Lightroom + M10 Head Start

[andba]

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I'm a few weeks+ in to M10 ownership, and have decided that I want to significantly improve my Lightroom prowess since I owned an M9 a couple of years back.

I'm a designer with 20+ years of Photoshop experience and consider myself an expert in that regard, and I do understand the vast majority of principles in Lightroom. Still, in terms of getting the best output, not overprocessing (or processing in the wrong way) ... I could use help. I would also say I'm an absolute workflow novice.

Note, I'm not interested in getting hyper technical, I mainly just want efficient use of the app, and lovely results.

Should I start with presets and learn by examining how they have been constructed? Are there handy (but fairly high-ish level) videos to watch?

As a reference, I particularly enjoy the look of the images @jonoslack produces. Maybe he has some tips?

Thanks all.

[andba]

By the way, currently shooting with a 35mm 1.4 FLE — and based on a lengthy recent 90mm thread, I have the latest 90mm Elmarit 2.8 arriving to my front door tomorrow.

[Photoworks]

I think the reason Jono's images are interesting is because he has a good eye for subject, composition and detail. his post processing is often simple.

It is a better exercise to take Jono's images you like and make you own, matching lighting and composition and see what makes the image great.

It is better to learn observing light and not to play with presets.

that said I sometime use the film simulation presets from Mastin labs. Mostly tri-X BW and Fuji 400H.

this preset limit the color of some channels to acomplish this.

[Stephen.s1]

If you haven't already, you might want to try LR"s "Auto" on the Develop page.  Then fiddle with those settings and see what it took to achieve the "corrected" image.

Edited July 25, 2021 by Stephen.s1

[Gobert]

I don’t understand. If you are an expert in PS, what is than the problem with LR.?

[andba]

6 minutes ago, Gobert said:

I don’t understand. If you are an expert in PS, what is than the problem with LR.?

Photoshop gives me the technical awareness to know what the tools in LR do — but I don't use PS to process raw photos. I can retouch all day long, but processing straight out of a camera is a different skill entirely. The workflow, and general structure of the app are very different. And, since I'm 98% designer, 2% photographer, my use case for PS isn't the same as LR.

[andba]

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18 minutes ago, Photoworks said:

I think the reason Jono's images are interesting is because he has a good eye for subject, composition and detail. his post processing is often simple.

It is a better exercise to take Jono's images you like and make you own, matching lighting and composition and see what makes the image great.

It is better to learn observing light and not to play with presets.

that said I sometime use the film simulation presets from Mastin labs. Mostly tri-X BW and Fuji 400H.

this preset limit the color of some channels to acomplish this.

Thanks for this. Correct — I'm not at all interested in overprocessing. Just want to be able to bring out the best.

Edited July 25, 2021 by andba

[Jeff S]

Anybody can learn the techniques, whether by books, video tutorials, workshops or personal training.  The hard part about photography (at all stages from shooting to processing to printing and display) is deciding when, where and to what degree to apply those techniques. In other words, seeing and having an end in mind.  These skills can mature in many ways, including looking at and studying lots of photos (and paintings and drawings), and then working to develop your own style.  Having someone you trust to critique those efforts can often help.  This doesn’t happen overnight; that’s part of the joy of the photographic process.

Jeff

[Gobert]

1 hour ago, andba said:

Photoshop gives me the technical awareness to know what the tools in LR do — but I don't use PS to process raw photos. I can retouch all day long, but processing straight out of a camera is a different skill entirely. The workflow, and general structure of the app are very different. And, since I'm 98% designer, 2% photographer, my use case for PS isn't the same as LR.

I am not an enthusiastic post processor. I use LR, but only to enhance the pictures somewhat. Sometimes a crop, sometimes to lighten up shadows, sometimes to safe the earth by avoiding that the sea empties itself. 5, may be 10 minutes per picture should do. Not more.

In my view, I have analogue roots, the picture should be useable out of the camera. If not, I throw it away.

[Jeff S]

38 minutes ago, Gobert said:

I am not an enthusiastic post processor. I use LR, but only to enhance the pictures somewhat. Sometimes a crop, sometimes to lighten up shadows, sometimes to safe the earth by avoiding that the sea empties itself. 5, may be 10 minutes per picture should do. Not more.

In my view, I have analogue roots, the picture should be useable out of the camera. If not, I throw it away.

Sure, in terms of composition, exposure, understanding light, etc; a film background can be very important and useful.  But films have built-in characteristic curves, while so called digital ‘out of camera ‘ output is misleading, as Leica makes decisions, Adobe makes decisions (even changing after the fact via FW updates as with the M10 Monochrom), and then the user has infinite options (which can be turned into default import settings or presets, etc).  
 

Time required for digital PP has never been an issue for me.  I can often do in a minute what it would take an hour or more in my darkrooms (4 over 30+ years), if at all.  I could easily produce 3 different digital prints of the same file, in minutes, each with radically (or subtly) different rendering. Time isn’t the issue; deciding what one wants is the core matter.  Which takes me back to my post above.

Jeff

Edited July 25, 2021 by Jeff S