What is lightroom

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stewferrari

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I found this great looking forum as I searched for the answer to this thread title, so hello everyone.

I have always used photoshop but I keep seeing people mention lightroom. So what is lightroom? :-[ :-[, what do you use it for?

stew
 
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A catalogue for photographs that can also adjust your pictures. It hasn't got the complete pixel level power of Photoshop, but works on multiple images. Photoshop is singular, Lightroom is plural [sup]TM[/sup].
 
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Welcome, a little more than a batch processor although LR manages that well.

  • [li]Digital Asset Manager- database. [/li]
    [li]Non-destructive editor. [/li]
    [li]Web Module. [/li]
    [li]Slide Module. [/li]
    [li]Print Module. Develop Module. [/li]
    [li]Library Module. [/li]
Within each of these there is a myriad of tasks that can be performed.
 
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Not a batch processor, but it combines a catalogue with batch processing.The key to understanding its differences from Photoshop is that it manages your images, and adjusts them in volume.
 
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One of the tasks I often do is a batch of printing, eg 2'' 8x12 prints, each one a different image. At the moment I keep a PC for this and use Qimage. Am I right in thinking LR would print a whole catalogue from one istructio

stew
 
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While Photoshop has been a photographer's friend for many years, Adobe built LR from the ground up with a photographer's needs in mind. 8'% to 9'% of what photographer's need to do to their images can be done in LR without ever opening PS. LR is meant to enhance the photographer's workflow by:

  • [li]import, group, keyword, rate and edit metadata (Library Module)[/li]
    [li]touch up, tweak, enhance, "develop" (Develop Module)[/li]
    [li]put together slideshows for presentation (Slideshow Module)[/li]
    [li]print contact sheets, picture packages, and more (Print Module)[/li]
    [li]easily prepare and publish Web site galleries (Web Module)[/li]

The idea is that a photographer can bring images through this workflow on out into the world without the need (in most cases) to leave LR for PS or Flash or Acrobat etc. There is much much more in LR than this short description. You can download the 3' day trial and see if you like it. We're always here if you have questions! :)

As for batch printing - yes. You could print 2'' different images if you wanted to.
 
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[quote author=stewferrari link=topic=731'.msg49797#msg49797 date=1248344671]
One of the tasks I often do is a batch of printing, eg 2'' 8x12 prints, each one a different image. At the moment I keep a PC for this and use Qimage. Am I right in thinking LR would print a whole catalogue from one istructio
[/quote]
Yes.
 
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What is lightroom? It is the answer to every photographers prayers !!!

I was awaiting the response from the Guru's to this question before responding. When I first used Lightroom I hated it and almost gave up on it. However, I persevered and after a while I came to LOVE lightroom. I use it to do the following :

Edit my RAW photos. It has reasonably advanced editing tools but as said earlier not as sophisticated as photoshop. But although I have photoshop I find I no longer use it.

I catalogue all my photos. I assign multiple keywords to all my photos and have applied a hierarchical system. I can find any of my 11,''' + photos very quickly.

It has a very nice slideslow feature which you can customise.

I save all the changes / settings that I apply to an individual photo to a "tiny" XMP file that can be transfered to other computers so that I do not lose any settings.

What is lightroom? It is the answer to every photographers prayers !!!
 
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Just been having a play. I have just created a catalogue from images taken on the same morning with two different cameras. Wanted to renumber them in time taken order but stuggling. Any tips gratefully received

stew
 
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Assuming that you have the cameras clocks synchronised, go to library>grid and sort by capture time.
 
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Hi Stew,

I will assume you're already looking at your images in the Library module's Grid view. If not, do so. At the bottom of the grid, is the Toolbar. You can toggle this off/on using the 'T' key, so do that if you're not sure which element I am referring to. In the toolbar, locate "Sort:" and set it to "Capture Time". That will arrange your images in chronological order.

Some further thoughts, and some exercises to get your oriented:

If you wanted to keep the images separated according to which camera you shot them with, you could go ahead and keep them in two separate folders. To have them together for editing purposes, however, you could create a Collection, drag the contents of each folder into that collection, and then sort them by capture time.

Now, say you have the images all together, and you want to isolate those shot with a specific camera. Go to the top of the grid to locate the Filter bar. You can toggle this on/off using the "" key, so go ahead and try it if you don't know which element I'm getting at. In the Filter bar, you can filter by various means to isolate groups of photos based upon certain parameters. Click 'Metadata' and the filter will extend with new options. Under the camera column, select the Camera who's images you would like to filter. They will be isolated in the grid. You can turn the filter on/off by clicking on the word 'Metadata'.

I hope that helps some.

Cheers,
Matt
 
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Great Stew!!
 
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Well i feel i have to chime in here.

LR has allowed me to make the transition to the digital world without having a need to have a undergraduate degree in graphic design.

As a photographer, i only switched to digital in the last 3 years because a friend of mine showed me "Raw Shooter Premium - RIP" RAW processing program. The reason i had not made the switch before was that photoshop scared the hell out of me. A powerful tool it is, but what a heap of clunk.

Being able to manage my images, develop them, send to a website, print straight to a printer or show a client a slideshow without (9'% of the time) the need for PS or acrobat is very cool.

Non-destructive is very cool.
 
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[quote author=MarkNicholas link=topic=731'.msg49824#msg49824 date=1248365416]
When I first used Lightroom I hated it and almost gave up on it. However, I persevered and after a while I came to LOVE lightroom.
What is lightroom? It is the answer to every photographers prayers !!!
[/quote]

x2

I started with v1.4 and hated it or should I say, did not know what I was doing!! Got used to Photoshop. I gave up. Later I tried v2.' and I still hated it but I said to myself, persever and I did. I just had to change my mindset on how LR does things. I love it now.

Rgds
 
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My view of Lightroom is a photographers toolbox, first and foremost to process raw files captured by digital cameras(raw processor) , manage the digital files (DAM), other facilities Slideshow, Processing for the web, print facility.

Yes Lightroom can work with processed image files, jpeg, tiff, psd etc, but for me this is not a primary function. If I were not working with raw files I think I would choose other tools.
 
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