please help: is lightroom right for me

[geesbert]

i just recently switched from pc to mac and had to change my workflow quite a bit, as there seem to be no real mac alternative to acdsee.

this is what i am doing now:

every job gets a folder, sorted by date and name.
i am only shooting raw, no jpgs in my stable.
i am using capture one pro if i am shooting tethered, which i do for about 75% of my work. i am not too happy with that program, the files are ok, just can't get it to work smoothly, especially the naming and sorting of files drives me crazy. altoghether 400€ i shouldn't have spent
then i use photomechanics to view, rate and select my images, which i also use if i am shooting to cards. i copy my selections to a 'selected' folder and open them in PS3/ACR, do all the work and save the results in the appropriate file type in a 'final' folder.


then the whole folder gets moved to my network raid drive and backed up off site from time to time.

i just wonder whether lightroom would fit in and whether it is possible to use it as my only asset manager/image browser. i know it is doable to use it to shoot tethered, by the help of DPP.

problems i am seeing is the access of my two computers, which very often i am using both at the same time. my attempts with it now where chaotic. probably time to watch and read some tutorials.

stefan

[macgyver]

Based on my own experiance, it's probably not for you.  I do not believe you can do tethered shooting with it and, frankly, it sucks as a asset manager program if you have photos in more than one location. I went back to Photoshop/Bridge and the only thing I miss is the targeted adjustment tool.

[mikeguil]

I'm using Lightroom and quite like it.  It's a little slow on my old G5 Dual 2.0 but only when loading a new preview.  Adjustments are made on the fly and it's so much quicker for sorting and selecting images than Bridge.  I hate the loupe tool in Bridge CS3 and much prefer the zooming in LR.  There are excellent compare tools, rating, labeling, picks and reject commands to cull down your shoot in no time.  

I really like the RAW processing too. I haven't used the new ACR in CS3 - same functions and features I believe, but I just find the workflow really nice in LR. I can create a slide show or web-page for clients on the fly and having a client sit in front of the computer and select their images is a breeze with the rating system.

I use it for cataloging my stock images too and there are so many option for sorting, viewing, collecting and organizing that I've only scratched the surface.

The only thing I'm not sure about is tethered shooting... haven't tried it - no need for it.  But since it's only in version 1.1, I'm sure more  functionality will be coming in the next releases.  It may not be for you right now.. but I'm sure it'll get there.

[kinserfr]

Without going into too much detail, I think LR will fit your needs very well. I have been a Mac fan for about 4 years now and you will have a hard time how you ever got anything done without one. You have more time to do work and less (near zero) doing system administration on a PC...and I have been a PC programmer for 25+ years.

Download the trail version of LR and check it out. You can also download a trial version of Apple's Aperture if the trial did not come on your Mac already. Either of these is much better than ACDSee.

[geesbert]

i worked my way into LR yesterday and i quite like it, my main problem is that i need to access the library from two computers and as i use a network storage system, i seem to be out of luck at the moment. having a library each on every computer is not really an option. is there any way to synch two libraries on two machines? maybe using something like silverkeeper to keep them identical, have to try that one out...

[genemcc]

I'll extend another endorsement for LR.  And, yes, you can shoot tethered with LR.  Set you camera's software to dump the capture into a folder then set LR to monitor the same folder.  Every tethered shot them automatically imports into LR and appears in its UI.

[stever]

i'm in the process of switching from ACDSee to Lightroom.  i think you'll like lightroom, but like any program, there is a learning curve

[geesbert]

so i am currently importng my files into lightroom, i will see how it handles more than 100.000 files...

maybe a solution for my network-storage/one-library-with-two-computers-problem is to have the library on a separate portable hardrive with a synched copy of it (with 'silverkeeper') on every machine.

I'll try that and report back


stefan

[Goodlistener]

I attended a seminar on Monday of this week re LR v 1.2 which demonstrated the ability to shoot tethered.  The key is to direct the camera's output of files to a specific directory.  In LR one identifies that directory (whatever it is called and wherever it is located) as a "Watched Folder".  LR auto imports any contents of a watched folder.