What do *you* use Lightroom for?

[Bill McMannis]

In addition to all my digital processing, tagging and cataloging LR's ability to both upload to my Flickr and Behance accounts are quite good. It synchs with Flickr to download comments from the site as well as updating images that I may adjust after the initial upload.

[Barry Kirsten]

I've been really helped and encouraged by the replies here, and also by some of Julieanne Kost's LR tutorials that someone mentioned. I spent some time this morning with LR and produced an inkjet print I considered half decent (something of a first for me as I haven't had much success with inkjet printing). Printing aside, I have to say that I'm starting to appreciate the power of LR. I need to spend a lot more time with it, but I can see myself using it a lot, perhaps even more than PS. Thanks everyone for your comments.

[Bill McMannis]

Lynda.com has a number of excellent tutorials on LR. One on B&W portrait touch up and another on urban landscapes are particularly good.

[Barry Kirsten]

Thanks Bill. I looked at some of Lynda's tutorials on youtube where they're free. They are good.

[fishbulb]

I thought that all the tools in LR are also in ACR. Is that incorrect? I use ACR a lot in PS - and can re-edit it if I need to. I think it is cumbersome to have to import images into LR, and creating different galleries etc. is a lot of work. Then if I want to move images around it requires a lot more work.

So, are there any tools, or toosl that behave differently, in LR Vs ACR??

Mike

Yes you are correct. Lightroom, Photoshop, and Bridge all use the same Adobe Camera Raw software as their underlying RAW processing engine. Assuming all three programs are of the same vintage, the results are going to be the same.

The only difference that could occur is if the programs are not all up to date. For example, Photoshop CS2, Lightroom 4, and Bridge CC 2015 all use different versions of ACR, because the programs came out at different times.

The big differences between Lightroom and Photoshop are the other tools that are not contained withing ACR. They have different ways of doing HDR and Panorama merging. Photoshop can do layers, Lightroom can't. Lightroom has great organizational tools, Photoshop doesn't. Lightroom's adjustment brush works differently than the one in Photoshop. Etc.

[fishbulb]

I have no idea what (a) catalog is in Lightroom. Never really even noticed it, I don't think.

Understanding catalogs is REALLY important to using Lightroom - mainly so you don't screw something up.

The Lightroom Catalog is just a database file that tells Lightroom two things:
(1) Where the actual image files are located and
(2) What changes you made to the files

Important things to understand about Catalogs:

* If you move files around (such as RAW files you've imported) WITHOUT doing it inside of Lightroom, the Catalog won’t know where to find them.
* If you need to move files around after you've imported them into Lightroom, do it by dragging and dropping the files in the Folders Panel on the left side of the Library module in Lightroom. DON'T do it by moving the files in Windows or Apple Finder.
* When editing files in Lightroom, the original files are untouched - changes are stored in the Catalog, and then you export a new, edited copy when you’re done editing.
* If you need to edit a file in Photoshop, open it from within Lightroom, by right-clicking and choosing Edit In->Photoshop. Lightroom will know you're doing this, and keep the Catalog updated accordingly, even if you create new files when you're working in Photoshop.
* You can have multiple catalogs that track different sets of folders (I don't), but you need at least one to even use Lightroom. Otherwise, Lightroom won't have a place to store the information on your image files.

Also, you should have three folders on your computer that Lightroom uses.

(1) A place to store your unedited photos (anything you've imported in Lightroom, such as RAW files):
- For example in “My Documents\Lightroom Imports\”
- You then would have subfolders like:
- “My Documents\Lightroom Imports\2015\Bob's Wedding\” and “My Documents\Lightroom Imports\2015\Trip to Yellowstone\”
- Or however you set up your organization of folders.
- This location is set when you import files, on the right side of the Import panel. Subfolders can be created each time you import new files.

(2) A place to store your Lightroom Catalog (the database) and its backups:
- For example in “My Documents\Lightroom Catalogs\”
- Lightroom will create its own subfolders
- You can set the location of your catalog when you create it, or change it in “Edit -> Catalog Settings”

(3) A place where you put finished files (finished files exported from Lightroom):
- For example in “My Documents\Lightroom Exports\” for example.
- This location is set when you export files, at the top of the Export panel.

These three core locations should be *separate folders* as in the example, and not contained within one another.