lightroom

Google gives respite from a raw camera deal

I was in a pinch a few weeks ago, and Google's Picasa software saved my skin. But now my warm glow of gratitude has begun wearing off, replaced by a simmering annoyance with camera makers for their profusion of proprietary raw formats.

Let me explain. I was covering the Photo Marketing Association trade show in Las Vegas, toting my Canon EOS Rebel XT camera to photograph products and people. For my personal photography I usually shoot in raw format to maximize the detail and flexibility, but for work purposes I use JPEG because it's faster to process and … Read more

Poll: Which is better, Aperture or Lightroom?

The good news is that there's some competition again for software to edit and catalog raw images, the detailed and flexible file formats from higher-end cameras. The bad news is that anybody buying the software has a harder choice to make.

With the new Aperture now available and Lightroom just celebrating its first birthday, I thought it opportune to survey readers. What would you buy? What would you advise somebody else?

Please vote in the poll here, and share your reasoning in the Talkback section below to enlighten others.

Photographers would be best to think carefully about which software … Read more

Apple upgrades Aperture ambitions to 2.0

CUPERTINO, Calif.--Apple, why hast thou forsaken me?

That, loosely paraphrased, is what some Aperture customers had been asking after Apple went too long without updating its higher-end photo editing and cataloging software. It got to the point where some were plotting strategies on Apple forums about how to flee to Adobe Systems' rival Photoshop Lightroom software with their photo metadata intact.

On Tuesday, though, Apple came back with the new Aperture 2.0, a version that addressed many common gripes, caught up with Lightroom in several important respects, and signaled that the company hasn't lost interest in the … Read more

Apple fights back with Aperture 2

Update 11:35 a.m.: I added information about Aperture 2.0's plug-in architecture, which could provide an advantage over Adobe Lightroom.

After pioneering a high-end photography software niche, then losing ground to Adobe Systems' Photoshop Lightroom, Apple on Tuesday counterattacked with Aperture 2.0.

The software, like Adobe's Lightroom, is aimed at enthusiasts and professionals who need to edit and catalog "raw" images, the unprocessed data from higher-end cameras' image sensors; raw files preserve more detail than JPEGs but require time and specialized software that can deal with the profusion of different proprietary raw formats. … Read more

Apple camera support catches partway up to Adobe

With Apple's Mac OS X 10.5.2 update on Monday, Leopard now can handle the unprocessed "raw" images produced by several new higher-end digital cameras.

Among high-profile newer cameras that Leopard now supports are Canon's top-end EOS-1Ds Mark III and its top-end compact camera, the PowerShot G9. Nikon's new SLRs, the D3 and D300, also are on the list, as is Sony's Alpha A700.

Raw images provide more flexibility and detail than JPEGs, but to use them, people must convert the unprocessed camera data. Apple's Mac OS X handles this conversion on … Read more

Lightroom plug-in exports photos straight to iStockphoto

Photographer and programmer Eugene Berman has released version 1.0 of a Lightroom plug-in that enables photographers to export pictures directly to iStockphoto, a "microstock" Web site that sells images for relatively low cost.

Adobe Systems' Lightroom is gaining in popularity as a way to edit and catalog the unprocessed "raw" images from higher-end digital cameras, and Adobe in 2007 released a beta version of a software developer kit (SDK) that lets anyone write plug-ins for exporting photos.

Other Lightroom plug-ins also exist that permit uploads to Flickr, Picasa, Zenfolio, and SmugMug.

Exporting to iStockphoto is … Read more

Underexposed blog: Links of the day

Apple crippled DTrace: Sun DTrace cocreator Adam Leventhal -- Dampened delight that Apple ported Sun Microsystems' DTrace from Solaris to Mac OS X. It's blocking DTrace from probing processes which exempt themselves. "This is antithetical to the notion of systemic tracing, antithetical to the goals of DTrace, and antithetical to the spirit of open source." A gripe about Adobe Lightroom documentation -- I've introduced a few folks to Lightroom, and I agree the state of documentation and tutorials is chaotic, in part because Adobe revved the software so often. Better than no updates, though. I also … Read more

Underexposed blog: Links of the day

Picasa Web Albums Uploader for BlackBerry--Upload to Picasa Web Albums from a BlackBerry smartphone. Bonus: automatic geotagging if your BlackBerry supports it. Jeffrey Friedl offers "Piglets": Plug-ins for Lightroom Plug-ins--This time, Friedl has built Tim Armes' LR/Mogrify export plug-in so it can be used as a subcomponent of Friedl's Flickr/Zenfolio/SmugMug/Picasa export plug-in. First time I've seen the word "fourth-party" used in a while. World's longest dialog box too. ImageReporter: Extract data from Lightroom database--Analysis tool for extracting information from the metadata stored in Lightroom's catalog. … Read more

Poll: What's the best bang for my photo PC buck?

I'm going to buy a new desktop computer to feed my digital photography appetites, and it's time to let the wisdom of the crowds steer me in the right direction.

There are innumerable options, but there's one particular choice I'm wrestling with: is my money better spent on a PC with a dual-core processor or a quad-core chip with a lower clock frequency?

For the benefit of anybody else in my situation, I thought I'd seek expert guidance from Adobe Systems, Microsoft, Advanced Micro Devices, and Intel and publish the results, but I got conflicting … Read more