Is it possible to edit only certain parts of a picture? For example, if I wanted to make a circle area black and white, while taking a square area in the same picture and adjusting the saturation? In other words, how do I select a certain area of a picture and transform that one part only? Using Adobe Lightroom.
Lightroom does not have a selection tool it has many controls to do the adjustments but does not have the selection tools. It has an adjustment brush that you can use to paint the adjustments to certain areas of the image which can always be reset once you export, but there the brushes are only round so at best you could only do the circle part and the brushes are limited in size.
Perhaps there are tricks that can get you what you want but you would have to ask it in the Lightroom forum. I think there should be a selection tool in Lightroom.
Of course I think the adjustment brush should also be brought into Photoshop.
But the OP should understand that there are many adjustments that require opening the file in Photoshop, as they are beyond ACR and Lightroom caqpabilities. Neil
Of course, Neil. I wasn’t even remotely advocating using Lightroom. I can’t stand its libraries/catalogs paradigm. I have no use for an application that organizes images with a different structure that does not match that of the Finder’s, and the lack of soft-proofing capabilities puts it out of contention as far as I’m concerned.
Thanks for providing the opportunity to clarify that.
Ramon, or anyone else, what would you recommend using instead of LR? I’m new to photo-editing but am a quick learner. LR has a simple interface but I would like to learn on the "best" program so I can continue using it rather than growing out of a descent program. Thanks
The main competition with Lightroom is Aperture for the specific types of edits and project organization it does. But if you are looking very extensive editing and image manipulation tools, you need Photoshop/Photoshop Extended. Both apps are designed to work hand-in-hand.
There is nothing, absolutely nothing you can do to an individual image in Lightroom that you cannot do in Photoshop. Conversely, there are a gazillion things you can do to an individual image in Photoshop that you cannot even dream of doing in Lightroom.
Lightroom is all about volume, applying the same adjustments to dozens, hundreds or thousand similar images –and even that can be done in Photoshop with the included Bridge. Lightroom is also an "organizer" (I think of it in terms of an unorganizer) in the sense of a DAM, digital asset manager, if you don’t mind having your image files organized in a structure that does NOT match that of the Finder.
Photoshop, on the other hand, is all about control and accuracy of each individual image.
If you’re a studio that cranks out thousand of similar images on steady, daily basis, you might need Lightroom. Note that Lightroom has no soft-proofing capabilities, a fatal fault in my eyes.
There is a long and steep learning curve for which Photoshop does not apologize.
Since there are trial versions of both Photoshop and Lightroom available, you can use them both and decide for yourself.
Ramón if you are a professional photographer and you need a work flow then Lightroom is essential if you do a few images then yes there is no need and if you have clients and different job tickets and different needs for each client then Photoshop is not the tool and never was and it was not designed for this purpose. Lightroom was designed to be exactly that lightroom where you can select select images and organize them for collections and catalogues etc.
Photoshop is not the best place to batch anything or apply an adjustment across many files of a similar exposure.
I work with many images and without lightroom that would be a nightmare and who the hell cares if it names things differently then the finder.
John Joslin I beg to differ with you the adjustments in Light room and ACR and Nikon Capture NX2 are in many ways light years ahead of Photoshops abilities or a t least they are used in such a way that they can v=be applied in seconds as it might h=take several p=tries in Photoshop and many many minutes more per file.
The adjustment brush gives you much more freedom then you can by painting an adjustment layer. And you don’t have to open a dialog to make the adjustments.
I think the organization offered by Lightroom is probably more in keeping with how pro photographers will tend to organize their projects.
I think we can say that for batch processing identical broad changes to many similar photos as session photography would typically require, including dust spotting, exposure, color balance, file renaming and metadata key words, then Lightroom is the tool. It would be a less streamlined procedure to attempt directly in Photoshop. To finely tweak and retouch, custom correct, create, paint and manipulate individual images, Photoshop is the tool.
I don’t think I’ve been able to express the difference between the Libraries paradigm in Lightroom and the way Bridge transparently interacts or interfaces with the Finder.
Of course, if you need to keep track of off-line volumes, Bridge won’t help you. But, if you move or delete something in Bridge, say a folder full of images, it will be immediately moved or deleted in the Finder too and vice versa. I guess I’m too old, too set in my ways, too stubborn, too opinionated, too arrogant and too ornery to accept Lightroom or Aperture’s way of doing things.
Also, I’m not a clerk or a paper pusher and I will not spend my last years keying entries to input keywords into my files either.
