My Two Favorite Photography Software

I get asked a lot about the software I use.  Software to process your images is actually almost as important as shooting itself.  Many times the camera and lens take away what the human eye can see and you personally experience.  How many times have you been at a breath taking spot and taken a picture, and then got home and eeesh, you are embarrassed to show your friends.  I can hear it now....."No really guys, it was really beautiful....honest!"
 
Well, the two most important software I use in my work flow is.....
.....Adobe Photoshop Lightroomand Adobe Photoshop CS4.  Lightroom has a beta 3 out that ROCKS the HOUSE!  So I'd wait for that version as it does some amazing things.  Adobe Photoshop CS5was released 15 days ago on April 12, and it is pretty amazing.  I can't wait to get my hands on it.  Does some significant things that cut down your time.   But the software I wanted to focus on today is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.

I know photographers now who used to spend most of their time in Photoshop, now spend 95% of their time in Lightroom and only go to Photoshop when they absolutely need too.  Also the average person who has a million photos with a point-and-shoot, can still benefit totally from using Adobe Lightroom.  Especially since it manages your photos well.  But for those with a DSLR who wants to come back from a shoot of 100,300, 500 images and you want to pick your top 20 pictures in 15-20 minutes with minor edits and adjustments, this software is HUGE!!!!!!  As Randy Jackson would say, this is da bomb! 

Features I love about Adobe Photoshop Lightroom:

• Easy to use
• Organizes pictures WELL! 
• Plays really nice with Adobe Photoshop (really nice)
• Lightroom is NON-DESTRUCTIVE, and is a database, kinda like a set of instructions telling the picture what to do.  Basically if you edit a picture in Photoshop and save it, it will make the changes and that file IS changed.  But in Lightroom you can always reset and go back to the original since it's a "set of instructions", if you will. 
• Virtual Copies: Imagine you want to tweak a picture in Photoshop then save it.  But you still want the original, now you have 2 copies of that 10mb file.  But in Lightroom you can make tons of virtual copies and since it's a database, it's really small to make a virtual copy.
• Adobe Lightroom 3 will organize your videos too.  Sweet!!!!!!!!!!!
• Allows you to put watermarks, re-size pictures and export it easily.
• Allows you to export it directly to facebook, zenfolio, and many other sites.
• Presets: this is awesome stuff, you can save your favorite methods of doing things or even share it with others.  You can also download lots of free presets that others have used and this is the BOOM of the picture.  Enough just making that picture pop like it did when you were there at the scene.
 

• This is one of those pictures that looked so real and amazing when I was in Jackson Hole in 2009.  There was a span of 5 minutes that held it's brilliant colors.  It was one of those breath taking experiences.  However when I got home it was downright wrong.  I plugged it into Lightroom and brought the colors back alive.  I can see peoples faces when they see this picture and say, "I bet you changed it, it looks fake."  My response:  But that is how it was that day.  I adjusted it to how it looked with the naked eye and how I saw it at sunset.  You can see more of my Jackson Hole Pictures here.
• Here is another example how a preset can change the way a picture looks.

•  You get the feeling that was you back in the day when you were kids.  That sepia preset gives it a whole new look and feel.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroomis the number ONE software I recommend!  I use every time I process pictures!  And yes, they have it for Mac and Windows. Retail is $299, but if you get it from non-profit organizations, or student prices you can get it for $89.  See my links below to get it from Amazon which is very fair.

 

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