I post this question in this area because I know some people consider Lightroom a tool just like any other in their bags. ; I have been looking into lightroom 4 but was floored when I saw that they decided to make it vista or win7 and no xp. ; The lowered cost thing is great on one hand, but I don't want to have to use my other boot drive every time I do photo work. ; This is of course an option that I will consider down the road when / if I see lr4 selling for cheap. ; I have also hear there are some bugs in it. Now, I have also read that lightroom may be overkill for someone with my limited skillset. ; On that note, what alternatives have you all used and what would you recommend? Ideally I would love to get my hands on lightroom 3.6 as this was the last version made with xp users in mind, if anyone knows of any place selling it please let me know.
Google is your friend. ; A search for "Lightroom 3 download" turned up a Lightroom 3.3 download link. ; As an alternate source, my copy of Photoshop Elements 10 came with a trial copy of LR3. I use both Elements and Gimp. ; If you just need a simple editor, either of those will do fine. ; You can download a free trial of just about anything, and Gimp is open source so it costs nothing. Others around here have their favorite programs, so stay tuned for their suggestions.
Brother Jay, if you are unsure if you are ready for Lightroom, I would use Elements and Adobe Camera Raw to process RAW files. Another option is Paint Shop Pro. It now has a RAW sibling.
I am using LR 4 on a Mac, but was every happy with LR 3 also, so if you can grab a copy of it then I would suggest that. ; I do not think LR is overkill, in fact I think it is a great tool for beginner or advanced user. Don't ignore the free software that came with your camera either, it can be very capable and could provide everything you need.
I use Elements for exactly what Roger said, to process my RAW files. ; I dont plan on upgrading until I feel that I know what I am doing with Elements. ; I feel I have a lot to learn still, too much, so I understand your feeling.
Brother Jay, I was in this similar quandary myself not too long ago. ; I am not a wiz with any of the software but I finally decided to go with Corel's PaintShop Pro X4 Ultimate. ; It is simple to learn, has a TON of great features and costs a fraction of Adobe's products.
i'm a lightroom fanboy, but that's because when i got into the scott kelby written/published books, and some of the downloadable tutorials, i found his teaching style a good fit for how i process and learn. other than missing some camera raw support lr4 is what i have moved to, but absolutely nothing wrong with LR3, i just had my niece buy it on a stock dump from b&h a couple of months ago, just gave her the kelby book to go with it. like paul said, it's a pretty powerful tool in it's own right. and don't shy away from processing software because you think it's too much for your skill set. you'll be surprised how fast some studious effort will advance those skills.
