Shortage of shortcuts

[Nill Toulme]

In experimenting with LR3, thinking I would migrate to it from C1 because of its much superior treatment of very high ISO images, one thing has me baffled... the seeming lack of dedicated keyboard shortcuts for typical exposure, etc. adjustments.  I realize I can cycle back and forth between the various parameters using . and , and having landed on the one I want, adjust it with + and - ... but this is enormously slower than C1's dedicated and customizable keyboard shortcuts for particular parameters.  I'm also surprised that what keyboard shortcuts there are differ so significantly from the PS standards.  R for crop?  What's up with that?

I have to say I'm also pretty disappointed in the speed, or lack thereof, in moving from one image to the next.  This machine is getting old, but it's not that old, and LR is left in the dust by C1 in this respect.  All in all, it's a significant slowdown in workflow moving through a large-ish (250-image) shoot as compared to C1.

Am I missing something?  (I hope...)

Nill

[laughingbear]

In experimenting with LR3, thinking I would migrate to it from C1 because of its much superior treatment of very high ISO images, one thing has me baffled... the seeming lack of dedicated keyboard shortcuts for typical exposure, etc. adjustments.  I realize I can cycle back and forth between the various parameters using . and , and having landed on the one I want, adjust it with + and - ... but this is enormously slower than C1's dedicated and customizable keyboard shortcuts for particular parameters.  I'm also surprised that what keyboard shortcuts there are differ so significantly from the PS standards.  R for crop?  What's up with that?

I have to say I'm also pretty disappointed in the speed, or lack thereof, in moving from one image to the next.  This machine is getting old, but it's not that old, and LR is left in the dust by C1 in this respect.  All in all, it's a significant slowdown in workflow moving through a large-ish (250-image) shoot as compared to C1.

Am I missing something?  (I hope...)

Nill

Hi Nill,

R for Raster?

Hard to comment on speed issues not knowing what system you have at your disposal. I safe 1:1 previews and find it speedy enough, sure room for improvement is always there, but I would not call it slow, then again, that is LR2 still.

What I never like in C1 is the proxy cache handling, where the picture will be blurred when you change parameters, and only on releasing a slider it will re calculate. Drives me nuts.

I am interested in your statement to leave C1 behind, as I am goofing with the idea as well for files coming from my alpha 900 system. My LR3/CS5 version is on it's way. Would be nice if the quality now is en par with C1.

Best
Georg

[wtlloyd]

Hi, Nill -

You are probably aware of this source and mean another thing entirely, but if not, here's the link to Victoria Bamptons Lightroom shortcuts lists

http://www.lightroomqueen.com/lrqshortcuts.php

Yes, there are some crazy choices in there!


Regarding adjustments with the +/- keys, holding down the shift key gives a multiple of 10 to each keystroke...

[Nill Toulme]

Yes, those shortcuts are there, but as far as I can tell, (a) they're fixed, not configurable, and (b) the ones I want aren't there.  My workflow in C1 is to move quickly from shot to shot, cropping, adjusting levels and contrast and occasionally WB and saturation, and moving on.  With the exception of the crop, I can do all this from the keyboard:  ctrl-arrow to move to next shot (LR is same except I get "Loading..."), ctrl-+ to increase exposure, ctrl-shift-+ to increase contrast, shift-+ and alt-shift-+ to bump the WB, ctrl-alt-+ to boost saturation, etc.  Hit Insert and the image starts processing in the background, ctrl-arrow to go to the next (which pops up instantly) and so on.  I can buzz through 200 images in an hour, and never have to touch the mouse except to crop.

As for why I'm thinking about switching, well, I shoot a lot in terrible light, and the difference in what LR3 (and ACR 6.1) does for my 1D Mark IV high ISO images (north of 3200) as compared to C1 is, so to speak, night and day.

But with the workflow differences, I'm thinking I'm going to have to stick with C1 for most stuff and only use LR3 for the really ugly high ISO images.

The machine, BTW, is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ at 2.4 GHz with 4 gigs of RAM, running XP.  Hardly the latest and greatest, but C1 v5.1 is reasonably snappy on it, as is PS CS5.  I agree with what you say about the rendering delay of C1, but I've gotten used to it, and it's not even remotely as irritating as watching "Loading" each time I move to a new image.

I wonder if installing Win7 64-bit would help?  Or is it that I don't have my previews set up right?

Nill

[wtlloyd]

Yes, those shortcuts are there, but as far as I can tell, (a) they're fixed, not configurable, and ( the ones I want aren't there.  My workflow in C1 is to move quickly from shot to shot, cropping, adjusting levels and contrast and occasionally WB and saturation, and moving on.  With the exception of the crop, I can do all this from the keyboard:  ctrl-arrow to move to next shot (LR is same except I get "Loading..."), ctrl-+ to increase exposure, ctrl-shift-+ to increase contrast, shift-+ and alt-shift-+ to bump the WB, ctrl-alt-+ to boost saturation, etc.  Hit Insert and the image starts processing in the background, ctrl-arrow to go to the next (which pops up instantly) and so on.  I can buzz through 200 images in an hour, and never have to touch the mouse except to crop.

As for why I'm thinking about switching, well, I shoot a lot in terrible light, and the difference in what LR3 (and ACR 6.1) does for my 1D Mark IV high ISO images (north of 3200) as compared to C1 is, so to speak, night and day.

But with the workflow differences, I'm thinking I'm going to have to stick with C1 for most stuff and only use LR3 for the really ugly high ISO images.

The machine, BTW, is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4800+ at 2.4 GHz with 4 gigs of RAM, running XP.  Hardly the latest and greatest, but C1 v5.1 is reasonably snappy on it, as is PS CS5.  I agree with what you say about the rendering delay of C1, but I've gotten used to it, and it's not even remotely as irritating as watching "Loading" each time I move to a new image.

I wonder if installing Win7 64-bit would help?  Or is it that I don't have my previews set up right?

Nill

You should, if you have ample disk space, go ahead and render 1:1 previews, either on importing (you can work on images while previews are still grinding out) or by selecting images and going to "Library-Previews-render" . Depending on your monitor, there are several choices for preview size and quality, beyond the 1:1 choice...look in "Edit-Catalog settings-file handling"

XP isn't going to address more then 3 GB of RAM, and you need to configure  largeaddressaware   -   http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa...28VS.85%29.aspx  to get beyond 2GB, as you probably know...

Choosing to optimize your catalog also speeds things up. That's "File-optimize Catalog"

Check to see you have ample cache specified - "Edit-preferences-file handling" - at the bottom of the page. I think the default used to be 30GB, I have set 100GB, and the current max is 200GB.
Once the cache builds, you should see improved speed.

Under "Photo" try checking "Auto Advance" and see if that works better in your workflow.

I love Lightroom. Ver3 isn't very "peppy" but I expect speeds to pick up w/ updates over time....

[Nill Toulme]

Thanks very much.  I will try those adjustments.

Nill

[mcbroomf]

Nill,
I have a 12" Lenovo laptop with 3GB of memory and a dual core processor (don't recall the speed).  It's several years old now and came with XP Pro.  I bought a new (faster) HD and installed Win 7 64B on it and the thing fliys with LR3 (beta, I haven't loaded LR3 full yet).  The sliders used to be dog slow, but they are almost instant now.

[Nill Toulme]

Thanks Mike.  That's what I was hoping to hear.  But installing Win 7 sounds like a project for after my fishing trip.  ;-)

Nill