It’s “The Lightroom Show” Episode #4 with Scott & RC
It’s Friday, that must mean it’s time for the Lightroom Show! We talk about when to use the Clone feature of the Spot removal Tool; we do a basic introduction to Soft Proofing, and a whole bunch more in a very short time — just 12-minutes for the entire show.
Hope you all find it helpful (and thanks to everybody who has let us know what you want to see on the show — you’ll see some of your ideas, once again, in this week’s short episode). Have a great weekend everybody 🙂
Hi, love your show and site. I’d like to see (on your website I guess) more examples of a full photo edition (from the very scratch till the very end) to give me a full picture of how you do this and what can be done. Cheers, Anna
I can see other videos, but this one is giving me an “Error loading stream: Cannot connect to server”
Thanks!
I get the same error message as Tim. Maybe the video is corrupted now as I see that previous viewers had no problem with playing it.
please check as I would love to see this one.
Very informative show as usual. I’d like to hear more about virtual copies. What are they really? Are they an additional raw or jpeg file? How much space do they take up? When should I create one and when shouldn’t I?
If you need to maintain variations of the same original image, VCs are
probably what you want to do.
When you import a photo to LR, the catalog creates a database entry of
the disk location and image filename. As you use the LR modules on
that picture, the sequence of steps you take to change how it looks
are recorded as sequential History steps. Those are tied to the
database entry for that image file. When you view it, LR replays
the built-up steps against the original image file and you see your
improved photo. Essentially you create a to-do list for the photo and
LR does them, (in an optimal way behind the scenes).
A virtual copy is a new, named database entry which looks at the same
original image file (with whatever history steps had been done to it before
you created the VC), then whatever new steps you take to change it,
just like for the original. It’s a new to-do list. They behave like separate files in nearly all regards.
Space-wise it’s the database file location info and the database steps like you’d see if you look at the history. The original image is not duplicated. If you’re saving your edits to .xmp file, there will be a new one for the VC as well. We’re talking a few thousand bytes vs. megabytes for a copy of the original image file.
You can make as many VCs as you want, they’re really small. If you delete a VC, just that database entry pointing at the original image file and its set of changes are removed; the original image is and unaffected. The space it consumed is reclaimed when the database gets optimized (File | Optimize…)
“will be a new one for the VC as well”
That should have read: will NOT be a new one…
Thank you for all the fantastic tips!! I would love to hear more about the print proofing and sending them off to labs. I downloaded a couple ICC profiles from a couple different pro labs and did the proofing as you directed, but my images look awful! I feel like Im back to square one with the editing/adjustments. I do my main adjustments in LR, then take them over to PS for effects, then back into LR where I export them for print, but now proofing them, they look so different. I now am making a copy and basically adjusting everything again, which seems so redundant. I’m wondering if I should just start out with a proofing copy and go from there?
Thank you for all the fantastic tips!! I would love to hear more about the print proofing and sending them off to labs. I downloaded a couple ICC profiles from a couple different pro labs and did the proofing as you directed, but my images look awful! I feel like Im back to square one with the editing/adjustments. I do my main adjustments in LR, then take them over to PS for effects, then back into LR where I export them for print, but now proofing them, they look so different. I now am making a copy and basically adjusting everything again, which seems so redundant. I’m wondering if I should just start out with a proofing copy and go from there?
Hi guy! Loving the new show. Grid watcher for the last couple of months and love that show too, along with kelbyone. My question is that where i love the shows about printing using the printing module, I and many others use print labs like bayphoto, Prodpi, mpix and such. How do we know how much to lighten, add contrast and sharpen for those avenues? Can you soft proof for sites like that and select the type of paper or whatever?
My next question/possible topic is what median looks best with particular images? For example, if I have a picture of the milkyway, would that look best on metal, canvas, glass matte paper?
Thank you guys so much for what you do!
– Rob Giannese
Hi,
You have been talking the last couple of shows about home printing images and the LR adjustments. Can you discuss if the same consideration is needed when uploading a photo to be printed by a photo processing website. Also can you talk about monitor calibration and how/if this affects the image that you see on the monitor v the final printed image,
Really enjoy the show.
Thanks
I would like to know what your experiences are with cloud storage and Lightroom. I’m running into the problem that my storage is running on low. And having al my older photos on several extrnal harddrives is not quite an ideal solution.
Is there a solution where I can store my files external (Cloud storage) but wich can work seamless with LR?
Great shows Scott & RC! One thing I’d love to hear about is how to use curves in Lightroom – any chance you could cover that on a future episode?
Question in regards to RC’s “lights out mode” tip. I use this feature quite a bit. However, when I’m at the office using LR, I’m using two monitors. One right in front of me, the 2nd monitor is on my left side (for emails etc). I prefer to use LR using one monitor, my main monitor. When I try to use lights out mode when I’m at the office using two monitors, the screen on the left goes dark while my main monitor running LR stays the same. Is there any way around this?
I love Kelby 1. I’ve been a member for years. This is a great new addition to all the other education that is available. My question is, is there a way to center an identity plate on a print layout other than eyeballing it?
Just wrapped up my vacation by watching all four LR Show episodes and it’s really good. It’s packed with info and tips. I’ve been using LR for four years and every episode has had a tip I know will help me work more efficiently. Just the right length and the right amount of detail. One request: In the first two episodes, there was a link to the featured website in the show notes; not for the last two episodes. It would be great if you would start doing that again. Thanks for all the help you’re provided over the years and for all the help I’ll be receiving in the future. Cheers.
For the kind words (and the reminder to include the link). We’re on it 🙂
Great show Scott & RC great tips as the last 3 episodes … can you include tips abou dodge and burn styles in LR … thanks a lot!!
Great show guys!! I do have a major issue though. Trying to watch them. I do have broadband, DSL internet, not the fastest but not the slowest. The Lightroom Show is the only one that is nearly impossible to watch. It buffers every 5-10 SECONDS. I don’t know why, but it is not good. I’m also a subscriber to your training at Kelbyone, and don’t have any problem watching those videos.
One thing I noticed, the Kelbyone training videos do provide the ability to change the resolution, The Lightroom Show does not. This would help if I could. Normally I watch streaming videos using the 480 setting, or even the 720.
I don’t know if there’s others experiencing this, or I’m alone. But having to let the show download-“Buffer” almost entirely is very frustrating.
Hi Ron: I just forwarded your note to the guy in charge of that, and we’ll get to the bottom of it. Thanks for the heads up. 🙂
Hey Scott and RC,
Great show. I’m learning a few new things and remembering thngs I had already forgotten 😉
Interested in your take on when you should stay in Lightroom only and when you should head over to Photoshop. I know this is not a Photoshop show, and I know the answer is probably “it depends.” Its more about the power of LR. I recently had 2 epiphany photo moments with LR where I thought I needed to use PS to get what I wanted, but LR totally blew me away with what I was able to produce.
Cheers!
Ps. Hoping to see you both again at PSW in August
Great show gentlemen. Had some deja vu during the proof copy section as I had just done similar training with a student two weeks back. I have seen many explanations, yours was very clear and easy to understand. I did not know about the adjustability of the grid in the corrections panel, typically using the crop tool for minor rotations and such, but this alternative will prove useful.
If I might make a suggestion, I find that I often have to explain the value proposition of virtual copies to seminar attendees, students and other good people. Perhaps you might consider a short segment on this topic as it may be of value to other viewers.
Thanks as always.
RC, Would you please show us how to add additional printer/paper profiles into the LR soft proofing area. I only have a couple showing here, but have numerous added and showing in CC. Also i noticed in this episode when you opened the profile section to choose your profile, you had a profile for the Epson 4900 Exhibition Fiber paper as shown: Epson_Sp4900_Exhibition_Fiber_Paper_PK_v1. Would you please share this profile with us or direct us where to find? It is not shown on Epson website for download…Thanks Ray
Hi guys – thanks for the show. You asked for comments, here are mine:
You’re video lights are really really hard, The Grid looks better/softer lit. Also, it seems you do this against a greenscreen, you guys have some weird rim-lighing/shadowing going on on my screen.
I prefer Shift-F (2x) to just F as a shortcut, since it allows you to use all your tools in Fullscreen.
You may have shown this on The Grid once (can’t find it anymore), but I’m struggling with brightening up a shadow on the background of my subject. Trying to make it vanish by raising shadows, but LR doesn’t seem to give me enough “power” to get entirely rid of it. Can this be done?
Tx for all the work and thought you put into these videos, much appreciated!
You might look at the Jan 13rd post to see if that helps.
Tx lyle, but that wasn’t it. I was looking for a solution where I can use an adjustment brush affecting only the shadows, so that these would blend into the brighter areas around them. Using the old math of LR3 seems to be pushing the surrounding areas in my pic, too.
Maybe I saw RC doing this in PS on the Grid after all.
I usually send my files off to Mpix to be printed. Does soft proofing work for this, too? Thanks.
You guys ROCK!
Do you know of a way to define a shortcut key for “Invert Selection”? This would be extremely useful in Import workflow.
Thanks.
Hey guys!
Great show as always! 🙂 I’d like to see a tip on organizing photos (but not the picking/selecting into collections phase like Scott usually does (I get that and that’s great I do it too all the time).
I’m interested in your finishing moves of you workflow, especially when you’re done with Lr and Ps adjustments and you want to sort the finished pictures. Do you create another collection named “finished”? Would you set that as a target and just keep pressing “B”? Would you label them? What’s your take on this guys?
Thank you!
Gary
Thank you for the very helpful videos. I think it would be very helpful to have two episodes dedicated to sharpening and noise reduction.
Hey guys!
Great show as always! 🙂 I’d like to see a tip on organizing photos (but not the picking/selecting into collections phase like Scott does (I get that and that’s great I do it too all the time).
I’m interested in your finishing moves of you workflow, especially when you’re done with Lr and Ps adjustments and you want to sort the finished pictures. Do you create another collection named “finished”? Would you set that as a target and just keep pressing “B”? Would you label them? What’s your take on this?
Thank you guys! Greeting from Hungary!
Gary
Hi, this is a great show. Please continue with the discussion about soft proofing and colour correction. It´s a great topic. I have also a lot of difficulties about colour correction, especially skin tones. Thanks guys! Best regards
Another awesome show guys, thanks so much for taking the time to put these together.
I would really like to see some tips on how to keep LR running efficiently. I’ve noticed that LR slows after time and if I restart it, there is improvement. I’m sure there’s some tweaks out there that may help keep things running smoothly and speedy.
Another great show …. Really loving the tips, especially the grid in the lens correction panel. How about a spot on when you might need to go to Photoshop or maybe some suggested third party plugins for the stuff LR can’t quite nail, or doesn’t do quite as well … at least in LR5. Thanks! Keep em comin!
Thanks to both of you for some really useful tips. I’m still on LR4 but plan to upgrade to LR6 as soon as it comes out. I was wondering whether you could, when convenient, mention what version you need to have for a particular tip you’re showing? Sometimes I try to apply them and when it doesn’t work, and it’s not always obvious to me whether I’m doing something wrong or not. Thanks!
Hey Ivy: We’ll always be using the most current version of Lightroom. 🙂
I really enjoy your show. I am hearing impaired & though I now have bionic ears (cochlear implants) that allow me to hear MUCH better than a couple of years ago, it would be nice, at some point, to add the option of turning on closed captioning for your shows.
As I said, I am not having much difficultly understanding you so far, but there may be others out there that would benefit from having a closed-captioning option for the videos.
Thanks
How about some insights in to what to really expect in Lightroom 6? 🙂
Hi Randy: If we knew what was in the next Lightroom, we would have signed a confidentiality agreement with Adobe right? (Known as an NDA), so we wouldn’t be able to share it anyway. 🙂
Another use for the Clone/Heal brush is more obvious, but less realized…I’ve used the Clone tool to actually place the windows in buildings that may have lights on (or off) to make for cleaner facades.
I’ve recently started shooting in the studio tethered to Lightroom. When shooting under studio strobes and using an 18% gray card to set white balance, what should the white balance setting in the camera be? Should it be set to Auto, Flash, or Custom? Thanks for the show!
I would set it to flash for starters, but if you’re using a gray card to set the exact accurate white balance, it doesn’t matter your starting white balance is set to, because it’s only going to be that for one frame, right? 🙂
I like the way you can adjust the grid while working in the lens correction panel. Is there a way to adjust the grid opacity in the crop tool?
No.
Please put these vids on youtube. I know you did that early on, but if these are only playable here I can’t see them. (long story).
is there anyway in LR to label virtual copies so that you know why you created them? For example if you soft proof and create 2 additional copies for 2 different papers – later how do you know which is which? Or you create different versions of same image- any way to label so you can identify the reason behind the virtual copies?
Thanks,
Marc
In Metadata set the CopyName to descriptive name of your choice and set View options to display it.
LR automatically names the virtual copies with the profile used.
Thanks so much for clearing up the differences between clone and heal! It’s a question I’ve been meaning to ask, having been blindly experimenting for so long …
My question: Would you offer tips for working in the book module?
I appreciate the time you take to put the show together each week and always take away something useful, as well as inspiration.
(I’ll be in the audience for Shoot Like a Pro on Monday and look forward to learning tons from Scott.)
My best to you both, RC & Scott, and here’s looking forward to many more killer tips!
HI Glo: I’ll add book module tips to the list for an upcoming show, no sweat (I love making photo books in LR). See you on Monday! 🙂
Another great episode. I’d love to see more about the print module.I still find myself in PS or Illustrator too often for what should be basic printing tasks.
Thanks Mosley (and more print tips coming). 🙂
How about a direct link on the blog to the recommended site each time?
Scott & RC, Another great show with useful tips. Never really understood when to use heal v clone completely, now I do!! Thanks. Love the Shift-tab, L, L F. Forgot all about the Shift-Tab shortcut.
If you foolishly saved your metadata to disc (DNG & JPGs) in a previous version of lightroom, and have re-mimported the photos/catalog through the versions up to the current, is there a way to “Reset” the photo to pre-edits. I can’t get some old process version DNG and JPG files back to their original state.