Toronto Photography Meetup Group

I have decided to get off of the Adobe Photoshop treadmill by purchasing Lightroom 3 (where the upgrade cost is incrementally lower).

I've used Camera Raw to process my files so the commands/workflow is almost identical but there are a few differences.
So I imagine I'll have a slew of questions over the next few weeks as I come to grips with the new app. Import -develop-export.

I found the Fraser-Schewe ACR book invaluable in learning ACR. Does anyone have a recommendation for a user guide for LR? Keep in mind I know how to develop photos so I don't need too much in that area. I need to learn about the digital management concepts.

A lot of the functions in ACR are located differently in LR3. For example, with ACR you can increase the local adjustment brush size quickly and easy by dragging the brush while you are right mouse clicking. In LR3 I see that doesn't work. I need to adjust the slider in order to change brush size. Is there an easier mouse based way to adjust adjustment brush size in LR3?

When I export a file a dialogue box asks me where I want to store the jpg and then later on in the same dialogue box it asks me if I want to open it up in PS for post-production. My preference is to ONLY open it up in PS and not to initially save a jpeg file to my hard drive. I prefer to do some adjustments in PS (i.e. re-size, perspective control) and then at that time save the file. And when it opens up in PS the jpg opens in Camera Raw. - a useless first step.

As always, thanks for you reasoned replies.

I know a keyboard way to adjust the brush size, from the Lightroom 3 Shortcuts List: Increase/decrease brush size ] / [

thanks ions - I am a 2 finger typist (and one of them is on the hand using the mouse) so I use these as a last resort. thanks.

to adjust an image in PS without first exporting, I right click the image, and select "Edit in-> Edit in Adobe Photoshop".

You can set up your external edit options in your preferences, the default is to export to PS as a 16bit TIFF ProPhoto RGB, which makes for huge files. I suppose you choose the options according to the quality you want.

Like this, any adjustments you've made with LR are transferred to PS.

I don't know about changing the adjustment brush size, for me on a mac, scrolling up and down using the trackpad/mouse wheel changes the size of the brush. I suppose on a PC try using the scroll wheel?

EXCELLENT - that looks good.



Yup - I have it going as a sRGB jpeg. Didn't see a 16 vs. 8 bit option which is what I'd like. I'll look again.




Oh sweet Lord how I hope this works on a PC as well. I can't imagine there isn't some way of doing it easily in the PC world. I'd hate to rely on the sliders for this.

Thanks for the reply!

Lynda.com offers awesome video tutorials, look for Chris Orwig, he's awesome

get the info from the source.

She has both PS and lightroom videos.

http://www.jkost.com/lightroom.html
Eddie

Thanks !!
I'll check out those links.

ha ha the Adobe hack calls herself a 'digital imaging evangelist'

Although I've been informed that the Adobe pdf file manual is just as good as the Evening or Kelby books, I'd still like to buy one book so I have something to read on the subway to/from work, at the park ect.... I find I learn better with books because if I am in front of a computer I am more likely to play with the program instead of taking the time to systematically learn about it with instructional videos. I don't know why but streaming videos don't work with me. Well written HTML ones do. Kinda ironic that I am not a visual learner for products concerned with visual imagery. And by that I don't mean

I've been on the lookout for Kelby's new one. Hoping it's pretty good.

Edit: Regarding the books I'm like you philmar, I'd rather have a book in front of me, but the Lynda vids are pretty good, worth the time anyway.

FYI, Lightroom released a patch today 3.2 that fixes a slew of bugs and adds support for a bunch of lenses. The Canon 50mm f1.2L is now available which isn't in the original release.

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Lightroom_3.2

Also ACR 6.2 release:

http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_6.2

if you use a mac, i find that after you select a brush in the Develop Tab of LR3 (underneath the histogram), that all you have to do is scroll up and down your mouse and it increases/decreases the size of your brush. It's one of the favorite things I like in LR

I am not so sure how it works in a pc...so you can try the scroll up/down controller on your mouse?

Yes - the scroll mouse works on a PC. luckily I discovered that soon after I started this thread.

Initial thoughts. I prefer the layout in Camera Raw. It isn't flashy or glitzy. It just works. For example, I love the adjustment brushes - but so far as I can tell in LR3 when ever you want to change the adjustment you need to click on each individual parameter (exposure, clarity, sharpness, saturation ...ect.) to set it back to it's default zero. In ACR you just clicked on one and then ALL of them defaulted. That's a huge annoyance saving. I find scrolling/zooming in the image I'm working on is SO much much much easier in ACR. Cropping and setting the horizon easier in ACR.

If you want to see how you changes have affected an image the before/after button is on box that ticks on or off. In LR3 there are 2 switches - an ON and an OFF switch that are small and harder to get to. The LR3 arrangement is more cluttered than ACR. And I actually found Bridge to be an effective tool to navigate through my photos. Maybe I won't miss it once Import/develop/export/collections/catalogues become second nature to me.


But I do love how LR3 makes it easier to apply and unapply presets. And the sharpening is fantastic - less need for me spend any time in PS sharpening on edge layers.

You're just used to ACR, for me it's vice versa as I am more used to LR, I'd suggest you learn some shortcuts, like "" etc. And I can't stand ACR workflow

yeah - methinks I like ACR because there is less need for the keyboard shortcuts. I dislike'em because I'm too dumb to remember'em all and I am faster at mouse clicking than at keyboard typing (one finger typists).

But it is so much easier to use presets in LR! I just need to figure out how to delete some of the ones that came with it. I can't imagine how much my eyesight needs to dimish before I ever see the need to use 'purple glasses' or 'yesteryear'.

I don't believe you can delete the default develop presets, only user presets.

I haven't tried this but I can't imagine why you wouldn't be able to delete the preset files directly in the presets directory if you can't remove them in the applications. Presets are, after all, just a script listing settings.

The problem is that the develop default presets are compiled with the program. I suppose you could use a hex editor and hack away at the develop.lrmodule file but not worth it in my opinion. Just leave the default presets collapsed and don't worry about it.

Agree - Orwig is very articulate. He is a breath of fresh air after watching Kelby & Kids. They are a juvenile gang of back-slapping self promoting hucksters compared to Orwig.

Here's a way to do it in XP and Mac OS:
http://lightroom-blog.com/2010/09/getti ... esets.html