I like Lightroom 6, thanks for recommending

[ilzho]

Hello:

Just wanted to say thanks to those of you who recommend that I get Lightroom 6.

It is nice to finally take a RAW image and to be able to really single out colors, etc... No more washed out photos....

SO much to learn about it, but more than meets my needs. It's a lot better than I was getting with Iphoto.

[Waddizzle]

There is a lot to discover.  It is also all too easy to go overboard with the adjustments, too.  Less is usually best.  Learn how to read the histogram display, if you haven't already.  It really helps me with exposure.  I cannot trust my computer displays.

[ilzho]

Yeah, I will. It's pretty intesive right now since I am learning.

[ScottyP]

I love LR.  If you haven't already, just watch a dozen free video tutorials and it isn't too bad. 

Avoid using too much saturation. Same with too much vignetting. 

Learning to sync multiple images, to apply the same adjustments to all of them after you fix the first one, is a huge help. 

Learning some quick key commands is helpful.  For starters,  X and P mark shots for deletion or flags them as good. Control + backspace to delete all the ones marked for deletion. Etc, etc...

[ilzho]

Great tips thanks.

When you sync multiple images to apply the same changes after you fix the first one.... I have never done this before, but one question is: When I take multiple photos (horses for example) lets say 15 shots, racing in front of me, each one will be a different pose, exposing little different lights/shadows, is that the time to do sync adjustments or would this sync adjustments be more for a stand still type of portraits??

[Waddizzle]

He's referring to "Settings".  You can "Sync" settings across mulitple image files, and match them up.  Typically, I "sync" settings in one of two ways.  One, I apply a modest adjustment [via a Preset] to photos when I Import them.  Two, sometimes an entire set of photos needs a SMALL amount of additional tweaking, common to all of the photos: i.e. white balance or exposure corrections.

As you use the program more and more, adjusting individual photos, you may begin to notice that you keep applying similar settings changes to a set of photos taken together.  This is when synchronizing settings is most useful.  As for you example, I say adjust each photo individually, so that you can get a feel for the range of adjustments that are possible.

[ScottyP]

I don't apply any standard changes on importing the photos, but I do find when I get into the shots I usually have at least 2 or 3 shots taken of the same thing from the same place in the same light, all right next to each other in sequence. If I was shooting a burst there might be 10 or more basically identical images in a row. I will apply basic changes to one, basically going in order down through the settings in the Develop module. White balance, exposure, contrast, setting the blacks, go dance, maybe a slight +5 in saturation, then sharpening, maybe noise correction if needed and maybe a tiny bit of vignette.  (If you are shooting RAW like me instead of JPG you need to do more in post because the camera is not pepping the image up for you).

These changes are all fairly slight and they all usually fit well to the whole series of images. You therefore select all the similar images and click SYNC and the same changes are applied to all of them. You can then go back and fine tune individual images if needed.  This is a huge time saver. 

I save more time by going through and eliminating all the bad shots (out of focus or eyes closed etc) and/or flagging the ones good enough to work with before processing any of them.  No sense processing a garbage shot. 

[Waddizzle]

"I don't apply any standard changes on importing the photos, ....  ..."

When I import photos, I apply Lens Correction to all of the images, which includes distortion and vignetting.  I also change from "Adobe Standard" to "Camera Standard" to match the camera's settings.  I also apply 10 points each on "Vibrance" and "Clarity".

[RobertTheFat]

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@Waddizzle wrote:

"I don't apply any standard changes on importing the photos, ....  ..."

When I import photos, I apply Lens Correction to all of the images, which includes distortion and vignetting.  I also change from "Adobe Standard" to "Camera Standard" to match the camera's settings.  I also apply 10 points each on "Vibrance" and "Clarity".

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"Vibrance"? "Clarity"? What are those? Effete Adobian terms for "Saturation" and "Sharpness"? 

[Waddizzle]

The "Basic" settings tab includes three "Presence" settings; Vibrance, Clarity, and Saturation.

Noise reduction is pretty cool, too.

It does a fantastic job cleaning up grainy looking photos, especially those taken with high ISO values.  I leave that noise reduction setting in the camera turned off, and do any clean up in Lightroom.

[EDIT]  I have also been using both LR and PS to "restore" and clean up several decades old photos.