- The Key Advantage of Photoshop over Lightroom is the smart object and RAW Camera Process which we learnt last week.
- Lightroom imports and saves your images/files in its own database. You can also export new files and images from here. As well as being about editing it is also about file and data management.
- Original Raw files can't be manipulated and saved over so on Photoshop you save it as a new version. However in Lightroom you can change a Raw file and this doesn't change the original Raw information, it just records the changes within the file data.
- Lightroom is essentially an expanded version of Camera Raw in Photoshop.
- The Library and the Development Tabs are the most useful ones within Lightroom that we will be looking into.
- Photoshop reads all information from Raw files which is what can make it run slower and sometimes crash when you open a lot of Raw files. Lightroom instead just makes previews of Raw files which aren't carrying the full information. However as and when you then make changes to the Raw file Lightroom will then make sure to go and update the original file weather it be stored on your computer or an external hard drive etc (wherever you imported it from). This keeps Lightroom faster and more efficient with Raw Files.
First we looked at what to when importing:
- Firstly here is the main home screen when you open up Lightroom
- Once in Lightroom and click import. This will bring up the import window. Your files and locations appear down the left hand side. If you can't find the files click 'From' in the top left hand corner and this will bring up your sources such as different hard drives and folders etc so you can choose the appropriate one depending on where your photos are coming from.
- Once you found your images in the correct place on your computer through this importer window you can then click which ones from the folder you specifically want. You must not only click them but make sure all you want is ticked in the tick box of the thumbnail.
- You have an option when importing to Add or Copy when importing. The copy option will copy the images from your external hard drive etc onto your actual computer as well as into Lightroom. Add will just put them straight into Lightroom from the original location. These options can be found at the top of the window.
- Another useful thing you should do is go into the File Handling Options from here. Then Build Preview Menu. This will then allow you to change the type of preview you have so you can click for a lower or higher quality. You can also tick the Smart Previews box in this menu which males images editable in the preview mode even when you don't have the original source files plugged in. However this only makes the changes in a JPEG file format which isn't good when you want to work in RAW as it will be compressed and the changes won't work on the RAW file if you do plug the original source back in.
- There is also at the side a File Rename menu if you want to reorganise and name files during import.
- Apply during import is another drop down menu you have in this window. This means you could choose a preset when importing. This would be useful say you wanted all the images in black and white etc. However if you didn't like the preset you can't change it, instead you would have to re import.
- Meta Data is another drop down menu in the import window. If you click this and create new you will have a window come up which lets you imbed personal details or information into the metadata of the image. This can be helpful for Copyright purposes.
- Once you are happy with all your Import Settings you can hit the Import button at the bottom right!
We now began exploring the Library within Lightroom:
- If you click on Catalog tab you will see a menu appear with different files in it.
- If you then click All Photographs you will see that it keeps all the images you have put into Lightroom together. This isn't a very useful way to look for certain images as it isn't very organised or efficient. Instead you can create collections to help you stay organised. Collections are where you can rearrange and organise your images into specific groups. To create a collection select all the images in the library you want to put into a collection then click on the + next to collections tab.
- Then a window will appear where you can name your collection.
- You can also tick the 'Inside a Collection Set' box and click the drop down to select Smart Collections. This will make it so that it will appear within your Smart collections drop down making it easier to locate.
- When your happy you click create and the collection will now appear in the Collections Drop Down.
- If you go onto the Catalog and All Photos you have sort options which appear on the bottom bar. This means consists of preset ways of ordering them which can also be based on presets and rating you can give the Photos.
- However Collections will allow you to order them exactly how you want just by dragging and dropping. Another useful thing to now is that if you drag and drop a photo into a different collection it will still exist in the original collection. This means you can have a photo in multiple collections.
- Another useful thing to know is that if you go back into Import window it will grey out the images which you already have in Lightroom. This is helpful when it comes to file management.
- If you want to view multiple collections together you can hold Cmd key and click on several collections and it will show you images from all collections selected.
- If you click the + next to Collection again but this time click 'Create Collection Set' this will allow you to put collections in groups/sets to keep them organised.
- You can change your settings by going to the View menu. Then click View Options which will open up a menu.
- Once happy with your viewing options you can come off the menu and now you will see all the information you asked for around the images like so.
- You will also see the dots underneath your images now. You can click these dots to give the image a star rating out of 5!
- This is just one of the ways you can mark and sort your images out. If you click the drop down menu in the right hand corner of the library window called 'Viewing Modes' it will allow you to select the tools in which you want to use to mark and distinguish your photos with.
- The ones you tick will then appear on the tool bar across the bottom of the library window like so.
- This now lets you rate them with colours or flagging etc which is very useful because now when you click the arrange presets at the bottom you can do it based on how you have marked them.
- A good way to try out effects on an image would be to open the image you want to try it on but then right click and go to menu and the 'Create a Virtual Copy'. This creates/duplicates the image into another thumbnail preview. You can now try effects out on the Copy without effecting the original.
- If you then wanted to try and select your best images a good way to view them and do this would be with the Survey View which can be found at the bottom on the toolbar. It looks like this.
- If you then while on this click the Shift and Tab keys you will get rid of all the side panels.
- Then if you press the 'L' key it will darken the background making them nicer to view.
- You can then click the X in the corner of the images you decide you don't like. When you then come off the Survey view it will only have the images you didn't X off selected.
- Another useful tool is the Keyword drop down menu at the side of the library. This drops down a box where you can click on an image and add certain keywords to it such as names of the models etc which you can search for.
- You can search for these by clicking Library Filter and clicking Text which then lets you type in words to show any images you gave those keywords to.
- You can also search for images by camera settings. Firstly if selected on an image clicking the Metadata drop down will let you see the camera information.
- You can then search for camera settings in images by click on Library Filter again but this time clicking metadata which then gives you the camera options which you can search for.
- There is also a way to really quickly add to a collection. You can right click on a collection and set it as a target collection.
- Then when you click the 'B' button on an image it will add it to the collection you set as the target collection. You can also set the Quick Collection set as your target collection.
We then moved on to start looking more into the Develop Tab/area of Lightroom:
- Presets are kept on the left hand side in the menu. You can always download more online if you want to. This is what it looks like when you open an image in the Develop area.
- What is good is that you can also open an image into Photoshop if you wanted to do any partial editing in Photoshop as well. You right click on the image then click Edit In then click Photoshop as Smart Object. Any effects that you apply in the Develop area of Lightroom will also be applied in Photoshop Camera Raw which shows you that they are essentially the same thing!
- If you edit an image in the Develop section of Lightroom and you really like the settings you used you can apply these same settings to other images. Select the image you want the settings of first and then follow this by electing the images you want these settings applied to. Then click Sync Settings in the bottom right corner.
- A menu will then appear so check all the options in the menu (or just the ones you want) then hit synchronise when happy.
- This will now change the setting of the images you selected to match whichever image was selected first.
- Looking back in the Develop tab/area you will see lots of settings tabs on the right hand side where you can adjust different parts of your image. However Adobe (like it does in Photoshop) has already gone and applied Pre-sets to your image in the Camera Calibration and Detail Drop Downs etc.
- You don't want this so take these pre-sets/settings off and set them back to normal. You can then save this or any other setting you like as your own Pre-set by clicking the + next to the Preset title. Check all options you want in then menu then hit create.
- Now you can apply your presets to any photo you like as its saved in the Pre-set menu.
- You should always identify Photoshop Files in Lightroom either by flagging or colouring etc. This is because you should not re-edit these photoshop files back in Lightroom because Lightroom can't access the layers that Photoshop can. Also if you go back into a Photoshop edit a second time from Lightroom don't click the Smart Object setting as you would have set this the first time. Instead just open in Photoshop normally otherwise it won't remember your previous layers etc if you open it as a smart object a second time.
- Not only can you make new Collections but you can make whole new Catalogs. You can do this by clicking File, then New Catalog.
- Then a window will open up. Here you can name and save your catalog.
- When you hit Create it will temporarily close down Lightroom to then Restart and Open up your new Catalog you just created.
- To access these other Catalogs you go File then Open Recent or Open Catalog. Then you can find your Catalog File which will be a LRCAT file and open this.
- If an Exclamation mark '!' appears next to a preview/thumbnail image it means Lightroom can not locate its original file anymore. This may happen if you unplug a Hard drive etc where the image came from. To re-locate it click the '!' exclamation mark and then locate it in the file finder menu.
- You can create a Catalog out of a Collection as well. Firstly group all collections you want in the New Catalog together as one set of collections. Then select this set and right click on it. Then click export this collection as a catalog.
- Then you name and save this catalog using the window that pops up.
- Make sure in this save window to tick the box which says 'Export Negative Files' and 'Include Available Previews' which just means it will take the appropriate information over into this new catalog. Press Export Catalog when you are happy. You should check a new catalog by opening it and not only seeing if all your images are there but also check that they are the rite file format, Raw etc.
- Now if you like you can remove the image you put into the new catalog from the old one. If you open up the Old catalog and click delete on the collection Lightroom will still keep them in your All Photos section in Catalog. If you don't want this select the specific image in the Catalog that you want gone then click remove/delete and you can then choose to remove from Catalog or Remove from Catalog and Device.
- You can also import image into a Catalog from a different Catalog. You do this by clicking File, then Import from Another Catalog.
- Then the Import Window will pop up. Here you can choose which catalog you are importing from and which collections or images you want in particular from it. Tick the Preview Option to see the full election/menu.
- You can also on this import menu click 'Add New Photos to Catalog Without Moving' which means it will keep the photos in their original location on the computer or hard drive and just access them from here. The other option is to Copy them across if you want. When your happy with this Click Import and your new Catalog will be created!
This Workshop has been really useful to me especially since I have never really used Lightroom much in the past however this is because I never realised all the cool things you could do with it. Now that I have had some really helpful insight into how to use if effectively I will defiantly keep up with it in the future.
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