Lightroom???

rickp

Hey guys and gals,
I use CS4 to work on my images but I keep seeing a lot of people talking about Lightroom. Can someone tell me what Lightroom does that CS4 does not. I'm not a pro by any means so I would like to know if I'm missing something by not using Lightroom.

Thanks
R.

arodney

Its a product that is aimed for the photographer to organize (with a database) their images, a module for raw conversion, a module for making slide shows and a module for making prints and making web galleries. Its like Bridge with a brain plus Camera Raw with a very effective print module all rolled into one. For many of us, we’ve moved from a 100% Photoshop (plus Camera Raw or Bridge) workflow to 80%+ Lightroom and 20% Photoshop workflow. I now only use Photoshop for precise pixel editing and special effects (and stuff like doing complex masking etc). Most of the work is conducted in Lightroom first by organizing all the images in the library module, adding keywords, editing down the pics etc. Then in Develop, I’m using the tools you would also find in Adobe Camera Raw to process raw images. The print module for many is worth the price of admission alone as it makes it so fast and easy to gang up images and print them. Well worth a look at a demo if you work with a large number of raw images, need to organize them all, do a lot or printing etc.

rickp

That's interesting.
I do shoot in RAW and use CS4's RAW tool to edit my images. I also use Bridge to organize the images.

Let me ask you is the RAW plugin better than the one in CS4 or is it the same? Is the printing the biggest advantage over CS4 and Bridge's organizational tools?

R.

arodney

rickp wrote: »

That's interesting.
I do shoot in RAW and use CS4's RAW tool to edit my images. I also use Bridge to organize the images.

Let me ask you is the RAW plugin better than the one in CS4 or is it the same? Is the printing the biggest advantage over CS4 and Bridge's organizational tools?

Bridge is a browser, its not a database that contains the locations of all your images across various drives. LR is a database (a true DAM or Digital Assist Manager). Big difference.

The raw processing in Lightroom and Camera Raw are identical. You can even move from one to the other (example would be working in Lightroom, then opening a Smart Object of the raw in Photoshop, editing the SO would launch ACR, not LR). Printing is absolutely awesome, especially if you need some of the RIP like features to gang up multiple images, build and then save custom templates etc.

DonRicklin

Lightroom???
Ditto on all Andrew says about Lightroom! Well worth it if you are shooting lots of raw images and if you are a SmugMug user you have great plugin for uploading from Jeffrey Friedl.

I use it all the time. In fact I rarely use ACR, PSCS or Bridge. Mostly Lightroom!



Don

rickp

Oh!!! I get it. I guess I'll have to take a look at it. To be honest I don't have suck a volume that would require a database but I do like the organizational abilities since I can be a bit anal in how I organize my computer files. The printing also sound like I can benefit from it.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my question.

R.

rickp

Thank you for the info much appreciated.

R.