benchodroff.com

I have been on a quest these past couple years to improve my digital photography workflow. I shoot strictly in RAW these days because the post processing possibilities are just as important as getting the right shot. Unfortunately, I feel that RAW support has been poorly added to most applications. Instead of quickly allowing photographers to work with the photo, it must be first imported into a lesser format so that the application can work with it.

Adobe has always been at the forefront of photography applications and their newest release is Adobe Lightroom. It features unprecedented RAW support and acts as a digital photo studio to work specifically with RAW photos. I must say that I think the overall motivation behind this application – to finally create the ideal RAW photo workflow – is a worthwhile endeavor. However, I think Lightroom needs some changes before I’m willing to plunk down the $200 Adobe is charging. Still, I think this application is an improvement over using Adobe Bridge and I am going to continue to work with it.

My biggest gripe is speed. I hate, hate, hate photo applications that initially show a slightly blurry version of the photo before showing the highest quality of my photo. You end up having to wait nearly a second before the photo is in full resolution. This bugs me to no end. I am using a very powerful machine (Dual-core 2ghz with 2 gigs of ram) and I really do not want to have to deal with waiting. The first thing I do when I download a couple hundred photos is I fly through them all and delete the photos that are out of focus, poorly shot, or just undesirable. Adobe Bridge seemed to render the photos must quicker – and that is surprising. Perhaps there is a setting I am missing. As I change the settings on a photo, such as the contrast, I have to wait for the application to “redevelop” the photo. It’s just too slow to render and because of that, I am going to stick with my Bridge and Photoshop workflow.

My biggest compliment is the fact that they put all the “developing” tools right at my fingertips. I can adjust the exposure, contrast, and see vital photo histograms right from one window. It is really beautiful to “turn off the lights” and the GUI goes dark except for my photos. I also like not having to go through the process of putting photos into Photoshop unless I really need to. Although, Adobe Lightroom makes importing photos into Photoshop a click away.

This is the first release of Lightroom and I am hoping that the next release will address the rendering speed issues. Sigh, if only I had a Mac…I would love to use Aperture in Windows.