I have been using the LR for the last month. And I have been impressed with the ease of use and power of the LR. However, I just wished I have participated more on the LR forum to provide some feedback.

I know LIGHTROOM IS NOT PHOTOSHOP. But I hope the next releases of LR would improve on the following, and these are some of my workarounds to overcome what I'm missing from LR.

USM - The LR sharpening is ok, but I don't really understand how it works and to what level it sharpens it. I also want to do some defogging but of course this is not possible in LR. I usually use the Tone curves to mimic how I want my defogging effect.
Versioning - Whenever u edit a raw, you cannot keep versions of it, unlike how you can do it with Capture NX. I think other photo-databasing softwares can do this.
More sorting/filter devices - Currently, LR only has the color-labels and the flags (pick and rejected flags) + the keywords, however, I hope it would create more sorting devices instead of resorting to these.
Colorspace setting - Not sure if there is one in LR. If not, maybe the guys here could enlighten me.
Black and white compensation points - these are the droppers found in Levels in PS. I think this has been replaced by the Lights/Dark sliders, but i found it more user-friendly to have a dropper interface.I want to hear the other LR users in the forum what they think should be added to LR and what they do in the meantime when these "missing" functions. :)

hi melvin, i also use lightroom,
its really a good software for processing, but one thing i have difficulty with is the colorspace setting, especially when i use it in tandem with photoshop..

it has a default color setting which has a diff tone as Adobe RGB which im accustomed to.. wish it was easier to set in LR..will someone please enlightn me with it..

Hi Mario,

During export (conversion) to jpeg, you have the option to convert it to aRGB or sRGB. But while you are working on LR itself, you don't know which colorspace you are working on. I'm assuming you are on what the colorspace you have indicated on your camera (in my case, I'm using aRGB on my Nikon).

To be honest, I'm not sure what I'm missing on LR color management.

thanks melvin, ill try that..i have Michael Reichmann's video tutorial on Lightroom but they did not take the subject on color management..

Admittedly LR works great for web page output but for printing and working with photoshop, it has its quirks..

so right now im back to Canon DPP which is easier to color manage in tandem with photoshop..im more productive with that workflow until i find the solution to LR..

i think you can make a diff. version of your file by using virtual copy. it should make a new file or alter the .xmp file to make 2 or more diff variations of one raw image.

hi melvin, i also use lightroom,
its really a good software for processing, but one thing i have difficulty with is the colorspace setting, especially when i use it in tandem with photoshop..

it has a default color setting which has a diff tone as Adobe RGB which im accustomed to.. wish it was easier to set in LR..will someone please enlightn me with it..

This site: http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/1.0/help.html?content=WS0F7BFFFA-CE53-4ceb-B3D3-9D6256B8917D.html

says that:

"The Library module stores previews in the Adobe RGB color space. These previews are also used when printing in draft mode. For rendered files such as TIFF, JPEG, and PSD files, Lightroom uses the image’s embedded color profile to display the image, histogram, and color values. If the image doesn’t have a profile, Lightroom assumes the sRGB profile, and the image may not look as expected on your monitor."

correct me if im wrong,, but i think there's no dodging and burning in lightroom,,

This site: http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/1.0/help.html?content=WS0F7BFFFA-CE53-4ceb-B3D3-9D6256B8917D.html

says that:

"The Library module stores previews in the Adobe RGB color space. These previews are also used when printing in draft mode. For rendered files such as TIFF, JPEG, and PSD files, Lightroom uses the image’s embedded color profile to display the image, histogram, and color values. If the image doesn’t have a profile, Lightroom assumes the sRGB profile, and the image may not look as expected on your monitor."

thanks for the link bebet :)

i think you can make a diff. version of your file by using virtual copy. it should make a new file or alter the .xmp file to make 2 or more diff variations of one raw image.

Thanks for the info. I'll try to check this out. :)

This site: http://livedocs.adobe.com/en_US/Lightroom/1.0/help.html?content=WS0F7BFFFA-CE53-4ceb-B3D3-9D6256B8917D.html

says that:

"The Library module stores previews in the Adobe RGB color space. These previews are also used when printing in draft mode. For rendered files such as TIFF, JPEG, and PSD files, Lightroom uses the image’s embedded color profile to display the image, histogram, and color values. If the image doesn’t have a profile, Lightroom assumes the sRGB profile, and the image may not look as expected on your monitor."

@Bebet,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Nikon Raw Files (NEF), has always an assigned colorspace when you take a photo [depends if you're in ModeI (sRGB), II (aRGB) or III (enhanced sRGB)]. So, for Nikon Raw files, LR will never force (or assume) a colorspace?

Thanks!

@Bebet,

Correct me if I'm wrong, but Nikon Raw Files (NEF), has always an assigned colorspace when you take a photo [depends if you're in ModeI (sRGB), II (aRGB) or III (enhanced sRGB)]. So, for Nikon Raw files, LR will never force (or assume) a colorspace?

Thanks!

@Melvin,

Once you shot in RAW and opened the RAW file with a 3rd part RAW converter, all the camera settings (i.e. Color Mode, Tone Curve, Saturation, Sharpening etc) are disregarded. Whatever setting you use on that particular 3rd party RAW converter will be applied to your RAW file. That is the main reason why every RAW converter has slightly different rendition of the RAW file except of course for the RAW converters made specifically by the camera manufacturers which gives a faithful rendition of the RAW file when it was shot with all camera settings intact.

@Melvin,

Once you shot in RAW and opened the RAW file with a 3rd part RAW converter, all the camera settings (i.e. Color Mode, Tone Curve, Saturation, Sharpening etc) are disregarded. Whatever setting you use on that particular 3rd party RAW converter will be applied to your RAW file. That is the main reason why every RAW converter has slightly different rendition of the RAW file except of course for the RAW converters made specifically by the camera manufacturers which gives a faithful rendition of the RAW file when it was shot with all camera settings intact.

Thanks for the answer! I was thinking about this as well, as I can see that you can tinker with the colorspace on the 'Base Settings' of the raw File in Capture Nx.

Hhhhhmmmm... This makes me think if I want to keep on using LR. Although, I love the convenience and ease of this program, at the end of the day, I want to get all the settings right when printing. I just got the prints (from Digiprint), photos converted from LR. I think around 15-20% of the time, some colours were a bit off. Comparing this when I was using Capture NX as my main photo-edit and jpeg converting program, almost all of my prints (from the same photo-lab) were spot-on.

Hhhhhmmmm... This makes me think if I want to keep on using LR. Although, I love the convenience and ease of this program, at the end of the day, I want to get all the settings right when printing. I just got the prints (from Digiprint), photos converted from LR. I think around 15-20% of the time, some colours were a bit off. Comparing this when I was using Capture NX as my main photo-edit and jpeg converting program, almost all of my prints (from the same photo-lab) were spot-on.


same here melvin,
im back to Canon's DPP for processing..at least im assured i get the right color..:)

same here melvin,
im back to Canon's DPP for processing..at least im assured i get the right color..:)

If I may add, printing in LR is also impossible. Colors are all wrong... :(

Don't get me wrong, I love it, but at the moment there are some compromises to it... :(