I have recently discovered a new software from Adobe called Lightroom available from Adobe Labs. Lightroom is the professional photographer’s essential toolbox and is still in beta version, which is why I thought I post what I like about Lightroom and what I wish Adobe would add to its interface.
What I love about Lightroom is that it:
- Great photo editing options and my favourite is the visual cues for example actual colours on the sliders controls
- Works with raw file format
- Exports its slideshows
- Allows me to batch file naming
- Crops images in set proportions
- Crop Area shows Rule of Thirds guides
Suggestions I wish Adobe will implement in Lightroom Official Release:
- Include Gamut Warning
- Include an Inspector palette
- I guess this is only in the beta version but I wish it will let me a Save option. Currently I could only use the Export option.
- Include the option to define your zoom instead of 4 pre-defined zoom settings
- One of the commands is ‘Show in Explorer.’ It would be nicer if this was changed to ‘Show in Browser’ and then allowing me to define my default browser.
- Make it easier to delete unwanted photos. I tried to click on an image thumbnail in the filmstrip and then I pressed Delete but nothing happened. Then I tried to right-click it but did not get an option to delete the image. I could only do so in the main Library window.
- The idea of keywords is great and I wish it would behave more like rel tags.
- Before and After views were not very intuitive for me. I also thought that the right and left arrows will switch between the sides of the Before and After views, only to discover it transfers one side’s settings to the other side.
Furthermore, the Before view is not just for before any edits were made to your image, it can be as a reference point during development, which is a great feature. I just wish it would offer some kind of mechanism to control the Before view—much like a milestones or Photoshop’s snapshots options. This allows for different versions comparisons. - I already mentioned the Crop Area but I guess because I am so used to using it in Photoshop that I found it a bit confusing at the start in Lightroom. In Photoshop, the crop area moves on the image to your desired position. In Lightroom, when you resize your image, the crop Area stays in the centre of your window and you actually move your image in the background to desired position. Also, resizing the crop Area again, resizes the image in the back. I don’t mind this so much just had to get used to it.
- I wish we had a bit more control with the provided filters such as the sepia filters.
- The History palette remembers every single action you did even when you open the image again. This is great besides the fact that it is a huge strain in your memory and it always slows my computer considerably
All in all, I love it and I will be willing to buy it, which I believe is already possible.