The world of photography is changing, and while freelancers have always had an opportunity to participate in this lucrative realm, it is becoming more and more accessible to the masses as the price for equipment and software falls. The difference between a good and great photography business isn’t simply based on the camera you choose. More important is the way you cut through the waves of images, carefully selecting, editing, and printing the best of breed.

If you want to be competitive, you need to learn to hone your workflow. There are many ways to accomplish the task, and in this review we are taking a closer look at Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2. Is it mature enough to provide the necessary tools for the trade? Can it give one an edge in their own market? Read on to find out.

Work Your Workflow

As mentioned before, solid workflow is vital to success with RAW (or even JPEG, TIFF, or photos in PSD, for that matter). While each user will find their own method of taking advantages of the capabilities within Lightroom, establishing a set of guidelines, rules, and methods is what this dynamic application is tuned for. While remarkably similar results can be obtained using Camera RAW (a Photoshop plug-in), the procedure to unify the development of images will often be more complicated than using Lightroom. And who says you shouldn’t enjoy the processing as much as the picture taking?

Five modules make up the whole of Lightroom and, for the most part, it’s workflow capabilities: Library, Develop, Slideshow, Print, and Web. While each module is designed for a specific task, the interface is standardized, allowing the user to focus on their task, rather than switching between multiple applications. Switching between these is as simple as pressing a key, and the transition is remarkably smooth.

It all starts with the Library module and the importing of images. Catalogs of images can be created quickly for each project, but can just as simply be imported into a unified catalog later. Then tag, sort, rate, and even apply basic edits or presets. With Lightroom 2, you can continue to work with your previews, even when the originals are offline. Large catalogs, at the time of this review, do seem to get sluggish as you add more photos. Adobe has been improving the speed of Lightroom 2 since its original release in 2008, and I would expect to see even more improvements in the future.

A large set of keyboard shortcuts help to further optimize workflow. While not all keys work as consistently across all portions of Lightroom, it is still faster than trying to navigate by mouse alone. Third-party applications can augment these built-in shortcuts, although I do wish Lightroom had the ability to customize the keys, and assign additional shortcuts to other areas of the application (such as commonly used presets). A particular favorite of mine is the “\” key, which toggles between the original and edited image. Another is “shift-tab”, which maximizes the available workspace by collapsing the toolbars. Unfortunately, not all shortcuts work consistently. For example, when using the adjustment brush the “+” and “-” keys will not increment the selected area.

New to Lightroom 2 is multi-monitor support. This functionality is invaluable when working with limited screen space, allowing for larger sized images. Future upgrades could greatly improve upon this concept, allowing for movable tools al la other application offerings from Adobe.

Picture The Results

Lightroom uses non-destructive editing, storing the changes either in the catalog, sidecar, or both, if desired. An important feature in the realm of digital photography when frequently, the client will ask for changes to the final product. That said, it is important to remember to export your images or include the XMP sidecar when distributing to others.

Proper use of presets and templates can dynamically improve workflow. At the time of this review, there are hundreds of free presets available from the Lightroom community in addition to the sets that are available to purchase. By loading a single image of a set, choosing the appropriate preset, and synchronizing the rest of the similar images to the same settings, it becomes apparent the time savings that can be had. Time savings that can lead to better profitability.

Another exciting new feature in Lightroom 2 is the local adjustment brush. Now, you can dodge and burn without leaving Lightroom. The tool isn’t limited to just exposure changes, however. You can also adjust clarity (sharpen the eyes while leaving the skin tones soft), add and remove color (making the sky alone more vibrant), along with other tasks. These too, can be saved as presets. Again, this is another area in which Adobe has been making an effort to improve consistency since Lightroom 2 was released. It’s not quite perfect, but it is better.

Connect The Tools

Most users will take advantage of the first two modules, Library and Develop. But by taking some time to explore the Sildeshow, Print, and Web modules, one can further expand their capabilities, both online and off.

For example, the new flexible print packages from which you can create your own templates, use the built-in set, or download from the web. Design a portfolio of images to print, easily produce contact sheets for the client to choose key shots from, or craft an entire book of pictures, with each page telling a story of the event. You can even create your own identity plate, giving your photos a strong professional image.

One of the great strengths of Lightroom is it’s expandability through plug-ins and connectivity to outside applications such as Photoshop. Panoramas are made simple by sending to and stitching in Photoshop. When the task is finished, the image is returned Lightroom for further editing, if desired. This particular functionality (sending images to Photoshop, regardless of the task) is limited to Photoshop CS3 or above. By converting Photoshop actions to droplets, Lightroom can be further expanded to new realms. Other popular plug-ins include Noise Ninja, Export-to-Flickr or SmugMug, Photomatrix Pro, and LR/Mogrify.

True, Photoshop could also perform many of these tasks. And yes, Camera RAW has the same essential toolset as Lightroom. Certainly Bridge could act as the Library. But if you examine what it would take to quickly and efficiently tag, filter, process, and produce hundreds of images from a single shoot into the best image set possible, one quickly comes to the realization that Lightroom is much better suited for the task.

The Lowdown

If you already have the first version of Lightroom, the upgrade is well worth the expense. If you don’t own Lightroom yet, know that while this application isn’t the only piece of the puzzle (a strong foundation of photography basics is always important), it does provide a great way to optimize your workflow, improve your output, and stun your clientèle with brilliant imagery. Who doesn’t want to spend less time processing, spend more time with camera in hand, capturing the world at large.

The Good

• Can further optimize workflow and improve output
• Non-destructive editing
• Plug-in and outside application extensions
• Customization tools

The Bad

• Large libraries can cause slowdowns
• Inconsistent behavior with some tasks
• Photoshop connectivity limited to CS3 and above

Price
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 is available here for $299 US (retail) or upgrade from $99 US.