Pictutres at an exhibition (part 2) |

One of the most useful sessions at Nikon Expo this time was with Adobe, and in particular their relatively new addition to the software stable, Lightroom. Photoshop, in all its various incarnations, has been the tool of choice for the professional for many years up to its massively powerful CS3, part of a complete image management and design system with In Design and Illustrator.
Having been with Adobe's product since, I think, version 5, I have found the continuity of the workspace one of the most refreshing features. It means that while extra tools and functions have been added to successive versions, a certain familiarity remains at the controls.
Adobe in fact retain some items for customer personal choice even though their actions have long since made virtually redundant by other preferences. Baby and bath water stay intact.
Photoshop has had to adapt to the development of digital imaging - larger and more numerous files - was well as the introduction of non-processed files like RAW. So the simple thumbnail browser has had to become a more complex gallery system capable of sorting through these files.
Inevitably Photoshop becomes memory hungry as a result, but there is no option if the tradtional features are to be retained in the familiar configuration.
Lightroom version one, introduced a year ago, was a sidestep from this formula. Designed to run with Photoshop or on its own, it was an opportunity to re-invent the wheel, perhaps particularly for those who hadn't had the years of conventional development and were coming fresh into image editing without any previous habits.
The opportunity to work with a blank canvas gave Adobe the chance to totally change the workspace - to make it much more like a photographer's darkroom than a graphic designer's desktop.
I have to confess that my original impression was that this was more of a lightweight gimmick, and hadn't had much of a chance to give it a serious look. It was only when watching Lightroom being put through its paces at Nikon Solutions, I realised what a serious bit of heavyweight kit this was.
I thought I was watching a simple Jpeg being manipulated, it was only when I looked closely at the screen info I was impressed to see it was actually a RAW file, and that this programme can match process such mighty beasts rather than the laborious one-at-a-time conversions.
It is also able to fine process Jpeg files by a much more sophisticated colour and content management system than has previously been available. In effect, like RAW convertors, you can post process image to alter white balance, exposure, density and even more subtle aspects of fill and shadow, not to mention all manner of hue and saturation of all colours contained in the original image.
You can't put in what isn't there, but you can recover files that look like a pea soup, or enhance ones that are just average.
The software is non-destructive - one of the buzz words of the moment - is that it initiates the develop commands only after the selections have been finalised. Even then they can be exported automatically to an "edited" folder so the originals are still intact in case it all goes pear shaped in process.
This enables Lightroom to run lean, light on memory until processing is commenced. That's when you can walk away and make the tea while the serious number crunching is going on.
Lightroom is worth looking at for efficient photo editing because it's another of these tools that will put you ahead of the average customer. They will be quite happy playing with Elements which they get free with almost every camera and scanner.
It's certainly a cheaper option than an upgrade of Photoshop if that is not really necessary.
You can get a 30 day trial of Lightroom from the Adobe website, and additional help and tips from the many links you will find from Google. The great thing with the internet community is that lots of information is quickly disseminated, and much trial and error is thereby avoided.
www.adobe.com/products

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