Lightroom or elements

[Kiera K]

I was talking to a friend tonight about getting into the photography business. I have done a couple newborn sessions so far, and am creating my website now....anyway he mentioned to me that lightroom would be better to have instead of elements.
What are your thoughts? I plan on specializing in newborns/babies, children, family & maternity.
Thank You

[Bob Hettinger]

@kaufmank1016 You are able to do more with RAW photos in Lightroom than in Elements. If you're not shooting RAW, I would steer you in the direction of Elements. You will have much more control over your editing. I have Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS3 and I can tell you CS3 gets used easily 100% more!

[MattyB]

Kiera......Lightroom over elements any day of the week. I did a lot of investigating and LR is great. Sometimes I wish I got that instead of PS. Stick with LR.....so much more options with RAW files than elements.

[Cindy Ford]

Lightroom! When you are ready for it, go with the regular Photoshop, not the Elements. Lightroom and Photoshop work so wonderfully together, a great workflow.

[Andrew Pavlik]

Um it depends what you wanna do. They are both very powerful in there own way. But I would say lightroom is much easier and funnier to use.

[Vikdaddy]

Lightroom, no question. There's not even a competition.

[The Steve From 2010]

" @vikdaddy Lightroom, no question. There's not even a competition."
QFT

Also: @andrew_pavlik Lightroom is funny to use!? Never really noticed that myself! :p

[Kiera K]

Thanks everyone! Lightroom it is! My husband is a teacher...should I buy the teacher edition, since it is 1/4 of the price?

[Kirsty McLaughlan]

I've used Lightroom 3, CS5, CS4, Elements 8 and PSPX3 and out of them all I use Lightroom the most. Maybe it's because I still struggle using the other programs but Lightroom is a lot easier. It's so flexible but everybodys experiences are different