Get Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 at a bargain price
Those familiar with Photoshop might wonder why an additional product should be needed to manage digital images. I would offer this difference: Photoshop is a program for image manipulation; it’s for folks who want to change their photographs or create new substance in an image. Lightroom is a program that, primarily, expedites photography workflow. [By using the term “workflow,” I don’t mean to imply that it’s geared only to those who are in the profession of photography; amateurs and hobbyists alike (like I am), who also wish to prepare quickly and print images, can benefit from this highly-practical and time-efficient program.] You can “tweak” pics very nicely with Lightroom, but Photoshop‘s the paragon for substantial alteration.
Lightroom 3 simplifies enormously the process of preparing photo captures for use, whether as web or print applications. It facilitates quick organization & preview, raw enhancement, printing, and web uploading of photos.
The discount you were looking for Photoshop
The “library” module permits quick organization of picture groups. The amazing, work-saving catalog system allows rapid naming, labeling & flagging, copying, metadata editing & review, and filtering of files, then presents a robust preview for easy access to the rest of the photographic workflow. A stellar feature of the file handling is the (relatively) low memory burden placed on computer RAM — most all of these activities originate from small files that make good use of the .dng formatting.
The “develop” module contains all of the necessary controls to adjust exposure, correct lens aberrations, establish a good white point to remove color casts, manipulate color and grayscale attributes, crop, retouch discreet areas of a photo, and, generally, to perform all the actions of an after-the-fact camera, insofar as these are possible, to improve the raw (proprietary or .dng) images that come from a digital source. White point color correction is particulary easy – and requires only a few skillful mouse motions (as opposed to Photoshop, in which color correction is either mindlessly automated or involves multi-step curve adjustments). One very fine feature in Lightroom is the ability to create instantly a “virtual copy” of your photo, which you can edit, change, enhance, etc. — all without altering your original file.
The “slideshow” module lets you combine photos into a presentation for automatically viewing a sequence of photos as slides. Text can be added, as well as an intro slide and a conclusion slide. You can even add a music file to the background of your presentation, and the program will automatically time your slideshow to the length of your music clip. Slideshows can then be downloaded into a variety of different video formats (including mp4, which I use most frequently).
Finally, the “print” or “web” modules expedite the last-step output to the desired final product. There’s a marvelous preview of your photo presented prior to the actual printing. Multiple photos or copies of the same photo can be easily grouped and previewed on a single sheet for cost-effective printing. Downloading to the web is a cinch. There’s even a feature to upload your photos automatically to a Flickr account and (in the updated version) to Facebook.
Though a learning curve is associated with attaining mastery of Lightroom, I think the controls are quite intuitive. As a virtual neophyte who has had the product for only a short time, I’ve been able to output some very satisfying images to my printer.
I’ve been an Adobe fan since the dark ages of computer imagery in the 1980’s, and this product once again confirms their hegemony in the realm of computer graphics.
Conclusion: Lightroom 3 is a highly recommended program for those who like to snap and publish digital photos.
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