Is Lightroom worth it?

Yes.

It makes more sense than Frequency Modulation, but I've just never heard it as an acronym.

I get done my editing smoother and faster/more consistant with LightRoom 2.0.

LR also makes me think differently when shooting. it imitates a darkroom by putting limits on how much you can manipulate the image, so to me it feels more like shooting with film where you need to get it right in the camera and not rely so much on the post processing.

DDCSD wrote in post #7997885
File Management/Manager?

Bingo. I just made a new acronym up.

The thing is, acronyms are not much use if no-one knows what they mean.

True, but I figured for LR it could only mean a few things.

nphsbuckeye wrote in post #7999699
True, but I figured for LR it could only mean a few things.

Not when I'm wearing my tin-foil cap!

Since I'm new to this stuff, could someone explain what DPP and ACR or some of the other acronyms used in this thread mean?

I'm definitely considering buying LightRoom as shooting birds has turned my shooting habits into a flurry of images. There has got to be a way to keep track of shooting history or this will get out of hand in no time.

Thanks, Links here have helped convince me that LightRoom is indispensible for anyone shooting on a regular basis.

I have a few questions:

1.) Since I'm working from a laptop and storage is limited there, can I simply move my catalog with all images onto an external LaCie drive? I don't care as much about access time as I do running out of space on my local hard drive. I'd like to get everything off of my local hard drive except for applications and current projects.

2.) I there any other application I need in addition to LightRoom? I already have and use CS3.

DPP = Digital Photo Professional (the Canon software)
ACR = Adobe Camera Raw

In short:

DPP stands for Digital Photo Professional and is the Canon Raw conversion software that is bundled with Canon DSLRs

ACR stands for Adobe Camera Raw and is the utility that comes with Photoshop CSx and Photoshop Elements that converts Raw images (and more recently other image files)

Lightroom shares the Raw engine/developer with ACR

You can store your catalog on an external drive that is attached to your computer, but not on a network drive (at least as of LR1)

If you have LR and CS3 you are in need of nothing! Of course, many people use other software for things like noise reduction, HDR, etc, etc, but CS3 does a bunch. And, both CS3 and Lightroom accept add-ons to enhance and/or further their capabilities.

Ken Nielsen wrote in post #8005504
Since I'm new to this stuff, could someone explain what DPP and ACR or some of the other acronyms used in this thread mean?

I'm definitely considering buying LightRoom as shooting birds has turned my shooting habits into a flurry of images. There has got to be a way to keep track of shooting history or this will get out of hand in no time.

Thanks, Links here have helped convince me that LightRoom is indispensible for anyone shooting on a regular basis.

I have a few questions:

1.) Since I'm working from a laptop and storage is limited there, can I simply move my catalog with all images onto an external LaCie drive? I don't care as much about access time as I do running out of space on my local hard drive. I'd like to get everything off of my local hard drive except for applications and current projects.

2.) I there any other application I need in addition to LightRoom? I already have and use CS3.

DPP is Digital Photo Professional, Canon's RAW software that comes with their cameras.

ACR is Adobe Camera RAW, the RAW engine in PS and Lightroom.

1. Yes you can store your images on an external drive. This won't really hinder your performance much unless you are consistently building previews. Render previews directly after import and you should be fine. However, keep your catalog on the internal HD. This is being accessed all the time so the internal is the best way to go.

2). Nope. LR can work all by itself or with an external editor like CS3. LR will automatically setup CS3 as the default image editor for any times that you want to send a file to CS3 for pixel based editing.

Last Question (I think):

In order to keep LightRoom as the center of everything, if I want to edit an image and then save it to a new folder named 'Processed Images' as a new subfolder, do I do all of that from LightRoom? That is: Do I go into Lightroom, open the catalog of images and get the new image original I want to edit in Photoshop, call up Photoshop from within LightRoom, do the work on the image in Photoshop, save it as - and to a new folder I will then create, called 'Processed Images' --- is all of that done from LightRoom?

If so, LightRoom is a very smart and useful program.

Ken Nielsen wrote in post #8005591
Last Question (I think):

In order to keep LightRoom as the center of everything, if I want to edit an image and then save it to a new folder named 'Processed Images' as a new subfolder, do I do all of that from LightRoom? That is: Do I go into Lightroom, open the catalog of images and get the new image original I want to edit in Photoshop, do the work on it in Photoshop, save it as - and to a new folder I will then create, called 'Processed Images' --- is all of that done from LightRoom?

If so, LightRoom is a very smart and useful program.

To help keep LR up to date with your images it is best to do as much as possible from within LR. So if you need to do something to your shot that you can not do in LR send it to PS CS3 by using the Right Click > Edit in PS CS3 option. This will allow you to setup how you want to send the file (TIFF or PSD) and it will keep the exported image in the LR catalog. LR will also allow you to stack the exported file along with the original to help reduce clutter if you wish. When you have finished editing in PS you simply Save the file, not Save As. Using Save will update the file in LR automatically.

Mike is absolutely correct. The conventional wisdom is that you do absolutely everything in file management within LR. That way, LR can keep track of your images.