In2SciFi

I recently purchased Adobe Lightroom for overall management of my images. Having tried iphoto and some other systems, I did a 30 day trial of Lightroom and Aperture and found that Lightroom better met my needs. Now I’m trying to learn to use it better.

I also purchased the book ‘Adobe Photoshop Lightroom & Photoshop Workflow’ by Mark Fitzgerald to help me learn to work with the programs better. So far, I haven’t been impressed with Adobe’s documentation. It’s nice for some specifics, but for general learning, what I’ve seen so far just doesn’t cut it. This book works for me as a newbie to Lightroom, though I’m sure I’ll outgrow it with a bit of work.

What I REALLY like about Lightroom is:

• I can manage ALL of my images across multiple hard disks, CDs, DVDs, or whatever else I wind up using so I can search for ANY image I’ve got and find out where it is.
• Integration with Photoshop is seamless. I can easily go back and forth between them.
• The most common things I do are all within Lightroom. All of my base level processing can be done in Lightroom so I only pull out Photoshop for extraordinary work on special images.
• Image management is well thought out with lots of options for doing it ‘My Way’.

Have you ever been moved by a book … I was when I read Visual Poetry by Chris Orwig.

The Visual Poetry Website

The Visual Poetry Flickr Group

If Ansel Adams wrote his Basic Photography Series today, I think he’d break ‘The Negative’ and ‘The Print’ down into 3 volumes, possibly called ‘Capturing the Image’, ‘Working with the Image’, and ‘Printing the Image’.

Volume 1: Camera & Lens - it would cover about the same topics, updated to today

Volume 2: Capturing the Image - the basics of capturing the image including exposure, the zone system, raw capture, etc.

Volume 3: Working with the Image - creating the image you visualized starting from the raw image and processing it to achieve your creative vision

Volume 4: Printing the Image - printing and displaying images

Volume 5: Natural Light - substantially the same, how to use natural light

Volume 6: Artificial Light - substantially the same, how to use artificial light

I’d have loved to read those books. I’ve been reading his original books and trying to formulate what he said in terms appropriate for the digital world, but it’s not easy. I think it would have been easy for him though. In 1983, Adams said “I am sure the next step will be the electronic image, and I hope I shall live to see it. I trust that the creative eye will continue to function, whatever technological innovations may develop.”

I’m sure Ansel Adams would have embraced digital photography and possibly become its greatest practitioner.