Editing in Lightroom

[MarkLawrence]

I was just wondering if anyone was using Lightroom for editing - I just obtained a copy for my Mac and am wondering about workflow with Lightroom, settings, etc. I've had some success with portraits, sports, etc, but just seem to be struggling a little with the workflow for Lightroom. Any comments appreciated....

[Cary]

Do you also use Photoshop?

[MarkLawrence]

Yes - I have Elements that I use - was just wondering if anyone used Lightroom though...

[gonzalu]

Mark,

I am a die hard addict of Lightroom Also of Photoshop. So, if you want your absolute best output, you MUST still use Photoshop in my opinion. For the hobby, I find that you can't always output from Photoshop and upload to a DB such as A.net or JP.net. Photoshop still has many more editing controls and flexibility than Lightroom. That out of the way, the program is amazing in as much as it can do given that it was not supposed to be more than a great catalog as well as simple editor.

Where are you struggling? I can lend a hand!

For starters, trust the interface. Work your way from the top to the bottom of the DEVELOP module. I don;t like the EDIT module much as it is more of a quick and dirty push-button interface. I like sliders see what I am doing with more precise controls.

I usually begin with the camera calibration (all the way at the bottom) and then go to the top and work my way down from White Balance down to Calibration once again.

So, ask away

[MarkLawrence]

Thanks Manny!

One of the biggest issues I've had with Lightroom is determining sharpening - and - probably because, unlike Photoshop, I haven't been able to figure out just how to sharpen the aircraft, and not all the sky, etc around it - you know - the magic wand tool :)

What I absolutely LOVE about Lightroom is the organization, the cataloging - it is hands down the best I have seen, particularly the importing and exporting. What I have been doing up to now is bringing everything into Lightroom for cataloging and storing as DNG, then exporting from Lightroom and editing using Photoshop - and - I think that really is the way to go for aviation photography - all my other stuff, sports, portrait, etc I'll still edit in Lightroom because of the great tools in there for that - I really love the graduated filter tool for editing portraits and cleaning up pictures!

As a a friend of mine said - keep both - they each have their strengths....

[eric8669]

Thanks Manny!

One of the biggest issues I've had with Lightroom is determining sharpening - and - probably because, unlike Photoshop, I haven't been able to figure out just how to sharpen the aircraft, and not all the sky, etc around it - you know - the magic wand tool :)

What I absolutely LOVE about Lightroom is the organization, the cataloging - it is hands down the best I have seen, particularly the importing and exporting. What I have been doing up to now is bringing everything into Lightroom for cataloging and storing as DNG, then exporting from Lightroom and editing using Photoshop - and - I think that really is the way to go for aviation photography - all my other stuff, sports, portrait, etc I'll still edit in Lightroom because of the great tools in there for that - I really love the graduated filter tool for editing portraits and cleaning up pictures!

As a a friend of mine said - keep both - they each have their strengths....

Mark,

If you want to sharpen in lightroom use the masking tool. I usually do about 70% and that pretty much gives me just the aircraft.

[Cary]

So, if you want your absolute best output, you MUST still use Photoshop in my opinion.

Yup, that's exactly why I asked if you have Photoshop Most people I know who have both, use a LR -> Photoshop workflow (with Export as...), using PS to do the sharpening and other fine-detail work.

[MarkLawrence]

Mark,

If you want to sharpen in lightroom use the masking tool. I usually do about 70% and that pretty much gives me just the aircraft.

Thanks Eric! I just didn't even think of that....

[gonzalu]

Mark, SPOT ON with keeping both. They truly are complementary. You are doing it exactly right. Catalog and index and metadata in Lightroom. Final edits in Photoshop.

So, here is my workflow for sharpening and it works for me 99.9% of the time.

First of all, it depends on the camera. Each sensor behaves differently and the demosaicing algorithm for each is different. Nikon, Canon, Apple, Adobe, Capture One, etc. etc. They all do it differently. The most FAITHFUL demosaicing comes from your Camera's JPG engine. Next up is your Camera Manufacturer's official software. For Nikon, that's Capture NX or View NX. For Canon, I believe it is DPP btu I am a Canon dweeb

Next up is understanding what the heck the controls actually do... you'd be surprised how many folks do this by FEELING rather than KNOWLEDGE. While gut feeling works great, it may be a faster workflow if you understood the engine behind it and how you can extract the best possible output with the knowledge. I think it is far better than simply gut feeling. We move on.

--DETAILS SECTION--

Lightroom has 4 main controls for sharpening. This is somewhat different than is offered in Photoshop as Lightroom is doing non destructive edits on a RAW file via instructions. Worth knwoing about but best for a different tutorial Each control has it's nuances and I will try and cover what I know about each.

First, the sharpening in Lightroom is strictly done on the LUMINANCE of the image, NOT the color data. This is good because we don't want to modify color relationships. Color contrast is something entirely different and can be used to good effect but it is best to know that it is different than real sharpening as opposed to perceptual sharpening. In order to view the image in a better way while sharpening so that color does not interfere with your perception, use the shortcut ALT (PC) or OPTION (MAC) to change to the Luminosity display model and allow you to view contrast boundaries instead of color contrast boundaries. This definitely helps get a better feel for the right amount of sharpening for your tastes.

-The Amount slider

You can certainly do this visually to your taste. Actually, in general, all of this should be done to taste. There are NO HARD rules. So, to your taste, go to 100% 1:1 view and sharpen away... leave the other controls at default and just tweak the amount until you're happy. This slider is a BLUNT tool. It makes changes across the entire image and the RAW data. If you want localized control of this, you can use the Adjustment Brush

-The Radius Slider

This slider controls HOW FAR the Amount slider applies to a set of contrast boundaries. It goes from .5 to 3 pixels (Half a pixel? LOL) yeah, half a pixel. Go figure.

So, the default is 1 which means look at the pixel, apply sharpening and stop one pixel away. For most purposes, 1 pixel radius is enough. Until you understand how it works in real life, leave it at 1.0. This is a very powerful control, especially when dealing with motion blur or SLIGHTLY OOF images :-)

Generally, you can think of your image as a guide to what level of radius to dial in. For fine details in an image such that of fabrics or a grass field or sand at the beach etc, a finer or smaller radius is better suited. For an image that contains large swatches of coarse detail, it may work better with a larger radius.

Similarly to the Amount slider, holding the ALT or OPTION keys while moving this slider gives you a special grayscale view which helps better visualize the effect being dialed.

-The Detail Slider

This controls the level of sharpening for very high frequency data (or details :-) without negatively affecting the overall image. So, say for example you sharpen to taste in a shot of a leaf, the edges of the leaf against the background are affected mainly by the amount and radius sliders. The Detail slider can then be used to further define the tiny veins or hairs on the surface of the leaf. Use this to your willing to really emphasize fine details without affecting regular details. Just like before, it also offers a special view if you hold down the ALT or OPTION keys :-)

-The Masking slider

This is a very heavily used slider and one I do not like very much especially at very high settings (above 25 percent) more on this later.

Essentially it tells the sharpening algorithm to ONLY affect very obvious sharp boundaries and leaves small and fine detail sliders. A higher masking value selectively masks areas of low detail, fewer edges, and and higher distance from sharp contrast boundaries. In pictures of PLANE IN BLUE SKY, it is an awesome control as it will magically leave the sky alone and only sharpen the plane...

HOWEVER... be careful. I find that it can render fine details very muddy, especially the edges of the airplane against the sky. ZOOM IN DEEP in to the image while playing with the slider to see what I mean and what it's doing. If you see data being destroyed or sharpening boundaries getting abruptly terminated, cut back on the amount level.

Again, use the ALT or OPTION keys to see the way the mask is being applied.

--Bottom line

Different scenes and different images have different needs for sharpening. Do your own research.

For me, I have found the following settings to work for me on Well Lit, Deep Blue Sky images

50,1.0,30,0

Let me know what you all think ...

[gonzalu]

I forgot to add...

Once I finish the exposure settings and white balance, I export as a 16Bit TIFF to Photoshop. I then reduce the image to the desired output and will further USM the image before saving as JPG. I have never output an image to final from LR (meaning for our hobby and for db upload)

For parties and events and sports, I regularly go from Lightroom STRAIGHT to Smugmug or Facebook... I don't even stop on my hard drive

[megatop412]

Manny, pictures like the ones from the first Virgin America flight to Philly aren't even on your hard drive? All your non-av stuff is in the 'cloud'?

[gonzalu]

William, sorry... didn;t mean to mislead

My workflow is very weird to most and overkill it may seem. But even being as anal as I am, I still make mistakes. Can never have too much backup.

So, I take the pics from my camera and ingest them to a RAID1 (MIRRORED) array. There, it gets culled down to the final batch. I get rid of the obvious bad ones first very quickly. I go back another time and more carefully inspect for motion blur, overexposure, composition, etc and delete some more. After flagging excellent selections and basic tagging, I will then make another copy to a separate RAID1 array, also portable. That one, when full, goes to Mom's house a few miles away.

Right now my entire photo collection, AV or not is taking up about 8TB of space... RAW+JPG in most cases as well as some TIFFs and PSDs edited. smallest array is a 2TB set and the rest are 3TB sets.

The collection is over 500,000 images oldest going back to 1985 (that I have scanned so far) I have a lot of 110 film to scan that I can;t find anyone to do it. and I am NOT buying a 110 scanner (if one exists) ... Was thinking of just cutting them off the disc and laying them down on the flatbed scanner with a fluorescent light behind them ... but have not gotten around to it!

[MarkLawrence]

Awesome Manny - thanks for the info - that is great detail!!!

[megatop412]

William, sorry... didn;t mean to mislead

My workflow is very weird to most and overkill it may seem. But even being as anal as I am, I still make mistakes. Can never have too much backup.

So, I take the pics from my camera and ingest them to a RAID1 (MIRRORED) array. There, it gets culled down to the final batch. I get rid of the obvious bad ones first very quickly. I go back another time and more carefully inspect for motion blur, overexposure, composition, etc and delete some more. After flagging excellent selections and basic tagging, I will then make another copy to a separate RAID1 array, also portable. That one, when full, goes to Mom's house a few miles away.

Right now my entire photo collection, AV or not is taking up about 8TB of space... RAW+JPG in most cases as well as some TIFFs and PSDs edited. smallest array is a 2TB set and the rest are 3TB sets.

The collection is over 500,000 images oldest going back to 1985 (that I have scanned so far) I have a lot of 110 film to scan that I can;t find anyone to do it. and I am NOT buying a 110 scanner (if one exists) ... Was thinking of just cutting them off the disc and laying them down on the flatbed scanner with a fluorescent light behind them ... but have not gotten around to it!

I have just started scanning old stuff myself (including 110) using an Epson V33, but I'm scanning prints, not the negatives. It's really only family snapshots so the print scans end up having enough resolution for me. What they really need is color correction more than anything, having developed that orange hue from sitting in the closet for the past 30 yrs