I'm in love

No, I don't have a new desktop.  Mine arrived months ago and I do love it very much - it's speedy, reliable, speedy - and did I mention it's fast?

I'm in love with a photo editing software.  How strange is that?  Very strange.  But there we go.

I downloaded a 30-day trial of Adobe Lightroom yesterday.  I lost my Photoshop when we transitioned from the laptop to the desktop and have been making due with Picasa ever since.  Picasa is nice and cute but I can't like it much.  I find the editing options too rough-and-ready, I can't downsize the pictures the way I want it and I don't like that Picase overrides my filing system with their own (inferior) version.

I've been looking around and professional grade photo software is just very expensive.   Or rather, it's very expensive for the amateur photographer.  I've been vaguely toying with the idea of whipping myself into shape and pursuing some semi-professional photograph career but so far, I found my photos mediocre. Family and friends raved but I looked at professional photos and there was just something special that my pictures didn't have. "Post processing", that's what.

Even though I liked Photoshop, I found it too clumsy to work with.  I used it mainly for cropping and reducing the size of the photos.  I hardly ever used it for anything else.  That layer thing Photoshop uses?  It scares me. Also, once I found out that the current edition costs $799, that was it for this one. Complicated to learn and expensive won't do for the constantly distracted amateur.

I ran across the 30-day Lightroom trial and thought, oh, why not?  What I expected was that the software was difficult to use, that you had to learn some new way of controling the program like Photoshop or like Expressions, that I would tire of it quickly and then nothing would be lost.

Ah, but non, monsieur!  Lightroom is the awesome.  It's actually not hard to get started without reading a manual or a book although I suspect you'll get a lot more wear out of it once you actually descend into the depths of it.  But even for a bloody beginner, it's loads of fun.  With a few clicks, you can adjust exposure and lighting.  Playing around with the presets is even more fun - you get instant effects, some of which are dramatic and artsy, and some others which are downright awful. 

Presets are pre-defined setting adjustments - they have fancy names like "Alice's less bright dress" or "Elise" and will change your photo instantly - lighting, exposure, vibrancy, saturation, vignettes... and what have you.  Lightroom comes with a few pre-installed presets but there are hundreds, thousands of free presets available on the web for download.  Some are really, really good.  I especially dig the one that lets you even out skin tone and enhance eyes.  Now I finally know how professional photographers find all these kids with flawless skin!

I basically spent the last two days playing around.  I love the ease of use, and the results.  I tend to go a bit overboard with the saturation at the moment but those vibrant colors are so much fun!

Here are a very few examples of some recent transformations.  More pictures are on my flickr site, although mostly without the before/after shots. (Click on the pictures to get a bigger view.)

Alas, this nifty program also costs $299 which is in excess of what one should pay for play.  So I'll be rather busy for the next 30 days, I suspect. Eh, 28.  And running.  Back to work!

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Comments

[Ange.]

I know I don't comment much (have probably only commented 10 times over the YEARS I've been reading here ... ), but I'm an Adobe employee, and if you want to send me an email (I'm assuming that my email will come across to you with this comment, even though it isn't posted online), I think we could talk about your Lightroom/Photoshop dilemma ;)

[Natalie]

I wish we could go halfsies on it. $150 is a lot but not insane...