It’s “The Lightroom Show” Episode #6 with Scott & RC
It’s Friday — you know what that means: It’s time for another episode of “The Lightroom Show.” We’ve been using your questions as the outline for the show, so I hope you find it helpful.
I just got back from Dubai last night, so I’m keeping this short and sweet — hope you enjoy the show and here’s wishing you a great weekend. 🙂
Best,
-Scott
My favorite part of the show is when you edit user-submitted photos. I learn so much! I am just beginning with my DSLR and also with learning Lightroom. It’s incredible to watch a professional’s process so that I can perhaps apply a small fraction to my very amateur work. Thanks for this great resource.
Scott/RC,
Have been enjoying watching the LR Show episodes. You have some really helpful tips and tricks.
My favorite is watching you edit viewers photos. I hope to submit one or two for your processing soon.
Thanks so much for these videos, ive been using Lightroom for ages now but was so set in my ways of doing things that i was missing out on certain features!
Hey guys – thanks for taking the time to put up these shows and the others you do. They are a big help to us. I have a question about a traveling work flow. Let me know if you think this is an OK work flow or if I should be doing something different.
When I travel, I don’t like to bring along my whole catalog and images, so for each vacation trip I do, I bring my less powerful laptop (in case it gets stolen or broken I am not out as much) and I create a new catalog just for that trip. I just went to Fiji, so I made a new catalog – Fiji2015 for the occasion. After each day I then import the images to the catalog and store the imported images in the folder with the catalog, toss the obvious bad ones, maybe do some simple corrections on some of the better ones, etc. I keep the images on the original memory card so I have 2 copies of everything.
When I get back home, I move the whole catalog folder with catalog and images to my main computer, do more editing and tossing of the images that have no hope, print some, make slideshows, etc.
Once I am mostly ‘done’ with those photos, I move that folder to where all my photos exist, and then open my main catalog and do an ‘Import from Catalog’ to bring those images into the main catalog. This doesn’t move any photos, just adds them to my main catalog. At this point, I could delete the previous catalog I created just for those photos, though I rarely do.
What do you think? I know you advocate only 1 catalog, but this has worked for me thus far. Am I doing something that will get me in trouble or am I needlessly complicating my life (this is pretty simple for me as I have been doing it this way since version 1.0, but maybe there is a better way to work now)
Thanks
Mike
Thanks for this site. I was afraid that it would go downhill after Matt K left but it is still filled with useful tips. I LOVE that the tips AND the videos are not too long but long enough to show the “how to” and give us a starting point to learn more about the subject. Great stuff!!
I also like that when you are showing other viewers photos and tips that you always mention that changes are subjective. We, as photographers in all different stages of photography, need to remember that for most of us, the photography is our “art” and if our photos make us happy-this is what matters most.
Congrats on your award, Scott.
Another great episode, wish they were longer! Based on your top tips for new lightroom users (I’m not new, but very rusty!), I have stoppped using folders (one per calendar year) and instead created a smart collection based on date ranges (genius!). However, now I find that all my “proper” photos from my Panasonic/Fuji gear are muddled up with my “grabshots” from my Motorola smart phone (which I have recently started syncing with LR Mobile). Help! How do I stop the phone pics appearing in my smart collections? Thanks again.
Hover over the name of your smart collection and choose: “Edit Smart Collection” then change definition rules to only include photos from your Panasonic/Fuji gear by name or serial numbers ( or you can exclude those of your smart phone if it provides one). You can see the names to use by selecting each and going to “Library | Metadata”… It will be listed in the EXIF section.
I love it when you show and edit a viewer’s photo. Please keep doing that; it is very helpful. If you can, please edit a photo or two where you apply some presets. Also, how to make an HDR effect from a fan’s photo would be good to see.
Thanks for doing a great job on this series.
David.
Great show! But, would it be too much to ask for a link to the featured site?
In Lightroom mobile ipad we can rate a photo and then sort it in Lightroom on my computer 🙂
In Lightroom on web, we can “like” (or comment) a photo but after there is no option in Lightroom (computer) on my computer to sort the photos “liked” by my client. Is it true or i missed something ? 🙁
The luminance reduction worked well for the sky. Can that be applied selectively? It doesn’t appear to be an option with the adjustment brush. I have a picture of some skyscrapers that are reflective. I wasn’t able to get detail back in the sky without affecting the reflections on the buildings.
Another great show! I look forward to the next one.
Great tips always great to learn something new!
Love the show, guys. I haven’t missed one yet. I’ll echo the appreciation for the live edits on submitted photos. Lately I’ve dabbled in night photography. I’d be interested in any tips you may in editing night shots. Just an idea.
Awesome stuff once again, thanks Guys
You’re very welcome, Sean. 🙂
Please keep these shows coming! Always full of great tips. I have a question regarding the white balance eye drop tool. When scanning the image with the tool looking for a “neutral” tone, what role does the separate R, G, and B percentages play in picking a tone as you hover over an area? Should the user be looking for all three to be relatively close percentages to one another?
in a perfect world you’d find three values that are all 128, but seriously you are WAY over-thinking this. Just find something kinda neutral and click there. If it doesn’t look good to you, click somewhere else. That’s all there is to this. Don’t over think it.
I’ve been obsessing with finding 3 50’s. I thought 3 of anything would work, but have found that not to be true. I’m also an overthinker. Useful question and answer for me. Thanks.
You don’t need to look for a region that shows the same value in all color channels – the whole point of the WB adjustment is to find a region that SHOULD be neutral (gray). If it is not neutral in the actual photograph, e.g. if it is too blue, Lightroom uses this information (“too blue”) to reduce the amount of blue (in the whole photograph) so that the selected region after the adjustment is shown as a neutral gray (i.e. it has identical values in all three color channels after the WB adjustment is applied).
Hi – great little video – some great tips there – thanks.
A quick query; when you did the spot healing on the cupboard, the area is shown completely “whited out” which makes it difficult to judge exactly where to place that white area when you are trying to avoid the edge of the thing you don’t want healed or cloned: it tends to “bleed” where you don’t want it – is there any way to make this area transparent or opaque (as it is when it has selected the area) so it can be more accurately placed?
Thanks
Great show again! I am enjoying my Friday Free night with first watching your show. Question I have, navigating in Lightroom, sometimes when working on an image I need to look at another, in another collection. How do I get quickly back to the image or set of images I was working on?
In the top left corner of the filmstrip at the bottom there’s a “Back” button (like on a browser). That’ll take you back to where you were last. 🙂
Awsome tips guys, thanks!
Once again, I left your show wanting to immediately re-edit my photos. You guys areamazing.
Thanks Jorge! 🙂
Thanks for editing my photo on your show, was great to see how you and RC went about the edits. Really cool to see how you brought out the detail in the sky. Learned lots!!
Thanks for submitting it Marland. 🙂
I really enjoy the live “edits” of user submitted images. Keep up the good work!
Thanks for the feedback, Elliot – we need to stay on top of what’s working (and what’s not). 🙂
Great show again with lots of informations, thanks. Is it possible with LR or Photoshop to change the platform language back and forth in a quick and simple manner rather than save a file with a language and another in english and without restart the computer?
Are you asking something different than restarting LR after “Edit|Preferences|language” ?
If you have to remap some keys, Keyboard Tamer plugin could work for that in the past – haven’t used it in a while though.
Hope that’s helpful in some way.
It helps me, Lyle. Thanks.
Great video Scott & RC. On the wedding photo you did not correct for that very bad distortion. look at the background and you will see it. Not the fault of the photographer, you cannot avoid it with the type of camera it was shot with. Very simple to fix in Lightroom. Sorry as an old time view camera photographer this always bothers me. Maybe a good subject for future videos.
Great show..it’s nice to see you work on the photos..I pick up a lot of tips..Keep it up, Jim
Thanks, Jim. 🙂
Thanks Scott and RC, another bunch of great tips. I especially like using viewer photos to show how to use the various features. Looking forward to the next episode.
Great Tips, especially the Gray Card tips.
Thanks for letting us know, David. 🙂
Hey Guys.
Great show.
Just want to know how to avoid creating folders with “imported on “Date” form the import panel or the library module.
Thanks a lot.
Jean-Michel,
It sounds like you are referring to the copies made when the Make a second copy to box on the Import dialog is checked, is that correct? Or are you talking about the default Organize option in the Destination panel that is set to By Date?
Scott & RC, Another great show. Working with actual submitted photos is great and very helpful. More these practical uses would be great from time to time. I looked at Scott’s class on Cool Layout Ideas for the print module at kelbyone and created some of my own and put together a poster of B&W’s.( a 4 up layout with a signature logo. When I was done I “sent to print” the jpeg to submit to MPIX (thanks for the discount code, Scott!). The size of the jpeg is only about 7MB. Is this correct? Did I do something wrong? BTW, for anyone who has not viewed that class, I highly recommend it!
JPG size factors to look at…
Smooth tones, or lots of edges, fine details?
What are the final print dimensions (inches, cm etc…) of the composite?
What PPI resolution have you specified in the output dialog ?
How much of the area of the print is non-image (white or whatever your background color is) ?
What quality level did you specify ?
7MB 303 ppi (seriously, that’s what they ask for…) at 100% quality on an 11×14 composite of 3 jpgs which cover about 90% of the paper is what I just did. Putting the quality to 90% cut size by roughly a 7:4 ratio.
A good exercise – create several variation JPGs of your output, keeping the PPI the same (assuming the vendor gave you a value they like to work with), varying the quality slider. Do same again, with the 3 different sharpening options . Make a table and compare the sizes.
7MB sounds totally realistic given a size 11×14 or under.
My 4×6 bleeds are under 2 MB generally (with above options).
Some reference points for you.
Lyle, Thanks that’s a big help and a lot of reassurance. I created a 14×11 poster with 3 approx 3×4 print cells on a white background that takes up about 50% of the poster with a 50% opacity logo ID plate. So I guess that is good. I did another that is an 11×14 with a full bleed B&W photo taking up about 70% of the frame with black background and white ID plate. I’ll just wait and see what happens. It was set at Matte, High sharpening, JPEG at 100% quality and 300ppi
Great tips. I did not know that the healing brush could handle such a large area as shown in the wedding picture. I will be trying that on some of my shots.
Hi Milt – glad you found it helpful. Cheers. 🙂