Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
by Adobe
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Software Reviews of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
Customer Review: Excellent for Digital Photography Management and Production
Summary: 5 Stars
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 was designed to assist photographers in two areas:
1) photo management
2) post production
Lightroom 2 introduces localized corrections (letting you edit specific parts of an image), multi-monitor support (finally!), and DNG Camera Profiling.
I've used Photoshop Lightroom 2 (henceforth refered to as Lightroom 2) for the past few months to organize, view, and manage my digital photos.
I'm reviewing this application from a consumer point of view. Does it make sense to use Lightroom 2 when other applications like iPhoto already exist?
Let's take a look:
There are 5 workflows in Lightroom2:
1. Library - in this mode, the work area is divided into 3 panels: Catalog (on the left) - which shows a list of all the folders containing the images you're working with. In the center, Library Filter, which lets you find images based on text, attributes, or metadata that you've provided. On the right-most panel, you can enter keywords, make quick white balance adjustments and see the overall color histogram for your image.
2. Develop - this mode lets you make granular adjustments to your image. You can fine tune white balance, exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, vibrance and clarity. There are even buttons that let you correct red eye, and an adjustment brush which lets you retouch the photo as needed.
3. Slideshow - this mode lets the user view images in a slideshow, and gives several modes of control - from adding overlays (your name for example), border strokes, and even adjusting the drop shadow that's cast behind each image.
4. Print - this mode lets you adjust parameters for printing your image. You can group images into collections and make one adjustment fit all. A picture package mode is also available, which lets you see smaller versions of the image (similar to what you see when purchasing prints from a professional photographer).
5. Web - this mode takes your images, places them into one of several gallery templates for web output. The resultant thumbnails, HTML code (or Flash, depending upon the 'engine' you select, etc. are generated - minimizing the complexity from coding everything from scratch.
Lightroom 2 has a lot of power under the hood. The layout and modes are easy to access and well thought out. The interface is clean, though some of the finer aspects to the program can be overkill for consumers.
Performance-wise, Lightroom 2 felt a little sluggish. There's a perceptable lag when switching between modes. My test system is a Mac Pro with 6GB of RAM.
Lightroom 2 may be overkill for many 'point-and-click' photographers - at least compared to iPhoto. But this application is primarily targeted towards professionals. But consumers who are serious about photography and are looking for a powerful tool to help them manage, correct and organize their images will find themselves rewarded by learning and harnessing the power and versatility that Lightroom 2 offers.
Recommended!
Customer Review: invaluable for photographers
Summary: 5 Stars
I've been using Lightroom for a little while now and I'm definitely hooked on it. It really helps you organize your photos so much better than you'd be able to do without it. Not only that but it integrates the power of "camera raw" right into Lightroom so that it becomes an integral part of the workflow.
Lightroom is a great tool to have, but it doesn't replace Photoshop. Photoshop is still essential to have, especially if you don't work in camera raw.
Customer Review: It's a Home Run! But I still need Photoshop, too.
Summary: 5 Stars
There's no doubt that Photoshop, the full version, is a photographer's best friend, but what happens if you take Photoshop, remove some of the features that more casual digital photographers rarely use, and streamline the interface... AND add some great organizational tools.
That's what they've done with Lightroom. In fact, there is very little, if anything, that I need to do with a serious photo editing process that isn't available in Lightroom. I especially like the ability to compare different "takes" of the same shot, mark the ones I love and mark the ones I don't. All of your editing is basically "non-destructive", so you can come back next week and change the color balance back and then make it different. You can create some great "Gradient ND filter"-like effects, and make an "almost there" photo into something you can hang on your wall and be proud of.
The layout is complete, the controls are pretty intuitive. The program doesn't ship with a manual, and frankly, probably doesn't need to. I'd venture to guess that it takes me longer to learn everything because I'm used to Photoshop than it might for you if you aren't an old Photoshop user.
Serious photographers take note: You might still want or need all the extra stuff that you get with the full version of Photoshop (I still MUST have all that stuff), but once you acclimate yourself to the workflow of Lightroom, you might find yourself able to get it done faster and better here. That said, in the time since I've gotten Lightroom, as great as it is, I haven't been able to bond with it for the quick "I-just-want-to-get-this-one-photo-edited" moments. Nope. I go to Photoshop for that. And I still love the way Photoshop layers. I gave the program 5-stars, but that's conditional. For me, it's only a 3- or 4-star program by itself, but 5-star combined with the full version of Photoshop. For you, this might be all you ned.
One more note, if you're a RAW shooter, you're gonna love Lightroom even more than if you're a jpeg shooter.
I tested this program on a PowerBook G4 1.67GHZ and a MacBook 2GHZ. I thought it was fast enough on both, so if you have an older machine, you will be JUST fine with this!
Customer Review: A Must Have for Digital Photographers
Summary: 5 Stars
Rarely am I so impressed with a product as I am with Lightroom 2. If you are a user of Aperture for the Mac or any of the plethora of PC products for organizing and processing photographs, you owe it to yourself to look at this software (it comes with both Mac and PC versions in one box).
I am still learning how to use it (with the help of the free online tutorials), but so far it is the best organizer, and one of the best editors and viewers around.
I come from using ACDSee for viewing and sorting pictures, and mostly Photoshop CS and Elements for editing my shots. ACDSee has been around for ages that I came across through a recommendation for viewing, shall we say, "adult" oriented pictures gathered from the internet. It is one of the fastest, easiest to use photo viers on the market. And cheap.
I was wary of spending > $100 for what is really a pre-processing tool for digital photographs. It excels in organizing digital photos, but goes way beyond that in applying editing features that go into infinite detail with exposure and color adjustments usually not available in rudimentary software packages.
Once I get my thousands of photos re cataloged, it will be a breeze to locate or glean any photos I have taken.
Like Aperture, but in a much more understandable fashion, Lightroom can catalog photos from any location, be it removable storage, hard drives, DVDs or whatever. You can edit them in a non-destructive way and export, print, or output them to another editor with or without the Lightroom adjustments you have applied.
Photos can be synchronized with from their locations with ease, adding new or moved photos. Compared with other photos in a group to pick out the best shots, and put into collections using keywords, ratings, attributes, or any metadata information. For those not familiar with metadata, digital photos contain information on what brand camera, lenses, dates, apertures, lighting or exposure info were used. So for example, you could separate out all pictures you took in February 2008 using a flash at F8 aperture.
Possibilities are limitless, and it's a joy to delve into Lightroom each time I import some new pictures, or seek out old ones.
I am delighted that I bit the bullet and purchased a copy when it was in a Gold Box special.
Customer Review: Adobe Lightroom 2
Summary: 5 Stars
A great companion to Adobe Photoshop and Illistrator. You can set up a workflow to suit the way you work. Lightroom 2 helps you organize all your photos so a particular photo can be found quickly and easily. The panels can be put out of the way so the screen is not covered up but you can get to the tool that you want quickly. Some tools are "spring loaded" so you can switch between them with the tab key. Overall, a very good product that keeps on improving.