Have Aperture. Gifted Lightroom and Elements. What to do?

[Lonomakana]

Hi folks,

I just bought the newest version of Aperture. My gf bought me Lightroom 4 and Elements 11 for Christmas. I'm trying to figure out if I should keep one of them or trade them back in and buy Photoshop CS6 since I can get the Student/Teacher version ($229). I'm not a pro but I would like to have more creative tools. I like to take a lot of B+W. Which software would be the best pairing with Aperture?

Suggestions?

[McYukon]

I wish I had your problems

Since you seem to want to use Aperture, Lightroom 4 can go.

Both Elements and Photoshop CS6 will work equally well with Aperture, so that will come down to choice.

Most of the how-to guides on the internet will be done in Photoshop so that may have a deciding factor since it will make it easier to follow them.

Lots, and I mean lots of high quality plugins for Photoshop. You can easily spend 2x as much on plugins as on Ps itself. For example: Topaz Photoshop Plug-In Bundle

[Lonomakana]

Thanks for the reply, Alex

I'm mainly trying to clean my photos up and clone things out instead of cropping. More filter and effect options would be nice. The option of plug-ins like the Topaz one look awesome. I might see if I can get a 30 day trial of Photoshop on Mac to see if its worth the time to learn it.

Anyone else with an opinion on this is welcome to reply.

[paul lan]

i do have the Ps, Aperture and Lightroom3. I am more at else with Lightroom rather than Aperture, after my work on LR i go on PS to make some more adjustments especially for cloning.

[chas_m]

If you are happy with Aperture, keep PS Elements and return the Lightroom, since it and Aperture are essentially the same thing.

[Lonomakana]

Thanks for the advice. I ended up getting refunds and buying an external hard drive. I'm thinking about buying the Nik plug-in bundle since I can get it 1/2 off with the education discount. But first, I need to start taking better pictures that don't need so much editing.

[raybce]

Good day,

Keep Lightroom and buy Photoshop. (At that price, well, cheap.)

Am using both since each offer different goodies.

Good luck

Raybce