You MUST try LIGHTROOM

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I've been using it through the Beta phases released for Mac only, but now it's also available for windows

users. If you are a JPEG shooter, this will save you tons of time and heartache over processing your files.

In my opinion, this will be just as, if not more essential than Photoshop for most professional digital

photographers.

 

Check it out...

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

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Also.. be sure to check out the video in order to give you a quick introduction into how the

program can work for you.

[mikestryinagain]

Anne, I wont be able to watch the lightroom videos until tonight. So, in the mean time, whats your summary on features that would make me want to use this thing - "inquiry minds want to know"!!! Thanks!!!

[timberwulf]

I was just discussing this with my company Photoshop guru - he was saying that lightroom can treat your PSD, JPG, whatever file format like it's been loaded into Adobe Camera RAW - adjusting white balance and whatnot just like a RAW file. It sounds pretty exciting to me too.

[rtrace]

Lightroom is pretty cool, but one thing that makes no sense to me is why they have a print function/engine and yet no way to apply any local corrections!! This means that I still need to take pictures into Photoshop before printing, which makes no sense. I guess it's good for printing a contact sheet.. It's like Adobe can't make their mind up about what this product should be. And BTW, the print egine is great.

 

Bogdan

[rtrace]

Read the Lightroom forums for more info/insight.

 

Bogdan

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BATCH PROCESSING HEAVEN for JPG & RAW (similar to Bridge).... color correction,

exposure/brightness/contrast/blacks balancing, quick straightening tool, quick cropping

tool, sepia conversion not available in Bridge (this one I needed to adjust for my sepia

color taste), quick previews of adjustments, noise reduction, vingette, curves, etc, and if

you develop a formula you like, it's so easy to save it as a preset to apply to images later.

 

NON-DESTRUCTIVE ADJUSTMENTS... all of the adjustments are saved as an action file

which is only applied to the JPG once it is exported (similar to the handling of RAW files).

 

ULTIMATE ORGANIZATION... with many different ways to organize and categorize your

images without needing to create different folders on your hard drive, this really is the

ultimate organization tool. Label files with keywords, create categories, label files by

ranking numbers or with colors, the options are endless if you're an organization freak.

 

SLIDESHOWS... very quick and easy slideshows on the fly for those photographers who like

to show their work at the wedding, or create a quick slideshow of images to proof an

event.

 

PRINT... easy to use interface with quick previews of the different printing options.. no

more waiting for photoshop to resize and create files.

 

WEB... flash and html templates for posting images to the web

 

EFFICIENCY.. Lightroom can batch process, batch export, batch whatever in the

background while you continue working. Bridge requires you to have bridge, ACR, and

photoshop open.

 

PREVIEWS... large, beautiful side by side comparisions of images, adjustable thumbnail

sizes or single image previews with blazing thumbnail previews.

 

There are probably many more things that I naturally take for granted because Mac has

had quite a few of these features all along, but this definitely will become the essential

tool for digital photographers. It does not replace photoshop.. but rather is a beautiful

compliment and first step.

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This program will be all you need for 90% of your images. The only thing you would need to

enter into photoshop for is stuff like adding blur layers, masking, healing, dodging/burning,

or special effects. If you just want simply beautiful photographs, lightroom is like a flim lab.

[strpichu]

Wonderful. But for my favorite platform, there ain't no Photoshop, no Lightroom. So I will stay without :)

[kapalua]

hi Anne,

Just downloaded the windows version last night. I am totally BAFFLED by the "library". With Bridge, I used my nice and neat windows folders. for example: mypictures/2006/july/RAW

 

When I imported my images into the Lightroom library, thousands of them downloaded into one big blob. no folders, no organization, nothing.

Also, even after editing an image, I tried "file/save as" but this is disabled, so how can I save the finished image back into a specific windows folder?

 

It appears to be an asset management nightmare, unless I just totally am missing something......

[rtrace]

Remember that this is a BETA! Be careful as there are many bugs. Especially in the Windows version.

 

Lightroom engineers still need to figure out what they want this product to do IMO. They started in one direction and then went into others. I've been following this product for 3-4 months now and listened to all the podcasts with the engineers, etc. Read the forums as I said. And remember - this is a BETA so don't ruin your images/library.

 

I hope that the final version will make more sense.

 

Bogdan

[ellis_vener_photography]

For Lightroom tutorials it also helps to go to Apple's iTunes store to downloading and watch

the (free!) Lightroom podcasts.

 

Bridge is just a browser and in no way should be considered be considered an archiving

program. It isn't built for it. For archiving iView Media Pro 3 (my choice) or Extensis Portfolio

8 is a better choice for professional level use.

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Yes, you're missing a lot. Changes made to the files are "saved" as an action applied to

the file in Lightroom without ever needing to click "save". To open the adjusted images in

another program, Export to a new windows folder of your choice (just like Save As.. since

Lightroom resists saving over the original file) or you can go directly to another program

from lightroom with the option to use the lightroom edits or not.

 

Assign images to collections and manage the collections as folders in Lightroom, or

import in different "shoots". The video tutorials help answer a lot of these initial "getting

used to it" questions. I am by no means an expert, but once I learned to take advantage of

a few of the key features, it really streamlined my workflow.

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Bogdan.. I don't see how you could ruin anything since you can't save over the original files.

Have you used the program yet? I've been using it for a while now and it hasn't "ruined"

anything.

[kiva]

For Beginners: If you're currently riding a learning curve on wedding photography it might be a good idea to just ignore this kind of item and just keep plugging away at the work you're focused on.

 

It's like all good software: it will "mature" and become viable but to spend time on it right now would slow down the work you're already doing to become more proficient.

 

Thanks for the heads up Anne, looks like a lot of potential in Lightroom ... exciting stuff.

[michelle a.]

I just downloaded it this AM and haven't really had more than a few moments to look it over. Certainly looks like an interesting program. Wondering how expensive the final version will be since it seems to almost be a replacement for CS2.... although I think you would still need CS2.

 

Ok off to view the video and download the podcasts!

[jonj]

I just downloaded it I couldn't get the videos to play even when I turned the pop up blocker off, but I don't think you need them it's pretty easy all of the adjustments are on the right side. I got a good looking cross processing look in a few minutes. It does give you a great level of adjustment on a Jpeg image.

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William, I don't think I would discourage anyone from trying something which could improve

their workflow. Some beginners may be fumbling in photoshop or may not have an

established workflow yet, and they could find that this is much easier for them. The way I

see it, you start playing with it now and benefitting from the features that you can use, or you

play catch-up later when the full version is released... or you just say screw technology

altogether and go camping. As with all new programs/software/technology/cameras..

there's stuff to learn, and the more you play with it, the better you get.

[rtrace]

"Bogdan.. I don't see how you could ruin anything since you can't save over the original files. Have you used the program yet? I've been using it for a while now and it hasn't "ruined" anything."

 

Yes, I've been using it on my Mac for a while now, reading all about it, trying a ton of things, and listening to the Podcasts. I haven't had any problems because I've been careful, but to each his own. BETA means something.....even the engineers agree. And BTW, the Windows release is plagued with bugs. All I'm saying is be careful!

 

Bogdan

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When isn't Windows full of bugs? ;-)

[fotografz]

If they keep tuning it and adding functionality it'll be really good for wedding work I think. It's

especially cool in that you can easily WB jpgs or Tiffs (why that's not in PS I don't know).

 

I've downloaded it a couple of times now, and it's still waaaaay to slow. I deleted the Beta 2

version last week, and will wait until they finalize it at full speed.

[wedding-photography-denver]

I love the idea however...

 

It does run slowly in the 'working' mode considering I am using a G5 Dually with 4gigs of RAM.

 

I also found that the adjustments are not as responsive as the ACR versions. That is to say, when you select about 50+/- files and make adjustments to WB/contrast/brightness etc., it should update them in real time like it would in ACR (IMHO). I may have missed the easy wat to do it, but this seems to be functionally way worse than ACR.

 

Well that's my play time for today. Thanks for the link, Anne.

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Perhaps it isn't optimized for the dual/quad core G5. It runs pretty speedy on my Intel G5

with only 2GB of RAM. I should also note... I'm still using Bridge for RAW, and I'm only using

Lightroom for JPG... which Bridge cannot process in the same way anyway.

[fotografz]

Good point Anne. I'll have to try it with some jpgs and see if it speeds up. It's slow and not

working real time with RAW files on my desktop computer nor my laptop.

[paul_sokal___dallas__tx]

I just downloaded it tonight and started playing with it. One immediate advantage is that it treats D200 NEF's like all files. In bridge, D200 files are just displayed as small thumbnails for me. Even when I move the slider to large previews, nothing happens. This in spite of the latest updates for ACR. In Lightroom, all files in the library are as they should. This is very cool for me because bridge's behavior made it impossible for me to screen D200 files and rate them as they were too small. I'd have to do that in Nikon View.