[JenniferLeigh]

You don't have to just be a student. If you know someone who is a teacher, staff, etc. at a school they are often able to get the discounts as well.

I just wanted to point out that this isn't allowed by Adobe. Student licenses are non transferable.

Getting a student to buy for you or paying for *cheap* serials off the internet isn't legit.

[rgk]

I downloaded the trial and have to say that I was very impressed with Lightroom.
The only thing i hated is no network drive support - that stopped me buying it.
Typically, I will import and browse on my laptop, but edit on my PC with 2 large screens. Not being able to store my photo's on a shared drive was a killer.

I know I can use a portable HDD, but I have so many now that finding the right drive each time was a pain.

When they introduce network drive support, then I will happily buy it...

Lack of network drive support would be an issue for me, too.

What options are out there for network drive support?

rgk

[falconeye]

The only thing i hated is no network drive support - that stopped me buying it.
Typically, I will import and browse on my laptop, but edit on my PC with 2 large screens. Not being able to store my photo's on a shared drive was a killer.

Lack of network drive support would be an issue for me, too.

I am a bit confused here.

All my photos reside on a RAID5 file server mounted as shared drive. LR has no trouble whatsoever working with the files.

Better even, LR3 will realize if a shared drive is gone (e.g. when on the road) and dim the drive. But will still grant access to all photos via its preview cache stored in its local catalog (i.e., you can still browse photos).

You may refer to LR's inability to store the catalog (which is a database file) in the network. That's for technical reasons to prevent database corruption which is a good thing.

If you absolutely need the local catalog on two computers, just copy the database file (the .lrcat file) prior to opening LR. It is about 0.3GB for a 500GB of photos, so less than 0.1% the archive size. Just make sure your network paths are the same on both computers. So, don't map the same share to two different drive letters. Or better yet, don't map at all. But never mind, if the share moved, LR is able to track the change and adapt its catalog.

I use a different approach though: I have a favorite and a secondary computer and use another method: I import part of one catalog (found on the other computer exporting it) into my main catalog (via "import from catalog"). This way, I can start working on the secondary computer and then import the work onto the favorite computer. At the latter stage (in my case), the import will automatically transfer images from a local to network drive.

This "import from catalog" actually is a merge feature: If you copied the catalog file and proceeded differently from there on both computers, the import feature will only show you the "new" part from the other catalog in the import dialog.

I don't see many caveats with LR's approach. I was first puzzled too. But now, I appreciate the ability to view my photos when the network is unavailable.

[rgk]

I am a bit confused here.

Thanks for the explanation - that helps! I'm on day #2 of of the 30-day trial for LR, C1 and ACD, so still feeling my way around and trying to determine what would work best for me. WHS server and primary/secondary computers to consider.

rgk

[wcchamp18]

Did not see anyone post it but B&H has it for $199.99 right now. Wow, I just had it delivered for $169.99. QUICK, Amazon has it for $179.99!

[Class A]

bit torrent?

Could you at least have the decency to PM the OP rather than making illegal suggestions publicly (if you must make them at all)?

How about someone publishing suggestions how to rob you?

Actually, if you know to install using a sandbox or virtual client, ...

I'm pretty sure that's illegal as well. Just because you circumvent the automatic expiration, it most likely doesn't mean that you are allowed to use the program past the trial period.

I'm concerned about what may happen if I need to do a re-install. What if my computer crashes?

A reinstall on the same computer isn't a problem. LR won't ask you for the key again.

For other scenarios, just store the key in a safe place.

does anyone know of any good *free* online tutorials for LR?

There are loads of places.
One good place is Lightroom Killer Tips. You need to look a bit for the older (more basic) tutorials, but they are usually very good.

If you don't mind spending a bit, George Jardine's develop and library tutorials are the bee's knees. Check out the free samples.

I've always found it waay too slow to do anything.

LR3 is know to underperform on some hardware. The hardware can be very performant but LR can still be slow. I find it often too slow as well. I think there is a lot of suboptimal programming. Hopefully LR4 will bring improvements.

[George Lama]

To expand on Class A's comment on underperforming on some hardware, LR has been known to have these kinds of issues even between minor updates. For example, LR 3.2 was painfully slow for me on Win7 but since 3.3, I haven't encountered these "walk-away-go-get-another-drink" slow-downs.

Other good resources for LR:
Lightroom Tutorials
Julieanne Kost. Senior Digital Imaging Evangelist, Adobe Systems, Inc. Adobe Lightroom tutorials.
PresetsHeaven | Your source to free Lightroom presets

[BirdDude007]

I have both LR3 and Camera Raw 6 and I actually prefer
Camera Raw 6, but that is only because I only know how to use Camera Raw

[piledon]

Lightroom on Amazon -TODAY ONLY
Gold Box Price: $119.99

[gooberlx]

I've tried LR2 and 3 on various laptops (I move around too much to use a desktop for anything) including the current one with a decent CPU, SSD drive, 4gb RAM, etc. I've always found it waay too slow to do anything. Importing pictures, switching between modes, even scrolling through thumbnails.

Does it work quicker for other people? Do you all have state-of-the-art overclocked desktops with liquid cooling? Am I just extremely impatient?

(I find myself still using Picasa for cataloguing and filtering images based on focus and composition, then Photoshop CS3 for raw conversion. This requires a lot more clicking than using Lightroom, but it still takes less than half the time to get through a batch of images.)

Maybe it has something to do with the default color/device profile set for your system?
Windows 7 Gadgets slow to respond, 50% CPU utilisation with gadgets that "move"

I found that when I reset my system's default monitor profile back the the built-in sRGB (Windows 7 x64), not only did the CPU gadget improve, but Lightroom was suddenly not dragging ass anymore. It's a weird symptom, and I'm not sure if it's hardware/driver dependent, but Lightroom was seriously turned into an entirely different animal when I made the correction.

[Asudef]

I was amazed at Lightroom the first time I used it and still am but right now I prefer Bridge and ACR just because I have yet to figure out how LR manages the files I import.

It seems to keep an extra copy somewhere on my HD and I can't really seem to delete pictures from my SD through it. Its probably user error but I stopped using it since it eats a ton of disk space from the imports it has to do to read files.

Otherwise its a beautiful program.

[falconeye]

I have yet to figure out how LR manages the files I import.

It seems to keep an extra copy somewhere on my HD and I can't really seem to delete pictures from my SD through it.

Not an issue.

You decide if LR copies images upon import (to the destination you choose) or just keeps images where they are. Moreover, you can delete images on disk within LR (press the delete button and you decide whether to delete the original or just the catalog entry). And if you delete images on disk outside LR, you can tell LR to synchronize to reflect this change afterwards.

There is a scenario where LR does indeed eat diskspace: This is when you let LR create 1:1 previews and configure it such that they never expire. But this isn't the default setting.

[Rawprospect]

Download a cracked version and find the tutorial on how to install it you have to be a little computer knowledgable though go through the processes of changing host info etc but I have both PS cs5 and Lightroom 3

[gooberlx]

Download a cracked version and find the tutorial on how to install it you have to be a little computer knowledgable though go through the processes of changing host info etc but I have both PS cs5 and Lightroom 3

Why resort to piracy when recent history has shown the software at a somewhat affordable price when on sale?

If it's not worth the $$$, then find something cheaper or stick with free open source software.

[Rawprospect]

To each his own I'd rather use my resources to my best advantages. If I dont have to spend the money to get it I would rather not