CS5 + Lightroom 2: is this a popular combo?

[Brian Kent]

I'm in the process of buying a new computer. Currently I use an early version of Lightroom (1.4), and that's about it for photo editing. I'm keenly interesting in Photoshop 5 (CS5), and I see that I can pick up a combo package of CS5 and Lightroom 2 for $855 at BH.

Question - is this one of the standard combos? Or, if I just went with CS5 would that probably be more than enough? That would save me some money I'm sure, but in the process I'd be giving up the workflow of Lightroom, of which I'm pretty familiar.

I've just heard so many great things about CS4 and now CS5 is out. I'm a Photoshop newbie, but I'm keen to dive in.

Last question - is there any "definitive" Photoshop guide for newbies that I should get? I love Scott Kelby's writing, but I don't think he's gotten anything out yet on CS5, right? Suggestions?
Thanks!
Brian

[Michael Pancier]

Brian, lightroom is more of an organizer and basic editor as you are probably aware. It does not have the features and tools that you get in a full blown version of photoshop cs5. You could work simply off of PS CS 5 and the new revamped bridge without lightroom. Others prefer aperture or breeze browser. It's a matter of personal preference and need.

The LR/PS is a standard combo, but you need to decide if it's right for you. I swear by it; but as I said, my buddy swears by apterture/ps combo. download the trial versions and see how you like it before buying.

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Personally, I use Bridge, ACR and CS4/5. Many people say that LR is a bit faster but I don't know if this is still true for LR3 and Bridge CS5. If you have a CS version that is not too old, you should be able to use an upgrade for $200.

[Alfred Forns]

I like LR and PS 5 but you could not go wrong with Axel's suggestions.

LR has features not yet incorporated in ACR and is one capable program !! btw you can still download a free trial of LR3 to check it out !!

[John Chardine]

I use Photo Mechanic and Photoshop and there is almost no overlap (read- redundancy) in the combo.

[Chris Sloan]

I use LR2 and CS5. I also sometimes still use BreezeBrowser for preliminary picking/rejecting.

[Sabyasachi Patra]

Lightroom is a very capable program. You should check the Lightroom 3 Beta 2 now available for free download till June. It now recognises video files as well. If you use with CS5, your workflow becomes better.

Cheers,
Sabyasachi

[Gerald Kelberg]

If you are a Scott Kelby fan, you may want to check out his online training courses at www.kelbytraining.com - they seem to have a number of tutorials on CS5. I haven't watched these yet, but have been through the CS4 stuff several times. They also have some excellent tutorials on LR. It is a learning method that works for me.

I'm currently using LR2.6 with CS4 and I'm looking forward to LR3 coming out.

Gerald

[Jack Faller]

I just received CS5 and I am pleased with the Bridge/Photoshop combination. Bridge might be considered a lite version of Lightroom, but it is sufficient for my purposes, a particular advantage being the ability to assign keywords to the images. I use BreezeBrowser to do an initial sort to find the keepers. It is possible to enter photoshop directly from it, but I prefer Bridge and Adobe camera raw for the normal work flow.

I would recommend signing on to lynda.com and take a few of the video tutorials. You don't have to commit to a long term subscription, but you can access everything for $25 for a month and then drop it. The tutorials by Orwig and McClelland are pretty good.