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A Computer Darkroom Feature Review |
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Library Module and Workflow EnhancementsThere haven't been any UI changes in the Library module since beta 2, which means that the overall appearance should be familiar to anyone who already uses Lightroom 2 or has tried either of the two public betas. The Library continues to be at the heart of Lightroom in so far as it's the module that provides most of the tools for managing your photographic assets. Imported photos can be viewed in the Library in various modes or views. These include: Grid view (G), Loupe view (E), Compare view (C) and Survey view (N). Each of these views is intended for a specific purpose in the your workflow, but you may find one view more useful than others. For example, Grid view allows you see large numbers of photos as thumbnails whilst at the same time providing a workspace for applying metadata, labels, ratings, keywords, flags, and even quick development adjustments to photos in bulk. On the other hand, Loupe view allows you to view a single photo as well as zooming up to 11x of the original. This view is particularly use for checking sharpness and focus. The "gotcha" with Loupe view is that restricts rating, labelling, keywording, etc to a single photo. Compare and Survey are specialist views designed to make the tasks of comparing, rating and flagging multiple photos easier.
Figure 1 - Library module Grid viewOther minor, but nonetheless important enhancements within the Library module include:
Tethered CaptureAs mentioned above, there are relatively few major enhancements to the Library module since Lightroom 2. Nevertheless, those that have been included should please a lot of users. For example, Lightroom 3 includes support for Tethered Capture, albeit limited to a selection of DSLR cameras from Canon and Nikon. Support for other camera makes may come at a future date, but this is very much dependent on the vendor making their SDK available. Using Tethered Capture is relatively easy. First, you choose Library -> Tethered Capture. This opens the Tethered Capture Settings panel (shown in figure 2 below). The panel is used to configure the location for storing the captured photos, any metadata that wish to apply, etc.
Figure 2 - Tethered Capture SettingsWhen the settings panel is configured to your requirements, click the OK button. At this point the tethered capture control panel will open (shown in figure 3 below). Pressing the large silver button will trigger the camera shutter, as will pressing the Cmd/Ctrl+Shift+T keyboard combination. The Develop Settings pop-up menu is used to choose from any of the Camera Raw profiles already installed on your computer.
Figure 3 - Tethered Capture control panelThe control panel can be hidden by clicking on the circle button located below the Close (X) button on the right side of the panel. Alternatively, the panel can be hidden by pressing on the Cmd/Ctrl+T keys. Unfortunately, the control panel doesn't support remote adjustment of camera controls such as shutter speed, aperture or ISO; nor does it support the "Live View" feature found in many recent DSLRs. Video File SupportAnother commonly requested feature is support for DSLR Video Files. However, as with Tethered Capture the support for video files is rather limited. In short, you can import the video files, view the index frame as a thumbnail in Grid view or full-size in Loupe view (shown in figure 4 below), and export the files in their original format, but you cannot edit them or even review them in Lightroom, Instead,. to view a video file, you press the camera badge either on the thumbnail or loupe window to launch an external viewer such as QuickTime (Mac) or Windows Media Player (Windows). Figure 4 - Video file supportImportThe concept underlying the new import dialog was to make it look and feel like it was part of Lightroom. In many ways the development team achieved their objective, but during the beta cycle some users have expressed the view that they would have liked them to go further. For example, a common request was that the dialog could be resized and have adjustable side panels, etc. Alas, most of this type of request goes well beyond the scope of changes that the development team had scope to undertake. So, lets focus on what we did get. By default, the import dialog will open into the expanded mode (shown in figure 5 below). This view makes it much easier to visualise the whole process of importing your images. The Source devices and volumes are listed on the left side and Destination on the right side panel tracks. It's also important to note that, unlike Lightroom 1 and 2, which only gave access to folders that contained photos, Lightroom 3 displays all disk drives and folders, irrespective of whether they contain photos or not. This applies to both the source and destinations panels. Some users have found this behaviour quite irritating, whereas others have recognised the benefits of being able to look across the entire disk drive and folder structure on their computer or network. In effect, the import dialog has become a File Browser, albeit limited in what it can do with the files and folders.
Figure 5 - Expanded view of Lightroom 3 Import dialogThe thumbnail (Grid) view of the photos is located in between the two panel tracks. From here, individual photos can be included or excluded by clicking on the checkmark. However, it's also possible to use keyboard shortcuts whilst scrolling through the thumbnails (e.g. P = Pick, U = Unpick, X = Unpick). Holding down the Shift key whilst applying a shortcut will auto advance to next photo. Applying develop presets, keywords, metadata, etc is all done on dedicated panels within the Destination panel track. Likewise renaming photos on import and defining the initial preview size. It's even possible to switch between Grid view (G) and Loupe view (E), and there is even a zoom tool (Spacebar) that allows scaling from 1:4 through 11:1. This is also possible when browsing a Compact Flash or SD memory card.
Figure 6 - Import dialog in File Browser Loupe modeIn addition to the expanded mode the Import dialog also includes a compact mode (shown in figure 7 below). This mode removes most of the complexity associated with the Source and Destination panels. The idea with this arrangement is that the source and destination can be quickly identified via Import Presets that will already have been configured by the user.
Figure 7 - Import dialog Compact modeReaders already familiar with the new import dialog will probably be thinking that the shipping version isn't any different to the betas. Well, as mentioned above a lot has changed since beta 1, less so since beta 2. The changes are subtle and a lot of them not immediately obvious to the user. For example, the performance enhancements only become apparent when you browse folders with large numbers of photos (i.e. thumbnails and photo enumeration has been speeded up significantly). A more obvious enhancement can be seen in Grid view. Actually, there are three alternative Grid views i.e., All Photos, New Photos and Destination Folders. The first (All Photos) lets you see all of the photos within a given folder or subfolder. By default, if a photo is already in the catalog it will be greyed out and unchecked. The second view (New Photos) only shows photos that are not already in the catalog. This is the default view when the import dialog is accessed from the Synchronize Folder command. The last thumbnail view (Destination Folders) separates the photos into the folder structure that you've chosen in the Destination panel. Compact mode also provides support for adding keywords and metadata preset. Figures 8a - 8c - Import dialog Grid views (click images for larger view)Lightroom 3 will import the following file formats:
In addition to RGB, Lightroom 3 will also allow the import of CMYK*, LAB and Greyscale files.
Publish ServicesPublish Services is intended to help users publish photos to their favourite file sharing site directly from within the Lightroom Library module. At present there is only a plug-in for Flikr, but the SDK has all the "hooks" necessary for similar plug-ins to be developed for SmugMug, etc. The current plug-in gives you direct access to the Flickr photo sharing site. Obviously, you will need a Flickr account before the feature can be used, but set up the connection within Lightroom 3 is fairly straightforward. Simply click on the Flickr Set Up button within the Publish Collections panel. This button opens the Lightroom Publishing Manager window as shown in figure 9 below.
Figure 9 - Lightroom Publishing ManagerThe name you use within the Publishing Manager must be the same name as you use when connecting to Flickr via a web browser. The account must also be activated from within Lightroom before your Flickr Photostream will become available within the Publish Collection panel. Once the account has been activated publishing your photos to Flickr is a simple matter of dragging your photos on to the Photostream collection then pressing the Publish button. Lightroom 3 will automatically begin the process of uploading the photos to Flickr. Figure 10 below shows how Lightroom 3 displays the progress of the upload.
Figure 10 - Display of Photo Publishing in progressViewing the photos after they have been published to Flickr is relatively straightforward - right click on the Photostream to open the context menu then choose Go to Published Collection. Assuming you have an active internet connection Lightroom will launch your default web browser at the Flickr page containing your photos.
Figure 11 - View Published images at FlickrClicking on the Publish button any time after the photos have been published to Flickr will import any comments, ratings, etc that viewer may have posted to your Photostream. These will be displayed in the dedicated Comments panel located on the right side panel track, just below the Metadata panel (see figure 12 below). Flickr Pro Account holders can subsequently modify their photos and republish them to Flickr using the same procedure as described above.
Figure 12 - Photostream CommentsPrior to Adobe including this feature in Lightroom I had never used my Flickr Pro account, but having the ability to manage photos from within the application was too good an opportunity to miss. You can view some of my photo galleries at http://www.flickr.com/photos/ian_lyons/ All of these galleries were uploaded and managed from within the Lightroom 3 beta. Library Filter BarThe Library Filter Bar was first added in Lightroom 2. At the time many were critical of the amount of screen area that it took up, but were even more vociferous in their criticism of the developers decision to make the metadata filter operate at local level. Screams of "where have my photos gone" were common on the Lightroom User to User forum. Even worse was the decision to make the filter sticky. Thankfully, the latter two criticisms have been addressed in Lightroom 3, although we now have another group of users screaming that the change messes up their workflow. Seems like Adobe can't win with this particular tool. Anyway, back to what we have now. By toggling the padlock button on the top right corner open/close you can dictate whether Lightroom will apply the selected filter to an individual folders/collections (local) or to all folders/collections (global).
Figure 13 - Library Filter Bar (Metadata view)A Video File filter badge is included adjacent to the Virtual Copies filter badge the Attributes section of the Library Filter Bar. It's shown in figure 14 below as the icon with the red boundary. Clicking on this icon when viewing particular folder/collection will display all video files in that folder/collection. Clicking on it when viewing All Photographs will return all video files contained within your catalog.
Figure 14 - Library Filter Bar (Attribute view)The Filter Bar is undoubtedly quite powerful, but it is also somewhat obtuse in terms of how it works. For example, many users struggle to get their heads around the actual filtering logic used within the Text section. It's really not that complex, but for the benefit of new users, it's worth repeating some of the description I provided in my review of Lightroom 2. There are four sections to the Filter Bar: Text, Attributes, Metadata and None. The first three are used for a filtered search of the contents of your catalog and the last (i.e. None) is used to switch the Filter Bar off. The Filter Bar is activated from the Library>View menu or by pressing on the '\' key. You can use the Cmd/Ctrl+L keyboard combination to toggle on/off the last filter you used. By default, the Metadata filter contains four columns, but is easily configured to display between 1 and 8 columns (i.e. via menu on the top right corner of each column). The actual column layout can be saved as a custom preset by clicking on the Custom Filter pop-up located on the top right corner of the Filter Bar. Figure 13 above shows an example of the Metadata filter in use. One of the most useful aspects of the Filter Bar is filtering by keyword. The Filter Bar uses 'AND' between the columns and filtering within a column is an 'OR' function (i.e. hold down Ctrl/Cmd key then make appropriate selections within column). Using multiple keyword columns it is therefore possible for both 'AND' and 'OR' keyword filtering. As mentioned above, the Filter Bar is also the location in which text based searches and attribute based filtering is carried out. The rule set for text based searches has changed little since Lightroom 1.x and they remain relatively self explanatory. However, it's worth mentioning a few of the less obvious filtering rules that come in handy for fine-tuned searches within the text entry field. For example, placing a '+' at the beginning of a word is the same as Starts With, placing a '+' at the the end of a word is the same as Ends With, and placing a '!' at the beginning of a word is the same as Doesn't Contain. Also, worth noting that the Attribute bar now contains White and Gray label chips for Custom Label and No Label respectively. Finally, multiple filters are activated by shift clicking the respective filter name (e.g. click Text then Shift+click Attribute followed by Shift+click Metadata). IPTC ExtensionsMany Lightroom users will already be familiar with the IPTC Core schema for metadata. Users add their data into predefined fields in the Metadata panel, which can then be saved to the image file or used directly within Lightroom for searching, etc. For Lightroom 3 Adobe have added the recently introduced IPTC Extension schema for XMP. This is a supplemental schema to the IPTC Core, and provides:
Figure 15 - IPTC Extensions in Metadata PanelDevelop ModuleLens CorrectionsOn 27th April 2010 Tom Hogarty, the Lightroom Product Manager, blogged about a previously unseen feature to be included in the final release version of Lightroom 3. This new feature is Lens Corrections, and will be discussed over the next few paragraphs. Automatic Corrections The new lens corrections in Lightroom 3 can be sub-divided into two categories - automatic lens corrections that are based on lens profiles, and manual corrections. The automatic corrections use lens profiles created by Adobe or custom profiles created by you or a third party using the new Adobe Lens Profile Creator application. Adobe has included an extensive range of lens profiles for Canon Nikon cameras, although not every lens in the respective manufacturers catalogue is covered. They have also included an array of profiles created by Sigma. These profiles are compatible with cameras from Canon, Nikon, Olympus, Pentax and Sony. Whether other lens manufacturers come on board is yet to be seen.
Figure 16 - Lens CorrectionsWhen applied, the lens profiles are designed to automatically apply three types of correction. That is, geometric distortion such as Pin Cushion or Barrel distortion, Lateral Chromatic Aberration, and Vignetting. When profile-based correction is activated (figure 16 - Automatic Corrections) Lightroom will use embedded Exif metadata for the lens and camera within the image to look for a matching lens profile. In the example shown in figure 17 below, the lens used was the Canon EF 16-35mm f2.8 USM. The three sliders located under the Amount heading are actually intended for fine-tuning the automatically profile correction. In the example shown in figure 17 you'll see that I have already reduced the amount of vignette correction to 75%. This is because the profile for this particular lens tends to over compensate for the lenses natural vignetting. Again, in this example I have already saved this correction as the new default for the lens, which means that my correction will be automatically applied each time the profile is activated. Occasionally, it may be necessary to increase one or more of the Amount sliders, although I have only found this to be necessary for chromatic aberration with one lens (i.e. Sigma 14mm f2.8). The Amount sliders can also be used to completely remove the respective correction. For example, you may want a lenses natural vignetting to be applied in full rather than corrected. Also, note that these sliders only become active when a lens profile is enabled.
Figure 17 - Automatic Lens Corrections
Creating your own lens profiles is a fairly straightforward, albeit time consuming process. Adobe have provided all of the necessary software and guidance documentation, so all you need is the time and the space to set up the calibration charts and camera. Manual Corrections Switching to the manual corrections tab you'll see a mix of old and new adjustment sliders. The group of adjustment sliders listed under the Transform heading are new to Lightroom and operate independently of the automatic profile-based corrections. They're actually a mix of lens corrections, perspective corrections, and scaling. The geometric adjustment slider allows you to manually correct pin cushion or barrel distortion. The Vertical slider is used to apply a keystone correction to converging verticals (see figure 18 below for example). The Horizontal slider correct horizontal shifts, and is typically used to alter the horizontal viewpoint. Rotate is intended to be used to adjust the rotation of the transform, not the actual image. The final slider, is goes by the name Scale. This slider is used to adjust the scale of an image (i.e. zoom in or out). Typically, you will want to use it to remove the grey border after applying one of the other transforms. Enabling the Constrain Crop checkbox will automatically crop the image to remove any of the grey padding that appears after a transform gas been applied. Figure 18 - Perspective Correction (mouse over for effect)The remaining adjustment sliders operate much as they did in earlier versions of Lightroom. They've been retained for backward compatibility, but their presence may well lead to confusion, especially if the user subsequently applies automatic lens corrections from within the profile tab. Therefore, best policy is to avoid using them when a lens profile is available. Applying the manual corrections to multiple images has also been taken care of with additional checkboxes being added to the Synchronise Settings dialog. As you can see from figure 19 below it's possible to apply all of the lens corrections or any combination of the four.
Figure 19 - Synchronise SettingsNoise Reduction and Capture SharpeningAs discussed earlier, the biggest changes within the Develop module are associated with the new raw image processing, noise reduction and sharpening algorithms. On their own, colour noise and luminance noise are a substantial improvement over their predecessors, but together with the new capture sharpening algorithm they take image quality to a new level. Typically, details and textures are much cleaner, crisper and more natural. To see these new algorithms at there best I recommend that you make some prints.
Figure 20 - Detail PanelWhile the actual UI for the sharpening tool is the same as Lightroom 2 the actual sharpening algorithms have undergone significant change and improvement. The improvements begin with the new demosaicing algorithms, which are more noise resistant than in previous version. That is to say, the new algorithm does a much better job of removing color and pattern noise, but leaves much of the non-pattern noise behind. This residual random or grain-like noise is actually what gives the sense of detail and texture that many find appealing. The sharpening is achieved by adding halos to the edges in an image. Typically, one side of an edge will contain a dark halo and the other a light halo. In Lightroom 3 these halos have been made more subtle. For sharpen radius values between 0.5 and 1.0 the halos are much narrower than before, which means that it's now possible to sharpen fine-detail in landscapes more effectively. In a recent post to the Lightroom 3 User to User forum Jeff Schewe wrote:
For a comprehensive explanation on Lightroom 3 sharpening (and noise reduction) I recommend that you obtain a copy of Jeff Schewe's & Bruce Fraser's latest Camera Raw book - Real World Camera Raw with Photoshop CS5. While Lightroom 3 is not specifically discussed the details associated with sharpening and noise reduction are applicable equally to Camera Raw 6 and Lightroom 3. Next we have noise reduction. With five sliders available you could be forgiven for being confused, not to worry Eric Chan provided the following description for each noise reduction sliders:
Luminance Detail - Luminance Contrast Color - Color Detail Figure 21 below shows a comparison between the old and new colour noise algorithms. The photos was shot on a Canon EOS5 Mk11 at 3200 ISO in quite poor lighting conditions. The color noise and sharpening are at default settings. Even allowing for JPG compression associated with the screen shots it should be pretty obvious that the new colour noise algorithms are vastly superior to the old. Figure 22 compares the same photo, but this time with a luminance noise adjustment of 25 applied. The left version uses default sharpening and the right has sharpening slider set to 50 and radius at 0.8
Figure 21 - Compares Colour Noise in Lr 2.6 (PV 2003) with Lr3 Beta 2 (default noise/sharpening settings)
Figure 22 - Compares Luminance Noise/Sharpening at 25/25 with Luminance Noise/Sharpening at 25/50 Process VersionsAdobe received quite a bit of feedback from photographers confused by the process version options in the first Lightroom 3 beta. So, in addition to new names, they made several improvements with the aim of ensuring that photographers can access the best raw processing quickly and easily. The improvements are summarised below:
Figure 23 - Update Process VersionPoint CurveFor nearly as long as Lightroom has been around, now we finally we have it - an adjustable Point Curve. The parametric curve (i.e. original) operates as it always has, via sliders, by clicking on the curve and dragging up/down or using the Target Adjustment Tool (TAT). The advantage of this approach is that the adjustment of the curve is constrained to predefined limits, which have been optimised to prevent detrimental adjustments to the shadow, mid-tone and highlight regions. However, the in-built constraints occasionally prevent the user from making fine adjustments to specific parts of the tone curve. With the point curve very fine adjustments to specific parts of the curve are possible because you can set your own limits (lock points) and adjust the curve within them. Even greater control can obtained when you hold down the Alt/Option key while adjusting the curve. This flexibility, unlike the parametric curve, means that is possible to over adjust, thus causing some fairly extreme results. Some users may actually like what happens and use the point curve for creative effects.
Figure 24 - Enhanced Tone CurveLocal AdjustmentsLightroom 3 beta 1 saw the removal of the button sets and Amount slider from the Local Adjustment panels . Since there was little, if any adverse feedback no further changes have been made to either the Graduate Filter or Adjustment Brush panels. Other enhancements to local adjustments include:
Figure 25 - Local Adjustment ToolsThe Graduate Filter and Adjustment Brush have their own set of keyboard shortcuts, with the following being the most important:
Keyboard shortcuts for Local Adjustment tools
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