Just released recently from HDR Soft is a plug-in that allows you to export photos from Lightroom directly to Photomatix Pro and automatically reimport the processed tone mapped HDR image back into the Lightroom catalog. To use this plug-in you will need to download and purchase the latest version of Photomatix Pro which includes the export plug-in and instructions on how to install in Lightroom for Mac and PC. Here is an initial test I carried out that shows how the plug-in works in Lightroom after installing.

1. To begin with, I selected 5 bracketed exposure photos in the Lightroom Library module. I then went to the File menu and chose Plug-in Extras > Export to Photomatix Pro.

2. This opened the Export dialog, where I used the settings shown here to process the selected photos. Note that I also checked the Automatically re-import into Lightroom Library (sic) option.

3. Lightroom then began to export the selected photos.

4. Here in Photomatix Pro is the initial preview that shows how the tone mapped image will look once processed.

5. I adjusted the Photomatix tone mapping settings to achieve the desired look and then clicked on the Process button.

6. Here now is the Photomatix processed image automatically re-imported back into Lightroom and shown here using the Loupe view in the Library module.

This is a cross-posted Photoshopnews story in which I have tried to unravel the question of how should you set the shadow output levels when editing an image in Camera Raw. You will find that the exact same principles apply when working in Lightroom.

Some image editing habits become so ingrained that it is hard to unlearn them when newer ways come along and make the old favorite methods redundant. An example of this is the subject of setting the output Levels in Photoshop for the print output. For many years Photoshop users were taught to set the output levels for the shadows at a slightly higher value than 0,0,0, even though (as you will read here) it has not been necessary to do so for quite some years now. Then came along Camera Raw and Lightroom and some photographers have been agonizing over how to set the output levels for an image when there is no output levels control in Camera Raw or Lightroom. Hopefully the following article will help shed some light on how Photoshop is still able to manage the output levels for you and why the solution is really a lot simpler than you would think.

Read the full story…

Later today, Friday 9th November, you will be able to download a public beta of Naked light, a new program that looks rather interesting in that it appears it will offer quite a few of the non-destructive features that people have been asking for in Lightroom. There is no information on the site to say who is behind the program’s development, however we do know that it will only run on Apple’s Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard. But not only are the requirements Apple only, the site’s graphics, the interface design, the tightly controlled pre-release marketing, even the countdown time clock. Everything here does look very ‘Apple’…

From the Naked light website:

Public beta arriving Friday, November 9th, 2007.

The emperor has new clothes. Introducing Naked light. Non-destructive image editing. Node-based compositing. Live filters. High-end tools. And infinite resolution. It’s image editing, re-invented. Take the tour.

Node-based compositing. Naked light features nodes—simple building blocks in a composition like a images, filters, and sets of brush strokes. Nodes can be arranged in novel ways that layers cannot. Learn more.

Infinite resolution. Layout images and define tools and filters in real-life units like inches, millimeters, and picas. Mix and match images with different resolutions, color spaces, and pixel aspect ratios in the same composition. Learn more.

Pro tools. Use precise tools with photographer-friendly units, like stops. Access tools quickly with the Tool and Filter Dock. And try out new tools like the Noise Brush and Gradient Selections. Learn more.

Live filters. Filters can be edited and re-edited, forever. Work multiple filters holistically to achieve the perfect effect, rather than one-at-a-time. Never get caught up in dialogue boxes—Naked light lets you quickly edit all filters directly in your canvas and inspector. Learn more.

Non-destructive editing. In Naked light, it’s impossible to ruin an image. All your original images and negatives are stored safely in your Library, so you’ll never have to worry about writing over a file or over tweaking a layer. Learn more.

Drag and drop opening
The drag and drop to the Photoshop application icon method of opening photos will work with any photo in a Lightroom catalog: raw, TIFF or JPEG, provided that the metadata status has been updated and saved to the file’s XMP space. The drag and drop method is really a kind of a cheat that allows you to bypass the Photo menu ➯ Edit in Photoshop step in Lightroom. It offers you a way to open an image in Photoshop without creating an Edit copy (so you can save out the file from Photoshop without adding a derivative image to the catalog). It can also allow you to bypass the File ➯ Export dialog. And instead of configuring an Export user preset with a Photoshop droplet placed in the Export Actions folder, you can batch process photos from Lightroom by simply dragging them to a droplet. But as I have said, you must, must remember to save the metadata to the file before you drag and drop. If you don’t do this, the file will open using the default or previously saved metadata settings. For example, if you have a JPEG photo in your catalog, make some Develop module adjustments and drag and drop to the Photoshop icon, the photo will open directly in Photoshop as a JPEG, without applying the adjustments added in Lightroom. However, if you use Photo menu ➯ Save Metadata to File (Command–S [Mac], Control–S [PC]) before dragging and dropping, the JPEG photo will open up in Photoshop via the Camera Raw dialog showing the exact same settings that were applied in the Lightroom Develop module.

Here is how a basic drag and drop open works:

1. Drag and drop opening can be real simple to set up. Create an alias/shortcut of the Photoshop application icon and drag a photo from the library on top of the program icon.

2. Providing you remembered in Lightroom to save the metadata settings to the file before you dragged, the photo will initially open up via the Camera Raw dialog, where if you like, you can alter the settings.

3. Click Open Image in the Camera Raw dialog and this will open the selected photo up in Photoshop. Remember, the opened image will no longer be associated with the Lightroom catalog. You can edit it and save this out as a new derivative of the Lightroom master photo.

Note: In this example I have shown how to use the drag and drop method to open a single image. But you can also select multiple photos and drag these to the Photoshop icon. This will open the Camera Raw dialog shown in step 2 and allow you to decide whether to proceed to open all or just some of the selected photos.

Drag and drop opening as a Smart Object
Here is another variation on the drag and drop method, where thanks to Ben Willmore I was reminded that there is a really neat way to open a Lightroom master photo as a Smart Object.

1. Now this will work with any photo: raw, TIFF or JPEG, but I see this as being more applicable to raw file editing. As before, I began by dragging a photo from the Library module to a Photoshop program alias.

2. As before, this will open the photo up via the Camera Raw dialog, where in this instance I did make some further tone edit adjustments to improve the contrast and lightness of the rock. But after doing this I held down the Shift key which altered the Open Image button so that it now said Open Object and clicked.

3. The photo opened up in Photoshop as a Smart Object. You can tell, because there is a Smart Object icon () in the bottom left corner of the image layer thumbnail. Next, I went to the Layer menu and chose Smart Objects ➯ New Smart Object via Copy.

4. This created a copy of the Smart Object and when I double-clicked the copy Smart Object layer, was able to create a new Camera Raw tone setting for the sky portion of the image. In the screen shot here you can see that I added a gradient layer mask to the copy layer to combine the two different Camera Raw renderings.

That’s it for part 1. In the second part we shall look at using drag and drop to a Photoshop droplet and how to link from Lightroom back to Bridge.

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The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book by Martin Evening is available from Peachpit, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all usual bookstore outlets.

Martin Evening has worked on the development of Adobe Photoshop as an alpha tester from the program’s earliest beginnings. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book describes all of Lightroom’s features in detail, with photographers in mind. Photographers who routinely work with raw (and even jpg & tiff) images will find Lightroom–and The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book–an indispensable tool in their digital darkroom.

Lightroom-news has a free PDF download of Chapter 1. (click here to download-4.6MB PDF).

Free Lightroom 1.1 PDF update

You can also download a free PDF update for the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom book. Go this link for the full instructions on how to access the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book 1.1 update.

A little while back we posted a story linking to an article on the Luminous Landscape website (Do curves throw you a curve?) in which author Mark Segal offered some interesting perspectives on the nature of curve adjustments in Camera Raw and how these compared with traditional RGB composite curve adjustments made in photoshop. In this feature article for Lightroom-News I have concentrated on analyzing the difference between Tone Curve adjustments made in Lightroom and Photoshop curves. I show you here a method for testing curve comparisons between the two programs and some observations on how and why they differ.

On the face of it, the Tone Curve control in Lightroom appears to work the same way as the Curves adjustment in Photoshop. If you use the Tone Curve controls in Lightroom to edit a color image, a steep curve will increase the tonal contrast but will also boost the saturation as well. The same thing happens when you use Photoshop curves to increase the contrast of a color image. Now in Photoshop you can use the Luminosity blend mode to fade a curves adjustment (or if using an adjustment layer, set the layer blend mode to Luminosity). This, it is argued, will apply the curve adjustment to the image luminance only, without affecting the color information. It is a useful technique to know about and can often be used in Photoshop when you wish to apply a small localized contrast correction without affecting the color. Although the Luminosity curve method might seem to be the ‘correct’ way to go about applying curves, your photographs will tend to look unnaturally dull if you use the Luminosity curve approach when carrying out global adjustments. According to Thomas Knoll, it would be easier to program curves without a saturation boost, but it is included in the Photoshop and Lightroom/Camera Raw processing because the mild saturation boost produces more pleasing, film-like results.

But Lightroom/Camera Raw curves do work slightly differently from Photoshop curves and this is because Lightroom curves have a hue lock. This means that when Lightroom maps the RGB values from the before state to the Tone Curve state, it will map the minimum and maximum RGB values (in the linear Lightroom RGB workspace) allowing the hue to vary. But when mapping the middle RGB value, the hue is preserved. Photoshop curves meanwhile have no hue lock and therefore when you apply a strong curve adjustment in Photoshop the hue values can shift quite a bit from the original before values. This in turn can lead to some noticeable color shifts in the processed image. Lightroom/ACR curves do also produce hue shifts, but these are more tightly controlled so that what hue shifts there are, are usually within plus or minus 3°. As I said, Tone Curves in Lightroom that increase the contrast, will boost the saturation, but from the conclusions I draw later, Lightroom/ACR tone curves are on average about 1–2% less contrasty than curves that are applied via Photoshop in the Normal blend mode. In practice this means that Lightroom tone curve adjustments will have smaller hue shifts and the colors are represented better.

So how can one test this? The following steps show the method I used to create a Photoshop curve that matched a Tone Curve adjustment that had been applied in the Lightroom Develop module.

Important note: these steps for creating matching Photoshop curves will be specific to the RGB space you export the files to. In the following example I exported the images from Lightroom to the ProPhoto RGB space.

1. To replicate a Lightroom tone curve in Photoshop, I made a virtual copy of a color image and converted it to Grayscale mode in Lightroom. In this example I applied a high contrast Tone Curve and exported two versions: one with a neutral Linear point curve and one using a high contrast curve setting (as shown here).

2. In Photoshop I added the Linear Tone Curve image as a layer above the High Contrast Tone Curve layer and placed the layer in a new group. I then added a curves adjustment layer above the linear Tone Curve layer. I then set the layer group blend mode to Difference. The objective now was to open the curves adjustment layer and create a curve shape that matched the Lightroom Tone Curve shown at step 1. Because the layer group had been set to Difference, this meant that the image would appear solid black when the curve adjustment adjusted the linear Tone curve layer so that it matched the High Contrast Tone Curve layer exactly.

3. Once I had got a perfect match I saved the curve as a new preset and named it High contrast.acv.

4. I was now able to test the difference in the hue and saturation response of a Lightroom tone curve compared with a curve applied to an image in Photoshop. I repeated steps 1 & 2, but this time I processed the image in full color. The comparison results are shown in Figure 1 along with a table of measurements in Figure 2.

About the curve comparison creation method
For the first step, I deliberately processed the image in Grayscale mode because at this stage I only wanted to compare the Tone Curve luminosity. Once I had discovered the Photoshop curve setting that would exactly match the Lightroom Grayscale Tone Curve adjusted image, I had a Photoshop curve which when applied to any Grayscale mode image would match Lightroom exactly. Note that it did not matter which image I used to test with at stages 1 & 2, just so long as it was an image edited in the Lightroom Grayscale mode.
Note that when I started putting the curve to use and tested the difference between the Lightroom and Photoshop curves using color images, I confirmed that the brightness values did indeed always match wherever I sampled in the image area. This therefore allowed me to test for just the variations in hue and saturation between the Lightroom and Photoshop curve methods.

Figure 1 In this sectioned image you can see a comparison view of a Lightroom high contrast curves adjustment (top), a Photoshop high contrast curve blended using Luminosity (middle) and a Photoshop high contrast curve blended using Normal mode (bottom).

Comparison results
The tables in Figure 2 shows the Photoshop recorded HSB values at points A,B,C and D in Figure 1. These numbers allow us to analyze the differences between the three curve methods used here and help understand why they each produce slightly different results. The Hue value is expressed in degrees (°) on a scale of 0–360, while the Saturation and Brightness values are expressed as percentages.

Figure 2 This table shows a comparison between the Photoshop HSB values for points A,B,C and D in Figure 1. These figures show the differences between the original values and those for the image after it has been processed via Lightroom and via Photoshop using a normal blend and a Luminosity blend mode curve.

Compare the Lightroom adjusted Hue values with the original image and you will notice that there is only a small difference. Now compare these with the Photoshop Normal blend mode values and you will see a much wider variance in the Hue values. However, when the Luminosity blend mode is applied to the curve in Photoshop the Hue values will always be preserved exactly.

If you now look at the Saturation values you will note that the Saturation is almost the same with both the Lightroom and Photoshop curves, except I would comment that in the testing I have done, the Lightroom curve saturation is on average always slightly less than a normal mode Photoshop curve (by about 1–2%). Sometimes it is higher, but mostly is less. But what is interesting about the Photoshop luminosity curve is its tendency to suck some of the saturation out of an image and the figures in the Luminosity curve Saturation column back this up. Compare these values with the Saturation values for the Lightroom and Photoshop normal blend curves.

The Brightness columns confirm that the luminance values are identical for both the Lightroom and Photoshop normal blend mode curves, but the Luminosity mode curve values do end up being different.

Figure 3 The HSB values shown in Figure 2 were noted down via the Info palette in Photoshop. I went to the Info palette preferences (via the flyout menu) and altered the coordinate second color readouts as shown here.

Conclusions
It is all very well running involved tests like the one described here to calculate the numeric differences between Lightroom and Photoshop curves, but at the end of the day, the only way to judge anything is by using your eyes and comparing the results visually. The differences between the two curve methods can be quite subtle, but where it is noticeable, I would say the Lightroom/Camera Raw curve result always looks more pleasing. The testing data kind of backs this up, because as I mentioned earlier, the figures show that there is a much finer tolerance in the amount of hue shift you get with a Lightroom curve and this is why the colors tend to be better preserved.

Here are the three versions of the image shown as separate images:

Lightroom Tone Curve version

Photoshop Normal mode curve

Photoshop Luminosity mode curve

It is interesting to examine what happens when you apply a Luminosity blend mode to a Photoshop curve. The received wisdom here is that a Luminosity curve will only affect the luminance values of the image and the color values will be preserved. At least that is what I have written in the past! If you compare a contrast increasing Luminosity curve with a Normal mode curve, the Luminosity curve will look flatter in color, which one might assume is because the curve has been filtered to target the luminance only. While a Luminosity curve will always preserve the hue, it can still have a marked effect on the saturation values. And whereas the luminance values will always match between a Lightroom curve and a Photoshop curve in Normal mode (using the test method described here), the Luminosity mode curve brightness values can actually deviate a lot from these two other curve methods. The conclusion I draw here is that Photoshop Luminosity curves are useful for preventing unwanted hue shifts and taming any saturation boost, but one should be aware that the saturation values can shift upwards or downwards and there will not be an exact tonal match between the effect of a Luminosity and a Normal mode curve. This last point should not necessarily represent a problem. It should not matter if the curve outcome is different because you can always manipulate a curve in Photoshop to get the luminance balance you do like. For Photoshop users it could be argued that what is needed is a slider control in the Curves dialog going from a Normal mode to a Luminosity mode curve adjustment. That way, one could tweak the way the curve was applied to the image from within the Curves dialog. That might work, but if we go back to the subject of Tone Curves in Lightroom there is already an easy method for taming the saturation boost, namely the Vibrance and Saturation sliders. One can easily take the Vibrance or Saturation down if you find that the Lightroom curve is making a photo look too colorful (see Figure 4).

Figure 4 If you want to achieve the Luminosity curve desaturated effect, it is easy enough just to turn down the Vibrance and Saturation in Lightroom. In this example, the left half shows the image treated with a -25 Vibrance and -15 Saturation. The right half shows a version created using a Photoshop Luminosity curve. The hue and saturation values can be made to almost match, but the tone luminance characteristics will always be slightly different. In this example the Lightroom adjusted Tone Curve has more tonal contrast in the highlights than the Luminosity curve version.

For further reading on this subject, I can recommend a PDF article written by Mark Segal that was published on the Luminous Landscape website.

Mark has carried out some very thorough research here. He does reach a slightly different conclusion about the saturation differences between Lightroom and Photoshop curves. But as I have discovered, Lightroom curves can indeed sometimes produce stronger saturation values, so what I have concluded here does not necessarily disprove his observations.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book by Martin Evening is available from Peachpit, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all usual bookstore outlets.

Martin Evening has worked on the development of Adobe Photoshop as an alpha tester from the program’s earliest beginnings. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book describes all of Lightroom’s features in detail, with photographers in mind. Photographers who routinely work with raw (and even jpg & tiff) images will find Lightroom–and The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book–an indispensable tool in their digital darkroom.

Lightroom-news has a free PDF download of Chapter 1. (click here to download-4.6MB PDF).

Free Lightroom 1.1 PDF update

You can also download a free PDF update for the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom book. Go this link for the full instructions on how to access the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book 1.1 update.

The Luminous Landscape website has posted an essay by Mark Segal, who is a member of the Applied Color Theory List (ACTL), on the subject of Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) tone curves. This essay offers a detailed analysis of how the tone curve adjustments that you can apply in Camera Raw or Lightroom compare to the traditional approach of using RGB composite curve adjustments in Photoshop. Over on the ACTL list, Dan Margulis has suggested that it is better to use Camera Raw adjustments to make minor corrections only and use Photoshop Curve adjustments to make the major tone edits. Dan has also argued that in some cases ‘opening the range in Camera Raw actually damaged the image to the point where it was no longer possible to get a good result without excessive effort…’ In response to this claim, Mark has tested his own hypothesis, which is that Camera Raw adjustments applied to a raw capture in Photoshop ACR or Lightroom are not any more destructive than Photoshop and if anything, tone and color edits are easier to make in ACR, but Photoshop edits are still very useful for minor tone and color edits on a rendered raw image.

To access the PDF document and join the discussion you will need to read the full story on the Luminous Landscape website.

Since the appearance of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Adobe Photoshop CS3 Beta with Camera Raw, then CS3 with Camera Raw 4.x people have been asking about where best to implement luminosity and colour adjustments. Lively discussion of this matter occurred most recently on this website’s Forum, and since before that on the Applied Color Theory List (ACTL), a Yahoo membership group run by Dan Margulis.

Mark Segal, a member of ACTL. and contributor to this website, was an early adopter of the new software products and has printed a large number of images from his raw files processed using CS3 and Camera Raw 4 in both Beta and commercial versions. Much of the recent discussions have focused on the question of using Curves and other luminosity adjustment tools in Camera Raw 4 and Photoshop.

Based on his experience using these applications, Mark found a number of positions taken in these discussions surprising, and decided to test the various arguments. He thought the results of this work sufficiently interesting to write-up and share with others. While a large amount of very good material already exists on how to use the new tools, the particular interest of this article lies in the comparisons it makes between them, and in the ways it explores the interactions between contrast and saturation and how these interactions are controlled, whether in Camera Raw or in Photoshop.

Read complete article and access the PDF download…

New papers include:

The Role of Working Spaces in Adobe Applications
by Andrew Rodney
Photographer Andrew Rodney shows you what RGB working spaces are, why you need them, and when you might select one working space over another. This article provides the basic information you’ll need if you are using Adobe® Photoshop®, Adobe Camera Raw, or any application that supports International Color Consortium (ICC) color management.
PDF Dowload Link (468k)
Figure 4: 3D example from article
Figure 5: 3D example from article

A Raw Workflow in the Real World: The March of the Yellow Penguins
by Jeff Schewe
Use Photoshop CS2 for raw image processing, and boost your productivity. Photographer Jeff Schewe shows you how he took his raw workflow to the test under extreme Arctic conditions.
PDF Download Link (11.2MB)

Preparing Images for Delivery
by Jeff Schewe
What should photographers do to ensure that their images reproduce well in print? Jeff Schewe outlines how you can take some precautions and learn the lingo to communicate with your print service provider to get the print results you want.
PDF Dowload Link (7.1MB)

These new papers join the previously available papers (all updated for Photoshop CS2):

Digital Image Integrity
by George Reis
Photographs have been altered or “faked” ever since the very beginning of chemical photography. Learn how Photoshop CS is providing forensics experts and law enforcement specialists better tools for evaluating the authenticity of a photograph.
PDF Download Link (1.2MB)

Calibrating the Digital Darkroom Environment
by Karl Lang
If you want to create the most accurate prints possible in your digital darkroom, you’ll want to learn how to calibrate your work environment. Karl Lang steps you through the basics of how and why you need to manage your work environment as carefully as you do your studio lighting.
PDF Download Link (722k)

Black and White Conversion Tutorial
by John Paul Caponigro
Are you looking for more detail in your digital B&W conversions? Or perhaps better contrast and tonal separation? Here’s an opportunity to learn how to get maximum flexibility out of your B&W conversions. Follow along step-by-step, as John Paul Caponigro shows you how the pros do it in this dynamic PDF tutorial.
PDF Download Link (2.5MB)

Black and White Conversion Action
This download is a Photoshop Action (.atn) that automates the sequence of steps outlined in the JP Caponigro tutorial above. It is not required to complete the tutorial. This Action is compatible with Adobe Photoshop CS and CS2. Action Download Link (10k)

About Metadata
by Jeff Schewe
Find out how to give your images more value — and make them easier to find — by learning the basics of metadata.
PDF Download Link (4MB)

A Color Managed Raw Workflow
by Jeff Schewe and Bruce Fraser
Messy chemicals and processing trays are a thing of the past, but you’re still the one who must be sure your raw photos are processed properly. Learn how to take control by mastering these basics of color management in your raw workflow.
PDF Download Link (5.3MB)

Making the Transition from Film to Digital
by Michael Reichmann
Making the transition from shooting film to shooting digital is an exciting journey, but without this roadmap you might find more detours than solutions. Author and photographer Michael Reichmann provides a guide to the new language of digital photography, and will help you identify the crucial differences of shooting with film.
PDF Download Link (1.5MB)

Highlight Recovery in Adobe Camera Raw
by Jeff Schewe
The best digital cameras have about the same dynamic range as transparency film, but with Adobe Camera Raw you can actually process your raw images to pull out more highlight detail than you may have thought possible.
PDF Download Link (3.3MB)

State of the Art
by R. Mac Holbert
When is a photograph deemed “art”? Today, the adoption of digital photography would seem to be pushing the clock back over 100 years, judging from the resistance of some to the new technologies. R. Mac Holbert gives us his perspective of the state of the art in this timely article.
PDF Download Link (435k)