I am looking to purchase either photoshop or lightroom before the end of the month. My FI is a student at a large university and he is able to get a huge discount, like 70-80% off! This is his last semester, so I need to purchase it soon. Both photoshop and lightroom are discounted, but I don't want both. In your opinion, which one should I buy? I am just getting started and I'm not interested in owning a business or anything. I just want to edit personal pictures. I was going to buy photoshop, but then I heard that lightroom is better for the beginner. Is hat true? What are some pros and cons of each? I'll be off googling some more, but I'd like to hear what you have to say. Thanks for the help ladies!

Here's a post that may help and lead you to other posts about the same subject

http://www.projectwedding.com/post/list/what-programs-for-editing

Good luck!

Thanks so much!

I use both. I primarily use lightroom for most editing, but I do almost all of my retouching in photoshop. I can do much more with photoshop, though, than just editing photos. 

I bought CS5.5 with a student discount + lightroom, and it was $530 total. Not too shabby, and I like having illustrator and the other programs, too.