I'm in love...
... with Chaosgurl, we all know that! But I'm talkin' a different kind of love here, a digital kind of love for computer software that fits the way I want to work so perfectly that I wonder what I did without it all this time. This wondrous piece of computer wizardry is Adobe's latest offering, Lightroom. Aimed squarely at photographers, it promises to help you cull, sort, rate, organise, develop and output your digital photos in a fraction of time that it used to take. And you know what?
That's exactly what it does.
Import and rename your JPG or RAW files directly from the camera. Compare and flag photos. Mark the duds for deletion. Add huge amounts of keywording and metadata with ease. Apply development settings in a completely non-destructive way. Export output files in your desired format, resolution and file type. It's all quite wonderful! And thanks to my gorgeous Chaosgurl, I laid my hands on it at the US wholesale price - around $AU150 cheaper than if I bought it here in Oz. Happy days!
Adobe have a free 30 day trial on their website; if you use a Mac, you may also like to check out Apple's Aperture, which takes a completely different approach to the same problem. I love Lightroom's module-based system, which makes it very clear where you sort photos and where you edit them, whereas others will rave about Aperture's free-form approach, which lets you take any action at any stage of the process. Each to their own, I say, and it's great to have the choice between two great programs like this!
Posted in: adobe lightroom, apple, chaosboy, photography on March 5, 2007 at at 3:13:00 AM
Can you get Lightroom for us poor individuals who have PC? (We can't all be arty Mac user like you Chaosboy!) I'm starting to take my photos a little more seriously, but haven't mastered Photoshop Element yet! Also looking at getting a Canon EOS 5D, so want to make good use of it.