2 Replies Latest reply: Sep 3, 2009 11:31 AM by Ed.Macke RSS

    Why Lightroom ?  Jpg vs. Raw

    pennipeter Community Member

      I have been a photoshop user all my life. Now comes Lightroom 2 and I can't understand the magic.

      So it's all in one. But with photoshop you can tweek the picture better.    

      Does Lightroom literally copy all my pix?  But I still need a backup right? Where is the original?

      I am in Lightroom and adjust a photograph. Am I working on  a copy?   

      I shoot jpg as my camera is a Canon 5D Mark 11 and has plently of pixles.  Does Lightroom perform better for RAW? 

      Am I wasting my time working in Lightroom with jpgs?

      Can I still do most of the same alterations with a jpg photo?

         Thank you !  Penni

        • 1. Re: Why Lightroom ?  Jpg vs. Raw
          Jao vdL Community Member

          The paradigm is completely different from what you are used to. For example, every edit in Lightroom is completely non-destructive in contrast to Photoshop. You can generate multiple versions of the same image, without needing extra disk space. You can always step back in your edit chain. The sequence in which you edit is not important, etc. etc. I recommend you look at some training videos. Adobe supplies a great set of free ones here:

          http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/lightroom/articles/lir2am_videotutorials.html

          Luminous landscape has a for pay video that is quite good too and there are many others. The free ones from Adobe are quite good so try those first.

          But with photoshop you can tweek the picture better.

          That depends completely on what you do. Lightroom is actually better and faster at quite a few things if you ignore using ACR in Photoshop. Examples are capture sharpening, selective edits, etc. You can all those in Photoshop, but they take a lot of effort. They are completely painless and non-destructive in Lightroom. In my opinion, except when you need extensive pixel editing such as cloning, punching out, etc. there really is no point ever going into Photoshop. You can do it much faster and easier in Lightroom.

          Does Lightroom literally copy all my pix?  But I still need a backup right? Where is the original?

          I am in Lightroom and adjust a photograph. Am I working on  a copy? 

          Lightroom places your pics wherever you want. You can even leave them in place if you like generating your own hard disk structure. The original is wherever you tell Lightroom to place it in the import dialog.Regardless of what program you use, you always need to make backups. Never trust your images to a single harddrive. When you make adjustments in Lightroom, Lightroom prepares a recipe on how to render the new image from your original. The orginal is NEVER touched. Then when you need a copy of your image (say a jpeg for a website) with all your edits, you export a new image to a temporary location, upload it, and then trash it when you're done with the exported copy.

          I shoot jpg as my camera is a Canon 5D Mark 11 and has plently of pixles.  Does Lightroom perform better for RAW?

          The multitude of benefits of RAW shooting are well documented. Lightroom works just fine with jpegs, but to really get the very best your camera can produce you need to shoot RAW. For your 5D mk II for example, it is well known that its jpeg engine produces very soft images far below what the camera is able to resolve. Shoot RAW and use Lightroom or ACR and you will get much more detail out of the image, especially if you tweak the sharpening settings a little. You will also get better color rendition and shadow detail and far more latitude in working with your images for only a small price in extra storage space. Programs like Lightroom and Apple's Aperture make working with RAW painless.

          Am I wasting my time working in Lightroom with jpgs?

          Can I still do most of the same alterations with a jpg photo?

          No, but you can get better results with RAW regardless of what program you use. This really depends on your skills as a photographer, your type of photography and what you want to get as a result. If you're happy with jpegs out of your camera because you are very experienced and always light, white balance, and expose correctly, and also simply don't have the time to tweak, by all means, stick to that. If you're a careful landscape photographer, you will get far better results working from RAW. Lightroom will do any adjustment, except for white balance and tint, exactly the same on jpeg as on RAW. Due to the highly compressed nature of jpegs, the compressed color gamut and the low bit precision, however, jpegs will break down pretty quickly if you push them.

          • 2. Re: Why Lightroom ?  Jpg vs. Raw
            Ed.Macke Community Member

            Does Lightroom literally copy all my pix?  But I still need a backup right? Where is the original?

             

            > Does Lightroom literally copy all my pix?
            Upon import, you can have it COPY from an existing location to a new location, or just use an existing structure. Your choice.

             

            You could point to 20 different structures on 5 different hard drives, if you want. LR keeps track of where they all are so you don't have to.

             

            FYI, the import dialog has a bunch of other pretty powerful options, too:
            Optional conversion to DNG
            File renaming based on templates
            Applying pre-defined metadata, such as copyright information
            Applying pre-defined development adjustments
            Applying keywords

             

            > But I still need a backup right?
            Again, upon import, you can (optionally) tell LR to create an additional backup copy automatically as part of the import. Basically, you would end up with 2 copies - one in a backup location (can be internal or external drive, whatever) and one that you actually work on. Obviously, you'd still want perform normal computer backup (e.g. backing up your hard drives).

             

            > Where is the original?
            The original is whereever you told the import dialog to put it.

             

            I am in Lightroom and adjust a photograph. Am I working on  a copy? 

            In LR, your image is never modified. Every adjustment you do is saved as a separate instruction. For example, if you increase your exposure by +1... LR doesn't physically alter your original, it just saves an instruction that says "take the original image, and adjust it by +1". If you then adjusted the brightness by +20, LR would now have 2 instructions: "take the original image, adjust the exposure by +1, adjust the brightness by +20". And so on. If you get LR, you'll notice that there isn't even a "Save" button.

             

            Now, depending on a few options, exactly *where* those instructions get saved is another matter.

             

            But the important thing to remember is that the image you import is never altered by LR.

             

            When all of your edits are done, you would typically export as JPG, TIF, etc.

             

            Can I still do most of the same alterations with a jpg photo?

            There's lots of info on the web on RAW vs JPG. Basically RAW will always give you more flexibility than JPG. Even though you can do more or less the same adjustments, the adjustments will look better using RAW. For example, Lightroom has a "Recovery" function that will help recover blown highlights. A RAW image can often have detail that can be coaxed out of those blown-out areas (e.g. sky), but in a JPG blown-out is blown-out - there's no detail to recover.

             


            Lightroom has a free evaluation. Maybe try downloading it. Import all your current images, specifying COPY to a new location. You could play around, and if you didn't like it just delete everything.