Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is an essential workflow and editing tool for professional photographers and serious hobbyists, according to reviews. Although its photo-editing tools are not as robust as Adobe Photoshop CS6, experts say its organizational tools are indispensable. Lightroom allows you to quickly cull, rate and process RAW images, and the latest upgrade supports geotagging. Other new features include the ability to preview videos, redesigned sliders for adjusting exposure and book-publishing tools.

Reviewers say Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is a must if you need to process RAW images, as it provides more tools and options for RAW files than any other software. In addition, Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is half the price of previous versions, so reviewers say it's an excellent value. Most complaints are minor -- some reviewers would like to see facial recognition, for example. If you need to heavily edit digital photos, reviewers still recommend Adobe Photoshop CS6 (*Est. $700).

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is reviewed by a number of credible sources, with the best reviews coming from PCMag.com, MacLife and ExpertReviews. These sources publish detailed reviews and provide an overall rating, which makes it easy to compare Lightroom to competing software. ArsTechnica.com has a fantastic review, although it doesn't provide a rating.