Most of Kelby’s Tips for Lightroom Users Teach How to Overcome Program
Adobe’s John Nack just linked me to Scott Kelby’s blog posting about the 10-things he’d tell Lightroom users. Interestingly many of these tips are how to turn off or otherwise disable the program’s interface. 
It’s long been my contention that the main issues with LR are that it’s too cluttered, and it seems even Kelby agrees. It’s a shame Adobe didn’t address a single one of these in their LR 3 beta.
This also reminds me of how much I dislike Lightroom’s organizational tools, with this little passage standing out
Matt and I always joke that “Folders are where we go when we want to see the shots that weren’t any good” because we put all our “keepers” in a collection right away. Collections are safe, and will keep most users out of trouble.
Files are organized by Folders in Lightroom (essentially you have to maintain a Finder structure yourself) but if you want to find your keepers you should put them in a collection. While Aperture’s Referenced vs. Managed system can be confusing, at least the default operation of Aperture does better than “keep most users out of trouble.” The last thing I need with my photo management application is trouble.
I don’t think Lightroom’s a bad program of course. If there weren’t an Aperture on the market I’d use it instead of tools like Bridge or Photomechanic. I just get struck often by the need for people to learn their way to avoid Lightroom’s interface in order to actually use the program.
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Author: David Schloss
David Schloss is the director of the Mac Create Network and the Aperture Users Network, a professional photographer, writer, editor and photographic educator who specializes adventure sports, travel and lifestyle photography. Schloss is the author of the books Blue Pixel Personal Photo Coach: Digital Photography Tips from the Trenches and Blue Pixel Guide to Travel Photography: Perfect Photos Every Time. Schloss is the former Technical Editor for Photo District News, a position he held for six years.
7 Comments
Your Name
November 13th, 2009
I bought LR 1 and kept trying it and LR2 and LR3b and I just don’t like it. It feels so backwards. My mind thinks in the same flow and rhythm as Aperture.
trace (2 comments.)
November 13th, 2009
Cluttered was my impression from way back in the first beta days of LR. I had every reason to want to like it, I really did, but I simply don’t. There is definitely an Art and Science to creating top-notch Graphic User Interfaces (and the “experience” they bring). Sadly, Adobe is not known for this.
Mike
November 14th, 2009
I like the one about multiple catalogs. This is what LR users do to keep the application fast enough for daily work. Afterwards they claim that Aperture is “too slow” for them.
ff
November 14th, 2009
Wow. You don’t see LR user sites bashing Aperture. Nice work guys. Guess there is no real news to post about Aperture. Exactly why I switched to LR. Aperture is stale.
DLS
November 16th, 2009
“Wow. You don’t see LR user sites bashing Aperture.”
http://www.luminous-landscape.com/reviews/software/aperture-none.shtml
This was his Aperture 1.1 review. Almost everything the says is wrong with Aperture was addressed in 1.5 yet he never updated his review.
Chris
November 16th, 2009
Lightroom is good for ACR and Adobe Creative Suite workflows (ie InDesign users etc). The ACR adjustments are fantastic, specifically the Graduated filter, and adjustment brush, also the expansive presets that can be created and shared. But where it really lacks is in the organization interface- a critical part of having a large library. I love Apertures ability to create folders, projects, albums and smart albums. Its far better than the “Collections” monotone organization area in Lightroom.
I have been referencing 30,000+ images in both Aperture & Lightroom for comparison purposes (and market research- as my job) above is my feedback, below is my experience.
Digital photography is still a young medium, a lot of it has to do with file management and workflow, two concepts that most consumers and pro-sumers struggle with. Especially those who are novice on computers or as I’ve found through experience, the baby-boomer gone digital photographers (no offense). Thus they end up using iPhoto or Picassa with their RAW files! lol
jade leary (1 comments.)
November 21st, 2009
I feel the same way about LR and have trouble understanding why Adobe doesn’t adress this. I’ve been having a lot of problems with Aperture under snow leopard and although some of those have been fixed with the last update, it’s still a bit of a struggle
But having yet again tried the Adobe way, I’ve made my peace with the fact that LR just isn’t for me. The workflow and interface go against my entire way of working.
So features be damned – i’m sticking around for AP3 or X…