Simplified version of the popular software includes tools for editing photos and creating albums and slideshows
Simplified version of the popular software includes tools for editing photos and creating albums and slideshows
Pros
- Numerous tools and sliders to adjust the photo as needed
- Lightweight program that is easy to use even if you're a beginner
- Some advanced features that even veteran photographers will love
Cons
- The automated adjustments often need to be corrected
- Newcomers will experience a learning curve
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a photo editing program with many tools to make your photos look amazing. The is similar to Photoshop proper but many of the tools have been scaled back to make this specific for working with photos. You can edit photos manually or automatically based on your needs.
Automated Editing
If you're new to photography and photo editing in general, then you may want to use Lightroom's automated editing feature. This takes your photo and balances the colors, exposure and removes common mistakes to ensure your photo looks amazing. While this can be very helpful to newcomers, professional photo editors may want to stay away from this feature.
It often does too many corrections and you'll have to turn down the color correction. This can be helpful to those who need fast edits or aren't used to the program yet, but you shouldn't rely on this feature too much.
Main Features
Lightroom offers numerous tools that allow you to make the photo perfect. There are numerous sliders to make adjustments to contrast, exposure, highlights, white and black balance, shadows and much more. With the right adjustments you can make a good photo look fantastic.
The Point Curve tool is a favorite among professionals. This tool lets you create and edit curves in the photo with your mouse. Just move the mouse up or down to work with the curves in the photo. You can also use the Texture tool to add or remove texture in the photo. This can be done throughout the whole image or just a small part of it. You can smooth faces, make the background grainier and make certain sections flat with ease.
You get many other tools as well. There is an advanced cropping tool that makes it simple to resize the photo or remove certain sections. The auto-leveling tool can automatically adjust the levels based on your needs. You can use the Adjustment Brush to make targeted adjustments to certain sections, the Healing Brush fixes damaged areas and the Gradient tools apply colors to specific areas of the photo. There are many other tools to choose from.
While this is a scaled down version of Photoshop, you'll still find that Lightroom can help you edit photos to perfection.
Learning Curve
As with many other photo editors, this one has a learning curve that you'll have to overcome. If you've used other Adobe programs, then it shouldn't take you long to learn Lightroom. If this is your first time with an Adobe program or any photo editor, then expect it to take a few hours before you understand all the tools. This isn't because the interface is jumbled or the program is overly complex. There's just a lot here and it will take time to understand how everything works.
The interface is primarily composed of two columns filled with icons. You will be able to pick your tool from these columns. There are many other tools hidden in the menus from the top. This interface ensures that the most common tools are available while other less common tools can be accessed when needed.
The biggest problem that new users have is remembering which section a certain tool is in. Once you learn the placement of everything this program becomes very simple to use.
Social Media Support
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom has social media support and allows you to easily upload photos to your favorite website. With the click of a button you can immediately upload the photo. You just need to add your login credentials first to ensure the photo is uploaded to the right account. Another interesting feature with Lightroom is the People view.
This allows you to enter a name and see all photos on your computer of that person. That makes it easier to group the photos together or to upload photos of a certain person. This might pull up redundant photos of the person, but it can still be useful if you only want to work with or upload photos from a specific person.
Pros
- Numerous tools and sliders to adjust the photo as needed
- Lightweight program that is easy to use even if you're a beginner
- Some advanced features that even veteran photographers will love
Cons
- The automated adjustments often need to be corrected
- Newcomers will experience a learning curve
Pros
- Multiple Format Support
- Plugin Functionality
- Facebook/Flickr Integration
- Numerous Settings
- Beginner Accessible
Cons
- Steep Learning Curve
- System Resource Heavy
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a piece of digital image editing software with many of the same basic functions as Adobe Photoshop, the benchmark photo editing app of the industry.
The main difference between Lightroom and the full version of Photoshop is that Lightroom doesn't contain the tools within Photoshop that are related to drawing or the direct creation of additional image content. Instead, the software focuses on the actual editing of photos via tools that both enhance and correct images efficiently and quickly. Lightroom features a number of stunning filters, and you can mark photos with tags and geolocation information.
There are a number of basic yet critical edits you can make to your photos with this software. You can adjust exposure levels and color balance, and you can analyze images for appropriate ratios. There's a built-in autocorrection feature, and you can straighten photos that came out crooked. You can change the calibration of the image, and you can add meta-information to them like digital labels. Of course, the software is compatible with just about any digital image file type.
To help you better organize your photos, Lightroom features a simple tool for cultivating presentations of your photos, and you can use the tool to create personalized photo albums or books to be printed or shared through the internet.
Thanks to the direct integration with both Flickr and Facebook, you can post images directly to those networks from inside Lightroom after you've made your changes. The process is as simple as dragging a photo you want to upload to the appropriate network logo within the app.
Lightroom has the power to find photos on your synced mobile device, DSLR camera, or other digital image source. It can edit those photos directly inside their original location, so if you make changes on your PC, they will appear on your mobile device. You'll have no trouble using these tools since they are common yet exceptionally powerful.
There are few examples of premium image editing software with the right balance of powerful tools and simplicity. Lightroom is the ideal digital solution for your simple photo editing needs, and many of the features are automated so you only have to select that you want them applied to a photo. The design and creation tools from the full version of Photoshop won't be missed by those who just want raw image editing power.
In the newest version of Lightroom, the software has been optimized to take full advantage of the graphics card in your system. This not only improves the performance of the app, but it will lighten the load on your system, thus allowing the entire machine to work smoother. Facial recognition software has been added, and it can be set to find faces automatically. There are also new features to help with editing special photos like HDRs and panoramas. Finally, the latest version adds several new file types to the list of compatible formats.
Pros
- Multiple Format Support
- Plugin Functionality
- Facebook/Flickr Integration
- Numerous Settings
- Beginner Accessible
Cons
- Steep Learning Curve
- System Resource Heavy
