REVIEW: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 - Let There be Light!

Ever since Adobe released first version of Photoshop Lightroom in 2007, photographers around the world cheered as they finally got an application especially for their needs. Five years passed, and Lightroom came all the way up to recently released version 4. What does Adobe have in store for photographers in Lightroom 4 and is it worth the upgrade? Let's check it out.

But wait, what is Lightroom?
Since not all of our readers are photographers and not all of them have used previous versions of Lightroom, some clarification is in order. To put it really simple (really, really simple), Lightroom is application for editing and managing photos, especially in RAW format, which it specializes in. Photo editing capabilities that Lightroom offers usually puts a huge smile on every new user, since it is what "darkroom" used to be in days of analog photography.


While Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is targeting RAW photos, it also supports other formats, such as JPEG. Now, what can you pull out of a bland, overexposed smartphone image?

If you are asking you selves in this moment, why am I still using Photoshop for editing photos from my camera? Answer is simple, you haven't tried Lightroom yet. Is it that good? Yes it is.

Oldies but goodies
Hardcore Photoshop users often say that they can do all that Lightroom does in Photoshop, and in some parts that is true, but only if you keep to the basics. If you want to “dig” deeper into your photos, Photoshop becomes clumsy, slow, and not as powerful as Lightroom. After all, Lightroom is an application made especially for photo editing, and nothing else.

Simple corrections like HSV, contrast and color curves can be done in Photoshop, but Lightroom offers so much more, especially if you are working with RAW images, because results are then simply perfect. But, Lightroom is not limited just to RAW images; it also handles all other types of images.


Library module, starting point of your Lightroom journey

If you have used Lightroom before, when you start the new version, you will be on a familiar territory, because layout is almost identical, with just some extra tabs, and on first look, not many new tools or options.


Develop module - so simple, yet so powerful

Lightroom user interface received praise by majority of users, cause it offered something more than classical windows application layout, it offered usability with good looks, and that trend is kept in this version. All of modules are arranged in a natural way, and modularity is achieved in a really simple and effective way, by using side panels that can be hidden/shown with just one click. This feature increases working area a lot, especially in Develop mode, where you do all the real work on you photos. But, let's not get in front of ourselves, let's go module by module.