Lightroom developing help

wellman

I've had my 20D for about two years (shooting RAW), and in that time I've gotten pretty proficient with Canon's DPP RAW converter. However, the workflow improvements (and DAM features) afforded by Lightroom are pretty appealing, so I'm trying it out.

I could use some generic tips for Lightroom's developer. I'm accustomed to whizzing through exposure, white balance, and saturation with DPP, but Lightroom's interface has a bevy of features, and I'd like to know what to mess with and what to leave alon unless you have good reason.

Also, what's a decent default sharpening level? My RAWs seem to start with 25.

Thanks!

botanist

wellman wrote:

I've had my 20D for about two years (shooting RAW), and in that time I've gotten pretty proficient with Canon's DPP RAW converter. However, the workflow improvements (and DAM features) afforded by Lightroom are pretty appealing, so I'm trying it out.

I could use some generic tips for Lightroom's developer. I'm accustomed to whizzing through exposure, white balance, and saturation with DPP, but Lightroom's interface has a bevy of features, and I'd like to know what to mess with and what to leave alon unless you have good reason.

Also, what's a decent default sharpening level? My RAWs seem to start with 25.

Thanks!

Glad you're trying it out!

I can't help you w/ Sharpening, I don't normally add sharpening so if it's set it's whatever Lightroom defaulted to...sorry!

As for a "how-to" there are a few out there. My *basic* run through is like this:
1) Import (obviously)
2) Slideshow Mode
2a) While watching the Slideshow set the ratings on images (on the keyboard numbers 1 through 5). If you miss one use the arrows to go forward and back
3) Library
3a) Set the Search/Filter to 4 and Above
4) Select the first image and go to Develop
4a) Develop! (White Balance, Exposure, Shadows, HSL, etc)
5) Library
5a) Select all current photos (Ctrl-A, CMD-A)
6) Export! (CMD-Shift-E, never used it in Windows so i'm not sure but probably Ctrl-Shift-E)

woo hoo! : Then if you decide you missed a shot go back to the Filter and do 3 and below and sift through those...totally up to you.

colourbox

According to the Lightroom literature and forums, the basics of developing are:
Exposure sets the white clipping
Blacks sets the black clipping
Recovery sets the highlight detail recovery
Fill Light sets the shadow detail recovery

Brightness sets the midpoint
That big eyedropper icon is a white balance sampler

Curves and histogram are different than anything else out there, with many tips, so read the release notes, it's pretty powerful. Or read this and this.

Don't know about the sharpening. I have a feeling they're going to beef it up, if only because it looks basic at the moment.