Zen of Postproduction E-Book

Mark Fitzgerald

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Wissenschaft und neue Technologien
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 496

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2013

Beschreibung

Breathe deep and relax - this book takes the stress out of photography post-production

While capturing the perfect photograph is a welcome creative challenge for photographers, post-production can often be a headache. Downloading, sorting, tagging, editing, and distributing your digital images - especially the enormous quantities produced in today's image-happy world - can be overwhelming. Time to take a deep breath and sit down with a copy of this calming book. Digital worksflow teacher and author Mark Fitzgerald offers low-stress, post-production photography workflows and editing solutions that will make your life easier.

Walking you through the latest photography software, especially Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, Mark offers sensible advice and answers all your post-production questions, whether you're a professional photographer, serious amateur, or motivated novice.

• Takes the stress out of photography post-production by offering effective, timesaving, no-hassle solutions for overworked digital photographers
• Helps you streamline and simplify such post-production tasks as downloading, sorting, tagging, editing, and distributing digital images
• Explores the latest photography software, with special emphasis on Adobe Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop
• Offers straightforward advice for professional photographers and serious amateurs
• Includes practical, real-world examples, so you can immediately apply what you're learning

Get into a better, more relaxing place with your photography post-production workflows and tasks with Zen of Post Production: Stress-Free Photography Workflow and Editing.

Leseprobe

In memory of David Hitchcock, 1966-2013. A talented photographer and one of the finest people I’ve ever known. I miss you, my friend.

Photo by Julia Fitzgerald

About the Author

Mark Fitzgerald cut his “photographic teeth” in the professional photo-lab business, working for one of the largest independent labs in the U.S. It was an environment rich with talented people willing to share everything they knew (and sometimes their camera gear) with a young photographer. In 1999, as the real possibilities of digital photography began to emerge, Mark left the lab business and devoted two years to exploring digital photography. He became an Adobe Certified Photoshop Expert and has been one for the last ten years.

Now Mark specializes in helping all sorts of photographers, ranging from established professionals to people who are just finding their passion for photography. Mark is adjunct faculty at the Portland Art Institute and teaches regularly at Newspace Center for Photography. He also specializes in private training, where he helps individual photographers solve their technical and creative problems.

In addition to being a sought-after teacher, Mark is also an active photographer. While in the lab business, he also worked as a freelance commercial photographer, photographing a range of subjects from model headshots and album covers to team photos of the San Antonio Spurs. Today, Mark’s focus in on fine-art photography. His photos have won awards on the local and international levels and hung in many galleries. Mark is on the National Council of the Professional Photographers of America, and is currently president of the Portland Metropolitan Photographers Association in Portland, Oregon, where he lives with his wife, three dogs, and a cat named Chester. To learn more about Mark, visit www.ddroom.com.

Other Wiley titles by Mark Fitzgerald are Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop Workflow Bible, Adobe Photoshop CS4 after the Shoot, and Adobe CS5 Restoration and Retouching for Digital Photographers Only.

Introduction

Photography should be fun. But it isn’t when you aren’t satisfied with your photos or you can’t even find them in the first place. I know how frustrating and stressful digital photography postproduction can be because I specialize in helping photographers manage today’s complex workflow tools. I’ve sat beside countless photographers who are feeling the same stress and frustration you may feel with your workflow. I know the postproduction process can seem like an impossible maze. I also know that when someone shows you a simple path through a maze, the maze vanishes and only the path remains. My intention in writing Zen of Postproduction is to guide you through the photographic postproduction maze and reveal a path that works for you and your images.

About me

As someone who’s made his living in the world of photography for many years, I’ve had the benefit of experiencing both the traditional and digital darkrooms. In the early days, I worked in large photo labs helping professional photographers get the most from their film negatives and slides. I left the lab industry just as the digital revolution was beginning to impact photography. I dedicated myself to learning new technologies that were turning the photo world upside down. After two years of intense self-learning and discovery, I began helping other photographers learn the skills they needed to create the kinds of images they wanted. That was 12 years ago.

Now, I’m a photographer who teaches other photographers to master today’s postproduction tools. I teach classes and workshops and meet with photographers for private training on an almost daily basis. Portland, Oregon, has a rich photography culture, and I’m fortunate to be part of it. I get to meet all sorts of interesting and talented photographers — from full-time pros to retired folks who are finally finding time to indulge their artistic passions. I’ve taught many of these photographers, and I’ve also learned from them. Although some call me a master, I know there is always more to learn about making great images.

What’s in this book?

Because Lightroom is at the center of the modern photographer’s workflow, much of this book is devoted to explaining how to use Lightroom to organize, edit, and output photos. Many photographers can accomplish everything they desire from their postproduction using only Lightroom. However, Lightroom does have limitations in certain situations, such as retouching, so it’s necessary for some photographers to have a working knowledge of Photoshop. The central focus of Zen of Postproduction is on using Lightroom to create a simple workflow that every photographer can use. Additional chapters cover important Photoshop features that some photographers need to complete their postproduction workflow.

I begin by describing a few basic concepts in Chapter 1 and then jump straight into Lightroom in Chapter 2 by describing important Lightroom concepts, as well as preferences and general Tips about using the Lightroom workspace. In Chapter 3. I show you how to import new and existing photos quickly and efficiently. Chapters 4 and 5 detail methods for getting organized, including colored labels, collections, and the all-important keywords. Chapters 6 and 7 move into editing photos by describing basic and advanced methods for adjusting tone and color. Then Chapters 8 and 9 take you deeper into Lightroom’s Develop module and its powerful tools and techniques. Chapter 10 begins the transition to the Photoshop section of the book by describing best practices for moving photos back and forth between Lightroom and Photoshop. Chapters 11 through 14 cover key Photoshop tools and techniques, such as masking and retouching, for readers who need special tools to complete their workflows. Chapter 15 surveys over a dozen plugins (third-party programs) that can be used with Lightroom instead of Photoshop, or in addition to it. Printing and exporting files for a range of uses are covered in Chapter 16. The final chapter, Chapter 17, covers Lightroom’s Book, Slideshow, and Web modules, as well as the Publish Services feature so that you’ll be able to share your photos with just about anyone on the planet.

Tip

I recommend you use the latest version of Lightroom to get the most from this book. However, it isn’t necessary to have the latest version of Photoshop to accomplish much of what I describe in the Photoshop chapters. Photoshop CS4 or later will work for most of what I describe.

Naturally, it isn’t possible to describe every interesting aspect of the software programs described in this book. As a teacher, I know it’s important to focus on the core elements necessary to creating a solid foundation. Once you have that, you have the confidence to shape the workflow that fits your needs. My intention when I set out to write this book was to give you everything you need to build that workflow and tell you about it in a way that’s easy to understand.

Who should read this book?

Most of the students I interact with fall into one of two categories: photographers new to postproduction, and those who have a workflow but aren’t sure if it’s the most suitable for their particular needs. This book is designed to help both types of photographers. It details a postproduction workflow from start to finish. You don’t need prior knowledge of the programs to benefit from reading and using it. If you are familiar with these programs, it could be a bonus and speed up the learning process. But I strongly recommend that you take the time to read each chapter. I know from my own learning process that it’s often that little gem of information you stumble across that opens doors conceptually as well as practically.

This book covers Lightroom, Photoshop, and a few plugins. But all these programs aren’t necessary to build a successful postproduction workflow. If you are new to digital photography, I suggest you concentrate on the Lightroom chapters. When you’re comfortable with Lightroom, begin to explore possibilities offered by other programs. You may find, as many photographers do, that Lightroom is all you need to create the type of images you like.

Getting the most from this book

This book starts at the beginning of the postproduction workflow and finishes at the end. I recommend you follow that path by working through the chapters sequentially to get the most from the material. Then use the book as a reference when you need to review a tool or technique.

When learning new software it helps to be familiar with your computer and its operating system. If you’re just beginning to learn to use a computer, I strongly urge you to take a few classes on system basics for your platform (Mac or Windows) before focusing on learning specific software. This will help to drastically speed the learning process for other programs and ensure you get the most from a book like this one.

Learning digital postproduction is like learning to play an instrument: It’s important to understand basic concepts and to practice, practice, practice. To get the most from this book, I suggest you follow along with your own images to practice what you read. When I describe a technique, experiment with your own images. Take as long as you need to explore and understand the concept. Then move to the next section. There is no hurry.

Conventions used in this book

I wrote this book using a Mac, so all screenshots are from the Mac versions of the software. If you’re using a Windows PC, your screens will look a bit different, but the important elements will be present. Most of the menus are identical on both platforms, which really helps. When they differ significantly, I point it out. Note that I use the > character to indicate steps within a menu command, such as “choose File > Edit” to mean to choose Edit from the File menu.

Keyboard shortcuts are an important element for streamlining a workflow, but I don’t stress them here because there are hundreds between Lightroom and Photoshop. With that said, I will point out some of the more useful shortcuts by listing them when I first introduce common tools and commands. The keyword will be listed in parentheses like this: “the Graduated Filter tool (shortcut: M).” When keyboard shortcuts are different for Mac and Windows, I list the Mac version first to be consistent with the screenshots. They are followed by the Windows version. For example, press Command+T or Ctrl+T to hide and reveal the toolbar.

Tip

If you want a complete listing of all Lightroom shortcuts, follow this Adobe link: http://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/help/keyboard-shortcuts.html.

Products mentioned in this book

I mention some useful products in this book, particularly in the chapter on plugins. I want you to know I am not sponsored by any of these companies. I have been an Adobe Certified Photoshop Expert for almost ten years, but I don’t work for Adobe or receive any compensation from the company. (I don’t even get free software!) The only reason I mention any product is because I use it or I know other photographers who do and I think knowing about it will make your postproduction experience better.

Getting into the flow

Photographic postproduction has the unfortunate name: workflow. It’s not really that bad, but the “work” part makes it sound like a job. Even if it is your job, it’s better to focus on the “flow” part of the word. When you gain proficiency with the tools and techniques I describe in this book, your editing sessions flow freely. You gain the confidence to try different tools and explore images in new ways.

You begin to develop what I call a “conscious workflow” where you are in the moment every step of the way, exploring the options for the image in front of you. Being in this flow is one of the greatest joys in my life. It’s the thing that keeps me seated in front of my computer display for hours on end.

My hope is that Zen of Postproduction helps take the stress out of your workflow so you can feel what it’s like to be in the flow and experience its joy while creating amazing images from your photos.

Please review this book

If you are like me, you depend on reader reviews when purchasing books. If you find this book useful, please take a few minutes to review it online so that others can be helped by it, too.

Chapter 1

Getting Grounded

As you read through this book, you’ll learn about the tools and techniques that form the basic photographic postproduction workflow. By the end of the book, you’ll not only have an understanding of workflow in general, you’ll have a fully functioning workflow of your own. A workflow you can trust to organize, edit, and output your photos. Before you begin, though, it’s prudent to take a moment to get grounded in basic concepts.

What Is Workflow?

When I worked in film labs, I never heard pro photographer clients mention the word “workflow.” That’s because most photographers who used our lab didn’t concern themselves with their postproduction needs. We took care of it for them. Our clients would bring their film negatives to us, like the 35mm film shown in Figure 1-1, and we created finely tuned finished images.

For those of us working in the lab, the way customer orders moved through the lab was extremely important. Our system for processing and printing was efficient and reliable. All orders began in the Order Write-Up Department, where they were entered into a computerized tracking system. All finished orders completed their trip in the Shipping Department, where they were sent out for delivery. Between those two departments, orders were sent through various Processing, Printing, and Finishing departments. As with most businesses, time is money in a production environment so orders needed to proceed through the lab as quickly as possible.

Figure 1-1

Before digital, most photographers took their film to a lab for processing and printing.

The system we used to manage this process is called workflow. Ours was designed to ensure the lab produced consistent results for every customer order. Those results needed to uphold our reputation for high quality and attention to detail. For us, the perfect workflow needed to accommodate both the demands of our professional clientele and the efficiency necessary to make a profit.

Today, most digital photographers manage their own workflow for organizing, editing, and outputting their photos. Being in charge is truly liberating because it enables you to create the images you like, rather than hoping a lab will see the image the way you do.

Comparing Lightroom and Photoshop

For the last several years, Photoshop has dominated digital photographic postproduction. It’s an amazing program that can be used to do just about anything to a digital image. Photoshop has changed the world for photographers. It’s also changed the world of web designers, video editors, medical researchers, and 3D animators. Photoshop is an incredibly powerful program but this power leads to overwhelming complexity, particularly for new users.

Deconstructing Photoshop

Photoshop provides almost every possible editing tool in its countless panels and hundreds of menu commands. Imagine walking into your local home-improvement store and asking for one of every tool in the store and then placing the tools into the biggest toolbox you can find. Once you roll that sucker into your garage you’ll have every tool you could ever possibly need. The problem is knowing where to find the tool you want when you want it, and then figuring out how to use it after you’ve found it.

For today’s photographers, the two most important parts of Photoshop aren’t really in Photoshop: Adobe Bridge and Adobe Camera Raw. These two programs are automatically installed with Photoshop.

Adobe Bridge

Adobe Bridge, shown in Figure 1-2, is a powerful file browser, designed to help you see and manage your image files. It’s named Bridge because it can be used with other Adobe design applications and functions as a bridge among those programs. Bridge is used to import and organize photos, as well as output them for all sorts of uses, from e-mail to printing.

Bridge first appeared in Photoshop CS. With every new version, it grew more powerful and so quickly became one of the most popular file browsers among photographers. We used it to sort and rank photos and to perform searches. Bridge made it possible to find specific photos in ways that had never been possible in Photoshop.

Figure 1-2

Adobe Bridge is a powerful file browser used with other Adobe design products. Before digital, most photographers took their film to a lab for processing and printing.

Adobe Camera Raw

The other key program that comes with Photoshop is Adobe Camera Raw (ACR). This program is designed specifically to work on RAW files. (I describe RAW files in Chapter 2.) For now, the important thing to know is that a RAW file cannot be opened directly in Photoshop. It must go through a process to convert its data to a format that Photoshop understands. Because there are lots of tools and options in RAW conversion programs, each has its own workflow.

Adobe Camera Raw (shown in Figure 1-3) has a row of tools at the top-left and several stacked panels on the right. You can use these tools to adjust important aspects of an image before converting it for Photoshop. When the process is handled correctly, adjustments such as basic tone and color are handled during RAW conversion on the derivative file before it opens in Photoshop.

ACR has grown more powerful with every update. As the number of photographers shooting RAW has increased, ACR has become the most widely used conversion program. Over time, photographers shifted their basic Photoshop workflow toward using Bridge and ACR to do everything needed with most images. When a special image needed heavy lifting, we’d use Photoshop for the full treatment.

Figure 1-3

Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) is one of the most popular RAW processing programs.

Pixels versus metadata

Because Photoshop was introduced before cameras could capture images in the RAW format, it was designed to edit photos by altering their pixels. If special procedures aren’t followed, any image editing becomes permanent when you close a file. For example, if you change a color photo to black-and-white and close the file, you can’t restore the photo’s color. This type of editing is described as destructive, because pixels are permanently changed.

Metadata literally means data about data.Metadata is a system of recording and organizing information. For example, when I take a photo, my camera embeds information about the photo in the RAW file, such as the time of day created, the camera settings used, and in some cases GPS data regarding the location of the photo.

When you edit RAW files using a RAW converter program such as ACR or Lightroom, all your changes are recorded as metadata. If you change a color photo to black-and-white, that change is recorded as a set of metadata instructions. No pixels are altered. The metadata instructions can be changed during future editing or completely removed at any time, returning the photo to its original state. This nondestructiveediting creates a huge amount of flexibility, particularly when you’re first learning. Because ACR uses metadata to track changes, editing files is much more flexible and forgiving than Photoshop.

Adobe Lightroom is born

Because photographers were mostly using Bridge and ACR, Adobe decided it made sense to combine them. That’s how Adobe Lightroom was born. Lightroom is a combination of Bridge and ACR, rearranged in a unified workspace. Lightroom has the organizational power of Bridge (and more) coupled with the editing power of ACR.

Note

Lightroom also recognizes and works with non-RAW file formats, including JPEG, TIFF, PNG, and most movie files.

Lightroom gave Adobe a chance to rethink the editing process. The workspace was modularized to keep things simple. The finished software was just what photographers were asking for, so it didn’t take long for Lightroom to take the photographic world by storm.

Finding the Balance of Power

Lightroom has become the main organizational and editing tool for today’s digital photographers. Some use it for every step of their workflow. For example, when I photograph a bicycle race, such as that in Figure 1-4, I use Lightroom’s Library module to sort through hundreds of photos to identify the top 30 to 40 images. I then use the Develop module to make the photos look great. Finally, I use the Web module to upload the finished files to a web gallery where I share them with the world. For this workflow, it’s Lightroom all the way.

Workflow for other types of photography isn’t always as clear-cut. A portrait photographer can use Lightroom for most of his or her workflow, but the photographer will eventually hit the ceiling of Lightroom’s potential. For example, it isn’t possible to do what’s called a head-swap in Lightroom, where you copy a head from one photo and paste it to another to improve the expression. This type of compositing requires the full power of Photoshop.

Figure 1-4

Lightroom was the only program I needed to process photos from this bicycle race.

Lightroom also lacks sophisticated retouching. Lightroom’s Spot Removal tool improves with every new release, but it doesn’t come close to what’s possible in Photoshop. High-end portrait photographers couldn’t survive without Photoshop’s powerful retouching tools, but they don’t always use Photoshop for their entire postproduction workflow: A full-blown Photoshop workflow is clunky next to the smoothness of a Lightroom workflow.

When I create fine-art images like the one in Figure 1-5, I usually shoot for and process high-dynamic-range (HDR) images, and my requirements extend beyond Photoshop’s considerable capabilities. To get the look I’m after, I need to use external programs called plugins. (HDR and plugins are described in Chapter 14.) Whether I use Photoshop or a plugin, I always begin and finish with Lightroom. It’s the central hub of my workflow. Sometimes it completely satisfies my needs. Other times I require the power of Photoshop or a specialized plugin.

For a simple, complete workflow, it’s necessary to find the right blend of Lightroom and Photoshop. The power of Lightroom lies in its relative simplicity and the flexibility it offers with nondestructive editing. Photoshop’s power is in its sophisticated tool set. The trick is finding the proper balance of power between Lightroom and Photoshop for your editing needs.

Figure 1-5

This fine-art image required using a plugin to get this look.

Solving Problems

Another important concept to image editing is really about solving problems. When I’m working on a photo, I evaluate the image to identify what’s not working visually. Then I find the best way to manage the problems I find. If I don’t like the color in a photo, I change it. If an area is too dark, I lighten it. If there’s something odd along the edge when cropping a photo, I find a way to minimize it. Throughout the editing process, I continually look for problems to be solved. If one problem’s solution creates another problem, I deal with it. When all problems have been solved, the editing process is complete and the photo is ready for output.

The photo at the beginning of this chapter of downtown Seattle in the moonlight is a good example of problem solving. It was shot as the sun was setting to the right of the frame. Figure 1-6 shows an early version of the image after basic Lightroom adjustments.

Figure 1-6

The buildings look great in this evening shot of Seattle, but smoke from a nearby forest fire removed some of the dimension from the sky.

I was pleased with the reflections on the buildings, but the sky didn’t appeal to me. Usually, Mount Rainier is just visible in the distance. This particular day, there was a forest fire on the other side of Puget Sound. The smoke in the sky yielded a dull blue that lacked the dimension I wanted.

Figure 1-7 shows the photo after additional work in Lightroom to darken the sky. The modified sky was working, but the light on the buildings didn’t seem natural anymore. It was most noticeable on the building with the green top on the right. Two days after the shoot, I was back home editing the photo and pondering this problem. I decided the buildings needed a light source in the sky behind them — the moon. I was in luck because a full moon was just rising. I went outside, photographed it, and used Photoshop to composite it and a light glow around it to the image. After I made the changes and did a few more small tweaks in Lightroom, I finally felt the image was complete because I had solved all the problems I was seeing in the image.

Figure 1-7

The sky looks better after darkening in Lightroom, but the light on the buildings doesn’t look natural.

I entered the completed image in the 2012 Professional Photographers of America Western Regional Photo Competition in California. It won best of show and was the only image out of several hundred to receive a perfect score of 100 points.

The bottom line: Think of your postproduction workflow as a problem-solving process. Yes, it’s important to create the best in-camera images possible. But there’s always something that can be done to make them better. It’s just a matter of learning to see the problems and knowing how to solve them.

Chapter 2

Finding Comfort with Lightroom

Lightroom is the gateway to a stress-free workflow. It may not seem like it when you first open the program, but after you find a comfort level with Lightroom, you’ll be amazed at what you can do with it. My intention with this book is to help you find that comfort level so you are free to focus on the creative process instead of feeling lost and not knowing what to do next.

Lightroom as Your Personal Photo Lab

Lightroom is designed to accomplish three primary functions: image organization, image processing, and image output. Figure 2-1 shows Lightroom’s Module Picker, located at the upper-right of the screen, listing the seven modules. The modules are designed to help with specific tasks as images move through your workflow.

Although there are seven modules, they are used for three purposes: organization, developing, and output. The Library and Map modules are used to organize photos. Develop is used to perfect photos so they look great. The Book, Slideshow, Print, and Web modules are used to output photos in various forms so they can be shared with the world.

Figure 2-1

Use Lightroom’s Module Picker to select a module for organizing, editing, or outputting your photos.

Back before digital, I worked at a large photo lab that served demanding professional photographers. In the lab, we had a compartmentalized workflow. Employees in the Receiving Department greeted customers, entered their orders in our tracking system, and then sorted the orders for production. Orders then moved to the Production Department, where trained technicians produced high-quality processing and printing. After orders were complete, they moved to the Shipping Department for delivery via a shipping service or one of our drivers. This compartmentalized workflow enabled us to focus on each customer order systematically and efficiently.

Lightroom functions in much the same way. It’s your personal photo lab. Instead of employees managing customer orders, you are managing your photos. When you import new photos to Lightroom, you organize and sort the images using the Library module. Photos that you want to improve are moved to the Develop module where you can professionally adjust and process photos individually or in groups. You then send the processed photos to the appropriate output module for delivery as slideshows, prints, or in web galleries. After you learn the process, you’ll be as comfortable in Lightroom as I was in the lab.

Working with Catalogs

Only photos imported to Lightroom are visible in its catalog. This system is very efficient but can lead to big problems if you don’t properly manage photos in the catalog. Understanding the catalog concept will ensure that Lightroom always knows where your photos are and spare you hours of frustration.

Finding your catalog

When you install Lightroom, it creates a catalog file. The catalog is stored by default in the Lightroom folder in the Pictures folder (on the Mac) or My Pictures folder (in Windows), as shown in Figure 2-2. In the figure, the catalog is Lightroom 5 Catalog.lrcat. The .lrcat suffix indicates the file is a Lightroom catalog. You can choose to store the catalog in a different location. I suggest leaving the catalog in its default location so that if you have a problem with Lightroom and need help, your catalog can easily be found.

Figure 2-2

By default, the Lightroom folder is stored in the Pictures folder (Mac) or My Pictures folder (Windows). The file with the .lrcat extension is the Lightroom catalog.

It’s like the catalog at your public library

Most people are familiar with the library card catalog. In the old days, it sat near the side of the main room and was filled with cards for each book in the library. Today, most card catalogs are digital, which makes it easier to perform searches for books and other publications.

No matter if the card catalog in the public library is paper or digital, it exists for one purpose: to contain information about the library’s books, such as publish date, author info, literary genre, and shelf location in the library. This is similar to the purpose of Lightroom’s catalog. It has an entry for every photo you’ve imported from your photo library. These entries contain information about the photos, such as exposure information, keyword tags, colored labels and stars, and location on your hard drive.

Just as the books in the library are stored on real shelves, your photo files are stored in virtual shelves called folders, as shown in Figure 2-3. These folders are arranged on your hard drive, usually in other folders. The important analogy to understand is this: In the public library, books are stored on the shelf and information about them is stored in the card catalog. In Lightroom, your photos are stored on a hard drive and information about them is stored in the Lightroom catalog.

Figure 2-3

Just as books are stored on shelves in the library, digital files are stored in folders on your hard drive.

Note

Your photos are not stored in Lightroom. They’re on your hard drive. Lightroom uses its catalog file to manage your photos.

The most important thing to know about Lightroom

When someone having problems with Lightroom calls me, their problem is often caused by not fully understanding the Lightroom catalog concept. Think of the public library analogy again for a moment. If you walk into a public library and remove a book from a shelf, the catalog continues directing people to the book’s original location, but the book isn’t there any longer. The only way someone will find it is if they stumble across it accidentally.

The same thing happens to Lightroom’s catalog if you use a program such as the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer to move or rename a photo, or to move or rename the photo’s folder. If you change anything about a photo or the photo’s folder outside Lightroom, the catalog loses track of it. The photo’s preview will still appear in the catalog, but you’re limited to what you can do to it in Lightroom because the original file is no longer available.

So, here’s one of the most important things you’ll read in this book: If you want to move, rename, or delete a photo or the folder it’s in, always do so in Lightroom. If you don’t, you run the risk of “breaking” the catalog. In Chapter 4, I describe methods you can use for finding missing photos if this happens to you.

Caution

The most important rule in Lightroom is to always manage files from within Lightroom. If you make changes outside Lightroom, the catalog will lose track of the files.

How many catalogs should you have?

In the earliest days of Lightroom, the program would slow down with just a couple of thousand images in its catalog. So it became common for users to create lots of separate catalogs to keep Lightroom working efficiently. For example, wedding photographers tend to shoot lots of images at a wedding. In early versions of Lightroom, they would create separate catalogs for each wedding because they were concerned about overwhelming Lightroom with too many images.

Note

Lightroom can open only one catalog at a time.

Lightroom’s speed has greatly improved with each new release. Today, it can efficiently handle large numbers of files in a single catalog. I know photographers who manage hundreds of thousands of photos in single catalogs without experiencing any performance issues. So you no longer need to divide your image library into separate Lightroom catalogs for the sake of speed.

Some photographers create separate catalogs for other reasons. For example, a commercial photographer I know uses separate catalogs based on dates. Everything she shoots during the year is in a catalog just for that year. Another commercial photographer I know uses two catalogs: one for professional work and a second for personal work. I understand the thinking behind creating multiple catalogs like this, but I usually counsel photographers to use a single catalog. Using multiple catalogs severely reduces Lightroom’s search capabilities when you want to find something.

Note

A good example of someone who needs to use two catalogs would be a health care professional. Many dentists use photography in their practices. But federal law prevents storing patient photos on a personal computer. For health care professionals, having one catalog for work and one for home is necessary.

Going back to the public library analogy: We have a wonderful library system at the Multnomah County Library in Portland, Oregon, with about 20 neighborhood branches. When I search for a book using the library’s online card catalog, it searches every library. It lets me know which branches have the book available or when it will be available at each branch. Imagine what a pain it would be searching 20 card catalogs looking for the book, especially if it ultimately wasn’t available at any of the locations.

A large part of the power of Lightroom is its ability to search the catalog using a wide range of metadata. One of the most common searches is a keyword search, which is described in detail in Chapter 5. Keywords are alphanumeric tags that you can add to images to help identify them, such as visual content, location, or specific occasion. For example, I have a Siberian Husky named Ruby. Whenever I import a new photo of Ruby in Lightroom, I add the “Ruby” keyword to the photo. Then by simply doing a keyword search I can find all photos of Ruby at any time, no matter where they are on my hard drives.

If I used a different catalog for each year, I would need to search each catalog one at a time using the Ruby keyword. Searching each year would be time-consuming and make it impossible to see all the Ruby photos together in one screen. Or, if I used separate catalogs for professional and personal work, I might miss the opportunity to sell a photo of Ruby as stock because it’s in the personal catalog and I forgot that when I did my keyword search.

Keep It Simple

Use one Lightroom catalog unless you have a most excellent reason for doing otherwise.

Working with RAW Files

Most serious photographers shoot in RAW file format. The only other option on most cameras is the JPEG file format. Every photographer must choose a file format. Fortunately, it’s an easy choice when you understand the power of RAW files and Lightroom.

Note

Acronyms are used for most file formats. For example, JPEG is Joint Photographic Experts Group and TIFF is Tagged Image File Format. But RAW isn’t an acronym. It describes the type of data in the file. It’s capitalized in common usage to indicate a type of file format.

Comparing JPEG to RAW

Your camera’s sensor captures a huge amount of information. When you shoot in JPEG format, the camera’s processor compares all that information to your camera setup. It looks at user settings like sharpness, white balance, and color space to determine what kind of JPEG file to make from the captured data. The amount of data used in the JPEG is much smaller than the total amount of data captured. Leftover data is automatically discarded. So when shooting JPEGs, only a small amount of the captured data is used to generate the file — and the rest of the data is lost forever.

However, when you shoot in RAW file format, almost all the information captured by the sensor is preserved in the file. A RAW file gives you a huge advantage when processing photos in Lightroom’s Develop module because you’ll have access to everything captured by the sensor.

JPEG files are usually much smaller than RAW files. The smaller size allows you to store more JPEG photos on media cards and hard drives than equivalent RAW files. In the early days of digital photography, media cards were expensive, but today storage is quite cheap for the amount of data you can store.

Considering the loss in image quality suffered by JPEG files, any advantage to capturing your original photos in this format have all but disappeared. If you want the most flexibility when making creative decisions during post-processing, you should always use RAW.

RAW is like a time machine

There’s another special feature that makes RAW files important. When you shoot JPEG, all camera settings, such as sharpness, white balance, and color space are “baked in” the JPEG. You can’t change any of these in-camera settings after you take the photo. When you shoot RAW and import RAW photos to Lightroom, the camera settings are a jumping off point for postprocessing. Some settings, such as sharpness, are completely ignored and replaced with default Lightroom settings that can be altered in Lightroom. This means you can choose the settings you want after you capture the photo.

For example, when you change the white balance and color space of a RAW file in Lightroom, it will look just like it was shot with the settings you choose in Lightroom. In fact, the only camera settings you can’t change during postproduction are those that control exposure: aperture, shutter speed, and ISO. You can modify settings like white balance and color space in a JPEG file after the fact, but the photo won’t look as good as if it had been shot with those settings. But with RAW files, you can’t tell the difference between a photo shot with specific settings and a photo with the same settings applied in Lightroom.

Keep It Simple

If you’re using Lightroom, set your camera on RAW and leave it there!

Proprietary RAW file formats and DNG

There are many versions of RAW file formats currently in use. Every camera manufacturer has its own proprietary format. For example, Nikon uses NEF (Nikon Electronic Format) and Canon uses CR2 (Canon Raw 2). Most camera companies tend to guard their proprietary formats and aren’t known for sharing the inner workings with other companies. Fortunately for us, Adobe’s engineers spend considerable time learning to understand these formats well enough to support them with programs like Lightroom and Photoshop.

In Chapter 1, I describe how Lightroom uses metadata to record image adjustments. With common non-RAW file formats such as JPEG and TIFF, metadata is stored in the file. But because most RAW files are proprietary, Adobe doesn’t allow its software to write data inside these files. This means the metadata must be stored outside the RAW file. That’s why in Lightroom, by default, metadata for all the files in your catalog is stored in a hidden central database. Lightroom also gives you the option of storing individual metadata, in a companion file called an XMP sidecar (shown in Figure 2-4.) The XMP sidecar file is stored in the same folder as the original. This makes it easier to stay organized, because the metadata is with the original RAW file on your hard drive. I describe how to enable XMP sidecar files in the next section.

Figure 2-4

XMP sidecar files have the same root name as the original file. You can see my RAW CR2 files with each of their much smaller XMP files next to them.

Proprietary RAW file formats create unnecessary complication. In 2004, Adobe released its own RAW file format named DNG (for “digital negative”). Adobe has made this format available to other companies to use as the RAW file format in their cameras. This format is open source, which means anyone can access the underlying code, making the format essentially future-proof. Manufacturers such as Hasselblad, Leica, and Pentax have taken Adobe up on their offer and let you use either their proprietary RAW format or Adobe’s DNG format. Unfortunately, many companies have not.

Because DNG was developed by Adobe, it was designed so that all metadata can be stored in the file. There’s no need for XMP sidecar files. With Lightroom, you can choose to convert your camera’s proprietary RAW into DNG as you import them into Lightroom without losing any important data. I describe importing in Chapter 3.

Preparing Lightroom

Before you being using Lightroom, I recommend you configure its preferences and catalog settings.

Setting up preferences

Lightroom’s preferences apply to all Lightroom catalogs. To open the Preferences dialog box, choose Lightroom > Preferences on the Mac or Edit > Preferences in Windows. When the dialog box opens, you should see options similar to Figure 2-5.

Notice the five panes across the top of the dialog box. Each pane controls a set of preferences. There are lots of settings, but only a few are really important. Here’s what I recommend when setting up a new Lightroom catalog:

General pane: Leave the default selections in place. If you plan to use more than one catalog, use the Default Catalog menu to choose which catalog Lightroom will open when launched. If you plan to shoot JPEG and RAW and want to see both images in Lightroom, select Treat JPEG Files Next to Raw Files as Separate Photos. Presets pane: I recommend selecting Store Presets with This Catalog. Leave the other default selections as they are.External Editing pane: The preferences in this pane are used to determine what type of file opens in Photoshop when you open a RAW file directly from Lightroom. I describe RAW settings in detail in Chapter 9.File Handling pane: When you convert your RAW files to DNG, Lightroom follows the rules established in the Import DNG Creation section at the top of the pane. I recommend using the default settings shown in Figure 2-6. Additionally, if you have lots of hard drive space, I suggest increasing the size of the cache in the Camera Raw Cache Settings section. I have mine set to 50GB. Doing so increases efficiency in the Develop module when revisiting a previously developed file because it has quick access to information in the cache.Interface pane: This section is used to change the look and feel of the Lightroom user interface (UI). The modifications are limited compared to some programs such as Photoshop. I recommend you check the options here, but begin with the default settings. If you decide to change settings later, you can return to these preferences.

Figure 2-5

Lightroom’s preferences are used to control the options for all your catalogs. Use the tabs at the top to select the preferences you want to modify.

Figure 2-6

The File Handling preferences are used to determine what type of DNG file to create when you convert RAW files during import. I recommend you use the default settings.

Choosing your catalog settings

The Catalog Settings dialog box is used to set preferences for the currently open catalog. To open the dialog box, you can click the Go to Catalog Settings button in the lower left corner of the General pane in the Preferences dialog box, shown in Figure 2-5, or you can choose Lightroom > Catalog Settings on Mac or Edit > Catalog Settings in Windows to open the dialog box shown in Figure 2-7.

General pane: The General pane provides information about the catalog, including its size and location. You can also choose how often Lightroom asks you to make a backup of the catalog, which is triggered by closing the program. If you currently have a backup system for your entire computer, you don’t need a separate backup of the catalog because it’s included in your system-wide backup. If you have a backup system, choose None from the menu. If you do not have a backup system, choose Every Time Lightroom Exits. You can then decide if you’ve done enough work to warrant a backup every time you close Lightroom. The backups accumulate over time in the Lightroom > Backups folder in the Pictures folder (on the Mac) or My Pictures folder (in Windows). Eventually these backups consume a large amount of space, so you should periodically delete older backups manually.File Handling pane: I recommend using the default settings.Metadata pane: Select Automatically Write Changes into XMP. This option ensures that when using proprietary RAW files, all their metadata will be stored next to the parent file in XMP sidecar files. Leave the other default selections as they are.

Tip

If Lightroom seems to be running slower than usual, choose File > Optimize Catalog. This organizes the inner workings of the catalog to help keep things running smoothly.

Figure 2-7

The Catalog Settings dialog box is used to customize the settings of the current catalog. The Information section tells you where your catalog is and its size.

Exploring the Lightroom Screen

One of the best things about Lightroom is the simplicity of its design. Figure 2-8 shows the layout of the Library module. It shares the same features as the other modules. Take a look at the main components in Figure 2-8 to see how modules are organized.

Module picker: The Module picker (at the top of the screen) is visible in each module. Use it to choose the module you want to use. You begin most projects with the Library module, move to the Develop module, and then to the appropriate output module.Panels: Every module has sets of panels on the right and left sides. These panel sets have groups of panels that are populated with information and adjustments relevant to the current module. Individual panels can be collapsed or expanded on the panel set by clicking the disclosure triangles next to their names. In Figure 2-8, all the panels, except Navigator and Histogram, are collapsed. Panels cannot be moved or relocated.Filmstrip: The Filmstrip is visible in all modules (unless you collapse it manually). Use it to view and select photos. Just above the thumbnails in the Filmstrip is information such as the number of photos in the current folder, the number of selected photos, and the name of the selected photo.Toolbar: The toolbar is visible in all modules, but the tools are specific to the current module. Clicking the small triangle on the right of the toolbar opens a menu enabling you to add and remove tools from the toolbar. Press the T key to hide or reveal the toolbar — if your toolbar disappears, remember to press the T key.

Figure 2-8

The Library module shares features common to all Lightroom modules: 1: The Module Picker. 2: The toolbar. 3: The Filmstrip. The triangles highlighted by yellow circles are disclosure triangles for panel areas.

Viewing Photos

Although you can’t completely reorganize the Lightroom workspace, you do have flexibility in how you can view images individually or in groups. Knowing how to zoom in and out and how to compare similar photos is important when you learn to organize photos (explained in Chapter 4).

Gaining more real estate

In Figure 2-8, you see four disclosure triangles, circled in yellow in the figure, on the perimeter of the workspace. Clicking a triangle hides or reveals its associated area. Hiding the left and right panel sets adds significant space. If you need the panel set, just hover the pointer over where it collapsed to reveal it and then hover it away when you want to conceal it. Pressing the Tab key hides or reveals both side panel sets at the same time. Press Shift+Tab to hide or reveal the sides, the top, and the Filmstrip at the same time.

Four primary viewing methods

Figure 2-9 shows a detail of the left side of the Library module’s toolbar. Click one of these buttons to choose between one of four view modes.

Grid view (shortcut: G) is a grid of thumbnails (shown in Figure 2-8). The Grid view is available only in the Library module. (The Filmstrip serves as an adjunct in other modules.) Change the size of the thumbnails using the Thumbnails slider on the right of the toolbar.Loupe view (shortcut: E) is any view that shows only one image at a time, whether it fits just the screen or is zoomed in to 100 percent or more. The Loupe view is the only view available in the Develop module.Compare view (shortcut: C) is used to compare two selected photos. Use the Filmstrip to select the two photos you want to compare. Click one of the photos in the Compare view to zoom both photos to the same magnification. Survey view (shortcut: N) is used to compare two or more selected photos. Although you can compare more than two photos at a time, you can’t zoom in Survey view. To remove a photo from this view, hover the pointer over it and click the Close button (the small X) that appears at the bottom right.

Compare View is handy for comparing two similar photos to see which has the sharpest focus. But the Grid and Loupe views are by far the most used view modes.

Figure 2-9

The Library module’s toolbar has four viewing modes on the left. Each view mode controls how images are displayed in the main viewing area.

Tip

To select a group of photos that are next to one another, click on the first photo and then Shift+click on the last photo. To select a group of photos that are not next to one another, Command+click or Ctrl+click each photo you want to select.

Zooming and panning

One of the nice things about Lightroom is that it’s really easy to zoom and pan photos while in Loupe view. Take a moment to familiarize yourself with methods for changing magnification and panning the image so you’re prepared to view your photos appropriately as you travel through upcoming chapters.

Using the Navigator panel

The Navigator panel is available in the Library, Develop, and Map modules. However, the Navigator functions differently in the Map module. Figure 2-10 shows the Navigator panel as it’s seen in the Library and Develop modules.

Figure 2-10

Use the magnification presets in the Navigator panel to zoom the Loupe view. When zoomed in, drag the rectangular overlay to pan the view.

There are four zoom presets located at the top right of the panel. Click to zoom the image to a preset magnification. Here’s what they do:

Fit: Fits the entire image in the main viewing area.Fill: Fills the entire viewing area with the image. When viewing a vertical photo, the top and bottom are not visible.1:1: Zooms the image to 100 percent. The area in the white box, shown in the Figure 2-10, is the only area visible in the viewing area. You can drag the box in the Navigator panel to pan the zoomed image in the main area. You can also pan by dragging the image in the viewing area.Additional presets: The fourth preset can be changed by clicking the up and down triangles at the top right of the panel to open a menu with ten other presets. It’s set to 4:1 in Figure 2-10, which is 400 percent. I rarely find it necessary to zoom closer than 100 percent. This menu is useful when you want to view at 25-percent (1:4) or 50-percent (1:2) magnifications.

Tip

Small triangles and arrows indicate menus or other options. Look for them as you navigate the workspace.

Clicking and zooming

By far the most popular way to zoom in Lightroom is by clicking the photo in the main work area. Double-clicking a thumbnail in Grid view zooms the photo to the last Navigator zoom preset used. Double-clicking again returns to Grid view.

When in Loupe view, a single click on the image zooms to the second-to-last Navigator zoom preset used. Subsequent single-clicks in Loupe view oscillate between the last two zoom presets you selected in the Navigator panel. Because clicking on the image in the Loupe view goes back and forth between the two previous zoom presets, it’s necessary to “train” the Navigator: Click on the two presets you want to use for click-zooming and Navigator will use those settings when click-zooming.

Chapter 3

Importing Photos in Lightroom

Because Lightroom uses a catalog system, it’s necessary to import photos to the catalog before you can use them. Lightroom uses a special Import screen to help you organize your photos during import. Understanding it and its many options is the key to developing a smooth import process. In this chapter, you learn about basic importing concepts and the two main methods for importing your photos to Lightroom’s catalog.

Simplifying Folder Organization

As I describe in Chapter 2, photos imported in Lightroom are stored in folders on your hard drive. When importing, you control creating those folders and organizing them on your system. Now is a good time to think about how those folders should be organized.

Avoiding the ‘Bucket System’

When we organize things in our lives, we tend to group them based on similarity. When my wife and I moved to our home several years ago, she organized the new kitchen. I do most of the family’s cooking and had a hard time finding the utensils I needed. When I needed a spatula, for example, I would find it in an unexpected drawer. Finally I asked my wife how she decided which utensils went into each drawer. “It’s easy,” she replied, pointing at the two drawers in question. “Everything with a handle went in the top drawer and everything without a handle went in the second drawer.” My organizational strategy in our previous home was to place the most used items in the top drawer, with the lesser-used items in the second drawer. No wonder I was confused!

When we organize digital assets such as photographs, it’s tempting to organize them the way we’re accustomed to organizing physical items, by placing similar items together. For example, I work with a client who has an amazing collection of wildlife photography. He’s been shooting for a long time and has a large number of photos organized based on what is in the photos. When he has a photo of a gray wolf, he moves it to a folder named Gray Wolves, which is a subfolder of Wolves. When he has a photo of a black bear, he moves it to a folder named Black Bears. Figure 3-1 shows his folder structure.

I call this strategy the “bucket system” because you place similar items in buckets. Photos are placed in folders based on image content. This method seems sensible at first, but when you see the problems with the bucket system, you’ll understand the importance of finding a better solution.

Figure 3-1

A folder organization based on image content: the bucket system.

While helping this wildlife photographer, we came across an amazing photo of a gray wolf and a black bear. When I asked him which folder he planned to use, he said he was going to duplicate the file and place each image in its respective folder: one copy in Gray Wolves and the other in Black Bears.

Duplicating images can quickly become complicated and cumbersome. For example, I have four sisters. A photo of us together would require five copies to store in five folders. This approach not only wastes space, but also makes it difficult to remember which version I prepared for printing. Worse, though, using the bucket system separates photos from their original context and could spread them across several folders, making it difficult to see all the photos together.

I’m a big believer in keeping photos in the context of the shoot. Instead of moving photos to specific folders based on image elements, I keep all the original photos in one shoot folder. I then use keywords to identify aspects of each photo, such as image content (wolves and bears), location, and events. Even when your folders are highly organized, keywording provides a more efficient method for finding photos than searching through folders. (Chapter 5 describes using keywords.)

Keep It Simple

If you already have lots of photos organized using the bucket system and you’d like to try another system, don’t worry about the past. Leave the old photos in their folders and start the new system. Just be sure to keyword photos in the old folders!

Organizing and naming folders

Figure 3-2 shows how I organize my folders. I use year folders to contain every shoot for each year. It’s like a filing cabinet with drawers for each year. When I open a “drawer,” I can see folders for all that year’s shoots. Nesting folders inside folders keeps things simple and organized. Nesting folders also takes advantage of the special way Lightroom handles subfolders.

Figure 3-2

Organizing shoot folders by date keeps things simple. You only open one year at a time. Then each shoot is dated and has a descriptive word.

When you select a parent folder in Lightroom, such as 2012 in my system, all photos from every shoot in that folder are displayed in the Grid view and Filmstrip. Even photos from subfolders are displayed. Figure 3-3 shows the same detail as Figure 3-2 in Lightroom’s Library module’s Folders panel. The number to the right of the 2012 folder is 11214, which is the total number of photos in all the 2012 subfolders. This system gives me the ability to manage all 11,214 photos from 2012, or focus on a single shoot folder — or even a subfolder in that shoot.

When naming shoot folders, I recommend using a date followed by a descriptive word. The folders will be listed chronologically and the word helps jog your memory when necessary. When using dates in folder names be sure to use the following format: yyyy-mm-dd. In the U.S., we tend to express dates as yyyy-dd-mm, which doesn’t list the folders chronologically. Also be sure to use two digits for days and months, such as 2013-09-05 for September 5, 2013.

Figure 3-3

When you choose a folder, Lightroom by default, lists all photos in the folders subfolders.

Understanding Previews

Because Lightroom uses a catalog system to keep track of photos, it creates JPEG