My Lightroom Series - Introduction



Lightroom Photo Management Software



A photo management tool is a photographer’s third best friend, right after light and a camera; in that order. Lightroom fills the photo management role and a little bit more. Now I am not here to discuss if Lightroom is better than Aperture, Capture NX, ACDC or any of the numerous other tools out there. I am here to discuss how Lightroom can be used to its fullest potential for the average amateur and professional photographer. Lightroom is available for Windows and Mac.

The latest version of Lightroom (version 3.2 as of this writing) brings to a photographer a plethora of tools for cataloging, editing and sharing photos. While it may not have all of the same tools as its competitors or in some cases has some tools that its competitors do not have, it is still a great tool none-the-less. For the features it may lack, the features it does have are deeply refined, smooth and expectedly fantastic for a product from Adobe. Yes Lightroom is developed by the same company that develops Photoshop. Also a purchased copy of Lightroom provides you the install bits for both the 32bit and the 64bit versions which will add some more flexibility to what OS you choose to run.

Lightroom is for all intents and purposes a tool for managing photos. While it has some fantastic photo editing tools built into it I want to make it cleat that Adobe’s Lightroom is not Adobe’s Photoshop. You cannot work with layers directly in Lightroom. While it may have some slide show tools built into it, it is not a presentation tool. While it may have some web page design tools built into it, it is not Adobe’s Dreamweaver. Instead, Lightroom is a practical tool that serves these purposes and a whole lot more.

Lightroom allows the photographer to load, catalog, edit, print and share photos and it does these very things very well. In addition to doing all of this, Lightroom does this in a completely non-destructive fashion. What I mean by non-destructive is that Lightroom makes no changes to the original image.

Instead Lightroom stores the changed values in a database (catalog) and shows the photographer a representation of the change in Lightroom. It isn’t until the user chooses to export the photograph that the changes are actually applied. But even then, the changes are applied to a new copy of the image; this like doing a save as in any other editor. What this means is that at any time the photographer may click the reset button and start working from the original photo from scratch, much like working with a negative. While it is not impossible, a normal user would have a hard time modifying the original image while working in Lightroom.

The latest version of Lightroom also allows for tethered shooting. Tethered shooting is the ability to plug a supported camera into a computer or laptop and shoot images directly into Lightroom. This was previously accomplished by using the auto import feature of Lightroom, which was clumsy and cumbersome as it required a separate piece of software, usually from the camera manufacturer, to tether to the camera then Lightroom would pick the photos up from a predetermined folder and import them. The new tethering feature bypasses the need for other software and there is no need for an auto import to be turned on. Only works with limited cameras from Canon and Nikon as of this writing, but more will be added with future patches.



Lightroom Keyword Tools

 Lightroom is broke into five modules for the user to work in. Each module servers a specific purpose in the work flow. The first module is the Library Module which is where the photographer can load, catalog and organize and search through a collection of photos. It is also here that the photographer can rate, compare, classify and sort photos as well as add and modify the metadata associated with a photo. The Library Module is a great tool because of its simplicity and flexibility. It allows the user to organize their photos in any way they see fit; by date, by subject matter, by phase of the moon, or by all three or none of the methods if the photographer feels like it.



Lightroom Develop Tools

 The second module is the development module. This is where the photographer makes simple adjustments like exposure, crop, saturation and redeye. The photographer can also make more advanced adjustments like graduated filters, spot removal, adding natural film grain or even localized adjustments to the photo. Lightroom's blur effect can even produce a tilt-shift like effect when combined with two or more of the graduated filters. Even black and white conversions as well as split toning effects like sepia can be accomplished in Lightroom.

Lightroom's Slideshow Tools

The third module is the Slide Show Module. This module is a presentation tool which allows the photographer to display selected photos as a slide show and even put the slide show to a sound track. The slide show can be shown full screen on a computer or it can exported as a PDF and even a movie. It is simple by design but effective none-the-less. The slideshow tool is customizable as well with plenty of options to meet just about any need.

Lightroom's Printing Tools

The fourth module is the Print Module. This module allows the photographer to print to any connected printer. It allows for custom contact and proof sheets to show to a client before final printing as well as the development of custom sheet layouts and the use of presets.

The last module, but not the least of the five, is the web module. This allows to the photographer to build customizable web pages for publishing images and galleries to an online website. While this tool in and of itself is a powerful tool, the real power comes from being to purchase plug-ins that allow for more customization and creativity in the presentation process. This module even includes flash-based web pages and galleries.

Lightroom Web Module

Over the course of the next several months I will be posting new content about each of the modules, covering each module in depth as well as additional features and how to use them. In many cases each module may take five more articles to properly cover all of the rich features of Lightroom. Each article will provide in depth details about each tool in the modules as well as provide screenshots of not only the tool, but the before and after affects of the tool on a real photo. At the conclusion of each module segment, I will post an article about my workflow in that module. While my workflow might not be the perfect workflow for you, it will give you a strong starting point for developing your own Lightroom workflow versus starting from scratch.

So stay tuned, because I am about to teach you everything you ever needed to know about Adobe’s Lightroom and how it can stream line your photographic workflow. It is going to be fun.

To make it easy for you to follow along, follow me on Twitter, @monkeypaw2u, as I will be posting on twitter when new articles are available.