I’m excited to announce that I’m going to have a photography and Lightroom column premiering in the January 8 issue of Heart of the Matter’s online magazine! [The article is now live! Fun with Photography Featuring Lightroom 2]
If you’re not familiar with Lightroom, it is a professional-level photography program from Adobe. Lightroom can simplify and enhance your digital photography workflow by helping you import, organize/keyword, and edit your photos.
I hope to showcase more Photoshop and Lightroom information on the site in the year ahead. I’d also like to participate in Project 365, starting next week. I’m not sure if I will post daily or do a weekly wrap-up; the important thing will be making photography a daily habit, growing as a photographer, and the challenges of finding new and interesting content and learning to tell a story in photos.
If you’d like to join me as a Lightroom user, find out if you qualify for the educational discount pricing:
Academic Discounts on Adobe Software
You may qualify for an academic discount on Adobe software if you are a homeschooler, a higher education student, or have a student in grades K-12. See discount information on Adobe’s site or at Academic Superstore.
First you need to email Adobe to get pre-qualified. [A word of advice: do this right the first time. I emailed Adobe without documenting that we homeschool, and I’m still waiting for their response. Three weeks later I sent another request, which included a scanned copy of my HSLDA membership card, and I received my approval one minute and twenty-seven seconds later.]
Send an email to adobeauthorizations@adobe.com and include the following:
Name of Teacher & Student(s)
Grade level(s) and expected graduation date(s)
Address, phone & email
Any other relevant information that documents home school status (Letter of intent to home school addressed to local school district for current school year; Home School Legal Defense Association membership card; Home School Charter School membership card; or book/curriculum receipt for the current year)
Don’t lose that authorization email, because you’re going to need to forward it to verify your eligibility after you place your order. I purchased my copy of Lightroom from Academic Superstore (www.academicsuperstore.com) for $98.95 plus $1.99 shipping.
Enjoy Lightroom 2 today!
The good news is that you don’t have to wait for your software to arrive in the mail. Go to Adobe’s website and download a fully functional 30-day trial version. When your purchased software arrives in the mail, enter the serial number when you open Lightroom on your computer (whenever you open the trial version, you will be asked if you want to continue using the trial or enter a serial number to activate it) and you won’t even have to install from the disk; Lightroom 2 will already be installed from the online download.
I would love to know if you’ve found this information helpful and if you are a current or soon-to-be Lightroom user. If there are any aspects of Photoshop or Lightroom that you would like to see featured here, leave it in comments. If you’d like to join me in Project 365 this year (or if you’re currently in the middle of your 365 days), share that, too!
Wow, Dawn, your site is WAY different! I like it. The colors are quite nice. Although I kind of miss the rest of Diary Girl. 😀
I’m wondering if there is any reason to consider getting Lightroom when I have CS3. What’s the difference? Are there benefits that CS3 doesn’t offer?
I’ve thought about doing the Project 365 for some time. I would love to get in more of a photography mindset and build my skills.
Diannes last blog post..marigolds
Well, I’m already a Lightroom user, and that is the way we purchased it. 🙂 I’m looking forward to your Lightroom column, it has become my favorite (right after Photoshop, that is) program to work in. It’s amazing the difference it can make, and has completely changed the way I work with my photographs! 😀 I’m doing Project 365 on my photography blog, but am already behind. Silly me. Oh, well, I can always catch up! 😉 BTW, I like the new design. How are you liking the magazine layout?
Simply Vintagegirls last blog post... . . and then I couldn’t talk.
Simply Vintagegirl:
I really love Lightroom, too. It simplifies my photography workflow, and I like the non-destructive editing aspect of it. I keep putting off Project 365 because I worry about getting behind before I ever start!
I was really hesitant about the magazine layout, but I’m actually liking it. The Featured Content plugin at the top is great, and I love all the little thumbnails (even though I still haven’t filled them all in). Flickr is a big help for getting different sizes! It’s nice to be able to feature more posts. Originally, it was supposed to show 4 in each category, but I’ve increased to 5. The trick keeping the sidebars short enough not extend too far beyond the content. It’s definitely more work than a typical theme!
Yea! I’ve been interested in Lightroom lately, though (like Dianne) I don’t know if I need it since hubby has CS3 (which I need to learn also). Would Lightroom be a great plus alongside CS3?
Lilbears last blog post..Save HandMade!
Dianne and Lilbear:
Lightroom is for photography only, not graphics like Photoshop. Now that I use Lightroom, I do almost all of my photo editing in it. It is wonderful for organizing them, and the editing is non-destructive. I can edit away, but it doesn’t change the original image. I have added a Flickr uploader to it, which makes it super simple to upload there. Flickr is greatly simplifying maintaining that home page for me. One of the sizes you can choose is 75px x 75px squares, which I’m using for the top two sections’ thumbnail sizes.
With Photoshop, I tend to make my edits, resize a picture to use on the blog, and then not save the PSD file, because they’re so big. With Lightroom, I can always access the original or edited versions of the photo. It has all the capabilities of Adobe Camera RAW, plus Photoshop-style editing features (even some that aren’t in Photoshop).