The ATLAS detector at the LHC is capable of efficiently separating photons and neutral hadrons based on their shower shapes over a wide range in eta, phi, ET, either in addition to or instead of isolation cuts. This provides ATLAS with a unique stren
gth for direct photon and gamma-jet physics as well as access to the unique capability to measure non-isolated photons from fragmentation or from the medium. We present a first look at the ATLAS direct photon measurement capabilities in Pb+Pb and, for reference, p+p collisions at sqrt(sNN)=5.5 TeV over the region |eta|<2.4.
