Quick Lightroom question...

ottor · Dec 30, 2009

D/L'd the trial version of Lightroom - Holy Cr@p-.. how do you get around in this thing?? = I'll figure it out ..

One quick question = I'd like to sort all of my RAW photos on my hard drive to one area so I can clean them up (delete some/most) - Can Lightroom do that for me?

tks,

r

cfaulds · Dec 30, 2009

no it cant. Lightroom just edits images. Thats it.

Lightroom links to your photos in your folders. So if you move a photo, rename it, delete it, and then try to open it in lightroom, it will say something like 'location of file cannot be found'

I just go through my folders (i have lots of them) and just keep them clean and ORGANISED.

However, you can buy third party software to help you. Personally i think this is a waste of money, however to that, I have software on my computer that will do that for me but i dont use (to be honest i havent tried it).

This has suddenly made me think that i must try some software and I will tell you how i get on! haha

KmH · Dec 30, 2009

Adobe Lightroom's main function is as a photographic database manager. The image editing function is secondary, just as Adobe intended when they designed it.

The first thing to do is put all of your RAW images in a single folder and name it "Lightroom".

Then, you'll make sub-folders that suit your needs.

One of the most important keys to managing your images is to keyword them. All of them.

The only way to effectively learn how to use the software is with instruction. For many people, spending $30 on Amazon.com for a book is all it takes. Some may need more help like taking a class at the local junior college. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 book for digital photographers by Scott Kelby would make a decent start.

I highly recommend joining the National Association Of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), because the range of help available is well worth the $99 a year ($8.25 a month) it costs.
You get 8 issues of Photoshop User magazine (has a Lightroom section every month), the members portion of the web site has tutorials done by leading photoshop experts, an active forum section where you can ask the experts questions, and you get discounts on hardware and software that can save way more than the $8.25 a month.
If you look in my siggy you'll find a link to the web site and a referral link so I get a short extension of my membership if you use it when you join.

Josh66 · Dec 30, 2009

ottor said:
D/L'd the trial version of Lightroom - Holy Cr@p-.. how do you get around in this thing?? = I'll figure it out ..

After a while, it becomes second nature, lol.

Like cfaulds said, LR only links to the location on your computer. Do all of your organizing before you import.

You can delete them from Lightroom though.

Casshew · Dec 30, 2009

Watch the tutorials, I downloaded it the other day and they seemed to help me.

Since we are asking questions, is there another way to resize instead of when you are exporting? or crop?

Josh66 · Dec 30, 2009

Casserole said:
Since we are asking questions, is there another way to resize instead of when you are exporting? or crop?

Yes.

You can make export presets. For example, I have my "Normal" export, which is full size; and my "Resized" export, which automatically resizes to 800 pixels on the long edge and adds " - resized" to the end of the file name.

Push R to crop.

Now that I think about it, the answer might be no...
You can't resize before export. (You can crop though.)
Everything happens upon export.

Casshew · Dec 30, 2009

ooohh R for crop, off to check it out, thanks!

Josh66 · Dec 30, 2009

If you need help setting it up, I can take a few screenshots to show you how to do it.

Let me know.

Casserole said:
ooohh R for crop, off to check it out, thanks!

There will be a little sidebar off to the right. You can select a few different aspect ratios (or input a custom one) - default is 'as shot'.

If you crop one picture and have others that you want exactly the same crop on, us the "Sync" function. Highlight everything you want to sync, with the 'template' selected.

While you're on the crop screen, hold down control. You cursor will change into a level. You can drag a line across something that should be straight, and it will automatically rotate the image to make that straight.

Casshew · Dec 30, 2009

Crop worked great, and it was so simple but for the life of me I couldn't see the control. I am a little leary of cropping or sizing a lot of images at the same time, I like to see them one at a time, know what I mean?

In the crop function I liked how it gave me the option to constrain the aspect ratio when I was just randomly dragging the size.

Josh66 · Dec 30, 2009

Casserole said:
In the crop function I liked how it gave me the option to constrain the aspect ratio when I was just randomly dragging the size.

Yeah, I always constrain it to one ratio or another.

Hold down Ctrl on your keyboard for the level tool (only works while in the crop window).

You can also select different overlays for that window (I think you can just right click anywhere in the window to bring up the menu). Golden Ratio, thirds, diagonals, golden spiral, etc - there's a few in there. I personally use the diagonals one...

A little more on that here:
http://www.oreillynet.com/digitalmedia/blog/2007/09/crop_guide_overlays.html

Casshew · Dec 30, 2009

I'm going to go check it out, thanks for all your help

Big Mike · Dec 31, 2009

D/L'd the trial version of Lightroom - Holy Cr@p-.. how do you get around in this thing?? = I'll figure it out ..

One quick question = I'd like to sort all of my RAW photos on my hard drive to one area so I can clean them up (delete some/most) - Can Lightroom do that for me?

As others have mentioned, there are plenty of good tutorials to watch and plenty of good books to read. With Lightroom, I think that the more you learn, the better you will get with it. That's usually true of most things, but with LR, if you don't know about a feature, you'll probably never use it....but once you do learn about it, you might use it all the time.

Whether you are using Lightroom or not, it's fairly important to have a 'system' for your files.
Here is how I do it, just as an example.
I keep my personal photos separate from the professional ones. For my personal photos, I have a main folder, then inside that I have separate folders for each year. Under that, each upload/event gets it's own folder named with the date. The RAW files are just put into those folders.
I use LR to copy the file from the card to the folder and 'import' them at the same time. You can also set up LR to copy them to another location (backup) at this time as well.
So once I have the files imported to LR, I can easily view all the photos, any specific year or any specific date/folder.
As someone mentioned, it's very helpful to add keywords to your photos. That way you can use those words to search for photos later.

The 'master' file for Lightroom is called a catalog. Some people just put all their photos into the same catalog and never worry about it. But if you don't need to ever have certain photos together (personal and professional, for example) then it's a good idea to use separate catalogs. So I have a separate catalog for weddings & portraits. (I know some photographers who even use separate catalogs for each wedding).

The same principle still applies. I keep each event/shoot in it's own folder, I use the date and the client's last name. The photos get imported and keyworded. (although sometimes I'm lazy and don't get around to keywording them until much later).

So to answer the question...I actually think that LR can move your files around for you...but that's not it's main function. I'd suggest just using Windows Explorer (or whatever) and create a file structure (if you don't have one already). It's a simple matter of keeping them organized. Exactly how you organize them doesn't really matter, as long as you understand it and stick to it. Then you can import them into LR and they will keep that structure while inside LR.