Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a photography software program developed by Adobe Systems for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, designed to assist professional photographers in managing thousands of digital images and doing post production work. It is not a file browser like Adobe Bridge, but rather an image management application database which helps in viewing, editing, and managing digital photos.

Adobe® Photoshop® Lightroom® 3 software unites your digital photography essentials in one fast and intuitive package. Create something beautiful. Express your vision. Move your audience.

Lightroom is an invaluable assistant for professional photographers. You’re juggling deadlines, processing and delivering proofs, soliciting client feedback, generating finished images, and marketing yourself and your work. Use Lightroom to do it all better and faster.

Lightroom gets you there with the tools you need to create great images, manage all your photographs, and showcase them with style and impact.

Create brilliant images

Above all, it’s your images that matter. Make them as great as you imagined they could be using the leading-edge image processing tools in Lightroom. From sophisticated exposure and color controls to superior noise reduction and sharpening, Lightroom provides what you need to create stunning photographs.

State-of-the-art editing tools

Create the perfect look for every image, whether you shoot raw or JPEG. Designed by the makers of Adobe Photoshop software in partnership with top photographers around the world, Lightroom includes a comprehensive range of leading-edge image processing tools. Make precise overall adjustments to color and contrast or use a flexible brush that lets you edit in targeted areas of your photo for just the look you want. Dodge and burn, convert to black-and-white, add grain, reduce noise, adjust sharpness, and much more.

Develop presets

Save your favorite looks and apply them instantly. Handy presets — many are included, or you can create and save your own — enable you to apply a series of favorite adjustments in a single click.

Nondestructive editing

Experiment fearlessly with as many image-editing controls, enhancements, and looks as you like. Lightroom is a nondestructive environment that encourages your creative exploration. Your original images are safely unaltered, and it’s easy to reverse your steps or save multiple versions of any photograph.

Adobe Photoshop CS5 integration

Select multiple photos in Lightroom and automatically open them in Photoshop CS5 to merge them into a panorama, a high dynamic range (HDR) photo, or a creative composite. See your edits immediately back in Lightroom.

Make an impact

You shot your images because they had meaning, whether to you, your client, or your subject. Use Lightroom to communicate that meaning with style and impact. Create customized print packages, dynamic slide show videos with music, and elegant web galleries. And showcase your images online using new, streamlined integration with photo-sharing sites (may require third-party plug-ins).

Easy-to-share slide show videos with music

Show your images to clients, friends, or family with more style and flair using elegant slide shows with music. Slide shows are a breeze to create, and you can share them easily by exporting them as videos, even in high definition.

Camera Support in Lightroom 3.2 and Camera Raw 6.2 Release Candidates

* Casio EXILIM EX-FH100 (DNG*)

* Leica S2 (DNG*)

* Panasonic DMC-FZ100

* Panasonic DMC-FZ40 (FZ45)

* Panasonic DMC-LX5

* Pentax 645D

* Samsung NX10

* Samsung TL500 (EX1)

* Sony A290

* Sony A390

* Sony Alpha NEX-3

* Sony Alpha NEX-5

sources:

http://en.wikipedia.org/

http://www.adobe.com/