Photoshop Insider

Report From New York (and Lightroom vs. The Bridge)

By Scott on Wednesday, November 7th, 2007 at 8:35 am | updates.

First, a big thanks to the 1300+ folks who came out to my Photoshop CS3 Power Tour yesterday in New York City (photo above by Dave Moser). I had an absolute blast, and it was great seeing so many familiar faces.

At this point in time, teaching a Photoshop CS3 workshop is very different, because of the introduction and wide adoption of Adobe Lightroom. Because my workshop is very photography-centric, I had as many questions about Lightroom as I did Photoshop, and most were about how Lightroom integrates into the Photoshop CS3 workflow.

But what surprised me most was what turned out to be the #1 most-asked question of the day, which was, “What is Lightroom?” I kept referring to Lightroom throughout my first session (assuming everybody at least knew what it was), and as soon as the session was over, I had a line of people all asking what was this “Lightroom thing” I kept talking about. So, I started the second session with a brief talk about Lightroom. That prompted even more questions about where it fits in, should they use it instead of the Adobe Bridge, is it better than the Bridge, why is it better than the Bridge, etc. So later in the day, I had to actually launch Lightroom and do a comparison of the two and talk about who should use which one and why.

This all got me to thinking, so in the Photoshop User TV episode that will air on November 19th, I’m going to do a special segment on the Bridge and Camera Raw vs. Lightroom, and how Lightroom is the cornerstone and key component of “The New Digital Photography Workflow.” I’ll post a reminder when the show goes live, but if you’re wondering where this all comes together and how Lightroom fits in, I invite you to catch that episode.

Also, my final CS3 Power Tour stop for the year is coming up in Washington DC on Tuesday, November 27th, at the Washington Convention Center, and I hope to see you there (here’s the link to register).

Again, my thanks to all the wonderful people who came out, and I was so touched at all the personal items and gifts people brought me while I was there. It really made me feel so welcome, and I can’t thank you all enough for your gracious hospitality.

Comment form for this post

^#1

Please dont forget to schedule Dallas, Tx into your 2008 tour. Thanks.

Robert on November 7th, 2007 at 9:08 am

^#2

Scott,

I was at the Javits yesterday - just an AMAZING seminar! Thanks for all the great tips, can’t wait for you to come back to NYC. Picked up your 7-Point System book - Can’t wait to read it!

Dennis Krupka on November 7th, 2007 at 9:20 am

^#3

Great session yesterday! Where is the download of missing pages you talked about?

Libby on November 7th, 2007 at 9:45 am

^#4

Where do I find the PDF files promised at the NY workshop?

Lowell on November 7th, 2007 at 10:09 am

^#5

Great job, Scott.

Has the pdf been posted yet?

Larry

Larry Barsh on November 7th, 2007 at 10:24 am

^#6

A question I wanted to ask yesterday, but didn’t have the chance.
Lightroom vs Aperture? Why do you prefer Lightroom?

Lowell on November 7th, 2007 at 10:42 am

^#7

You’re seminar yesterday was awesome! I had a blast. You’re one of the best presenters ever. I have 2 questions though? Where can I find the pdf? You probably haven’t had the time to get it made yet, so I guess I’ll just keep checking.

I also have a lightroom question that you’ll probably not have time to address, but maybe you can mention it on the next episode of photoshop user tv. It is this: I have a series of photos that I stitched together in a pano in photoshop that I wanted to reimport back into lightroom so that it is in my catalog. But lightroom won’t let me? The file ended up as a layered psd that is I think about 400 megs? It the file too large to be in lightroom or something? If I saved it as a tif would it work?

Michael Steinhofer on November 7th, 2007 at 11:19 am

^#8

Yes, don’t forget Dallas. And how can we be notified / reminded about the Nov. 19 episode? I set up a reminder in my outlook but it would be great if you can add that as a feature on PU TV, as well as a listing of more of the future episodes. Thanks!

Victor on November 7th, 2007 at 11:38 am

^#9

I attended your Lightroom Live Tour in D.C. earlier this year. I was thrilled to see that you were making a second D.C. visit for this CS3 Power Tour.

See you there and I hope that D.C. is included for all future NAPP seminars!

Mike Zupan on November 7th, 2007 at 12:02 pm

^#10

Great seminar yesterday! I really enjoyed it!!!

Can’t wait to put some of your techniques to use!

Anthony Califra on November 7th, 2007 at 12:38 pm

^#11

Great seminar yesterday! I already got to use a few of the ideas you showed us on some project work I decided to do last night.

Can’t wait for the next seminar. One question though, when will there be an Illustrator seminar in NYC? I work with Illustrator a lot at my day job and it would be great to come home with the same amount of knowledge as I do from the Photoshop seminars and InDesign seminar I attended.

Robert A on November 7th, 2007 at 12:43 pm

^#12

It was great meeting you yesterday. I did not get a chance to properly thank you for signing my copy of your book because of the crowd. So, “Thank You”.

I hope you can make time in your schedule to visit here again. We will surely give you an even bigger welcome the next time.

Thanks also for featuring my blue shirt so prominently in your seminar photo (just above center) :-).

Loretta Locicero on November 7th, 2007 at 12:59 pm

^#13

Why not get PSUTV through Itunes? You don’t need to remember then, it just downloads when it’s ready the next time you open Itunes.

Scott - Any chance of this tour coming to the UK next year?

Thanks,

Scott Wiggins

S Wiggins on November 7th, 2007 at 1:24 pm

^#14

Scott,

The more I use Lightroom the more I love it, but I am also coming to understand its limitations. Having just purchased your 7- step book I can see how some steps are probably best done in Lightroom while others like painting with light require Photoshop. You have indicated that you use Lightroom first and then jump to Photoshop as needed. I hope you will address how the two programs integrate with your 7-point system during your Photoshopuser TV presentation as I feel that will clear up things for many people. Why Adobe just didn’t put the Lightrooms Library and Develop functions in Photoshop CS3 is still a mystery to me, but I’m guessing it had a lot to do with corporate politics.

Emmet Whitehead on November 7th, 2007 at 1:36 pm

^#15

Ditto with Mr. Whitehard’s comments on Lightroom and the 7 Steps (boy, I sound like a recovering…..). Bottom line: how would 7 Steps have been re-written knowing that Lightroom was working with PS3 (and not necessarily the front end)? There is only a brief paragraph alluding to the comparative features of Camera Raw and Lightroom. But since Lightroom does so much more and in some cases better and easier than PS3 I would ask for your thoughts. I know I want to go back and forth between the two. (My next computer will have a lot more memory to do this) /// For the “What is Lightroom” folks: Having attended your PS3 and Lightroom seminars in Los Angeles I would suggest attending the Lightroom tour and understand that this is only an open door to what Lightroom can do. Then I would catch up on all of Matt’s LR Killer Tips then of course your book. Then the plug-ins… Maybe I am at the first step: acknowledging that I am a recovering Photoshop-olic.

Bill Chinn on November 7th, 2007 at 2:14 pm

^#16

A wonderful educational day spent at the NYC CS3 Power Tour.
Where can I find the pdf for the missing pages in the workbook?
Where can I find one of the fonts you used in your presentation; I think you referred to it as “Sensational.”

Richard Kaye on November 7th, 2007 at 2:18 pm

^#17

Scott

Any chance you can include a little more detail from the “How to Show Your Work like a Pro” in the pdf? You reviewed the techniques very quickly and I’d like to learn more. I didn’t see them in either of your books - unfortunately

Thanks
Larry

Larry Barsh on November 7th, 2007 at 2:37 pm

^#18

In a previous post Michael Steinhofer asked about putting a Pano in LR.
It’s not the physical size but the dimensional size. Lightroom 1.1 currently supports photos up to 10,000 pixels long or wide for a maximum image size of 100 million pixels.

Tim on November 7th, 2007 at 2:53 pm

^#19

I have a question… where fits Aperture in?

Rolph on November 7th, 2007 at 3:14 pm

^#20

Rolph - If you’re using Aperture…you’re wasting your time. Aperture is to an 8 track player what Lightroom is to an iPod.

Slow, complicated, and clunky versus user-friendly, fast, and sexy.

Aaaanyway. Thanks for a GREAT seminar yesterday Scott. A lot of it was refresher since I own all your books….but man, listening to you teach it made it really stick. Can’t wait till you’re back in town.

Peter James Zielinski on November 7th, 2007 at 3:42 pm

^#21

And I LOVE how you said “i know I’m saying this out loud but 40 people will still comment on my blog - where are the missing pages?” ….priceless

Peter James Zielinski on November 7th, 2007 at 3:44 pm

^#22

Hi Scott,
Enjoy everything you do. Just one disappointment
regarding equipment. I tried delkin express card 34. It is very slow.

ron greco on November 7th, 2007 at 6:50 pm

^#23

Scott
I asked you yesterday about a method to easily hand off a file from photoshop to the lightroom print module from a file that came from bridge. You said that would be clunky(Yea that’s why I kinda asked the question) That workflow would save a ton time, paper and aggravation. Any help would be appreciated. And as you know sleep is overrated.

Stephen Lacko on November 7th, 2007 at 7:01 pm

^#24

Scott W. - in response, I cannot get iTunes on my work laptop, which I use the most to keep up with blogs such as this one, and PU TV, so I cannot use that option. If you (or anyone else) knows any other options that would be great.

Thanks!

Victor on November 7th, 2007 at 9:33 pm

^#25

Just another person looking for the magic PDF.

rose on November 7th, 2007 at 11:13 pm

^#26

Hi Scott!
Great seminar. I just have one question. What was that web address again?

Anthony on November 8th, 2007 at 12:13 am

^#27

Hi Scott,

With regard to the Bridge/Camera Raw versus Lightroom. I watch photoshoptv, I purchase all of your excellent books, but I find that if the examples in the books or photoshoptv use one of camera raw or lightroom, 90% of time you use camera raw, while at the same time you say 90% of the time how wonderful Lightroom is. It kinda gets confusing, personally I just always use Lightroom - I’m sure its using the CameraRaw libs under neath anyway, but this does create the confusion and thus the questions I think.

Cheers
Jonathan

Jonathan Robson on November 8th, 2007 at 12:22 am

^#28

Awesome seminar in NYC! Before the seminar, I wasn’t sure if I was going to upgrade to CS3 and now it’s on my to do list.

Take care,
Stacey

Stacey on November 8th, 2007 at 12:34 am

^#29

I would like to say thank you. I was pushed away from Photoshop because I wasn’t understanding layer, but now I feel much more strong. You made layers and levels easy for me. Now, I had one questions. I use Google Picasa for my photo management software, what do you use, or what does the pros uses?

Roup on November 8th, 2007 at 12:34 am

^#30

Scott, I like to shoot waterfowl but often capture blurry birds…which would be better to correct this issue, Lightroom or Bridge?

Ned Leary on November 8th, 2007 at 8:27 am

^#31

In reply that I am stupid for using Aperture…
I happen to like Aperture and hope for an update to 2.0 that will set back Lightroom to be honest.

Look at this video of Scott Kelby in relation to an upcoming new version:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FH9Vhufg_0U

I totally agree with him (happens more than once to be honest) Escpecially with the long: Nooooo!

Rolph on November 8th, 2007 at 1:11 pm

^#32

Great spending some ‘personal’ time with you in NY. I was crazy enough to come running 101 fever and left at lunch, so didn’t have a chance to say hi. But, had a great time while it lasted. Love your enthusiasm.

Steven Marks on November 8th, 2007 at 11:04 pm

^#33

Scott – Great session in NY. On the questions raised about LR versus Photoshop CS2/3: I’d like to suggest that the primary issue is the need to clarify what processing steps can better, or only, be done using CS2/3 as compared to LR (or visa versa). I think it’s pretty clear that LR’s Develop module is equivalent to CS3’s RAW, and that LR is far superior to Bridge for performing photo organizational and retrieval tasks. But processing capabilities are another matter. As you know, there are functions in CS2/3 that are not available in LR (or are better done in CS2/3). For example, cloning and healing can only be done in CS. And sharpening and cropping are more easily and precisely accomplished in CS (still the case with LR 1.1?). The fundamental question is: why & when should a photographer use CS if they make full use of LR’s capabilities? A task by task comparison would be very helpful. Hope your November 19 session specifically addresses this. Thanks.

Lawrence Lee on November 10th, 2007 at 9:25 am

^#34

I attended your photoshop show in New York. It was liike watching magic!

Is there a way to download the images you used for illustrations so that I can go over them in the workbook?

Morris Brodkey on November 10th, 2007 at 9:41 am

^#35

Scott - I’d very much like to use your great “Instant Frame Effect”, but find that I wasn’t fast enough to capture in my notes your live run-through of each step-by-step detail to even make it to Step 3. Any chance you could provide the specifics to flesh out the workbook’s Steps 1 & 2, particularly Step 1? Thanks.

Lawrence Lee on November 10th, 2007 at 2:25 pm

^#36

Hey Scott where is the PDF download for the missing pages in our books for the last photoshop seminar in NY???
Gustavo Carrillo

New Graphic Vision on November 11th, 2007 at 5:24 pm

^#37

Hi,

Attended the great seminar at the Javits Center in NYC. Where are the missing PDF pages?

Mary Lou Turbin on November 14th, 2007 at 11:46 am

^#38

Hi Scott,

I am remiss in not navigating here earlier. Like all the rest, could you email me the missing .PDF from NYC?

As important as the informatiojn was, the humor aspect was what made it all ‘click’. Thanks for poking fun at Adobe and yourself. We *all* need a piece of crow pie to balance our diet!

Coop

Jim Cooper on November 17th, 2007 at 5:45 am

^#39

Scott:
Catching up on your blog and going to finally download that pdf from Javitz, NYC. The seminar was great and totally using things I learned that day every day since.
Mike

Mike on November 18th, 2007 at 5:09 pm