Lightroom 3 - Develop Intro
Editing images is the job of Lightroom's Develop module. Offering extremely precise control over image adjustments, the Develop module lets you manipulate color temperature, tonal curves, exposure, white balance, and much more.
Image Engine
Lightroom 3 uses a new image processing engine that works with your camera's raw image data or with TIFF, JPEG, and PSD files. The new engine produces much clearer details in images. You may be surprised at just how good your camera's raw image details look.
Because the image processing engine is new, older images you have from previous versions of Lightroom may end up looking different when processed in Lightroom 3. To prevent this, Lightroom 3 offers Process Versions, the ability to either use the new engine or retain the processing from previous versions of Lightroom. You can see a before and after side-by-side comparison of the two processing versions before you commit to one or the other. You're going to love the new processing engine, but having a choice is always a good idea.
Non-Destructive Editing
Lightroom uses non-destructive editing; it never alters a single pixel of the original image. Instead, it creates files that contain sets of instructions on how to process the original image. You can track all of the changes you've ever made to an image, step back through the changes, or return to the original or any snapshot point along the way.
Lightroom 3 - Develop Advanced Tools
The basic Lightroom 3 Develop tools haven't changed much from previous versions of Lightroom. They're still grouped in panels that can be expanded or collapsed, and their operation is straightforward and well labeled. Lightroom 3 does, however, add some new capabilities in the Develop module that are worth a look.
Noise Reduction
Along with the new engine come improved noise reduction capabilities. If you work with low light images, the new noise reduction system is a big step forward. I was able to clean up sensor, color, and luminance noise from my camera without degrading image detail, just by using the adjustments in the noise reduction panel. I also noticed that edge details remained sharp as noise was reduced.
Image Grain
High-speed film had a noticeable grain structure in developed images. Some photographers took advantage of grain to give images a hard, cold look.
With digital cameras grain is no longer an issue, but the lack of grain removes one of the key effects photographers often liked to use. Now you can use the Effects panel to add grain back to your images, giving them the hard, coarse look of bygone times.
Lens and Perspective Correction
Adobe has been creating lens profiles that map the geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting of popular lenses. You can use these profiles to correct the distortions a lens introduces. Seeing the distortion removed from an image shot by a wide angle fisheye lens is amazing.
You can also correct perspective with the equivalent of a tilt and swing lens, regardless of the lens you used to shoot the initial image.
Lightroom 3 - Tethered Capture
One of the most requested features is Tethered Capture. This feature allows you to connect your camera directly to your Mac and control it from within Lightroom.
Adobe currently supports 26 different cameras for Tethered Capture; most of these are recent Canon and Nikon models. Adobe will add more cameras to the list of supported cameras as time goes on.
When you start a Tethered Capture session, you can create the session name and decide if you will Segment Photos by Shot, which will let you create shot folders during the tethered session as you take your images.
Lightroom displays the camera's current settings, the Develop presets that will be applied, and, if applicable, the shots folder that will store the images. Tethered Capture is somewhat basic. It lets you easily capture an image from your Mac, but there doesn't seem to be a way to set up shot sequences to shoot an array of images at predefined intervals, or use a camera's burst mode.
Nevertheless, Tethered Capture will be a hit because of the ability to have an image available on your Mac for immediate review.
Lightroom 3 - Wrap Up
Lightroom 3 is a winner. Its new image processing engine alone is a reason to upgrade. Adobe's attention to detail in the photographer's workflow makes Lightroom 3 one of the best applications for both professional and amateur photographers to have on their Macs. Its reasonable price also makes it a good choice for individuals who have a large collection of images, and who have outgrown more basic applications, such as iPhoto.
Lightroom 3 does have a few quirks; what self-respecting application doesn't? One of the quirks that most bugs me is the inability to have more than a single Library catalog open at any one time. In fact, if you open or create a new catalog, Lightroom in effect quits and relaunches, something that's a bit disconcerting the first time it happens.
The other quirk that bugs me is how Lightroom uses panels to display the available tools for a module. Even if you hide tools that aren't in use, you must still scroll through the panels to get to all of the options. I'd like to be able to reorder the tools in the panel so the ones I use most often are near the top.
Even with its quirks, Lightroom 3 is a well-designed application that provides tremendous capabilities that any photographer, professional or otherwise, is going to enjoy using. If you're serious about your images, you should seriously consider Lightroom 3 as your go to application.
