[Leica] A question on LR v PS

[henningw at archiphoto.com (Henning Wulff)]

At 12:38 AM -0400 3/21/10, Vince Passaro wrote:
>Hi all:
>
>Since I have no clue what you all are talking about when you start advising
>each other on processing your raw files and levels and profiles etc etc, and
>I am struggling to learn how to do even basic things in PS (which I own in
>the latest incarnation because I was able to get it and many other Adobe
>programs (Illustrator, a bunch of other stuff) in a package for under $200
>as a part-time faculty member at NYU, I'm reaching out to get advice on what
>I'm doing.
>
>I notice most you a. work in raw files and import them into whatever program
>you use to process them; and b. use Light Room rather than Photoshop.
>
>So my question is, what does Light Room do that Photoshop doesn't? When I
>say Photoshop I mean to include Adobe Bridge, which seems like a slightly
>creaky (in the Tin Man sense) but adequate format in which one can organize
>one's library of images, rename them, etc.
>
>Lastly, if anyone cares to share his/her experience, I would love to hear
>how some of you folks went about learning LR or PS. (I have *Photoshop for
>Dummies* but it's incoherent, badly organized and kind of incomprehensible.
>And when it is comprehensible it's kind of lame.)
>
>Thanks for any advise and info.
>
>Vince P
>

Boy, have you opened a can of worms!  :-)

LR and PS use the same basic engine, ie, Adobe Camera Raw to process 
raw files, but they have a completely different interface and 
audience.

PS is for people (and their images) who want to work on one image at 
a time, and do lots of things to it.

LR is for people who shoot a lot of photos, want to organize them 
into topics, groups, etc and want to quickly sort through them, pick 
the good ones and batcvh process them in a more 'photographer' 
intuitive way. Almost always LR is better for photographers and PS is 
more for graphic designers, or for final finishes on a special 
photograph that LR doesn't have all the tools for. In that sense PS 
augments LR, but in LR you can process 50 photos for most parameters 
in the time that you can do 1 photo in PS, and you have a good 
database as well.

A very good tutorial for LR is Michael Reichmann's video tutorials 
from luminous-landscape.com, but you have to put up with MR's sense 
of humour. Might take some getting used to. There are a lot of decent 
books, but they are a bit slower going and more for intensive 
studying.

-- 

    *            Henning J. Wulff
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