.FLYINGHEAD PRODUCT REVIEW
.TITLE Lightroom 3: what’s new, and why is it important?
.AUTHOR Scott Koegler
.SUMMARY In this first of three articles, Scott Koegler looks at what makes the new Adobe Lightroom better than the last version.
.TIP
Adobe’s [[http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/|Lightroom]] has transformed the way many of us deal with our photographic images since its first incarnation as a beta four years ago. The latest update to version 3 is significant because it adds features that experienced Lightroom users have been asking for.
Many people use Lightroom to make more than 90% of our photographic work much easier and more versatile. Don’t get me wrong, I still use Photoshop CS5 for those few things that Lightroom doesn’t do, like panoramas, HDR merges, and other tasks that require handling more than one image at a time. But for an increasing percentage of my photographic — and even for some video file management — Lightroom is it.
The new features that make up Lightroom 3 run the gamut from speed and convenience updates, to image manipulation features. But when I say "convenience" I’m not denigrating the advances at all. For some photographers, convenience can mean the difference between getting the shot that makes the assignment work, and missing it altogether. Adobe’s update includes at least 14 different additions and improvements.
Over the next three articles, I’ll cover the ones I use most frequently (which is actually most of them) and just mention the others.
.H1 Getting images into Lightroom 3
Lightroom 3 is as much a workflow product as it is an image editor, so let’s start with the beginning of the workflow: getting your images into Lightroom 3. The original import process was okay, but it lacked as much in style as it did in function. The new import process mirrors the look and feel of Lightroom itself, presenting the same 3-panel interface with the import options along the right panel, source locations on the left, and the familiar library grid in the center, where your imports are shown in preview.
Many of the options are the same as in the original import process, like keywording, destination selection, and file naming, but there are two things about the new process that make it a winner for me.
The first is the overall layout that now seems like part of Lightroom, as shown in Figure A.
.FIGPAIR A The import dialog seems better integrated with Lightroom’s style.
More important though, is the speed of the import process. Previous versions were not all that slow, but Lightroom 3 is a speed demon on imports. You won’t notice it with 20 or 30 images, but when you start to import hundreds at a time, you’ll appreciate the speed improvement.
And it’s now possible to create and save your import settings as presets, and use them repeatedly for similar jobs.
Another new option for collecting images directly to Lightroom is Tethered Capture. This is one I don’t use much because I don’t typically shoot in a studio. But those who do can connect their camera to their computer running Lightroom 3 and have their shots automatically transferred to their Lightroom catalogs.
There are controls for naming images and segmenting shoots that will make a difference for you studio shooters. Using this feature requires that your camera support remote operation. Canon and Nikon DSLRs are great for this, and I think there others that will do the trick. But it’s not available for all cameras.
Next week, we’ll look at the new features for what Lightroom calls "developing" and the rest of us call editing. Stay tuned.
.BIO Scott Koegler explores digital products and writes about them from his home in the foothills of North Carolina, and from his camper (as long as he has an internet connection. He has acted as CIO, editor, publisher, photographer, and wine taster, and enjoyed each role.
