In spite of Apple Aperture's recent dominance, Adobe has finally answered with its long-awaited photography management software: Photoshop Lightroom 1.0. Adobe touts Lightroom as the "photographer's essential toolbox". Lightroom is an application that allows a photographer to manage large amounts of images, adjust photographs in batches or individually, preview image adjustments virtually, output to web and Flash slideshows, switch between Photoshop native PSD files and much more.

Adobe Listened: Lightroom's Photographer Influence

Adobe consulted many photographers during the development of Lightroom. Lightroom offers support for over 150 raw camera formats. In addition to a staggering amount of support for digital formats, Lightroom offers complete integration for many other file formats, including Adobe Photoshop's native PSD file format. The user interface is vastly different compared to other Adobe applications, as it sets itself apart from the native Windows or Apple OS interfaces.

Lightroom's User Interface: Modules

Lightroom's interface is a vast departure even from most of Adobe's own software. Adobe has done away with the idea of nesting features, and streamlined the interface. The main work area is the Main Window. Below the Main Window, are various toolbars, followed by the Filmstrip. Lightroom is divided into 5 "modules". You navigate between modules with the module picker in the upper right corner of the interface. Lastly, there are two panels surrounding the Main Window, these panels are used for most tasks - depending on the module you are in.

1. Library Module

   The Library Module is the default module you start in upon launching Lightroom. The Library allows the user to perform various tasks such as: image importing, creating collections, creating and managing metadata. The library even offers the ability to rapidly batch process images with a variety of image adjustments. Once you have imported your images into Lightroom, you can navigate to the next module, Develop.

2. Develop Module

   Develop is the module most photographers will spend their time in. Develop allows the user to apply image adjustments, save them as presets, compare changes, remove red eye, etc. Develop also offers a great feature, History. The History feature keeps a permanent track of all changes made to an image. Whenever an image is modified, the change and the value is saved, allowing the user to go back and undo any changes. After modifying an image, the next stop may be to navigate to the Slideshow module.

3. Slideshow Module

   The Slideshow module is used to develop presentations. A user can add shadows, borders, text overlays, etc. to create a slideshow of their photographs. Slideshow even offers options to include a soundtrack! Once a slideshow is created, the user can export it to a PDF. If an image needs to be printed, the user can navigate to the Print module.

4. Print Module

   Print allows the user to print photographs in a variety of templates. A user can set margins, tiling, strokes and a variety of other settings when printing images. Users can set up the print area in different ways using the Template Browser. Photographs can be arranged in cells; there is support for 2x2, 4 Wide, 4x5, and other templates depending on a user's needs. There is also support for text overlays, crop marks, and other page options. After printing, a user may feel the need to upload their images, this is where the Web module is used.

5. Web Module

   The Web module is an excellent tool; especially for those not versed in a web design. Web allows a user to create slideshow presentations to upload to their website. The Template Browser offers a variety of HTML slideshow templates - even native Flash export! In addition to creating a slideshow, Web allows the creation of various labels. A user can quickly add site labels, email links, contact info, etc. Once a user is satisfied with their slideshow, they can add thumbnails, captions and overlay copyright watermarks over their digital photography.

Non-Destructive Editing

Non-Destructive Editing is Lightroom's most powerful feature. Once an image is imported into Lightroom's library, it can be edited without worrying about the original image. The original image Is left intact, all changes are made to the virtual copy in the Lightroom library. All image adjustments are saved independently, allowing users to edit, re-edit, crop, sharpen, etc images as often as they would like, without ever modifying the original photograph. To accompany the power of non-destructive editing, Adobe paired it with another powerful feature, Virtual Copy.

Virtual Digital Photography Copies

Virtual Copies is a great feature that allows users to create a copy of an image in the Lightroom library multiple times. Since virtual copies do not alter the original master file, users are free to experiment with image adjustment. Virtual copies also do not takes up any additional hard disk space; packaged with the non-destructive editing, Lightroom provides photographers and digital artists with unlimited creative freedom to adjust photographs. Snapshots is another feature which is helpful when dealing with Virtual Copies.

Snapshots

Virtual Copies is a great feature that allows users to create a copy of an image in the Lightroom library multiple times. The virtual copies are not physical, therefore do not take up any hard-drive space. With this feature, a user may create different versions of a photograph without incurring any costs in hard disk space. This feature, combined with non-destructive editing allows for unlimited creative freedom when adjusting photographs. Snapshots is another feature which is helpful when dealing with Virtual Copies.

Stacks

Photographs can be modified, virtual copies can be created, and Lightroom even allows images to be brought into Photoshop for further edits. Tracking a similar group of images can become confusing, or even frustrating. Lightroom allows the user to select a group of images and groups them together. With this feature, organizing and working with multiple versions of a photograph is fast and easy. A stack is displayed as a single image, when a user clicks on a stack it expands, displaying the photographs contained within the stack. There is also an auto-stack feature, which is able to stack images based on capture time.

Conclusion

Overall, Lightroom is an excellent piece of software. Photographers (and their clients) will love Lightroom's capabilities. Non-destructive editing, Snapshots, and Virtual Copies are powerful features that will help photographers tackle their shoots. Lightroom is definitely an essential part of any photographer's toolbox.

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