As much as I like simple photo organizers like Microsoft's , Lightroom's convenience is hard to ignore.

Consider a common problem I used to have: I'd take a series of photos intending to or a . I'd end up with a bunch of photos that all look more or less the same, and there was no easy way to associate them with the final panorama or HDR photo in my organizer. In Lightroom, not only can I tag the series with "Panorama Sources," but I can also group them into what Adobe calls a stack. (You'll find stacks in other Adobe programs as well, like Photoshop Elements.)

The middle row of photos in this view of my library shows a "stack" of photos that make up a panoramic series, followed by the panorama made from them. Notice that stacks are indicated by a dark frame around the images.

Now when I sort by photos by keyword and look at my panorama images, all the sources associated with a given panoramic photo are stacked conveniently together.

5. Extra Goodies Get the Creative Juices Flowing