Should I buy

[NigelC]

Amazon UK have L3 for half price for afew days. Although I have recently upgraded to CS5, wondering whether this would be a good buy. Does it have any advantages over CS5 in terms of image processing -thinking of the Print module. ApRt from the image management bits. Sorry this message may be a bit garbled as done on phone. I'm away and therefore haven'nt an opportunity to try it out before offer ends.

[Alan Goldhammer]

I think it's easier to print from LR than Photoshop and once you create the presets that you generally use, it's pretty foolproof.

[David Hufford]

"Does it have any advantages over CS5 in terms of image processing -thinking of the Print module."

The layouts and templates are quite nice, but LR has no softproofing. If you need that, you'll end up going back and forth between the two.

[Eric Myrvaagnes]

The custom presets in LR make it MUCH easier (and safer) to print in LR than in PS.

The LR user interface is quite complex and not intuitively obvious, but once you get the hang of it you will probably be using CS5 only for the few specialist things that LR doesn't (yet) do, such as soft proofing or content-aware fill.

I strongly recommend getting LR on sale and also getting the Luminous Landscape video Guide to Lightroom 3, which will explain clearly how to use it to best advantage. I started using LR just for the print module, but I have gradually gotten into much of the rest of the system, thanks to the video. The workflow in LR is efficient, flexible, and a real pleasure compared with Photoshop alone.

And I find it much easier to switch out to PS for soft-proofing and back into LR for printing than to do everything in PS. It will sure be nice to have soft-proofing though, hopefully in the next version.

[DavidWBrown]

I am no expert, but the softproofing weakness in LR3, in my opinion, is really a none issue!
The very best way, again in my opinion, to proof any image is to print it and check to see if
it is what you want. I, using CS4, would softproof and then back to LR3 for printing and I
still made adjustments most of the time after viewing a real print. So I figured why mess
with CS4 at all. I have been a LR user since version 1.4 and printing from LR3 is, after printing
once and doing the required setups,as easy as anyone could hope for. Buy it and don't look back!

Dave Brown

[digitaldog]

I am no expert, but the softproofing weakness in LR3, in my opinion, is really a none issue!
The very best way, again in my opinion, to proof any image is to print it and check to see if
it is what you want.

Yes, hard proofing works wonderfully but that’s not an effective solution to soft proofing. The entire idea (duh) is not to make a print until you are sure you know what you’ll get or at the very least, only ‘waste’ one proof. LR needs soft proofing, as do many people printing who want to reduce waste as much as possible.

[Rhossydd]

Yes, this is a good deal, go for it.

There's so much more to LR than just the print module though. The whole workflow and DAM capabilities are brilliant.
You need to invest some time learning how it all works, try Martin Evening's great book, but once you're at speed with it you'll wonder how you ever managed without it.

The other advantage is that you'll be able to get the next version at an upgrade price. Hopefully a version soon will include soft proofing and stop all teh discussion about that anyway ;-)

Paul

[AFairley]

I don't see the point in LR if layer masking is a usual part of your workflow in PS, since you'll end up in PS anyway if that's the case.

[Richowens]

Afairly,

 If you want to find out the point download the 30 day trial and take it for a spin.
 There is so much more to it than just image proessing.
 Consider that very few people use PS for layer masking. If I had not been able to get CS5 for upgrade price I would be using Elements.

 Give it a try, you might "develop" a taste for it.
 

[wolfnowl]

Comparing Lightroom to Photoshop isn't really accurate in and of itself; one needs to compare LR to Bridge/ACR withPhotoshop as an extra editing tool... LR and PS play well together: http://bit.ly/LR-PS

Mike.