Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 2 for Digital Photographers Only

Chapter 2. THE BASICS OF LIGHTROOM

When Lightroom first came out, a lot of people wondered if the world really needed another digital photography program. Lightroom has definitely proven itself to be a valuable tool for the working photographer.

As you see when you open the program, Lightroom is based on modules, so once you import images into its control, you can jump around within the program as much as you want. Some people think very linearly, others think nonlinearly. Lightroom works for both mind-sets. This program is laid out in such a way that once you understand the basics, you can quickly make it an important element of your digital photography.

How Lightroom Is Organized

Lightroom takes a very different approach, compared to most image-processing programs, in how a photographer accesses its features. The program is organized linearly around a set of five work modules, while the interface itself is arranged spatially into four distinct regions or panels, as shown in figure 2-1. This approach really works. It keeps controls grouped according to their function and places them at the ready when you need them for doing specific work on digital images. It also means that you don't have to constantly go to menus at the top of the screen. Lightroom has top menus, but most of the time you don't need to use them.

Figure 2.1. 2-1

Modules

Lightroom's modular organization is very efficient ...