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Archive 2013 · Just got Lightroom

  
 
Bsmooth
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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · Just got Lightroom


Anyone have advice for some who just installed Lightroom ? I just installed it last night, and haven't done a thing yet. What would be my first steps?
I do already have PS6, and have it installed. I have all my images stored in one area, so i should be able to access them with either Lightroom or Photoshop right ?



Oct 22, 2013 at 06:57 AM
Paul Mo
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p.1 #2 · p.1 #2 · Just got Lightroom


If you are happy with your folder structure - your photo library - as it is, then go ahead import your images in the Library module.




Oct 22, 2013 at 07:32 AM
Ian.Dobinson
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p.1 #3 · p.1 #3 · Just got Lightroom


1st thing you need to do is 'import' your images into Lightroom .you cant just access your images in the way you do with PS . LR is a database of your images .

my advice would be to look at the LR videos that can be found on youtube . Lightroom have their own channel and in the main the videos are pretty helpful

heres a good start




Oct 22, 2013 at 07:33 AM
wsheldon
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p.1 #4 · p.1 #4 · Just got Lightroom


Yes, you can access your photos from the same location in both programs so you don't need to worry about changing your file organization scheme. In Lightroom you should choose the option to import files without moving them (generally the default when importing from a local hard drive), then LR will add them to its database and store settings information there without changing the original files. You can open the files in PS directly or from within LR by right-clicking (or something similar on a Mac) and selecting 'Edit In' and choose PS6.

However, LR is an *entirely* different program than PS6, so rather than just importing all your worked-up photos from PS and using it as a catalog, I suggest starting by importing a batch of new photos (ideally RAW, but JPEG will work) and learn how to use the modules in LR to tag, develop and edit images to create either finished products or to prep them for final editing in PS6. Unlike PS6 all LR changes are non-destructive, so it's real power is in doing the initial development of images so you can go back and make changes or create virtual copies with different crops, enhancements, etc to use images for different purposes. When you do edit processed images in PS6 from LR, the PS images are then available in the catalog too and can be further edited, printed, organized for the web, etc from LR.

There are some good tutorials on the web, but I really like the Kelby book series "the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom x book for digital photographers" (where x is version). Very readable, with a good treatment of the workflow philosophy of the program.

Good luck!



Oct 22, 2013 at 07:42 AM
skasol
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p.1 #5 · p.1 #5 · Just got Lightroom


I agree, I switched from PS about a year ago to lightroom and I love the workflow that i have created and the ease of editing on my images. good luck.


Oct 22, 2013 at 07:59 AM
Alan321
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p.1 #6 · p.1 #6 · Just got Lightroom


+1 to import without moving.

Treat Lr as the master image file manager and all will be well. Treat it as just another of several editors and Lr will soon lose the plot.

Once the files are "in" Lr (more correctly, perhaps, is that Lr knows where they are and knows stuff about them but they are actually exactly where they were before you imported them) be sure that you only ever rename them or shift them with Lr. Otherwise Lr will lose track of them. Do not use the operating system or any other program.

If your images don't already have a common parent folder then make that happen once you get them into Lr (Lr can create folders or you can create a new one outside Lr and then tell Lr to use it). This common-parent approach makes life much easier for backing up and restoring your images and telling Lr where to find them on a different drive. Much easier.

A single Lr catalog lives in one place but can include images from multiple folders and multiple drives.

Lr will initially show you every folder that you imported that has image files in it but they may seem to be in the wrong order. To fix this you probably just need to tell Lr to show the appropriate parent folders - at least enough to establish the appearance of the original folder structure. Right click on any folder and select show parent folder.

Be aware that there is a lot of info inside most image files and Lr lets you access most of it, so you can easily find or sort or select by that data (exposure data, date, camera, lens, etc.).

You can apply keywords but a little forethought goes a long way. Keep it simple - you can easily expand or change keywords later but don't add new ones until there is a need to do so (e.g. there are far too many images to browse through without a more specific keyword).

Ratings and labels are potentially useful but try to imagine what they will represent and write that down somewhere so that you will use them consistently. I actually wrote them as folder names which I included in the catalog so they are always handy. I use ratings for "initial impact" (quick to assess, perhaps after some very basic initial editing, but can change after more serious editing. Plus there can be different ratings for different versions created from the same master file) and labels for "technical quality" (which takes longer to assess) and combine them later with smart collections to determine which images are my best, and so on. This also helps me prioritise which images to spend the most work on (e.g. it won't be the crappy images that don't matter, nor those that are already very good).

Collections are useful too. You can put images into collections (none or more) but that does not move the image files. When you delete images from a collection the images are still on your drive and still in the Lr catalog - just not in the collection. Smart collections are automatically populated collections that can be based on collections and other rules but not on other smart collections (an oversight that I hope Adobe will fix).

The more images you have in Lr the more useful Lr will be. Lr is useless at searching across multiple catalogs at once, or for showing you images that it doesn't know about, so put everything in one catalog and use all that metadata to find what you want when you want it.

The main downside of Lr is that it is built on a database and like all good databases it can never be better than the data within it. If you put no effort into organising data you will still get to use the automatic exif data from each image but you'll get nothing from ratings, labels, keywords or collections unless you add some of your own input.

I don't let Lr create .xmp files because they clutter things up and take time to manage. Instead I rely on the Lr catalog to hold that data. This works because I don't do anything to the image files with other programs and so the .xmp files are not needed to transfer metadata between programs (I can still edit in Ps by calling it from within Lr, but I don't do heavy duty editing). Also, and this very very important, I make lots of backups of the Lr catalog - every time Lr closes it does a backup. I copy the catalog to other drives too. Often. I've had too many drive failures and other failures to risk losing all of my image editing efforts in one go.

As much as I like Lr I still use other software to show me additional exif data and which focus points were active, etc. That includes Nikon View NX2, Canon DPP, and BreezeBrowser Pro (only for Windows OS).

Before I trash an image I like to learn from it. If it is out of focus but I don't know that the camera thought it had attained focus or not then I would not know that the camera or lens may have developed a fault. On the other hand, if Lr tells me that the shutter speed was pretty slow then I can assume user error was to blame.


If you get stuck then ask for help before abandoning Lr. The learning effort is well worthwhile. You can download the Lr help guide as a pdf file - well worth doing. Play with some raw images safe in knowledge that you are not damaging the raw files.


By the way - I do not use DNG files except for the Lr Smart Previews. DNG files get updated with all of the edit instructions. Changing (adding) just a few bytes of data makes the file different which means it gets backed up by my system after every edit and that gobbles up too much drive space. I'd rather just back up the catalog (which you should do even if you use DNG files) and not have to change the raw files.

- Alan



Oct 22, 2013 at 08:36 AM
_Rob_S_
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p.1 #7 · p.1 #7 · Just got Lightroom


Agree with what others have said. In addition, think a bit about how you want to tag, rate, color code etc. the files. There are countless ways to handle your images but you will find that consistency will be your friend.

Example: I use a star rating system and some "key" keywords. I've been consistent over the years and it paid off the other day for me. My catalog is over 40,000 images and I was able to pick out 20 for a competition in literally 15 minutes.

Your library system will likely be unique, but try to imagine ahead to what your needs might be and begin developing your system to get there.

Enjoy!

Rob



Oct 22, 2013 at 08:55 AM





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