Lightroom 2?

[Jen D]

I am thinking of upgrading but wanted to know what are some of the main advantages. Is it worth my extra $$$$. I love Lightroom, but is the upgrade something I would need (okay fire away enablers!)

Thanks!

Jen

[HeidiKnight]

I've been considering an upgrade too, so I'll be anxiously watching this thread.

[Cassie Jones (1gr8muggle)]

I am REALLY enjoying using LR2. Much more than LR1 actually. The greatest thing, for me, is that you can add vignettes that move in WITH a crop. Previously, you could do some vignetting, but if you cropped the image, the vignette would stay on the original photo edges.

I also love the adjustment brush. It allows you to essentially "paint" adjustments on specific areas of a photo (like, painting exposure, painting saturation, etc.) with soft/hard brushes much like you do in PS. One of my favorite adjustment brushes is the "soften skin" that lets you do subtle touch ups right in LR (non-destructively). It works remarkably well.

There are a lot of other changes, but those are the few off the top of my head. I really do enjoy this version of LR.

[iUma]

Hey, MY GURU, where is the soften skin brush? I just found the gradient brush/tool that lets you turn a gray sky BLUE!!! My kind of TOY. Really, there is no comparison between LR2 and what ever the prototype thingy was(meaning Lightroom...which I got and then got this)....night and day. Go for it. and I believe there are some earlier threads addressing this topic...down there somewhere....do a search and I'm sure you'll discover more.

[SAHMom]

Not the guru, but the soften skin is one of the effects under the adjustment brush. I'm almost positive it was loaded in there originally (or I got it off of lightroomkillertips.com... which I also love the whiten teeth adjustment I know I got from there).

[SAHMom]

Oh, and to (not) answer the original question, I never owned LR 1. I only briefly tried the trial download when it originally came out. I'm a creature of habit and ACR was working just fine for me, so I never bought it. On a whim, I purchased LR 2 (Amazon half off deal)... and I LOVE and ADORE it. Has sped up my workflow SO much!

[Jen D]

Thanks so much! That is exactly the little push I needed = )

[Jen D]

Okay... so I am currently downloading the trial version... figured I would play while I saved up enough money. But, my question is this... do I need to uninstall my current Lightroom 1.4 version before I can use the Lightroom 2?

Thanks!

[audrey77]

LR2 just runs soooooooo much better... and the adjustment brushes are great.

[iUma]

Jen, Sorry I can't help with that question. I had Lightroom 1 on my PC and then got a MAC before I got Lightroom 2 so transferring from one version to another was not something I learned.

KIM!!! Thanks. I actually came back on here to tell Cassie that I had found it and now to see your sweet help here....and more info too!. You have to open that little double arrow with Color beside it and then you get all those options.

Off to play ....
Thank you Kim for telling me about the teeth thing. I have just been using the brightening brush which works great.

[Cassie Jones (1gr8muggle)]

You do not have to uninstall LR1 to install LR2.

[hendon]

I have got the option here in NZ to buy LR2 at the education discount price slightly cheaper than the LR2 upgrade. Does anyone know if I would have to uninstall LR1 in this instance or would it just install over LR1. (Just trying to figure out which one to buy - seems silly paying more for the upgrade, but I don't want any installation problems).

[audrey77]

Aren't they all the same? If you happen to not have the serial number, then it will just give you the whole program anyways?