Aug 2007
Image-Space webBlog | Sep 2007 | Jul 2007

Lightroom 1.1 Tip - The Visual Sharpening Mask

21/08/07 Filed in: Lightroom Tips
Lightroom has a host of new sharpening functionality which means that a round trip to Photoshop is now not often required.

The all new sharpening tools can be found under the Detail section of the Develop Module. They apply sharpening and noise reduction to the image file post capture and are not intended for final print sharpening, which is performed from within the Print Module.

sharpening_dialog_drop

The new Detail section now has a number significant changes.
The old dialog box just had a sharpening Amount slider plus the Luminance and Color noise sliders.
The new one has:


  • a warning triangle which appears if you are working with a zoom less than 1:1. Sharpening is
    best done at 1:1 or greater zoom and clicking on the warning triangle will auto zoom the image for you

  • Amount as before

  • Radius control - similar to the pixel Radius setting in Photoshops Unsharp Mask

  • A Detail slider which is great for improving the sharpening of high frequency details such as foliage. Reduce the amount of Detail sharpening to avoid over-sharpening grass for example.

  • a Masking slider similar to the Threshold Photoshop slider


This new sharpening tool is very powerful but what I find very useful is the visual feedback you get when you hold down the Alt key whilst using the Masking Slider.

Lightroom masking slider

You get a grey view of the image - a portion is shown as an example above - which shows exactly where the sharpening will be applied. The white edge areas will be sharpened in the example above.

I was not aware of this visual feedback until I stumbled over it by chance. Try and see.
Let me know if this tip helps you.

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Lightroom 1.1 Tip - Fix High CPU Usage

12/08/07 Filed in: Lightroom Tips
I recently had a problem where Lightroom was constantly consuming more than 80% of the CPU cycles for long periods of time. Disk drive activity was also very very high.

activity_monitor_lightroom

The fix was to turn off the Automatically Write to XMP option in the dialog box under Catalog Settings.

catalog_settings

This solved the high CPU usage and disk thrashing.

Let me know if this tip helps you.

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Lightroom 1.1 Tip - Reset Individual Default Develop Settings

02/08/07 Filed in: Lightroom Tips
Lightroom 1.1 allows you to change the default settings for how Camera Raw converts specific file types and camera models.


After you have made changes to the sliders in the Develop Module you hold down the "alt" key whilst clicking the Reset button (bottom left). The Reset button changes to "Set Default..." as shown above.

Depending on the selected image type and camera, you will get a dialog which allows you update the current settings. They then become the default for that image amd camera combination.

Ligtroom_set_default_d30_final

You can restore the default Adobe settings for an individual image and camera by using the same dialog box.
Hope this tip helps you.

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