Adobe releases Lightroom beta for Windows
Stephen Shankland
July 18, 2006
Adobe on Tuesday released the first Windows beta version of Lightroom, software geared for enthusiasts and professionals who need to edit, catalog and view digital photos.
Lightroom bears similarities in form and function to Apple Computer's Aperture, version 1.0 of which was released in October 2005. Adobe, which dominates the digital editing market, released its Mac OS X beta of Lightroom in January, but Apple countered with Aperture 1.1 in April and a price cut from $499 to $299.
Although Apple offers some Windows programs, Aperture is not one of them. Adobe, in contrast, has a strong Windows-based software business.
Lightroom and Aperture are designed to handle photographs taken in the "raw" formats available on higher-end digital cameras. Raw images preserve more detail because they're pulled directly off a camera's image sensor; some of that information is lost in typical cameras when they convert that data into more convenient JPEG files.
Although raw images can be better adjusted for exposure, color balance and other qualities, they bring a profusion of new options for the image editing process. In effect, raw images must be "developed" into the more convenient formats before they can be used.
The Lightroom version Adobe released is beta 3, but the software will be changing. In June, Adobe acquired Pixmantec, a Copenhagen, Denmark-based company that sold software called RawShooter for handling raw images. Adobe said RawShooter technology will be incorporated into Lightroom.
Adobe's venerable Photoshop software for image editing has a module for processing raw images. But Lightroom is built around raw images from the start. It can be used to catalog, label, adjust, view and print images. And its black background is a stark departure from the more utilitarian look of other Adobe software.
While Lightroom has some Photoshop features, it's not a full replacement. It lacks many of Photoshop's abilities, such as a multitude of tools to select portions of images, remove image flaws, combine different images, apply visual effects or add text.
The Windows version of Lightroom is missing some features in the Mac version, including music during slideshows, camera or memory card detection, and a mechanism to create slideshows in Web pages' HTML format. Lightroom Beta 3 for Windows, a 6.9MB download, requires a machine with Windows XP SP2, 768MB of memory, and 1GB of free hard drive space.
Source: http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6095779.html
Workflow and Lightroom
Mark Gibbs
07/10/06
Workflow is a concept the computer world and academia have been theorizing about and experimenting with for years. What's fascinating about computer-mediated workflow is that workflow systems can be really effective or a disaster.
In more restricted environments where the workflow is shallow - meaning it doesn't deal with complex decision trees - the tasks typically are well defined. An example is a materials return authorization process in which the sequence of steps is fairly straightforward (receive request; check product return terms; if OK for the product to be returned, issue a return-merchandise application number; if not OK, issue a request rejection).
A successfully implemented, shallow computerized workflow is likely to have a big payoff. When it comes to more complex processes, however - insurance claim handling, technical support or interpersonal communication, for example - it is much harder to create an effective workflow because the logic is more complex and exceptions - points at which the workflow logic can't handle the events that occur - become a big problem.
There are two choices for handling exceptions: Ignore the exception (typically the job continues to be handled, ignoring the exception, or is aborted) or allow a human (or other smarter process) to deal with it.
As workflows become more complex, the consequences of ignoring exceptions or letting them be handled too generically increase rapidly. A good example occurred in a product called The Coordinator, published by Action Technologies in the 1980s and adopted for corporate use at the time by Novell. The Coordinator was supposed to streamline messaging in an organization by classifying all messages in terms of interactions between people. This meant that you could make a Request ("Please send the sales figures"), have a Conversation for Possibility ("Which sales figures?") or send a Promise ("I will send the sales figures tomorrow"). This might sound promising, but there was a big problem that involves a fourth type of interaction: a Note.
The problem came from users' lack of discipline in using the system, which wasn't unreasonable as most users couldn't bear the complexity.
To be disciplined in using The Coordinator, users had to consider what kind of communication they intended, select the correct form, and fill in the details - for example, when their Promise was due. Until they provided the details, they couldn't send the message.
As you might imagine, after being trained, the average user worked with this complex methodology for a few weeks (or more usually, a few days), then resorted to sending Notes that required the least amount of effort. Of course, this invalidated the entire workflow. Not surprisingly, today The Coordinator is an almost forgotten historical footnote. For a good description of workflow and references on the topic, we recommend Wikipedia's discussion.
What got us musing about workflow is a beta product we have been testing that we think has incredible potential: Adobe's Lightroom.
Lightroom addresses the problem of managing the workflow associated with digital photography by providing a system that handles the importing, organizing, categorizing, tagging, comparing, selecting, "developing" and showcasing of a large number of digital images - essentially it's a specialized content-management system.
Available for Mac OS X (both PowerPC- and Intel-based) - Windows support is planned - the full release is scheduled tentatively for year-end. That said, the product's FAQ makes it clear Adobe is making no promises.Lightroom on the Mac is remarkable. The attributes that really struck us are how intuitive the user interface is and how much it stays out of the way. This is an excellent example of how user interfaces should be built.
Source: http://www.networkworld.com/columnists/2006/071006-workflow-lightroom-gearhead.html
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