[Daniel_Swe]

Hi all,

I'm a happy owner of a Pentax K-5 since a month ago.
Really enjoy the upgrade from the K10 which served well.

As a hobbyist with 3 kids, 2 small, I try to optimize the post picture phase. I want to cream out
as much as possible from the pictures without spending to much time doing PP.

Today, I shoot raw+ and adjust white balance and EV compensation in PDCU and batch create
JPGs. The JPGs are handled with Picasa and sporadic edited in Photoshop Elements 6.

Now, I would like to add a noise reduction in the simpliest way. I can buy Lightroom 3 for appr.
50 GBP. I would then use Lightroom to do the noise reduction.

What's your opinion? Is it a good move, giving my less noisy images at high iso without spending too much
cash and also not adding to much time to PP?

[Mareket]

Why not do it all in LR? It's what I do, it's quick easy and amazingly simple. Lightroom is well worth the money you pay for it.

[JinDesu]

PDCU has noise reduction - a little less intuitive until you get used to it, but....

...also, depending on what you do with the pictures (like put them on facebook for example), the downsizing removes so much noise already that denoising isn't always necessary. I know that my ISO 2000-3200 shots barely need any denoising when I downsize for facebook (which usually hosts pictures at 720x460 pixels).

[andry]

i use the Neat Image, the best software for noise reduction!!! and it's realy work. i have Photoshop 5 for elaboration of my images and sometimes use LR, but for noise reduction the Neat Image is the best and very easy to use. Neat Image - best noise reduction for digital cameras and scanners

[twitch]

Now, I would like to add a noise reduction in the simpliest way. I can buy Lightroom 3 for appr.
50 GBP. I would then use Lightroom to do the noise reduction.

Buy lightroom and use it as the centre of your workflow. I have aperture which is very similair, and believe me it makes handling tons of RAW images a breeze.

[Gimbal]

Go for lightroom 3, it is popular for a reason. It's actually good.

[jase036]

Yeah, I'd recommend you go for Lightroom, you can do everything in your current workflow in Lightroom and from there export to Elements if you need to, or output JPEGs, heck there are plugins that allow you to export directly to facebook, flickr and others.
Lightroom also has automatic lens correction profiles for a lot of the current Pentax glass mounted on the K5, so you will be able to correct things like CA, distortion and vignetting automatically. Of course sharpening and noise reduction can be all handled within the program as well. Another plus is that you can have a nice, organized catalog; you can assign keywords to your photographs, use filters to search for a specific photo or collection, automatically add custom watermark upon export and a lot of other things.
You will also have a lot of versatility if you decide to change your workflow, and will be able to get the most out of your RAW files.

You can download it and try it out for 30 days before you decide to spend your money on it.
Adobe Lightroom 3

You can also download the Lightroom 4 beta and try out the new upcoming features.

[Daniel_Swe]

Thanks alot for all answers!

I bought LR3 so I will now dig deep into it.

Thanks again,

Daniel

[maynard001]

You made the right call. Lightroom is great. I just started using it a couple of weeks ago. You may find that you don't even need to create JPEGs. LR does such a good job with it's "publishing" module that it created JPEGs to upload to the web...then deletes them afterwards. Virtual copies...non-destructive editing...printing packages. It's really great.

LR alone will probably end up replacing Qimage, ACDSee, and Photoshop in my workflow. One program to rule them all....

[Belcik]

"publishing" module

Could You elaborate few words how this module works and what can be done with it?
(I am also thinking about LR, but unfortunately, this means new laptop...)

[maynard001]

Well...I've only been using LR for a couple of weeks...so some of the veterans can correct me if I'm wrong...

But there is a publishing module in LR3 that connects to the major photo-sharing websites (facebook, flickr, smugmug, Google+). All you have to do is drag the photos you want to upload to the appropriate entry and LR will convert the RAW images to JPEGs...upload them...then remove the temporary JPEG files. I've tested it out on flickr, facebook, and G+ so far...all seem to work great.

You can download a free trial from adobe for 30 days. I'm in the middle of my free trial now...but I'm getting ready to purchase the full version.

[Michaelina2]

I have been using LR since 2.0. I recommend you get LR 4 (Beta)... It's the future, stable, and it's free. If you wish to learn LR, you might as well learn on the cutting edge. I have tons of examples of what can be done (or should not be done ) in the link (below)

Cheers... M

[Okiedave]

I agree, go for the LR4 beta. I have been in LR3 for about a year, and it is fantastic, but the LR4 beta is so much more powerful. Just one "small" example is all the sliders now start at 0 in the middle not 0 at far left.... which means for instance you can take the black slider either way not just in one direction. There are a lot of new things, but some those little changes are very powerful.

[maynard001]

Just be careful if you download the Beta as you may get stuck with some dead time. The Beta ends 3/31. I doubt Adobe will release the full version prior to the end of the Beta period. It may take them a couple of months to evaluate the feedback they received from the Beta and work it into the final version.

So if you love LR4...you may get stuck for a period of time between the end of the Beta and the release of the final version.

[Okiedave]

Very good point indeed!