" - thanks for the link.

Liz

Liz just a thought. The Beta version ran slower than the real thing. I am not sure if the free trial will, probably not. But take it into consideration.

[Liz]

Liz just a thought. The Beta version ran slower than the real thing. I am not sure if the free trial will, probably not. But take it into consideration.

OK Greg. Thanks for the heads-up.

[srblough]

Maybe I'm just piling on here - but I think Adobe does a really lousy job of explaining PSE v Lightroom. Like many others, I had picked up on idea that PSE is the Adobe entry-point software for the "serious amateur" photographer. It's obviously very powerful (for a novice at digital PP), and I was able (with some study) to do some cool things editing - but didn't need most of it and HATED the organizer (partly this was starting w PSE 8 for Mac where the organizer was a separate program). Someone suggested having a look at Lightroom. I download a free trial of 4.0 when I got back from Europe in July with a couple of thousand shots. WOW. What a fantastic product, just a great piece of software. The Library module alone is worth more to me than PSE - collections, batch processing, compare shots, etc .... On top of that editing in Develop is easy, much more intuitive than PSE. I have switched over to PSE for a few shots (LR makes it very easy to do that as well) where I wanted to do something tricky needing the advance selection capabilities ... but I really wish I had bought LR a few years ago and waited until now to add PSE.
Someone summarized for me as "PS is for graphic designers, Lightroom is for photographers." That may be a bit strong but rings true from my experience, and certainly explains the difference better than anything on the Adobe web site.

[Liz]

Maybe I'm just piling on here - but I think Adobe does a really lousy job of explaining PSE v Lightroom. Like many others, I had picked up on idea that PSE is the Adobe entry-point software for the "serious amateur" photographer. It's obviously very powerful (for a novice at digital PP), and I was able (with some study) to do some cool things editing - but didn't need most of it and HATED the organizer (partly this was starting w PSE 8 for Mac where the organizer was a separate program). Someone suggested having a look at Lightroom. I download a free trial of 4.0 when I got back from Europe in July with a couple of thousand shots. WOW. What a fantastic product, just a great piece of software. The Library module alone is worth more to me than PSE - collections, batch processing, compare shots, etc .... On top of that editing in Develop is easy, much more intuitive than PSE. I have switched over to PSE for a few shots (LR makes it very easy to do that as well) where I wanted to do something tricky needing the advance selection capabilities ... but I really wish I had bought LR a few years ago and waited until now to add PSE.
Someone summarized for me as "PS is for graphic designers, Lightroom is for photographers." That may be a bit strong but rings true from my experience, and certainly explains the difference better than anything on the Adobe web site.

Thank you! This really helps! I appreciate the clear and precise way you've explained things. It's helping me to understand more the difference between the two.

I found the last version of Elements - PSE7 - confusing, especially trying to organize and keep track of my photos. Due to a back problem, I can't spend a lot of time on the computer so I really never learned how to use it properly. This is my one drawback with post processing and why I need something not too complicated.....besides, I am not good at reading & applying so it probably takes me longer than most people to figure it all out.

I've also considered Picasa 3. However, I had a weird problem with Picasa ia while back. Every time I tried to upload a few photos from the SD card it automatically uploaded the whole card, and I could not figure out how to change it. In the meantime I spent a whole afternoon deleting all the duplicates from my albums.....ONLY to find them back again the next time I logged on - but this time the photos were scattered throughout my other albums. So that ended Picasa. However, I read somewhere that Picasa 3 is a lot better than the previous versions.

Thanks again. I'm seriously considering Lightroom. I just hope I can figure out the basics quickly - at least learn enough to get a good start! Then I can slowly get into the rest.

Liz

[srblough]

Glad I could help. If you are more in need of help organizing than editing, you definitely want LR. A couple of other pointers: LR is a serious computer memory hog, if you start experiencing very slow computer after installing you will know why (exit out of LR when not using to help with this). Also, the Adobe "getting started" videos for LR are very helpful, I strongly recommend watching at least the first of them before even loading your photos. But I did find it very easy to get the basics quickly - and then keep discovering new useful features.

[flyinion]

When you download the trial of LR4 it should be the latest version. Basically you are downloading the full product and you get to use it for 30 days free, after which it will start asking for a license. When/if you decide to purchase, there's no need to uninstall it at all even to install from disc or anything like that. You just enter the key that came with whatever format you purchased in (physical box, digital purchase online, etc.) and it will let you use the software again.