Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2

I've used ACDsee for ages and finaly moved to a more robust, professional solution. Lightroom is the way to go for organizing and sorting images. Best of all, it's develop module allows you to do most of… the editing right on the spot with undestructive editing. For me this is the best feature, I keep only one copy of the original unchanged file and as many edited virtual copies as I need. I've changed to only shooting RAW after lighroom. It will change your perspective on digital photography. Integrates seemlesly with smugmug and many other online photo sites with the excelent plugins form jfiendl. His GPS integrating plugin is also great. Recommed this to any pro or serious amateur photographer.

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I travel quite extensively, and as a result, I take a lot of photos of places I've been and things I've done. After a while, you need a system in order to manage photos. I've been using Lightroom since day… 1, and it's taken over as the only tool I use when it comes to photography. Lightroom has 5 modules: Library, Develop, Slideshow, Web and Print. It's designed to take your photos from the moment you plug your memory card into your computer to output. From the management standpoint, I've gotten a little obsessive-compulsive about labeling/keywording/catalogng my photos - Through 30,000 photos, I'm able to search for photos with criteria from keywords to camera info so I know where a particular friend is (e.g: Tim at the Taj Mahal.) Even with 30,000 photos, the Lightroom catalog handles it without a problem. Non-destructive editing is the strength of Lightroom. Without touching the original file, I'm able to edit and revert back to any point - from a few different RAW file formats, TIFFs, DNGs and JPGs. Things to consider: 1) Lightroom isn't that expensive when you compare it to Photoshop CS4 and Adobe Bridge. It's also the same price as Apple Aperture. 2) Lightroom is resource intensive. You'll need a beefy computer to make sure this works as fast as you do. 3) In Lightroom 1, the Develop tool did about 40-50% of what I needed it to do. I was able to edit photos in Photoshop and able to go back and forth. Lightroom 2.x does 90%+ of the editing I need to do with my photos. 4) Dual monitor support means laptop + my 24" LCD is making for one mean processing machine. 5) The web galleries are fully customizable, just like everything in this program. I suck at web design, so I'm not able to take full advantage of this feature yet. The only problem with a program of this magnitude is that you need to really invest in training videos (Kelby, Luminous Landscape) and books in order to take advantage of everything. $300 is a small price to pay for a tool that's powerful as this. Even if you bought a starter SLR and need a great tool that will allow you to make the best of your photos, you can't go wrong with Lightroom. It's the best photographic investment I've made. I can't wait to see what a future version will bring.

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