Adobe- Give Lightroom a "back" button....please.

I'm really hoping that as a result of this post, someone will point out that I'm being an idiot and have overlooked this feature and its already there.  But I've Google'd and can't find an answer and it is driving me nuts.

In Lightroom "Develop" module, there is a handy "History" function that records the changes you've made to an image and this is great, but its not where I would like to see a "Back" button.

Lightroom 5, Spot Removal Tool (Not a Healing Brush!)

One of the tools I do use regularly got a makeover in LightRoom 5 and is one of the bits that there has been a fair amount of noise about.  The spot removal tool was great for, well, spots. You could also creatively use it in other ways, but to be honest it was a bit limited as it only worked by placing a circle over the thing you wanted to remove, so if you wanted to remove something that was long and thin, you'd have to put a big circle over it and then have LR work its magic, which did not often give great results.

In LR 5 you can now "paint over" the long and thin (or really any irregular shaped) things you wish to remove and Lightroom will do much better.  I've heard this feature described as being akin to CS6's healing features but sadly it really isn't, it IS much better and will mean in some cases you won't need to go to CS6, but its not the same and its not as good (in my opinion).

Original image and blemish removal comparison in CS6 and Lightroom 5.

Take this image for example, top left is the original, and there's a nasty branch covering the bird on the left.

Top right, shows the branch "painted" in with the CS6 Healing brush, and the image below it shows the result.  Pretty good.

Bottom left shows the new Spot Removal Tools' attempt at the same thing.  Because it samples from a nearby location it has carried across bits of the branch and the birds leg, which means more cleaning up.

So its a great addition to Lightroom and improves the tool a lot, but a Healing brush it isn't.

Peter.

Lightroom 5 New Features in Use

So I've now purchased LR5 and moved over to it fully, which was a pretty painless process (apart from the pain in my wallet!).  The thing with running the Beta version was that whilst you could play with the new features, its not the same as having it as part of your standard workflow, I've often found that "cool new features" or plugins etc quickly fall by the wayside and don't become a regularly used feature when they are added to your normal day to day work.

So which features have quickly been integrated my workflow and which have not?

Well actually its not that simple because often I have to remind myself to use the new features as my ways are seem quite entrenched.

One of the features I am using regularly is the "Visualise Spots" function that comes alive when the "Spot Removal" tool is activated.  Its ideal for highlighting dust spots as it says, but I've also found it really useful to check whether other manipulations have left artifacts that you don't notice at first but could become visible later.

As an example:

Puffin coming in to land on Staple Island.

In this shot of a  Puffin, coming in to land, I mucked it up and got half a Puffin in at the bottom.  I could have cropped it out but I wanted to keep a good bit of space around the flying one so elected to use the new version of the "Spot Removal" tool that now allows use over irregular shapes.

And it looks like this.

Distracting Half Puffin Removed

Which looks ok (I've left the LR dot in to show where the half Puffin was).  However if you then invoke the "Visualise Spots" function it looks like this.

Visualise Spots function showing blending errors

You can now clearly see that there is a dark crescent visible which is where the Puffin has been removed, so this needs a bit more work.  Incidentally this function has also revealed a spot (may be dust may be an object in the distance), this is the proper function of the tool, so using it to check for blending blemishes etc is not its prime function but is helpful nonetheless.

I'll Post a few thoughts on the new "Spot Removal" tool, which I'm finding a bit disappointing but perhaps my expectations were too high!

Peter.

Lightroom 5 impressions

I've been using the public beta of Lightroom 5 for a few days now and thought I'd share my first impressions.  As I'm not a pro photographer, my usage of Lightroom is more akin to that of a "normal" amateur photographer so please bear that in mind when reading on.  I'm finding new features all the time but here are my thoughts on a couple that I will use a lot.  Thankfully they have not thrown away the main interfaces so it all has a nice familiar feel.

Reflecting on my workflow, I seem to do the majority of my photo handling in Lightroom, only going off to other programs when absolutely necessary.  In LR4, this meant anytime that cloning or more complex healing was needed for example.  With LR5 adobe have brought us a proper Cloning tool and Healing brush, which is great.  Not sure if its me but the healing brush seems to not be quite as good as the one in Photoshop but for simpler jobs the tools are great.

When knocking out dust spots, there's now a function that makes them more visible which is great as it means you get them all and quickly too.

There are tools for automatically straightening/levelling images and they do seem to work on most images so will be a useful addition.

A nice new feature (and its puzzling why it wasn't there all along), is a full screen mode.  Any picture can now be viewed quickly at full screen by pressing "f".  This is a really nice "little thing" that makes a big difference.

One thing which is not there though is an erase brush function on the gradient tool.  I use the gradient tool a lot but its a bit heavy handed, would be great to get the super smooth graduations of this tool but be able to brush them out where you don't want them.  Yes you can fudge it with the current adjustment brush but its not the same.

The other thing I would love to see is a facial recognition tool that can tag faces in the library.  I've tried it in Picassa and thought it worked really well and it could save ages and help keep your library organised.

I'm wondering though if  there is enough new in this release to be a new version, feels like Lightroom 4S to me at the moment.  Hopefully there's more goodies to be discovered!

Geo Tagging your Images

If your're anything like me then you may not be the most disciplined photographer when it comes to Tagging and Cataloging your images.  This is frustrating especially when you've been on holiday or a photography trip and some time after the event you want to know where a particular image was taken.  This is where Geo-Tagging comes in.  Geo-Tagging is simply a way to add the place where the the picture was taken to the rest of the "Meta Data" that is recorded alongside your photo when you click the shutter.  A GPS chip, logs your Longitude and Latitude data (your position), and then when you take the image from your camera, software or Google Maps etc can tell you exactly where your shot was taken.

I've always liked the thought of being able to Geo-Tag my images, but for some reason mainstream camera makers seem reluctant to add this feature as part of the camera and charge a fortune for a specialist accessory.  The only choice then is to use an external GPS.

The principle of using an external GPS unit is that you carry it around with you while you are shooting, and it constantly records your position at any given time.  Each of your images will have in its Meta Data the time the image is taken.  So as long as your GPS clock and your camera clock are synchronised, some clever software can look at the time each image was taken, cross reference that with the GPS data to find out where you were standing at that moment in time, and then add the location co-ordinates to your photo.  Brilliant!

I've tried a couple of alternative methods in the past, I've used a program for the Iphone, which worked but sucked the battery dry in a couple of hours, and I've used a Garmin unit which worked, but is relatively big and heavy, you certainly know its in your pocket!

Garmin Etrex and GPS Datalogger

I recently stumbled on (for me) a genre of product called a USB  GPS data logger, and because it doesn't have to be a phone, or carry tons of maps and a screen etc can be slimmed down to the size of a large USB memory stick, you can see the difference in size in the picture above.  There's a big difference in weight too, the Garmin weighs in at 171g whereas the USB one comes in at 33g.  So its small and light a slips easily into a pocket.  This one has an internal battery, with a reported 18 hour life and charges from a USB port.

GPS Photo Tagger main screen

This unit came with some software called GPS Photo Tagger which downloads the data from the device, allows you to edit the data if you wish will add the location data to your photos, or export the data as a GPX file for importing into other programs (I use Lightroom for this).

Lightroom 4 Maps with GPS Track and encoded images.

Lightroom 4 had a new module called Maps and allows images to be placed on a map where they were taken either manually or by importing a GPX file and letting Lightroom work out where the images were taken.  I export a GPX file from Phototagger and import that to Lightroom and let it do its stuff which takes seconds.

It would be good if Lightroom 4 could import data right from the device to take away the intermediary step, but it all works well enough.

USB GPS Data Logger

For info, I got the device from Amazon for less than £30, just search for "USB GPS data logger" and you should get some options.

I should also mention that the data from the GPS unit also records your trip, so distance walked, altitude reached is all in there and should you wish to you can see all of that on a Google map via the Photo Tagger software.

Great Stuff.