learning to take pics, do you use lightroom?

[dmilne85]

Hey everyone , this is my first post in this forum because i finally got a digital camera. i got a nikon d80 and im using a 28-105 nikon lens with macro focus. I'm shooting in RAW, and i set my white balance using a picture of a white lid in my tank, like it is recommended. Yet my pictures still are turning out a little to blue. I have a ton of attinc over my tank so im not sure if its my tank that is making this hard, or if using a program like light room is needed. Any tips would be appreciated. Are most of the people on this forum posting good pics using photoshop or lightroom to correct shots, or are they doing something different with camera settings?

 

[dmilne85]

is this like the fishermens secrets? and know one wants to give away how they are able to get there pics looking perfectly balanced?

 

[Blazer88]

I wouldn't say that lightroom is absolutely needed, as people obviously had nice shots before LR came out, but I find it very useful when I process my pics. Color correction can be done is photoshop shop but I find it my more time consuming and using LR has made it much quicker. LR has definitely helped my workflow.

 

[BlueCorn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11589274#post11589274 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by Blazer88
LR has definitely helped my workflow.

Mine too. One of the main things that folks complain about, in regard to shooting in RAW format, is that it's harder and more time consuming to process. Using something like Lightroom (or Aperture) make it completely transparent. You get all of the benefits of shooting RAW with the simplicity of using JPEG.

 

[dmilne85]

thanks for the info. i just have the trial period with light room and i also have photoshop but im not sure if i want to buy lightroom after my trail is over if i can help it. im not sure if i can get a more balanced shot without using this program or not. i guess im just going to have to play with more settings and figure it out.

 

[breutus]

Do you have to shoot in raw to use lightroom or does it work with JPEG? does it work better with raw?

 

[dmilne85]

i was able to use jpeg in lightroom also. i was just told shooting raw was better because it is not subjected to any filter/adjustments/ image corrections by the camera and you could then use the adjustments in a program like lightroom to really fine tune the colors/whitebalance. but im a newb with this stuff so maybe someone else would know better.

 

[BlueCorn]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=11594158#post11594158 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by breutus
Do you have to shoot in raw to use lightroom or does it work with JPEG? does it work better with raw?

You can use jpeg too. With RAW you have a much wider latitude with your image editing. JPEG is a compressed, 8 bit, format. It doesn't handle much adjustment before the image starts to degrade. The whole beauty of the program is that it makes RAW processing transparent.

 

[BeanAnimal]

For Nikon users, there is a new version of Capture out. It is Capture NX 1.3 and appears to be much improved. I also hear that the images look better than with the LR filters.