Lightroom 2.0 - looking for a good default processing for 95% of photos

jasonstone

Topic basically says it all - I really want to shoot RAW all the time and make the move to LR2.0 for all my processing however....

(isn't there always a however :wink )

I have _no spare time_ really... both working full time, no family support in the country, only about 1 hr a night really to myself and weekends are family/kids time.

So I end up using JPG from the camera as it's, well... convenient...

but what I'd really like is to find a setting for LR2.0 that I could click on and voila - 95% of my RAW photos would be processed like the JPG in camera but ideally looking a bit better than JPG straight out of the camera

Then I could spend my (valuable) time working on the 5% that will really shine with a little extra procesing.

If it helps I have a Nikon D80 / 18-200VR / SB-800

Thanks for all help

Cheers, Jase
p.s. I do have Matt Kloskowski's (sp?) presets which are cool - but more post default processing

DonRicklin

Have you downloaded and tried the new Camera Profiles? They make a world of difference in starting out more like you would see from your Camera JPEG version. There is even a DNG Profile Editor to tweak a Profile to your liking.

These can be applied to all you old images and set up as defaults, as well.

Don

jasonstone

DonRicklin wrote:

Have you downloaded and tried the new Camera Profiles? They make a world of difference in starting out more like you would see from your Camera JPEG version. There is even a DNG Profile Editor to tweak a Profile to your liking.

These can be applied to all you old images and set up as defaults, as well.

Don

No I haven't actually - I'll have to check it out - does this mean that I can just select the camera model now? i.e. Nikon D80??

I'm going to download right away to try it out

DonRicklin

jasonstone wrote:

No I haven't actually - I'll have to check it out - does this mean that I can just select the camera model now? i.e. Nikon D80??

I'm going to download right away to try it out

Actually LR detects the camera model and presents the appropriate ones from which you can choose in the Camera Calibration tab. You install the whole package.

Good luck,
Don

Ric Grupe

Sounds to me, given your situation, that shooting jpegs is just what you should do. Your camera is processing the raw image. Shoot raw plus jpeg so you can massage those special ones in lightroom.:D

jasonstone

Ric Grupe wrote:

Sounds to me, given your situation, that shooting jpegs is just what you should do. Your camera is processing the raw image. Shoot raw plus jpeg so you can massage those special ones in lightroom.:D

Absolutely right - I have been shooting RAW+JPG the whole time - but I have spent a little bit of time trying to learn LR a bit better and I _know_ that I can get better JPGs out of LR with a little bit of tweaking.

Also I'm doing HDR too - and want to process them in LR

Cheers, Jase

jasonstone

DonRicklin wrote:

Actually LR detects the camera model and presents the appropriate ones from which you can choose in the Camera Calibration tab. You install the whole package.
Good luck, Don

OK cool - thanks! downloaded - installed and will try - just as soon as I can

DJ-S1

I have a preset I made that works most of the time - I apply it by default on import and then massage it later if needed.

I have my camera settings all zeroed out, and I add some black, brightness, contrast, clarity, vibrance and mild sharpening with the import preset. I arrived at the numbers for the preset by simply noticing the things I did to most images and estimating an average value.

I'd give you specifics but it's going to be different for each camera model and what looks good to you. Perhaps you should take 40 or 50 shots and get them all looking good to your eye - then compare the settings you made to them and find a good average.

Tee Why

I think this is he profile editor for Nikon and Canon here.
http://blogs.oreilly.com/lightroom/2008/08/new-calibration-choices-in-lig.html

You can also select one of their many effects and apply it as a batch.
You can also make a custom default one and apply it as well.

Good luck.

jasonstone

Thanks everyone for suggestions and ideas - I'm on my way to tweaking some sort of setting that will work for me

fingers crossed - i've just tried it on 50 or so photos i took on my California holiday trip and seems to look ok so far

Cheers, Jase

DonRicklin

jasonstone wrote:

Thanks everyone for suggestions and ideas - I'm on my way to tweaking some sort of setting that will work for me

fingers crossed - i've just tried it on 50 or so photos i took on my California holiday trip and seems to look ok so far

Cheers, Jase

I'm glad you like them and got this sorted!

Don

KED

DonRicklin wrote:

Have you downloaded and tried the new Camera Profiles? They make a world of difference in starting out more like you would see from your Camera JPEG version. There is even a DNG Profile Editor to tweak a Profile to your liking.

These can be applied to all you old images and set up as defaults, as well.

Don

Don, maybe I don't even know what I should be looking for, but I downloaded the profiles and tried applying them to some images and couldn't have gotten back to the ACR 4.4 default fast enough! (BTW the 4.4 default is ironic since we are now at 4.5 with an associated warning to boot.)

Caveat, though, that the images that I have in mind MAY have been imported with a develop preset; I will have to be certain about that before coming to any workflow conclusions.

DonRicklin

KED wrote:

Don, maybe I don't even know what I should be looking for, but I downloaded the profiles and tried applying them to some images and couldn't have gotten back to the ACR 4.4 default fast enough! (BTW the 4.4 default is ironic since we are now at 4.5 with an associated warning to boot.)

Caveat, though, that the images that I have in mind MAY have been imported with a develop preset; I will have to be certain about that before coming to any workflow conclusions.

The arlier number than 4.4 is when your camera was added to ACR/LR. 4.4 is when they did a major 'tuning update' for all cameras accross the board (that were already in ACR) prior to introducing the new Camera profiles.

And do try the new profiles on some Virtual Copies of images that you have reset to straight RAW (no presets) before deciding.

Don

KED

DonRicklin wrote:

And do try the new prifiles on some Virtual Copies of i,ages that you have reset to staright RAW (no presets) before deciding.

Don

Simple enough; will do. Thanks.

And by the way, the support web that has formed for LR between here, LR Forums and other Adobe support resources is really fantastic; without detracting from that statement, I think it's wrong that Adobe leaves it up to its Alpha fan-base to provide support that it should provide directly to its customers. The Adobe Portal does exist for direct customer service, but good luck finding it the first time!

DJ-S1

There's a video here about how to use the camera profiles if anyone is interested. In general, this blog is a great resource as well.

DonRicklin

DJ-S1 wrote:

There's a video here about how to use the camera profiles if anyone is interested. In general, this blog is a great resource as well.

Yep, Matt is right on top of this stuff!

Don

Miguel Delinquento

Pentax K10/20D profiles?
Hey Don,
I know Adobe has released some new draft profiles for Canon and Nikon cameras. Do you know if any users have created any Pentax K10/20D profiles using the editor that are posted?

Thanks,
M

DonRicklin wrote:

The arlier number than 4.4 is when your camera was added to ACR/LR. 4.4 is when they did a major 'tuning update' for all cameras accross the board (that were already in ACR) prior to introducing the new Camera profiles.

And do try the new profiles on some Virtual Copies of images that you have reset to straight RAW (no presets) before deciding.

Don

DonRicklin

It Camera PRofiles includes a Beta Profile for each supported Pentax Camera (Same as ACR/LR) it just does not include any Camera preset ones like Nikon and Canon have. Do Pentax Cameras even have such presets? Haven't noticed hem on mine.

Don