Anyone using Adobe Lightroom 2 beta

[nightfly]

I wanted to check out Lightroom for my analog/digital workflow and was wondering if anyone was using the beta of Lightroom 2.

Trying to reduce the total steps in my workflow from scanning to saving and someone here suggested using Lightroom rather than iView Media Pro which is my current photo mangement app.

Didn't really want to kick down $300 for the full version and figured the beta is good till August by which time I'll know if I like it. Have a brand new Macbook Pro so I thought it might be good to start with a clean slate.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

I haven't d/l'ed the beta yet, but I love 1.4. 2 adds dodge and burn, so I will definitely upgrade. LR is just a wonderful piece of software, easy to use, incredibly handy, a nice interface.

 

[squirrel$$$bandit]

Ah, and if you're on a Mac, you could check out Aperture as well.

 

[venchka]

I downloaded Beta 2 the day it was announced. I haven't used 1.4 since.

However, I still haven't figured out how to use the dodge/burn tools. For everything else, it is the perfect digital enlarger. For me. YMMV

 

[achi4]

I have been using both LR Beta and Aperture for quite a while.
I always print from LR because that is much better as to possibilities
RAW development of M8 DNG is better in Aperture (better skin tones but these are easily corrected in LR )
There are wonderful plugins like Viveza available for Aperture but they do make tif's out of the RAW file. Hopefully Adobe will increase the number of adjustmnts possible within the program. Now for further adjustments using LR you have to go to Photoshop.
I would advise using the free tryouts of both programs, but I still ended up buying both!
Maurice

 

[sunsworth]

Like yourself I use iView iView Media Pro - or rather the virtually identical Microsoft Expression Media.

I've been using the beta of Lightroom for a week or two and think I'll be switching to that once the final version is released. Microsoft seem to have lost their way with Expression media, and charging £100 in the UK for an upgrade to v2 when that was largely a bug fix, was the last straw as far as I was concerned.

Lightroom does require a more powerful machine than iView/Expression Media, but some of that may be due to debugging code that's been left in the beta.

The only think I miss from iView is the ability to monitor folders so that anything added to them is automatically added to the database. In fact that may be possible, but I don't know how to switch it on.