DAM applications - ACDsee vs Lightroom

[2tcreative]

I have tried the Lightroom v1.3 trial and liked it for the most part, although did not get in the DAM portion of it much since it was a trial. I am about to do the same with the ACDsee app and was wondering what the experiences are on this forum with this one? Strengths and weaknesses?

Thanks for your input.

[tjones0214]

Been using Lightroom for some time. Forgive my ignorance, but what is the "DAM portion"??

[2tcreative]

Originally Posted by tjones0214

Been using Lightroom for some time. Forgive my ignorance, but what is the "DAM portion"??

So sorry...I get caught up in acronyms (work in the web industry!!). DAM is Digital Asset Management or the management processes used to label, categorizes,store and search digital images and documents.

[tjones0214]

Kinda what I thought, but wanted to make sure before I stuck my foot in my mouth...

I've got about 5K images ranging from snapshots from my point-and-shoot days to more "pro" stuff. I haven't used the ACDsee product for a very long time (since before Bridge in Adobe CS). What I've found with Lightroom is that it is extremely good at managing your images from a categorization perspective. Given that you work in the web industry, I'm going to go a little geeky. Essetially, what Lightroom does is it creates what it calls catalogs to manage your images. Essentially, these are proprietary, flat-file XML databases where everything from your EXIF data to keywords to any image manipulation settings are stored. When you make a change in any way to the image, Lightroom preserves the original image intact and simply makes updates the the XML sidecar file it creates. The only drawback that I've seen to this approach is that if you make changes to the image (external to Lightroom or Photoshop)--say in file manager--you have to manually tell Lightroom (menu option) to "update" your catalog in order to re-sync the XML file. All that said, anything you do to the image including the EXIF data your camera tags to the image is 100% searchable and filterable.

Likely a lot more than you wanted. Bottom line is that if you shoot in RAW or do any post-processing, Lightroom is the choice.

Just my humble two cents...

[2tcreative]

Travis, just the kind of input I need! Read reviews that indicate the Lightroom is very good at DAM but didn't get to try it out before my trial ran out. The 2 products are priced close enough that price shouldn't be a factor. Leaning toward Lightroom as well as it seems to integrate more features that I use in my initial workflow.

[Joe_Lorenzini]

If you use Lightroom to edit your photos it makes sense to invest the time in learning it's DAM capabilities. I'm aware of a few photogs who have made the switch from a browser/ps combo to only Lightroom. The learning curve is there but it's got everything you'd want plus it comes from a company like Adobe which gives a bit of piece and mind as far it's longevity goes.

All that said, I've been a user of ACDSee for many years now and still use it to organize my image library. It's fast and very complete in that regard. It's an outstanding program (I'm using the Pro 2.0 version). However it doesn't excel at editing images (past a resize/crop thing) and I don't use it to print either. Both areas that Lightroom does handle well. I'm anticipating making a full switchover when LR2 is released (they have a beta out now).

_/oe

[2tcreative]

Yes, I am thinking of trying the LR2.0 beta as well. And if Adobe keeps modifying LR for more functionality that PS currently has then I see it becoming the defacto standard for all digital photography workflows.

Good feedback everyone.

[picman]

Lots of info in this forum: http://thedambook.com/smf/index.php

run by the author of "The DAM Book" - also recommended.

Brian