AfterShot Pro and Lightroom

[Birma]

Came across this videp tip covering suggested steps for dealing with Sharpening in LR. Includes some views of the difference of the LR export sharpening.

http://kelbytv.com/lightroomkillertips/ ... lightroom/

This helped me understand the different LR approach coming from PSE and, like Henry, being used to USM after final re-size.

[bakubo]

Came across this videp tip covering suggested steps for dealing with Sharpening in LR. Includes some views of the difference of the LR export sharpening.

Thanks, Birma. I watched the video and it was well done, but it didn't tell me anything that I didn't already know. Unfortunately, he skipped right over the issue I have been writing about without any mention. He talks a lot about capture sharpening in LR and then talks about what he calls creative sharpening in PS to sharpen different parts of the photo differently. That is all good and everything he said is what my understanding was before. He then finally talks about sharpening using the blunt LR tool for printing (which I agree is adequate). He then spends a short time talking about the LR export to file window and the blunt, blind tool there. He uses the screen sharpen option which he says is for saving a file for email or the web and then proceeds to not do any resizing. He saves a full-size file. Most people don't use a full-size file (A900/A77/NEX 7 are 24mp, Nikon D4 is 36mp) for email or the web. Most people for those purposes resize. From my experiment the result with the blunt, blind LR export sharpening was not as good as when I resize and smartsharpen with preview in PSE. I can't do further experimentation since my LR trial has ended. I do know that I use various amount and radius values with smartsharpen depending on the image and I determine that by looking at the image after resizing and while adjusting smartsharpen.

[agorabasta]

Henry, but you may use the 'print' procedure to 'print' to JPEG as well. So you may simply avoid the normal export procedure altogether.

I do understand it's an ugly kludge, but once they presume the JPEG is meant for the future printing, the printer driver/hardware is then supposed to be doing its own sharpening; so the whole point of export sharpening becomes too moot within that kind of logic.

[bakubo]

This is just an update so that people don't think I have forgotten about this thread. ASP 1 and LR 4 are so buggy that I am not going to waste my time looking at them. I will wait until both have an update that, I hope, has lots of bugs fixed. I am still very interested in the concept of these types of programs, but both in their current versions have implementation problems and both companies have chosen to release beta software as if it was release quality software. I refuse to be an unpaid QA person for either company.

[pakodominguez]

This is just an update so that people don't think I have forgotten about this thread. ASP 1 and LR 4 are so buggy...

hum?
I just installed the LR4 upgrade and it works fine, even if I have not upgrade my computer. What bugs are you talking about?

[agorabasta]

Lr4 beta was every bite as buggy as some 17th century sofa.

The release version is bug-free as far as my five machines are concerned.

[Philip]

Bug free on my Mac too

Philip

[Dr. Harout]

Didn't encounter any here too.
But have to tell you that the CA removal tool is a bit weird. You have to go every time to the profile page and check the box for CA. And then from the manual section adjust whether you want it "only edges" or "all edges" (not sure if I'm writing the exact words).

[UrsaMajor]

FWIW, from what Jeff Schewe says over on The Luminous Landscape, there IS a known (and acknowledged by Adobe) bug in LR4 involving tone curves. Adobe is said to be working on it "frantically".

Ironically, it does not seem to have been present in the LR4 beta, which should make it relatively easy to solve - but that does not seem to be the case.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[bakubo]

Take a look at this forum and read all the posts in various threads going back since LR 4 was released:

http://forums.adobe.com/community/lightroom

Of course, other forums to look at too, but this one is a reasonable one to see the various problems.

The ASP forum is similar about ASP 1.

[agorabasta]

OK, once again - the Lr4 is not buggy, which means it's not buggier than Lr3 ever was. Though I must say that Adobe's proggies always were quite densely packed with inconsistencies.

Adobe forums complaints over Lr3 were much harsher and most often were caused by user/machine problems.

And there are no problems with 'tone curves' that I could encounter. The only problem that is being reported is that Lr4 does not properly import Lr3 point curve adjustments, but that's not an Lr4 bug per se.

[bakubo]

I started this thread to give my evaluation of these two programs. I expect to continue doing that when there are much needed bug fix updates. I really am not interested in having arguments with people who want me to get back to it immediately on their expected schedule. My response to you who want that is why don't you do extensive evaluation of both programs right now and write in detail what you discover in a thread? Sheesh.

Of course, if all of you who feel this way want to band together and collect money to pay me to do it then I will reconsider.

[UrsaMajor]

And there are no problems with 'tone curves' that I could encounter. The only problem that is being reported is that Lr4 does not properly import Lr3 point curve adjustments, but that's not an Lr4 bug per se.

Some of the people who have encountered this issue do consider it a problem, even if it may not (or may) be a "bug".

FWIW, Jeff Schewe (who is at least partially part of the Lightroom development team) has posted on The Luminous Landscape that the LR3 point curve data is not lost, but is just being incorrectly translated by LR4. He says that when the translation code is corrected, the LR3 point curve data that was imported into LR4 will be correctly handled by LR4 .

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[UrsaMajor]

I started this thread to give my evaluation of these two programs. I expect to continue doing that when there are much needed bug fix updates. I really am not interested in having arguments with people who want me to get back to it immediately on their expected schedule. My response to you who want that is why don't you do extensive evaluation of both programs right now and write in detail what you discover in a thread? Sheesh.

Have some posts been deleted here? I do not see anything like that happening in this thread.

I do see some people posting their personal experiences with using Lightroom 4, but unless I am being even more dense than usual, I don't see anyone pushing you to do anything, let alone on some specific schedule.

With best wishes,
- Tom -

[bakubo]

Lightroom 4 Update from the Team - Update scheduled for this week

http://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop ... _this_week

LR product manager:

Thanks for everyone's patience and feedback on the Lightroom 4.0 release. As noted in last week's blog post we've identified several issues with this initial release including a few conditions where performance slowdowns could occur.

We realize that many customers are quite anxious for an update and we're working hard to deliver one this week.