021/365 - Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Presentation

One of the nearby camera clubs hosted an Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Demonstration this evening. This was the first time that I've really had a chance to look at this software, and I am very impressed. I learned two very significant things tonight. First, I learned that most of what I do in Photoshop CS can be done in Lightroom and you have the added benefit of being able to organize and manage your photographs.

I also learned the true benefit of RAW image capture. The man presenting the software is William Haun (pictured), and he does all of his photography in RAW. The presentation was basically a walkthrough of his workflow as he transfers photos from his card to his hard drive. One of the pictures that he was using for the demonstration was taken at a concert and the guitarist was well exposed, but the background was significantly under exposed. In fact, it was basically black. Because he had shot in RAW, he was able to boost something-or-other (yes, this is the technical term) and what was initially black turned into a detailed ceiling. He was then able to clean up almost all of the noise inside of Lightroom with the built in noise reduction features. It was trully incredible.

If you've never seen this, I highly recommend that you check out the free trial. I don't have the money for it right now, but when/if I ever do, I will definitely invest in this software.