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Adobe Lightroom 2
Adobe Lightroom MSRP: $299
$99 Upgrade Mac & PC
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ADOBE LIGHTROOM 2 REVIEW GALLERIES

continued from part one….

Camera Calibration

This amazing tool does exactly what it indicates. Depending on the camera you use to create your photographs, Lightroom 2 indentifies the make and model and displays the photo on the screen using the same calibration of the camera, matching as close as possible the scene as you saw it and the output of it on your display.

Lightroom 2.0 uses ACR 4.4 (Adobe Camera Raw) as well as the previous version’s default profiler of ACR 3.3. But Adobe has also provided camera-specific profiles with a range of options (faithful, landscape, neutral, portrait,) so you can more closely match what you thought you saw when you were actually shooting. If Lightroom detects a Nikon photograph, it will display only the Nikon profiles.

A little about RAW, NEF, and DNG

Seems like several companies have come up with a slightly different scheme for handling what is basically a non-processed, RAW file format. Instead of getting into each format and explaining the differences I would urge you to do a simple google search to learn more. While RAW is the original format, and stands for, well, raw, Adobe has done a lot of work for its DNG (digital negative) format as well as Nikon has done with its NEF (Nikon Electronic Format). Adobe Lightroom handles all the various flavors of RAW, so you can use the application no matter which camera you own.

RAW files are non-processed photos. The JPEG photo you see on your camera’s LCD is just one of many interpretations of the file. Cameras and different software applications may show a JPEG in a slightly different way, but when it comes time to edit your photos in Lightroom you must decide on one in order to perform the best adjustments you can. With Camera Calibration and ACR 4.4 you can rest assured knowing that you’re getting the closest rendition to what you saw.

As a Nikon user I am delighted with the results when using Lightroom’s data for my RAW files. The profiles Adobe provides are all based on the DNG 1.2 specification, Adobe’s equivalent of Nikon’s NEF. It should be noted that Adobe and Nikon have had a difficult time over the years seeing eye to eye on the specifics of their respective RAW formats. To be honest I’ve never been a huge fan of Nikon’s software, such as Nikon Capture NX. NX is made specifically for the NEF (Nikon’s RAW format), and it can be effective, but the software itself is clumsy. Since Adobe handles NEF as well as Nikon I am getting the same, or better, results using an Adobe product, not to mention a far superior GUI and much better tools for editing.

Output – Slideshow – Print – Web

The last three modules are all output-based, meaning that all the organization you did in Library, all the collections you built, all the tags and flags, all the ratings, and everything else, took you onward to the Develop stage where all the tools you’ll ever need were provided so that every photo can be perfected to your liking, and you’ve worked with these tools to get the photos in shape for export… so from there the natural progression is the various output methods, including Slideshow, Print, and Web.

For brevity’s sake I’ll skip Slideshow and move on to Print and Web.

Print Module

The Print module offers a layout editor with either a Contact Sheet or Picture Package approach similar to Photoshop’s picture package. Being able to print out a contact sheet is wonderful, and I’ve found the color and sharpness of the contact prints are amazingly accurate to the files I see on the display. I have not used the Picture Package print option other than laying out the various packages on screen to experiment with the feature.

With Picture Package you can print various sizes of the same image on a page with the layout having been designed to minimize the number of cuts you have to make, which is nice to have when quality print sheets are expensive. You can save your arrangements for later use, making it easy to manage the workflow of photographing an entire school class for instance.

Print Sharpening

There are three options for print sharpening, Low, Standard, and High, plus two media types, Glossy and Matte. I am using Mac OS X Leopard so the 16 Bit Output feature is also enabled. I don’t actually print to hard copy much anymore since the vast majority of my work is done for Stock, other than a contact sheet (which I always do for each photo sheet), my needs are minimal. But when I do print I prefer glossy paper because you can see more details, more texture, more nuances in glossy over matte. If you use the Print Package feature while doing a shoot for a school (for instance) I would imagine a good quality matte finish would be wise. Either way, Lightroom adjusts for both types so that the hard copy is optimized for best results.

The photo you choose in Picture Package, which may be different sizes on any particular page, are sharpened ‘on the fly’ for the printer and not saved with the image. This reduces the chance of over-sharpening, since you would otherwise need to remember if the image had been sharpened for output before. This goes along with the same ‘non-destructive photo editing’ methods of Lightroom in that even the sharpening of the print are in its own way a non-destructive method.

Web Module (My favorite output feature)

The ability to build a great looking flash or non-flash gallery at the click of a button is an empowering feature for photographers that always output for the web. Photographers no longer need to hire expensive web developers to be able to offer their photos on their own web site. It’s simple to use, and with so many variations no two galleries need look the same. This is one module where most of the readers of this review will be spending their time. I have created a few Lightroom galleries HERE so that you can see the results for yourself. Each gallery was done with minimal work on my part; no extra effort (which you can certainly do) was applied. Note* I grabbed some disgarded photos from several computers in the office, imported them into Lightroom 2, chose about 70 photos and tagged them as 5 star photos. Then, using the Smart Collection feature I click on “Five Stars” option and Lightroom gathered up all the photos I tagged 5 stars and assembled them into a collection. Then I click on the Web Module, chose a default gallery, filled in the FTP information and clicked the “Upload” button. That’s it, it is truly that simple.

The galleries that are created need not be just simple galleries. You can add all sorts of special effects, rollovers, and much more. Once you’re done with creating the gallery you can publish it to your website by filling in a few fields for ftp information. You can save the FTP information and when you want to publish to your site again you won’t have to fill in the information again and again. I was truly astounded at how simple it is to create a great looking gallery in minutes.

The Web module also includes a Sharpening option, a single checkbox in Output Settings with Low, Standard and High options are available should you need it. Sometimes you will, sometimes you won’t, but its there nonetheless.

You can preview your gallery in a web browser at the click of a button before uploading the gallery to your website. This allows you to see if your thumbnails, or medium sized images need to be sharpened before officially publishing. And yes, XtremeCamera is working to build a way of allowing our members to create their own Lightroom galleries and publish to XtremeCamera automatically. It might take some time, but it will get done. I hate to say it, but Adobe has built in a few presets for Flickr, and other sites, so we feel a little left out. We’ll get there though, and when we do members will be able to upload their galleries for all to see with a simple click of a button.

In Conclusion

I left out a lot of good information about Adobe Lightroom 2 . I’m already in excess of 4100 words, so I simply could not cover everything I wanted to cover.

I am so impressed with Adobe Lightroom 2 that I have uninstalled every application on my computer that even remotely attempts to do what Lightroom 2 does so well. I will, someday, buy Photoshop for my personal use, but it will be used for those times when I need to work in graphic design or if I want to take my photographs into the realm of photo illustration. However, when it comes to ‘photos in, photos out’, Lightroom 2 is all I will need.

As one photographer speaking to another I would urge you to download the trial version and work with it for a day or two. I am positive that after a small period of time you will want to own this application.

There is much to love about Adobe Lightroom 2 . From its new features over Lightroom v1.1.4 to all the excellent and powerful ways to edit and output your photographs, there is no better application, or a more important application, to photographers shooting digitally than Adobe Lightroom 2 . The proof is in the pudding, so download it today and see for yourself.

One more thing

Photographic Workflow is something many photographers have a difficult time with. Using one application for importing, another for editing, and yet others for different output methods, it can get confusing and frustrating. Adobe Lightroom 2 will, I promise you, take out all the confusion and all the frustration on the ‘computer’ side of digital photography. When you get serious about your workflow, Lightroom 2 is the answer. Period.

Written by Julia Barnes, with a special appearance of John Manzione.

Copyright 2008 – XtremeCamera Inc.