Why Lightroom?

Kerioak said:
You mean you can open 70 photos in Photoshop at the same time ? My limit is usually four, depending on how many layers they have, sometimes it is only one if I have a lot of layers
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In Adobe Camera Raw if you select a lot of images it will open with small thumbnails of each and you can sync them all to have the same settings. Useful but Lr is easier to use.
 
Re white balance I use Flash WB pretty much all the time as it gets me close. Like said above if I need to change it's a 3 second job to change a whole series.
 
EOS_JD said:
I agree though if you are only editing a few images then maybe it's not for you. When shooting 1000 images at an event and uploading and editing them, Lightroom does it very quickly.
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Hit the nail on the head there.............:thumbs:

I only use Lightroom if doing a helluva lot of shots at the end of a days shooting.Other than that, I just use Bridge and CS.
 
The first time I tried lightroom I didn't get on with it.

I've recently tried it again and it now fits perfectly with what I want to achieve. It makes my pp a lot more fun, rather than a chore.

I also like the catalogue facility but have a structure BEFORE you use lightroom.
 
well, in a bit of a turn round I've been forced into using lightroom although I'm still hating it.

Problem is I was using RAW with the D3S and CS3 won't read the files. As a result, to delay buying CS5, I'm using LR3 to convert the RAW to JPEG so I can get them resized/processed/printed.

Is there anyway I can convert a whole folder at the one time? I've "ticked all" and tried to connvert them but it only seems to do the first file :thinking:
 
Why not use the Adobe DNG converter to change them all to DNGs. Then your CS3 can see them.
 
dod said:
well, in a bit of a turn round I've been forced into using lightroom although I'm still hating it.

Problem is I was using RAW with the D3S and CS3 won't read the files. As a result, to delay buying CS5, I'm using LR3 to convert the RAW to JPEG so I can get them resized/processed/printed.

Is there anyway I can convert a whole folder at the one time? I've "ticked all" and tried to connvert them but it only seems to do the first file :thinking:
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You need to select them all (ctrl+A) and then export. ;)
 
I couldn't do without lightroom, but it suits a lot of what i do.
But then, i can often shoot over 1000 photos in a single night. It makes choosing the keepers, batch editing, resizing and exporting a one click process, and i can have normally 300-400 keepers out of a 1000 taken.

For other types of shots, one offs and the like, i still use lightroom, if only for the cataloguing, i can still edit in photoshop from there if i want. Though if it wasn't for the batch work, then i agree it isn't that useful.
 
bass_junkie83 said:
Though if it wasn't for the batch work, then i agree it isn't that useful.
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This is the bit I'm missing Dave, I can't work out how it IS useful for batchwork :lol: Think I'll need to RTFM :p
 
dod said:
Is that not the same as check all?
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No, if you look at the first pic, for example, only that will be highlighted. Hit Control A and all will be highlighted.

Disclaimer..............I`m no expert on LR, but that is how mine works.
 
I have listened to the 'Lightroom is better than Adobe Camera Raw' argument for a long time, and really have struggled to see what a significant advantage LR has over ACR. I have been using ACR since CS4 came out, (in fact still on CS4).

All this stuff about batch adjustments taking forever in ACR simply isn't the case and pretty much whatever the LR fans are gushing over, can be done in ACR too. Change the white balance of 100 images takes seconds, not minutes...... but the argument always comes back to "but your post production will be quicker in LR"

Well, now we will see!

Having succumbed to a purchase of Lightroom 3 for £117.97, I will give it a real test over the coming week and come back with my thoughts and let you know if I have wasted my money, or not :thinking:

(I know I could download a trial, but last time I did that, I probably didn't give it a fair test because I hadn't spent any money, & this seemed too good a deal to miss!)
 
PSILVERMAN said:
Don't know why there is such a debate. Use it if you want to and don't if you don't want to.
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Whilst I think Canon vs Nikon debates are futile, choosing one over the other won't make you a better photographer, but a discussion over software that might significantly reduce my post production (or not) IS of interest to me, and possibly others.
 
dod said:
This is the bit I'm missing Dave, I can't work out how it IS useful for batchwork :lol: Think I'll need to RTFM :p
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Make processing changes for one photo, select all photos, press sync, sit back and crack open a beer. :cool:
 
OlyPaul said:
They won't because they want you to buy both both programs, it's good business (for Adobe). ;)
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I see them as two different products.
I use lightroom extensively as my main photographic program, exporting seamlessly into photoshop if I need anything other than basic photo editing tools.

Lightroom really comes into it's own when used as part of your workflow. The cataloging system is excellent and I can easily find any image I've taken using date, keywords, metadata or in my collection structure (which is similar to my exported jpeg folder structure).

Lightroom is non destructive to the original raw file, changes are applied as metadata, so if required I can easily revert back to original raw if I wish to change the processing at a later date. I've done this with some shots I took 4-5 years ago as I've learnt more.

The develop module is powerful and fast for around 90-95% of my images, but as mentioned it's really easy to import into photoshop (creating a copy in the process) edit the image and then the save updates the copied image in lightroom.

Exporting with watermarks is another feature available in version 3 onwards. Some of the other features such as exporting as a finished web application, I don't use but are equally powerful.

However, when I first got the software I too struggled with the concept. It's another of those products which is easy to use and so possibly you don't read the manual and get the best out of it.

Try the Tutorials on Adobe TV - http://tv.adobe.com/product/lightroom/
especially the getting started series: http://tv.adobe.com/show/getting-started-with-adobe-photoshop-lightroom-3/

Once you're into it, other useful resources are:
http://lightroomtutorials.blogspot.com/
http://lightroomkillertips.com/
 
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