Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 picks continues to make a photographer's life easier. Lightroom 1 was a huge step in making organization and developing simple. Lightroom 2 is simply amazing. With improved precision in developing tools and even easier controls than the original program, Lightroom 2 a must for any photographer who wants creative control over their images.
As an added bonus, Lightroom 2 Mac and Windows versions are packaged together. Saving photographers even more time once spent hunting the proper version for your computer.
As an added bonus, Lightroom 2 Mac and Windows versions are packaged together. Saving photographers even more time once spent hunting the proper version for your computer.
Organization
Lightroom 2 offers support of a wide variety of formats including most camera RAW files, JPEG, DNG, TIFF, and PSD. Easy importing and extremely powerful organizational tools quickly turn your jumbled images into easy to find collections. Even for organizationally challenged photographers, like me, Lightroom 2 makes filing and finding your images easy. Mass metadata and keyword tagging help to eliminate the need for the endless subfolders many photographers use in an attempt to stay organized. Powerful search tools make sure you find your images quickly and easily.
The thumbnail film strip at the bottom of the screen in the Library feature is easy to access to swap between images and the thumbnails are large enough to quickly scan for the "right" image.
The thumbnail film strip at the bottom of the screen in the Library feature is easy to access to swap between images and the thumbnails are large enough to quickly scan for the "right" image.
Developing
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 allows you to digitally develop your photos rather than "edit" them. Precision control over colors, light, shadows, tonality, and even vignetting polish your photos in seconds. The speed, ease, and precision at which Lightroom 2 allows a photographer to develop images is simply incredible and the controls are intuitive enough for a beginner to get great results in a few moments. There are also built in tools to help prevent a photographer from "adjusting" their images too far as often happens in Photoshop. Presets for multiple processing are powerful and easily created. Wave "bye bye" to hours upon hours at the computer screen tweaking multiple images of the same bride over and over and over again.
Exporting of images as a group or singles is also quickly accessed and simply controlled. Color space, bit depth, maximum size, resolution, and watermarks are all available export options. For pixel-based edit work, Lightroom allows access to Photoshop (provided you already have the program of course) and it's tools as well.
As always, Lightroom 2 developing utilizes non-destructive editing so that your original image is preserved during the developing process.
Exporting of images as a group or singles is also quickly accessed and simply controlled. Color space, bit depth, maximum size, resolution, and watermarks are all available export options. For pixel-based edit work, Lightroom allows access to Photoshop (provided you already have the program of course) and it's tools as well.
As always, Lightroom 2 developing utilizes non-destructive editing so that your original image is preserved during the developing process.
Output
Lightroom 2 creates polished and professional level slideshows as well as web-based albums in HTML or Flash. Again, the controls are very easy to use and do not require a lot of technical knowledge to create beautiful results.
The print feature offers nice presets and customizable layout features. Single images and packages can quickly be created and printed. Draft and regular printing is supported as well as the easiest contact sheet creation I have seen.
The only thing that might trip up new users is that Lightroom doesn't use a traditional "save" feature. There is an "export" function that takes the place of the "save" button everyone has grown accustomed to in other programs.
The print feature offers nice presets and customizable layout features. Single images and packages can quickly be created and printed. Draft and regular printing is supported as well as the easiest contact sheet creation I have seen.
The only thing that might trip up new users is that Lightroom doesn't use a traditional "save" feature. There is an "export" function that takes the place of the "save" button everyone has grown accustomed to in other programs.
New Features
Lightroom 2 has taken the great beginning framework of Lightroom 1 and refined it into pure gold. Some of the great new additions/refinements are:
Easier to navigate layout
Increased power in the organizational library including module-specific collections and smart collections to make importing easier
Tighter integration with Photoshop increases speed
New retouch brush with powerful precision
Vignette control (this one is addictive folks)
Multiple monitor support
16 Bit print output (Mac version)
