So Lightroom whats the crack?

[Pixel-Snapper]

Ive never used nor seen this lightroom software but it seems to be used quite alot for processing rather than photochop.

Should I be looking at getting a copy and will it give me any advantages over CS3?

Just wondering.....

[VXRTOM]

It largely depends on your specific requirements. If your highly skilled in PS and are good in bridge or something then there's probably nothing Lightroom can offer you.

I use Lightroom as I find the left hand side reaaaally useful where you can browse so easily all you archive of photos and find things very easily. The bulk processing in lightroom is also very useful and simple. The 'Develop' part of lightroom where you can edit pictures is pretty fool proof and non destructive. the editing stage of images is quite basic compared to PS and not as comprehensive, but alot easier to use as there in no complicated menu systems, just icons that you click.

I, and most others I would assume use a combination of both. 9o% of the time I can make all the changes to an image I need to in Lightroom, but for the extreme stuff PS is needed.

I really like using lightroom, as you can spend a lifetime learning PS.

[jon-]

Lightroom is great for making the quick photo hacks (curves, contract, colours, sharpening, gradient filters etc)... quicker!

If you've used Adobe Camera Raw before, Lightroom is essentially ACR with a really slick file browser.

[Pixel-Snapper]

Im not saying im a wizz at photochop probs only use about 15% of what you can do with it.

But my general process to images would be...

open in bridge batch save and copy to jpeg.

Open Raw image in camera raw, slight ajustments to temp/tint/exposure/blacks what have you if needed.

Open into photoshop to set levels/curves/resize.

Then start to get creative with the image if needs be.

So by that it sounds like lightroom would just be something else to learn that wouldnt really benifit me that much?

[jon-]

Pixel-Snapper said:

open in bridge batch save and copy to jpeg.

Open Raw image in camera raw, slight ajustments to temp/tint/exposure/blacks what have you if needed.

Open into photoshop to set levels/curves/resize.

These steps would be taken care by lightroom with the advantage of all the exposure and levels are applied non destructively to the original file.

You'll find yourself only opening photoshop when you want to get creative.

As VXRTOM said, it depends how handy you are in bridge+ACR as to how much time savings you'll see. I personally like the one application does all type interface.

ETA: It's definitely worth downloading a trial

Edited by jon- on Friday 11th September 11:20

[Pixel-Snapper]

Cheers Jon i'll look into a trial then and give it a crack.

[miniman]

It takes a bit of getting used to (particularly the way the images are not actually edited, rather the changes are applied to them and a copy can then be saved) but once you get into the swing of it, it is fantastically easy to use and certainly a lot faster for the basic stuff than PS.

[ian in lancs]

I tried half a dozen library / edit packages and chose Lightroom. Top package and no regrets; agree with comments above

[Rob13]

Can you still use layers and masks in lightroom? What if I was to pop colour something - is it possible?

[jon-]

Rob13 said:

Can you still use layers and masks in lightroom? What if I was to pop colour something - is it possible?

You need to move into photoshop for layers.

You can do selective colour / exposure / sharpness / saturation etc etc edits by brushing the area you want to adjust, then using the adjusters. It's like masks in reverse, but still very powerful.