A look back at Lightroom in 2007
Happy New Years Eve everyone. I’ve got a question for you. This day, one year ago, were you even using Lightroom? Probably not right? Even if you had installed the beta (remember, the full version wasn’t out yet) you probably hadn’t really committed to it yet? Seriously. Think about it. Can you even imagine what it’s like to NOT be using Lightroom? I can’t. And it was only 1 year ago that I wasn’t. Crazy huh? It got me thinking of what would be a good post to end the year with. I went down the list of the traditional stuff: a) not posting and just take new years eve and day off, or b) Post the old “Predictions for 2008” post or c) take a look back at the product that this blog/podcast is all about and see how far we’ve come. Choice “a” – come on, it’s me. I can’t take the day off. Choice “b” – too predictable. Everyone does that right? So let’s go with choice “c” and take a look back. Trust me, there’s lots of cool little nuggets of information and interesting things throughout the list below.
Nov. 1, 2006I know, I know… this really isn’t 2007 yet but I thought it would be cool to know that this site launched on that day. I promise, everything else will be 2007 from now on 🙂
Jan. 1, 2007Lightroom was only available in pre-release beta. That meant that only those brave enough and willing to try out a beta product would use it. It wasn’t meant for prime-time production use, which meant that most actual working pros wouldn’t even try it yet. On this day, although many had installed it and kicked the tires a bit, Lightroom was only used by a fraction of the people it’s being used by today.
All that said, Lightroom was drawing a huge amount of buzz in the industry. PDF books, DVDs, online videos, training sessions were all created just for the beta. And people were eating it up. They’d buy/watch/attend training even if they didn’t have Lightroom just to see what it was all about. Plus, there was a lot of talk about Lightroom vs. Aperture (Apple’s competing product). As many did early on, I laid my bets down on Lightroom which turned out to be the best product for me personally. Nonetheless, here’s an interesting read that compares the two products.
Jan. 23, 2007The website since1968 posts an interview with Mark Hamburg, founder of the Lightroom project, about how Lightroom became to be and some of the stories behind it’s development.
Jan. 29, 2007Adobe officially announced Lightroom 1.0 and it’s price. It was at that point everyone really started to “dig” it because they realized that a) after 1 year of beta releases, Lightroom was indeed becoming real and, b) it was priced very reasonably and it didn’t break the bank of either pro photographers or serious amateurs at $199. They also gave a release date of Feb. 19th.
Feb. 15, 2007since1968 follows up part 1 of Mark Hamburg’s interview with part 2.
Feb. 19, 2007Lightroom is officially shipping. NAPP launches the official Lightroom Learning Center with lots of free videos, behind the scenes looks, and all the information you could possibly find on Lightroom all in one place. If you’re a NAPP member you can always go back and view it here.
So what did we get with version 1 that we didn’t have before? We got 1 program to do many things. Before we had to use Bridge and Camera Raw together. With Lightroom we could do everything in one place. Raw processing got better as well with the addition of the Vibrance slider as well as Recovery (remember, we were still using the old Camera Raw at this point).
– The Tone Curve and the HSL panel had (and still have) a revolutionary tool called the TAT.
– We also got Spot Removal that was non-destructive (this one was kept secret until Version 1 shipped).
– A whole bunch of Printing goodness! Enough said.
March, 2007Not much happening in this month other then a slew of Lightroom training starts hitting the streets.
Here’s some training from Adobe that I like a lot (partly because it has me in it 😉 ).
One of the more interesting things I found was that Scott Kelby’s Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers came out on fire. It wasn’t that Scott’s book was doing well among Lightroom books. If you’ve read anything from him then you’d probably already know it would do great. What was really interesting to me that his book was beating out nearly every Photoshop book out there. You’ve gotta figure there are hundreds of thousands more Photoshop users out there then Lightroom, but Scott’s Lightroom book was outselling them all (you can see it here – it’s been in the top 10 since it’s release). If you’re a Lightroom user, then that just shows you how popular this program became in such a short amount of time.
April 4, 2007Photoshop World ships up to Boston with the first ever dedicated Lightroom track. I taught a class in it and let me tell ya’ – people were digging it. Every class was jam packed and it was great to see so much interest. One thing struck me though, there were a ton of the same exact questions:
1) Why Lightroom over Bridge and Camera Raw? While there isn’t one answer there are a few sites and forums out there that have some info on the topic:
– Adobe forums
– Photoshop TV Episode 108 (you can go back and watch if you’re a NAPP member)
2) How do I move my Library or Catalog of photos between computers?
– See June below
– Check out this video
April 27, 2007Scott Kelby kicks off the first Lightroom seminar tour in the world in LA to over 800 people. Here’s the thing I recall as one of the most interesting comments I heard from Scott about that day. After being asked early on, questions like “How much does Lightroom cost?” at a Lightroom seminar (since you’d think that most folks would have already purchased it if they were there), Scott asked the crowd how many of them even had purchased Lightroom by this point. The results: About 25-30% of the 800 people hadn’t even owned the program yet! Lightroom did indeed gain so much ground in just 4 months that people were coming out to a seminar to just see what it could do. That’s a pretty powerful statistic if you think about it.
Adobe also creates the Adobe Video Workshop which includes videos on everything under the sun (including Lightroom).
May 24, 2007NAPP incorporates a specific portion of Photoshop User magazine to Lightroom only. Subscribers of Photoshop User magazine get a whole section dedicated to Lightroom free of charge. Plus they hired some of the industries best experts to write for it. Names like Scott Kelby, Dave Cross, Michael Tapes, Angel Drury, Chris Orwig, Kevin Ames, and even myself all jumped in and started writing for it.
Oh yeah, I taught Lightroom all day long for 2 days at Adobe Live in Amsterdam. I know, this one is pretty weak but, from a personal note, it was just cool to see that this product I was investing so much time into teaching was just as popular over in Europe as it is here.
June. 26, 2007Adobe announces the first update to Lightroom. It’s called Lightroom 1.1. Although you’d think that, by nature, a “.1” update would just be minor fixes this one wasn’t. It was huge and it was free.
– First off, it updated Camera Raw and we got the Clarity slider in the Develop module.
Also in Develop came 4 new sharpening controls that let you accomplish way better sharpening right from within Lightroom.
Finally, one of the mostest hugest new features in 1.1 was the ability to export and import catalogs (A.K.A. your photo library). So if you worked on a laptop while traveling and wanted to sync back to your desktop you could easily do so. There was lots of little things as well and you can read about them here if you’d like.
Some other notable news on this day (for me personally that is) is that my Lightroom training DVD and online training course was released. I was incredibly psyched because it quickly became one of Kelby Training’s best selling DVDs and online training courses. Again, in the whole world of Photoshop training, it’s cool to see this little product we call Lightroom take off like that.
July 2007I taught a workshop in Banff where we concentrated solely on shooting, then using Lightroom and Photoshop together in a simple workflow. It wasn’t the first workshop I taught but it was the first Lightroom/Photoshop one I did. It was awesome! It was now that I really started to see how easy Lightroom made managing and developing your photos for all types of photographers out there.
August 2007Nothing really to write here. But I hated to leave a month out. I mean, hey, it’s not August’s fault that the Lightroom community had no major happenings in it’s month. Seriously. What did August ever do to you that you’d be saying to yourself, Matt, why didn’t you just leave August out!
Sept. 6, 2007Photoshop World hits Las Vegas with an updated Lightroom track. I thought the one in Boston drew a crowd but this one really rocked. 8 Months after it’s release, people were still flocking to find out more about Lightroom.
Sept. 13, 2007Lightroom 1.2 is released. Another “dot” update as they’re called by software developers. It wasn’t quite as huge as the Lightroom 1.1 update (ok, not even close) but it was definitely a step up.
– One of the most memorable new features for me was the killer web galleries by Airtight Interactive that were incorporated directly into Lightroom. Good stuff!
– Another cool enhancement was the ability to easily import/export presets for each module in Lightroom. This actually lead to my latest additions to the Lightroom Killer Tips website where I release free presets every week.
Also in September, The Lightroom Journal (a blog kept by the folks at Adobe) posted an interesting and quick read from Mark Hamburg about the goals behind Lightroom.
October 16, 2007John Nack, a senior product manager over at Adobe, posts an interesting blog entry about what the pros are using out there – Lightroom or Aperture.
Also in October, Sean McCormack releases a really cool web gallery preset for Lightroom called the Scroll Gallery. In fact, there’s lots of other cool web galleries that you can download and add to Lightroom for free at the Lightroom Galleries website.
Nov. 15, 2007Lightroom 1.3 is released. Mostly a camera raw update for newer camera models but some small fixes as well. Also, Adobe has addressed some printing issues with Macs newer OS – Leopard. Again, it’s free so it’s worth a download.
December 7, 2007Lightroom 1.3.1 is released. This was a really tiny update mostly relating to some printing issues. Nothing crazy though.
December 31, 2007Here. Now. Today. It’s been a wild year in the digital photography world. New software, new cameras, and a ton of things to grab your attention. I’m very thankful to have been one of those things and I can’t wait to see what 2008 will bring us. One thing is for sure though. If it’s about Lightroom, I’ll be on it and make sure you always know exactly what you need to know (and in a way you can understand) first. I sincerely hope that you and your families have a very happy and safe new years eve and I hope 2008 brings great things to you.
Thanks!
– Matt Kloskowski
Hi Matt,
I’m going to take the ACE exam for photoshop cs5. Would you please honestly tell me if there is a real advantage to get this certificate, does it worth to spend 150$ just for 90 days? If your answer is yes, please tell me which books must I study. Now I have bought Photoshop CS5 in classroom. is there any other book? Ali Rajabi told me the questions are all from this book.
Please send your answer to my e-mail address.
Thank you.
Dear Mr. Kloskowski,
This is the only email address I can find for you. It’s going to be kind of
embarrassing for me, but I do need your advice.
I am a customer of yours, having bought three of your books and enjoyed them
very much, with another on order.
Also I am a Cancer patient (don’t worry I’m not asking for donations!). I
got a bone marrow/stem cell transplant and went into a coma, prompting the
doctors to tell my husband to say goodbye since I was about to die. A week
and a half later i woke up, but could only move a tiny amount. So I learned
how to do everything (i.e. walking) all over again.
Then I got Graft vs. Host, where ones body tries to reject the transplant.
This can do many bad things, including kill.
Then I got Scleroderma, another ugly disease, that disables and disfigures
before it kills. There are many different kinds of Scleroderma; apparently I
have the very bad kind. It is known as “the disease that turns to stone”
and it has spread quickly. It has manifested itself, more to the point, in
my hands.
You can probably imagine how unhappy I would be if I couldn’t do photography,
Photoshop, Lightroom; they keep me saneÂ… I am losing the coordination and
strength and so forth in my hands, they are starting to do what they want
instead of what i want sometimes, curling inward but still unable to make a
fist, not flattening, etc.
It is my understanding I may get very large knobs on my fingers, and the
hands, as well as some organs, will actually harden. Since the coma I
cannot learn as well; I have “re-learned” the basics of photoshop five
times, through books and online classes and one weekend seminar since the
coma. I also want to learn new things, so now most of what I read ( I read
a lot) are software books, Photoshop and Lightroom. I have photoshop cs5
and lightroom 3 (Whoo hoo! very jazzed about both).
So I would appreciate any advice you can give me. I was a digital effects
artist at Disney (before getting laid off and between cancers).
Again, this is all how I keep sane.
I am a terminal patient. My doctor had been saying how amazing it was that
I was still alive. Now she doesn’t understnad how the scleroderma is moving
so quickly. I am trying to do everything I can to eke out my life and my
hands. I’ve beaten the odds so many times but it looks like my luck is,
well, lessening at best.
Please tell me how to get the most out of my hands in any way, little or
big? For instance, presets in Lightroom save hand use. BTW how do you go
down the list using your hand or fingers the least?
Although I wonder if it will still be as valid with CS5 having been such a big
change, I have ordered your CS2 Speed Clinic book.
Do you have another book to recommend?
Can you please tell me any “hand-saving” tips? These may or may not be
the same as “time-saving” tips. Or a book that may actually be hand-saving?
I can’t keep spending too much money on book after book, and again, it is
hard for me to learn, although I’ve managed to learn a lot. It is just much
more difficult and timeconsuming than before the coma. But I would buy a book
if you recommended it to me.
If you don’t have time, you owe me nothing (although I did buy your
books!), you don’t know me. I will write probably four expert authors for
help and hope one or maybe all will answer me. Thank you for reading this.
Barbara
Hi Jon,
Could you end me a copy of your CS3 snap preset. I am new to Lightroom and this would go a long way in understanding how best to use it. Thank you for your kind generosity.
Kanu
Hi, Matt,
I have right here an autographed copy of “Photoshop CS2 Speed Clinic” that I use all the time! Recently I had occasion to use the Menu Items feature from Chapter 3 in an action in order to have the right brush ready for the user when the action completed.
Now I’m writing another action that needs to have the right Gradient Tool ready for the user when the action completes. Unfortunately, the Menu Items feature doesn’t seem to work for the Gradient Tool, and I can’t seem to find anything in Scripting that allows me to do this.
Can you point me in the right direction to solve this problem? If so, I can have the equivalent of Lightroom’s Graduated Filter as an action for CS3. Thanks in advance…
Bill Ford
Dear Mr. Kloskowski:
Thank you verymuch for your fine book “Layers”, in German.
With the downloaded pictures from Mr. Kelby’s website it is a
great pleadure for me to imitate your workshops.
Above all your humorous talking with me as the reader of your book
makes me laughing.
Friendly Greetings to you
from
Renate Schmidt, Kelkheim, Germany
Hi, being new to lightroom, I found a method that works for me. You can use it only for your own custom made preset. Here are the directions. I don’t know if this has been done before. Jon
Lightroom workflow preset
Lightroom presets for workflow. A basic starting point. First you will need your monitor calibrated. Lightroom 2. Photoshop CS3 or newer.
After working with Lightroom for about two weeks now. I found that there is a learning curve to working with develop settings and trying to find the best image. I took this up, because I was getting kind of flat looking results with lightroom only. Figured I needed a good starting base to work from.
Since I already had CS3, I took the raw file from lightroom and edited it to CS3 threw edit export. Then using curves in CS3, I used Scott Kelby’s Method of working darks, mid-tones and highlights. From there I made any final tweaks opening up curves again.
Next saved the image and went back to lightroom 2. where it showed up as a PSD file. Next, I made a virtual copy of the (raw file) original and tried to match the same exposure, colour, contrast, etc. of the psd using lightroom. Making these adjustments in the develop module, mostly using Basic and Tone curves. After getting as close as possible to the settings I had made in curves with CS3 (psd file), I used the virtual copied clone file in lightroom to make a preset.
I called this preset “CS3 snap” and use it as my base starting point in lightroom. Works pretty good and I make tweaks from there when working with a new image. I think there is room for other presets in areas like hard backlight and Black N White.
Would like to know how other lightroom users are getting consistant results. Improving processes, techniques. Those of you who leave their email, I’ll send you the preset free. Would like to know how it works for others. Jon L
Hi Matt,
Just stumbled over your training videos after looking to freshen up w/ all that’s new and great w/ cs4 and using camera raw files. I have a Nikon D3 and tried to get the camera profiles installed into Lightroom and it just doesn’t seam to want to work. I can install them, they show up under user profiles but they wont do anything to a photo and if I try to see them under camera calibrations on the right they wont show up (only see ACR 4.3 and 4.4) What am I doing wrong? Hope you can help… Jorge
best article i have read in a while.
LTkIhw nice site! http://gov.com
Matt…On a recent Monday Preset exchange, I noticed after installing your preset (Nostalgia) that it mixes with other presets once chosen. Where-as the standard presets, once chosen will change with each preset. Is there a function associated with this to allow the preset, once chosen, to mix with others without a virtual copy being made? I hope this is explained well enough.
Thanks
Matt, I have a question like Kevin B above:
I just started going through all of my images over the past years. They won’t all fit on my Macbook Pro so I decided I should link to the images on my server instead. Then I was planning on exporting any keepers to a folder on my MBP so I could have them with me all the time and track them in a separate Library.
So, I created a new Library and re-linked all of my images. But now I’ve lost all of my LR edits to the file.
Is there any way that I can transfer the processing transactions for any images with edits from one Library to another? If I export an image and have another LR Library auto-import the images, is there a way I can keep the Developer settings in those files too??
Great blog, glad I found it. THANKS.
Rich
Kevin,
I believe all you have to do is move all your folders of images to the new drive. Lightroom will then display a “?” in each thumbnail for the images moved. Just click on that “?” and direct Lightroom to the new location.
Ralph
Killer TIps Topic???
I want to store my large collection of photos on another hard drive. I have done lots of Lightroom “developing” on those photos. How do I transfer the photos with their “developer” settings in Lightroom?
Matt,
Great Lightroom Videos! I’ve managed to watch them all over the last few days and I’m becoming a big fan of LR. I have a couple of questions:
1. When importing photos into LR how can you break up the photos if you want to separate them into different folders? If you have two different shoots on the memory card at that time, for example.
2. What’s the difference, as far as LR is concerned, between organizing photos into folders, shoots, and collections? To me, they all seem to be essentially the same thing without any real advantage to using one over the others.
Hi Matt,
I have developed an article that details a technique on how to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom effectively as basic Archiving software. It is illustrated with screen shots for all the important steps.
Could you email me as to whom it should be sent to for consideration as an article for the Photoshop User magazine.
Thank you!
Good post Matt and a Happy New Year. Lightroom has made photography fun. Aperture isn’t all that and I relied heavily on Capture 1 for many years and DxO but Lightroom truly saves me miles of time and is fun too work with. Now if only Apple Laptops came with Terrabytes of HD 🙂 Wishful thinking but maybe in the future.
I was one of those early adopters of Lightroom alpha and then beta but went away from it back to Capture 1 as I was too comfortable with it(Capture 1). But since the time I have been using non-beta Lightroom(March 2007) there has been no turning back!! Happy New Year!
Hi Rogier,
The best place for questions and tips is right here. That way, if I don’t get to answer a question at least you have a bunch of other folks that may be able to jump in and help.
Thanks,
Matt
Matt,
Happy New Year, and thanks for a great and very helpful blog.
If we wanted to ask you a Lightroom question, or give you a really good tip, where would be email you? I cannot find an email link anywhere…
Peace,
Rogier
Rotterdam, The Netherlands
Matt,
Your columns are for me allmost as important as Lightroom itself. Thanks.
Pertti
Thanks for “the light killer tips” I enjoy them very much.
I know it’s a lot of work, to come up ideas to write each day.
I love Lightroom it’s a great easy to use software and with your help,
it things are even easier.
So again Thanks.
All the best to you and your family in the New Year.
Harold
Matt,
A truly amazing year without doubt! Mind you, I can’t believe how quick it has gone.
I thankyou for all the incredibly hard work you have selflessly done during 2007 and I look forward to an incredible 2008 for us all.
Best wishes to you and the family,
Glyn
Matt,
Thanks for such a wonderful site! I’ve been following your posts for several months now, and I have to tell you, if it were not for you I would still be using bridge. Thanks for providing such a wonderful resource to such an awesome program.
Happy new year!
I started using Lightroom at the end of September and it has made an amazing change for me. I used to hate to slog through my photos and editing was a pain. Lightroom has changed everything for me. I can get looks that I want with one click of a button.
I am getting a new computer in a few months and I look forward to really digging in to Lightroom and putting it through its paces.
I’m glad I found this site and I look forward to everything to come in 2008.
I am a Lightroom convert and the more I use it, the more impressed I am as to what actually can been done with lightroom only without having to revert to Photoshop, great product.
Your tips and tricks have made learning and the using of lightroom an even better experience.
You have an excellent teaching style and there is no doubt in my mind that you truly enjoy what you are doing.
You can actually teach an “Old Dog” (me) new tricks.
Your efforts are appreciated. Enjoy and looking forward to a Great New Year of Killer Tips
Matt,
Simply…….. Thank you!
Have a Blessed New Year!
David
Matt, have a very Happy and Prosperous New Year! 😀
Thanks for a great blog (and a happy New Year!). I’m an open source / Linux guy generally, and up to now I’ve been fine with doing my hobbyist photo touchups with Gimp etc. However, partly thanks to your blog and the great training videos, I decided to try out Lightroom — and was hooked at once. I’ve now bought the thing and am loving it; it’s actually one of the few commercial programs I’ve ever bought, and by far the most expensive one. I’m usually very picky about software, but Lightroom delivers. Hey, it actually has me using Windows now and then, which I generally avoid like the plague :).
Maybe at some point I’ll be able to afford a Mac, and maybe even a copy of Photoshop (which is unfortunately priced for corporate budgets and not private ones, and I want to avoid piracy even though the temptation there is huge). Oh well, Gimp still works.
This blog has been a great source of ideas and information, a big thank you for that.
Matt, Lightroom is one of those rare packages that one finds that quickly becomes a sine qua non. Thank you for all that you do to get us to become more effective users of this great tool. Happy 2008! –Dilip
Hello Matt,
I bought LIGHTROOM in March 2007
It is super cool Keywords vs BRIDGE CS3
it is cool the 1 click effets + LR & PHOTOSHOP CS3 worrk together !
There are many more things…
Is LR planning to be part of CS3 package in the near future ?
See you soon with Scott Kelby & Dave Cross,
EDOUARD (FRANCE)
Hey Matt – I’ve been a beta user of Lightroom ever since and I want to thank you guys for all the tips you have shared with us. This is a nice way to wrap the year 07 for Lightroom.
Happy New Year to you and the rest of the NAPP team!
Mike
Hi Matt,
It has been a super year for Adobe Lightroom. I came aboard in Oct. 2006 after Adobe purchased Raw Shooter, which at the time I was using for RAW converter. It was a little strange at first, but version 1.0 really did it for me.
Thanks to you, my skills have really expanded!
Have a Great and Happy New Year!
Dennis