Lightroom 3

[maplestreet]

After reading alot of reviews on this site, I'm thinking of buying Lightroom 3 to be my processing software. Do I need to get CS5 to go with it or does LR3 stand alone?

I've never used photoshop before sorry if that's a really dumb question.

Thanks!

[SmartWombat]

Lightroom 3 stands alone for most basic work, RAW can be edited in LR3, red-eye corrected, colour balanced, colour aberrations in the lens corrected, even spots cloned.

And for complex editing, layers, masking, then you can use other editors. It integrates well with Photoshop (of course, they're both Adobe) but also works with other programs.

[crusty]

I don't have much experience with any other programs, but after reading around for a bit, and playing with the Lightroom 3 beta, I chose it, and am very happy with its performance.

I only use it to post process, but I do have an old version of photoshop (7.0) that I mess around with every now & again.

[Grandpaw]

If you are a student you can purchase Lightroom for about $89.00, Jeff

[crusty]

If you are a student you can purchase Lightroom for about $89.00, Jeff

Great point; I forgot to mention that... they have a great student (and teacher) purchase program!

[Greg McCary]

Photoshop 7 will certainly get you by. I used it for a long time and only scratched the surface of what could be done with it. I only ever used a few basic tools, clone stamp, healing brush and skewing tools.

[maplestreet]

Thank you for the input. I am purchasing it now!

[OldClicker]

If you find you need more editing tools, look at Photoshop Elements (like Photoshop Lite). It does most everything. - Terry