Lightroom 3?

[K12beano]

Beta about to expire (end of June). Have been using both 3 and 2.x with the 3 beta exclusively on the Lapdog. Haven't seen the price yet, and assume that we'll all be forced to upgrade because support will be withdrawn for 2.x soon enough, but haven't really noticed that 3 is that much of a step up.

What does anyone else think? I liked it initially, but are the changes all so subtle, or have I just come to accept them?

[muppetdave]

Haven't tried the beta yet, but to be honest I'm more than happy to stick with 2.6 that I'm using now. It does everything I need. More interested in getting my hands on CS5, which I believe is winging it's way to me as we speak...

[K12beano]

muppetdave said:

... 2.6 ... It does everything I need.

Oh - btw, re Poll: you're mostly sick!

[Simpo Two]

Given the age of your camera Beano I'm surprised Lightroom runs in Windows 3.1!

[K12beano]

It's Lightroom Obscura Beta.....

[Simpo Two]

You mean 'Adobe DARKroom'

[K12beano]

Well it does have a strange red glow, now you come to mention it.....

[krusty]

I started trailing LR2 a couple of weeks ago. I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to contact them to see if I can swap the remaining time I have for LR3. I need to purchase one of them so will probably go for the newer version.

[Andy M]

krusty said:

I started trailing LR2 a couple of weeks ago. I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to contact them to see if I can swap the remaining time I have for LR3. I need to purchase one of them so will probably go for the newer version.

Sign up for a new 30 day trial with a different e-mail address?

[RobDickinson]

Never got along with lightroom, had 1, tried 3, still doesnt work the way I work will stick with photoshop.

[petrolveins]

I've been using lightroom 1 for quite a while lightroom 3 looks very shiny and lovely, I'm not sure it's all that better. I think it's mildly easier to use, and has more tools, but it's not really a massive step up. Still I might buy it, as my version of Lightroom 1, isn't as it should be

[LongQ]

There are some great improvements in the underlying processing for RAW files, sharpening, noise reduction and the lens correction stuff but still a lot of the cost is for the DAM and Printing/Slideshow/Publishing parts of the application.

I have 1.4 and rarely use it, not because I don't like it but because I find I am much more in tune with a product called LightZone. As for PS - never could get to grips with layers for some reason.

[LongQ]

krusty said:

I started trailing LR2 a couple of weeks ago. I've been trying (unsuccessfully) to contact them to see if I can swap the remaining time I have for LR3. I need to purchase one of them so will probably go for the newer version.

There would be no point in going for the older version if the newer one is available. I doubt old versions will be able to correctly deal with all new cameras as they are released.

[LongQ]

petrolveins said:

I've been using lightroom 1 for quite a while lightroom 3 looks very shiny and lovely, I'm not sure it's all that better. I think it's mildly easier to use, and has more tools, but it's not really a massive step up. Still I might buy it, as my version of Lightroom 1, isn't as it should be

Hmm.

Are you sure you have been looking at the right product? I'm not avid LR supporter but there are, within the concept of the product, huge differences in capability between V1 and V3. "Not a massive step up" seems an odd conclusion.

[krusty]

LongQ said:

LightZone

Any other opinions on this. It's a third of the price of LR3

[petrolveins]

LongQ said:

petrolveins said:

I've been using lightroom 1 for quite a while lightroom 3 looks very shiny and lovely, I'm not sure it's all that better. I think it's mildly easier to use, and has more tools, but it's not really a massive step up. Still I might buy it, as my version of Lightroom 1, isn't as it should be

Hmm.

Are you sure you have been looking at the right product? I'm not avid LR supporter but there are, within the concept of the product, huge differences in capability between V1 and V3. "Not a massive step up" seems an odd conclusion.

Ohh maybe I'm only scratching the surface then

[Byker28i]

Just bought the upgrade, £74 download from Apple or you can preorder from Amazon for £72 and get a boxed copy.

Lens profiles, good noise reduction and proper watermarking make it a useful upgrade. Oh and it's a little quicker.

[LongQ]

krusty said:

LongQ said:

LightZone

Any other opinions on this. It's a third of the price of LR3

It's a matter of personal preference really. If you 'get it', as they say, you'll likely love it. If you don't - maybe not. No DAM database stuff and output facilities are more limited but as an editor I love it. Depends what you want/need. You can use it as a plug-in for the Adobe products and others.

Try the 30 day trial for free. It continues to work after the 30 days but puts a grid in the edits. Grid removed if the edit is run through a licenced version, so you can take your time to see if it is for you and your images.

[krusty]

LongQ said:

krusty said:

LongQ said:

LightZone

Any other opinions on this. It's a third of the price of LR3

Try the 30 day trial

OK, So I downloaded it and have been playing for about an hour now. In a typical bloke type style, no looking at how to actually use it, just throw yourself in at the deepend and get on with it.
It's obviously different to LR2 but you can produce a similar finish relatively easily. The pre set effects / styles are good and user friendly. It's definately worth trailing as a competitor. At the end of the day it's a third of the price but definately not a third of the product.
It's down to whether you are prepared to move away from Adobe..... I'm undecided at the moment

[LongQ]

krusty said:

LongQ said:

krusty said:

LongQ said:

LightZone

Any other opinions on this. It's a third of the price of LR3

Try the 30 day trial

OK, So I downloaded it and have been playing for about an hour now. In a typical bloke type style, no looking at how to actually use it, just throw yourself in at the deepend and get on with it.
It's obviously different to LR2 but you can produce a similar finish relatively easily. The pre set effects / styles are good and user friendly. It's definately worth trailing as a competitor. At the end of the day it's a third of the price but definately not a third of the product.
It's down to whether you are prepared to move away from Adobe..... I'm undecided at the moment

Well, you don't have to move away because you can use LightZone as a plug in for SP and LightRoom if you wish to use the strongest parts of both applications. Of course that does nothing to save cash but hey, what are hobbies for? ;-)

They both have their strengths but on balance for what I do I find LZ offers more and is more intuitive. More flexible too since you can stack multiple tools and multiple occurrences of the same tool.

The styles on the left are just starting points for you own tweaks or creaing your own set of styles to apply.

Some quite unique concepts (others may be adopting them these days) are

the regions - available for all tools except the red-eye/spot/clone that use specific versions of the region. (Want to change the White Balance on just certain sections? - no problem, even on jpgs.)

Colour and luminosity selections (Include or invert to exclude) also available for all tools. Very easy to apply different levels of, say, noise reduction to different parts of the image according to luminosity. Boring pale grey sky? It may remain boring but it's a job that takes seconds to change it to your preferred tone or tint of blue (or any other colour come to that!)

The developers are working on the next version at the moment. Hopefully it will be out later this year. Usual rules applied last time round. If you havd bought within a month or so of the release you got the the new one for free. I'd have my version 2 for about 4 months as I recall so there was a very nominal upgrade fee which, for the enhancement available and considering it only recovered the discount I got on purchase, seemed more than reasonable.

On that note I checked the LR3 upgrade price a little while ago, Adobe having sent me an email announcing the release, and I was quite surprised that it was less than I was anticipating AND still applies for V1 licences. It may just be worth upgrading to get the lens correction stuff and enhanced output features whilst we await news of the LZ developments.

The downside is that I am setting up a dedicated (second user) photo processing server and as various Adobe products seem to give me grief from time to time I was hoping to avoid installing anything that would demand Adobe reader and other offerings. Hmm. The upgrade price is still tempting though.

Maybe I need a second cheap dedicated server ..... ;-)