Travel Technology - Great free photo manipulation program

This seemed like the best place to post this.

Adobe (maker of Photoshop) is distributing free copies of a new program called Lightroom. It works with almost every digital photo type, including RAW from a variety of cameras (works great with my Canon 10d). It is a far more powerful photo maintenance and printing program than other offerings that are out there. It will organize photos, has an incredibly powerful "develop" mode, which is, essentially, a complete digital darkroom with an amazing amount of control over the image -- corrections as or more powerful as what can be done in Photoshop are available. It can print, do proof sheets and all sorts of useful functions. Best of all, the program is geared towards pros/advanced amateurs -- no cutsey interface or condescending metaphors. Despite this, it is very intuitive and easy to use -- all corrections, which can always be backed out, are controlled via sliders.

It requires registration with Adobe, but nothing more than your email and very minor background info (how you heard about it, whether you're a beginner, amateur, pro, etc.).

Here's the URL:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom/

Enjoy!

Just to note that this is a beta or preview version. I could crap out and mess up your entire photo collection. No support is provided.

It's free until they finish it and release the final product.

Photos can be opened are read-only and then saved -- there's not a lot of danger of harming your photos.

Is this designed to compete with Google's Picassa (http://picasa.google.com/) (which is free)? If so, how does it compare?

Is this designed to compete with Google's Picassa (http://picasa.google.com/) (which is free)? If so, how does it compare?
I believe that this is designed to compete with Apple's Aperture, not free. http://www.apple.com/aperture/

It's not really an image manipulation program - it only has light editing features. It is very similar to Aperture - import, catalog, and arrange the images, export to PS if it needs adjustment, then print/publish.

It's a nice program. The beta has been out for Macs for a while now. I think Aperture scared Adobe a little. Aperture, by the way, has come a long way from its half-baked release.

It's not really an image manipulation program - it only has light editing features. It is very similar to Aperture - import, catalog, and arrange the images, export to PS if it needs adjustment, then print/publish.

It's a nice program. The beta has been out for Macs for a while now. I think Aperture scared Adobe a little. Aperture, by the way, has come a long way from its half-baked release.
That's not quite correct. Though it lacks the area manipulation tools of Photoshop CS, it has very comprehensive editing features with respect to color correction (by channel), HSY and RGB, gamma and a number of other features -- these kinds of adjustments are just as detailed as can be done in CS.

Agreed, I have been using these products for nine months now, and they are both strong, robust and complete image editing, enhancing and manipulation tools. While not a photoshop image editor, they are indeed equal to if not better than an adobe photoshop elements, apple aperture (the clear direct competitor) and clearly ahead of picassa.

I have had not problems with data loss, losing albums, etc. But, I have always worked with them in an environment of COPIES of photos, to manipulate.

This is both on Intel based Apple systems, and Windows XP, VISTA PC systems.

The beta will most likely end before the end of the year, and I think the product will slot in at 199$

That's not quite correct. Though it lacks the area manipulation tools of Photoshop CS, it has very comprehensive editing features with respect to color correction (by channel), HSY and RGB, gamma and a number of other features -- these kinds of adjustments are just as detailed as can be done in CS.
You're right. Lightroom's editing capabilities are significantly more advanced than Aperture's. It seems there's a larger market for Adobe than for Apple, as Lightroom can be considered a light photo editor as well as an importer/cataloger/arranger. Thanks!

You're right. Lightroom's editing capabilities are significantly more advanced than Aperture's. It seems there's a larger market for Adobe than for Apple, as Lightroom can be considered a light photo editor as well as an importer/cataloger/arranger. Thanks!


well, and they make a version for PC's which apple does not.

Lightroom will have extensive editing capabilities, especially once they embed the technology acquired from their Pixmantec acquisition. I will continue to use RawShooter Premium until LR is ready to go with release 1.0 - my RSP license gets me a free version and I look forward to including cataloging with strong RAW processing and photo-specific editing capabilities. I love CS2 but I know that I probably only use 20% of what it can do. If they extract that 20% and add good RAW processing and cataloging, it will be just what a photographer really needs.

I played with the initial beta but it was a bit immature. Maybe I'll check in again and see how it's moving along.

if you have access to a mac, you can view the 3.0 beta, lots of nice features, and functionality not in the current 1.0 windows version

Just downloaded it to my PC. 3GHz, 1GB RAM and it seems very, very slow compared to PS CS. It looks promising, but a 5 to 10 second delay from manipulating a control until you see the result is not useful to me. I'm manipulating 13MB image files and I could stand to add another GB of RAM, but still. . .

It looks promising, but a 5 to 10 second delay
That pretty much sums up the term "beta". I spent six hours in front of RSP and CS2 yesterday - LR would have taken days. It is very [promising in vision and direction, and I've provided functional feedback, but it's not in a state for regular use yet.

As should be expected from a beta test program.

there was a big leap from beta 1, to beta 2 on the mac.

if you have access to a mac, you can view the 3.0 beta, lots of nice features, and functionality not in the current 1.0 windows version

Beta 3 is out for the Windows platform, functional through January. Time to give it another look.

Beta 3 is out for the Windows platform, functional through January. Time to give it another look.

I have Beta 3 for Windows. It's a pig. Unless someone can convince me I've done something wrong I won't be reinstalling it. I really wanted it to work as advertised :(

I have Beta 3 for Windows. It's a pig. Unless someone can convince me I've done something wrong I won't be reinstalling it. I really wanted it to work as advertised :(
I've been using it and I think it's terrific -- just what I needed for correcting exposure, gamma and color errors. It works fine on m 3.1 GHz P4 with 1 gig of RAM.

Just received an email from Adobe -- Beta 4 for Windows is now available.

I use GIMP and I think its great!

and its a freeware.

Just received an email from Adobe -- Beta 4 for Windows is now available.
Very early user reports indicate that it is much faster and feature-rich. I'll need to wait to get to my home machine to test it out.

The Mac version of Lightroom beta 4 feels much faster than beta 3. Also, Apple today announced Aperture 1.5.
From TUAW: (http://www.tuaw.com/2006/09/25/apples-photokina-event-has-started/)
Aperture 1.5 has a new library system with better support for external storage, DVD's, as well as RAID. This should make a lot of Aperture users happy. iLife integration is also new, with support for a plugins framework. Plugins for Gettyimages, iStockPhoto, Flickr are included with more on the way. The magnifying function has been improved and one can now magnifiy images up to 1600%. The XMP format is now supported for exporting image data.

I use Photoshop but for many functions but irfanview is easier to use, quicker and supports most fucntions that you woudl need for simpel editing

I use Photoshop but for many functions but irfanview is easier to use, quicker and supports most fucntions that you woudl need for simpel editing

I'm hoping Lightroom will end up being something to solve the problem of the middle ground. There are plenty of RAW converter/lightweight tools (irfanview, RSP, BreezeBrowser, C1, Bibble, etc.) and then the heavyweight of CS2. None of the converters can do localized editing, and I know I barely use 20% of CS2, even after a year of use. Taking ACR, with RSP's technology, and adding the 20% of CS2 applicable to photography, plus an catalog function, could be a real winner.

A truly free program, that is easy to use, and has about as much functionality as Photoshop is Photofiltre.

http://www.snapfiles.com/get/photofiltre.html

click on the link above for users reviews and to download the .exe.

As far as photo management and sharing, and minor lighting and/or color adjustments, Google Picasa is the way to go.

Sorry, I don't mean to hi-jack this thread. But to enrich it with following:

Can any and all experienced users of digitl photo editing programs (free or paid) shed some light on "user friendliness" aspects of - arranging, eidting, archiving (burn DVD) and creating video out of stills and posting on web.
For me, I often use Photoshop Elelments 4.0 (together with Premiere Elelmenets 2.0), Picasa, GIMP, PictureProject (native Nikon), PhotoStory 3.

I found Picasa is easy to use, but has limited editing capability compared to Photoshop and Elements. I like the fact that Picasa imports your photos and organize them by original folders.

GIMP is less intuitive, but improving with new plug-ins. Look forward to the new rev that is due soon.

PhotoStory 3 is my favorite in terms of ease-of-use in creating video out of still photos. It has limted editing capability compared to Elelments.

I only use PictureProject in conjunction with my 2 nikon cameras. Mainly during early stage work-flow process. Don't use it for editing at all.

I recently began learning how to use Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements together from import to output. It takes a while to grasp all the features. I like this combo because now I can complete a project from beginning to end (like arranging photos, editing, creating video with text, music, narrative and specail effects). As far as video creation, I think PhotoStory is much easier to use.

Would you share your experience, please?