Lightroom help
Posted on: Sun, 07/13/2008 - 8:12am
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Lightroom help
Hey guys,
I wanted to start a lightroom help thread for a long time now. My reasons are mainly because there seem to be a few of us in the Alpha + Lightroom bubble that might need assistance from time to time. This way, we could all keep our problems sorted in this little corner, because very few people in the Lightroom forum don't shoot Alphas, and Sony doesn't have a dedicated forum for Alpha shooters.
Now, because of the limited slice of the market we represent, we must rely on ourselves to solve issues specific to our little group. Let's get started!
--Kiran
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Sony Alpha 200, 18-70mm kit lens, 50mm f/1.7, 70-210 f/4 beercan (as of 07/05, whooo!!!)
Ok, so I finally got a chance to sit down so I'll get to the nitty gritty as quickly as I can. As everyone who uses lightroom knows that it resets the raw file's color, contrast, and sharpness upon import (in the app itself, not on the disk.) This has been a really big problem for me because many of the shots I take look great when I take it, but they end up looking badly when I re-import it in lightroom. I shoot in vivid with +3 sharpness and contrast and +1 color.
I recently went to the Apple Store near my area to see if Aperture has the same problem. Turns out, it does. However, the only app that doesn't have the same problem is the Sony's Image Data Converter. This poses a challenge to anybody's workflow. If lightroom didn't reset the data in the raw file, the workflow would be a lot more refined: adjust white balance, straightening and crop, do highlight and shadow recovery, adjust noise and finish up with vignetting, if applicable.
Now, once I talked to the guy at the Apple store, who also happens to be a photographer, he came up with the simplest solution: presets. If we can create a preset that would work for any combination of added or reduced color, contrast and sharpness, that would make things easier, and we could create a little resource for even non-AMW users to check out.
I'd be willing to put the time in to create presets. However, I've spent almost 4-5 hours to recreate the shot (opened in IDC) by changing the settings in Lightroom and so far, they've proved damn near impossible. In some photos, the orange is a little more intense, but if the same intensity of orange is applied to the other one, it doesn't quite work. That doesn't mean it's impossible, maybe I'm looking for it in all the wrong places.
So, if anyone could help me out with this, it would be greatly appreciated. Also, I just played around a little more and I got kinda close. I'll be playing around with this for the rest of the day today and tomorrow. Anyone else that wants to join, let me know, and I'll send you the original pictures that need to be matched. Thanks for your effort, guys.
--Kiran
Sony Alpha 200, 18-70mm kit lens, 50mm f/1.7, 70-210 f/4 beercan (as of 07/05, whooo!!!)