Lightroom vs Photoshop

[Shane]

A good eye combined with some technical knowledge is still required to consistently get great photos, I believe. Digital cameras in Auto mode can produce some really great photos occasionally when people just get lucky on how they had a shot framed and when they hit the shutter button. Film cameras in Auto used to do the same thing. But it kills me when I hand my camera to someone else and ask them to take a photo of me and my family or something like that. 95% of the time the pics I end up with suck. Terrible framing, bad timing, focused on something in the background or whatever. Same camera. Different results.

It still requires some artistic ability to consistently get great photos, regardless of the equipment used. But what digital cameras and software have done is give photographers immediate feedback on the results of their photos. You don't have to wait to get the film processed to find out if you nailed the shot or not now. You see it immediately. If you missed it, then you make some adjustments and try again. That is a HUGE teaching tool. And you don't have to worry about the cost of processing hundreds of pics like you did when it was film. You can take all the pics you want now, and it doesn't cost extra. More learning. Whatever level of talent you have, it's easier to develop and grow now with digital. Cool stuff.

[Limbwalker]

A lot of serious film photographers used to have their own dark rooms and they developed their own photos. Lots of dodging and burning and cropping and everything going on back then too, just not on the computer.

Hmmm. Some did. None that I knew, and I knew more than a handful. All the wildlife photographers I knew in the film days -and many of the outdoor photographers, used mailers and if they wanted prints, sent the original slides to a lab they had developed a good relationship with.

When I shot B&W from my Bronica bodies, I used a lab in NM for all my processing and printing. Because they were pro's and I was not.

[WyoBull]

A good eye combined with some technical knowledge is still required to consistently get great photos, I believe. Digital cameras in Auto mode can produce some really great photos occasionally when people just get lucky on how they had a shot framed and when they hit the shutter button. Film cameras in Auto used to do the same thing. But it kills me when I hand my camera to someone else and ask them to take a photo of me and my family or something like that. 95% of the time the pics I end up with suck. Terrible framing, bad timing, focused on something in the background or whatever. Same camera. Different results.

It still requires some artistic ability to consistently get great photos, regardless of the equipment used. But what digital cameras and software have done is give photographers immediate feedback on the results of their photos. You don't have to wait to get the film processed to find out if you nailed the shot or not now. You see it immediately. If you missed it, then you make some adjustments and try again. That is a HUGE teaching tool. And you don't have to worry about the cost of processing hundreds of pics like you did when it was film. You can take all the pics you want now, and it doesn't cost extra. More learning. Whatever level of talent you have, it's easier to develop and grow now with digital. Cool stuff.

Shane, I agree with your points about still needing to understand composition, lighting etc. to really make good photographs. Our daughter is graduating this year from college in journalism with a lot of emphasis on photography. I got her into photography back when she was in early high school. Her first camera we got her was a manual film camera and I did that on purpose in order to force her to learn about light, depth of field, film speed etc. using a manual camera versus having a digital camera and just setting it on AUTO and firing away. I am convinced she is a better photographer today because of her learning the basics manually versus letting the camera do all the work. I would also say I am a better photographer because of having to learn in the "manual" way years ago.
Digital photography has made entry into the field easy which can be both good and bad.
Good points Shane, thanks for sharing them.

[Shane]

Digital photography has made entry into the field easy which can be both good and bad.

Yessir.

[Shane]

Hmmm. Some did. None that I knew, and I knew more than a handful. All the wildlife photographers I knew in the film days -and many of the outdoor photographers, used mailers and if they wanted prints, sent the original slides to a lab they had developed a good relationship with.

When I shot B&W from my Bronica bodies, I used a lab in NM for all my processing and printing. Because they were pro's and I was not.

Sure. Most film photogs didn't do their own processing, but some did. More folks do their own processing now in the digital age, but there are several pros that hire someone else to do the processing. Some things stay the same, I guess.

[Limbwalker]

WyoBull, I did the same thing with my daughter when she showed an interest in photography. I bought her a used Pentax K1000 and taught her to use it. She developed a great eye and great understanding for exposure and her camera settings.

I wish more folks these days started off with full manual cameras. They would be way ahead in the long run.

[Bill M]

Don't let the catalog deal throw you. You can create different catalogs for different groups of pics if you want to. I don't. I just use the default catalog name and go.

To start, you can either pull the memory card and put it in your reader or you can use the USB cable and connect your camera to your computer with the card still in the camera. Once your memory card is connected to your computer one way or the other, then open Lr and go to the Library module.

Click the Import button on the bottom left part of the screen. That will bring up the import screen. It should have your memory card/camera checked in the "From" box on the left side, but if it isn't then check that to tell Lr to import from your camera.

On the right side of the screen you see the "To" box. This is where you have the option of doing several things simultaneously with the import. You decide where to store the files you are about to import. I use an external hard drive, but you can store them on your computer if you prefer. I store them in a "My Pictures" folder on my external drive. I have subfolders for different types of pics. I have a folder for 2014 Football, for instance, that I'm using a lot right now. I have a folder for every year/every sport. Then I just have a folder for each year for general photos. Inside those "master" folders, I tell Lr to create a year/month/date folder for each shoot. You can organize your folders however you like though. You can use dates or custom names or whatever. The Import dialog box has several options for you. If you use one of the custom name options, then there is an empty box right below where you select that, and you type your custom name in that box.

You can also decide what filename to use for the pics you import. I either use the filename/number that the camera assigned to them or I will use a custom name along with the camera's file number. There are other options if you prefer some other system.

You have the option of deciding which develop settings (preset) to apply to your photos. I have several saved for various situations, so I pick the one that best fits the pics I'm importing.

You can apply keywords to your pics as you import them in order to be able to search your catalog later to find all of the pics that have the same keyword that you're looking for. You can even search for all pics taken with a certain camera or a certain lens too. No need to add keywords for those. It pulls from the EXIF data for those searches.

You can create your copyright information and apply that to the pics you're importing. No need to recreate it everytime. Create it once, and then it's there for you next time.

Then go to the middle section of the Import dialog where all the thumbnails of your pics are. You can sort through and cull before importing if you like. Check the box for all the pics you want to import. Uncheck for any pics you don't want to import. I usually just import all of them and then cull as I edit, but culling before import would make the import process a little faster since I wouldn't have to import pics that I end up deleting.

Now click "Import" and let it do it's thing. If you have a lot of pics, it'll take a while. Come back when the import is complete and go to the Develop module to do whatever editing you want to do, and then export your final keepers. You have several options in the export function as well. You can decide on file type, size, quality, add a watermark, pick and name the folder you want to export to, rename the files if you want to, etc....

Thanks Shane for this. I will show the single post, print as a pdf and use as a guide. I shot some of hawks today and got frustrated trying to get LR to do what I wanted/thought it should do and it's all the up front stuff so again, thanks.

[scotty]

Bill, if you ever make it to Taylor, give me a shout and I'll show you my workflow.

[Bill M]

Thanks Scotty.

[Shane]

Bill, if you can figure out how to do a video conference from your computer, one or a few of us could get on there with you and walk you through everything sometime.

[Bill M]

Not sure on the video conference thing Shane but thanks for the offer. I need to search around for some tuts that show the getting started part.

[Bill M]

Watched a tut on LR 3 this am and it explained alot. I'll watch again I'm sure as I get use to it.

I really did this and it was throwing me. I didn't notice the little arrow in the center at the top of the viewing area and couldn't figure out where the Library, Develop, etc. were. I noticed it this morning after watching the tut, clicked it and waalaa.

[Shane]

There are little arrows on top, bottom and both sides. You can pin each of those menu bars or you can make them auto-hide.

[georgec]

These two helped me with LR 4 Bill.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2z8ag0D2rY

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ss3yd8qysVs

[Bill M]

Thanks George, I'll check them out.