Lightroom and CS3 interaction, mainly about sharpening?

[Paul_Lantz]

Up to now I have done everything in Photoshop and Bridge. Select images, process, save an unsharpened JPG, sharpen fullsize and sometimes make a few different sized versions from the unsharpened image and sharpen them.

Now I have Lightroom as well. I am curious about how people handle moving back and forth from one to the other. I shoot RAW so when I go to PS from LR I end up editing a copy and getting a new file. They seem to end up being PSD's which are large.

I use PS to do retouching for some pictures but mostly need it for sharpening. Or do I?

One workflow I thought of was to do everything in LR then output JPGs and just sharpen them in PS. This way I would not end up a bunch of PSD files. I would still use PS for pictures that needed or deserved extra work.

I do very little printing myself, mostly I just post sharpened images to a website.

[Martin_Doudoroff]

Originally Posted by Paul_Lantz

Now I have Lightroom as well. I am curious about how people handle moving back and forth from one to the other. I shoot RAW so when I go to PS from LR I end up editing a copy and getting a new file. They seem to end up being PSD's which are large.

Yup. Luckily, hard drive space is cheap! (Some people prefer using TIFF files instead of PSD files---see your LR preferences.)

Originally Posted by Paul_Lantz

I use PS to do retouching for some pictures but mostly need it for sharpening. Or do I?

At least until Lightroom 1.1 comes out, you will probably need PS to handle sharpening. Sharpening in LR 1.0 is a major problem for many of us. The jury is still out whether the new sharpening code in 1.1 (and in the already-released ACR 4.1) will meet most needs.

Originally Posted by Paul_Lantz

One workflow I thought of was to do everything in LR then output JPGs and just sharpen them in PS. This way I would not end up a bunch of PSD files. I would still use PS for pictures that needed or deserved extra work. I do very little printing myself, mostly I just post sharpened images to a website.

There's nothing wrong with what you propose, per se. I would encourage you to think of the JPGs as the equivalent of a print: it's a final product.

The most orthodox approach would be to keep your "work" in Lightroom, with as many or as few trips to Photoshop as are required to "get the work done". Then export the images from Lightroom as TIFFs into a temporary directory. Batch- or hand-sharpen the TIFFs in Photoshop and save as the final JPGs. (You should be able to make good use of actions and automation features to streamline this workflow.) Delete the temporary TIFFs. Done.

If you're lucky, LR 1.1 will enable you to skip the last step and export finished, sharpened JPGs directly from LR. But don't get your expectations too high, too soon!

[Ed Okie]

Paul, for your described purpose (or any use)- consider a simpler method and eliminate appreciable hassle and pushups, skip LR and PS: use Canon's DPP 3.0.1.5 for raw and jpeg conversions. It's fast, far less complex, sharpening seems equal to, or better than, anything on the market, including the new ACR 4.1. Noise control excellent, too. LR as it now exists is third rate in sharpening and noise control. Batch processing in DPP is equally fast. Use PS if you first need to tweak an image for something else, then go to DPP.

[Martin_Doudoroff]

If you shoot Canon, I think Ed Okie's suggestion is excellent. DPP seems nearly always to be the best raw converter for Canon RAW files. I'm wedded to LR because of its digital asset management features, but even I head to DPP when I think I can do better for an image.