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Moving from Lightroom Classic to Elements

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Alex Mac

Alex Mac

Alex
Premium Classic Member
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Oct 18, 2008
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222
Location
Berks
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Intermediate
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Lightroom Version Number
Classic 11.5
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  1. Windows 10
  2. Android
Hi guys,
I am not sure if this is the best place to ask, but I have always got great advice here, so here goes :)

Due to cost and having a good option to do more with the loads of videos I have on my phone.

I am closing my creative cloud account at the end of sept.

I am going to see how I get on with the basic edit tools that I still have access to in Lightroom.

I was thinking of buying the one-off purchase of Elements and Premier Elements.

Is there anything in particular I should be aware of if I did this?

A few things that popped in my head:
Should I still use Lightroom for file organisation and then access Elements for editing via Lightroom
Can I import all the files mostly CR2 files and JPEG into Elements with all the Lightroom adjustments - then just work in Elements
Can I import all my files into Elements but lose all the Lightroom edits

Finally, I have always had great advice here, would I be able to get advice and help for Elements here in the Photoshop forum.

Hopefully my questions make a bit of sense :)
If not please just say so.
Many thanks Alex
 
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Elements (PSE) does not offer a migration away from Lightroom Classic. So you would have to import all of your Lightroom images and start over. A better option would be to use another product from a different vendor. Some offer migration away from Lightroom Classic. I believe On1 PhotoRaw is one that does. IIRC there ia an app that will migrate your photos from many different photo apps to another. I do not recall this app and I do not know if it will migrate Lightroom Classic images to PSE.
OI think this forums the best place to get unbiased (Adobe biased) recommendations. But there is little here for future support on those other apps.
 
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Hi, thanks for getting back to me, looks like my plan was not such a good one then :)
Thanks for the heads up.
 
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Alex Mac said:
Should I still use Lightroom for file organisation and then access Elements for editing via Lightroom
Click to expand...
Yes, that's an option. If you want to edit raw files in Elements, I suspect you might need the Open Directly plug-in, or navigate to them using Explorer.

Alex Mac said:
Can I import all the files mostly CR2 files and JPEG into Elements with all the Lightroom adjustments - then just work in Elements
Click to expand...
If you write metadata to the files in LR (page 389 in your book), then Elements would be able to access some of the edits and keywords etc when you import them into Elements Organizer. The limits of xmp metadata apply though, so flags and collections aren't written to the files.
 
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Hi, well that sounds as if it might work, I can live with the flags and collections......I had better go have a read of page 389 :)
I am not sure if I will do it yet, I will see how I get on with the basic editing I will still have in Lightroom.
As always thanks for your help, cheers Alex
 
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I have to admit I was surprised how limited Adobe Camera Raw is in Elements, so definitely see if you can find a trial before you jump in with both feet.
 
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It is not printed in Large Capitals anywhere, but Photoshop Elements used to be restricted to 8 bit file types.

I am not sure how this worked with converting from raw or if this still applies. This has major implications for even modest post processing.
 
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Compared to Affinity Photo, Elements is sorely lacking. I had been using Lr 6.14 and Ps CS4 on my older MBP and Affinity Photo for editing on my other MBP. I used the Lyn app as a simple photo browser. It doesn't have database capability. If you are on a Win machine, you might need to look for a different photo browser, but there are lots. Darktable might be a good alternative to Lr.

I highly recommend Affinity Photo over Elements. It can natively handle RAW. It can output all file types from PSD to TIFF to PNG to JPG. It has superb editing tools.
 
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There is a program called Avalanche that is supposed to TRY to transfer edits, metadata etc to and from several other photo editing applications.

On1 as mentioned before or Affinity Photo would probably be better options. Elements was and still is I think very restricted compared to other programs.
 
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As others have said, PS Elements is quite limited these days. Before you buy it, I would try a test version. If you are going to continue to shoot RAW, I would not recommend it. I too believe you would be much happier with Affinity or On1 or ACDSee. We have stopped recommending PS Elements to novice members of our local photo club. Then, depending on what you want to do with your videos, I would look at other options before you buy Premier Elements - that too is quite limited. There are other no cost and low cost alternatives that are not as limited.
 
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Jimmsp said:
If you are going to continue to shoot RAW, I would not recommend it. I too believe you would be much happier with Affinity or On1 or ACDSee.
Click to expand...
I had forgotten about ACDSee. I had used it back when I had a Win machine running Win 95 and 98. It hadn't had a macOS version back then. I remember liking it, but that was long before I really got into photo editing. Wikipedia says it is an image organizer, viewer, editor. There seems to be three versions of it, one of which is free if one wants to try it out.
 
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Fast Raw Viewer is a good tool to quickly look at folders and perhaps help selecting your keepers. It does not use a database, so spend a little time understanding the mechanism for selecting files.

I used it for a while to select files based on raw or jpg or to select specific dates.
 
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Hi everyone,
Thank you very much to everyone who took the time to give me a heads up regarding Elements and raw.
That has slowed me down, and I will go and look at the other options .
One of the main reasons I was looking at changing was access to premier elements, but if raw is very limited in elements I am going to have a rethink.
Thanks again.
 
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