Adobe Lightroom 4 from the perspective of an Elements user

I’ve been an avid user of Adobe Photoshop Elements for over five years.  Adobe has done a good job at continually adding new features to its core consumer imaging product, but at times I’ve been frustrated by its lack of pro support.  When the occasional paid job comes my way, I’ve been unable to process and present my images to a client in a very polished manner.  Adobe’s Lightroom product hit version 4 this year, and I was sent a copy for evaluation.  If you feel that you’re hitting the ceiling of what Elements or another consumer-oriented image management software can do, then read on to find out if Lightroom might be the right upgrade for you.

The first thing I asked myself when learning about Lightroom is, “Where does this product fit into Adobe’s software offerings?”  The chart below (provided by Adobe) will explain the product line better.

The Adobe Photoshop family

Since Lightroom is presented as a more advanced product at a slightly more advanced price point, let’s dig into their features to see if another $50 will give you the horsepower you’re craving.

The main interface will seem daunting to an unexperienced user, but hardcore Elements/Photoshop CS users should find their way around without too much trouble.  Organization is found on the left side, image viewing in the center, and editing is on the right.  The top menu reveals similarly to the OS X dock.  Moving your cursor to the top of the application window will prompt it to pop down.

The Adobe Lightroom 4 interface

Importing images is identical to using Elements as it uses the external “Photo Downloader” for getting images from a camera.  Importing images from other sources has its own proprietary interface that is feature-rich.  Thumbnails are quickly populated onto the screen by selecting a source from the folder tree in the left panel.  Preset develop settings can be applied upon import, saving yourself from a tedious process later.  Of course, if you’re importing RAW images, these settings can be tweaked or removed altogether later without permanently affecting the files.  I enjoyed being able to play with different presets and have the preview of the effect show up almost instantaneously.

The import screen

Editing features don’t differ very much between Elements and Lightroom.  The key differences lie in the user interface and top-end capabilities.  Lightroom’s pro-am level features really shine here.  The preset effects are quickly applied and previewed.  Keywords and fine-image adjustments can be made from the right panels without having to switch screens or bring up an extra set of menus.  A top drop-down menu reveals library filters to quickly sort your images by date, camera, lens, or label.  For professionals with multiple bodies and lenses, this is a great way to find which equipment may have been acting up during a shoot.  One could also quickly sort out whose shots are whose if there is more than one photographer on a shoot.

Organization is more important than ever since most families and professionals have multiple cameras.  Plus, people take more pictures than ever today since taking digital pictures doesn’t require any up-front cost for development.  Because of this, people generally fall into one of two camps.  One group makes no attempt at organizing their images and hence rarely gets to really enjoy the thousands of pictures they take.  The other group tries to stay on top of the flood of images by organizing images as soon as they’re imported into their library.  The second group will really appreciate Lightroom’s vast organization toolset.  There’s the usual keywords, metadata, and comments, but there is much more that Lightroom has to offer.

Quick collections can be made with one step (“B” on the keyboard) by selecting all the images you want to be grouped together.  If you need to quickly share a group of images, this makes it easy to collect the images to share without going through all the steps of setting up a separate album or collection.  Once they’re grouped into a quick collection, a right-click will bring up a contextual menu allowing easy access to exporting, sharing, develop settings, and metadata presets.  There are also catalogs which are essentially the same as albums in Elements.  Smart collections will automatically categorize images based on attributes found in metadata such as dominant color, rating, time, or GPS data for examples.

Arguably one of the most important features of any application that deals with photos is sharing.  With everyone wanting to share digital memories more frequently than ever, Lightroom makes it easy to do with almost every popular platform.  Facebook, Flickr, SmugMug, and Revel are built-in, but more services can be easily added from the web through Adobe’s vast offering of plug-ins.

Built-in sharing options

Did Lightroom impress me into forking over an extra $50 to Adobe for its Elements - Photoshop CS go-between?  Yes and no.  For my personal photography of kids and birthdays and holidays, Elements is more than enough.  On the occasions where I go shooting either for personal artistic fulfillment or a paying client, I would absolutely invest in the more-polished Lightroom.  There are many features in Lightroom that I didn’t even get into, like the excellent dual-screen support, beautiful full-screen presentation mode, and web gallery creation.  If you’re finding yourself needing something more professional for your photography needs, Lightroom is an excellent choice from a name you can trust.