The Photoshop Lightroom 2 Software for Windows and Mac from Adobe is an essential tool for digital photographers. The software features robust photo management capabilities, as well as non-destructive RAW editing, a printing module, and easy output to the web. Lightroom is compatible with both Windows and Mac OS X, and is fully compatible with 64-bit operating systems.

• Photo Management

Lightroom features a powerful interface for managing large numbers of photographs. You'll be able to filter images into folders and subfolders; "virtual copies" can exist in multiple folders, without the need to create another copy of the file in question. The software gives you the ability to store photos on multiple hard drives, and even view low-resolution previews of offline media.

Robust rating, selection, keyword, and metadata tools are available to help you locate images quickly. Lightroom also allows you to create customizable "Smart Collections" that are automatically updated based on this data.

• Non-Destructive RAW Editing

The software uses a non-destructive approach to image editing. Original files are untouched by edits. Rather, Lightroom stores adjustments made to images in a central database, ensuring that the integrity of your original files remains intact. You can even write image changes to an XML "sidecar" file, which can be read by Adobe Camera RAW in Photoshop.

Lightroom features a number of preset develop settings that can be applied to images; you are also able to create your own custom settings for future use. These can be applied on image import en masse, or on an image-by-image basis.

Image editing controls include standard brightness, contrast, saturation, curve and sharpening adjustments. Lightroom also includes tools to remove chromatic aberration, crop and straighten images, remove dust spots, adjust fill light and black levels, remove red eye, and other common tasks. The local adjustment brush lets you apply changes to only a certain area of the image. Of course, Lightroom also features tight integration with Adobe Photoshop CS3, for those times when pixel editing is a necessity.

• Image Sharing

Lightroom allows you to export, print, or showcase images on the web. Adobe maintains a listing of free third-party export plugins are available to directly upload images to popular social networking web sites and gallery applications -- including Facebook, Flickr, and Gallery2 -- directly from within the software.

You'll also be able to create custom web galleries, both in Flash and HTML formats. These galleries can be hosted on your personal web space, and feature customizable templates. You can even upload these galleries to an FTP server with a single click!

Lightroom also lets you print images. You can arrange a photo for printing in multiple sizes, or as one of many on a single page. This helps you use paper and ink efficiently.

• New in Lightroom 2

Users of the original version of Lightroom will find plenty of reasons to upgrade. The local adjustment brush allows you to dodge, burn, and make other local adjustments. The software also sports 64-bit support, flexible printing packages, enhanced organizational tools, tighter integration with Photoshop CS3, robust volume management, and multiple monitor support.