Lightroom 4 Beta

[Lost Canadian]

Maybe I'll put together a real quick and dirty video for you guys. It's honestly the quickest and easiest thing in the world, managing Lightroom that is. My wife figured it out on her own while in El Salvador a few weeks ago, and she has almost no experiance with DAM or photo editing. If she can do it I'm sure you guys who know a little about DAM and photo editing can figure it out.

 

[Lost Canadian]

Alright!! We should form a club...

For those who do use LR what are the things which draw you to it?

First let me say the develop panel in Bridge and Camera Raw is exactly the same as in Lightroom, Lightroom just gives you a few more develop options/tools. If you know how to use camera raw in CS or Bridge you know how to use the develop panel in Lightroom. Lightroom moves beyond Bridge, Camera Raw or even CS though in that it's a complete workflow tool for ALL of your photos, in one package. It's a library manager, develop module, print module, web developer, slideshow developer, and now book developer and geotagging map program, all rolled into one. It's a complete solution to everything most photographers would ever need to do. That's why I use it almost exclusively.

 

[Touring4x4]

I had three or four failed attempts at getting a handle on Lightroom (version 2). After about 6 months of hearing others say how good it was I gave it one more go. This time though I spent the time to watch a lot of the excellent AdobeTV video tutorials. I now solely use LR3 for my post processing/file handling and find it incredibly quick and powerful. Been using the LR4 Beta for a few weeks now and am really impressed.

My tip - Adobe TV and watch the video tutorials. Its worth persisting.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

I'll admit I've never watched any of the tutorials. I'll make it a point to watch some this week and see if I learn something new.

My workflow is pretty straight forward and like NWoods, I don't understand why I'd want two sets of images on the same hard drive? Seems like redundancy at its worst. If they were on separate hard drives, it would make much more sense to me.

I also shoot in both a small Jpeg + RAW. Most times if I'm just uploading to Facebook or my blog, I just use the small Jpeg unless I need to go into the RAW image and make some major adjustments in Adobe Camera RAW. I've tried to import some of my images into LR3 and I only see one of the images, so I'm not sure if it's not noticing the Jpeg or the RAW image?

I also use a few of the Topaz Labs Plug-In's and I'm wondering if LR3 will allow me to use these the same way CS5 does.

It's almost refreshing to hear that others are either confused or not sure of LR3's "Love Affair" like so many other users are. Glad to know I'm not alone. I mean it does take some time to load on my Commodore 64....:drool:

 

[Tucson T4R]

I use LR3 for all my workflow. I started with LR when I first got into digital photography so it wasn't a leap from some other process, it's just the process I first learned.

I'm not sure why folks think there are multiple copies of you images under LR. The image files in the LR catalog just point to where you have stored them on your HD. LR doesn't make a second copy unless you tell it to.

Edit: Changed to LR3, my original post said LR2. :sombrero:

 

[taco2go]

I'm like Brad- I just started out with Lightroom and haven't had the need to use another program for archiving/processing. Granted I am not a high volume photographer, but managing the library has been very easy. I keep mine very simple, archived by year. I've started to place a lot more keywords over the last 2 years, to help me isolate shots by place etc. I don't do much rating etc. I do convert all original RAW files to DNG, and backup to an external hard drive, but as Brad suggested the files are merely accessed by the program , and you can make duplicates/virtual copies as needed.
I'd suggest sticking with the program you're most familiar and comfortable with. They all seem to be quite similar- loads of tools for local adjustments, plenty of presents, non destructive editing, and options for publishing.

 

[lostworldexpedition]

Check out The Luminous Landscapes lightroom tutorials, they're really good.

Thank you for that, I will check those tutorials out.

I recently started using LR3 and am as happy as a clam! I am far from even an amateur, but I learned how to develop film in a dark room and LR makes me feel at home... I use it mostly for organizing, for exposure, lens correction and some other basic stuff. I have no idea what I am doing half the time, but it is quite enjoyable learning. After using iPhoto for a couple of years I can't believe I hadn't switched.

 

[bigreen505]

I would love to sit down with some folks who use LR3 on a daily basis and see how they do it? I honestly think it slows me down so although I have it on my cpu, I never really use it. I must be missing something because I often hear people talk so much about it and how much they love it??

Pat, come find me at Overland Expo and I'll walk you through it. I use Lightroom as my home base, but also do a lot of work in Capture One and Raw Photo Processor. It is really a question of how good is good enough? If the image has to be perfect, it gets processed either in C1 (people) or Raw Photo Processor (everything else) and then goes to Photoshop for tweaking. The bulk of my photos get global changes in Lightroom and that is it.

 

[Every Miles A Memory]

Thanks for that offer Bill! If we make it to EXPO this year, I'll be sure to find you

 

[ssssnake529]

If all I care about is processing, is there any reason to get Lightroom? I've been using Photoshop Elements for developing RAW files. I have an organization system that works for me. I don't make books, etc. All I really want is a good program to tweak my RAW and jpeg files. I've been using Elements 7, and was going to upgrade to Elements 10, but all this talk about Lightroom 4 has made me wonder if it's better than Elements 10.

Does Lightroom have any advantages for processing/developing, or are the benefits more geared to organizing etc.?

 

[Lost Canadian]

Elements doesn't use Prophoto color space, it only allows for Adobe RGB and sRGB. Basically you end up throwing a lot of RAW file information away. When working in Lightroom you are working in Prophoto.

John Paul Caponigro explains it pretty well here.

 

[taco2go]

Been working my way though the Lightroom 4 beta videos. Mostly pluses so far. More divisions to the histogram that correlate with sliders. RGB tone curve. Local wb adjustments. Better control of shadows and highlights. I like the softproof color gamut warning feature- although I don't usually print my own pics. I haven't made it to the video and book features which are both new to this version

http://tv.adobe.com/watch/whats-new-in-lightroom-4-beta/develop-module-advancements/

 

[Pathfinder]

Smart man. I love Seth and Jamie, just keep in mind that Seth is probably the most dogmatic person you will ever meet and his opinions are partly funded by his sponsors. Understand why he says what says, but don't take everything at face value.

Remember that beta catalogs can't always be imported into the final release.

Bill Green

"Follow your bliss" ~ Joseph Campbell, mythologist

Thanks for your response, Bill.

I learned a great deal, and understand where a lot of folks frustrations come from in LR now.

Seth and Jamie are great teachers, and truly want their pupils to learn LR and be fluid in it.

Seth does have strong opinions, and I value them, even if I do not always entirely swallow them hook, line, and sinker.

I will not work with beta catalogs for anything but my own learning experience.

I will NOT upgrade my older catalogs from LR3, but will start anew, with new catalogs done even better this time.

LR4 beta will NOT open older version LR catalogs.