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Review of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0
By Irakly Shanidze
As we all know, there is no ideal camera system. That's why most professional photographers and quite a few advanced amateurs use at least two and sometimes more systems for different types of photographic assignments. Now, when digital capture became a reality for nearly everybody, it is not uncommon for someone to have massive amounts of digital files from different digital cameras that require different processing software applications. It used to be much easier back in the day when negatives and transparencies went in archive sleeves and got buried in big black binders.
Archiving techniques for digital images are quite a bit different from film storage, and especially daunting when archiving RAW files. For a few years, I was unsuccessfully trying to come up with a system that would enable easy access and fast searching, and, at the same time, would not be too time consuming to set up and operate. Adobe Bridge that came as a part of Photoshop CS offered some relief, but it was slow and lacked the automated features that I wanted. The subsequent CS2 and especially the CS3 release were much better, but still far from perfect. Even though Bridge solved the problem of file compatibility (Adobe Camera RAW being a part of Bridge has always been a leader in a variety of supported cameras), the biggest problem was Bridge's limited ability to deal with large sets of RAW images.
Adobe and Apple came to the rescue at approximately the same time. My first impulse was to go with Apple Aperture (it seemed logical for an OS X user), but it turned out that it did not support two out of my three camera systems. Consequently, I became a guinea pig for Adobe Lightroom Beta. The Beta was packed with clever tools and elegant looks that almost distracted me from its shortcomings and "not yet implemented" features. When I went to the Adobe Lightroom forum and meticulously complained about everything that was not right with the software, some nice people there sent me a pre-release copy of the final Lightroom 1.0 for evaluation. After using it for almost a month, here is what I think about it:
SCOPE AND COMPATIBILITY
Lightroom 1.0 is a comprehensive digital image management software tool that makes possible cataloging, archiving, non-destructive editing, printing and electronic presentations of photos shot with nearly all, even the most exotic digital cameras. In addition to what everybody would expect (Nikon, Canon, Olympus, etc.), it is compatible with such oddities as Contax N Digital (72 bodies sold in the US) and antiques such as Kodak DCS ProBack digital backs. Incidentally, it supports a full range of Phase One backs, which renders Capture One software absolutely useless. Adobe Photoshop support is built-in, but for those who prefer alternative image editing software, Lightroom offers the capability of setting up an additional external editor.
FILE MANAGEMENT
Library mode in Lightroom 1.0 enables files to be quickly and conveniently arranged into folders and so-called "quick collections." Files can also be assigned color flags and star ratings that can be filtered later.
Thumbnail size can be adjusted in a stepless fashion. Double-clicking on a file enlarges it to up to 4:1, and double-clicking brings it back. Control-click (or right-click for those infidels with multi-button mice) on a file brings up a pull-down menu with a host of self-explanatory choices.
What is cool:
- Excellent import tool. When a memory card is inserted, or an "Import…" button is pressed, an Import window appears that has previews of all files to be imported. There is a check box next to each file, so only files that deserve to be imported may be selected. Files can be automatically moved to a new location, or just copied to keep originals until the validity of imported files is verified. A backup of imported files can be created automatically by a simple check mark. Files can be automatically assigned metadata containing important information not limited to the photographer's copyright information.
- Some essential adjustments like white balance and exposure can be made right from the Library panel.
- Adjustments to one file can be easily synchronized across a folder, a collection, or just a group of selected files.
- Provided proper metadata exists, files can be sorted by a camera type, a lens, a creator and a location (some of this data can be embedded during the import process).
- Navigation (left) and Develop (right) panels can be moved out by just hovering the mouse over the corresponding controls, or by simply pressing the Tab key, so the thumbnail area can be maximized.
- One of the seemingly useless, but very elegant and in reality very convenient features is the "enable mirror image" mode. I found that most women prefer mirrored portraits of themselves. Going through a portrait session with a client can be much more profitable if mirrored. Try it and you will understand.
What is not:
- When importing files from certain cameras (namely, Leica M8), previews show only if the content of the card is first copied to a computer drive and imported from there. This is clearly a bug that hopefully will be fixed in one of the early updates.
- There is no file browser capability in its true sense. It is only possible to browse files previously imported into the Lightroom library. Moreover, if a new file somehow ends up in one of the Lightroom folders, they are not seen until imported. This is not a hypothetical scenario and will be discussed later in this review. It seems to me that the developers' intention was to keep imported files separate at all costs, which may have been a good idea. But why not have a fully capable file browser (like Apple Aperture, or Bridge, for instance) where Lightroom library files were somehow highlighted, or color-coded?
- The Export feature is straightforward and relatively simple, but it is totally surpassed by Aperture's drag-and-drop JPEG export. Another convenient timesaving feature lacking from Lightroom is export-to-email capability.
- What Lightroom REALLY needs is the capability to synchronize libraries across the network. Just imagine this scenario: you have a laptop full of photos that you downloaded during a location shoot. After coming home, just press a button, and everything is magically (well, almost magically) transferred to your main computer for further work and archiving. Now, this is possible only by manually transferring files and then importing them into the Lightroom library of your main machine.
RAW CONVERSION AND MORE
As I mentioned before, Lightroom understands practically all RAW formats known to humankind. It not only understands them, but also has the capability of non-destructive editing. In most cases, if a file does not require some high-level retouching or montage, it can be left in its RAW state thereby saving valuable disk space. In addition to the white balance and exposure adjustment mentioned above, RAW files can be cropped, straightened, color corrected and rid of digital noise, sensor contamination and even red-eyes. Corrected files then can be printed, assembled in a slideshow or a web site. This is really cool, but it gets even better. Non-destructive editing can be applied to processed file formats, as well. For instance, a TIFF transparency scan can be touched up, color corrected and cropped just for printing, but, if necessary can be opened in Photoshop, or another image editing application in its virgin state. All information about adjustments and corrections made to a file is stored in so-called "sidecar" files with .xmp extensions. XMP files from Lightroom 1.0 are almost fully compatible with Photoshop CS3, which was not the case with Lightroom Beta. In other words, Lightroom 1.0 beats Bridge CS3 in everything except full-browser capability.
Lightroom 1.0 developing tools are very similar to those found in Adobe Camera RAW, but are more refined. New features like Recover (highlight recovery) and Fill Light (shadow detail recovery) are extremely useful. Exposure correction can be done either traditionally, or by dragging a histogram.
Lightroom sports tone curve adjustment, and what is really cool is that the curve is superimposed on a histogram, which makes adjusting much more intuitive than in Photoshop CS2.
Just like Photoshop, Lightroom keeps a history of changes made to a file and lets you make snapshots of intermediate states. At any moment, all adjustments to a file can be reversed by clicking on a Reset button at the bottom of the right panel.
By using a simple shortcut, the image may be taken to Photoshop for retouching. Lightroom automatically creates a PSD file, imports it and then stacks it with an original RAW. However, if a file is dragged from a filmstrip onto a Photoshop icon, the file opens in Adobe Camera RAW without Lightroom adjustments. If the file is later saved in the same folder, Lightroom will not see it until the picture is imported. Maybe it is meant to be that way, but I find it annoying.
What is not cool:
- Black and white conversion and split toning are fast and intuitive. However, they are both somewhat coarser than tools available in Photoshop. In fact, Channel Mixer in Photoshop does a much better job of fine B&W conversion.
- Lightroom offers a series of presets, but most of them do not seem particularly useful. Most of the time, the simple application of a preset leads to unsatisfactory results. Incidentally, the same holds true for the "autoexposure" setting.
- The chromatic aberration removal tool found in Lens Correction section offers the same limited functionality as Photoshop. Red/Cyan and Blue/Yellow corrections can only be vertical or horizontal, and in some cases it is impossible to correct an image directly.
- The camera calibration section offers a profile menu, but usually only built-in Lightroom and camera profiles are available. Profile selection can be useful in tweaking image contrast, tone-color distribution and even for B&W conversion. Not in Lightroom. If you feel like playing with profiles, open the file in Photoshop and do it there.
- When a file is exported to Photoshop, a copy of an original with an "-Edit" suffix is created. There is no way to change this naming policy except renaming each and every file manually. It may not seem like a big deal, but this very suffix interferes with a naming system that I developed and used for over five years.
PRESENTING YOUR WORK
If you think about it, there are only three possible ways that digital content can be presented. An on-screen slideshow, a stack of prints, or a web page are the choices, and Lightroom does it elegantly, gracefully and with exceptional ease.
ON-SCREEN
In most instances, an on-screen presentation is limited to a direct photographer-client interaction, and Lightroom developers recognize that with some nice touches to the program design. For instance, you can create a so-called identity plate (or even several to choose from) and have it displayed instead of the Adobe Lightroom logo on a screen. This sounds like nothing, but it increases the client's awareness of your brand, not of Adobe's.
Setting up a slideshow is easy to the point of being almost insulting. All controls are so intuitive that they require no explanation, except perhaps an identity plate selector. If you want to change the plate, click on a tiny triangle on the plate, and a selection window comes up. New identity plates can be created and saved through the same window.
Lightroom lets you play with backgrounds of any color and a gradient direction can be adjusted with a little rotating knob. A similar knob is responsible for a slide drop shadow. The show can be set to music, and the duration and fade can be adjusted. When the slide show is all polished and refined, it can be exported into a multi-page Adobe PDF file with a simple click of the "Export…" button.
What is not cool:
- Duration cannot be adjusted individually, and the slide show cannot be automatically adjusted to a selected tune.
- Music can only be selected from the iTunes library. Moreover, in order to select a single tune, first a playlist with just this tune has to be created, because Lightroom lets you select a playlist, not an individual tune. How strange is that?
- Adobe PDF export capability almost blows me away, but imagine how nice would it be to burn a TV-compatible VCD or DVD with a press of a button?
ON PAPER
Printing cannot be easier. Just select a template on the left, set color management policies and printer driver settings on the right, press a button and go pour yourself a cup of coffee. The printing panel has basically all the functionality of Photoshop's "Print with preview" window. In addition to what it offers, an identity plate can be printed on every image. It can be resized, rotated and moved across the image area to match the picture format. I find a tiny semi-transparent logo much less obnoxious than a two-inch copyright line while bearing the same level of rights protection if properly registered.
The printing panel of Lightroom is probably the best thought out feature as I found nothing in it that would cry for improvement.
ON THE WEB
The Adobe Lightroom Web panel is a dream. For those who used Adobe Photoshop Web templates, it will not change the world; however, it is much more convenient to use for several reasons. First of all, it is "what you see is what you get." You do not have to build the web page to preview it as it is dynamically updated every time you change anything. Secondly, Lightroom has an FTP-client built-in, which means that the web pages can be seamlessly uploaded on your web site provided Internet connection is available. Setting up the FTP applet requires only a login and a password. Uploaded pages do not require any server-side modifications and are immediately accessible via web browser. Controls for the web panel are elegant and self-explanatory.
What is not cool:
- What I did not like about the web panel was its limited selection of templates, both HTML and Flash. It looks like there are plenty, but most of them are variations of two major templates. This is puzzling taking into consideration that Photoshop CS had an extensive template library. I especially miss interactive templates that enable commenting and approval of images.
- If an identity plate is a graphic file, it cannot be resized. It is not a major problem, but may require maintaining several identical plates of different sizes.
- In order to create a web page from a subset of files in a folder, they have to be flagged, or color-coded and then a corresponding filter has to be turned on. Simple selection of several files will not do the trick. It is inconvenient because filtering makes non-coded files invisible in a preview pane, and it is easy to omit a photo.
- Web page full time preview works well on my main computer, which happens to be a PowerMac G5 with two 2GHz processors and 5GB RAM. This is not the case with a 1.25GHz G4 laptop. Pages generated and uploaded correctly, but preview works only in an external browser.
SUMMARY
Despite some inconveniences, Adobe Lightroom 1.0 is a formidable digital workflow management application. It makes managing large numbers of RAW and processed image files fast and intuitive. Interface is simple and uniform across panels. Most features are self-explanatory and do not require referring to a user's manual or online help.
File developing features are so powerful and comprehensive that, for those photographers who do not edit their images extensively, Adobe Lightroom 1.0 very well may become an alternative to Photoshop.
Irakly Shanidze Bio
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