Lightroom concerns, do you have any?

I love Lightroom (LR), it performs 90% of my usual tasks and does them well. However, I have a couple of concerns..

I have noticed that LR doesn't create a .XMP sidecar for storing information. With that in mind, I cannot just open any RAW file on my HD with say Bridge or Photoshop expect it to have my adjustments already.

What about entered Metadata? No keywords when browsing with any other program?

Ok ok I get it, so LR uses it's own "Database" to store Metadate, RAW image adjustments, virtual copies, etc. But is the only way to transfer this database is to copy all it's files manually? Why no "Backup Database" or "Share Database"? What if run multiple computers, say 2 desktops and a notebook?

Am I missing something? Some one please tell me it's all a bad dream. I love LR to death and these are some issues I wish that I knew of a way around.

You have to tell LR to export XMP.

You can do this 2 ways.

EDIT> Preferences, Select the File Management tab and click the ..."Automatically write changes into XMP" Box or...METADATA> XMP > Export XMP metadata to file (for the selected files)

it does use .xml data

under preferences there is an option to auto write xml data to file. If you choose that, it will wrote the changes as you go, so if you did use bridge or whatever else, the files would be up to date. However, this is a huge system bottle neck, as it takes a lot longer to write the info.

So theres a 2nd option, to leave the above option off, but you can arbitrarily write it at any point. Just go to metadata, xml, write xml data to file.

The biggest concern I have is the massive CPU usage it takes making some of the adjustments with the tool sliders.

And if you reinstall it the serial key is invalid.

Yeah it does have some speed problems, memory leaks and such. Adobe is well aware of the CPU issues on PCs. Mac seem to work better. Hopefully a revision will come soon adressing these problems for us PCers.

Spend some time over at the adobe forums for Lightroom and you will see what people are saying. I think the general concensus is that it is generally liked but that there are some significant things lacking in it but this depends on how each photograher uses it and what their original workflow was.

-- Lightroom Forum --

Thanks for the link Sheldon, and thanks Corey and Grizz for the info. That was a huge concern that I no longer have

I think it has a lot of issues but I did end up buying it. At $100 I guess it is worth it.

Well I guess we gotta be patient. This is version 1. Adobe will continue to refine it, add modules and features, etc. until someday it will become a bloated resource hog, just like Photoshop.

don't forget aperture was so bad at version 1 they gave everyone $200 back.

Even at $170 (discount code, and i don't qualify for edu.) I bought it, and I'm known for trying to stay on the cheap side. IMO it made sense, I get a top notch RAW converter, plus all the extras and ability to use the inevitable add-ons for a fraction of the price of CS3 (I use elements 3.0 for most editing otherwise - ACR inside of it is minimal, to be kind.) I'm hoping for some changes/bug fixes/enhancements in a 1.1 release, but didn't want to be kicking myself after the price jumps... $300 would be well out of my range.

I went to saving my changes in .xmp data too... I want to have that when I want to send my RAW to someone else to have a look,but mainly just to have with my regular backup of images.

Question though... Virtual copies only get stored in LRdatabase, right? or are they in .xmp data too?

davidcrebelxt wrote in post #2936787
Question though... Virtual copies only get stored in LRdatabase, right? or are they in .xmp data too?

This is a section talking about taking files from library to move to another, but kind of covers your question.

http://www.luminous-landscape.com …ighroom-illuminated.shtml

Cool, thanks Corey.

Quick question (aren't they all :rolleyes

I'm sure I read somewhere that the Lightroom license allows you to install the software on (say) a desktop PC AND a laptop.

Can anyone verify this?

TJ

The importer has a problem with time zones. It adds the (computer)GMT offset to the image time when making directories for each day so (for me) any images taken after 1400 hrs get put in the following days directory. The EXIF date and time is unaffected.

Adobe support have so far ignored my support request on this.