Re: Lightroom

Hate that you had to go to such basics in the midst of the more experienced 
here, Jim, but thanks for that synopsis. It was just the overall that I needed. 
Better than Adobe's site, imho.

Roger


>I believe that LR2 is probably the most significant software offering  
> for photographers since the beginning of digital photography. LR2 was  
> developed by photographers for photographers. It allows you total  
> control over your digital photography from file and project management  
> to the look and feel of your images. LR1 was the initial LR but it was  
> just the beginning. LR2 is a huge step forward from LR1.
> 
> One of the most important aspects of LR2 is that it is totally (100%)  
> non-destructive. Your original image, as it came out of your camera,  
> is NEVER altered. You can mess with it, ad-nauseam, until it is turned  
> inside out and upside down, and you have never lost your original and  
> it is always available as a live comparison while working in LR2.  
> Also, while working on an image, and you find that the path that you  
> have just gone down is not working, it is just one click to step back  
> to anywhere in the modification path, even back to ground zero. Plus,  
> you can create multiple simultaneous virtual modification paths. All  
> modifications to images in LR2 catalogs, are nothing but a series of  
> instructions (your modifications) and are virtually applied to the  
> original image for displaying on your monitor. The only time that you  
> get an image file with the applied modifications is when you output or  
> export the image. That, of course, creates a new image file containing  
> the real modifications that you applied virtually in LR2.
> 
> LR2 has numerous ways to automatically tweak your image. Most of the  
> LR2 features can be applied to images on import or by synchronization  
> to multiple images. LR2 also has a half dozen or so generic camera  
> calibrations that can be automatically or manually applied to images.  
> You can also calibrate your camera(s) to Lightroom so that LR2 will  
> automatically apply the color/density variances to correct your  
> camera's images to a known standard.
> 
> And all of this is non-destructive. Your original images, as your  
> camera recorded them, have not been altered.
> 
> Unique to LR2 is the Catalog. All images in LR2 belong to a Catalog.  
> You can have multiple Catalogs but only one open at a time. Simply  
> put, a Catalog is something that contains information about your  
> images to help you locate, preview, and organize your image library.  
> Your images can be located anywhere. Your LR2 Catalog knows where they  
> are and makes them, their Metadata, and their modification lists  
> available to you in LR2.
> 
> What LR2 has become (the current version is V2.4) is the file cabinet/ 
> darkroom/finished print/web interface standard. To me, LR2 in my view  
> into my digital images. I use Photoshop as a 'plug-in' to LR2. It is  
> seldom that I use PS - I use it to remove things like power lines, to  
> put a white line (stroke) around an image (see my web site), to do  
> esoteric stuff like 'Content Aware Scaling', etc. LR2 is intuitive for  
> photographers while PS is not. I believe PS is more aimed at Graphic  
> Artists/Designers than ordinary photographers. Besides PS, many other  
> programs can run as LR2 plug-ins, such as Photomatix, all of the Nik  
> packages, SmugMug, etc. By using other programs as external plug-ins,  
> your original camera image is never in jeopardy. LR2 gives PS an  
> 'exported' version of your image, with your LR2 changes either  
> applied, or not, it then PS returns a new image file (.psd) with the  
> PS changes added to it.
> 
> I had a conversation with Adobe's Julieanne Kost (a photographer), who  
> was a contributor in the making of LR and also gives LR & PS  
> workshops. Her name is in the start-up banners of both LR & PS. The  
> conversation was about using LR2 as the main digital image software  
> interface and use everything else (PS and other packages) as plug-ins.  
> Her answer was yes... that's the best way for photographers to  
> proceed.   http://www.jkost.com/windowseat.html
> 
> IMHO,
> 
> Jim Brick
> www.visualimpressions.com

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