There are a lot of subtleties in tweaking your photographs. Of course, the more you can get right in the camera, the better your image will ultimately be, but with Camera Raw, Lightroom, and other tools, you can bring out the best in your photographs. Remember, what comes out of your camera does not usually totally reflect what you saw when you were attracted to the scene.
The Basics
Let’s start with a few basics. Lightroom is actually a very easy tool to use, and for those who do not want to go the extra route of layers and other more sophisticated imaging, it may see you through. Remember that Photoshop was created for graphic designers, while Lightroom was created by photographers for photographers. What a concept and what a BIG difference!
I am not going to do a complete how-to, as that can be found in tutorials, books, (see our Resources page) and our workshops. In a number of installments, however, I’ll try to address common areas of confusion as well as give you some hints that I use in processing my own images. Even far more sophisticated users than I have found some of my hints quite useful. Just use this as a guide and develop what works for you. If you try something, make virtual copies (we’ll address this next week) and see how they compare.
Triangles that Control Panels
First, however, I’d like to start with one important basic, and that is the little triangles that control the various panels. These are found at the center of each edge of your Lightroom window. If they are inward-facing and dotted (see below), hover over them, and you will see the panels appear; mouse away from them, and the panels will disappear again. Click on them, and and the triangle will turn solid and face outwards, while the panels will stay visible. This is the before and after way the triangle looks.
Dotted = temporary
solid=permanent
Click on them again, and they will go back to hover mode. Try it, and you’ll see what I mean. When people lose their panels, it is usually because they have clicked on the triangle by mistake, not knowing what that does.
Top Panel
I prefer to keep the top panel open, as it will show you the status bar of a task such as importing, exporting, or creating a contact sheet, etc. The latest version of Lightroom looks the same.
Bottom Panel
The bottom panel is a matter of preference. I have seen lots of people on either side of this “door.” Some prefer to leave it visible, whilst others prefer to mouse over it when needed.
What is useful, I find, is to check off some of the items that appear when you click on the triangle in the gray band just below your light table and next to the Sync Settings and Sync Metadata buttons on the right.
I check off View Modes, Sorting, Rating, Color Label, Flagging, and Thumbnail Size. Some of these I implement through keystrokes, but I know I am in the minority here; most people are mousers. You may have different preferences, so add one item at a time and decide what works for you.
Lightroom Modules
As anyone can see, there are five modules, but the ones I use most, and the ones that I’ll address first, are Library and Develop.
Library
Think of the Library module as your file cabinet. Quite simply, this is where you organize your files.
Library – Left Panel
In this panel, you import and export, remove, delete, or rename files, create collections of images from different folders that you can work on together without having to make extra copies of them, and several other tasks. That’s all on the left side of your window. If it’s not, check out that little triangle!
I find that newcomers get most confused when they import photographs in several stages as, for example, when they travel and download images daily. Lightroom defaults its viewing to Current or Previous Import, so some people panic when they see images from the last day but not from the previous two days.
On the left, just scroll down to the appropriate folder, and ta-daaa, they are all there.
It should be repeated here that Lightroom is a like a browser. What you import into Lightroom is the thumbnails, any camera metadata (camera information such as lens, focal point, aperture, shutter speed, etc.), and the ability to tweak your images that are imported. I addressed this more fully in an earlier article on Digital Asset Management– see Part II under the Lightroom section.
Library – Right Panel
On the right side of your window, you’ll see the histogram, a Quick Develop mode (that I never use, but that is quite useful for many people), as well as the metadata information. Remember that metadata not only has camera shooting data, but your copyright information, descriptions, keywords, and a host of other labels. This is where you can fill in all this information.
Develop Module
The Develop module is your digital darkroom. It has come a long way, baby, since Lightroom was first launched. Each iteration produces more capabilities. The thing I like best about the Develop module is that I can do spot corrections, vignetting, and a host of other tweaks without having to save the image as a TIF or PSD file. You can also do this in Photoshop’s Camera Raw, but exporting in Camera Raw, one has to do it in two stages, first open it in Photoshop, then export it. In Lightroom, however, you can do it directly in whatever size and resolution and sharpening mode that you want. Beautiful! I also prefer the Tone adjustment in Lightroom, as you can limit its range to avoid strange extremes. Finally — and this is another BIG difference from Camera Raw — you can export the file or print it in the exact size and resolution in one step.
Develop – Left Panel
The basic layout looks similar to the Library module, but in the left panel, there are some great Presets (you can also create your own), a Snapshot feature if you want to keep track of how your image looked at any step in the development process, and your History of each step you did to process an image. By mousing over each step of the way, you can see the result in the Navigator, as long, of course, as you use the Navigator feature. The latest version of Lightroom as a host more presets than this older screen shot from Lightroom 2.x.
Develop – Right Panel
The bulk of the tools available to you is gathered in the right panel. Scroll down and familiarize yourself with them. Generally, when working on an image, it is preferable to work in each section, top to bottom, before going on to the next. This is not to say that you can’t jump back and forth, but Lightroom was designed for a logical work flow.
Next week, we’ll get down to brass tacks and start using the Develop module.
Meanwhile, we hope to see many of you at our workshops this year. We already have quite a few sign-ups, including a good number of our alumni/ae. There are several discounts available. For more information, go to our Barefoot Contessa Photo Adventures website, and if you are considering joining us, do as others have already done … make your room reservations. You can always cancel later if necessary!
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