Please help me clarify the benefits of Lightroom and PSE

Question

Hello,
I've had PSE for many years and I am a light user of it. I've got about 13000 family photos I want to catalog, mark favorites, and touch up favorites - mostly adjust lighting and color, crop, red eye. I will occasionally edit out an object, like a garden hose running through the grass. I'm trying to decide if Lightroom would make my task easier and results better than using PSE alone. I played with Lightroom for a couple hours and this is what seems true based on my limited knowledge:
1- It seems easier to get better results adjusting lighting and colors in Lightroom. I'm a novice and I thought I could make my photos look significantly better. I'm still fairly awkward using layers in PSE, so maybe it's just my lack of experience.
2- It is easier to manage edits in Lightroom since they are non destructive. Snapshots make it easy to view edits at different stages. Making a virtual copy and applying a different set of edits seems like a snap. In PSE, if you want to retain your layers you need to save in the native format and those files can get huge. If you don;t retain your layers you are just left with your end result.
3- It seems like people generally think Lightroom's catalog functionality if better than PSE Organizer, but I don't have enough experience to tell.
4- I don't do too many creative projects where PSE may excel, like merging photos, cutting people out of 1 and into another, etc.
Based on my needs, do you think I'd be better off getting Lightroom, or using PSE and maybe improving my skill level with it?
I hope it's not bad manners to cross post this in the PSE forum.
Thanks!

Answer 1

Hello,
I've had PSE for many years and I am a light user of it. I've got about 13000 family photos I want to catalog, mark favorites, and touch up favorites - mostly adjust lighting and color, crop, red eye. I will occasionally edit out an object, like a garden hose running through the grass. I'm trying to decide if Lightroom would make my task easier and results better than using PSE alone. I played with Lightroom for a couple hours and this is what seems true based on my limited knowledge:
1- It seems easier to get better results adjusting lighting and colors in Lightroom. I'm a novice and I thought I could make my photos look significantly better. I'm still fairly awkward using layers in PSE, so maybe it's just my lack of experience.
2- It is easier to manage edits in Lightroom since they are non destructive. Snapshots make it easy to view edits at different stages. Making a virtual copy and applying a different set of edits seems like a snap. In PSE, if you want to retain your layers you need to save in the native format and those files can get huge. If you don;t retain your layers you are just left with your end result.
3- It seems like people generally think Lightroom's catalog functionality if better than PSE Organizer, but I don't have enough experience to tell.
4- I don't do too many creative projects where PSE may excel, like merging photos, cutting people out of 1 and into another, etc.
Based on my needs, do you think I'd be better off getting Lightroom, or using PSE and maybe improving my skill level with it?
I hope it's not bad manners to cross post this in the PSE forum.
Thanks!