Difference between lightroom and elements

Hi cheer,

If you are a new photographer probably your best choice would be Elements. This program combines all the necessary features you would need todo photo editing at your stage. Lightroom is usually for more advanced photographers who usually use it at the begining of a photo editing session. They use lightroom to open RAW files and then catagorize them and do whatever editing possible. Then if the situation calls for more detailed editing such as using "Layers" etc then one would open up Photoshop CS and finish off the work. Elements was designed for photographers who require some of the features of each of the other two. Lightroom does not have layers where as Elements does. Photoshop CS does not have some of the neat bells and whistles of lightroom, like sending photos to facebook but Elements does.

So they took just the best basic features of both pro programs and combined them into a neat package called Elements, which also has a Photo Organizer for cataloguing all your photos. The new Elements 11 has a nicer look than #10 to me. Less clutter. What you should do is download the 30 day trial and try a few photos.

Adobe did a lot of thinking when they made Elements. Sometimes I listen to people complaining. I started in photography 43 years ago using 4x5 and 8x10 cameras and chemical processing, big difference. That was something else to complain about. Elements also has the ability to select more precise parts of a photo and apply changes such as exposure or white balance to just those areas. Plus it's cheaper. When you turn pro you can buy the other two, ha.

cheer89fjh wrote: Hello, I am a new photographer. I am looking to buy one of these softwares. I am wanting to know what the difference is between photoshop elements 11 and lightroom 4? Which one is better? Which one is recommended more? If you could help me in choosing which one to purchase that would greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I'm an old photographer, but new to Adobe stuff.  I bought both with Premier Elements for a new computer.  I'm devoting retirement to learning how to use all of it. 

I have a group of photos where the camera was set for indoor light and I was shooting outdoors.  In LR I can fix them all at once.  In PSE I can fix them one at a time.

I have a shot of a young eagle in a tree across the street with a power line in the way.  I will use PSE to get rid of the powerline.

PSE comes with Organizer and it is very good but runs separately.  With LR it is built in.  (Integrated?)  You don't switch back and forth. 

For the majority of users, the main strength of PSE is as a pixel editor, while LR excels as a raw converter and asset manager. Many people use LR to convert their raw files and manage their photos, while use PSE as a supplemental editor when they need more than LR can do that way.