Lightroom by Adobe

[Paul in OKC]

In the latest issue of Popular Photography (page 86) a new photo-editing software called
"Lightroom" is mentioned. According to the article's author (Debbie Grossman) this software package may replace Photoshop. Has anyone seen this software package? Has anyone used this software? If so, what is your opinion?

[Photo-John]

Paul-
If you search this forum you'll find a few threads about Lightroom. It's been publicly available for a while as a beta and the final version became available for purchase yesterday. I posted a quick preview of it in my blog, last night: http://forums.photographyreview.com/...howentry&e=129

Lightroom isn't going to be a replacement for Photoshop and it's not actually a photo editing tool. It doesn't support some of the key elements of Photoshop, like layers and filters. But it's much better for someone who manages a large catalogue of image files and does a lot of batch processing. It's also an excellent RAW conversion tool.

I'm working on a Lightroom intro page right now. And I think we've got someone working on a detailed editorial review of it, too.

[potato grande]

Will Lightroom be comparable to Aperture? I am primarily using Aperture to import and do basic fixes (and I like the software), but it would be nice to have my imported pictures better integrated into Photoshop.

I am interested in seeing the comparison.

[Photo-John]

I'm not a Mac user so I haven't had an opportunity to use Aperture. From what I've seen and heard, they are similar. But I think Aperture may be a bit more powerful. I have no doubt that Adobe was looking hard at Aperture while they were working on Lightroom, though. If you look through our Lightroom Beta discussion, I think Sebastian comments on the similarities and differences of Aperture and Lightroom. He's a Mac user and has been able to use both.

[Medley]

Photoshop Lightroom is a database (unlike Bridge, which at heart is a file-browser) designed with the photographer in mind. Lightroom is also designed to be compatable with both Photoshop CS2 and CS3. The Raw engine in Lightroom will read and incorporate changes made to a photo in Photoshop's Adobe Camera Raw interface. What's more, ACR 3.7 will read and incorporate changes made in Lightroom.

The biggest question in my mind is wether or not Lightroom in currently compatable with Windows Vista. Adobe guarantees compatability with Windows XP, and has stated that Lightroom *will* be compatable with Vista. Adobe was unwilling, however, to guarantee compatability with Vista until Vista shipped. Since the two products are hitting the market at essentially the same time, I'm not sure that Adobe has had time to ensure compatability with Windows Vista. Then again, I don't know that they haven't either.

Is there anyone out there running Vista and LR 1.0 who can shed some light? (no pun intended)

-Joe U.

[shutterman]

Joe,

I plan to downlaod the 30 day trial tonight or very soon anyway and see how it works. I am using Vista.

Will keep you posted.

Thanks,
Wes

[shutterman]

Downloaded the trial as planned. It installed in seconds and then..............

WOW.

imported about 400 pictures added Keywords to them - messed with some settings, etc. Easy Peasy.

No trouble at all. Only have 25,000 more photos to tag.......

If I run into any trouble with Vista and Lightroom I will let you know.

thanks,
Wes

[SmartWombat]

I was astonished to find I'd loaded over 12000 shots during the beta period.
Now I have to decide whether to start again or keep the beta database...

[shutterman]

Hopefully, you will able to reload them in the non-beta version.

I've gone through and tagged about 5K images so far. I feel like we are actually using all the pictures for something other than filling up harddrive space.

I showed my wife last night and had her pick one of the kid's names, and BAM (as Emeril says) all the pictures of him showed up. It was a beautiful thing.

Still have a long way to go but this is a great program.

thanks,
Wes

[Photo-John]

Hopefully, you will able to reload them in the non-beta version.

If you were using the beta, when you install Ligthtroom 1.0, it scans and updates the libraries for the new software.

I showed my wife last night and had her pick one of the kid's names, and BAM (as Emeril says) all the pictures of him showed up. It was a beautiful thing.

This is a great, great feature. But I want to point out that there are a bunch of other programs that also do the same thing and have been around for a long time. The software category is generally called ,"D.A.M.," for digital asset management. Extensis Portfolio is the only one I've used, but it's excellent and also does RAW conversions. The photo management part of Lightroom is nice. But the real value of Lightroom, in my opinion, is in the excellent RAW conversion and image adjustment tools and smooth integration with Photoshop.

[shutterman]

This is a great, great feature. But I want to point out that there are a bunch of other programs that also do the same thing and have been around for a long time. The software category is generally called ,"D.A.M.," for digital asset management..

DAM! I really slept on that part of the worflow But now that I have discovered it and shown it off to my lady --- a happy wife (4 months preggy) is a contented wife!!!!!

You know if you did not post your Lighroom intro, I would not have started using it so quickly and you now a computer does not make a great photo album unless it knows how.

thanks John,
Wes