Lightroom-licious

I finally broke down and bought Lightroom. I decided to give it a try because the workflow I had with Aperture was not working. I only used Aperture to organize images, so I'll be the first to admit that I was not using Apeture to it's full potential.

With Aperture, I was importing my images, exporting them to another folder on my computer, opening them in Photoshop's version of Camera Raw, saving them as PSD files, then re-importing them back into Aperture. And while Aperture has the ability to send files directly over to Photoshop, I couldn't figure out how to open them in ACR, which resulted in my import/export dance.

With Lightroom this is greatly simplified. I can use ACR to edit the photos directly in Lightroom, and when I need to open anything in Photoshop I can open it as a Smart Object. Smart Objects have become my preferred way of working in Photoshop, because at any time I can double click on the photo and it will open in ACR.

Lightroom also has some wonderful slideshow and web gallery options, which reminded me that one of these days I'm going to redesign my website. I'll probably plunk down the money for SlideShow Pro, but for personal projects and photos for friends, the options in Lightroom will be all that I need.

I feel like an Apple traitor. And who knows - maybe Aperture will woo me back. But for now, Lightroom is my new BFF.