The 'Everything Adobe Lightroom' Thread

Personally I have no idea why anyone would want to do that, personally I leave shadows and highlights on 0 then adjust blacks and whites to get a bit more contrast. If you hold down ALT whilst moving the sliders it will show when it starts to clip (you can do this on shadows and highlights too).
I will then if necessary adjust the highlights and shadows but I normally just use localised brushes to adjust the parts of the image that need it (eg faces/eyes).
Processing is always subjective, why not just try on a few images, you can always go back to the base image if it doesn't work out. I also like to make a few virtual copies if I think an image would work with a different bit of editing.
 
BruceLee said:
I just use the free version, does all I need.

I back up my LR folder although I add in filters to not copy preview files and the like as they take too much space and could just be regenerated anyway, all you really need is the LRCAT file.

Try Syncback, there is an option to do a test run so you can see what it would modify before you run it.

In fact here are a couple of my profiles you can just import to have a look at, nothing special, you can modify them to whatever you like.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/24793607/ocuk/Syncback.zip
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Thanks, Shall set this up today! :)
 
Does anyone fancy having a go at exposing/getting the best out of this RAW file? It's a NEF. Been trying to improve my skills but it's hard to know where to start. Been starting with exposure, then whites/blacks, then highlights/shadows. I've been using the ALT button to show where I'm losing information, but if I do that it doesn't look right - I guess it's overexposed as a whole.

NEF file:
https://mega.co.nz/#!x1tHgSzZ!Ggb3T_t1B4XOrzc-CzQH4Xa2D4FHpfqD70YMK8yJMgo

You know what I've just cocked up my attempt, but here it is just for reference in the thread:
s9l6.jpg
 
It's hard to get spot on exposure in environments like that. There's lots of variation. Generally you'll go for the middle ground which would allow you to recover a bit either side (under/over exposed areas). Also, this is where you can get actual use from HDR if used correctly.

Personally I'm rarely happy when trying to play with images like the above as there's nothing that really grabs the eye, so it's hard to concentrate on a specific area to correct/expose/process properly.
 
FAO: DP... this is the post I'm talking about in the Landscape thread. :)

D.P. said:
Something doesn't feel natural here. The greens feel off, and i don't think it is the saturation but the hue. It is also worth bearing in mind that if a scene naturally has a lower saturation you don't get natural results by pushing saturation in post too far. The best you can realistic do is add a little punch to get the result closer to what you saw in reality (for several reasons the default RAW colour output is not as vibrant as the real world). If the scene is muted when you take the photo then you won't get anything too vibrant in post without it looking weird and artificial (too many subtle lighting issues).

The other thing that looks odd is the separation of the clouds and mountain.You've tried to pull down the sky but it has kind of left some outlining and an unnatural transition. I often have difficulties getting this right. Th issue is the human eye has a much higher dynamic range than a digital sensor, and the way we achieve that DR is by localized exposures through different saccadic eye movements. Between the beyer sensor, demosaicing algorithms and the lightroom clarity odd things can occur in highs of high contrast transitions along defined edges. I find that an ND-grad filter can give more natural results despite the fact that LR/PS should be able to replicate some of the same behavior to a small extent.
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Thinking about it again, are you a natural-photo lover, more than a overly processed one? I liked your comments in the other thread about taking photos properly and concisely with thought, instead of putting in countless processing, btw. Appreciate your input. I guess I was going for a less natural look - less like it actually looked - and perhaps more interesting.

Anyway - I've had a play with the hues, let me know what you think.

The shot you didn't like:

rqgp.jpg


The shot I've changed the greens in, and the sky isn't quite so drastically in contrast with the hill's edge.

6kc7.jpg


I do actually quite like them, probably because they already exceed my expectations of what I could achieve with a decent camera, but understand not everything is tasty to everyone. I think I like the 'Lord of the Rings' trees, if you know what I mean. :) The look, the shape, the colour.

Everyone else's feedback also welcome, please..!
 
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Well, got my D600 and have my 24-70mm 2.8 to go with it. Wow. What a difference. Amazing amount of flexibility in lightroom now.

Underexposed by 0.3 of a stop to get some of the sky out, as the camera was already exposing for the darker areas, then shoved it up by two stops, played with contrast, blacks/whites, highlights/shadows and a tiny bit of grass work and it came out superbly. Well, to me, ha. Amazing the amount of detail available in the grass considering it was pushed two stops. :eek: And the lens is sharp as anything. I'm in awe. :p

From this:

mkvk.jpg


To this:

hfr0.jpg


Excuse my garden by the way. :D
 
I've had difficulties with grass, I can't seem to get it to stick to the right colour when adjusting other properties. I must be able to do it -others can - but it doesn't come out right for me.

Looking at the properties... nothing. I must've reset it. There's a kind of cyan - fake grass colour - to it. Hmm.

I think the white balance is too cool. Sliding it up a little fixes it, it's much warmer and the grass returns more to green. Is there a way to change the temperature of just the green? Is that what the hue control does?
 
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300dpi and if it's being posted online for Flickr/500px etc then 1280 wide or 1600 if the shot is epic++.

I don't do jpeg archiving/libraries any more, everything is RAW and in Lightroom.
 
been on Aperture for years now and my Library is massive (for me at least) over 450gb on a 2TB external drive, been waiting for a serious update to it but nothing seems to be forthcoming, is it worth me going to the dark side and getting LR set up, is it easy enough to switch and ditch aperture and is the learning curve steep, main concern i have is the management of it all
 
Genoma said:
5.4 out, links at the bottom of the news article:


http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2014/04/1277.html
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That's weird. CC seems to think I haven't got lightroom installed even though I just used it. Now it's installing the whole thing again. How annoying. Also, 5.3 says it's the latest version. Holy double annoyance Batman.

Hmm, it must just show as not installed if a new version is out then. Now it shows as installed and there's only one copy installed. Strange photoshop doesn't do that!
 
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I had the same as I had a full standalone version of lightroom installed. When I moved into the CC subscription, the CC manager re-installed it..

For 5.4 Lightroom wasn't downloading it via check updates, so I also installed from the download link. Wouldn't be surprised if CC decides to do it again. Thank god for high speed broadband.
 
I recreated a 224GB catalog the other night as I had a mixture of minimal and standard and 1:1 previews and some bits I wanted cleaning up.

Talk about ice age lol. Took a full 24 hours to generate the Standard previews for all. I've not got 30 days set before discarding 1:1 previews (was set to never before). Nice and organised again.
 
ok going by no ones response to my questions posted above i have decided to still go ahead and give LR a try but starting from scratch, i am still going to keep my Aperture library on the go just not use it for my main workflow. any hints or tips even sites or blogs that could help me along ??
 
steveo said:
ok going by no ones response to my questions posted above i have decided to still go ahead and give LR a try but starting from scratch, i am still going to keep my Aperture library on the go just not use it for my main workflow. any hints or tips even sites or blogs that could help me along ??
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This thread is the everything lightroom thread. You might want to read through it :D There are a lot more sites out there too, so just googling the specific query you have if it's not in here will sort you out. It's normally what I do.
 
steveo said:
ok going by no ones response to my questions posted above i have decided to still go ahead and give LR a try but starting from scratch, i am still going to keep my Aperture library on the go just not use it for my main workflow. any hints or tips even sites or blogs that could help me along ??
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Hi Stevo.let me know how you get on ,i have been using Aperture because i like the layout and the nice display options with music etc,but i got free lightroom with my new camera so will try it out.wondering if you can do similar type of displays.
all the best
 
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