As with the Library module, Develop has many
enhancements and new features. The most important new feature being the
inclusion of Localised Corrections. However, before discussing
these I will summarise some of the other changes to this module.
The most obvious change to the Develop module is the
relocation of the Toolbar to just below the Histogram
(see figure 15). The icons depicting each of the tools has also changed
slightly (see figure 16 for details).
Figure 15 - New Toolbar
Location in Develop Module
In order, the tool icons are: Crop
(R),
Clone/Heal (N), Red Eye and the new Local Correction (K)
brushes. Again, I have listed the keyboard shortcut for each in
brackets, clicking on a tool icon opens a panel comprising the options for
that tool, clicking it again closes the panel and returns you to the
standard Develop module panels.
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| Figure 16a - Crop Tool |
Figure 16b - Clone/Heal Tool |
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| Figure 16c - Local Corrections - Brush Tool |
Figure 16d - Local Corrections - Expanded
Brush Tool |
Local corrections in Lightroom are based on the brush
paradigm rather than region (selection based), although region
edits are also possible after brush strokes have been applied. This means they fit
better with the method used for the Photoshop Dodge &
Burn tools.
Lightroom 2.0 provides Paint brushes for:
Exposure, Brightness, Clarity, Saturation and
Tint (figure 16c). The Effect slider defines the initial
value for the Brush (e.g. 2 units exposure, 50 units brightness). You
can have two preset brushes (currently labelled A and B),
each brush can be adjusted for Size, Feather and Flow.
The Auto Mask when active will help confine the brush strokes
within an area with similar colour. The mask Amount slider
cannot be adjusted, that is until a brush stroke is applied.
Using the turny triangle to the right of the paint
pop-up expands the Paint panel (figure 16d) to reveal user presets
(denoted by '+/-' buttons coloured tiles) for up to two brush Effect
values for each of the paint options. To configure a preset button
click the button then adjust the Effect slider. Note that there is no
visual cue as to how much this settings will effect the image until the
brush stroke is applied to the image.
To define a brush tint value or preset you need to
double-click the larger of the six tint tiles (Figure 17) then click
the colour picker on the colour palette. Click the larger tint tile to
close the colour panel.
Figure 17 - Localised
Corrections - Tint Adjustments
So, having described the various tools it only remains
for me to work through an example. Figure 18 shows a screenshot of the Lightroom Develop
module with Local Correction panel opened.
The first correction I wanted to correct was to
slightly brighten up the eye of the "Pied Oystercatcher".
This necessitated a small brush, so I set the Size slider read 5,
the Feather slider read 10, and Flow was also set to 100.
Next, I chose the Exposure brush and initially set the Effect value to
2,
and made sure that Auto Mask was On. To apply the brush I clicked just
off centre of the eye, a pin icon is placed on the image to denote the
start position of the initial brush stroke, and made a few circular
motions with the brush. By hovering the mouse over the pin I was able
to see the extent of the adjusted region and realised that the brush
had spilled over into the plumage a little. So, holding down the
'Alt/Option' key I brushed this area again to remove the over
spill. Finally, I clicked on the pin to activate the expanded brush
control set and reduced the exposure value to 1.89 then hit the
Enter to commit the correction, and prepare for the next.
Figure 18 - Localised
Correction - Before View
The next correction I made was to the lighter
underbelly plumage, which was a tad on the dark side. I set the brush
Size slider so that it read 10,
the Feather slider read 60, and Flow was again set to 50.
Next, I chose the Exposure brush and adjusted the Effect slider to a
value of 3. Again, auto mask was set to On. Clicking on an area
of light plumage placed a new pin point on the image, which again denotes the
start position of the initial brush stroke. Using the larger brush I
applied multiple strokes to brighten up the light plumage. At first it
was too light, but that wasn't a problem as I knew could easily fine
tune it later.
Next it was necessary to edit or "fine tune" the
already applied brush strokes so that the plumage was as just as I
wanted it. Again hovering the mouse over the pin showed me the extent
of the region created by the auto mask. The idea this time was to
adjust the entire region rather than use the erase brush. So, I clicked
on the pinhead to expand the full brush control set (figure 19). Given
that the exposure brush was a tad too light I pulled the slider
down to 1.2. I also decided to increase the Saturation of the
region to 10 units and Clarity to 20 units. By adjusting
exposure, saturation and clarity I had effectively applied a three
corrections in one.
Figure 19 - Localised
Correction - After View
It's worth noting at this point that Local Corrections
have their own set of keyboard shortcuts. The following are probably
the most important:
-
Open local corrections 'K'
-
Show/hide Pin 'H'
-
Increase/decrease brush size ']' / '['
-
Increase/decrease feather 'Alt/Option+]' /
'Alt/Option+['
-
Commit a brush stroke and/or start new Enter
-
Delete selected pin 'Delete'
-
Holding down 'Alt/Option' key activates erase
mode
Other changes to the Develop module are found in the
Detail panel (figure 20), which now includes the Chromatic
Aberration and Defringe controls previously found in the
Lens Corrections panel. The Detail panel also includes a new 1:1
preview window which can be used to preview sharpening and noise
adjustments without zooming the actual window to 1:1. The "nipple" cursor
can be used to pinpoint the area of the image you want to preview when
sharpening.
The final change to panel layouts within the Develop
module can be seen in what is now called the Vignettes panel.
This panel contains two types of vignette, the first is for Lens
Correction and the second for Post-Crop edge effects. The
standard vignette tool is used to correct dark corners arises from
light fall-off and/or over shading from lens hoods, etc.
Post-Crop is intended for more artistic uses such as edge burning and
has the advantage of also respecting cropping, whether central or
offset.
Figure 20 - Detail and
Vignettes Panels
As a result of user feedback the engineers have
enhanced the Basic adjustment panel so that it's now possible to cycle
through the controls using either the comma '< 'or period
'>'
keys. The keyboard '+/-' keys now increase/decrease the
active control, and larger adjustments can be obtained by holding down
the 'Shift' key when holding down the '+/-' keys. Tapping the
semi-colon ';' key resets the active control to its default value.
The Clarity control can now be adjusted for negative
values, which has the effect of softening images. This particular
feature is likely to be ore useful when applied as a local correction
brush than globally.
Lastly, for the Develop module anyway is the reworked
Auto Tone adjustment 'Ctrl/Cmd+U', which has been
modified in response to user feedback that this feature in Lightroom
1.x resulted in over bright images. Again, Adobe are asking user for
their comments and thoughts on the new behaviour.
Print quality from Lightroom has always been highly
regarded, but the absence of: Soft Proofing, Output
Sharpening, Print to File, Print Packages and
Books meant that some users had to look elsewhere when preparing
their work for print. With the release of Lr2beta we have good news and
bad news. The bad news is that Soft Proofing and Books are not
included, and it's highly unlikely that either will be included in the
final version. Whether the inclusion of the others is sufficient to
offset user disappointment is another matter.
Picture Package
The underlying concept of Picture Package to to
allow photographers to quickly create multi-page layouts containing a
single image that are arranged in multiple sizes. A picture package can
contain up to six pages with each containing the same image in various
sizes. The size and placement of the image on each can be done either
manually or automatically. Figure 21 shows a very simple example were I
manually placed and sized the image on to the first page of the
package. Figure 22 below it shows a more complex example were I used
the preset cell sizes to automatically optimise the placement of the
same image on the remaining five pages.
Figure 21 - Single Page
Layout in Picture Package
Figure 22 - Multi-page Layout
If placement and sizing are not important then using
the Auto Layout option will result in the most efficient use of
your paper. Alternatively, cells can be sized in place by dragging and
edge or corner, they can also be positioned anywhere within the grid.
To move the image whilst leaving the cell in position you hold down the
'Ctrl/Cmd' key click on the image and drag. To delete a cell simply click
it and hit the delete key. A complete page can be deleted by clicking
on the red X button that appears on a page when the mouse is
hovered over it.
Print to JPEG
Lightroom 2.0 now
provides support for printing directly to JPEG files. This means that
users will be able to prep their print layouts, convert to the
appropriate ICC profile then save the file as a JPEG which is ready for
sending directly to their preferred lab. Customising the file
dimensions is achieved by "scrubbing" your mouse over the numerical
value (see yellow bounded area in figure 23 below).
Figure 23 - Print to JPEG
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