Even though I own both Adobe’s Lightroom and Apple’s Aperture, I use Lightroom because of the advanced development module, the ability to paint on different exposures, and non-destructive editing. I had very high hopes for Lightroom 3, which Adobe just released in beta, and am pleased to say that with one pretty significant exception, I’m very pleased.
Tutorial Videos and more comments after the jump
That exception of course is the neutering of the image-editing engine. A product that retails for two hundred Simoleans oughta at least have “Photoshop Light” built in. Nothing crazy, just layers, masks, and real cloning/spot removal. What we got however is quite clearly a product intentionally designed NOT to cannibalize Adobe’s core Photoshop business.
C’est la vie. The improvements in rendering speed and quality, along with additional workflow tweaks make this is no-brainer upgrade.
Unless of course Apple releases Aperture 3 with a genuine non-destructive editor built in.
Tutorial videos and Adobe eye-candy follow:
Leigh McMullen leads the Advisory Services & Strategy practices for the professional services arm of one of the Big-Five firms. He has written several books that would cure any insomnia you might have, and is an avid Mac junkie.
