Adobe Lightroom revisited

[FaciaBrut]

After initially installing it, then forgetting about it for a while, I had a chance to go back and explore Adobe's Lightroom Beta for Windows. Here's my updated take on it. I now look at this app as a universal Adobe Camera Raw... That is, the interface is essentially similar to Camera Raw, except you can use this app for all the RAW formats supported by Adobe Camera Raw plus any other major file format. So it is Camera Raw for JPEGs!

What that means is that you can make non-destructive Raw type adjustments to your JPEGS or TIFFS and the settings are saved as small "sidecar" data files, the originals are not altered. You have to import images into the main Library (very much like Windows Media Player) and you get a number of import options. I chose "reference existing files" in the interest of saving hard drive space. The other options will actually make copies of the original files. You can of course import right from your camera or memory card, PS Elements style.

Even though it's a "beta", it hasn't caused one bit of trouble on my Windows XP Pro PC and it runs pretty fast. The actual installation takes up less than 15 mb, but it creates a Lightroom folder in your designated picture directory that will obviously grow with use.

I think I'm going to be using this a lot from now on.

[mtclimber]

faciabrut-

Thanks for an excellent explanation and your opinon, as well.

MT/Sarah

[En121]

I messed with it! Man, it was fun. Very nice program. So, it can edit RAW's just like the camera raw plugin? Cool! I might have to get this for editing raw's and jpeg's when I get my new P712.

Depending on the price... @[email protected]

[tommysdad]

Bibble Pro lets you edit Jpeg aswell as raw files, it has a really good 1 click fix option for jpeg and is well worth a look.

TD