Adobe Lightroom Review - Having used Photoshop 7, CS and CS2 for 5 years and spending most of that time on a learning curve, I found having to learn RAW processing using Canon's DPP even more of a challenge.
As soon as I got to a point where I felt comfortable and at ease with my workflow, Adobe went and brought out Adobe Lightroom!
NEW at 22nd July 2009 (Limited Stock): Kubota Image Tools have released a wonderful gadget that is sure to speed up your workflow and make using Lightroom 2 a breeze. Introducing the new KUBOTA RPG SPEEDKEYS for LIGHTROOM 2
Included with the Speedkeys are 3 sets of Adobe Lightroom presets including a set that are not available anywhere else. At the time of writing this (July 22nd 2009) there are only 80 left out of 100 in stock so grab yours quickly. Go to Kubota Image Tools and check it out for more details.
As I was right in the middle of the wedding season (excuses, excuses) I had no time to investigate further, even with some photographer friends urging me to try it...I kept putting it off even after the season was over.
It wasn't until the nice people at Kubota Image Tools asked me to review their Lightroom Tutorials that I actually tried it out using the free trial of Adobe Lightroom.
Note: If you don't yet have Lightroom as part of your workflow, I can guarantee that if you buy the Kubota Lightroom Tutorials first, it will have you reaching for your credit card to get Adobe Lightroom for sure...great stuff.
Once I started reading and watching Kevin Kubota's Lightroom Tutorials, I found I couldn't stop. This program was amazing and the way Kevin explained it made perfect sense for all areas of my hectic workflow!
So if you are like me and set in your processing ways...how would purchasing Adobe Lightroom make your photographic life easier or better?
Adobe Lightroom Review - Features
Firstly the thing I noticed was how quickly the program loaded and how little processing power it needed. Whereas Photoshop tends to use up a lot of your PC's resources, Adobe Lightroom uses thumbnails from which to work thereby seriously reducing the power needed and speeding up my workflow, much like "proxy editing" in video editing programs...nice one!
It is also fast and easy to learn compared to other professional editing suites and processes RAW files better than any other program I have used (in my opinion of course). So, the main features are;
Shortcuts - Adobe Lightroom has a wide array of keyboard shortcuts to make your life easier and your workflow faster. As you will need to flick between "Library Mode" and "Develop Mode" often, as well as other processes, these can save you a lot of time.
Step by Step - Lightroom is designed to be part of your workflow. Certain procedures require action earlier on and once you understand the system it works incredibly well.
Non-Destructive - I like this part! Because Lightroom isn't a browser as such, it is quicker and doesn't need to use the original files. It works on thumbnails stored in its own data files even when the originals are offline...brilliant for organising!
Organisation - Wow...just like having your dear old Mum tidy your room for you! This is a great feature of Adobe Lightroom and for me, I found I can organise my stock images with complete ease knowing where everything is as I upload them to various libraries at differing times.
Normally, tracking what has been uploaded where and at what point when using images from the same library is a nightmare, but with Lightroom it's a breeze for me. I just use different tags for each batch uploaded to the web and then load those thumbnails into their own agency file.
Another feature is the ability to use all of your cameras metadata stored in the images to search through your libraries. For example, if you need to find all images taken with a certain camera, click on that model in the menu and they will all appear. The same goes for types of lenses, aperture settings, shutter speed settings and even keywords that you have stores in the image itself.
So for example, if I need to grab all my images with beaches in them to upload to a new library, I just go to the Keyword Tags, click on the word beach and it picks out 304 of my images with the word beach embedded in the metadata (I added these keywords myself when uploading to stock libraries).
Adobe Lightroom Review - Fig.1
Once again, even if your images are offline and you are on your laptop somewhere, you can still see all the thumbnails from your library...I love it!
You can organise your files by;
Collections
Quick Collections
Keywords
Filters
Metadata
Capture - When you load a batch of wedding images into Lightroom for the first time, you are able to make your favourite adjustments to a batch of images during import which saves even more time. Then you can add your own individual style to each image before exporting to Photoshop.
One massive benefit I have recently noticed since using Adobe Lightroom, is the fact that on many occasions I don't even need Photoshop...Lightroom can do just about anything!
Sort and Rename - A major problem for me as a wedding photographer is synchronising both cameras that I use. With Lightroom it is easy. You take an image from each camera that was taken at approximately the same time (I recommend that just before the wedding, you take two simultaneous shots of anything to get this right) and Lightroom will synch the lot almost immediately. All you need to do then is rename the batch and save them!
Presets - Presets work in much the same way as Photoshop Actions. They are preset adjustments that create and give your images a unique look...anything from a simple black and white conversion up to some elaborate and trendy effects. You can use a few ready to go presets that come with Lightroom, make your own as you go or for a mere 20 bucks, you can buy a whole bunch of great presets from Kubota Image Tools.
One final point to do with Adobe Lightroom Presets is probably one of the best features of Lightroom as once again, the presets are non-destructive in a unique way. Whereas with Photoshop Actions you have to actually use the action to see the effect, with Lightroom, you just hover your cursor over the preset you fancy and it will show you the effect immediately in a small image window before you actually choose it...brilliant!
This also applies to other adjustments such as adjusting the white balance...you see the effect before you alter the original image.
Adobe Lightroom Review
Presets When Exporting - If you want to batch process all of your images with a preset of your choice...you can do this during the export stage.
Viewing Options - A great feature of Lightroom is the ability to quickly and easily change your view of an image. Using either the shortcuts or menus around the screen you can view at 300%, 100%, fill the screen or fit the screen.
Adobe Lightroom Review - Fig.2
Tagging - This is a feature I use in a similar program but I find Lightroom version a whole lot better. You are able to tag your images by rating, coloured flags or status...or even a combination of all three. This is especially useful when importing a large batch of images and you want to immediately tag images as "undecided" or "cr*p" like I do much of the time and work on just the good ones.
Two Modes - You have two main modes in Lightroom, Library and Develop. Library mode is great for keywording, organising and making quick corrections or adjustments and develop mode is where you do most of your processing, cropping, presets etc.
Processing - As mentioned above, most of this is done in develop mode and includes;
Some excellent White Balance control
Exposure, recovery, fill light and black adjustments etc.
Intuitive Target Adjusting or Hot Keys - Now this is "uber cool" and to show you in more detail, Kubota Image Tools have allowed me to use a small clip from their excellent tutorial to show you (see below).
You are able to target a specific problem area or part of the image you wish to enhance leaving the rest alone. This is available for adjusting;
Tone Curve
Hue, Saturation and Luminance
Colour
Greyscale
Adobe Lightroom Review
The methods used in that short video clip apply to all adjustments listed from 1-4 above.
Spot Removal/Cloning - Far from being your bulk standard RAW processing application, Adobe Lightroom has many of Photoshop's features including spot removal and cloning...two functions I use quite a bit.
Cropping - Of course, most photographic software these days has cropping features but once again, Lightroom is a little different. You add the crop overlay and then are able to use preset printing size templates (6x4, 9x6 etc) to crop your images perfectly and ready for sending off to the lab. A great feature I know I will use regularly.
Batch Processing - Too many features to go into here but you can batch process and export your images to include;
Low resolution copies for proofs
Slideshows
Prints
Enlargements
Contact Sheets including watermarks
So in a nutshell, if you regularly or are about to start shooting RAW and need software that is affordable, easy to learn and use and will help your workflow, Adobe Lightroom is a must for any aspiring professional photographer.
Check out my review of Kubota Image Tools Adobe Lightroom Tutorials here. I could almost guarantee (but I won't) that if you bought these tutorials before buying Adobe Lightroom, you would almost certainly buy it afterwards.
