new platform

For a few years now, I have used Adobe's Bridge to organize and process my images, delving into Photoshop as needed.
Well, I decided to try out Lightroom now that version 3 is our.  I have debated Lightroom or Apple's Aperture.  Due to not being happy with how iPhoto handles things, I opted for Lightroom.

Bottom line:  I am sold. There are so many things I like about it.  Not everything, but mostly.  I have a few hang-ups with the way it brings in my images... also if I have multiple catalogs, they are seen completely separate to Lightroom.  But all-in-all, it is a great way to organize my photos, process, (love the presets - especially as i have created my own), and the other modalities such as Web and Slideshow.

A few other qualms i have with it are the zoom factor is a preset amount... unlike Photoshop's zoom feature that allows you more flexibility (in my mind).  In addition, the keyboard shortcuts are not very contiguous with Photoshop.  And they sync (processing multiple images simultaneously); while it gives me more options, seems a little jumbly.

I really like the noise reduction, the graduated filter, adjustment brush options (with teeth whiten and skin soften modes), and the crop option that allows me to crop and re-align efficiently.

If you haven't tried it, you can download it and try it for 30 days... just beware if you have an older machine, it may be a little overbearing on your RAM, Video RAM, and hard drive space, as most Adobe products seem to be.

Here is a screen shot of the Web part of the program.

Check out my Test page created in Lightroom.

In these images, I only warmed up the temperature to 5800K and then played with the graduated filers to selectively underexpose different parts of the images.  I am willing to share those presets.