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Thursday, November 21, 2013

Editing Questions

Tonight I downloaded a 30 day trial of Lightroom 5 and edited day 21 minimally.  It seems relatively user friendly, although I still feel a little overwhelmed and didn't do anything with the curves, etc but it took me forever. Deep breath. Baby Steps.  Ok, to my questions:

First of all, does anyone know some specific functions Photoshop Elements does that I might miss if I only get Lightroom? (or vice versa)

Also, I have only shot in JPG format up till now but it is a goal of mine to start shooting in RAW during this 365.   It seems everyone shooting RAW starts post processing in ACR...is this a plug- in I have to get separately, or is it downloaded as part of Lightroom?

5 comments:

  1. Maria, I'm so happy that you have decided to try LR:)) I have both, Elements and LR and I don't use Elements at all! LR is totally enough! You don't have to install any plugins into LR because it was primarily designed for photographers. It's like darkroom in the past...you know when photographers had to develop films first in darkroom...this is practically the same thing. That is why it is so important to shoot RAW...Raw files have all informations and are not compressed like JPEG files. Because of that RAW files don't look so atractive, actually they look kind of washed (for me).
    Don't get overwhelmed!!! You don't need to use all features in LR just those you need! I usually use WB, exposure, contrast, saturation, sharpness, luminance sometimes graduated filter...sometimes I use only WB and one or two other functions...just play with it until you are happy with your photo. I hope this will help...I'm sorry for my English...I'm trying my best:)

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    1. Thanks, Moyca! I really want to start shooting RAW but I just need to get a bigger/faster SD card first. By the way, your English is fantastic. I had no idea English was a secondary language for you until you mentioned it.

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  2. Hi Maria! I've been using Lightroom 5 for a few months and I LOVE it and use it almost exclusively. It takes some time to get comfortable with it but you'll be a whiz at it in no time! Just sit and play around with it when you have some down time. I'm not familiar with PS Elements so I can't compare, but pretty much the only time I go into Photoshop is if there's something distracting I want to get rid of and I can't quite get it well enough with the spot removal tool. I would recommend reading up on the LR file management as soon as possible. You'll save yourself a lot of headache if you understand how it works from the get go. I found out the hard way ;)

    It's super easy to make collages in LR with the Print module. There are a bunch of fantastic templates on this website and they are free! Here one I have found helpful. http://www.jilllevenhagenphotography.com/free-templates/

    Another feature I love is the Presets! One click, a few adjustments, and you're done! And if you have a bunch of photos you want to have the same look, click the photo you edited and then while holding down the CTRL key select the rest and then click "SYNC" and bam! More time to do other stuff! So in that regard, LR can really speed up your workflow! You can find quite a few free presets on the web. I found some here at http://lightroompresets.deviantart.com/ and another site to check out is MCP Actions, or Pretty Presets. Like their FB page and sign up for their emails and every now and then you'll be privy to cool freebies! I bought some from Swoon the Moon (http://swoonthemoon.blogspot.com/) and that were on mega sale.

    I used to shoot JPEG also, but with the camera I had that was my only option. Shooting RAW is awesome because like Moyca said, it contains all the info about the photo and therefore gives you more opportunities to manipulate your photo, and overall just way better quality. Downside is that files are HUGE. So you just have to deal with that.

    As for the plug-in, you don't have to install something separate, that I know of. If you mean to view your photos in your Explorer (as in, you want to upload a photo to the web and do it from your computer files vs through LR) I use Windows 7 and I think I had to download some kind of update to see the previews of the pics.

    Ok....I think I'm done blabbing now. Hopefully it made sense and was a little helpful!

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    1. Thanks! Great suggestion on the file management. I am excited to get into some of the presets, but I want to make sure I understand the other basics first. I don't want to look back at my photos in a year or two and go, what was I thinking, even though I'm sure I will anyhow.

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