One of the main functions in Adobe Lightroom 2 is the Develop module where RAW image data is “developed” to produce the final image. The Develop processes are tonal adjustments as well as fixing minor blemishes and cropping and angle adjustments. Before starting work on the image Lightroom must read the RAW file, and each camera has a unique RAW file format so this is an important step. Adobe used to have poor RAW processing software, and specialist programs such as Raw Shooter Essentials and Bibble consistently outperformed them. Adobe fixed this by buying Raw Shooter Essentials and including it as part of Lightroom. Lightroom 2 is more than a RAW converter. The range of image adjustment tools is useable on a variety of file types, including the common JPEG and TIFF.
Why use Lightroom not Photoshop?
Adobe Lightroom is not a cut down version of Photoshop but such as Elements, but a companion program to extend photographer’s image management capabilities. Adobe’s Lightroom complements their Photoshop product. Photoshop is a powerful suite of tools for complex creation and editing of images and often this very power gets in the way of simple image adjustments. Lightroom aims to provide the serious photographer with a place to process a large number of digital images resulting from a busy shooting session. One example of this efficient workflow is the automatic healing of the inevitable stuck pixels found in all digital camera images.
Degree of adjustment basic to complex
Naturally, there is a master histogram display complementing the main preview screen, the combination gives the photographer a good indication of the impact of any changes made. Just below the histogram are a number of icons for basic image editing such as cropping and redeye removal. If the image requires more extensive editing then Lightroom can open up the image in Photoshop.
Lightroom follows a familiar pattern of offering basic adjustments using simple sliders to make general adjustments or the option of more detailed control in other dialog boxes. Even though the adjustment is simple for the photographer, professional tools such as Adobe Lightroom are performing complex range of minor and interrelated adjustments. For most images, this is the only correction required. Figure one shows the menu of dialog boxes to the right of the current image and each name expands to show their range of options.
The expanded Basic menu in figure two show a number of sliders for high level adjustments for color tone and sharpness (clarity). These generalized tools are often enough for a quick tune of the image by the photographer.
Adobe Lightroom has provision for detailed adjustments if they are required, figure three shows two more boxes open. The tone curve is for finer exposure adjustments that are far more selective for darker and lighter areas of the image. Using the sliders or moving a point on the histogram curve makes the changes to the image exposure. The next open box is for detailed color adjustment with increases or decreases in hue, saturation, and luminance for eight color channels in the image to get the colors exactly right.
While the Clarity slider in the Basic box does a reasonable job of adjusting image sharpness, the Detail box (figure five) is another example of expanded control. There are ten sliders to play with rather than the one clarity control.
Why Adjustments Are Needed
Despite all their fancy electronics, even the latest digital marvels do not get exposure and colors correct every time. One extreme example is in figure four where the camera badly misjudged the color temperature. The camera’s suggested color temperature did produce true skin tones on the techs setting up their sound gear. However, the lighting tech had the room bathed in blue light so the image should have a decided blue color. By simply moving the color temperature slider in the Basic box set the blue shade in the image. Of course, if the people in the image are more important then set the color temperature for the best skin tones.
Non-Destructive Adjustments
The previous example of the colorcast also highlights an important feature of Adobe Lightroom 2, it does not alter the original image file. Any processing of an image file inevitably results in some slight degradation in quality, so Lightroom does not change the original. It saves a list of changes applied to the image only when it is printed or exported. Repeated changes to image settings in Lightroom 2 do not degrade or alter the original. It is a simple matter to produce two images, one with a true blue color and another optimized for skin tones. It is a creative decision only the photographer can make.
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