New member question re Ligthroom

[Mark Goldberg]

HI,
My name is Mark. I am from South Florida. I am new to digital photography. My first camera was a Nikkormat I purchased in 1973. I am an optometrist so my backgound is in optics. I recently purchased a Nikon D5200 and I am using a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 lens. My main reason for the new camera is that I have a new grandaughter in Washington,DC. I would also like to get back into photography. My main interest is learnig how to edit in post production. I am soon going to purchase Lightroom . One question I have now is: should I wait for Lightroom 5 to come out before purchasing or shoild I purchase Lightroom 4 now? Any thoughts? I hope if I have any questions regarding using Lightroom you can help. I hope I'm not to frustrated when I start. Does anyone have any advice in starting to use Lightroom? I would appreciate any and all advice.
Mark

[davidedric]

See my opinion in reply to your new member post

[Shadowman]

HI,
My name is Mark. I am from South Florida. I am new to digital photography. My first camera was a Nikkormat I purchased in 1973. I am an optometrist so my backgound is in optics. I recently purchased a Nikon D5200 and I am using a Nikon 24-70 f/2.8 lens. My main reason for the new camera is that I have a new grandaughter in Washington,DC. I would also like to get back into photography. My main interest is learnig how to edit in post production. I am soon going to purchase Lightroom . One question I have now is: should I wait for Lightroom 5 to come out before purchasing or shoild I purchase Lightroom 4 now? Any thoughts? I hope if I have any questions regarding using Lightroom you can help. I hope I'm not to frustrated when I start. Does anyone have any advice in starting to use Lightroom? I would appreciate any and all advice.
Mark

Whichever one you get be on the lookout for a book on using the software. Very few on LR4 and probably none on LR5 as of yet. Final option, look for tutorials online.

[jprzybyla]

Hello Mark, welcome to CIC. I use Lightroom 4. When Lightroom 3 was selling for $300 I was hesitant to buy it, but when Lightroom 4 was launced for a price of $150 it was a no brainer to buy it. I would buy it now, the reason being that even though Lightroom 5 is in beta testing I think it will be a while before all the kinks are out of it. Regarding training I have used online tutorials and video courses. The best I have found is by a former instructor at the Navy's Top Gun school who is not a photographer. I like him because he does not just show what Lightroom can do but he goes into the how and why to do it. His name is Hal Schmitt, below is a link to the website where his course is located.

http://en.elephorm.com/photography/lightroom.html

[Andrew1]

If I was looking for a new version at the moment I'd download the beta 5 for free and use it until Adobe firms it up. Can't loose. If you'd rather not take the chance of running into problems download the free trial on LR4 and hope 5 makes it to market before the trial runs out. If it doesn't, at the least you will have a handle on 4 and more information will be available on 5 to help make your decision. If 5 shows no benefit for you personally then watch for a deeply discounted 4.

[DanK]

I haven't yet tried LR5--it's not worth it to me to fuss with a beta--but from what I have read, LR 5 is not going to be dramatically different from LR4. There are a few new features, but it appears that the basic processing tools are the same. If that is the case, almost everything you learn on LR4 should transfer to LR5. This was NOT the case between LR3 and LR4, because LR4 introduced a new processing engine with substantially different editing controls.

When LR4 came out in its first non-beta version, it was actually still quite buggy. It was only with 4.1 that they really got it right. So, my own plan is to wait to see what the first non-beta version is like.

I think Andrew's suggestion is a good one. I would download the trial version of 4 and start learning the ropes.

[Macmahon]

HI,
My name is Mark. .... My main interest is learnig how to edit in post production. I am soon going to purchase Lightroom . One question I have now is: should I wait for Lightroom 5 to come out before purchasing or shoild I purchase Lightroom 4 now? Any thoughts? I hope if I have any questions regarding using Lightroom you can help. ... Does anyone have any advice in starting to use Lightroom? I would appreciate any and all advice.
Mark

Hi Mark

The advice above is sound. Either download the trial of LR4, or hop in and start with the LR5 beta from Adobe Labs - no cost either way.

I personally think you will want LR5 when it comes out because the couple of new features currently obvious are very useful. Additionally, as LR5 beta seems just like a mature product. There are very few 'bugs' - nothing at all major that I have found. It's not surprising as it does seem to be a solid but incremental upgrade from LR4 which is already very good. If I were you, I'd go straight to the LR5beta.

I would also spend some time looking online at Julianne Kost's video tutorials to get your head around the Lightroom workflow, supplemented by reading Jeff Schewe's "The Digital Negative" which is very good on post-processing using LR (and ACR (Adobe Camera Raw) - the RAW develop part of Photoshop).

Welcome to the Lightroom club!

Tim

[rlebleu]

When I first bought Lightroom, I spent many hours watching tutorials created by Julieanne Kost...

http://www.jkost.com/

I learned so much in a short time with her instructions. If you are considering getting into lightroom, you might like to see what work flow is like this software, and she explains very well...

Perhaps starting here:

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/getting-st...ng-your-images

Dick

[Mark Goldberg]

Thank you all for your advice. I think I will try Lightroon 5 beta. I will also take your suggestions and look at the online tutorials. I sure when I start i'll probably need your help. Thanks again,
Mark

[davidedric]

I agree that Julieanne Kost's stuff is very good, and free.

If you are a book man, than Scott Kelby's book is pretty good.

If you want to spend a few $'s for videos, I have found George Jardine's videos on the Develop module very helpful. You can order the videos from Amazon (in the US, not UK), or stream/download them from George's site at www.mulita.com for a few $'s less

Sorry, should have said both Kelby and Jardine are LR4 (of course)

[Mark Goldberg]

I agree that Julieanne Kost's stuff is very good, and free.

If you are a book man, than Scott Kelby's book is pretty good.

If you want to spend a few $'s for videos, I have found George Jardine's videos on the Develop module very helpful. You can order the videos from Amazon (in the US, not UK), or stream/download them from George's site at www.mulita.com for a few $'s less

Sorry, should have said both Kelby and Jardine are LR4 (of course)

Guys,
Thanks again. I'm in the process from switching from a PC to Mac(this is a whole other issue). As soon as the switch is done I'm going to start with Lightroom. Thanks again, Mark

[Clactonian]

LR5 beta definitely.
Julianne Kost without doubt. She works for Adobe so has the inside track on all the latest program developments.
Enjoy.

[benm]

I would recommend downloading LR4 as a trial. The catalog you create will then also work when the final version of LR5 is available. The catalog created with the beta version of LR5 will not be transferrable to the final version.

I can also recommend the Scott Kelby book.

Last year I switched to a Mac; it's a great experience. I still use Windows 7 on my business computer and the differences, while not earth-shattering, are significant enough for me. It's actually pleasant to use the Mac.

[steveg4iwr]

Hi Mark. I have been using. LR4 about 12 months now after using iphoto. Would not be without it now although it took some getting used to. I will be trying the recommended sites for tutorials as that will help me so thanks to you guys for the name drops.

[Glenn NK]

I haven't yet tried LR5--it's not worth it to me to fuss with a beta--but from what I have read, LR 5 is not going to be dramatically different from LR4. There are a few new features, but it appears that the basic processing tools are the same. If that is the case, almost everything you learn on LR4 should transfer to LR5. This was NOT the case between LR3 and LR4, because LR4 introduced a new processing engine with substantially different editing controls.

When LR4 came out in its first non-beta version, it was actually still quite buggy. It was only with 4.1 that they really got it right. So, my own plan is to wait to see what the first non-beta version is like.

I think Andrew's suggestion is a good one. I would download the trial version of 4 and start learning the ropes.

I agree with this (and Andrew's comments).

I have LR4.4, and am using the LR beta version also.

So far, LR5 has been a bit buggy on my machine, and I'm not the only one:
http://www.lightroomforums.net/showt...ment-Brush-Bug
http://www.lightroomforums.net/showt...justment-Brush

As for the "new" features, I'm not yet convinced that I'm going to upgrade just for those (in particular read the second link). I use the Adjustment Brush quite a bit, and what I was looking for didn't appear in LR5.

LR4 was a great improvement over LR3 (the ability to recover highlights), but LR5 doesn't seem to add to this.

BTW, I'm running both on my computer.

Glenn

[Mark Goldberg]

Thanks for all your help. I have been viewing the JKOST tutorials on the Adobe site and they're great for getting started. I appreciate all of your suggestions.
Mark

[Mark Goldberg]

Glenn,
Does Lightroom 5 beta address the issue of High Dynamic Range better than Lightroom 4?

[Glenn NK]

Glenn,
Does Lightroom 5 beta address the issue of High Dynamic Range better than Lightroom 4?

Not that I'm aware of, but as I said, LR4 was definitely an improvement over LR3.

Glenn