Confessions of a Lightroom Addict
I thought I’d share some of my Lightroom confessions in the hopes that I would either a) get a quick laugh from you as you realize you’re not the only one that does something odd in Lightroom or, b) undermine my professionalism and credibility by showing you some of the silly things I do. Make sure you leave a comment here if you have your own confession or just want to second your favorite of mine. Here goes:
1. Whenever I go into Photoshop I set the bit depth for 90% of my photos to 8 bit instead of 16 bit. Yes, I know I could easier call some of your first born ugly as opposed to choosing 8 bit but that’s my story and I’m stickin’ to it.
2. I don’t keyword my photos nearly as much as I should. I mean, I know the benefits of keywording. I keyword about 80% of the photos I import into Lightroom. But that’s not enough because you can bet whenever I search for photos, the ones I want to find end up being part of the 20% that I didn’t keyword. It probably has something to do with that 80/20 rule thing.
3. I’ve accidentally synchronized the develop settings on ALL 480 photos in a folder (on more then one occasion). While the settings I used may have worked on a few photos, the majority look really bad with the same develop settings. The worst thing is, that sometimes I didn’t know I did it and I’d later look through my photos cursing myself, wondering how the heck I could be such a bad photographer.
4. I hate metadata. I’m sorry, I had to say it. I can’t stand it when I look at feature lists for Lightroom (or any other product for that matter) and I see anything with the word “metadata” listed as a feature. It’s important stuff, I know, but it’s also very boring. I just assume it should be there but don’t try to sell it to me as a feature.
5. I love the benefits of metadata. The Metadata panel rocks and the benefits of good metadata support is very important. That’s what makes me feel bad about the #4 confession above. It’s an inner struggle I deal with daily 😉
6. I add an edge darkening vignette to everything. I think it’s safe to say I’m addicted to the Lens Vignetting setting.
7. I avoid the slideshow module at all costs. If I’ve got a quick slideshow to show a friend or client near my computer then sure I’ll use it. If I’m presenting in front of a group I use Fotomagico on the mac. (iPhoto on the Mac or Slideshow Pro on the PC are really good too).
8. I NEVER EVER EVER EVER use Lightroom’s noise reduction feature. While we’re on the topic of things I never use, I don’t use the Camera Calibration and the Snapshots panels either. Oh and I rarely use anything other then the 3 contrast presets in the Tone Curve panel. Hey… this is confessions right. I’m just bein’ honest here.
9. I have 3 backups of all of my photos. However, I just realized that I only have 1 backup of my catalog. So if I’m so paranoid about losing my photos you’d think I would be just as paranoid about losing all of the work I’ve done to them right? Well I just realized as I wrote this that my Time Capsule (my backup drive for my mac) is the only backup I have of my Lightroom catalog. If something happened to it and my laptop (which are both in my house) then I’d be in trouble. That’s going to change today though, as I’ve started another Time Machine (the backup program on a Mac) backup at work.
10. I get upset every time I find myself constantly hitting D to go into the Develop module with a photo, then pressing G to quickly get back to the Library grid to pick another photo. Then pressing D again, and then G again, and so on. Truth be told, I guess I’m paranoid because I feel like I’m missing something because I never hear anyone else complain about this. So I quietly keep doing it.
11. I have WAY too many Develop presets. 156 to be exact. But I love ’em so I don’t see it changing anytime soon.
12. Since I’ve gotten Lightroom, I’ve found I get just a little ticked when I have to take a photo into Photoshop for further editing.
13. Unless a feature is so good I just can’t stand it, I typically wait about 1 week before installing Lightroom updates.
14. It bugs me a little when people don’t believe that I didn’t “Photoshop” a photo. I may have Lightroom’d it, but I didn’t Photoshop it. And so what if I did! 🙂
I hope you enjoyed my confessions and leave one of your own as a comment here. Whether you agree or have a totally different one, go ahead and let us know.
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I’ve become totally addicted to vignetting too. In fact I especially like the really deep and dark ones: unfortunately, many people keep telling me to avoid the deep vignettes (as though they amount to some kind of mega faux pas rendering their user persona non grata or worse). So today I uploaded a couple of shots to my flickr a/c (www.flickr.com/photos/cosmicsausage) with much lighter vignettes (I’d just read Ken Rockwell on dodging and burning) and yeah, so ok, they pull the eye in but…it’s just not the same. So I’m curious to know what you think of deep, gritty vignette use – is it as bad as people say, and what’s the reason for their view? Many thanks and best wishes from China in the New Year of the Tiger!
Just got Ver 2LR had 1.4
In previous ver.s under MetaData Browser we could see images shot with different cameras, lenses, apertures, file type, shutter speed, ISO, date, location, creator and label.
Can’t find that in 2. Can you?
Metadata is my current addiction. I’ve had my Nikon D80 for 4 months, and just forced myself to start shooting in manual about 2 weeks ago. I’m in such a learning stage that I analyze the data on all my photos, trying to figure out what I’ve done right or wrong.
I’m brand new to Lightroom, so this may be a really dumb question: before I uploaded all my pictures through iPhoto, but now I’m doing it in Lightroom. Will it make an extra copy (I already keep a backup copy when I’m importing to Lightroom) if I import to iPhoto, too? I like viewing in iPhoto, but I rarely use its editing features.
Matt,
Love your blogs, and I also am an addict when it come to edge vignetting.
I had a portrait studio years ago when pictures where done it B & W.
It seems like for a long time after color became the major mode in pictures that it fell out of favor. Needless to say I have been glad to see it return in LR.
It’s also much easier than doing in in the darkroom!
Keep up the good work,
Jim B.
Kathleen Difato I found this little how to: Catalog Backup in Lightroom
Posted by Sean McCormack from Lightroom News. I am not sure if this is what you need. I am a newbie to Adobe but I hope it helps. Matt I hope this is aloud posting from another site. If it isn’t I apologize in advance.
http://lightroom-news.com/2008/02/04/catalog-backup-in-lightroom/
Hi Matt,
I have to admit I was intrigued and a little amused when I heard about this from Scott’s blog. However it did get me thinking about my own workflow habits.
Although I use the CS3 bridge and not Lightroom (yeah I know this blog is about Lightroom and I do respect that) but If I may, I’d like to share with you some of my own “Confessions of an Adobe Bridge Addict’s habits lol, good or bad with you here anyway. Here goes:-
Good habits:
1. Whenever I download my photos using the CS3 Bridge, I always tell it to back up to a folder on my second hard drive, before I erase that memory card!
2. I don’t just stick with the default names my camera attaches to the photos like DSC0047.NEF, so I’ll go for something more descriptive like ‘Lions_ChesterZoo’, so I can find them some other time.
3. After the Import, I create 3 Folders within Bridge, naming them ‘Original Camera RAW Files’, ‘Working PSD (Photoshop) Files’, and ‘Finished Work’ for my JPEGs ready for output (sometimes though within that very same folder, I’ll have sub-folders for sRGB output and a Pro Photo Lab profile, etc.
Okay, now for my Bad habits:-
1. I never bother entering my full contact details in the ‘metadata’ tag file. ust sticking with my name and Copyright info. I know I should set up a ‘Metadata Template, so Bridge will automatically apply that to my photos upon Import.
2. After the Import, I just don’t use Keywording, )I know it would maybe be helpful to me if I took the time to do that).
3. I very often just leave the ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3’ etc Star photos siting there wasting space on my hard drive, where I could be deleting those when I’ve already backed up those photos to my Backup drive anyway.
5. Finally, not owning a copy of Lightroom lol! However I do plan on buying a copy before the end of the year!
I hope you’ve found that interesting. I find it very re-assuring to know that even you Matt have some bad habits, and that you are willing to share these with people!
Very much appreciated!
Thanks!
Right on, except for the vignetting. There are these 2 guys — Scott Kelby and Eddie Tapp, who each teach vignetting techniques (Tapp calls his “Layer Mask Lighting”) that just are much better than the LR vignetting, depending on the photo. So I still do all serious vignetting in CS3.
Thanks for the entertaining “Confessions.”
I convert everything to DNG. My RAW photos from my D-SLR and the JPEG photos from my point and shoot. I just like having everything in a single file format.
RE: 3. Ive accidentally synchronized the develop settings on ALL 480 photos in a folder (on more then one occasion).
Hey, that makes me feel better, since I’ve done that, too. But only once…so far. (head thunk)
Hey Matt –
This is the first time I think I have commented – but I have been lurking for a while. OMG – I am addicted to Lightroom! I love all your presets too 😀 I love one of your last confessions – Did you Photoshop that? I get that all the time.
Deb
OMG, I think I could confess to about 90% of these as well. 🙁 I’m hopelessly addicted. Is there a 12-step program? I’ve even forsaken Photoshop on far too many occasions just so I could be with Lightroom. Does that make me a bad person? 😉
Thanks again, Matt. I truly enjoy your blog!
Matt,
D+G all the way. Required evil I guess. Actually to solve the multiple-folder situation you can use your beloved keywording 🙂 As long as the pictures that span multiple folders can somehow fit within in the same keyword group, you can have all of them in one Grid view by selecting the keyword selection rather than the folder selection. Problem partially solved.
And #12, I’m with you on that ALL THE WAY! I never thought I would say it, or get to a point where I DREAD going into photoshop to further a picture.
But this whole trend of wedding photographers and their damn actions and texturing….. it’s really hard to resist. I’m resisting, I’m retarding my photoshop urges. I can NOT wait for v2 to get out of beta!!!
If you shoot raw, you’ll find yourself using the camera calibrate sliders, trust me, it can do wonders! Not so much on jpgs. I’ve decided I actually dislike jpg very much, there is no breathing room with/for the pixels.
BTW, I have found ways to tweak a picture in un-orthodox ways with lightroom, as long as they’re RAW tho. There are some very interesting things you can do as far as massaging light/color/feel/detail in lightroom.
If you ever read this comment, hit me up, I’ll gladly explain in detail.
Sorry, I digress 🙂
-AL
Thanks for sharing these confessions. It made my day end with a big smile. Great writing-style!
My confessions:
1. I hate tips: I like to experience myself and I don’t like people telling me ‘this is the way you should do it’.
2. I love tips on lightroom: It saves me a lot of time and I’m surprised every week to see something I didn’t know before.
3. I love the internet: What a great way of sharing things and communicate.
4. I do 95% of editing in Lightroom.
5. I hope to see a lot of tips on this site.
6. I go to sleep now. It’s been late for to many days in a row.
Thanks again,
Rob
the Netherlands
I’m so glad to hear that a pro is addicted to vignetting!!! It makes me feel better about myself because I love vignetting!
Echoing yours, I love vignetting. I realized lately that I might use it a little TOO much and have been trying to cut back, but the photos just look strange without it.
I don’t use the noise reduction because I still think it needs a little work.
And finally I didn’t even realize I had a preset problem until you brought it up. I went and counted and I have 132. But I swear I’m going to be deleting some of those soon. Maybe. 🙂
My confession is that I don’t use LR anymore except for editing. It was too much of a hassle to move back and forth between PS and LR. I wouldn’t use LR at all if the loupe aspect of Bridge was better.
Good to know that. Sometimes I think that this hapnes just with me… 🙂
My confession –
I have also become a lightroom addict.
I have way to many presets (thanks to you :)), way to many print templates ( thanks to various people wondering if something can be done in Lightroom and then I challenge myself to see if I can do it, whether or not I need the template myself ) and I must admit all this flexibility is preventing me from almost doing anything.
You see, I’m an Engineer ( you know the guy that no one talks to at parties, except other engineers). Lightroom has provided me with so many neat tools to play with.
For example, I’m addicted to virtual copies.I don’t know when to stop playing and just accept the last acceptable iteration of an image.
As for your comment on “did you photoshop it ?” My answer is no I lightroomed it. ( they think – “engineer trying to make a funny comparison to a darkroom”.)
Seriously though, I really appreciate that Lightroom has brought me back to the basics of “developing” my images.
Its a great program and it looks as if 2.0 will be even better.
#8 You don’t use Snapshots? I find they’re a great way to save settings that I like for a particular photo (as opposed to Presets, but I guess you’re a Preset kind of guy) and then to A-B them against another array of settings. If I like them both, I’ll make a virtual copy and apply the B setting to it.
Hey, quick question: how many Catalogs do you use? Just one or multiple?
I completelly agree with #10 and #12!
#10 bugs me in a special way because I do it sooooo many times, I’m always swithcing back and forth, and for some reason I hate using keyboard so it takes me even longer to do it with the mouse….
anyway, keep up this great blog!!
10? Why 10? How come you ever worked this way? Don’t you just choose a number of files into your fast collection, choose the same collection and start developing the selected files from the filmstrip?
I rarely switch between library and development more than two or three times a session…
For the rest … I defenitely go along…
By the way: THANK YOU, MATE! I do appreciate all the effort you do on this site. Thumbs-up from here (Germany that is…).
Take care,
S.
Hey Matt,
My addictions, not necessarily related to Lightroom, and in no particular order…
Your Blog
Kelby’s Blog
Cross’s Blog
Ziser’s Blog
McNally’s Blog
Peterson’s Blog
and LightRoom’s Grayscale presets
Oh and most importantly, GOLF!!
Matt,
Amen to confession #’s 6, 8, and 10!
Thanks for sharing.
Aaron
Hi Matt & every 1
1st thing I think it would be Awsome it There was an CS3 Module. No leaving Lightroom at all. Hell that would really kick Aperture’s Butt.
2nd Im with you on the what did you do to that photo. Nothing I took a great shot…& saying that without trying to be a jerk.
3rd Matt Off subject a little but with Mpix when sending files to to the what kind of file do you send them. Say for an 20X30…
Thanks for your site Matt & Napp they really help me alot.
Jared
Hi Matt
I have a confession; I always guess when it comes to print resolution. The prints are Ok, but why go to the moon if the earth is OK. So Matt, how about a more in depth video about how to pick the right print resolution for the right size print. What is the printers native resolution and how can you find out. Have a great weekend.
Regards
Alan
O.K. here is a small addition: I got exctly 195 develop presets. This is starting to be odd.
Pfui, at least I’m not the only vignette addict in this world. I startet to feel bad because I added one to at least 95% of my photos.
O.K. here is something new for you: I also have about 150 Presets, a lot of them downloaded or made by myself. Often I try about 50 to 100 for a photo, before I deside that they are all lame and I’ll try something completly new.
It’s just so much fun trying different styles on a photo, seems like I’m preset addicted. (So hurry up and give me something new man, or it’s going to be ugly… did I just say that? O.K where’s that damn number of Betty Ford, I think I got a relapse…)
Well, I do share your addiction to vignetting. It looks so cool on flowers shots!
A confession? I can’t help using virtual copies. I love having two, three or more versions of a pic I like. Usually a B&W version is in the bunch 🙂
Re: “8. I NEVER EVER EVER EVER use Lightrooms noise reduction feature. While were on the topic of things I never use, I dont use the Camera Calibration and the Snapshots panels either.” Me too!
RE D+G, I just add the multiple photos I want to the quick collection first (B key) and then use the filmstrip for switching within collection. Then just clear it (CMD+Shift+B I think) when I’m done.
Open honesty, you have to appreciate that!!
Here’s mine… I have no idea how I should be saving my edits… so I keep changing what I do.
Before LR, I used to export a flat TIFF before I resized down for the web. That practice continued for a while after LR but now I’m not exporting from PS, I just keep the TIFF in LR and just started using virtual copies for resizing etc. I never keep the PSD since they are sometimes a couple hundred meg each. I’ll probably think that’s stupid down the road.
Best practice? No idea what that is.
Hey folks,
Thanks for all of the great comments. It’s great to see I didn’t embarrass myself too much 🙂
I have a couple of responses:
1) In response to Gaba’s suggestion above. That’ brilliant. I totally agree. If I double click on a photo then chances are I want to edit it. That’s the behavior in just about every other program out there. Great idea.
2) Re: Noise Removal. I still think it’s lame in Lightroom. I use Noise Ninja or Noiseware plug-ins for Photoshop.
3) Re: Switching between D and G (Develop and Grid). The issue arises when I’m working in multiple folders. Sure, I can use the filmstrip at the bottom to switch photos but what if they’re in a different folder that I can’t see in Develop. I have to switch back to the Library. Then back to Develop and the vicious cycle begins. I just wish that Quick Develop wasn’t so lame.
Thanks again for contributing!
Matt K
I agree whole-heartedly with #13, particularly after the doomed 1.4 update. I’ve been waiting at least a week on this one.
…oh, and if you tell me you didn’t PhotoShop a pic, I’ll believe you 🙂 (#14)
Hey Matt,
I could have written your whole post! It´s all the same with me.
My most used keys in Lightroom are the g for grid and d for develop. I walk through the modules like 1000 times a day…
and…I just started using keywords since the new beta came out. It´s really amazing with all the smart collections. But can you image how long it took me to go through my whole catalog and keyword every single photo….
Thanks for sharing all that stuff with us! You and your blog are great!!
Keywording is without a doubt the most um-immediately gratifying drudgery of DAM. Hands Down. Sure pays off in the long run though…
I figured there was some abnormal attraction of vignetting to you. Every single time.
If you’re not using Cam Cal you must not be a Canon shooter.
sounds not too far of me…I’d rather get it all done in LR than faff in PS as well, although I maybe don’t have that many presets!
I D and G a lot too – who doesn’t?
Ciao – Florent
This is (another) great post.
About #3: that just happened to me. Applied your 300 look (strong)+vignetting to 170 photos… These are great presets but definitely not suitable for all photos.
The worse thing is that when you see your thumbnails one by one beeing updated to reflect the new setting… (my computer is very slow, the process is quite long and it’s even more frustrating).
Do you know how to undo presets or get back in history for a bunch of photos ?
I totally agree to every single point you wrote there and I am glad that I am not the only one out there who things so!
Thank you for that!
Matt, I hear you on the vignetting, I have found myself suddenly addicted to it, I am to the point of adding it subliminally now. I fear when LR 2 gets the version that works for cropped images, there will be no stopping it.
I too take part in many of the sins Matt listed. Mainly
8 Bit .psd
I always am hitting the G key to return to the grid in the Develop Mode
I am horrible about keywording
Here is my confession. I hate Powerpoint so much that I will create my slides in Photoshop then use Lightroom’s web gallery to create my presentation. I even make highlights for the various parts of the slide.
Hi Matt,
What I realy like? I like the function “Foto Enhancement” (I hope that’s right in englisch because I’ve installed the German version of LR).
What I’m missing? I’m mssing an archive function. I would’like to move the original hi-res photos to a secondary disk (e.g. an USB disk or DVD) for saving disk space on my laptop.Whenever I’m doing an operation which needs the hi-res photo LR should ask to load DVD #14 or so.
Matt, I also like your site and blog. Keep on.
Urs
Hi Matt,
As a new Lightroom user (I am quite stubborn and not terribly bright, by the way) I am guilty of the most egregious of sins: I never push the F1 key. Ever.
OK, so I’m getting better at stopping and asking for directions, but in the meantime, your feed is a ‘must read’ every morning before I even make the coffee. The presets are a godsend, and you have helped me learn Lightroom much MUCH faster than I would have on my own. Thank you.
I do have a question: I maintain a photo blog and photo uploads have to be 500px in the x-axis (horizontal.) Is there a way to batch edit a group of shots to be exported at 500px in the x-axis, maintaining aspect ratio in the y-axis? This would save me loads of time and save me the same frustration that you have: I feel like a failure if I have to open CS3.
Many thanks, and cheers for an excellent resource!
JG
I don’t like keywords or metadata either. I don’t need them. My source files are stored in subdirectories according to the customer name and the specific shoot. I don’t need metadata to remember that for me.
I also don’t like how slow Lightroom gets after the database gets huge.
My solution: I blow away the Lightroom database whenever things start to get too slow. Seriously. I just go and delete it, and let it build a brand new empty one. Suddenly Lightroom is a speed demon!!!
What do I lose in the process? Nothing.
I have Lightroom set to store all of my changes in sidecar files.
Do I have to worry about backing up my catalog?!? Not at all! Why? As I said, all of my changes are stored in the sidecar files. And where are the sidecar files? Right next to the source files! So when I back up my pictures, the changes that I have made to them get backed up at the same time. And more importantly, get stored in the SAME PLACE. That means that restoring my images is as simple as copying them back to the online drive and re-importing them into Lightroom. All of the changes I’ve made come right back up.
So forget the monolithic catalog. It’s just a giant basket into which you’re placing all of your eggs. When you lose it … it’s gonna hurt. But store all of your metadata with your images and you’ll never have to sweat again.
Matt,
I am fairly new to Lightroom and completely addicted to Killer tips. I have decided I need to quit making subtle changes to older photos and get out & take more to play with.
This request isn’t really addiction related but… Is there a way to print out the shortcuts that you see by pressing ctrl forward slash either from lightroom or another source? It would be much easier for me to learn the shortcuts if I had them in print beside my workspace while editing.
John
Hi Matt,
Can I just say that I fell out of my chair laughing so hard because your confessions 6 and 12 hit the bulls eye! I have been afraid to tell anyone about my addiction to vignetting… Maybe there is a support group waiting for me…..
Thanks for all the great tips on your site!
Kelly
Hey Matt,
I like presets and I am addicted to lightroom killer tips and visit everyday.
But especially on mondays cuz its presets day. I am also addicted to opening an image in lightroom first not only to make all adjustments but to see how I can improve the photo in ways that might take you much more time and many more steps in PS.
My only confession would be that I visit lightroom killer tips more than I do photoshop killer tips (there hasn’t been any new tips since Thursday, March 06, 2008 day416 and all thats been there are re-runs.)
you really must be addicted to lightroom, GLAD I’M NOT THE ONLY ONE!
Ron
The two most ennoying points in the routine might be #2 and #10: synchronizing a complete folder by accident, with no way to reverse it later can (temporarely) ruin my enthusiasm for LR.
The G/D swap is definitely ennoying – I wish I used the quick develop more often…
BTW, I just discovered the “Match Total Exposure” in the Settings tab of the development module … looks like a de-bracketing feature to me, so it may not be useful for panoramas – but for portraits sessions, I can see great use of it. I would appreciate your comments/advice on that; I am sure that not so many of us have seen the function in LR!
Confession from a LightRoom Junkie
omg, I can’t believe I’m typing this out loud…..
I haven’t downloaded the 2.0 Beta yet ….
I know I know, “what’s wrong with that girl”… I absolutely love all of the new features…..really I just haven’t had time…
Whew, I feel so much better now that I have that off of my chest : )
Oh yeah, and I have so many random keywords that sound good at the time of import and then I find myself (weeks later) clicking on em’ just to see what’s in there
: )
Point 9: I used to do this too, but then I discovered the basket on the bottom of lightroom that is just a mouseover away 🙂
Lloyd – that’s great. I actually remember seeing a What the Duck cartoon (whattheduck.net) that went like this:
Some guy: Wow, your camera takes really great photos
Duck: Thanks… your mouth says really dumb things.
Or it was something close to that at least.
🙂
Matt K
Too funny!! These are great, and I guess I have to fess up to just about everything you said. About that “I didn’t Photoshop it” thing. The only thing I hate more is when someone looks at an image I’ve worked hard to take, and then perfect, and says, “wow, you must have a really great camera.”
I just love your honesty! In fact 99% of the things you “confess” belong also to my daily routine.
But: the calibration part is useful to get the best look when converting RAW files (especially with my D2 en D3 NEF files). But then again: this better be done in ACR…
Keep up the good blogs!
Roy
To a web application programmer, Metadata is a huge feature! It allows web apps, like Flickr for example, to have the ability to view camera model trends, search for keywords, and provide geographical information for placement on maps. Its also an important aspect of copyright protection as an additional means to prove authorship.
More Cowb… er, Metadata!!
I have read that the Lightroom catalog should be excluded from the Time Machine backup routine. This is due to the fact that the entire catalog will be backed up every hour due to the dynamic nature of a database, and you will fill up your drive in short order. I have excluded the LR library file but continue to backup using LR’s backup routine, and I have it directed to my Time Capsule drive. Just not hourly.
Point 12 made me break out in laughter – thought I was the only one. I hate making new Tifs or PSDs when I can just edit the raw file in lightroom. Maybe Adobe will adopt the metadata framework they use in Lightroom for Photoshop – that would be heaven!
So do you just live with the noise and move on with life? You say you don’t bring very many photos into Photoshop, so you must no be doing anything about it…
Noise is a bit of a pet-peeve of mine and I probably overdo the noise reduction.
#8…. I am addicted to snapshot. I’ll take one photo and use different filters on it and take snapshots of each one because I’m never sure which one I like the best. I LOVE that option. However, like Russ, I do not delete as much as I should so my catalog has way too many photos in it. I need to get another backup as well. Losing photos terrifies me!
Regarding #10: I would like to have a checkbox in Preferences that would allow me to automatically switch to the Developer module whenever I enlarge a photo in Grid mode (double click, hit space, etc.). I hate this artifical distinction between the Library and the Develop module. Why can’t Lighroom accept that whenever I double click a photo I want to develop it?
I find your #8 interesting. Lightroom does an adequate job on noise reduction for most purposes and saves me going to Noise Ninja or CS3. The more I can keep within LR the happier I am.
My confession is I don’t delete duplicates and sub-standard shots nearly as often as I should to keep my catalogs lean and mean.
I really enjoy the work you fellows at NAPP do with blogs, podcasts, etc. Keep up the good work.
Sheers,
Russ
Hey Matt, LOVE your Lightroom website! Visiting it daily is my addiction. I’m fairly new to Lightroom, therefore, I may not, fully, understand what you’re talking about, on #10. When I’m in the Develop module, I just hit the right arrow key to bring up the next picture.
Keep up the good work !
Dave
Hi Mattk!!!
I thought I was the only one that love prestes, love vingeting, forget keywording and many other “sins”.
You say you never ever use the noise reduction? Is there a reason for this ? what do you recommend instead ?
Ditto on No. 6. (Edge Vignette).
My confession: I went out and bought an MX Revolution mouse for the sole purpose of advancing images in the develop module without having to use the keyboard…(the scroll wheel is great in the library module, but missed it in develop…)
My confession is every time I install a set of your great presets, the last preset imported gets applied to the image that was currently selected in the Develop module. It does produce some interesting, unexpected results when that has happened. But, I usually have to set its history back a step.
By the way, do you convert all your images to DNG?
Thanks for your great page.
Marty
I only use the flags for ranking photos. I feel like I should be using the stars and colors as well – but I never do.
Matt –
AMEN! Your entire post describes me perfectly. And you posting new presets each Monday is adding to my #11 every week, but it’s FUN to take some photos and see what every preset makes it looks like. But I did separate the WOW presets and the Matt presets in different folders from MY presets. MY presets being ones I like best from you and others and tend to use all the time. Love the blog and thanks for entertaining the rest of us addicts each day!
Have a great one….
Great list matt!
I am interested in your first confession, does doing that improve your performance?
I am addicted to web galleries. Absolutely makes my business much easier.
Cheers,
Dave
http://www.davidjturner.com
Hi Matt,
1st talking about addictions, layers is a top book!!! cheers for that
2nd You drive me nuts with all your stuff, keeps adding stuff to my workload :-P……keep up the good work
yes the flippin between grid and dev….mmmm
3rd I used to have multiple catalogs but its a pain in the A to close one to open the other one. Maybe it gets a bit sluggish now, any ideas how to manage that (have about 50.000 photos in the library)
4th seeing your confessions makes me happy, cause I have more or less the same habits
Cheers
I have become addicted to the compare [C] feature. Everytime I make a change to an image in the develop module I hit ‘C’ and do a compare to see how my change compares to the original.
And.. of course.. I have to go into Lights out Mode to get the best out of compare….
I am quickly wearing out the ‘C’ and ‘L’ keys’ 🙂
about going from develop to library to develop to etc….
I use quick collections…. as I’m importing, when I see a photo that I might want to develop, I hit B which adds it to a quick collection. Then I can develop all my photos and move on to the next one rather then hunting for it in the library.
That’s too scary for comfort really, mindreader. I wasn’t addicted to edge vignetting til I found this site.
Anyone got a number for Betty Ford…?
Ok here’s my confession….maybe not a bad thing, but I’m a back-up addict. I don’t back up my photos 1 or 2 times but more like 4 or 5 times, on 4 different hard drives then on a couple of DVDs.
Could you give more tips on backing up catalogs. I basically back it up and delete older ones but then I realized that if I delete the older ones and the pics are no longer in my present catalog (too old to stay there) then I don’t have a backup of my changes for my older catalogs. So it seems like whenever I move or backup photos to my external hard drive I have to make sure that the catalog is backed up with those photos. I don’t really have a workflow for this. Any help appreciated.