I'm a little late to this debate, but I for one absolutely love LR. I use it in conjunction with CS5. I've used Photo Mechanic for several years, but I've mostly phased it out (it's great for reviewing and culling images, but that's about it).

I used to edit images one photo at a time through Photoshop, which would take me about one hour for ten edited photos. Now I use LR to create global adjustments for a series of RAW images. I can do about 100 an hour, and the results are much more consistent since I can see all the images in one place.

I use LR for basic color correction, white balance, tonal and exposure adjustments, dust removal, and light dodging and burning. After that I'll bring the image into CS5 for advanced touch up (Content Aware retouching is AMAZING) and sharpening.

I also just figured out how to use the catalog to organize my entire archive, and it's great. I haven't had any problems using an external HD.

I learned LR through some free online tutorial videos. There are a ton of them out there that you can find with a quick google search.

one thing that has been missed in this discussion and is essential to understand in order to make a rational choice, is what and how do you shoot and what are you trying to accomplish?

Roman likes his style because of what he shoots, Jim the same. You have to look at what you shoot and what you need to accomplish in order to decide what's best. So, if you could describe what it is youre doing and what youre trying to accomplish we could be more help.

Thank you for the comments> I myself like the program. I had to upgtrade to cs5 right away on my new computer, lightroom will be next, I missed the deal on the dual programs hopefully will find another good option for it later.

I find LR faster and easier to use than CS5 for making raw conversions. I use Breezebrowser to review shots following a shooting session, delete the junk, then import to LR. I then rate the ones I want to work on, filter on the rating, then make my changes/emhancements/dust spot removal. Usually this is enough for me. If an image requires adjustments not possible in LR, I bring it into CS5 and go on from there. For publishing to the web, I return to Breezebroswer to 'proof' the images, which usually involves resizing and embedding watermarks (more powerful than LR's watermarking tools). I am not recommending this workflow; it's just the one I use out of years of habit.

I tried Lightroom a few times when they came out with the beta versions and although it is pretty easy to use, I prefer Phase One/ Capture 1 Pro 5 for my raw conversion and the PS CS2 for tweaking the conversion. I am about to upgrade to CS5. I do not however shoot 10k images in a session... more like 700-1,800 and so I do not worry too much about speed. I really like the quality my images end up with with C1 Pro 5.

Very interesting to see how others handle the workflow of several hundred or more photographs. Habit seems a theme here....

Hey Lesley,

That is essentially how I do my processing. Most of the RAW work is done in CO 5 - which I agree provides phenomenal output....quickly. I tweek in CS.

I have been running on the trial version of CS5 which is about to run out. I am trying to find the 'best deal' as Adobe only lets you go back 3 version (i.e. to CS2). I have been debating the purchase of someone's older CS2 so that I can upgrade to 5..but I don't know if that is legit once the software has been registered with Adobe.

James

I have been using CS2 and have thought about upgrading to CS4 or 5 whats the best deal anyone has found.
Thanks randall

I recently went to a smugmug meeting where the guest speaker was Art Suwansang discussing the benefits of Lightroom 3. For the record I'm an Aperture user, I only used the beta version of LR and haven't used it since it was released for sale and currently have CS3. I don't think you can really compare CS#(whichever number) and LR since they are for different tasks and doing different things. CS# is pixel manipulation and LR is image manipulation, metadata, organization, editing and more just as Aperture is. LR and Aperture both allow global manipulations that can be applied to groups of images at once. For instance you want to adjust the white balance for shots taken under the same conditions, just one adjustment and you take care of them all. Same goes for metadata.
Some of the things that did impress me about LR3 is the lens profile, you can correct the barrel distortions from any lens that is in their database. You can also correct for linear distortions without the expense of buying a tilt and shift lens. Additionally the new noise distortion was impressive and I liked the graduated filter feature, much easier than making layers and such in CS.
Since I've started using Aperture I rarely go into CS#, I can do most adjustments to exposure, sharpening, spot removal, color manipulation.... Additionally you never actually change the pixels in either LR or Aperture, both programs simply apply the changes you wish to a version of the image, leaving the master image untouched so there can never be an accidental adjustment to the original. It also saves disk space since you are not saving multiple copies of the same image but just coded instructions of what to do so you can many different versions as you work to see what works best.
You can export easily to various entities, facebook, smugmug, flicker and with Aperture it is easy to apply a watermark to every image as it is exported. I have different export profiles saved that designate size, file type and watermark and I just choose the appropriate one for the selected images, done.
If you do need to do something more complicated both programs export directly to CS# and then save that image as a version back in Aperture/LR when you are done.
I can't even imagine trying to edit in CS, right now I upload, run through assigning number(star) ratings, limit my results and go back through till I have the best then start any needed adjustments.
Sorry this got so long but I'm definitely sold on the benefits of Aperture or LR as tools for image management, editing and the majority of adjustments.
Anyone care to compare Aperture and Lightroom?

Nice post Jenny, that is my impression of LR also. Those that are looking for a good price on Photoshop, I got a discount for one time use on Smugmug for 30% my order, as an upgrade from CS3 it was 172 with tax.