I must have read 100 threads that compare lightroom vs Elements and can't for the life of me decide.  Basically, I get that lightroom is more image management whereas Elements is more editor oriented.  Is that right?

I'm curious to know the hive's thoughts on these 2 programs.  Pros, cons, likes, dislikes, limitations, etc.

Thanks

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I haven't used a recent version of elements, but I think it has started to incorporate a bit of the organization into it.

Basically Lightroom will do most everything a photographer needs short of heavy duty editing (HDR, pulling a face from one photo into another, etc). Elements can do most heavy editing (not as much as full Photoshop... but still a lot) but leave you hanging on the organization/cataloging/bulk processing.

We shoot over 100K photos per year and if I had to chose one or the other, I'd stick with Lightroom and limp my way through editing with Gimp (or other free programs). I'd estimate that less than 5% of the photos we shoot need anything in addition to LR.

But it all really boils down to what you need to do, and how you want to do it. I could see arguments going both ways, depending on the intended use.

Just realize that while LR can't do the heavy duty stuff, it certainly can do a LOT of typical editing for photos.

I'd suggest downloading both trial versions from Adobe, WATCHING SOME VIDEO TUTORIALS, and then play with them both for a month and decide what fits your needs the best. And to reiterate... don't try and learn them yourself (especially LR), get some training material to see what they are actually supposed to do and how they work. I hated LR when I first tried it because I expected a PS replacement... after watching video tutorials that stepped me through the entire program, I fell in love with it (it still has its limitations/drawbacks).

I think the above post hits it pretty good. If you will need to process a ton of photos that are basically pretty close to right then lightroom is the way to go. If you are only doing a few photos per session but they need alot of work then elements will get you thru fine. If you process alot of photos and some of them need alot of work then get both :)

I have both, and I think I've used elements on about a half dozen photos in the last year.  99.999% of the time, I get it done with LR.



Elements is good if you need to do heavy duty editing on individual photos, but LR is excellent for handling bunches at a pop.

I prefer Lightroom 3 however I have no experience with the other so my opinion is biased.