Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 - A short review

[MJ]

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 was released on 7 December 2010 and has since then garnered many positive reviews about its added and improved features. A brief introduction to the software, its features, how it compares to its previous versions and Adobe's Creative Suite will be discussed.

What is Lightroom?: An Introduction
Lightroom is a nondestructive photo editing software that was specifically developed with photographers in mind. It is an image management application that assists users with post-production work on their photographs. Allowing users to easily view, edit, and store their photographs, it is considered an essential tool for serious photographers. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 was developed in such a manner that it will be well suited for new and existing users.

So how is it different from Adobe Creative Suite?
The main difference between Adobe's Lightroom and Creative Suite is the manner in which images are used. While Creative Suite enables images to be thoroughly manipulated (superimposition, warped, distorted, etc), Lightroom allows photographers to sort, organise, and edit their images quickly and efficiently. It is a tool that improves workflow. While photographers make use of Lightroom with Photoshop, a large number of them also make sole use of Lightroom only for post-production of their images.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3's new and improved features

• Tethered capture

The feature that a lot of photographers looked forward to in Lightroom 3 is tethered capture, unavailable in previous versions of Adobe Lightroom. Photographers no longer need to make use of huge bulky equipment to enable tethered shooting. With Lightroom 3, all a user needs to do is to connect his camera to a CPU with Lightroom 3 installed. With tethered captured enabled, photographers can shoot and images will appear on the computer screen instantly.

The only drawback to this wonderful new feature is that the tethered shooting feature is only usable with a limited number of DSLRs (click here for list). Here's hoping that Adobe will release firmware upgrades in the near features that will resolve this issue.

• Watermarking

Image watermarking has never been easier. With Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, watermarks can be easily embedded into images with adjustable effects such as size, position and opacity.

• Flexible print packages

Customized print layouts can be created quickly and easily with Lightroom's print packages. Ready made templates also be chosen from a list. All users have to do is to drag and drop their chosen images into their chosen template, and they will be ready for print in an instant.

• Noise reduction

The noise reduction tool in Lightroom 3 is considered far superior than in Lightroom 2 because of its ability to achieve natural and clean images which were previously shot in a high ISO. Both luminance and colour noise can be individually adjusted with sliders to control smoothness and detail. It is a handy tool that gives users almost complete control over their images during post-production.

• Sync images with music

Images can now also be synced with a piece of music such that images on display will end on time and together with a piece of music. Photographers will no longer need to worry about music pieces ending too soon or too late.

• Lens correction

Distortion in images can also be automatically or manually corrected with Lightroom 3's perspective correction. The process is non destructive and users can easily correct any distortions in their images. This feature can even be used on images shot with the best lenses, promising great post-production images each and every time.

Who should get Adobe Photoshop Lightroom?
If you are a serious photographer who would like a piece of software that would allow you to organise, sort and edit your photographs quickly and efficiently, Adobe Lightroom will be an essential tool for you. Image management will be much more smooth-sailing than before, and you'll ask yourself why you didn't get Lightroom earlier!

[bukitimah]

Where to read or obtain tutorial on how to use the basic features?