What do *you* use Lightroom for?

[John Olsen]

My scanner is just an Epson "small-in-one", but with a little LR help, quite adequate for documenting my B&W prints for uploading to web pages. I start in PS for rotation, cropping and spotting, then go to LR for clarity, highlights and sometimes vignetting. Then I return to PS for final sharpening and brightening, if necessary. It sounds laborious, but then my production rate doesn't have to be high.
Also, if you do ever get a DLSR, you'll find that LR is great for making B&W versions to compare with (or maybe guide) your large format film work.
There are some great tutorials out there - find one that talks slowly and isn't just someone on an ego trip. I recommend those by Julieanne Kost.

[Barry Kirsten]

Thanks Greg and John. Helpful thoughts.

[Ken Lee]

The last time I looked, Lightroom didn't support Layers. Does it now ?

[bob carnie]

I use lightroom for editing down large bodies of work to smaller , tighter , groups. I find this to be an invaluable tool.
Also when I want to set up web jpegs , or presentation jpegs, the export function in Lightroom is very user friendly .

I never use it for working on a file, but with the new version I see no reason not too, if all one is doing is colour correction and dodging and burning.
I prefer PS as I do a lot of conversions, LAB work, and film separations these days.

[h2oman]

Hmmmm...

I must begin by confessing that I've never used Photoshop. (When I began digital photogrphy I ended up with something called Picture Window Pro, and have used it since.) I use Lightroom for pretty much all of my processing of scanned B&W 4x5 negatives now, and it has seemed adequate for me.

I teach at a small college, so I was able to get an educator deal on the newest Lightroom (I'd been using 2.7 until then), so $80 and I was up and running with the latest version, which ought to hold me for another 5-8 years. Decided to upgrade my computer, too, and I got a refurbished Dell that works just fine for $153, and use it with my old CRT monitor whose picture seems to match the resulting prints well enough for my unsophisticated eyes.

[h2oman]

PS I should add that my needs are much less than others who have posted. I don't work professionally, for myself or others, and I rarely print larger than 11x14, never larger than 16x20. I don't like images so sharp that the sharpness calls attention to itself. I pretty much photograph and print for my own enjoyment, and I have found Lightroom to be simple, intuitive and efficient for my processing needs.

[Ari]

I have found the burn/dodge function in LR to be very close to what a darkroom burn/dodge would look like.
The ability to endlessly fine-tune the burn/dodge is invaluable as well, and it's very easy to use. Ditto for the radial filter.
LR has made working faster and easier, without having to create masks and layers.
I like that none of the corrections I might make are permanent, I can export the finished file over and over while keeping the original intact.
What still baffles me is LR's filing and cataloguing system, but it's never caused me to lose a file or be unable to find one.

I use PS for sizing, cropping and spotting dust.
Then I import into LR.

[Barry Kirsten]

Thanks Bob, h2oman and Ari. I'm beginning to see there's more in LR than I first thought. I'll spend some more time with it. Thanks again.

[biedron]

I use Lightroom for everything, from import to print and anything in between. I got Photoshop through the Creative Cloud a year or so ago, thinking I would try to learn to use PS too. But every time I fire up PS and see the bewildering array of mostly meaningless icons, I just go back to LR.

LR doesn't have layers, but having never used layers, I don't miss them. Dust spotting is easy (though still tedious) using the fn+arrow keys to step through the image.

Bob

[appletree]

I currently use lightroom for everything. But been considering signing up for PS CC as well. I spent an entire summer about 4 years ago organizing and sorting all my photos. Only been photography for 6 years now, but had about 2000 photos mostly 35mm and 120 (of which I use to scan EVERY single negative). It was time consuming and my process/organization evolved over time, but it helps a lot now. I can type in Germany and all my photos from Germany show up, or 35mm and likewise.

I use a color coding system for negatives I need to rescan, negatives I need to edit still, negs that are ready to be uploaded etc. One folder for holding all my negs I need to work on and then folders for each year and location...which hold those negs already uploaded, those that didn't make the cut, etc.

Organizing everything has been really great and helpful. Now that the "system" is already in place it is not hard to continue using it. Although I find my lightroom work eb and flow. Sometimes I can go months without working on the 400 negs that are waiting, and others I can spend weeks actually getting work done.