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Author Topic: Why Lightroom  (Read 4441 times)

cottagehunter

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Why Lightroom
« on: February 20, 2012, 09:22:50 pm »

I see that several people are using Lightroom in addition to Photoshop my question is why? I know that many of you will say it has to do with cataloging but I have always been careful in saving my days shoot to a newly named folder ( I am only a hobbyist but have 30,000+ images) I have these folders subfoldered into main folders ie. Travel/ Europe/Asia/N.A. Family / son/ daughter etc. Nature shots( animal) /water/ land/ so I don't think I need a program for cataloging I have my images backed up on to outside drives and cd/dvd which I update after a major shoot or on Dec 15-30 of a year. I have noticed that both Jeff and Michael say they prefer to print from Lightroom but is it so superior to Photoshop?
Just curious

Pierre
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dchew

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #1 on: February 20, 2012, 10:05:41 pm »

I think there are many:
  • Collections (groups of images that don't have to be in the same folders)
  • Very efficient development tools:  I can add a curve, color balance, convert to B&W very quickly
  • History stays after open/close
  • Printing templates
  • Great new softproofing workflow
  • Non-destructive editing

There is much more, but you should check it out yourself to see if these things matter to you.  Most of the above you can do in Photoshop and Bridge, but I can't do it nearly as efficiently as I can in LR. 

Dave

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Mike Guilbault

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #2 on: February 20, 2012, 10:16:45 pm »

What Dave said... but also the ability to 'filter' your images (again, no matter what folder they are in) and find specific images based on metadata.  Location, subject, any number of keywords, even equipment used and exposures can all filter down your entire library to only the images you want.

For example, I was putting together some images for a small photography workshop I was running and needed some long exposure images from my library as samples.  I simply selected Shutter Speed as my filter and found all images taken at 30 seconds.  In less time than those exposures, I had every 30-second image I had taken in the last 10 years before me.  There's numerous ways to use these filters and keywords to sort and select your images.  The Library module is extremely powerful and often overlooked.

And I agree with Jeff and Michael about printing from Lightroom.  I hate having to go to PS for printing and avoid it if at all possible. And since LR4 will include soft-proofing, even less reason for me to go to PS.
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Mike Guilbault

Schewe

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #3 on: February 20, 2012, 11:57:43 pm »

I have noticed that both Jeff and Michael say they prefer to print from Lightroom but is it so superior to Photoshop?

Yes. for several big reasons. First and foremost, you don't need to spawn off multiple iterations to your master files just to make a print. If you think about, that's huge...just set the cell size the way you want and Lightroom can autofill the cell with your image. The other major factor is the ability to create print presets that allow you to make absolutely sure the page setup and print drivers are correctly set. This greatly reduces user error. Wanna make 10 prints of a certain size? Select the images, select the print template and click print. No need to load 10 images and correctly set the page setup and print diver correctly 10 times in a row. The other nice thing about printing from Lightroom is that you get optimal output sharpening upon output–courtesy of PhotoKit Sharpener's Inkjet output sharpening...

Seriously, if you aren't using Lightroom for printing (if for no other reason) your life is less optimal–basically, it sucks.

But maybe LR isn't for you...do you use Photoshop CS5 and Bridge/Camera Raw? If so, I suspect that you spend a lot more time finding your images than I do and I've got almost 300K of captures...

Just saying, if you gotta ask the question, you might not understand the answer.
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jjj

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #4 on: February 21, 2012, 12:29:25 am »

What Dave said... but also the ability to 'filter' your images (again, no matter what folder they are in) and find specific images based on metadata.  Location, subject, any number of keywords, even equipment used and exposures can all filter down your entire library to only the images you want.
As can Bridge. In fact LR's Filter bar is like a dumb copy of Bridge's smart filtering panel.

Quote
The Library module is extremely powerful and often overlooked.
As is Bridge.  ;)

But for developing, ACR [which is part of Bridge] has markedly inferior ergonomics to the functionally identical develop module in LR.

LR is also way faster when it comes to smart collections [which they both have] as it is a database. And basically that is the difference, Lr's a database and Bridge is a file browser.

Plus in LR there's the Slide module, the Web module, the Map module........

« Last Edit: February 21, 2012, 12:31:13 am by jjj »
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Schewe

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #5 on: February 21, 2012, 12:55:28 am »

As is Bridge.  ;)

But can you print from Bridge?
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stamper

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #6 on: February 21, 2012, 04:24:44 am »

I was recently contacted by a Reader's Digest representative who saw an image in my Flickr account that they would like to use in an upcoming book by them. The original Tiff was stored in a folder somewhere in my four hard drives. But I couldn't find it and the deadline was missed. No big deal. Since then I have purchased  LR3 and catalogued 1800+ Tiff's that I edited and they can be searched very quickly. Unfortunately  life is too short to catalogue my Nef's and Crw's. I think that LR3 was a good purchase - which I am still learning - and the discount helps.

JeanMichel

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #7 on: February 21, 2012, 01:13:45 pm »

Hi,
I obtained Lightroom when I purchase a Leica M9. Before thatMy workflow was Bridge -- ACR -- Photoshop (I use CS4) and Bridge is essential to keep my jmy layouts, images, texts, and so on organized for the publication jobs I do. I developed a fairly good and efficient method to print photographs using this workflow, but then I also ended up with multiple image files: full size with all layers including the soft proof layers, that size print, that other size print, etc.
Lightroom's catalogue is far beter than Bridge, and must faster.
I find that developing in Lightroom is similar to traditional darkroom work, and that is how I trained.
So, for my publication work: Bridge, InDesign, Acrobat...
For photography: Lightroom

And, [ with no conflict of interest whatsoever :-) ] if you want to get a fast start using LR, get the tutorial from this site.

Jean-Michel
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jjj

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #8 on: February 21, 2012, 09:13:56 pm »

But can you print from Bridge?
Print!? How quaint and old fashioned.

Actually I did also mention how LR was better than Br with its various modules. Though you could regard PS as Br's print module.  ;)
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RogerW

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #9 on: February 22, 2012, 03:04:18 pm »

 ;)No print - no photograph!  (All the rest is just a bunch of digits).
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jjj

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #10 on: February 22, 2012, 03:11:07 pm »

;)No print - no photograph!  (All the rest is just a bunch of digits).
One or two?   ;)
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KeithR

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #11 on: February 22, 2012, 05:10:50 pm »

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hjulenissen

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #12 on: February 22, 2012, 05:12:42 pm »

;)No print - no photograph!  (All the rest is just a bunch of digits).
At least my monitor can do different levels of tone. Paper is truly binary (either ink or no ink) :-)

-h
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cottagehunter

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Re: Why Lightroom
« Reply #13 on: February 26, 2012, 09:20:11 pm »

Thanks Mike, Dave, Jeff, jjj,Jean-Michel,  for all your answers. I have ordered the lightroom 4 videos to learn more.
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