The Lightroom Thread

Rob MacKillop

Edinburgh Correspondent
I thought it would be useful to have a thread devoted to Lightroom - tips and tricks, advice, or questions from those of us who are a bit overwhelmed by it.

To get the ball rolling, I have one question:

I have just developed my first image in Lightroom, and am quite pleased with the result. However, I noticed that the final image is only 80kb. That's fine for the web, but useless for printing. I can't recall having an option on the output quality. Your advice would be welcome.
 
I have just developed my first image in Lightroom, and am quite pleased with the result. However, I noticed that the final image is only 80kb. That's fine for the web, but useless for printing. I can't recall having an option on the output quality. Your advice would be welcome.
There are a number of options you can use Rob in the export dialogue box that will determine size of your exported photo.

File settings box about the 4th panel down here you can choose what file type to output DNG, original, JPG Tiff, Ect.
Each one of these has there own accompanying menus. So for Jpeg you can choose the quality and Limit the size of the file in KB
Theres also a dropdown menu for you colour space I believe it has 3 Adobe RGB sRGB and prophoto RGB the last is what lightroom uses and displays.

The next box down is more to do size mainly used for out put to the web and for print.
Here you can give dimensions to your image in length of long edge ect. You can also set the resolution here for web 72dpi or Print say 300dpi .

Once you set up a export how you want you can save it as a preset Just buy clicking add a dialogue box should appear and you can name it what you like such as RPF or the like
Hope this Helps
 
OK, I have Lightroom open, and an image to work with. I've managed to save as a Tiff file at 300dpi. Excellent. But I'd like to be able to always export as a Tiff file plus jpeg for web. I can't see an option for that, so would need to go through the Export process twice, every time. Is that right?

Old tenor banjo from 1925:

Banjo test shot ed.jpg
 
If you save the presets Rob all you would have to do in right click the image and export as both which will mean two right clicks but you won't be taken into the export dialogue box
 
so you would set up your dialogue box as such and save it as a preset such as Robs Tiff and you would do the same for Jpegs which I saved as RPG as a preset.
Instead of saving them to user presets you can create your own folders for better organisation such as creating folders for your blog the forums and Print
Let me know if I explained that ok for you.
untitled.jpg
 
Collections...

I've created a Collection called Edinburgh. I'd like to create a number of sub-Collections within that Collection called Botanics, Night, Castle, Architecture, etc, etc. Is that possible?

I tried creating a Smart Collection called Botanics within "Edinburgh", but it just appears as a separate collection within Collections, although, on the plus side, it does include any image where I've placed the word Botanics as a Keyword.
 
I took one of my problematic film shots from a couple of months back to see what LR could do with it. Before and after:

restaurant.jpg



French Restaurant 4.jpg


The original (shot with a Konica Hexar and XP2) is very contrasty, and lacks some detail. The angles are off as well.

LR straightened the angles in one click, which surprised me. To be honest, I prefer the slight oddness of the original. Somehow with film it's OK to have out of kilter horizontals and verticals. But I can see how this "fix" could be useful in some circumstances.

I brought out a little detail in the guys at the bar - LR offered me more, but I didn't want them to become a distraction.

The light at the back of the room - on reflection I took it back too much. Somewhere in between would have been better.

Overall, one can take all the quirks out of a picture, and end up with a poorer image. But, with some practise and taste, LR has the potential to subtly improve an image - but it depends on the image you start with. This one had problems from the start, which is why I chose it for the test.

I think I will enjoy using LR, but as with all imaging software, a little goes a long way. I had been using Elements combined with the Nik Filters, and sometimes Alien Skin Exposure 5, but feel LR might be enough for most things.
 
You will soon have a load of develop presets where you bring out details with one click add grain split tones and much more.
See not the scary after all and the great thing about it its all non destructive.
 
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