For years I failed to investigate the possibilities of this program, foolishly assuming it to most likely be a slimmed down version of photoshop! Far from it Adobes Lightroom is a brilliant little program not only for processing images (including raw files) but also for cataloguing, tagging, and non destructive editing. I must admit I now use the program probably more than photoshop for my everyday tasks, however dont let me mislead you I still much prefer the standard camera raw processor bundled with photoshop. Perhaps because I am so accustomed to the setting and knowing how to achieve what i am looking for in my images.
I have built up quite a library of processing action on lightroom which can be applied to a variety of image types in a non destructive way, i.e. its simple to reverty back to the original image or export the edited selection.
In the following images you can see 4 completely different processing styles each bringing their own dynamic to the shot, which do you prefer?
Mmmmmm…..nice chair!
What can I say! The owner has good taste!