Lightroom Q&As

[Josh125]

I thought I would make a new thread for those of us who recently got this program. Reading through the threads, it seems a handful of folks are new to the program and thought this thread might benefit us all. For the advanced users, please feel free to post you tips and tricks

My first question, Ok so I have the pictures in and touched up now how do I get them back out so I can upload them? They will be for web viewing and potentially printing.

 

[Furgus]

You can export them to JPEGs from the library modual.

I highly reccommend picking up this book, Adobe Photoshop® Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers

It is a very good book and I learned a lot from it.

 

[DVC Jen]

I also got lightroom for christmas - and haven't even opened the box yet. I had downloaded the trial version before christmas and then requested a book if i got the actual program.

I really need to sit down and figure it all out.

 

[mabas9395]

I love, love, love this program. I'm getting all my photos organized and tagged with key words. My DS8 wants to send his grandpa a scrapbook page with the two of them fishing. I just type in Matthew and Pappa and all the photos with the two of them pop up. You do have to tag all your photos before you can do this though, which is major tedious.

They also just added a new feature where you can have it automatically upload your re-touched photos to some of the photo hosting sites like flikr, smugmug and zenfolio.

Here is my tip of the day (and it works for me but YMMV). As you probably know, when you import your photos you can have it add a keyword tag to all the photos in that import session. What I have started doing to help keep me organized is use four "To Do" key words that all shots get during import. These "To Do" keywords represent the tasks that I want to do to each and every photo I import.

To Folderize means to take the photo from the default import location and put it where I want it to go in the proper folder. I may have more than one type of shots on my card so I usually will put the soccer photos in one place and the birthday shots in another folder, etc.

To Tag means I need to assign keywords that identify the people and activities of the photos.

To Develop means to do all of the cropping and adjustments (color, contrast, exposure, sharpening, etc) that I want to do.

To Smugmug means to upload them to my Smugmug account.

When I have completed the task, I remove the key word. This way if I have 100 photos in my import and I don't have time to do everything to every photo, I can get half way done and come back the next night and know exactly what tasks need to be done to which photos.

 

[DueyDooDah]

...I really need to sit down and figure it all out.

Jen, if you use Adobe Camera Raw, then this will be easy as they are very similar...although, LR is oh so much better.

Also, if anyone is looking for good info on LR, try lightroomkillertips.com. There are some very good videos that will help with some cool features.

 

[captaincrash]

This is insightful... I'm tagging this to follow it as I've been considering this application.

 

[SWDopey]

My first question, Ok so I have the pictures in and touched up now how do I get them back out so I can upload them? They will be for web viewing and potentially printing.

Depending on the amount of hard drive space you have going spare, you may consider only exporting the files you need, when you need them.

In the Export Dialog, you can export directly to different colour spaces and sizes, so you may export certain images for the web, upload them, and then delete them off the hard drive. The same goes for images for printing. And the great thing is, any time you need a different size, you just re-export.

Great idea for a thread!

 

[SWDopey]

I really need to sit down and figure it all out.

The biggest thing you'll need to get your head round is the fact that this isn't a file browser, it's a database.

When you import, you tell the database where the original files are stored. I generally recommend choosing 'reference in existing location' in the import dialog, so the images remain in their existing place on the hard drive. Once you've told LR where to find the files, don't move them using Explorer or Finder, otherwise LR won't know where you've put them (you can safely move them within LR).

As you make any changes to the images within Lightroom, the changes are stored in the database. The original files remain untouched.

When you need to create a 'finished' file, you then Export to a new file, again leaving the original untouched. It's all about non-destructive editing. But if you don't need a 'finished' file to send to Granny, have printed etc, you don't have to export - just keep them safely in LR.

And final thought for the moment - don't delete files from your hard drive thinking they're stored within LR - LR only references them. And back up your Lightroom catalog (database) regularly - corruption is possible with a database, although it's becoming pretty rare now.

 

[DVC Jen]

Jen, if you use Adobe Camera Raw, then this will be easy as they are very similar...although, LR is oh so much better.

Also, if anyone is looking for good info on LR, try lightroomkillertips.com. There are some very good videos that will help with some cool features.

I haven't been using adobe raw - just the raw converter software that came with my camera. It does a fine job (as far as I can tell ) I just want to learn something that will give me more options.

 

[DueyDooDah]

OK, now that we have the ability to easily add IPTC data, I have been thining of adding copyright info to my images. I understand how to create the presets but I am unsure of what to put in them. Specifically,

• What is the proper format for the copyright?
• For status, should the image be formally copyrighted to mark it so?
• What is a standard 'Rights Usage Term' that will protect me from unauthorized usage?
• Should the copyright info be placed at a URL instead of or in addition to the IPTC info?
• What year is the copyright? The year it was shot or the year you got around to adding the info?
• Should there be any copyright info at all if you have not actually applied?