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Get Adobe Lightroom 3 for free! (kinda)
In the last week there's been a lot of news regarding Lightroom 3's advanced feature, and now here's your chance to actually give it a whirl!
Lightroom is great for every kind of photographer -- casual, avid snapper or professional. It's not a full-featured editing suite like Photoshop, but it does have most functionality that photographers (note: not 'digital artists') might require -- but if you're the kind of artist or photographer that likes to airbrush his works into submission, Lightroom isn't for you. It is a 'digital darkroom and presentation' tool -- so from downloading photos, to sorting through them and producing pretty presentations/contact sheets, Lightroom's the program to use.
For those of you that have used it before, and are wondering why it might be a good time to upgrade (or at least try the beta), here are the new or enhanced features that Adobe are touting:
- Brand new performance architecture, building for the future of growing image libraries
- State-of-the-art noise reduction to help you perfect your high ISO shots
- Watermarking tool that helps you customize and protect your images with ease
- Portable sharable slideshows with audio-designed to give you more flexibility and impact on how you choose to share your images, you can now save and export your slideshows as videos and include audio
- Flexible customizable print package creation so your print package layouts are all your own
- Film grain simulation tool for enhancing your images to look as gritty as you want
- New import handling designed to make importing streamlined and easy
- More flexible online publishing options so you can post your images online to certain online photo sharing sites directly from inside Lightroom 3 beta (may require third-party plug-ins)*
Comments
11
Subscribe to commentssodapopOct 27th 2009 2:54PM
I wonder how this compares to the image editing features in iPhoto...
Sebastian AnthonyOct 27th 2009 3:43PM
Hm, it's far superior, but a different market I guess -- I don't think anyone other than point-and-shoot photographers use iPhoto.
But also, iPhoto is free... if you can afford an Apple, of course :)
sodapopOct 27th 2009 4:50PM
Well, having just used iPhoto 6 (older version) to edit a mess of photos this weekend, its not just for point-n-shoot. It has some Photoshop comparable eding tools: crop, rotate, constrain (resize).... Batch change...
Plus the sliders: brightness, contrast, saturation, temperature, tint, sharpness, straighten, exposure, levels...
It also has 8 preset effects, red-eye fix, enhance image preset, and retouch (finger blur).
These are the features I know of.. plus there are plugins for such things as watermarks etc.
I'ved used Photoshop for 17 years and I was amazed at how much iPhoto can edit images. Since Lightroom is also not for 'digital artists' (like me), I am not sure a person would need much more.
sodapopOct 27th 2009 4:53PM
LOL if you can afford a $300 picture correcting app, you better be able to afford an Apple. If you are broke, you could always use the online version of Photoshop - or Flickr.
Sebastian AnthonyOct 27th 2009 4:56PM
Last I checked, PC users don't buy a PC for just one application... I know Mac users have a tendency to do that, but not PC.
Lightroom isn't about correction. It's a digital 'light box' basically. It's for photographers (though 'serious' ones are likely to get more use out of it).
It sounds like iPhoto is pretty neat! I guess it is Lightroom's equivalent for the Mac, assuming Photoshop still takes the 'top' spot.
Sebastian AnthonyOct 27th 2009 5:01PM
Oops, didn't finish my sentence in the middle there.
It's for photographers to arrange collections of photos, to sort, to batch-apply changes/white balance/etc.
But as you say, iPhoto seems to cover most of that!
sodapopOct 27th 2009 5:10PM
Lightroom started out on the Mac... and is described as "an image management application database which helps in viewing, editing, and managing digital photos" on Wikipedia. That's the same exact thing as iPhoto - especially as the Features are described on WP. Although Aperture would be it's direct competitor.
corfmanjOct 27th 2009 4:13PM
This is a great idea! Sucker a bunch of people into trying it for several months, hope they get so hooked on the software that they can't live without it, and then make them pay $300 to continue using it.
Any drug dealer will tell you that the concept works perfectly.
Um, pass.
ArloOct 27th 2009 11:08PM
Anyone else find it ironic that the new features include tools to both get *rid* of noise, as well as *add* it.
(Yes, I understand one is garbage and one is artistic, but still...)
ellenDec 8th 2009 11:03PM
I am wondering and hoping that this version will be able to incorporate photoshop actions!
Sebastian AnthonyDec 9th 2009 8:20AM
I think that might almost defeat the point of Photoshop itself... but we can remain hopeful :P