Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 software provides a comprehensive set of digital photography tools, from powerfully simple one-click adjustments to cutting-edge advanced controls. Already considered part and parcel of the digital workflow process of serious Photographers at all levels of the photographic hierarchy, Lightroom 4 brings a number of noteworthy features. Adobe Lightroom largely serves as the “organizer” to Photoshop’s “editor” when it comes to digital workflow. In addition to the many organizational, display and photo-sharing features found in previous versions of Lightroom, Lightroom 4 offers a number of organizational and nondestructive photo-tweaking tools of its own. Lightroom 4 gives you speed, efficiency and an easier workflow.
Included among Lightroom 4’s newest features are the following:
Before we get started it’s important to note that the minimum system requirements for Lightroom have changed. Lightroom 4 does not support 32-bit Macs. You must be running a 64-bit Intel processor and OS 10.6.8 or higher. On the Windows side, support for Windows XP has been dropped. Lightroom now requires a version of Windows Vista or Windows 7.
Highlight and Shadow Recovery
Sharpness and resolving power aside, the difference between a terrific photograph and an “eh” photograph often has to do with dynamic range, or in layman’s terms, highlight and shadow detail. Lightroom 4 contains enhanced tools for extending the dynamic range of your image files in order to bring out the maximum levels of detail from your photographs.
Photo Book Creation
Half the fun of taking pictures is sharing them with others. Here too Lightroom takes the ball and runs with it by enabling you to create books illustrated with your own photographs. With simple-to-use templates, creating a book requires little more than clicks of your mouse and a bit of imagination.
Additional enhancements and improvements over previous versions of Lightroom include the following:
Enhanced Online Sharing Integration
Lightroom 4 allows you to share your photographs with others on Facebook, Flickr and other online image sharing and social media sites, and depending on the website, Lightroom 4 also enables you to monitor any online comments friends and family members might post about your images.
Video Publishing
Just as Lightroom makes it a piece of cake to share your still images with others on Facebook, Flickr and other social media portals, Lightroom 4 makes it equally easy to share your videos in HD format on your favorite social media sites. With LR4 you can also save HD video formatted for sharing and viewing on smartphones, tablets, HDTVs and similar image-sharing hardware.
Location-Based Image Tagging
In addition to organizing your photographs, Lightroom 4 also has the ability to include any GPS-gathered data when importing image files from GPS-enabled cameras and smart phones, making it possible to sort images by location as well as to use this data to plan or retrace trips and travel plans.
Extended Video Support
Still imaging aside, the organizational and editing skills of Lightroom 4 include the ability to organize, view, edit, enhance and embed video clips. LR4 also enables you to trim video clips, extract still images from any portion of the video feed, and adjust the imaging properties of the video using LR4’s Quick Develop tool.
Nondestructive Working Environment
One notable difference between Photoshop and Lightroom is the nondestructive environment. When making adjustments to images within Lightroom, changes are recorded within a cache and only applied to your image once saved. Lightroom doesn’t require as complex a workflow to undo edits—no use of layers, etc. This allows you to be a bit more experimental and risky with your corrections without the fear of overwriting your original files.
Batch Processing
From an efficiency standpoint, Lightroom has always excelled in terms of batch processing. Like previous versions, the ability to apply one or more image adjustments to a group of images is a simple task.
White Balance, Noise Reduction, and Moiré-Removal Brushes
If you ever wished there were a simple set of brushes that would allow you to go in and easily correct color balance, reduce noise levels and even eliminate pesky moiré patterns in your still images, Light Room 4 has you covered here too. The ability to go into your image files—locally or globally—and clean up jarring differences in white balance within single images or being able to match the coloration of a string of images is mighty powerful, and with Lightroom 4 it really couldn’t be easier. The same can be said for any noise and moiré patterns that might diminish the integrity and overall quality of your image files. A click or two and they’re gone, or at the very least, greatly eliminated.
Advanced Black-and-White Conversions
Convert your RGB image files into full-bodied monochrome images using an 8-channel mixer for maximum tonality and detail.
Soft Proofing
Save time, ink, and output media by being able to soft proof, or preview the way your image will appear when output on color-managed printers.
Emailing from Lightroom
Mail your images directly from Lightroom to any email address quickly and easily.
Multiple Output Formats
In addition to the exciting photo book, email and social network output options, Lightroom is also capable of publishing your work in a variety of electronic media. HTML and Flash galleries can be created for use on your own personal website as well as easy-to-share video slideshows.
Seamless Compatibility with Photoshop
If you need to perform a bit more work on your images than Lightroom permits, there is a quick and seamless interface between it and Photoshop for detailed pixel-by-pixel modifications to be done. Any adjustments made in Photoshop will show up instantly within the Lightroom environment for a more productive workflow.
Importing Libraries from other Software
Import still imagery and artwork from other sources and applications directly into Lightroom 4 for editing and output to wherever your images are destined to go.
Trial Version of Adobe Lightroom 4 is available from Adobe’s Download site here.
Adobe Lightroom 4 is available in the following complete package and upgrade configurations. Adobe has lowered the price from $299 down to just $149 for the full version, (and only $79 for the upgrade). Also, the European pricing has been brought in-line with US pricing (Just 109 Euros for the full version and 62 € for the upgrade). Student And Teacher Edition is sold at $79 for eligible students & teachers. You can Purchases from B&H Photo using these links which will help support my blog.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Software For Mac And Windows (Full Version)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 Software For Mac And Windows (Upgrade From Previous Version)
Photoshop Lightroom 4 Software For Mac And Windows (Student And Teacher Edition)
http://mansurovs.com/diseases-that-plague-photographers
Ha, ha. I suffer from all 4 of those diseases. Had a good laugh and read it to my wife, who says I am completely and terminally affected (even worse being a doctor myself) 😉 My problem is I don’t earn out of photography, and I can afford those expensive gears which others can only dream about. So why not, as I don’t have any other bad habits 🙂