sell me on lightroom, is it worth it

im trying to find a software to speed up my work flow, am i right to think light room will do this, i can get it or a mear 99 dollars at journeyed.com, you have to verify your a student but then its just 100, is this worth it, i shoot raw and cs2 just isnt fast enought for me, tell me the good, the bad and the ugly, or if you reccomend something else. summer is busy for me and i cant spend 40 hours a week in front of the computer. thanks everyone.

Although I'm starting to use the Adode ACR 4.1 converter in CS3 more and more you might be better off upgrading your version of Photoshop instead. Its has some very nice editing options currently not even available in LR just yet.

However the LR purchase will be the cheaper route and its a fine application but from my own experience you need at least 2 gigs of RAM as some of the editing features in it respond rather slow if using 1 gig or less.

LR will most certainly speed up your work flow. Download the trial and give yourself 30 days to learn it and you will see its value 10x over. Ok, maybe not 10x :P ... But, it's a great app! As for the ACR 4.1 comment, there are talks of a LR 1.1 update and I would expect this to be included though I don't believe anything is confirmed.

e3opian wrote in post #3306928
As for the ACR 4.1 comment, there are talks of a LR 1.1 update and I would expect this to be included though I don't believe anything is confirmed.

I can confirm that the new controls in ACR 4.1 will be included in the LR 1.1 update.

LR - it's a really split field - some love it, some hate it. The only thing you can do is download the 30 day trial, and use it yourself. One word of advice though - to start with, you may be inclined to go back to what you're familiar with, and LR may feel slower as you're not as familiar with it. Stick with it, at least until you've learned the program properly, and THEN make your decision.

For $99 it'd be a no-brainer for me... you need CS3, otherwise, to access ACR 4.0+.

1.0 has some bugs, and memory issues that hopefully will get ironed out soon by an update; and apparently some new features and tweaks are in store (beyond what ACR 4.1 does.)

Remember that while the RAW develop tools are very powerful; that this is also a workflow application. If it doesn't fit your workflow; or you are not willing to modify yours to the extent needed, you'll be fighting it. (Many people's complaint is that it is a database... all images to be worked on NEED to be imported. You can't just browse folders like in some other converters.) As Victoria said, some people like it or hate it.

I'd view a few tutorials, read a few reviews, and once you have a feel for what it is download the 30 day trial.

Unless you are a real quick study or have all kinds of time it will take weeks, if not months to unearth all of the fabulous features of lightroom. This video tutorial http://www.whibalhost.​com …hotoshop_LR/01/​index.html will speed up the process. To me it is definitely worth it!

If you mostly edit photos in ACR curently then LR is your program. If you like to work in layers, masks, and do more image manipulation than stick with PS.

I fall in the first category so LR works very well for me. I couldn't live without it.