If you are a serious Photoshop user like myself, you probably know that Adobe has released a new version of Photoshop (PS) CC in their Creative Cloud platform.  It has some new features that might be fun to try out such as focus masking and others.  And, if you are new to Photoshop and want to try it, they've dropped their monthly subscription rate down from $20.00/mo to $10.  If you've upgraded from a previous version and went with this subscription it's been $10/mo, but now everyone gets it for that price.  It's a very good deal and cheaper in the long run than the old pricing model.  Just hope the rates don't increase.  Anyway, if you opt in, you also get a free copy of Lightroom (LR).  Not bad! If you like LR, that is...

You see, I have it, but I'm rather intimidated by it and still don't like it, yet.  I shouldn't be intimidated because it's supposed to be simple to use.  But I'm so used to using Adobe Bridge along with PS, that when I get into LR, I get screwed up and can't figure out what's what and then frustratingly get the heck out and go back to Bridge/PS.  Well, a couple days ago, I thought I should give LR another crack.  It seems each time I go into it, I get a little more comfortable with it.  Downloading this little piece of literature from the Lightroom Queen helped as well.

So, to play around in LR I needed a photo, right?  I decided to use this one you see here.  It's one of the very first photos I took when I started this whole photographic journey with DSLRs about 5 years ago.  It's a shot of the Bertram train station in Bertram, TX.  I took it with my old trusty Nikon D90, a great camera in it's day and is still a good option for a used one if you want to start out...  I converted this photo to black and white and used some of the adjustment brushes in LR to bring out some detail here and there. (Here's my original HDR, if you are interested) However, I did open it up in PS to add my watermark and save it as a JPG.  Still not crazy about how the library works in LR on how to save a photo, but that's probably because I still don't quite understand it.  It seems the easier Adobe tries to make things, the harder it gets.

So, I'll keep poking around, but I'm not sure I'll ever like it.  Maybe some day I'll take a class on it and maybe that will help.  I have a book or two and that's good, but nothing helps me more than actually seeing someone working it.  We'll see!  Thanks for dropping by!


Exif data:

Camera - Nikon D90
Lens - Nikkor 18-105mm f3.5-5.6 VR
Focal Length - 21mm
Aperture - f8
Exposure - 1/250
Exposure program - Program AE
ISO speed - 100
Exposure bias - -0.33 EV
Tripod - No
HDR - No
# of brackets - NA