Pages: [1]   Go Down

Author Topic: For general photography...  (Read 3369 times)

Quantum

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18
For general photography...
« on: August 08, 2012, 11:13:30 am »

...ie. not expecting the highest super duper quality and pixel peeping...
is there any point me upgrading to LR4?

I'm on LR 3.6 and don;t really want to learn new slider processes involved or lose my presets (which I've heard happens).

Mostly wedding work.

Your comments appreciated.

John
Logged

sbay

  • Full Member
  • ***
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 225
    • http://stephenbayphotography.com/
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #1 on: August 08, 2012, 11:30:51 am »

I think you should download the trial or look at the feature set and see if there is anything specific you would use. For me, I really like that they added white balance to the local adjustment brushes and of course they added soft proofing. There's also a books and maps module (to help with gps coords).

Rhossydd

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 3369
    • http://www.paulholman.com
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #2 on: August 08, 2012, 12:03:01 pm »

The improvements in highlight recovery and shadow detail possible with LR4 ought to be worth your consideration alone.

Learning the new process isn't really any great difficulty, but it does require a lot of processing power to avoid being sluggish.
Logged

luxborealis

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 2798
    • luxBorealis.com - photography by Terry McDonald
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #3 on: August 08, 2012, 12:11:25 pm »

I think you have already answered your question - if you "don't want to learn new slider processes" then perhaps you should not upgrade.

If you are shooting jpegs, consider that LR4 will provide some processing benefits, but the real processing benefits are in using it with raw files.

If you are going to be "in the business" for at least a few more years, then you should consider investing the time in learning LR4 (Process Version 2012 or PV2012)  as the results are definitely superior to anything I could get from LR3 (PV2012). Also, for your legacy images processed in LR3 using PV2010, you can still manipulate them in the PV2010 environment within LR4 as if you are in LR3. The Basic panel remains the same as in LR3 Develop module until you convert those PV2010 images to PV2012. In fact you can leave them as PV2010 images and just use the newer PV2012 interface with your new images.

Two positives that may apply to wedding photography...
  • Exposure does a better job of brightening mid-tones;
  • highlights (i.e. wedding dresses) can be beautifully tamed with the Highlights and Whites adjustments;
  • higher quality detail can be pulled out of the shadows (i.e. church interiors, dark suits) using the Shadows and Blacks adjustments.

Re: losing presets - I didn't when I upgraded - everything was intact.

PV2012 is a learning curve, but I am finding new life in not only my current images, but images I previously processed in PV2010.
Logged
Terry McDonald - luxBorealis.com

john beardsworth

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 4755
    • My photography site
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #4 on: August 08, 2012, 05:05:40 pm »

...positives that may apply to wedding photography...
highlights (i.e. wedding dresses) can be beautifully tamed with the Highlights and Whites adjustments;
I wouldn't say "may". For this category of photography, the more subtle control of the highlight tones is a big win.

John
Logged

eliedinur

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 328
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #5 on: August 08, 2012, 05:08:48 pm »

Said it yourself: "not expecting the highest super duper quality and pixel peeping..."

I guess you must be the only wedding photographer in town.
Logged
Roll over Ed Weston,
Tell Ansel Adams th

Kirk Gittings

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1561
    • http://www.KirkGittings.com
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #6 on: August 08, 2012, 05:44:59 pm »

The improvements in highlight recovery and shadow detail possible with LR4 ought to be worth your consideration alone.

Learning the new process isn't really any great difficulty, but it does require a lot of processing power to avoid being sluggish.

Ditto-for those white wedding dresses it would be ideal.
Logged
Thanks,
Kirk Gittings

sniper

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 670
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #7 on: August 09, 2012, 04:45:13 am »

I found the conversion to P2012 in LR4 easy enough to be honest, I still use LR3 if I can't get on the other computers (v3 still on some of our computers) and I find switching back and fro easy enough, P2012 is certainly better, and the bulk of my work is weddings, given the choice I'd use 4 all the time.
Logged

Quantum

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 18
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #8 on: August 09, 2012, 05:10:59 pm »

Thanks. For all this guys.
I gave it a brief go when it first came out and I was dismayed at the differences in the sliders. It seemed to me that more slider work was necessary to achieve the same result than with v3.
I also found that changing one slider seemed to affect the others so I had to revisit some sliders.

As I mentioned I shoot weddings amongst other things and I didn't want my processing to take longer when dealing with so may images.

You have encouraged me to try it again.

Cheers
John
Logged

Ken Bennett

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 1797
    • http://www.kenbennettphoto.com
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #9 on: August 09, 2012, 06:34:23 pm »

The sliders are meant to be used in order, from top down. They seem less sensitive -- that is, a larger move is necessary to get the same result, which makes them more controllable for me. I am getting significantly better results especially with highlight recovery. LR4 was a free upgrade at work from our IT department -- within an hour of beginning to use it, I ordered a personal copy for my computer at home. It's just so much better than LR3.
Logged
Equipment: a camera and some lenses. https://www.instagram.com/wakeforestphoto/

Keith Reeder

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 253
    • Capture The Moment
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #10 on: August 09, 2012, 07:13:40 pm »

I didn't want my processing to take longer when dealing with so may images.

It won't, John - it still boils down to moving a few sliders around until the image looks good, just like with Lr 3: just that the sliders have different names and different (and better) effects on the image.

It didn't take me long at all to get to grips with Lr 4 - it's a bird photographer's dream, as I deal with challenging highlights all the time.
« Last Edit: August 10, 2012, 11:48:05 am by Keith Reeder »
Logged
Keith Reeder
Blyth, NE England

James R

  • Sr. Member
  • ****
  • Offline Offline
  • Posts: 364
Re: For general photography...
« Reply #11 on: August 10, 2012, 12:37:24 pm »

IMO, the Develop module in v4 works much better than v3 and I get to the final image quicker in v4.  The key is to making LR reduce your workload is setting up presets that will do the basics during import, while other presets can be used for specific types of images. Also, I find that v4 handles memory better. 
Logged
Pages: [1]   Go Up