A few months ago, Adobe launched the 3th version of Lightroom. As initially intended in early 2006, Lightroom was created to assist photographers to organize and edit their (mainly) RAW images in a fast and simple way. The first Lightroom version was in fact little more than a file organizer with basic image editing. Four years of development and 3 versions later, Lightroom has now become a powerful workflow tool with impressive functions.
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What's new or improved?
Adobe Lightroom 3 can not be compared with Lightroom 1, so I will only compare this last edition to the previous version, the Lightroom 2. The most obvious change for everybody who worked previously with Lightroom is the completely redesigned import dialogue. It is however important to know that there are plenty of other changes, some of them visible for the users, but many others are simply working behind the scenes. It would bring us too far to try to comment all these changes, but I will try to give a general overview of as many topics as possible.
Importing Images:
In the new Lightroom 3, the import dialogue has been completely redesigned. The new window replaces entirely the old basic window used in the previous version and it is now much more surveyable than ever before. The list for possible options is endless. In order to have an automatic workflow, you can even create a profile based upon your personal preferences. But in case you would not like all these options, you can simply return to the restricted basic window.
Exporting and publishing images:
The final stage in the Lightroom 3 workflow is, as you know, the export of your images as a DNG, TIFF or JPEG format to your hard disc. Now you can also export them to an online gallery, show them as a slideshow or even create a webpage in just one move. The support for Flickr/Facebook (since version 3.1) is built directly into Lightroom. If there is a plug-in to export the selected images directly into your personal online gallery, you can install it and immediately get started.
Edit in Photoshop
Lightroom 3 has been developed with hundreds of options, but still there are several things you will not be able to do without using Photoshop or another similar program. If Photoshop is installed on your computer, Lightroom will automatically choose this program as the default editor when you ask to edit the selected picture out of Lightroom. Once your picture is opened in Photoshop, you can make all necessary adjustments. Just save your image and the adjusted image will be imported into Lightroom as a TIFF file.
For more in-depth image adjustments, you can send files to Photoshop as “smart objects”. The mayor advantage is, if you're working with RAW files, that the exported smart object will preserve your RAW data (including any adjustments that you made to exposure, to the white balance etc.) in Lightroom 3.
RAW engine
The whole engine and development behind your RAW pictures has been taken care of. It had already been implemented into the Photoshop CS5 and therefore, quite logically, it has been foreseen in Lightroom 3. Compared to the previous versions, these improvements are really magnificent. A far better quality of the pictures, particularly for those pictures with high ISO settings, can be reached with this new engine.
Noise reduction & sharpening:
The noise reduction for pictures with a high iso-value was not really the strongest point of the previous Lightroom-version, but with the development of this new Lightroom 3 version quite a lot attention was paid to this particular point. The noise reduction is really impressive and to my knowledge the best available on the market at this moment. All adjustments in Lightroom 3 are non-destructive, which means that you can always return to the previous adaptation. This is were Lightroom has a major advantage. The sharpening of the pictures is as impressive and using the various slides you will exactly reach your aim.
Lens Corrections and profiles
Lightroom 3 now offers lens correction functionality. At this moment, the list of lenses and camera combinations is rather limited, but you can create and upload your own profiles. It is quite obvious that you can only make the best profile if you use the perfect optic, but I must admit that I was very enthusiastic about the reduced distortion, the vignetting and the chromatic aberrations.
Non-Destructive Editing
Image manipulation in Lightroom 3 is non-destructive. This means that all adjustments made in the Develop window, do not affect the original. The original picture remains untouched until you export the file from Lightroom. Moreover, even then, the exported file is only a copy of the original.
Virtual Copy
Virtual Copies are very useful features in Lightroom. If you right-click on an image in the filmstrip or loupe view, you'll see an option named 'make virtual copy'. Very simply, this creates a new preview image, allowing you to experiment with multiple versions of the same shot without doing anything to the original file.
Need to upgrade
When we compare Lightroom 3 to the previous versions, we can see significant changes and improvements. Each of us should determine whether the investment in this new program should be done, but knowing that your workflow speed is increasing so much, I personally think this is useful to do so.
Conclusion
As described before, working with the new import dialog requests a certain adaptation. After some time however, I could appreciate the new workflow and now, I could not return to the previous version. After a busy summer with plenty of music festivals and concerts, I edited over 3000 RAW images in total and I really love this new program. The non-destructive editing, the customizable interface and the amazing operational speed are the 3 mayor positive points to definitely choose for this product.
Best regards,
Sven Michiels