Chris has had several photo gigs lately which is great, but since his D50 has a stubborn dust spot on the sensor it means a lot of post processing work.  We’ve tried everything and the spots are still there.  Our next step would be to send it in to Nikon to be cleaned, but you never know what their turn around time will be.   We really need another camera, but are waiting to see if the price of the D200 drops when the D300 becomes available later this month.

So, earlier this week I thought I’d help out with the post processing and did 127 pictures in Photoshop.  It took forever.  Yesterday I decided to play around with Lightroom.  WHY was I ever using Photoshop!?  Lightroom rocks!!  Instead of opening each individual file and making my edits (like in Photoshop) you can import your entire folder to the Library and then make your changes.  And since it’s for photo editing all the tools I need (exposure, color correction, vibrancy, etc…) are in a conveniently located section of the workspace.   I also like the idea of the development presets.  With one click you can change the tone or other creative aspects of the picture.  Make your own presets, or download someone else’s presets and import them into Lightroom.  Here’s an example:

The original image:

The altered image, using a color enhancement preset, and a darken edge preset to achieve a kind of cross processed look.  Took about 2 seconds to make the changes.

I find this really cool, mainly because I’ve looked at several Photoshop tricks to achieve a similar effect and this is so much easier!!!!  Anyway, if you are into digital photography and enjoy working with Photoshop, definitely get Lightroom. You’ll love it!!