Why do we need Lightroom?

[BlasR]

Francois, thank you....

BlasR

[nicolaasdb]

I have been using lightroom extensively for the last 6 weeks..together with Raw developer, and ofcourse bridge...

Bridge is great for simple color correcting and perfect for fast cropping of images, but when you really want to make detailed and fast colorcorrection to your images...Lightroom is the way to go...Bridge is not intuitive enough, the highlight and color control in Lightroom is the best I have worked with in the last 6 years!!

I hope that they will make it faster and the cropping tool a little better (like bridge would be great!)

[KTMax]

Hi all,

English is not my native language so excuse me an odd word here and there. I've been playing around with LR4 for some 2 weeks now (and the previous Beta's before). IMO It's a big step forward again and hovers around 80% to fit the bill for all my needs.

LR has SO MUCH excellent implemented features. Light and color control are the best and most intuitive I've came across so far. The same goes for the white balance control. The GUI is good and classy looking. I never thought this would ad so much to the simple fun of working with a program BTW... I work in JPG and keeping the edit history separate from the source files without the harddisk eating PSD format or second 'copy' files is brilliant in my view. Just managing large amounts of files is a breeze too.

A few things that will keep me from going over to LR completely and that I really miss are:

- virtually no correction for lens distortion /perspective. Even good lenses produce these errors
- crude sharpness control
- no 'single key/click' full screen view like F11 in Elements (annoying!!)
- no plug-in support for excellent tools like Noise Ninja

A simple question that probably has been covered before but will I be able to keep the file structure, shoots, collections and keywords from this Beta 4 once the final product gets out or do I need to start all over again?...

Richard.

[john beardsworth]

A simple question that probably has been covered before but will I be able to keep the file structure, shoots, collections and keywords from this Beta 4 once the final product gets out or do I need to start all over again?...

Richard

Treat it as a beta - keywords should be OK but there's no guarantee at all that the structure like shoots will remain in version 1. And nor should there be if beta-compatability restricts Adobe from producing the best solution. In Beta 4 the Library area is much less finished than Develop, so use it to process and output images, but don't depend on it until it's fully released.

John

[DaFu]

After listening, reading and using the program some, here are my initial conclusions:
I think Lightroom will replace Bridge and Capture RAW for me.
Photoshop will still be required for working on selected parts of an image (local corrections) but for adjustments that  affect the entire image (global corrections) I see the vast majority of that occurring in Lightroom.

What is not clear is if it will make iView MediaPro unnecessary for me.

After several months of working with Lightroom, I've found a place for it that might prove useful for you. In essence I use it as an input processor. When I come back from a shoot (fine-arts stuff, usually a hundred images or so) I convert the Canon raw files to DNG and then import those by reference into Lightroom. I run through the images and rate the better ones, take them into Develop (which I find an increasingly excellent and flexible processor) and then export the images in Photoshop format. I do all my spotting, cropping, noise reduction, sharpening, and whatevers there and save the final version for printing with Imageprint. After a week or so of contemplation (to make sure I haven't missed something) I delete all the non-rated originals and put the DNGs and their finished Photoshop files in a shoot folder that I then catalog and keyword in iView. After a while I completely empty the Lightroom library and start over.

This is working really well. I don't think there is much wasted effort and it seems to be the best use of the strengths of all three programs.

Dave

[Raw shooter]

Forgive me for being out-of-it, but it is not clear to me why we need Lightroom.
As a Fine Art Photographer, the combination of Photoshop and Bridge with CS2 is a wonderful tool.
What can I do with Lightroom that I can't do with them?

Thanks for your insight on this.
Henry
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Henry,

I am right with you!
I love Bridge and ACR 3.X - as it has changed everything for my workflow.  Lightroom may be a better option for some, but it seems overly busy and designed for speed and not fine art quality.  Lightroom on dual monitors may solve that (time will tell and I hope to keep evaluating the product).
The future for Bridge 2.0 and ACR 4.X seems to be the right place for some of us.

 I do plan on always keeping my mind open to the changing software landscape with Adobe.  I read some opinions on this site that seem to be way too based in a certain 'camp of opinion' and not so much in allowing the best answer to present itself in testing.

Having multiple options has to be considered great.

[AjantaKVS]

I'm also a Mac user; I don't know if this is true with Windows machines, but in the Library module, you'll notice that there's a Spotlight bar. If you're thinking about a number of different shots, you can jot down the file number on a note pad, and then if you want to look at them later, you can simply enter the number of the file in the Spotlight bar, and it will come up almost as quickly as you can type it. I use that when I've taken (as I often do) 20 or thirty shots of precisely the same subject, with slightly different camera settings, or just looking for slightly different "looks."


Anyway, I use Lightroom and, as a guy who basically isn't much interested in either computers or software, I find it easy to work with.

JC
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where is the spotlight bar in the library module,I have not noticed in the UI. Is it by any chance are you talking about FilmStrip at the bottom of the interface.
Next, you don't need to jot down the file names(images) which you like to view it again in selected collection, you can simply use the quick collection facility meant for for that purpose only

[john beardsworth]

I love Bridge and ACR 3.X - as it has changed everything for my workflow.  Lightroom may be a better option for some, but it seems overly busy and designed for speed and not fine art quality.[a href=\"index.php?act=findpost&pid=85038\"][{POST_SNAPBACK}][/a]

No, it is designed precisely for speed of working with large numbers of images, a very different perspective than working on individual fine art pieces.

@AjantaKVS - he means the Find panel in Library.

John

[ErikKaffehr]

Hi!

Please don't forget it is a Beta. Version three or four will probably be a matureapplication.

Best regards

Erik

Try pushing 5,000 images at a shot through Bridge and you will rethink your position. Bridge is a pretty decent program for up to about 1,000 pictures at a shot but beyond that it has significant problems and can go as far as corrupting images just trying to write metadata. Beyond that, Camera Raw is fast, but is really not that good. The Raw conversions in Lightroom, especially now with the addition of Raw Shooter is light years ahead.

I know Lightroom is supposed to be a complete image management application, though in my estimation (of what the final will look like) it still falls short, but still makes a sold paring with iView.
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