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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Lightroom 1.0 under Mac OS X
Developer:	Adobe Systems
Latest release:	1.3 / November 15, 2007 (Mac & Windows)
OS:	Mac OS X and Windows XP
Genre:	Photo Post-Production
License:	Proprietary
Website:	Adobe Systems, Inc.

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a photography software program developed by Adobe Systems for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, designed to assist professional photographers in managing thousands of digital images and doing post production work. It is not a file browser like Adobe Bridge, but rather an image management application database which helps in viewing, editing and managing digital photos (including those on backup DVDs).

In 2002, veteran Photoshop developer Mark Hamburg began a new project, code-named “Shadowland”.^[1] The new project was a deliberate departure from many of Adobe’s established conventions. 40% of Photoshop Lightroom is written using the Lua scripting language. Hamburg chose Phil Clevenger, a former associate of Kai Krause’s, to create a new look for the application.^[1]

Photoshop Lightroom’s engineering talent is based largely in Minnesota, comprised of the team which had already created Adobe’s ImageReady application. Troy Gaul, Melissa Gaul, and the rest of their crew (reportedly known as the “Minnesota Phats”^[2]), along with Hamburg, developed the architecture behind the application. George Jardine, a skilled photographer and previous Adobe evangelist, rounded out the early team, filling the Product Manager role.^[1]

On January 9, 2006, an early version of Photoshop Lightroom, previously just called Lightroom, was released to the public as a Macintosh-only public Beta, on the Adobe Labs website. This was the first Adobe product released to the general public for feedback during its development. This method was then later used in the development of Adobe Photoshop CS3. Further Beta releases followed. Notable releases included Beta 3 on July 18, 2006, which added support for Microsoft Windows systems. Also, on September 25, 2006, Beta 4 was released, which saw it merged into the Photoshop product range, was released quickly, followed by a minor update on October 19, released as 4.1.

On January 29, 2007, Adobe announced that Lightroom would be shipping on February 19, 2007. US list pricing was set at $299. The UK retail price was £199.

A 30-day trial of Lightroom 1.0 is currently available, released on February 18, 2007

Lightroom 1.1 update was released on June 26, 2007, with another update 1.2, released on 15 September 2007 and update 1.3 released on November 15, 2007.

Unlike traditional image editing software, Photoshop Lightroom is focused on the following workflow steps:

• Library - image collection review and organization
• Develop - non-destructive RAW and JPEG file editing
• Slideshow - tools and export features
• Print - layout options and preferences
• Web - automatic gallery creation and upload

• Adobe Bridge
• Apple Aperture
• BlueMarine

• LightRoom 1.0 First Impressions - by Thomas Christensen
• Adobe Lightroom First Look and Primer - by Michael Reichmann, The Luminous Landscape
• First look: Adobe Lightroom beta - by Derrick Story for Macworld
• Photoshop Lightroom Resource Center
• Adobe Lightroom Beta Version Review
• Lightroom killer tips - blog
• Sean McFoto's Lightroom blog
• Lightroom News blog
• The Image-Space Lightroom Tips
• [1]