Lightroom - any advantages over Photoshop

nigelcampbell

nigelcampbell

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Just wondered what your thoughts were on using Lightroom for post processing from Raw files.

Currently I use Canon Digital Photo Professional for basic RAW conversion and then post process in Photoshop. I am a very experienced photoshop user (having been using it since version 1.0). Also I'm not snap happy - so a good days shooting will probably result in no more that 30 shots (I pick my shots carefully - a habit formed from years of film photography.

Is it worth me upgrading to Lightroom?
 
In your workflow it would probably replace Canon DPP, I think it really comes into its own when there are lots of images to process/sort through or when you aren't going to do lots of post processing and it isn't worth spending 3x the price on Photoshop.

The gap will narrow even more when they release Lightroom 2...
 
nigelcampbell said:
Just wondered what your thoughts were on using Lightroom for post processing from Raw files.

Currently I use Canon Digital Photo Professional for basic RAW conversion and then post process in Photoshop. I am a very experienced photoshop user (having been using it since version 1.0). Also I'm not snap happy - so a good days shooting will probably result in no more that 30 shots (I pick my shots carefully - a habit formed from years of film photography.

Is it worth me upgrading to Lightroom?
Click to expand...

I find it useful as you can sort out your photos easier, and get a reasonable size zoom of the photo quickly; unlike in Bridge where you get only that silly magnifying glass.

I find it works well if you only use Lightroom when cataloguing image files. If you go back and forward to Bridge it gets very complicated to sync files. I only use Bridge now for Illustrator files and movie files.
 
Photoshop Lightroom is a workflow, library and basic processing tool.

Photoshop is a full blown image editor.

They do different things and Lightroom was developed (sort of, they bought most of it) to complement Photoshop.
 
i like the interface of lightroom, it makes me think back to when i was printing shots in my darkroom many years ago. i have both p/shop and lightroom and use both. i would say though that i think lightroom v2 is coming out in the nearish future so could be worth holding on for. i really enjoy using lightroom.
 
As Divine says, Lightroom is more of a work flow. I think Lightroom is the most useful piece of software i have purchased tbh, the ability to quickly bring out your shots and file them into libraries is extremely useful.

I do use photoshop too but more for image manipulation which PS is obviously more geared towards.
 
I must be in a minority here, unless I want to merge more than one image in layers etc I don't use photoshop, only Lightroom. With Lightroom 2.0 coming out soon the need for Photoshop will be even lower if they keep the selective area tools from the beta...
 
Lightroom is great for quick raw conversion and the basic ajustments (colour/exposure etc etc) it doesn't do layers, cutting pasting parts of images, selective ajustments (in v2.0) or a lot of the really clever stuff.
I use it for batch processing wedding images for the first edit, then into photoshop for the serious cloning and fancy effects. I could live without lightroom and do everything in PS (although I'd rather not), but I couldn't do it the other way around without photoshop.
You can download a trial version and see what you think. Wayne
 
There are still a couple of tools in Photoshop that aren't in Lightroom. The free Transform tool is great for sorting out distortion with wide angle lenses. plus the ability to work with layers is a major advantage.

Reading between the lines it looks as though LR may be developed for Photographers without all the clutter that comes with Photoshop. Hopefully even though Mark Hamburg has now left for Microsoft, the development team will continue along this route

If you are unsure if Lightroom is for you download the 30 day trial. But before you start it have a look at the number of videos on the net about using LR that way you'll get the most out of the trial.

Also ask yourself is it worth £200. To some it is to others it isn't
 
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