If you want it, the beta version of Adobe Lightroom 3 is free from now until April of 2010 – just head over to the above link, fill out the appropriate information, and off you go.
My father swears by it for his photography post-processing, but in the hour or so I have played with it, it just strikes me as a slightly-more-powerful Picasa. Oh, sure, you have control over many, many more aspects of the image, and can delve into significantly greater depth, but when I am done tweaking the image and compare it to the output of Picasa’s “Are You Feeling Lucky” function and the limited direct tinkering that program permits, I am not entirely convinced I can rationalize its $250+ sticker price
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Anywise, below is one of my favorite images from our cross-country trip we took a while back. The first image is straight out of the camera, the second image is after I was done tinkering with it in Lightroom, and the third image is after I ran it through something called “tintii” (which, to the artsy-fartsy side of my brain, is much more toy-like than Lightroom… and is also free):
Straight from the camera:
After Lightroom processing:
After tintii:
Anywise, regardless of my opinion of the program, free is free. You have nothing to lose by downloading it, and the six months between now and when it expires should give you more than ample time to decide whether or not it is something you can afford.
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