Lightroom

[Villainess]

I've heard some of you talk about Lightroom - can you give me some more details? Does this minimize the editing in Photoshop or allow you to edit multiple photos at once? I'm thinking about downloading the trial to test it out but wanted some thoughts on it first.

Also - I've heard mention of Firefox - what is this?

Thanks so much for your help! I'm currently going through my trip photos and would like to share soon as you guys helped me improve my shots tremendously and I have learned so much from all of you!

 

[fitzperry]

Firefox is an internet browser, like Explorer only much better. The primary advantage is that you can open multiple webpages in "tabs" within the same window. I currently have 17 open.

Lightroom is primarily for RAW conversion and photo organization. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "minimize the editing in Photoshop" but it is not a replacement for Photoshop. You can do color and lighting adjustments, cropping, some sharpening and such, and there is a dust removal tool but for major edits you still need Photoshop or something similar. LR will do batch processing. I think you can still download a free trial if you're interested in trying it.

 

[Master Mason]

Firefox is an internet browser, like Explorer only much better. The primary advantage is that you can open multiple webpages in "tabs" within the same window. I currently have 17 open.

Lightroom is primarily for RAW conversion and photo organization. I'm not sure exactly what you mean by "minimize the editing in Photoshop" but it is not a replacement for Photoshop. You can do color and lighting adjustments, cropping, some sharpening and such, and there is a dust removal tool but for major edits you still need Photoshop or something similar. LR will do batch processing. I think you can still download a free trial if you're interested in trying it.

yep what she said. Except the newer versions of IE will also allow you to open tabs as well.

 

[Groucho]

Like MM says. I'm a huge Firefox fan, but IE7 can do tabs also. But Firefox has better security, more advanced features, a nicer IMHO user interface, etc, etc.

There are also many great extensions for Firefox that make it even better. FxIF lets you see the exif info when you look at a picture on a web page's properties. AdBlock Plus means that you don't see web advertisements any more (this alone is worth the switch!) PicLens is available for both browsers but while we're talking extensions on a photography forum, it's worth a mention - it gives you quick full-screen viewing of countless galleries, Google image searches, etc - really terrific stuff.

As for Lightroom, it's worth mentioning that it's really at its best when used with Raw photos, which DSLRs and a few high-end PnS cameras can record photos in. It makes "processing" them pretty quick and easy. It does work fine with JPGs, though, and has a very good tagging system that works just as well with jpgs as raws.

 

[Alztybrn]

In a related question...I do plan on purchasing LR soon, but I hear version 2.0 will be coming out soon. Is it worth waiting for? Can I purchase the current version, and then just update when 2.0 comes out? Will that be financially stupid?

 

[jann1033]

if someone who presently owns light room will invite you, you can get the beta version till august , the new one is supposed to come out in June ( i think). don't know if i just was besieged with trying to learn digital when i tried 1 or if this new one is tons easier to use but i love it,

it think the trial goes till June
and i use photoshop tons less now, mainly to clone out sensor snot ( can't figure that out and no "help" in the beta) and i like the presets, almost as much as alienskin, just not as many in lr.

i loved foxfire till the last update, now i keep getting a script error every time i open it and no amount of repair or uninstall seems to fix it..and my website doesn't work on it, the text and images get all wacked out so now i am forced to use IE. course i can't get the muti tabs to work in IE so hmm could it be an operator error?

 

[GrillMouster]

Lightroom (LR) is a workflow solution for photographers that includes a RAW editor (that also works on jpg and other file formats), keywording, tagging, organizing, printing and presentation tools. Nearly all of these functions are already available in Photoshop (with Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw). Therefore, if you already own Photoshop, and you don't routinely process several images at a time, LR might not be worthwhile. The professional wedding photographer who goes through 1,000 images after each wedding would net more efficiency from LR than would a family snapshooter who ocassionally post-processes an image here and there. LR is organized so that the tools photographers use most often are immediately available, making it easier to process, catalog, locate, print, and present images. For the most part, LR is designed for global edits, not selective editing. In version 1 you can spot clone for dust spots, blemishes, etc., but Photoshop is still a better tool for selective editing. In LR 2.0, Adobe has added a great intutive masking tool for selective dodging and burning. That new addition, along with several other improvements, will bring LR 2.0 that much closer to being a Photoshop replacement for many photographers.

If you really want LR, wait for the post-announcement upgrade: if you purchase LR 1.0 after the official announcement of LR 2.0's release date, you're eligible for a free upgrade to LR 2.0. At that time, the price of LR 1.0 will drop, so it will be like buying LR 2.0 at a discount.

That's how I upgraded to Photoshop CS3. In order to qualify for the upgrade price for CS3, I would have needed PS 7.0 or higher, but I only had PS 5.5. So, I bought the CS2 upgrade on Amazon for next to nothing and got the CS3 upgrade for free. I just called Adobe, and they gave me instructions for sending proof that I purchase the CS2 upgrade after the official announcement of CS3. Then, when CS3 came out, the price of CS2 dropped even more on Amazon, and I was eligible for a refund of the difference, because it had been less than 30 days since I purchased CS2.
BTW, I was an early adopter of Lighroom, snagging it at the special introductory price of $197 last year. I noticed that all retailers except for Amazon immediately upped the price of LR 1.0 when the special introductory period ended. For whatever reason, Amazon kept the $197 price tag for about a month later. Keep an eye on that site for price drops.

 

[SWDopey]

it think the trial goes till June

You've all done a great job of describing what Lightroom's all about, so I'll just clarify this one... the trial of the beta is 30 days, but anyone who owns version 1 can send you an invitation which allows you to run the beta version until the end of August. If you need an invitation, drop me a PM with your email address and I'll send it over.

The date of June was floating about briefly when the beta was announced as Scott Kelby posted it on his website, but then got his hand slapped as they never said that. The release could be any time between now and probably the beta expiring. No official announcement has been made.

Definitely download the trial and have a play - it's a great piece of software. But I'd put off buying 1.x as 2.0 is now so close.

Victoria

 

[Groucho]

and i use photoshop tons less now, mainly to clone out sensor snot ( can't figure that out and no "help" in the beta) and i like the presets, almost as much as alienskin, just not as many in lr.

On LR1, you just hit "N" or click the little icon with two circles with a line between them that you see in the develop module (it says "remove spots" if you hover over it). Once you're there, you can use the slider to adjust the size of your circle, or use the bracket keys, which is faster. Click once on the bad spot, then drag to a spot that isn't damaged but is similar (like another piece of sky). That's all there is to it!

i loved foxfire till the last update, now i keep getting a script error every time i open it and no amount of repair or uninstall seems to fix it..and my website doesn't work on it, the text and images get all wacked out so now i am forced to use IE. course i can't get the muti tabs to work in IE so hmm could it be an operator error?

Your profile is probably corrupt for some reason. Go to Start, Run, then type the following: "firefox -profilemanager", without the quotes. This brings up the Profile Manager. Create a new profile and make it the default. Start Firefox with it and you should be back in business. If you're feeling a little tech-savvy, it's fairly easy to bring your bookmarks and cookies over from the old profile, too.

You can find more info about the profile manager here. Good luck!

 

[Villainess]

Thanks everyone! I have 5000+ photos from our trip and it is a bit daunting going through all the keepers, making minor adjustments and trying to salvage others - using those as an opportunity to improve my photoshop skills. The pics were taken as jpgs but I think I'm ready to switch to RAW where LR would be more useful.

 

[cajunrose]

I LOVE LR. I use it for every picture that hits my computer. I love that I can upload pictures directly from my card to LR and it automatically (if I tell it to) saves them to my external. Right away, I have a back up on my external.

It saves a ton of space on my computer. It edits a copy of the picture rather than you having to save and resave for your edits. (don't know if I'm technically correct here, but I know I don't have to save pictures over and over).

I like it's cataloging feature. I can put a 'copy' of the picture in as many catalogs as I want and it doesn't save it mutiple times...it just saves a copy. For example, I took pictures of my daughter pre-k graduation yesterday and also took some of her with her best friends. I put the pictures in "Graduation 2008" "Raelee with her Friends 2008" "Raelee school pictures" and it really only had ONE picture saved. HUGE space saver and great way to find pictures quickly when you need to.

It is VERY VERY quick to catalog pictures, sort through them, delete the ones you don't want. I edited 800 pictures last week in about 20 minutes (not including cropping). They were sorted, deleted the ones that needed deleting, edited for exposure, color, etc. I had them uploaded to my family in a matter of an hour for them to see.

I shoot in JPG. The only reason I do is because with my Fuji s5, I nail exposure every time. I wasn't that way on my D50...that camera I needed RAW on. I find no benifit to shooting RAW on this camera. That said, I LOVE LR even for JPG pictures. It is very easy to bring out the blown out whites and to bring light into shadows on the same picture (dappled shade). I LOVE that feature.

I still use photoshop for nearly every single picture (I batch large groups though). I haven't figured out LR's sharpen feature at all...or clone. For those things, I use Photoshop.

I didn't mean for this to get so long. I just LR though!

Stephenie

 

[Furgus]

Why do I sense a RAW vs JPEG discussion coming up....?

I love LR too. I use it for pretty much everything but Printing...PS is way better on printing then LR IMHO. I am waiting to see the release date for 2.0 and hope to upgrade as soon as it comes out.

 

[DueyDooDah]

Here are three tutorials showing LR 2.0 beta's new features. They are long, but quite good. Jann, one of them (I think #2) shows how to get the snot out.

Tutorial #1
Tutorial #2
Tutorial #3

BTW. The two monitor feature is absolutely wonderful (if you have two monitors.)

 

[jann1033]

thanks groucho that fixed the script part...i'll mess with the bookmarks etc tomorrow when i have a less tired brain...
I'll check out the tutorials for the clone tool as well, thanks..whoo,,,just looked over the tutorials(much better than the ones i looked at before btw so extra thanks for that...)and i haven't even begun to touch the features...that program is really amazing

 

[MarkBarbieri]

Why do I sense a RAW vs JPEG discussion coming up....?

Bah! My way is the only way. Anyone that does it differently is an ignorant fool. There are no real world advantages to the other way. The so called advantages are just minor theoretical nit-picking.

Does that some up the debate reasonably well?

 

[Furgus]

Bah! My way is the only way. Anyone that does it differently is an ignorant fool. There are no real world advantages to the other way. The so called advantages are just minor theoretical nit-picking.

Does that some up the debate reasonably well?

Like a Glove....

 

[Groucho]

Bah! My way is the only way. Anyone that does it differently is an ignorant fool. There are no real world advantages to the other way. The so called advantages are just minor theoretical nit-picking.

Does that some up the debate reasonably well?

Hey, you ignorant fool, it's "sum" not "some"!

I will say that exposure is only half (or less) of the beauty of raw for me, penalty-free white balance adjustment in post-processing is also an enormous benefit, plus you get a bit more actual information to use, since it hasn't already been though the whole sharpness-contrast-brightness washing machine. IMHO, there has to be a good reason not to shoot raw, not the other way around. And the only good reason is lack of storage space, and with the dirt-cheap memory cards and hard drives, that doesn't cut it any more.

 

[jann1033]

Hey, you ignorant fool, it's "sum" not "some"!

I will say that exposure is only half (or less) of the beauty of raw for me, penalty-free white balance adjustment in post-processing is also an enormous benefit, plus you get a bit more actual information to use, since it hasn't already been though the whole sharpness-contrast-brightness washing machine. IMHO, there has to be a good reason not to shoot raw, not the other way around. And the only good reason is lack of storage space, and with the dirt-cheap memory cards and hard drives, that doesn't cut it any more.

i am feverishly trying to think of another just to further the debate although i too caught the sum/some so maybe the debate could be something about grammar instead

 

[DueyDooDah]

...so maybe the debate could be something about grammar instead

Oh, I don't think we want to go there. I have to hold back so often, it hurts.

 

[Alztybrn]

Has anybody heard an anticipated release date for LR 2.0?