Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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 Lightroom 2.0 on Windows XP |
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| Developer(s) | Adobe Systems |
| Stable release | 2.6 / 2009-12-18 |
| Operating system | Mac OS X, Microsoft Windows |
| Type | Photo Post-Production |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Homepage |
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a photography software program developed by Adobe Systems for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, designed to assist professional photographers in managing thousands of digital images and doing post production work. It is not a file browser like Adobe Bridge, but rather an image management application database which helps in viewing, editing, and managing digital photos.
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[edit] History
In 2002, veteran Photoshop developer Mark Hamburg began a new project, code-named “Shadowland". Hamburg reached out to Andrei Herasimchuk, former interface designer for the Adobe Creative Suite, to get the project off the ground. [1] The new project was a deliberate departure from many of Adobe’s established conventions. 40% of Photoshop Lightroom is written using the Lua scripting language. After a few years of research by Hamburg, Herasimchuk, Sandy Alves, the former interface designer on the Photoshop team, and Grace Kim, a product researcher at Adobe, the Shadowland project got momentum around 2004. Herasimchuk chose to leave Adobe Systems at that time to start a design company in the Valley, and then Hamburg chose Phil Clevenger, a former associate of Kai Krause’s, to create a new look for the application.[1]
Photoshop Lightroom’s (LR) engineering talent is based largely in Minnesota, comprising the team that had already created Adobe’s ImageReady application. Troy Gaul, Melissa Gaul, and the rest of their crew (reportedly known as the “Minnesota Phats”[2]), along with Hamburg, developed the architecture behind the application. George Jardine, a skilled photographer and previous Adobe evangelist, rounded out the early team, filling the Product Manager role.[1]
[edit] Beta development
On January 9, 2006, an early version of Photoshop Lightroom, previously just called Lightroom, was released to the public as a Macintosh-only public Beta, on the Adobe Labs website. This was the first Adobe product released to the general public for feedback during its development. This method was then later used in the development of Adobe Photoshop CS3. Further Beta releases followed. Notable releases included Beta 3 on July 18, 2006, which added support for Microsoft Windows systems. On September 25, 2006, Beta 4 was released, which saw the program merged into the Photoshop product range, followed by a minor update on October 19, which was released as Beta 4.1.
[edit] Version 1.0
On January 29, 2007, Adobe announced that Lightroom would be shipping on February 19, 2007. US list pricing was set at $299. The UK retail price was £199.
Lightroom v1.x is not updated when an upgrade to v2 is installed; a new serial number is required, too.
[edit] Version 2.0
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2.0 Beta was advertised in official emails from Adobe in April 2008. New features include:
- Localized corrections (edit specific parts of an image)
- Improved organization tools
- Multiple monitor support
- Flexible printing options
- 64-bit support
The official release of Lightroom v2 was on July 29 2008, along with the release of Adobe Camera Raw v4.5 and DNG Converter 4.5. Adobe has added DNG Camera Profiling to both releases. This technology allows custom camera colour profiles, or looks, to be created by the user and saved. It also allows profiles matching the creative styles built in to cameras to be replicated. Adobe released a complete set of such Camera Profiles for Nikon and Canon models, in addition to basic Standard Profiles for all supported makes and models, through Adobe Labs, at the same time as the Lightroom v2 release. This technology is open to all programs compliant with the DNG file format standard.
[edit] Version 3.0
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.0 beta was released on October 22, 2009. New features include[3]:
- New import pseudo module
- Grain
- Publish mode
- Backup on export
- Custom package for print
- New noise reduction
- Improved Sharpening tool
[edit] Features
Unlike traditional image editing software, Photoshop Lightroom is focused on the following workflow steps:
- Library - image collection review and organization - similar in concept to the 'Organizer' in Adobe Photoshop Elements
- Develop - non-destructive RAW and JPEG file editing
- Slideshow - tools and export features
- Print - layout options and preferences
- Web - automatic gallery creation and upload
The Develop mode has a number of standard presets for colour correction or effects and supports the sharing of custom presets online.
[edit] Competitors
Apple Inc. develops a similar product, Aperture.
According to 2009 statistics from research company InfoTrends, released by Adobe product manager John Nack, of all the 1,045 North American professional photographers who were interviewed, 37.0% used Lightroom and 6.3% used Aperture while 57.9% used the Photoshop Camera Raw plug-in. Of the Mac users, 44.4% used Lightroom and 12.5% used Aperture. [4]
Bibble from Bibble Labs is another RAW conversion and photography workflow system. It is available for Windows, Mac and Linux systems.
IMatch is another product with similar features.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Jeff Schewe (January 9, 2006). "The Shadowland/Lightroom Development Story". http://photoshopnews.com/2006/01/09/the-shadowlandlightroom-development-story. Retrieved 2006-01-09.
- ^ Jeff Schewe (January 9, 2006). "Announcing Adobe Lightroom". http://www.photoshopnews.com/2006/01/09/announcing-adobe-lightroom/. Retrieved 2007-09-29.
- ^ "Lightroom 3 Beta announced". October 22, 2009. http://lightroom-blog.com/2009/10/lightroom-3-beta-announced.html. Retrieved 2009-11-01.
- ^ http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/2009/09/lightroom_vs_aperture_09.html
[edit] External links
- Adobe - Photoshop Lightroom
- Review of Lightroom v2 with examples, on dPhotoexpert.com
- Review of Lightroom v2, given "Recommended Award" on IT Reviews
- Talk given by Troy Gaul, Adobe's lead Lightroom programmer in 2009 at the C4 conference, covering Lightroom's history, code and architecture up to version 2.0
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