dchew
Active Member
Another vote for Lightroom. I have a side business in photography. I could survive without Photoshop (PS), but not Lightroom (LR). The big advantage of LR is that it is one program that does everything except in-depth pixel editing as others have mentioned. Lightroom does the following things:
1. Imports and catalogs all your images
2. Edits individual photos
3. Outputs photos in many different ways: Prints, jpegs, slideshows, books, etc.
4. LR's printing interface is much better than PS, and it's printing capabilities are at least as good if not better.
5. You can make unlimited collections of different images without moving photos around in files.
6. Most importantly, everything you do to an image in LR is not actually done to the pixels. LR just records your actions as "instructions" and applies them when you decide to output (render) the file.
You can do all the stuff above with PS and Bridge, but in my opinion the learning curve is much longer with those programs. Things LR will not do:
1. You cannot merge photos into panoramas, etc.
2. As mentioned, no layers so serious pixel mangling is difficult in LR
3. There is no "selection" feature, so you cannot pick up your friend's face and put it on someone else's body.
This site here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ has some great videos for learning about LR but you have to buy them. As suggested by nmwranglerx, just download it for free and see if she likes it. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.
Dave
1. Imports and catalogs all your images
2. Edits individual photos
3. Outputs photos in many different ways: Prints, jpegs, slideshows, books, etc.
4. LR's printing interface is much better than PS, and it's printing capabilities are at least as good if not better.
5. You can make unlimited collections of different images without moving photos around in files.
6. Most importantly, everything you do to an image in LR is not actually done to the pixels. LR just records your actions as "instructions" and applies them when you decide to output (render) the file.
You can do all the stuff above with PS and Bridge, but in my opinion the learning curve is much longer with those programs. Things LR will not do:
1. You cannot merge photos into panoramas, etc.
2. As mentioned, no layers so serious pixel mangling is difficult in LR
3. There is no "selection" feature, so you cannot pick up your friend's face and put it on someone else's body.
This site here: http://www.luminous-landscape.com/ has some great videos for learning about LR but you have to buy them. As suggested by nmwranglerx, just download it for free and see if she likes it. Feel free to PM me if you have any specific questions.
Dave
