January, 2008
photo by Allen Harkleroad - Historic Courthouse in Abbeville South Carolina
I have to say that Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is just what the "doctor" ordered. In the past I used the Canon Professional digital camera tools and applications and found them quite lacking. I had been actively searching for a replacement set of tools that would work well with Photoshop and give me good tools to adjust and manipulate my RAW camera files.
Adobe Lightroom gives me exactly what I have been looking for. Lightroom is affordable and a feature rich digital photography application. From image management to non-destructive digital photo development.
I've been a long-time and avid user of Adobe's Camera Raw Importer plug-in, however it lacks management features. Previously I had to manage my photo's via the Canon applications and then open Photoshop and use the Camera Raw to adjust and open my photos. With Lightroom I now have a single application to work in and if need be I can open the images in Photoshop to do any compositing or other Photoshop specific tasks.
Lightroom is quite a time saver in terms of being to get to work quickly and not having to open three or four applications at once to work with one or more digital images.
Installation of Lightroom is quick and easy. The included disc has both Windows and Macintosh versions. You do need to run the software updater after installation to have the latest version to work in. The user interface is quite intuitive and very easy to become familiar with. It is simplistic, yet powerful.
The library function of Lightroom is simple and allows for quite an array of management options. You can even work with offline images, which is a bonus as you don't need to be connected to browse the offline images, until you need to pull one up to work with it.
The develop module, in my opinion is one of the best on the market. It is similar tool wise, to the Camera RAW plug-in, yet does so much more. With the develop module one can really bring out the best in their photos. Even borderline quality images can be greatly enhanced.
In addition Adobe Lightroom has print, slideshow and web modules that allow the user to output images for many different uses.
I would have to say that Lightroom is a great addition to Photoshop for the digital photographers, it's like having your own darkroom and printing lab on your computer.
Lightroom is available for both Macintosh and Windows.
Pricing: $299.00 For the full version. A 30 day trial version for both Macintosh and Windows is available here.
Company Website: www.adobe.com
Requirements:
Windows
- Intel® Pentium® 4 processor
- Microsoft® Windows® XP with Service Pack 2 or Windows Vista™ Home Premium, Business, Ultimate, or Enterprise Edition (certified for 32-bit editions)
- 768MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
- 1GB of available hard-disk space
- 1,024x768 screen resolution
-
CD-ROM drive
Macintosh
- PowerPC® G4, G5, or Intel-based Mac
- Mac OS X v.10.4
- 768MB of RAM (1GB recommended)
- 1GB of available hard-disk space
- 1,024x768 screen resolution
-
CD-ROM drive
Copyright (c) 2008, Allen Harkleroad, All Rights Reserved
