Adobe Lightroom, where are they heading?

[Steve Miller]

Peter,

Just saw the news on the beta release of Adobe Lightroom.

http://labs.macromedia.com/technologies/lightroom/

Any thoughts on what their intent is for this product? I can't figure out if it is a shot across Aperture's bow or a new approach to Bridge (the latter seems odd given that Bridge is just in version 1.0). I'm a Win guy, so I won't be able to play around with it. I saw the video demo and was amused to see them knock Aperture for using a central library. It seems like there is a lot of RAW editing capability (in addition to the lightbox functionality), such as making edits on one file and synchronizing any or all settings with other files, so again, it seems like a new approach to Bridge.

Oh well, fun times for digital photographers.

Steve

P.S. As I was pasting the link into this post, I noticed it was a Macromedia site. Could this have been a product that Macromedia was working on prior to the merger? Potentially to be merged with Bridge at some point down the road? I'm asking because as I try to incorporate your DAM approach, I realize that the more I get organized in Bridge, the less I need the cataloguing software, especially if Adobe increases Bridge's cataloguing capabilities.

[Steve Miller]

To partially answer my own post, the following article by Jeff Schewe gives some background.

http://photoshopnews.com/2006/01/09/the-shadowlandlightroom-development-story/

Still not sure how Adobe wants to incorporate this into their current product offering. I don't really see Bridge being needed if they deliver on the potential of Lightbox. Likewise, for "a pretty good print", there doesn't seem to be a need for bringing the images in to Photoshop. Now if they can incorporate the cataloguing functionality of an iView (or others), it seems to me that they'll have a nice little (make that big) app.

Peter, I was wondering if you were restricted from talking about it, but given Jeff's article on Photoshopnews.com, I doubt that's the case. Any thoughts?

Steve

[peterkrogh]

Steve,
I assume you have looked at the write-up linked in the top right news box. Feel free to post questions or comments.
Peter

[Patrick Cox]

My question is...where is Adobe headed with Bridge and ACR in light of Lightroom?  Will Bridge and ACR continue to be further enhanced and developed with the digital photographer in mind?

Pat

[peterkrogh]

I can't comment on where Bridge and ACR are headed.

And it many ways, that wouldn't really matter. The most important issue is how do we use the tools we have here today, not what tools might show up in the future. It's all vaporware until you can buy it and use it.

I feel very comfortable that we have finally gotten to a place where we can establish a workflow that is pretty future-proof.  That is, we will be able to migrate our collections to the software and hardware of the future, as it becomes available, without having to spend too much time herding the information along with the images.

Peter