Slashdot Mirror
Adobe Lightroom Review
onethumb writes "Andy over at Digital Grin got his hands on a pre-release copy of Adobe's hot new app 'Lightroom' last week and has a nice review up. Adobe Lightroom, is designed to go head-to-head with Apple's own recently released Aperture. Is digital photo editing finally getting both powerful and easy?"
One thing that seems nice about Lightroom is that right now it only requires a 1GHz G4. Aperture on the other hand needs at least a powerbook 1.25 G4.
If you don't know what AltaVista is (was), get off my lawn.
Aperture is awesome, and I assume Lightroom will be as well.
I'm an amateur photographer (I just have a D50 right now as my first DSLR but was an SLR user for almost a decade beforehand). I love the new line of DSLRs, they are completely a step ahead of the SLRs for my needs and the quality is amazing. I've ruined a few rolls of film in the past, so I'm glad I'm much safer with the digital storage.
My off-topic question that sort of remains on-topic is this: With all the cheap labor available online (from students, amateurs and those trying to build portfolios of work), does anyone know of good websites where I can upload my photographs and let others "compete" openly to making them look better?
Time is "expensive" for me, I try to live my life by time preference. I don't mind paying someone to do something better than I can, especially if the cost saves me time. I don't believe that time is money, the opposite is true: money is time. I'll be happy to pay up to $5 per photo (even $20 in some cases) to have them cleaned up as needed by semi-pros or even pros. I'm sure there is a market for such a thing, but I just can't find it.
Anyone know of a decent site, as well as what the popular software is for the "doing it for income" photo editor?
Only for OSX? Pity!
I've got a bad attitude and karma to burn. Go ahead. Mod me down.
You're right that a lot of photographers like working on their photos. For me, hobby photography came directly from the fact that I am on the move so much -- some days I'll be out and about for almost 14 hours! I see interesting things every day -- accidents, government workers slacking off, funny occurences, even saw a UFO once (I think it was a bird caught in the wind, it was just unidentifiable).
I like taking the photos, and I think I've become pretty good at it. I think the photos would be better with a little bit of tweaking, and I'd be happy to pay someone to "soup up" some of my favorite shots. I've messed with it myself, but I just don't find the pictures getting better.
My consulting business spends a lot of money (still) on paper marketing (for our customers), and the quality of production of some of my print shops is amazing. On some occasions we've seen GITO (garbage in-treasure out). They don't offer any photo editing as a single item I could buy, and none of their editors wants to moonlight for me.
The resultant photo will then be a collaboration. What you were seeing through the viewfinder when you took it, and what they think it should look like.
If that's ok with you, then go for it. But it won't be 'yours' any more.
I'll be happy to pay up to $5 per photo
If it takes an hour to d/l, analyze, process, and send back...well...$5/hour isn't worth getting out of bed for.
Adobe certainly knows how to cater to its target audience. Consider this: Among those of us most likely to use this software, a significant number would feel slighted if Adobe were to release it for Windows or Linux first. Just as importantly, we recognize that software designed first and foremost for Mac is likely to be of higher quality, with a more careful attention paid to elegance and beauty. Indeed, I for one look forward to integrating Adobe Lightroom into my photography workflow.
Why do you have an expensive dSLR for what are essentially grab-shots?
Good question.
First, I like the ability to use multiple lenses. I carry 3 different lenses in my camera bag and actually use them (the zoom lens is awesome).
Second, I take pictures of customers' offices on occasion. When I do my consulting, I sometimes try to sell my customers on "value added" services such as desk organizing and the like (I have subcontractors that do all these jobs and I get a cut). I love to do before and after shots, so the higher resolution and customization features of a dSLR are beneficial.
Third, I love the quality of it. I've had 2 regular SLRs in a decade. I've had about 10 regular digital cameras, and the quality sucked -- sometimes they required tripods, sometimes they blurred backgrounds, I had no control.
Fourth, The d50 was a huge deal for me as my previous SLR is a Nikon as well -- compatible lenses and all.
That being said, for the $800 or so that the camera cost, it IS a deal. What does a good digital non-SLR camera cost? $400? $300? I'll keep this sucker at least 3-4 years, so it is probably cheaper for me in the long run, and I don't get frustrated over crappy shots (other than those that are my fault).
I have absolutely zero inside knowledge of this, but it would be interesting to know how much inside knowledge Macromedia had of Apple's Aperture, how much input Adobe actually had in the Lightroom product, and what impact, if any, Lightroom had on Adobe's decision to purchase Macromedia.
Or maybe Adobe just thought Macromedia's site was better for hosting betas.
www.clarke.ca
Here's a program from Macromedia...sorry Adobe that is Mac only when Macromedia and Adobe have both been going PC-first for some time now (and both have dropped support for programs that started out as Mac-only, such as Premiere and Authorware) and it's developed in Cocoa.
Is this perhaps some engineer's hobby project that is being rushed to market in response to Aperture as a placeholder while they figure out what to do?
After all, would Adobe seriously ship a product with such poor Photoshop integration?
Just watching the demo the "we have lots of features to add" comment gets bandied about so often it's not funny. How is this a "beta"?
On the radio station I web-listen to (KFOG out of San Francisco), someone's running an ad for high-quality photo printing. In it, there's a caricature of an "elite" French photographer (complete with cheesy accent) who says,
Which sounds a lot like what the guy one step up was recommending.
The Mongrel Dogs Who Teach