First Post: Upgrade from LR2 to LR4

[Saladsamurai]

Hi folks

I have decided that I want to give RAW a shot. I am fairly technically minded, so I think I wil end up liking it. When I was in college, I purchased a student copy of Lightroom 2. I have never used it. I simply never had the time while in school. Now that I am done, I want to start getting the most out of my camera. Is LR2 still an acceptable graphics program? I get the feeling that it is. Is there anything that I, as a complete amateur, will be missing?

Furthermore, do you know if I can upgrade from LR2 to LR4 directly? Adobe's website doesn't seem to have an 'upgrade to LR4' option when I click on 'Buy.' I am wondering if the site can somehow tell what version I have. Any thoughts?

Thanks for your time!

 

[KmH]

Lightroom 2 will work just fine for you.

The only issue may be that Lightroom 2 uses Adobe Camera Raw 5 (ACR 5)

The current release is ACR 7 (Lightroom 4/CS6 Camera Raw). You may need to convert the Raw files from your camera to Adobe's DNG format to get them to open in Lightroom 2.

So, what camera would you be shooting Raw files with?

 

[Saladsamurai]

Hi KmH Thanks for your reply. I should probably add my camera to my sig for clarity. I am shooting with a Canon T1i. Interestingly, although I have heard that LR2 is the same as LR2-Student, I am not so sure. If I go to this gentleman's tutorial for LR2 Lightroom Tutorials | Photoshop Lightroom 2 Essential Training, in particular, the "importing preferences" tutorial, he has the following screen:

whereas I have this:

.

Perhaps he is not really using LR2? Maybe he is using LR3 and assumed the same functionality.

 

[KmH]

Adobe Student Editions are functionally exactly the same as the full retail versions.

IIRC, Lightroom 2's EULA however is different from the full retail version.

Your T1i was supported by ACR with ACR 5.4 - Camera Raw plug-in | Supported cameras So, you don't need to convert your T1i files to DNG unless you want to, though you may need to update your Lightroom 2.

With Lightroom 2 open on your computer, at the top left of the page click on Help > Check for Updates and follow the prompts.