Just a note to Landscape Photographers about Lightroom 4
I have to say I have spent the last few days really testing out Lightroom (the basic adjustments - raw portion) and have to say I am VERY impressed! I am exclusively an Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop user but since the raw goodies are in LR 4 first right now and CS6 is not out yet (the goodies will be in that new ACR coming soon) I have been testing it out carefully. I do this work full time (fine art post production for nature/landscape photographers) when I'm not doing the tours and really have ACR down pat (I also teach it). I tested it on some quite difficult images I simply could not get right in the newest version of ACR, and I am amazed mainly at how less I have to mask for dynamic range! That is a huge plus. There are now three sliders that can bring back those nasty highlights in a way unprecedented. Lastly I'd like to note that they have re written the entire base algorithm (2012 rendering) as well as improved a lot of the ways the adjustments work reducing some of the previous weirdness and artifacting and such. In a nut shell a BIG improvement to those serious about the quality and efficiency of their work.
The last few images I worked in LR 4 barely needed PS.
Posted by Eva McDermott on March 17, 2012 at 9:53 PM
I was truly amazed with the beta version of LR4 and even more so with the released version. The less work I have to do in PS the better IMO. By no means am I a processing guru. I just like to find the easiest way out with good results..... and LR4 does that like no other software I have used
Posted by John Mumaw on March 17, 2012 at 10:09 PM
Thanks, Mark.
Looking forward to the release of PS6/ACR 7 in May, as I don't need the exact same RAW converter in two different apps.
I got a new NEX 5N, Lightroom 4, and the ability to use my excellent older manual focus lenses, all at about the same time. It is difficult to say how much of what is responsible for the improvements, but I am seeing things on my monitor that I have never seen before. I am happy and having fun.
Image development wise, LR 4 has been great. Performance-wise, not so much. It still feels like a beta, with a noticeable lag between slider movement and image change. There are also documented issues with custom curves done in LR 3 not being recognized when imported to LR 4. Adobe claims has issued a band-aid script, and promises to fix this in the next dot release.
If you have processed a lot of your shots using a custom tone curve, then I would suggest waiting until the next maintenance release, and only working on new images in LR4.
Discussion
5 repliesI have to say I have spent the last few days really testing out Lightroom (the basic adjustments - raw portion) and have to say I am VERY impressed! I am exclusively an Adobe Camera Raw and Photoshop user but since the raw goodies are in LR 4 first right now and CS6 is not out yet (the goodies will be in that new ACR coming soon) I have been testing it out carefully. I do this work full time (fine art post production for nature/landscape photographers) when I'm not doing the tours and really have ACR down pat (I also teach it). I tested it on some quite difficult images I simply could not get right in the newest version of ACR, and I am amazed mainly at how less I have to mask for dynamic range! That is a huge plus. There are now three sliders that can bring back those nasty highlights in a way unprecedented. Lastly I'd like to note that they have re written the entire base algorithm (2012 rendering) as well as improved a lot of the ways the adjustments work reducing some of the previous weirdness and artifacting and such. In a nut shell a BIG improvement to those serious about the quality and efficiency of their work.
The last few images I worked in LR 4 barely needed PS.
Looking forward to the release of PS6/ACR 7 in May, as I don't need the exact same RAW converter in two different apps.
If you have processed a lot of your shots using a custom tone curve, then I would suggest waiting until the next maintenance release, and only working on new images in LR4.
ME
ME