Digital Workflow: Editing with Adobe Lightroom
Adobe Lightroom is a bit more safisticated than Photo Mechanic, therefore requiring a little more time invested in learning the program. For my purposes I use it primarily for editing and an image database. Lightroom is capable of processing raw files but I use another method I'll share in another lesson.
Editing in Adobe Lightroom: Open Adobe Lightroom and navigate to the folder you wish to edit by clicking on the import button at the bottom lefthand corner, as I have circled and labeled as "A". Depending on the number of images you have this may take several minutes for previews to be created. When images are loaded you will get a screen view as seen to the left. There are 4 different options you have to view your images, grid, loupe, compare and survey. Shown is the Grid view. You can choose your view by clicking on one of the four icons, labeled "B". The photos at the very bottom of the window is called the filmstrip view, this never changes unless you turn it off by clicking the F6 key on your keypad. The two side panels can also be turned off if needed by clicking F7 for the panel on left and F8 for the right panel. For editing purposes I keep these on because the left panel shows me the image I've got active and the panel on the right shows me that image's histogram as seen in "C" and "D".
The grid view allows me to see all my images in that particular folder. This is where I select the images I wish to critique for sharpness and other technical merit. If only one image exists (no similars), I'll highlight the image and select the Loupe View.
The Loupe View allows me to see the image in a much larger view as seen to the left. I can also toggle back and forth between images in this view with my right and left arrow keys. The images I'm toggling between can be seen in the filmstrip view below the larger view. If I like the image and wish to keep I'll flag the image.
Note: There are several options for sorting your keepers and rating between best and worst. Flagging is the option I choose, because as a stock photographer I typically keep a high volume of images providing they meet my technical standards. These will many times include two or three similars. There is also a star rating between 1 and 5 stars and also a color code system. These are useless to me but may be helpful to other photographers. I can see studio photographers using all three of these options.
To choose one or all three of these options, they are located on the toolbar between the larger view and the film strip view on the right hand side.
If I have two similars I'll view in Compare mode by highlighting the two images and selecting the Compare mode. In Compare mode I can flag the better of the two images or flag both if I want to keep both of them. I can also delete an image. When you hit delete you get the option of deleting the image from the hard disk or just removing it from Lightroom. I typically never delete any images unless it is terrible. I keep all of my raw files on a seperate external hard drive. I do this just in case a tragedy happens somewhere down the road, like losing all my converted files. Yes this did happen to me a few years back. This is another story at another time.
If I have more than two similars I'll select the images and view them in Survey Mode. You can put many images side by side in Survey Mode but I recommend doing no more than six images, and this depends on the size of your monitor. Again, I'll flag the images I wish to keep.
After edit I select at the flgged images and export them to a folder I created on my desktop. Depending on the number of images you're exporting, this may take a while. The reason this takes a while is because it is recreating the full size image into that folder.
Note: Both Photo Mechanic and Adobe Lightroom import only references to the original file. They do not import the full size image. If they imported the full size file it it take a long time to do so, as you may have experienced with Adobe Bridge. Adobe Bridge imports the full size image.
After my selects have been imported I am ready to process the images. Processing can be done in several software programs. Adobe Lightroom allows you to process your selects individually or in groups. You can also process in Adobe Bridge and into Photoshop, another good option. But, the problem I have with both of these options is requires all hands on and still very time consuming. Digital capture may have opened some doors in creativity but it has also taken time away from being creative. I'll share with you in my next column, Digital Workflow: Processing. Using DXO Optics to batch process while you sleep.
Until next month, enjoy the beautiful spring weather.
Note: In all views, grid, loupe, compare and survey, you can isolate the image(s) from the distracting elements around the image by turning the Lights off. Single click on "L" will grey out all the surrounding elements and double click the "L" and everything around the image goes black. Click the "L" one last time to turn everything back to normal. Pretty cool if you want to see the image by itself.
