Lightroom 3 - performance?

If LR3 would not be that expensive I would get it now. But sadly Adobe is charging through the ***** and so is MS. Unless I can pick up a cheap one on feeBay I will not be able to afford it at the moment (also things look up and I may get there quicker, but a long lens will have to take priority plus I will need a second body. Problem is that when ever anyone is offering one here that I am interested in it seems to be the wrong time as I have to budget and cant just splash out).

Can't speak for anyone else, but I don't find it complicated at all. You can individually hide the top, bottom, and side panes btw.

And like any software, operation is greatly speeded up once you learn common key commands.

It isn't necessary to learn how to use all of it to get a great deal out of Lightroom. In fact 90% of my processing is done using a set of presets I got from the Other Forum - I've been using Lightroom for nearly two years and there are some controls I still haven't touched

Its very disorientating when you are used to Photoshop, but with a bit of perserverance you come to realise it's actually set up very helpfully and makes you feel you are really in command of your images. In the 'Develop' stage all the tools are right to hand in the side panel, which is actually easier than in PSE where they are accessed via various drop down menus.

I think it's pretty good value as even if you couple it with PSE for layer work it's miles cheaper than full photoshop. )

The developing tools in Lightroom are also laid out in the order you should use them from top to bottom.

So cropping adjustments, color spots, etc

Temperature

Exposure

tone curve

split toning

sharpening

finally noise

& then lens

When using the sharpening tool, on pc press & hold the alt key whilst making adjustments so you can see the difference the settings make, finally the masking is the most importance, this selects which parts of the photo you want sharpening, so if you dont want any of the background sharpening slide the mask tool most of teh way to the right whilst pressing down the alt key to see which parts are to be sharpened.

Is there any way you could get it cheaper through some mildly fraudulent misuse of the student discount available - do you have a neice or grandchild at college at the moment?!

That may sound a bit norty but on the other hand a lot of people must download the software + crack illegally and pay nothing.

Bear in mind that Adobe are one of the companies which require proof of academic status before they'll give you a CD key for the student version

They really are tighter than the duck's proverbial aren't they?

I know a local authority College which insists that all it's students have to matriculate even for a 5 week course

Result - they have full Student status and can get things like Photoshop at silly student prices . After all their student status is for a full academic year

Tempting for next September