PTravel

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!

Tummy

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.

PTravel

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

Xyzzy

Is this designed to compete with Google's Picassa (which is free)? If so, how does it compare?

Tummy

I believe that this is designed to compete with Apple's Aperture, not free. http://www.apple.com/aperture/

murphy

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.

PTravel

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.

nmenaker

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$

murphy

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!

nmenaker

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

CPRich

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.

nmenaker

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

birdstrike

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. . .

CPRich

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.

nmenaker

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