Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

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Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Lightroom 1.0 under Mac OS X
Developer:	Adobe Systems
Latest release:	1.0 / February 19, 2007 (Mac & Windows)
OS:	Mac OS X and Windows XP
Use:	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 post-imaging work. It is part of the Adobe Photoshop product range, which includes Photoshop CS2, Photoshop Elements and Photoshop Album.

1 History
2 Features
3 References
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] History

[edit] Early stages

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. An interesting aspect of Photoshop Lightroom's implementation is that about 40% of the application is written using the Lua scripting language; an interesting aspect of Lightroom's design is that 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"), 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]

[edit] Beta development

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.

[edit] Official Release

On January 29, 2007, Adobe announced that Lightroom would be shipping on February 19, 2007. US list pricing was set at $299, with a $199 introductory offer from Adobe's online store (valid until the end of April). The UK retail price was £139.

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