| Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0, Full Version (PC/Mac) |  | From: Adobe Systems Inc.
Category: Software
List Price: £227.70
Buy New: £149.99
as of 9/9/2010 17:35 BST details
You Save: £77.71 (34%)
New (2) from £149.99
Seller: pssoftwaresolutionsltd
Rating:  37 reviews
Sales Rank: 727
Format: CD-ROM
Platforms: Windows XP, Windows Vista, Mac OS X
Media: CD-ROM
Operating System: Windows Vista
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.2
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.9 x 2
MPN: 65007296
EAN: 5051254255185
ASIN: B001B2PWN6
Release Date: August 28, 2008
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
 The amateur's review (particularly for Elements users) August 20, 2009
mssmith1 (UK)
34 out of 35 found this review helpful
In a word, wow! I've had a DSLR about 6 months, but have taken nearly 10,000 exposures (of which I've probably kept 10%). Once I moved to shooting in RAW (which if you're not doing, you don't really need Lightroom), my workflow began to take quite a while. I'd do an initial review of my images using Picassa, to get rid of the ones not worth processing (but which looked ok on the camera LCD). I'd then use the Photoshop Elements RAW editor to sort out white balance and exposure. This works fine, but it's a fairly slow process and a bit of a clunky interface. I'd then export to Elements, do my cropping and effects, and then batch save as JPEGs. Lightroom has been an absolute revalation. It automatically imports the images (being really flexible about file locations and names etc), and then quickly lets you review and reject images. This step alone is MILES quicker than my previous process. The white balance and exposure settings are much more comprehensive than the RAW editor in Elements (I can't compare against full Photoshop) and it has some brilliant pre-sets (such as high contrast B&W, cold tone) which very qickly give me results which are 95% what I want, and I can then tweak. The tools for cropping etc are very good, and there are several image maipulation tools built in which make me think I won't need to use Elements post-processing functionality much in future.
Downsides? I haven't really found any to be honest. It's not cheap, but do look at Adobe's educational licensing options (eg do you have kids at home who may qualify?). There's no real documentation, but if you've used a RAW editor before, it's fairly straightforward. I recommend the Scott Kelby guide to get the most out of the software though. In terms of processing, I see some reviewers have a problem with the amount of memory etc it needs. I have a 2 year old laptop, and processing in lightroom is much faster than in Picassa & Elements. Finally, if you have full photoshop, then you need to read some reviews to see how it compares to the RAW editor in there, as I can't give an opinion on that (as I've not used it).
In summary, this has cut my workflow time by around 65%, and gives me better looking results. That to me, is well worth the money. Highly recommended.
Scratching the surface October 31, 2009
Mr. Andrew Terry (Brackley, Northants, UK)
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I was torn between Lightroom and Aperture. For the serious amateur, there's little to differentiate the two products - I got good results with both products, and both offer similar functionality. On balance, I found Lightroom to be more intuitive, and I think Lightroom will give me more creative scope as my photography grows. Both Aperture and Lightroom have free 30-day trials, and for the undecided, I'd urge you to take advantage of these to help make your decision.
Just The Job February 8, 2009
D. Brown (Cornwall, UK)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
As someone with a huge collection of images which weren't catalogued or keyworded in anyway I needed a way to organise my images. I was using the rather clunky Nikon software to process my RAW files.
At first I found Lightroom rather bewildering and did not like it. I bought the Lightroom 2 book by Martin Evening and it just clicked!
Image Organisation
I have spent days applying keywords etc to my back catalogue of images. For this I do not find it particularly intuitive. However for the importing of new images, it is very easy to apply keywords to the whole batch, rate them, and edit them.
I have a dual core processor with 2gb RAM, and my only slight frustration is that it is rather slow at generating the initial previews on first importing - it seems slower than earlier versions. With anything other than a relatively new machine, then forget it espicially if you have a large number of images.
It is very easy to filter by keyword and rating, making it easy to manage your images. You will need to invest time in getting the keywords right though to reap the benefits. Searching and filtering is very quick.
Editing
The range of tools is amazing, making it very easy to adjust your images. Again, I would recommend buying a book to explain some of the tools as the names are sometimes not that explainatory, and the results rather subtle.
I particularly like the ability to create a "virtual copy" of a picture. THis allows you to be able to say edit a colour version of the file, then create a black and white version, and have both versions appear in the catalogue. THe second version takes up no space on your disk.
All the edits are only made to your images when the image is exported, so you can make multiple edits to JPEGS with no loss of quality on your master files.
The new adjustment brushes allow you to apply local edits to the picture, such as changing the exposure or saturation of just one part of the image. THis is great for skies etcs, and much more versatile than the dodge and burn tool in Photoshop.
Output
It is very easy to print in multidude of layouts that you can easily change - unlike Photoshop! You can also produce contact sheets and nice looking web galleries that Lightroom can also upload to your webspace.
Summary
For me Lightroom does 90% of what I need for my pictures, yes I still need Photoshop if I need to replace skies etc. but for most people Lightroom is enough.
It is quite a steep learning curve, but well worth it. It is not a package that you can get the most of through trial and error, I would recommend a companion book.
It is not perfect but pretty close for my needs.
Lightroom - don't be misled by negative reviews March 14, 2009
Roy Hammans (Herts, UK)
13 out of 14 found this review helpful
As a professional photographer, I've been using Adobe Lightroom since its pre-release days and before that I used Pixmantec Rawshooter - the company was bought by Adobe and incorporated into Lightroom.
Sure, the product has evolved considerably over its two-year lifespan and the release of Lightroom 2 was a tad premature as it was an ambitious upgrade from version 1 and contained some bugs, now fixed. Lightroom 2 also required a PC or Mac with more memory and a faster processor to work effectively, but it's still usable on lower spec machines, just not as quick at doing what it does.
What it does is meet pretty well all the requirements of a professional photographer or anyone who creates a lot of digital photos and needs to process them quickly and effectively. Since using it, I've used Photoshop less and less; you just don't need to summon the powers of Photoshop as often to produce excellent results from good (or even less good) digital files. Photoshop is needed when you need to do a lot of manipulation, use layers, or composite or adapt images to meet artistic or commercial needs.
Some adverse reviews here cite the lack of network support. In commercial practice I've not found this to be a problem although I can see it would be important to certain groups of users who share files between multiple users. To incorporate network support would probably make this a much more expensive package and it may well be an option in future releases, for those who need it. For everyday use as an image management tool it meets the needs of a vast user base, more than use Aperture (a Mac-only product) and with the added benefit of being both Mac and PC compatible.
Libraries of photographs and their associated processing settings can be stored on a separate hard drive that - provided it is formatted as FAT-32 - can be shared by Mac users and PC users. I've done this myself and it can be useful. It's not true 'network support', and the database and files cannot be accessed simultaneously by two users, but it does enable catalogues of images to be passed from Mac to PC and vice versa, with all image settings intact. I started using Lightroom on a Windows PC and seamlessly moved everything over to Mac two years ago.
Some have complained that it's not good for dealing with JPEG images. It is, but only within the limitations inherent in JPEG files, which have already been processed by the camera beforehand. If you are serious about creating digital photographs and have equipment that can create RAW files then that is what you should be using anyway.
A RAW file is like an old film negative, it's the master from which any number of interpretations can be made. Lightroom never alters the original file, this is one of its strengths, so you can make as many versions of the original as you want, colour, black & white, sepia, cropped, etc, all without changing the original in any way.
The interface will raise some eyebrows amongst those that like everything to look the same as Microsoft Office, but it's a ground-breaking application doing a job that nothing had done effectively before. The interface, once you understand its workflow-driven approach, is actually very intuitive.
I'm not sponsored by Adobe to say any of this. I'm just someone who has found that using Lightroom has more than halved the time it takes to sort and process a whole bunch of pictures and print or present them to a client. There are numerous professional photographers who feel the same, not least of which is Martin Evening, who IS sponsored by Adobe and has written the most helpful books on both Photoshop and Lightroom: Adobe Photoshop CS4 for Photographers: A Professional Image Editor's Guide to the Creative use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC: A Professional Image ... Use of Photoshop for the Macintosh and PC and The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers.
I now have over 20,000 pictures in my Lightroom database, all instantly accessible and with all important data associated with them stored and backed up in other locations. I can find any image instantly through the use of keywords and tags, create collections and albums without moving any of the original files and generally manage everything I do with ease. Even if you only have one thousand (or less) images to deal with, Lightroom will prove to be an very useful tool.
A Great Addition To A Photographer's Arsenal December 22, 2008
Andrew Kerr (Scotland)
29 out of 32 found this review helpful
As photography and digital images become more complex (RAW and high dynamic range for example), software will have to be developed to assist in the work flow, and to provide tools that will allow users to exploit the full benefits on offer. In a perfect world this could be done in as little time as possible without having to slave over images, and allowing photographers to spend more time behind the lens instead of in front of the computer screen.
And so Lightroom 2 is born, software from Adobe that claims to be essential for today's digital photography work flow, allowing you to import, process, manage and show your images. The first edition of Lightroom was popular, and rivaled Apple's Aperture software. So this second version is a welcome addition to the Adobe family.
New editing features have been added, so you can now make adjustments and touch ups in Lightroom itself, without having to switch between programs. These include an adjustment brush, and a graduated filter tool, that's excellent for compensating under or overexposed parts of a photograph. Improved printing facilities that let you print out on to templates or custom sheets. Images can be sharpened automatically, and to an exacting standard, saving time especially if you have a lot of photos to work on. Also included are improved dodging and burning tools, as well as comparison options for different settings. 64-bit support for both Windows and Mac has also been included. A welcome improvement, is the introduction of 'smart' metatags, providing you with a means for organising all of your photographs with keywords and category's that actual work, that even let you organize data over several physical drives. Adobe Lightroom 2 even gives you the ability to show off your images online in web galleries.
Dual monitor support has been added, it allows you to have what you are working on split between the two. Useful if you are discuss various shots with a client. The software interface isn't too different from from the previous versions, so existing user's will have have little trouble upgrading to this version, while at the same time new users will appreciate the uncluttered and easy to learn interface.
The organizational facilities are excellent. Prior to using this software I had hundreds of images in dozens of folders, that were then themselves in folders, then backed up, however now after spending some time in Lightroom, all of my images are now easy to find and to both use and update.
A very useful feature is the ability to Merge to HDR and Merge to Panorama, allowing you to work with and process multiple images faster and easily than Photoshop itself.
Adobe Lightroom does not change your original photo, it will leave it untouched (meaning you no longer have to make copies of your originals and keep them separate,) applying any changes you make to data file. This also means that you can step backwards undoing multiple changes that you've made, with out having to start over again.
The software does have a few minor problems. I would say that the documentation is hopeless, but I can't even say that - simply because there was none at all. But there are plenty of free online video tutorials just a mouse click away. The software is resource hungry, you will not be able to run Lightroom 2 very well on a low end computer, without having to wait for seconds at a time between changes. It's also noticeably slower than Adobe Photoshop at opening very large files.
But apart from that, Lightroom makes processing photos faster and easier. Anybody who has tried to work with a large batch of RAW files, will know it can quickly become repetitive, but Lightroom does 'lighten' the load. No one photo package of any nature nature can do absolutely everything and this package is no exception. While it does offer some good and genuinely useful tools, as a standalone product it can't do everything. It would therefore be better when backed up by a more comprehensive package such as Adobe Photoshop, which would provide you with additional tools and facilities, in case you do need them.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 37
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