Need Upgrade Path Advice

[JayMitch]

I have been using Photoshop Elements for a year or so, and Lightroom for a couple of months.   I do not own a photo printer, however, and as my photographic aspirations have grown I am becoming frustrated with my lack of control over outside processing.

So, I am looking for a printer and am considering an Epson R2400. It's pretty expensive, but I am attracted to it in part because I want to be able to do high-quality monochrome and well as color prints.

Elements and Lightroom together makes a pretty powerful combination for the money, IMO, but I am wondering if it would be crazy to invest in a printer like the R2400 without also upgrading to CS3.  I have not used Photoshop, but I understand it provides softproofing, allows much greater use of 16 bit processing, and is compatible with plug-ins that can't be used with elements. I'm sure there are many other differences as well.

Buying the printer and PS CS3 at the same time ups the ante quite a bit, but I could scrape up the $$ if necessary.

I am not now what I would call an "advanced" amature, but I would like to work toward becoming one. I'm trying to decide whether what I am considering is overkill, or is what I need to do to avoid future frustration.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

--Jay

[tomrock]

I don't use Elements so I can't help you much there. I will say that generally, people seem to be happy with the PS CS3 upgrade; I know I am.

There is something to think about with the 2400, though, and you'd see this if you'd read some of the threads in the Printing section of this forum.

If you buy a 2400 and as much ink as Epson gives you with a 3800, you'll actually pay more money. In other words, it's cheaper to buy a 3800. That way you'd be able to make bigger prints.

Something to think about.

[JayMitch]

That's certainly interesting. I'll consider that.

Thanks,

--Jay

[fike]

You can absolutely, positively pair PS Elements with the professional printers.  The results are excellent.   I used Elements 3.0 for over a year with my 2400.  I later got Qimage ($75) for printing.  Today I use Qimage for all my printing and CS3 for my editing.  

Elements does allow for a color managed workflow, so you are good there.  I would recommend getting colorimeter for calibrating your monitor.  Something like the Eye One Display 2 from Gretag Macbeth would be a good choice, although there are several adequate ones.

You will use lots of ink in the 2400, so the recommendation about the 3800 is a good one.  To tell you the truth, if you are happy with Elements so far, I think your extra money would be better spent on a 3800 and Qimage than on CS3.  Until you can explain how Elements is limiting your growth as a photographer, I would recommend you stick with Lightroom and Elements--they are a fantastic and powerful combination!

[Nat Coalson]

I agree that Lightroom with recent versions of Elements (5 or 6) is a powerful combination.

But understand that to get the absolute best quality prints, soft-proofing is essential. And currently, only Photoshop provides this capability.

If you are content with using premade profiles with photo papers, and sending files to your printer without adjusting for the gamut and saturation of a particular paper type, you'll get OK results without soft-proofing.

[JayMitch]

Your comments are very helpful. Thanks.

[fike]

I agree that Lightroom with recent versions of Elements (5 or 6) is a powerful combination.

But understand that to get the absolute best quality prints, soft-proofing is essential. And currently, only Photoshop provides this capability.

If you are content with using premade profiles with photo papers, and sending files to your printer without adjusting for the gamut and saturation of a particular paper type, you'll get OK results without soft-proofing.
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I agree that soft-proofing makes it a bit easier, but I think you can get very good quality without it.  A custom profile run with Elements or Qimage should be just as good as the same custom profile run with CS3--the same can be said for canned profiles.  Having the ability to soft-proof saves paper and time, but it isn't absolutely essential, IMHO.

Saying results would be 'OK' is correct, but I would probably push it into being 'Good.' I agree that you probably won't achieve Excellent, but for a beginner to print-making, that will take some significant learning time anyway.