Back In The Day…
When things were on film, you had to pay for every exposure. That typically meant that most photogs would limit how much they shot to save expense. That also meant a fairly manageable catalogue of pictures, even for a professional.
Now exposures are free, and we’re not limited to the amount of film we’re willing to pay for… so the number of pictures being taken has grown astronomically. When you just fired off 10 shots on burst mode of the same subject, how do you quickly decide which one is THE perfect shot? Run your work through Lightroom 4, and not only will you quickly choose which are keepers and which to trash, but you’ll also get some very handy post processing options which could save you from doing much else.
There’s a reason Adobe put the name “Photoshop” before Lightroom 4. In addition to the ability to quickly import, manage and showcase your photos, you have some killer editing options which many times will replace the need for other photo editing software titles.
Something Different
Originally when Adobe released CS6, I planned on bundling my review of Lightroom 4 into a larger review on Photoshop, Illustrator and Lightroom. I reconsidered after using this software in depth. Lightroom 4 deserves some spotlight of it’s own, because it is a very powerful tool… and it’s something slightly different from the other titles in the Adobe Suite.
I started with a task I really didn’t want to do. I had over 1000 photos from my own wedding which have been collecting digital dust on a hard drive in my office. I got married about 9 months ago, and I was only slightly overwhelmed by the collection of pictures which I was given. Between 3 different photographer friends, I had everything from blurry and poor composed to crisp and brilliant… and everything in between. To sort through such an important batch of pictures was a daunting task, and I tend to be a digital hoarder, so to delete even the blurriest picture from the big day seemed sinful.
I tried looking through those pictures in Preview on my Mac, but some of them were shot in RAW format, so that really didn’t work. Opening 1000 individual files in Photoshop wasn’t a good option either, I needed something else. Then, like an angel flying down in my moment of need, Adobe came to my rescue. The summer of 2012 has been one of the biggest we’ve seen in new releases for digital photography in some time. While the new Creative Suite 6 stole the show, Lightroom 4 quietly rolled out with some amazing new features which should get a second look.
Organize, Manage, & Share
Before I talk about editing, let me tout my favorite feature set. Lots of programs let you edit, but Lightroom lets me manage my photos in such an amazingly efficient way. You can sort and work with photos stored on multiple drives, even when they aren’t connected to your computer. This is great for folks who have a dedicated media drive at the office who might want to catch up on a little work at home.
Lightroom 4 offers geotagging for any camera (or smartphone) that logs location data from GPS. That way you can separate your honeymoon in Mexico easily from your work trip to Dallas (they looked very similar to me being from Kentucky).
You also have the option to do batch renaming of photos, and you can add metadata for easy searching. That came in handy recently when I went to Jamaica for a week on a mission trip. I got pictures from several sources which I didn’t want to get mixed in with my own work. With a quick import and batch rename I can keep my pictures separate and keep my pride and ego in tact. If you’re into the whole “Photo journalism” thing, you can drag and drop photos into a sequence that makes sense to you, no renaming to reposition like you would in a file folder.
If the idea of individually typing metadata scares you, then you’ll love the fact that when you import pictures you can add batch metadata, keywords, naming rules and even editing presets.
Sharing is Caring
When it comes time to share, you have a ton of great options as well. There is enhanced online sharing integrated right into the software. Publish your photos to an online service such as Facebook or Flickr. You can also publish to Adobe Revel, which gives you access to your entire photo library from iPads, iPhones or Mac.
You also have the ability to make a video slideshow, you can make a beautiful presentation in HD. That’s not just photos, but also any videos taken on your DSLR camera or smartphone. Adobe uses the standard H.264 encoding for a true HD video experience. On the flip side of that same coin you can take HD stills from video to make images from video too. Synergy is no longer just a conference room buzz word, it’s a way of using your media easier than ever before!
New to Lightroom 4 you can now create a beautiful Photo Book. Adobe has partnered with the online service Blurb, you’ll receive a 20% discount from the online service for any photo books printed through Lightroom.
Of course you also get the standard forms of exporting, emailing, and even publishing to the web that you’d expect from a title like Lightroom. Did I mention you can do a lot with this software?
Correction & Editing
Here we see the power of Adobe written into the code of Lightroom 4. In addition to great organization and sharing options, you can also edit your photos. While some of the major Photoshop tools are missing (we are talking about a software significantly less expensive) you still have some powerful and very useful editing tools available. The great part about Lightroom 4 is that you can apply these quickly to a large group of photos, making your workflow much faster than ever before!
Selectively edit just portions of your picture with special brioches, adjust tone, apply effects, color correct, get dynamic tones, adjust highlights and shadows, white balance, reduce noise, correct chromatic aberration with color fringe correction, correct lens distortion (great for the non-full bodied DSLRs) correct perspective, correct redeye, get rid of dis and simulate film grain.
Build your own presets to give just the look you like every time, then watermark your photos so you get credit for your work. If thats not enough, there is great Photoshop integration so you can automatically load them up in Photoshop for even more detailed editing.
The Final Say
I thought I was an Adobe expert. I even promised my media contact a 2 week review deadline… about four weeks ago. But the reality is, with all the changes to the creative suite AND my immersion into the realm of Light Room, I learned so much more using this software over the past few weeks.
While there is a lot to it, it’s not a difficult experience. I think I’ve conceptually got it down, then I peel back a new layer revealing even more that I can do with this software. My end products are better than ever before, my workflow is easier than ever before and I can not stress enough how valuable this software has become to my day to day shooting and editing.
If you’re a photo pro and you’re not using Lightroom 4 as part of your workflow, you’re missing some great tools and advantages over older ways. I can’t recommend this software highly enough.
