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#21
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Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 16:18:45 -0500, tony cooper
wrote: On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:30:26 GMT, "Beefhooked" garybull - nospam - wrote: "Jack" wrote in message ... Just wondering. I constantly see posts here and in other NG's WRT to Adobe Lightroom. I've gone to Adobe's web page to read about it, but I STILL don't get it. If one already owns Adobe Photoshop (in my case, CS3) what is the purpose to buying and using Lightroom? Doesn't PS do everything LR does? Can somebody with a clue help me out here as I seem to be completely clueless on this issue. TIA. Jack Great question - I have often wondered the same thing. It`s questions like this, and the answers of course, that keep me coming back to this group. I'm still using Photoshop V7.0. I'm working with a trial version of Lightroom now just to see if I'm interested. (Free for 21 days from the Adobe site) So far, the one benefit I see is the ability to increase/decrease exposure. This has worked out well with some photographs shot using a circular polarizer. Increasing the exposure by two stops in LR gives better results than anything I can do in PS7. One thing, though...there is nothing intuitive about using Lightroom. It's an absolute bitch to learn what does what. I try this, try that, and then reset. To the contrary, I find LR to be very intuitive, especially compared to Photoshop. However, if you're used to Photoshop, it will take a little time to adapt because the interfaces are quite different. Give it some time and I think you'll find it to be very logical and intuitive, as well as a lot more powerful than it may seem at face value. I look at Lightroom as the closest thing to working with film -- you lay out your pictures on a lightbox; select, sort and rate them; develop and edit them any way you want; then export them or print them. It's totally flexible. And the really sweet thing is that you aren't changing a thing in your original files like you would with Photoshop -- just export the RAW file as a jpeg or whatever with the settings you apply, and the RAW file remains unchanged. Someone mentioned Capture NX. I've used that program also, and no offense, but it is rather slow and clunky compared to Lightroom. (Plus LR works with more than just Nikon files.) |
#22
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Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
"Paul Furman" wrote:
Can I zoom in & pan to a specific area, then flip to the next photo which is nearly identical, to decide which to cull? It has to hold the zoom and position, not default back to the center or upper-left. It remembers what you were doing the last time you looked at a particular image once you've worked with a few images. But it's two clicks to get to the same point in the image to compare (one click brings you back to full-image view, and then click at the point to compare to bring up zoom-in view). Switching between images is a bit slow: with both 5D and 5DII images I count to 3 or 4 before the image is ready to view after switching to a new image. There may be ways to persuade it to cache the last few images, but I haven't figured that out. For the way I've been working with it, this delay is the only slowness I've noticed. How accessible is the database? What if I want to synch that with a web site built with mySQL & php? What if I decide I don't want to use LR, can I get my data out in a usable form? Can I import data from a web site? Say flickr... or my own, or another program? I would use it to import my web pages, clean that up & standardize, then export back to my web page and continue to keep those synched. LR has some web page stuff in it, but I haven't played with it. I'd guess that you'd have to plan on exporting LR data, not importing data from elsewhere. -- David J. Littleboy Tokyo, Japan |
#23
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Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:30:32 -0500, Stephen Bishop
wrote: And the really sweet thing is that you aren't changing a thing in your original files like you would with Photoshop Those of us who use Photoshop routinely don't change our original files. We duplicate the original layer and make the changes to the duplicate layer(s). Most of my changes are made with adjustment layers which allow me to change those adjustments later. In the case of an image that I crop, and I'm not sure if the crop is done where I want it, I do a "save as" and retain the original full image. -- Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida |
#24
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Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 00:38:22 GMT, Bubba wrote:
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 22:55:05 +0100, "Markus Fuenfrocken" wrote: "John Navas" wrote: That's a non-trivial suggestion -- my own take is that the learning curve is pretty high and steep. Well i was pressuming the OP is already an experienced CS3/ACR and Bridge user, so i guess it should be possible to get a quick feeling if the workflow and possibilites that LR offers match his own working style. I´d like to add one thing: Lightroom´s full abilities can only be unleashed when working with RAW files, if you shoot JPEG only you don´t need it. And how are you supposed to figure that out by using the trial version for a couple of hours? The free trial is good for 21 days. -- Tony Cooper - Orlando, Florida |
#25
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Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
"Bubba" wrote: I´d like to add one thing: Lightroom´s full abilities can only be unleashed when working with RAW files, if you shoot JPEG only you don´t need it. And how are you supposed to figure that out by using the trial version for a couple of hours? Hmm. Someone forgot to tell you that LR was basically a raw converter with image management, and that its ability to handle jpegs and tiffs is really only a secondary thing. But those sorts of questions, e.g what is a raw converter, why would one want to shoot raw instead of jpeg, are things you should get by reading the photography web sites, such as dpreview. Also, the LR trial period is more like a month than a couple of hours, so there's plenty of time to figure it out. -- David J. Littleboy Tokyo, Japan |
#26
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|AX| Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
Bubba wrote:
Can it do retouching? Like removing a tin can from the grass? Looks like it can clone a dot shape, I guess you could do lumps of dots... the dot is handy for dust removal. -- Paul Furman www.edgehill.net www.baynatives.com all google groups messages filtered due to spam |
#27
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Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
David J. Littleboy wrote:
"Paul Furman" wrote: Can I zoom in & pan to a specific area, then flip to the next photo which is nearly identical, to decide which to cull? It has to hold the zoom and position, not default back to the center or upper-left. It remembers what you were doing the last time you looked at a particular image once you've worked with a few images. But it's two clicks to get to the same point in the image to compare (one click brings you back to full-image view, and then click at the point to compare to bring up zoom-in view). Switching between images is a bit slow: with both 5D and 5DII images I count to 3 or 4 before the image is ready to view after switching to a new image. There may be ways to persuade it to cache the last few images, but I haven't figured that out. For the way I've been working with it, this delay is the only slowness I've noticed. How accessible is the database? What if I want to synch that with a web site built with mySQL & php? What if I decide I don't want to use LR, can I get my data out in a usable form? Can I import data from a web site? Say flickr... or my own, or another program? I would use it to import my web pages, clean that up & standardize, then export back to my web page and continue to keep those synched. LR has some web page stuff in it, but I haven't played with it. I'd guess that you'd have to plan on exporting LR data, not importing data from elsewhere. Thanks, somebody posted these tutorials in another thread which pretty much answered my questions except the database specifics: http://www.whibalhost.com/_Tutorials.../01/index.html Sounds like it would be darned useful for me. -- Paul Furman www.edgehill.net www.baynatives.com all google groups messages filtered due to spam |
#28
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Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
tony cooper wrote:
On Tue, 16 Dec 2008 20:30:32 -0500, Stephen Bishop wrote: And the really sweet thing is that you aren't changing a thing in your original files like you would with Photoshop Those of us who use Photoshop routinely don't change our original files. We duplicate the original layer and make the changes to the duplicate layer(s). Most of my changes are made with adjustment layers which allow me to change those adjustments later. In the case of an image that I crop, and I'm not sure if the crop is done where I want it, I do a "save as" and retain the original full image. After watching those tutorials, I really see the value, the only problem is other programs can't see the edits and many can't even preview raw files. I guess I could continue with my practice of batching out a set of final jpegs but that really isn't necessary for LR. It would be a pretty big commitment to switch to LR, it means you either batch out redundant jpegs or only use LR to browse photos in the future, and always upgrade, etc. I suspect problems could arise even trying to move or rename folders containing photos with explorer. -- Paul Furman www.edgehill.net www.baynatives.com all google groups messages filtered due to spam |
#29
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Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
seth1066 wrote:
LR is ideal for photographers who shoot thousands of images such as a wedding, fashion or other commercial shoot. It allows you to quickly reduce the shoot to the best shots and then apply preset image modifications on a batch basis with a few clicks. Also, it doesn't touch the originals and reads and modifies any RAW file format. Here's an article by Patrick Lavoie that will further demonstrate LR's capabilities: http://photo.net/learn/digital-photo...n-photography/ Man, that's a lot. I didn't finish but good read. -- Paul Furman www.edgehill.net www.baynatives.com all google groups messages filtered due to spam |
#30
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Why use Lightroom if you already have Photoshop??
On Wed, 17 Dec 2008 11:27:29 +0900, "David J. Littleboy"
wrote: "Bubba" wrote: I´d like to add one thing: Lightroom´s full abilities can only be unleashed when working with RAW files, if you shoot JPEG only you don´t need it. And how are you supposed to figure that out by using the trial version for a couple of hours? Hmm. Someone forgot to tell you that LR was basically a raw converter with image management, and that its ability to handle jpegs and tiffs is really only a secondary thing. But those sorts of questions, e.g what is a raw converter, why would one want to shoot raw instead of jpeg, are things you should get by reading the photography web sites, such as dpreview. Also, the LR trial period is more like a month than a couple of hours, so there's plenty of time to figure it out. Thanks for the lecture. A previous poster on this thread was implying that instead of asking questions here about Lightroom, that one should just download the trial version and play with it to get the answers. My point is that there is a significant learning curve to Lightroom and that one is not likely to make the necessary discoveries to properly evaluate the program by doing ad-hoc experimenting with a trial version. .... unless you really did dedicate 21 serious days to it. But it would be a pity that after such a time investment you found that it was not suitable for your purposes, and that you could have found that out by asking some questions. In fact, I did try the trial version earlier this year, spending a couple of weeks on it on and off. I learned that it does very well as a photo management program, and that it is good at making basic changes in contrast/brightness/color balance. And the healing function is useful. This trial experience told me nothing about LR being "basically a raw converter". Thanks to your snobby remark, and those of others in this thread, I now know that. I was not able to discover any way to do cloning/retouching/local manipulation that I could easily do with other programs. Therefore I have uninstalled LR and continued on with other graphic tools. In my experience, Adobe products are powerful but awkward and have a counterintuitive interface. The Adobe software highpriests love the progs because they know them. Lots of the rest of us don't share that love. Adobe snobs, give the rest of us a break. bubba |
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