Lightroom 4 and Photoshop Elements 11

Hi everyone. Looking forward to mining info from fellow enthusiasts, and checking out all the photographs.

I recently bought Lightroom 4 as I wanted to catalogue my photo collection - which is certain to grow apace with the arrival of my D7100.

I am thinking of also acquiring Elements 11 as it seems to have far greater picture manipulation facilities.

I see it also has organisational capabilities, so my question is, based on your experiences, have I wasted money getting LR4 or is it a better cataloguing program and a worthwhile companion to Elements?

Thanks
Chris

No, you did not waste your money because Elements isn't really a catalogue program, instead it's more of a pixel fixing program. The combination of LR and either Elements or Photoshop is the ideal combination.

And welcome to Nikonites. I look forward to seeing your work

I have both... I almost never use Elements...

Lightroom utilizes the complete version of Adobe Camera RAW and is a better workflow manager. You definitely didn't waste your money. Elements is good for edits that LR can't do (Layers, Smart Healing Brush) and is a very useful tool in tandem, but it better invoked from Lightroom than used on its own. It's what I used for 2 years before I found the need for additional features in Photoshop that were not available in Elements (namely Smart Objects). Still, I use Lightroom as my workflow organizer over Adobe Bridge, just because I don't see the need to move everything over.

Welcome!! You'll want to download the beta version of Adobe Camera RAW 7.4 to get RAW file support for that D7100, btw.

Thanks for the rapid responses - and for making me feel better about laying out the cash for Lightroom...

Work and weather are combining to deny me the chance to make full use of the D7100, which on first viewing appears to be a great piece of kit. And my 10-24mm Nikon lens arrived today which will definitely get put to a lot of use - eventually.

One of the things which appeals about Elements is the auto 'stitching' together of pictures to make panoramic shots.

Found an example video which showed the 'stitching' together of the Manhattan skyline in Elements, and I'm heading to New York in the summer. I can see that facility of Elements will be used a lot.
Chris

Welcome Chris.
One of the things I like about Lightroom is that the edits are non-destructive. The original file is never changed. Edits are stored in a file called a sidecar for that image and the original is untouched. If you screw up your edits (like I do), a couple of clicks and you can start over. There is a huge amount of editing power in lightroom. I think you'll like it.

Good combo to have both programs. On my machine, Elements 9 organizer ran incredibly slow for some reason. I didn't even bother trying the organizer from PSE 11.
Lightroom is my main program, PSE is for 'special' projects. Be sure to check out the Adobe site for free training videos.