[Leica] OT: Lightroom help

[heninger at adobe.com (Wade Heninger)]

On 4/6/07 7:06 AM, "Daniel Ridings" <dlr@dlridings.se> wrote:

> I am trying unsuccessfully to understand the whacky logic behind Lightroom.
> 
> I have to import pictures. Why? I don't know. I can browse to them, so
> browsing is not a problem, but I can't do anything until I import them.

You import them to scan for metadata, build a preview.  In essence, you are
telling LR about the file.  When you do that, it can then tell you all kinds
of things about that file later, including intimate details, relationships
with other files etc.

> I can import whole directories at once.
> 
> I can import a directory, do a lot a work, print, remember that I forgot
> a picture, browse to it, import it, and loose everything I had imported
> before. My library is now one picture, the last one I imported.

You do *not* loose everything you imported.  That would be pretty silly, now
wouldn't it?

LR remembers everything you do - all without explicitly saving anything.  In
Library, just click on "All Photographs" (top left in Library) and you'll
see everything again.  What it shows you on import is the last imported
images - the logic being that normally you'll want to work with those images
after importing.  

> When I did have my whole library, I couldn't for the life of me figure
> how to export html-pages of just a few. It wanted to export everything.

The easiest way to make a gallery is flag/rate/label the ones you want,
filter by that annotation and then switch to Web.  You can also create a
collection of the items to print and go to Web for the same thing.

> I really want to like the stuff, but for the life of me, I can't find a
> reason why I should.

Give it a bit of time.  Read a bit.  Darkroom work is/was just the same
early on - a bit unsettling.
 
> So ... what is the library? Why is it better than my folders?

The library is just a known set of images that you've told LR about.  It
will then keep track of stuff about those - things that Folders never could.
I.e. It will remember your print settings.  It will remember and, when you
ask, show you only the ones that were shot with the M8 on this date, with
this keyword. 

Hope that helps.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
w a d e  h e n i n g e r
u s e r  e x p e r i e n c e
a d o b e  s y s t e m s ,  i n c