Lightroom3 bata

[Richard A Busch]

Just got lightroom 3 bata The Big A sent me a email for it. It is the first time using a big program from them. I have photoshop 7 and Elements 5 right now. Thinks they will let anyone test it if you like, just go to Adobe web page.

Richard

[wideopen]

Any thoughts on it so far? I have never used lightroom what exactly does it do that photoshop can not? Im confused by why someone would want another program made by the same company to do the same thing?

[TX_Gulf_Coast]

Photoshop and Lightroom do have common features. But what Photoshop lacks that Lightroom has is the DAM (Digital Asset Management) capabilities. We use both Lightroom and Photoshop in the studio. Most if not all sessions, events and weddings get run through Lightroom for culling, minor tweaks and renaming. This is especially helpful when dealing with extended sessions and weddings where there is many images to handle. We exclusively run our weddings through Lightroom, before they ever get touched in Photoshop. Photoshop is used most often with Senior sessions when we are adding effects, building collages, layering photos and adding text.

I personally find Lightroom much easier and quciker to proof a session, event or wedding. (Most times, the images will never be touched in Photoshop.) The interface is quick and all things can be accomplished in just a single pass in most cases. For me, it is just easier to work in Lightroom initially and then do any advanced/complex edits in photoshop.

You have to remember, that Photoshop lends itself more to complex edits, restorations, etc. where Lightroom doesn't.

[Fibonacci]

Thanks for the heads up, Richard! I had Lightroom some years ago but have not had it for some time now. I'm going to give it another try.
For wideopen: If you have every used Elements you will remember the great tools it has for organizing and cataloging images; tools Photoshop does not have. Lightroom does that and more; including things like batch processing, output sharpening and more. If you are shooting professionally it will allow you to create photo packages and web-ready slide shows. It probably does a lot more than that, but as I have said, I haven't used it in some time. If you are a small time pro it can really streamline your production.

[LuisV]

The way I look at it is that Lightroom is more of a global editor and Photoshop is my pixel editor or detail editor. This is a very general statement, but it is the easy way to look at it.

As mentioned, LR is my DAM and I import all my photos with it. That process renames my files, copies them to the right locations (for my workflow) and adds my basic and some detailed metadata when I import. All this is done in one process. Beyond that, it is the batch processor for things like color space, basic sharpening, global color adjustment (saturation, etc), exposure, etc.

Photoshop is the detail & pixel editor. There are some things in my workflow that cannot be done in LR. For example, portrait retouching. Another thing that gets done in PS is my final sharpening. The reason for that is the b/c of how I sharpen. (A whole other discussion) Other things that are done in PS is any resizing I need to do. This is b/c I do that with a Plug-In within photoshop. Bottom line, there are a number of things that can only be done in PS vs. LR.

Printing is done by my RIP. This is basically a high end layout application that prints directly to the printer as opposed to going through it's printer driver in the OS. It allows for layout and paper maximization as well. I also use it for profiles. That's not to say I never print via LR or PS. That is fine for one-off prints. It's quicker.