Lightroom Playground - Week 4 - Comments and Questions

[JulieM]

Please post comments and questions regarding The Lightroom Playground - Week 4 (http://www.elementsvillage.com/forums/showthread.php?t=33267) challenge here.

[JulieM]

Eddie,

I like the warm golden tones you gave the image. The crop works very well too as it eliminates the gray, lacklustre sky. I'm not sure what I'll do with this one yet but I'll wait until others have had a go at it. Thanks for playing!

[JulieM]

Linda,

Very nice hues in your version too! You and Eddie make me think that it would be fun to pick a spot and photograph it several times during the fall to document how the colors change. I may have to do that next year. Do you have much of a display of colors in the UK?

I wouldn't have thought to clone out the leaf but that really improves the image. How did you like the results with the clone tool? I haven't used it much yet...

[Elemobe]

Eddie, good crop, didn't even think to do that:confused: Works well, also like the rich colours which still look natural, unlike mine;)


Julie, Yes, autumn here is fabulous, especially on a sunny day. So wonderful to look at and surprisingly difficult to capture - although one of my favourite photos is just the floor of the woods, a picture I have actually printed out!

Good idea to take the same scene at different times, I would like to see the results.

I find the cloning tool difficult, mainly because it is so different to PS. I think it is OK for small areas, certainly wouldn't use it for anything major. Good fun though.

[Edmund]

Linda, I like your image also. I'm such a lightroom newbie that I didn't even know it had a clone tool in it's arsnel of tools.:rolleyes::eek:
Eddie

[JulieM]

Welcome to the Playground, Rob. You know, I kept looking at that photo and thinking a letterbox type crop might be good. Your "feel like I'm there" approach was bang on. You've captured the damp, dark feeling of the riverside that day...

I'm very glad you're here. I have a feeling we'll learn a lot from you...

[Elemobe]

Really like the way you have cropped that photo, completely changes the image - of course.

[JulieM]

Colin, very cool! ;) How did you do that?

[Codebreaker]

Julie.....

I used the Tone Curve. Pushed the Darks up slightly and the Lights Down. Point Curve is Strong Contrast.

Here's the xmp file for it. I've had to rename as a DOC file to allow it to be uploaded. Just change it back to XMP.

Colin

[JulieM]

Colin,

I'm confused by the xmp file! :confused: Sorry to be so dim, but I've barely broken the surface of LR!

First, how did you extract the xmp info from the image? Second, I think it must be the set of "parametric" adjustments which give your submission the white snow-like effect. But what do those correspond to in LR? Finally, when you said to convert the file back to .xmp do you mean I can then magically do something with it?

I clearly have a long way to go to get a handle on this program... :rolleyes: Thanks for giving me a push further into it...

[JulieM]

Gary,

Colin jumped into winter and you skipped directly to spring. Good thinking! Did you use a preset?

How are you liking LR at this point?

[Codebreaker]

Julie.....

The processing changes you make in LR need to be stored somewhere so that when you view or export the image at any time those processing steps can be replayed. LR stores all the processing parameters in it's database but can also store them in an XMP file - often called a Sidecar file. It has the same name as the original RAW file.

If you need to give the RAW image, along with it's processing parameters to another program then you need to provide the RAW + XMP files. Obviously this is only good for those programs that understand RAW and XMP - such as Photoshop.

LR has an option to automatically create the XMP files when you import images and update them as you make the processing changes. Some people find this slows down LR so they turn the option off. I do this, just leaving all the changes to be recorded in the LR database. When (rarely) I need to pass the program to another program or person I manually create the XMP file.... (Ctrl + S).

So, in the end I sent you the XMP file which contains all the parameters to display the image as I created it. This forum only allows uploading of certain file types. XMP is not one of them, so I fooled the forum by just change the extension to one it liked i.e DOC.

The original would be something like filename.xmp but to upload it I called it filename.doc. All you have to do is change the extension back to XMP.

I would suggest first that you create an XMP for your version (Ctrl+S) and rename this so that mine doesn't overwrite it. Add something like 'Original' to the filename.

If you then put my XMP file in the same folder as the original RAW file and then select your image in LR you can update the database and image by right clicking on the image and selecting Metadata > Read Metadata from file.

You can get back to your original by deleting mine and restoring the name of yours and the do the Read Metadata from file again.

Colin

[JulieM]

Colin,

Only the basic idea of the xmp file had penetrated my brain until now. :o I'm very grateful for your thorough explanation. Later today I will attempt to use your xmp data per your instructions.

p.s. You should write a book on this!!! :D

[Codebreaker]

Julie....

There is more I don't know than I do - so I could probably fill the back of a postage stamp :)

BTW: I see the file name mentioned Ottawa. I used to live to the west of the city at Dunrobin. Are you in that region at all?

Colin

[JulieM]

BTW: I see the file name mentioned Ottawa. I used to live to the west of the city at Dunrobin. Are you in that region at all?

Colin

Colin, it is a small world! I'm in the east end but I passed by there last night on my way to the Scotia Bank Place for an Ottawa Senators game. How long ago did you live there?

[Elemobe]

I am busy right now but going to come back to this thread later so I can absorb the information.

In the meantime, Colin, I am having problems seeing your picture, big originally and now I can't download. Is it me?

Would love to see the picture.

[Elemobe]

Gary, As Julie said - Springtime! I think it has worked well, wouldn't have believed a picture could be changed so dramatically just by pushing a few sliders.

[Codebreaker]

Here's a smaller version...

http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Kev9iPfUgyicekpKNjF7U1vfJsi0

http://www.pixentral.com/hosted/1Kev9iPfUgyicekpKNjF7U1vfJsi0_thumb.jpg (http://www.pixentral.com/show.php?picture=1Kev9iPfUgyicekpKNjF7U1vfJsi0)

Colin

[Elemobe]

Coling, thank, much better.

[GaryK]

Thanks


No presets.. I'm not quite sure I have a handle on those. I get what they do, but not quite sure how to add more. No biggie on that as I have seen some instructions and it didn't look hard. I just haven't tried yet.
I think all I did was change the temp or was that WB?? and desaturate the reds and oranges. Likely moved a couple of other sliders along the way but that was the main meat of it.

[Chuck S.]

Thanks


No presets.. I'm not quite sure I have a handle on those. I get what they do, but not quite sure how to add more. No biggie on that as I have seen some instructions and it didn't look hard. I just haven't tried yet.
I think all I did was change the temp or was that WB?? and desaturate the reds and oranges. Likely moved a couple of other sliders along the way but that was the main meat of it.

Preset installation is really easy.


Find presets at various sites; download to folder on desktop (some may need to be unzipped.
Open Lightroom; go to Develop tab.
Right-click on Presets>User Presets tab on left; select Import
Point to file containing Preset files as downloaded in 1.
Click OK (or maybe it's Open...?; your new presets will be appended to the User Presets list.Like fonts, it's easy to get too many.....:o

[bayhli]

Enjoyed the variations this week.

Eddie I really liked your crop - I always try to maintain the original ratio of the image in case I want to print down the line. I knew I should have taken out that small bit of colourless sky but didn't even try! Your colours are nice and natural as Linda noted.

Rob I also like your creative crop - never even occured to me to do it on the horizontal. Very attractive.

Linda, I've had lots of practice with the clone tool, given that I usually have a fair amount of dust. From what I understand it is meant for that purpose and works really well for that. It doesn't do well for cloning in an editing sense. (I had a frightening experience this week - cleaned my "sensor" and thought I had scratched it all up. Just sick at heart but it turned out ok thankfully. My main thoughts went to being finished with photography I was so mad at myself, but there was also that little devil voice that kept repeating, new Canon 40D, 40D, 40D... )

Thanks for the directions for the presets Chuck - I needed that.

Colin - I just cleaned out my harddrive and had to reinstall all my programs. Thus I lost all my settings for LR and now attempting to put them back where I had them. I swear there were export settings I set up, inparticular one that told LR to "include the .xmp file on export" . I've been all around the program and through my books and can't find where to adjust these settings - do you know where that is in LR?? Thanks.

[Codebreaker]

There isn't a specific setting to Export XMPs.

To generate an XMP automatically goto Files > Catalogue Settings and look under the Metadata tab. Some people find that having the Auto box set slows things down because LR has to generate an XMP file every time you import a new one and when you make your processing changes.

XMPs are not necessary for LR as it keeps all the processing changes in it's database anyway. You only need them when you want to hand off the file to another program or person. In which case you can generate them on demand.

Hope this helps.

Colin

[GaryK]

Chuck

Thanks.

Should I keep all in one folder? Sort of like the extras filter folder in PS? Or can I browse several folders and it will add them from wherever?

More of a curisosity thing as I would imagine I will keep them all in one folder anyway.:rolleyes:

[Chuck S.]

Gary, I'm not sure of this....but it seems like once the presets have been added, you don't need to save the files from which they were imported. I think that's the case.....

[JulieM]

Pat, I like your post-calibration version best. :) How often do you calibrate your monitor? I have my eye-one set to remind me once a week but don't usually do it but once every two weeks. It always makes a slightly noticeable change.

Greg, the tilt you applied is really effective. And the cold tone is very appropriate for the image - it wasn't that cold the day I took the picture but cold enough! I'm glad you've joined us here.

[bayhli]

Thanks Julie, me too. It matches more closely to what I actually did in LR now.

I only callibrate about once a month and I find that hard to keep up with.