using RAW

[liquidmonkey]

hello,
i'm new to LR 2.' and sort of new to photo editing and i'm really trying to find my way as there is sooooooooooo much to learn!
i used to only use PS CS3 to fix scratches or dust but have recently gotten into sharpening images and a bit of auto tone / auto color and had all this automated in PS CS3.

now i've moved to shooting in RAW to give it a chance and am slightly confused as it seems that EVERY photo needs to be adjusted individually?? who has the time for that??

is there a way in LR to apply some settings when you export the photos? settings i'm after are saturation, sharpness and some auto tones / colors.

or where are the preset settings?

 

[ttk]

Hi thats the idea of raw you make adjustments as required to suit your needs, it would take to long to set out here a few things that would help you. If you Google Lightroom 2 under video there are a fair few bits of info for you..

 

[patrickt]

You can set global changes that take effect when you import photos. I don't think you can do it when you export them.

 

[Brad Snyder]

Liquidmonkey, you can adjust multiple photos at one time, by selecting more than one in grid view. And, if you have a set of very common adjustments that you 'always' apply, you can create a develop preset to apply at import time. Then, you can just hand tweak the exceptions.

Many of us are processing 1'''+ shots a day, so once you get the hang of it and get organized, it's not as time-consuming as it might seem.

 

[liquidmonkey]

thanks for that tip brad, much appreciated!
i'm close to a workflow model but still a bit remains,

i will stick to RAW and the xmp associated files for my own reasons.
any tone, color, sharp, size etc adjustments can be made in LR2 and i get that...somewhat
but when and how should i take that RAW into PS CS3 to do some cloning or dust removal? is it best to export the RAW as a TIFF and then do it? is it best to do that BEFORE or AFTER the tone, color etc adjustments?

i think after this answer i'll have a good workflow, i think

also, is there a difference between LR and PS in how they handle auto tone and auto color adjustments or is it exactly the same?

 

[Brad Snyder]

Those, I dunno. I do all of that in LR. I'll let somebody else follow that up.

 

[dandill]

...how should i take that RAW into PS CS3...

Export from LR2 as DNG allows us to work further at the RAW level, in ACR, and even then re-import edits made in ACR to the DNG back into LR2. In this way we can go back and forth between LR2 and ACR/PS making non-destructive edits. This scheme assumes the latest ACR from Adobe, which supports the same local adjustments as does LR2.

I hope this is helpful.

Dan Dill

 

[liquidmonkey]

ok, i didn't know you could clone in LR, interesting, will check it.

but in the meantime, can i go from LR to PS to LR without changing to DNG and just keeping the RAW files i have?

and how do i get the latest ACR?

 

[Brad Snyder]

ok, i didn't know you could clone in LR, interesting, will check it.

In Develop, press 'N', or look for the circle between the crop and red-eye icons upper right.

but in the meantime, can i go from LR to PS to LR without changing to DNG and just keeping the RAW files i have?

[COLOR=#''''ff]You should be able to, there have been some bugs reported in that process.[/COLOR]

and how do i get the latest ACR?

[COLOR=#''''ff]http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_4.5[/COLOR]

 

[dandill]

but in the meantime, can i go from LR to PS to LR without changing to DNG and just keeping the RAW files i have

From LR2 you can smoothly go to Photoshop, and have the results come back to LR2. However, once you go through PS, the image has been converted from RAW to the PSD format, and this cannot be undone.

An advantage of exporting to DNG is that this maintains the RAW data. Of course, once the DNG is sent to PS, again the RAW file is "developed" into pixels for PS to work with.

Dan Dill

 

[liquidmonkey]

i just got the clone / heal to work in LR and it works ok for very small adjustments but i find for larger 'adjustments' it is much harder to use than the clone / heal tool in PS, what is that all about? very frustrating....for me at least or maybe i'm missing something (as usual, haha)??

also have a few other ???'s

how do u use noise ninja with LR. i just got the standalone version. is there a way to integrate it into LR as a plug-in or similar?


i've installed adobe camera raw 4.5 for PS. do i need to do this to LR and how? it shows v4.4 and each time i want to 'edit in PS', an error comes up telling me i need ACR v4.5 or higher.


what are the difference between a catalogue and a collection?
do i need to create a collection and THEN import photos into it or can i add photos from the catalogue into a collection? hope that is not a confusing question


have done some editing to a RAW photo but no xmp file is beside it, why is that?
and how often are changes saved or is it immediate? LR is still open BTW.


which color space should be used?
sRGB
adobe RGB(1998)
pro photo RGB
are there better ones i should use when exporting / importing?

thanks so much to everyone as i've come a looooooooong way with your help and google today, much appreciated and THANK YOU!!

 

[Victoria Bampton]

Hi liquidmonkey, welcome to the forum!

That's lots of questions in one thread! I'll admit I haven't read everything carefully as I have no time right now, but I'll answer some of the questions in your last post.

i find for larger 'adjustments' it is much harder to use than the clone / heal tool in PS, what is that all about?

That makes sense. LR is useful for cloning small bits, but it's a metadata tool. PS is designed for pushing pixels around, so it'll still win on retouching.

how do u use noise ninja with LR. i just got the standalone version. is there a way to integrate it into LR as a plug-in or similar?

Go into Preferences and you can set it as an Additional External Editor which can be accessed via the right click menu.

i've installed adobe camera raw 4.5 for PS. do i need to do this to LR and how? it shows v4.4 and each time i want to 'edit in PS', an error comes up telling me i need ACR v4.5 or higher.

It's not installed properly. I'd guess it's in the wrong place - try downloading it from Adobe's website (google Adobe Camera Raw 4.5) and follow the instructions. The location isn't obvious!!

what are the difference between a catalogue and a collection?
do i need to create a collection and THEN import photos into it or can i add photos from the catalogue into a collection? hope that is not a confusing question

A catalog is a database which holds all of the information about your photographs. A collection is a way of grouping the photographs in the catalog - like folders, but without moving them on your hard drive. If you're working in LR, you're working in a catalog. Whether you then want to create collections is up to you. I use them to group photos from events, such as holidays, or outputs - web galleries, that kind of thing.

have done some editing to a RAW photo but no xmp file is beside it, why is that?
and how often are changes saved or is it immediate? LR is still open BTW.

The settings are written back to the catalog almost immediately. If you want sidecar xmp as well, you can. Either select them in Grid view and hit Ctrl-S/Cmd-S or turn on 'automatically write settings to xmp' in Preferences (but it can slow things down a little if you turn on autowrite)

which color space should be used?
sRGB
adobe RGB(1998)
pro photo RGB
are there better ones i should use when exporting / importing?

That's a long question in its own right! sRGB for screen or web use, and do a search on colour space and you'll find a lot more info too.

Phew!

 

[liquidmonkey]

thanks for that victoria, much appreciated

 

[liquidmonkey]

The settings are written back to the catalog almost immediately. If you want sidecar xmp as well, you can. Either select them in Grid view and hit Ctrl-S/Cmd-S or turn on 'automatically write settings to xmp' in Preferences (but it can slow things down a little if you turn on autowrite)

ok, i found where to make this xmp setting but...
my files are nikon raw, so NEF, right?
if i import regularily (without sidecar) how do the changes i make get saved? or do they even get saved? for instance, if i remove the photos from the catalogue, will the changes stay?

if i import with the xmp sidecar feature and i open a photo in PS for deep editing, will PS read the changes that i have made and are now saved as an xmp file?

what is the best way? and please lets not start a DNG vs RAW + XMP discussion they are so painful