Hilltop Blueberry Barren in Alton, New Hampshire.

I really jumped on the Lightroom bandwagon a year ago, using its powerful image management and raw processing features to cut my image processing workflow time by around 30%.  When version 2.0 was released last week, I bought it immediately, looking forward to the tweaks to some of my favorite features as well as the new abilities touted in the software since the beta version was released several months ago.

While I am still getting the hang of it's slicker library and print module improvements, the big time saver for me thus far has been the revved up Develop module.  You can now stitch images faster by invoking the Merge to Panorama feature in Photoshop with one click.  The end result hasn't changed, but it's much easier and faster than doing it manually like was necessary in version 1.4.  The real eye-opener though is the Develop module's new ability to make localized adjustments of exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, clarity, and sharpness.  This can be done using a paintbrush or a simulated graduated filter.  Previously, these kind of changes needed to be made in Photoshop using layer masks on converted tiffs or jpegs.  In Lightroom 2.0 however, these changes can be made to RAW files without the complication of using layer masks, and it works really, really well!

The above pair of images demonstrates the use of the graduated filter feature.  The image on the left is the original shot, while the image on the right is that same image, but I applied a graduated exposure reduction on the sky using Lightroom.  It is as easy to use as a real filter in the field.  It works much easier than making the same change in Photoshop because you make the change on just one RAW file.  Previously, I would make two exposures (or process the RAW file twice at two different exposure levels) and combine the tiff versions in Photoshop using a layer mask.  In Lightroom, you click on the graduated filter icon, adjust the exposure to your liking, and drag the filter to fill as much as the image as you want, adjusting the gradient and hardness of the gradient to create the perfect image.  And you can go back and refine the change at any time.  Very slick!

Lightroom 2.0 retails for $299.00 ($99.00 for an upgrade version).  More info and a free trial version is available at www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/.

Also, I am teaching a Lightroom seminar in November where I'll include learning of all the new 20.0 bells and whistles.  Deatails are here: http://www.jerryandmarcymonkman.com/oneonone.htm.

Until next time...
-Jerry

 

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