whats so good about lightroom?

StuntMonkey

StuntMonkey

Messages
561
Name
Alex Burge
Edit My Images
Yes
*opens can of worms*

So whats so good about Adobe Lightroom?

i have just downloaded the 30 day trial version and to me it seems complicated and pointless?

so... what am i missing? what do you use it for?

let me know as i feel stupid :bonk:
 
What have you been using before this one? Guessing you don't shoot in RAW?
 
StuntMonkey said:
so... what am i missing? what do you use it for?
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Everything - I use it for the whole proccess.

Importing into specified folders and attaching metadata, tweaking RAW images, organising images into various collections, cloning, healing, cropping, colour balancing, exporting and now with 2 there is a lot more selective editing you can do. It's great for working with batches, for instance, heal a few dust spots on one photo and you can copy that to any numer of photo's taken at the same time, the same thing goes for adding keywords etc.

I have Photoshop CS3 and to be honest I hardly use it now. As for all the other software available IMHO nothing even comes close
 
It'll turn an average image into a good image by compensating for the errors made whilst using the camera. Crop out stray branches/people, excess sky (whatever), adjust WB by using the pointer or the drop down menu to the setting you should have set in the camera but forgot, ditto with getting the correct exposure/brightness/contrast. The new adjustment brush and gradient filter tools in Lightroom 2 are superb for recapturing blown skies etc. That's just the basics - sharpening and the complicated stuff for adjusting colour saturation etc all assist in enhancing your image.

In short it does electronically what the oldies used to do in the dark room to bring out the best in the exposure. It does all this without affecting the original image. It works best in RAW, rather less good, but still good enough with jpegs - are you shooting in RAW?

As to using it - I can't really help other than point you towards the video tutorials on Adobes web pages which should assist. I found it instinctive to use -(after a week or so) much more so than Photoshop. To me - if you want to be creative, opt for Photoshop, if you want to simply bring out the best of your photos, use Lightroorm.

It's also great for cataloguing and tagging your photographs and for saving backups remotely.
 
StuntMonkey said:
i have just downloaded the 30 day trial version and to me it seems complicated and pointless?

so... what am i missing? what do you use it for?
Click to expand...
It's certainly not pointless, neither do I feel it is complicated. As with most advanced or specific software applications, it does take some learning how to get the best from it. Investing time in learning how to use the software will pay dividends to your workflow.

What do I use it for... well, the list is endless almost...

  • Library Functions
  • Key-wording images
  • Rating images
  • Filtering images
  • Processing images (very rarely use CS3 any more) - there's a plethora of functions in this area in Lightroom. From sharpening to saturating, from Auto WB to levels
  • Cropping images
  • Straightening images
  • Adding borders
  • Adding watermarks
  • Uploading directly to my online gallery (see sig)
  • Printing images
  • Preparing slideshows for family and friend demos
The list could go on and on... stick with it and ensure you shoot in RAW and you'll soon wonder how you managed without it.
 
:LOL: i thought this might be the reaction!

i think i need to play with is longer...

to answer a the questions, no i dont shoot in RAW, yet.
i am using photoshop elements at the moment.

tbh i am fairly crap at using a computer in general. but its just that i cant find anything obvious or easy to use in lightroom.

i will have to check out the tutorials and have a further play.
as the girlfriends says... im 'all gear and no idea'! :LOL:
 
StuntMonkey said:
:tbh i am fairly crap at using a computer in general. but its just that i cant find anything obvious or easy to use in lightroom.
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As a starting point - go to the Histogram in "Develop" and click the two triangles in the top corners. This shows blown highlights and blacks. Then use your cursor to try and pull it from the left and right to get as much of the Histogram in the centre as possible. You'll see that by doing that it moves the sliders for exposure/recovery/fill light and blacks.
 
Lightroom is a lot easier and quicker to use than Photoshop CS3, for the basic editing (tweeks to colour/exposure etc) it's excelent for batch ajusting, and for making B+W copies, things like that. It doesn't do the clever clever stuff like swopping heads or blending several different images together. Think of it as an "ad on" to photoshop rather than a seperate application (although it is)
My workflow is to use lightroom for the basic edit/raw conversion (colour/exposure etc) then selected images into photoshop for any fancy stuff or tricky cloning I can't do in lightroom, to be honest now I couldn't live without both. Wayne
 
to answer a the questions, no i dont shoot in RAW, yet.
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If you shot raw then you would suddenly see the need, no not need desire to use Lightroom or similar application.

As other have said I use Lightroom for 90% of my post pro work, only occasionally do I fire up CS3.
 
Lightroom looks daunting and or pointless at first, but once you realise what a powerful and quick image editing tool it is you'll wonder how you managed without it ;)
 
I agree with you (to an extent), the only thing I use LR for is the fantastic 'web' features, being able to drop a batch of images into LR and it quickly generating a gallery is great.

For the rest, it has no real appeal, CS3 is the tool I use for all post processing I don't think LR can come anywhere close to it's comprehensive (and fine) adjustment capabilities.
 
Anyone use DXO and Lightroom?? i see theres a link withing DXO to link straight through.

Have to say I downloaded the DXO trial and been plesently suprised with what has come out :eek:

How does Lightroom compare :thinking:
 
The main thing I like about Lightroom is how it structures your PP everything has a flow to it.

It might also depend on your style of photography, I usually end up taking a lot of pictures and want to get them processed as quickly as possible. My Dad on the other had, only takes a few pictures and likes to spend a long time getting them perfect, so he finds that the Bridge/Camera RAW/Photoshop combination works better for him.
 
Never use Lightroom for any kind of PP, because I shoot in jpg at the moment.

However I have used it for about a year now for reviewing, cataloging and selecting my shots. Its VERY good at this, how I ever managed to do it before I don't know.

The secret to Lightroom though is something some of you relative newcomers to the computer world might not understand.... its all about using the keys on the keyboard! With a few easily remembered key presses you can really rip through your shots and find the best ones. I can easily sort a couple of thousand shots in less than 2 hours and then start to play with them in CS2.

Its cracking!

But I know some who don't like it....
 
Because for my own tastes, I don't like what it does.

I'd already got used to CS/CS2 for my PP and I know what I am doing there - don't need to try and find workable stuff in Lightroom for it.

Now when I move to raw with my next camera upgrade.... maybe yes I will use it, but Capture NX seems much better than Lightroom for that, so maybe yet another piece of software in my workflow... dunno... haven't worked that bit out yet!
 
pete-c said:
Does Lightroom have a Clone tool.?
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Yes, but not quite as advanced as Photoshop.

It also has a dodge/burn tool and something for red eye removal.

Its really a very tightly focused package for quickly reviewing, touching up and printing photos. Its not Photoshop and never will be, but does work very well in conjunction!
 
desantnik said:
Because for my own tastes, I don't like what it does.

I'd already got used to CS/CS2 for my PP and I know what I am doing there - don't need to try and find workable stuff in Lightroom for it.

Now when I move to raw with my next camera upgrade.... maybe yes I will use it, but Capture NX seems much better than Lightroom for that, so maybe yet another piece of software in my workflow... dunno... haven't worked that bit out yet!
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Sorry, I meant why do you shoot in jpeg?
 
At the moment, why not!

For my current usage of my photos its just fine. Large jpg scales to the sizes I need without upscaling software (although I have it ready to use if need be) and I never feel I need to pull back a shot and I really could do without all the extra time/hassle/memory card/disk space problems of raw...

That looks like it will change though soon, both in terms of needing the shots commercially and also that my next camera doesn't make jpg's like I would like! (Another thread on this elsewhere later!)

Conversely, why do you then, presumably, shoot in raw?
 
desantnik said:
Conversely, why do you then, presumably, shoot in raw?
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because it allows for much more detail to be recorded and thus utilised. When you shoot in jpeg the camera decides what colours and detail require to be included and which can be discarded to produce a smaller, compressed, image. It's akin to chosing to shoot with a Polaroid as against being able to get your films developed the way you want...
 
desantnik said:
Yes, but not quite as advanced as Photoshop.

It also has a dodge/burn tool and something for red eye removal.

Its really a very tightly focused package for quickly reviewing, touching up and printing photos. Its not Photoshop and never will be, but does work very well in conjunction!
Click to expand...

Thanks

Pete
 
there are some very good lightroom tutorials out there, either on youtube or i think lynda do some, Adobe also has its own tutorials section. Really opens you up to what lightroom can do! I love it!

I do think it helps to have photoshop as well, being able to do more advanced editing!
 
Some running themes here but for my input I will stress two things which I feel are important:

Always shoot in RAW if you can afford the storage (and who can't nowadays) as this will give better flexibility and quality in the long run.

Use a tool that deals in RAW as your first handling tool. This need not be LR as Aperture and Bridge and others will do a lot similar work however whatever tool you use you will soon make use of whatever features it offers, that's just human nature! :)


Some further info: LR 2 is now available and offers things that were the reserve of Photoshop in the past. e.g. LR can only currently make global modifications apart from spotting/healing however when Aperture released control points they had to review this and will allow changes to only parts of the image. Furthermore LR currently creates a TIFF to allow Photoshop to make further modifications to an image altered in LR. LR2 will allow Photoshop to make alterations to the RAW and save back in this format (presumably changes will need to be made to Photoshop too!) I welcome these changes and will make my workflow tool of choice even better.
 
HIMUPNORTH said:
Some further info: LR 2 is now available and offers things that were the reserve of Photoshop in the past. e.g. LR can only currently make global modifications apart from spotting/healing however when Aperture released control points they had to review this and will allow changes to only parts of the image. Furthermore LR currently creates a TIFF to allow Photoshop to make further modifications to an image altered in LR. LR2 will allow Photoshop to make alterations to the RAW and save back in this format (presumably changes will need to be made to Photoshop too!) I welcome these changes and will make my workflow tool of choice even better.
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They have been made. The 10.0.1 update for CS3 allows you to open raw files directly from Lightroom in CS3 as smart objects or layers, or merge several shots as panoramas or HDR.
 
Thanks for that info Alan. I have not updated CS3 for a wee while as I am the end of long string that is not yet wet enough to achieve the download speed for an Adobe update. :)

(y)
 
There are many features of LR that do it for me, but the two that persuaded me to shell the considerable readies were:

1. Cataloguing - I now have instant access search or browse to some 5,000 images I have taken over twenty years most of which previously sat in cardboard boxes in the garage.

2. Linking catalogue and raw processing

but there are many more
 
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