Adobe Lightroom 3 Review

Summary

All in all, Lightroom has many features that makes it better than much of the free photo management software out there (i.e. iPhoto, Picasa) such as the built in noise reduction tools and the masking tools. The level of organization available for photo albums is also a step above other programs out there. 

Compared to another popular program, Aperture by Apple, Lightroom is the better choice as long as you're willing to pay the higher price. Aperture is able to do a lot of what Lightroom does but Lightroom has even more features and integrates nicely with other Adobe products. Another perk of Lightroom is that it runs a lot better than Aperture does on a Mac.

We tested Lightroom on a 2011 Macbook Pro 13" with the Intel Core i5 2.3Ghz and 4GB of memory and it ran very smoothly. Lightroom didn't take up too many resources to the point where other applications struggle to run. The only time where it would hang (for several seconds) was when loading new full-size photos to edit. This only got worse when trying to work with RAW files. Switching between modes such as Library and Develop mode was also not the smoothest transition, but it was acceptable.  As many photographers need an editing solution while travelling or in the field, Lightroom's good performance on such a small computer is without a doubt a big plus!

Price

Lightroom is not the cheapest photo management software out there. While its list price is $299 for the full version, most retailers sell it for around $189. If you are a student or educator (have a .edu email address or student ID) then you can get it for $89, however.

Retailers frequently run Lightroom specials, reducing its price by up to 50%.  Currently, B&H photo is offering Lightroom for $165.

Free Trial

As with all Adobe products you can try Lightroom for 30 Days to see if it is right for you before buying.  Download your free trial from Adobe.

Lightroom vs. Photoshop

Many people wonder whether to get Lightroom or Photoshop for editing photos. The answer is that while either can get the job done, you will benefit greatly from having both. Lightroom is extremely useful for editing many photos quickly and easily while Photoshop is better for fine adjustments and more advanced effects. What Lightroom is great for is easily adjusting settings such as exposure, white balance, cropping, straightening, and removing red eye. While still possible with Photoshop, it is generally a longer process to perform such simple tasks. Where Photoshop comes in is if a photo needs major touching up. Things such as removing objects from the image will require Photoshop to get the job done. All in all, if you are just a starting photographer looking to organize and lightly touch up photos Lightroom is the way to go. If you find that you want even more adjustments on photos then you will need to get Photoshop. 

Lightroom has a system of non-destructive editing, which means you will always have your original image. This is done automatically whereas Photoshop does not have that ability (it has a short history list instead). If you want to achieve the same effect with Photoshop, you would have to come up with your own system of always having a master file stored somewhere. Since Lightroom has non-destructive editing, you don't have to worry about messing up your files.  It does make certain things work differently than it would in a traditional editor, however.

To add photos, you should import them. Importing photos allows you to have separate catalogs for different events, dates, etc. Deleting photos is also a little different. Usually you would just delete it from the photo directory on your computer. If you do this, then you still have to remove it from the Lightroom library. If you do not, there will still be versions there and you will get a message saying that the original photo is offline. The best way to delete a photo on lightroom is to just do it in the application and select the option to also remove the photo from the disk.

Note that if you already own Photoshop, you can use it together with Lightroom when the need arrives for its more powerful editing features.  Lightroom can communicate with Photoshop and open files in it when requested.

The Bottom Line

Lightroom is an excellent program that we can highly recommend to any photographer who needs to process and catalog large quantities of images.  Version 3 brings many improvements over the last two, most notably better performance and improved RAW development.  As you can see, the pros greatly outweight the cons we found!

While the value rating suffers due to Lightroom's list price of $299, you can usually score Lightroom for much less from retailers, in which case it's well worth the money.

It is extremely difficult to objectively rate software as different criteria are important for every user.  By the ratings below we're saying that while Lightroom isn't perfect, it does its job of speeding up workflow and providing an all-in-one photo editing solution quite well.