Anyone using Lightroom?

[Ed Vatza]

I am just just wondering if anyone here is using Lightroom and if so, what they are doing in Lightroom.

Right now I import my RAW images into Lightroom where I pick and choose as well as delete. I begin processing in Lightroom by making any WB adjustments followed by working with "Exposure" and "Recovery" (basically Highlights) and "Blacks" (Shadows) as well as "Tone Curve".

At this point I will export the image as a.jpg and into Photoshop where I basically crop and sharpen (both of which I could do in Lightroom but feel more comfortable doing in PS).

How do you integrate Lightroom into your workflow?

[David Kennedy]

For wildlife/action I do a quick delete straight off of the Hyperdrive with Photo Mechanic (for just thumbnails/previews, it's faster than importing into LR). I then do almost everything else in LR, including keywording, cropping (the crop tool in LR is worlds
beyond that in PS).
I only take an image out of LR if I need to make some more complicated adjustments, such as quick masking a la Robert O'Toole's APTATS, or if I need to stitch images for a pano.

[Ed Vatza]

Sounds like I should really dig into the crop tool on Lightroom. I assume you sharpen there as well.

[Alfred Forns]

Ed the crop tool in LR works fine and suggest using it

I import the images into a folder From there import the reference to the image (image is not moved) I try doing as much as possible in LR Have you tried the patch tool for dusting One thing I would recommend is not editing in jpeg

If you do a search in google you will find lots of video tutorials (free) which are very good

[Michael Pancier]

I load onto the computer into lightroom onto my main drive and simulataneously copy the raw files via lightroom to my backup.

I use it to mark and delete the images and to pre tweak and crop the images before I do the final post processing in PS 2 or PS 3.

[David Kennedy]

Sounds like I should really dig into the crop tool on Lightroom. I assume you sharpen there as well.

The crop tool in LR is the "drunken aviator" version of cropping (Jeff Schewe's exact wording), and once you use it, it makes much more sense than the traditional Photoshop cropping.

I don't sharpen much until I'm ready to print, and when I do print, I use PS because Pixel Genius has yet to release PhotoKit Sharpener for LR (they're going to.....eventually).

[BillPelzmann]

I do as much as I can in Lightroom, many images do not require Photoshop. Anything that I print large will go through Photoshop for final tweaking.

Why are you exporting JPEG to Photoshop? I would highly recommend TIFF or PSD to avoid repeated JPEG compression every time you edit and save the file.

[Ed Vatza]

The crop tool in LR is the "drunken aviator" version of cropping (Jeff Schewe's exact wording), and once you use it, it makes much more sense than the traditional Photoshop cropping.

I don't sharpen much until I'm ready to print, and when I do print, I use PS because Pixel Genius has yet to release PhotoKit Sharpener for LR (they're going to.....eventually).

Well I did a bit of cropping in Lightroom last evening and I do like it. It is particularly cool when you go into Lights Out mode.

So now I only sharpen and resize in Photoshop unless something much more serious would be required. And I will keep an eye out for PhotoKit Sharpener for LR. Thanks for the tips.

[Ed Vatza]

Why are you exporting JPEG to Photoshop? I would highly recommend TIFF or PSD to avoid repeated JPEG compression every time you edit and save the file.

Because I don't know any better. :(

Actually I just started shooting in RAW a short time ago. Prior to that it was obviously JPEGs. SO that transition seemed like the natural thing to do.

Last night, I worked on a couple of RAW images in Lightroom that I exported to Photoshop at TIFFs. I resized and sharpened the TIFF files. Everything worked fine.

But when I went to export them to Photobucket, I had to convert them to JPEGs anyway.

[Ken Kovak]

Ed,

As part of your workflow, you will want to keep all your RAW files that are worth saving. Also, I suggest that you save your TIFs as your "master" files. From those master tifs you can then process for what ever output usage you need; e.g.: prints or jpegs for the web.

The reason I believe you should save the RAW files, even though you have master tif files, is that they are your digital negatives. As your conversion and post processing skill improves and as the tools improve you may want to go back and reprocess older RAW files. I have already done this with older RAW files after ACR 4 came out and I learned more complicated Photoshop skills, like using Quick Mask.

Take Care,
Ken Kovak

[Ed Vatza]

Ed,

As part of your workflow, you will want to keep all your RAW files that are worth saving. Also, I suggest that you save your TIFs as your "master" files. From those master tifs you can then process for what ever output usage you need; e.g.: prints or jpegs for the web.

The reason I believe you should save the RAW files, even though you have master tif files, is that they are your digital negatives. As your conversion and post processing skill improves and as the tools improve you may want to go back and reprocess older RAW files. I have already done this with older RAW files after ACR 4 came out and I learned more complicated Photoshop skills, like using Quick Mask.

Take Care,
Ken Kovak

Thanks Ken. At this point I know I err on the side of keeping more as opposed to less. So yes, I do keep the RAW files on my external hard drive.

[JH Tugs]

Ed, you say you export as JPG from LR, then do work in PS. This doesn't sound good to me, as JPG is lossy, and sRGB.

When I edit in PS, I right click the image in LR and open it in PS from there. The image you open is in proPhoto RGB, and no quality loss on the way there, plus as PSD format you can use smart objects and go back and make changes later to any layers and effects you added. Plus it stacks your PSD file with your original RAW files which makes keeping track of things much easier. LR reads .PSD files natively so it just looks like another image in LR. You can export jpeg (or whatever) from you PSD file directly from LR just liked on the RAW.

And as mentioned above -- keep your RAWs!

For other thoughts, I braindumped some of the LR workflow that is working well for me currently in another thread, here - http://www.birdphotographers.net/for...=7525#post7525.

[Jim Poor]

I've primarily used LR for sorting and culling. I've only used the develop features for exposure and WB. Sounds like I need to go deeper.

[Pete Woods]

I use LR for sorting and initial adjustments (developing) like WB, curves etc
Cropping and picture manipulation is done in CS3

[Harold Stiver]

I have been evaluating the trial versions of CS3 and Lightroom. The latest version of ACR has a lot of the features of LR added, everything except the organizing functions.

I like the keywording and collections a lot and will end up buying both the CS3 upgrade and LR. My workflow takes longer but that time is spent on the organizing aspects, something my database was lacking. I should be able to find individual photos very quickly when I have everything entered.

My only concern is that LR may slow down as larger numbers of images get managed by its system. Has anyone had experience with using LR with a large number of files?

[BillPelzmann]

Harold, I've got ~30,000 images loaded to a single LR database.
All image files are on 2 external, 500 GIG usb drives.
Runs just fine on an older Dell laptop with 2GIG RAM.

[Harold Stiver]

Harold, I've got ~30,000 images loaded to a single LR database.
All image files are on 2 external, 500 GIG usb drives.
Runs just fine on an older Dell laptop with 2GIG RAM.

That's good to hear.

Your External drives, Do you exchange them as needed with the same drive letter for each, or do you keep them both active with different drive letters?

Could you also tell me, do you use 1:1 previews? Do you keep your previews or are you set up to let them lapse after a period?

Thanks, Harold

[BillPelzmann]

I keep separate drive letters for each drive. In that way they can be both active simultaneously.
Otherwise you might as well just create two separate LR databases, one for each drive.

I do create 1:1 previews, but I let them lapse.

[David Kennedy]

I do create 1:1 previews, but I let them lapse.

I, too, let mine "expire" after the default period. However, I never tell LR to generate 1:1 previews for all of my images. It simply takes too long--even on a quad core computer! Instead, I have it set so it creates a 1:1 image only when I zoom in.