| Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 | 
 enlarge | From: Adobe
Category: Software
List Price: $299.00
Buy New: $149.49
You Save: $149.51 (50%)
New (33) Used (1) from $149.49
Avg. Customer Rating:  28 reviews
Sales Rank: 11
Format: Cd-rom
Platforms: Mac Os X Leopard, Mac Os X Intel, Windows Vista, Windows Xp
Media: CD-ROM
Edition: Full
Autographed: No
Memorabilia: No
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.7 x 1.9
MPN: ADBCD15439WM
Model: 65007312
UPC: 883919154398
EAN: 0883919154398
ASIN: B0018VH8S2
Release Date: August 15, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
|
| Customer Reviews:
| Showing reviews 1-5 of 28 | | NEXT » |
 The only image tool you will need December 1, 2008
I tried the previous version of Lightroom, but couldn't see much of an advantage over the free cataloging program that came with my Nikon cameras, so I uninstalled it.
This version is a different animal. I don't know whether to call it an image cataloging program with powerful image editor or an amazing image processing program with an intuitive cataloging feature.
Its library catalogs images across multiple drives with an enchantingly user-friendly interface. The enchanced previews allow you to sort the sharp from the not-quite-so-sharp at a glance. Keywording for a shoot can be accomplished in minutes thanks to the spray formatting feature. Enter or choose a group of words once, then apply them to multiple shots.
The program recognizes multiple image formats, including 180 versions of RAW, and you can covert them with ease. The Develop mode is magical. You can adjust exposure, white balance, healing (for those pesky dust spots)and everything else Raw for Photoshop can do, plus gradients and a brush tool that applies adjustments to certain parts of the image. In fact, most users will not even need Photoshop.
The Print and Web output features are amazing. You can easily put together picture packages for friends, or clients, or create a fantastic Web gallery with eye-catching templates. The sharpening tool for output has been improved. You will love it.
In short, this is my new toy and I can't stop playing with it! When I finish cataloging my slides, prints, and digitals, I will finally have 25 years worth of pictures under control.
Thank you, Adobe engineers!!! I would kiss your feet... nah
Terrific product.
 Speedy, Efficient, Great Editing November 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
As an amateur photographer, Lightroom 2 was on my wish list for quick photo editing. Now that I have it and have used it, I am more than satisfied!
The library and sorting system are user-friendly and customizable. Not only can you import your photos and keep them in the same basic folders that are used on your hard drive, you can create your own collections. Lightroom has it set up that you can save photos in folders you create and name, as well as in "Smart Collections" which sort your photos automatically based on how you rate your photos (1-5 stars, which, by the way, is another great feature more users should utilize, allowing you to easily mark your favorites), recently edited photos, photos from the past month, photos without keywords, and colored red photos (something I'm still figuring out). For photographers who take dozens, if not hundreds of photos each week and need a quick and easy way to sort, Lightroom 2 makes this possible.
Another feature to the sorting and organizing is the keyword feature. Create your own, and based on how many times you use a certain keyword, or combination of keywords, Lightroom 2 automatically suggest keywords at the top of the list of all used keywords. What a convenient setting when tagging multiple photos from the same event!
The next feature you'll find and love in Lightroom 2 is the Develop feature, where you can choose from several preset edits (among which are aged edits, grayscale, sharpening for landscape). In the Develop setting, you can preview what the edit will do on the photo by scrolling the mouse over each preset title and watching the thumbnail photo transform (on the left side of screen). Also, the program saves the photo file in original form, as well as a history of all actions taken to modify the photo. Again, you can scroll over the history to see the changes in the thumbnail, allowing you to quickly find the change you like best, without having to go back through layers and layers as in Photoshop.
The Develop setting allows for quite a range of possible editing features, from basic white balance and sharpening and exposure, to tone curves, saturation, split toning, detail, vignettes, and camera calibration. While Lightroom 2 still doesn't allow for all the fine editing that can be accomplished with Photoshop, photographers will find that using the quick edits in Lightroom will save a great deal of time in Photoshop, and may even find that fewer photos need extra tweaking in Photoshop.
You will find a neat feature in the Develop mode, which is the adjustment brush. This feature allows for masking in selective ares, adjusting exposure, brightness, contrast, sharpening, and more, without changing your entire photo.
Next you'll find the slideshow mode, which allows for adding a stroke border, shadow, identity plate, and text overlays to a select group of photos for a slideshow. This is a mode that I personally don't use, as my work and interest is more in the organizing and editing.
For photographers who desire to print, the Print mode quickly allows you to create contact sheets and picture packages with multiple photos and multiple sizes on a sheet. The program automatically rearranges photos to maximize the number printed on a sheet. Great feature here!
Finally, the Web tab is a feature likely to be most used by those who want to create an easy way to put photos directly from Lightroom into their website. Here you can choose from several different templates which again automatically place the photos from your selected collections.
Lightroom 2 is a must-have for photographers wanting to spend less time at the computer running edits, tagging, and organizing. Some casual users may find that Lightroom 2 is more than needed for their purposes. My only negative comment, and why my review is 4 stars instead of 5, is that Adobe neglected to include a user manual in the packaging or on the disk. Users may want visit Adobe, search the web, and visit forums for in-depth help and tips to get the most of Lightroom 2.
It does what Camera RAW anbd Bridge does but better November 28, 2008
Where do I start.
This is a great package. I used to open all my photos in Camera Raw and catalog them using bridge. Adobe Light Room 2 has many more features and is non destructive. I shoot almost exclusively in RAW and then convert them to DNG. LR2 allows for spot correction, graduated touch-up, and some masking features. The only drawback that I can find is that if you are new to the Adobe tools it is a bit overwhelming. I use Kelby training and have gone through many of the videos which have helped me catchup quickly. For $20 per month (less if you are a NAAP member) you can view all of their training as much as you want. Back to LR2 - I am still finding new ways to do things but I think this is a great program. One feature I especially like is the presets. They give the user the ability to do some basic editing on all your photos.
A worthy Upgrade November 27, 2008
Well, to start with, I am a professional photographer and I have used version 1 of Lightroom for quite a while - pretty much since it came out. I really like Lightroom, and I recommend it to anyone, amateur or professional, who takes a lot of images. If you go on vacation somewhere wonderful and bring back 100 photos, Lightroom probably isn't for you, but if you routinely shoot a few hundred exposures or more on a weekend trip or a one day professional assignment, then you need it. It's that simple.
So, in this review, I am going to talk mostly about what's new. There's quite a lot. The two "inside the engine" things that got me excited are support for 64 bit operating systems and multiple monitors. The 64 bit thing just makes it faster if you have a 64 bit operating system. The two monitors let you see the grid view on the second screen while you work in loupe mode or develop on the other one.
Another new feature is an adjustment brush that is local, making it easier to dodge and burn when necessary, and, if you sell print packages, you will enjoy the new ability to arrange multiple photos on a page.
I couldn't really find much in the way of negatives to say, so I won't try. If you like Lightroom 1.1, you will love this version, and if you take a lot of photos and haven't tried Lightroom yet, what are you waiting for
Zoom Zoom For Your Images November 27, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2
One of the main improvements and a darn good reason to upgrade to Lightroom 2.0 is that you can now do localized editing to RAW images. This brings Lightroom more in line with Photoshop but allows faster work than opening Photoshop, doing RAW conversions, going to work on one image at a time and then saving it. Note that Lightroom is not a replacement for Photoshop as it does not contain the many tools that Photoshop includes to allow you deeper, more sophisticated image editing. With Lightroom simple, quick adjustments to exposure, sharpness and color are a brushstroke away (via a handy widget). Once you make adjustments to your image a feature I really like is that you can scrub your image where the mask is located to make further small adjustments. This setting moves all the adjustments you made together, so if you adjusted brightness, saturation and clarity you can then scrub to increase or decrease all three together.
There is a nice gradient feature so you can make quick gradient adjustments to your image like the sky for example which will add a polarized or neutral density effect. I like using this feature for my landscape and cityscape photos.
A nice feature I found useful is the newer (and smarter) way to deal with metadata keywords. Lightroom 2.0 now makes suggestions and it can really speed up your tagging process. If you seem to pick "San Diego" for example after regularly picking "ocean" for a tag it will start to suggest San Diego any time pick you select ocean.
Lightroom likes lots of computer power like any image program and the more quality hardware you throw at it I am sure it will run faster for your edit processes. I am using it on a MacPro Early 2008. I did discover that you will need to disable 32 bit mode if you want to program to open in 64 bit (assuming your computer and operating system can handle that). I don't understand why Adobe didn't have the program automatically detect 64 bit computers but it is a simple setting in the Get Info area that you just uncheck.
Overall I think anyone that takes more then a few pictures and anyone that enjoys shooting with RAW will find this is a great program.
|
|
|
