Levels equivalent in Lightroom

Hi Guys,
does anybody know if ther's a Photoshop Levels equivalent in Lightroom? I really mean a Levels tool, not a curves/simil curves option, but something to set white/black point accurately like in photoshop.
Thanks for your help!
Cristiano

Well, Exposure, Black and Brightness do not really works the same way that the Levels in Photoshop.
The impact on the image is different....I am not able to tell you exactly how but, try it yourself.
I think what you are seeing is the difference in LR's histogram display when compared to PS's histogram display. Ssprengel pointed this out in his post:
One thing that makes this suggested procedure more difficult in LR is that the histogram in ACR is determined by the output color space you have set and the shipping indicators match what the output will be, but in LR the histogram reflects the internal working color space of LR, so something showing as not clipped in LR’s histogram might actually be clipped in the output image when you set the color space in the Export panel and there’s no way to proof this beforehand.
So the 'Level' controls in PS appear to have a different affect on the image file's histogram. As ssprengel also points out it would be nice if Adobe allowed "proofing" the image in LR with the export color space profile (i.e. sRGB).
Try exporting a RAW image file to TIFF file format, ProPhoto RGB, and 16 bit. Open the TIFF copy in both LR and PS and try the 'Levels' adjustments in PS versus LR's Exposure, Blacks, and Brightness controls. The histograms and controls should function more similar. As ssprengel said, PS’s histogram is going to provide a more accurate indication of clipping in narrower gamut color spaces compared to LR’s Melissa RGB histogram.
http://www.lightroomforums.net/showthread.php?12472-Histograms-in-Lightroom-and-Photoshop- don-t-match

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Why is there no Capture Pilot equivalent for Lightroom?

Why is there no Capture Pilot equivalent for Lightroom?

Nothing like it that I know of
But I just +1 the idea here: Capture Pilot equivalent for LightRoom? on Adobes feedback site & suggest you do too!

Managed library equivalent in lightroom

I was considering moving from Aperture to Lightroom (and even got a licence for it).
I might revert my decision because I did not find a way to manage my files that is as practical as the managed library of Aperture.
Most of my pictures are offline, and on different HDs.
I have various backup of my pictures, in different places, so I need to be able to easily reconnect them to my master library.
Aperture libraries (the equivalent of the catalog in lightroom) have a structure that does not change.
I can simply simply locate files and reconnect them to the library. The library looks the same regardless where the files are.
In lightroom, if I connect images from a different HD, the files are moved under a different HD tree.
The structure of the library is lost and split under various HD headings.
This is very inconvenient for me, because then the catalogue structure changes and things get very messy very quickly.
Is there any way to avoid this?
Can I have one structure in a master catalog and be able reconnect files to it without changing it?
Thanks for any advice on this. I would like to use lightroom, but if I cannot sort this issue out I will give up on it. :-(
Best
Silva

SilvaFer wrote:
This is all very useful, thanks. I will experiment with collections.
If I understand well, a good routine could be:
1) import files normally, creating a new folder
2) drag this folder in collections, to create a new collection that correspond to the folder imported
3) when the collection is created, I can ignore the folders and work through collections.
Yes, that is the shortest possible workflow for this.
I would like to select multiple pics in a collection and locate referenced files for all of them at once.
However it appears that I have 2 options, but none ideal
1) reconnect pictures from a collection. The locate menu appears when I click the "?" in an individual picture, but I cannot find it for a selection of multiple pictures. It is true that when i click "?" for one picture I am also asked if I want to "locate nearby missing photos", but I would like to retain control of what pictures I select and reconnect... and I am not sure what "nearby missing photos" really means
2) I can revert to the folder structure: go to the corresponding folder, use the command "find the missing folder" and link pics to a different HD from there. But I would love to avoid the extra step of going back to folders, and just stick to collections.
I would do a short variation of 2): right-click on the image indicated as missing in the collection, and choose "Go to Folder in Library". This will navigate you into the folder without you manually searching it.
Then have a look if possibly the folder entry has the "?" for missing. If so, right-click on this folder and choose "Find missing folder". Then all of its content will be updated in 1 go. Do this for the highest parent folder which still shows "?".
Nearby missing photos are from the same folder, but I'd guess it would only work if you reconnect an indiviual image from the folder, not the collection - as otherwise LR might have no clue about *nearby*.
Close the folders-panel again and revert to your collections.
Another question I have is: is dragging a folder the best way to create a collection? Or are smart ones (as suggested by cornelia-i) a better option?
I am resorting to dragging, rather than creating a "smart collection" (matching the original forlder name), because I noticed that if I try to reject pictures from such smart collections I receive an error message, whilst it work from a normal collection it is all fine.
Smart folders vs. dumb-dragged ones: it depends:
If you never touch the storage location of the folder after initial import, dragging might fully suffice. And if that matches your searching habits, what you'd expect from collections.
If you want to rearrange folders or use different criteria how many/which you would want to find in 1 collection's entry, then smart collections are preferable.
Just bear in mind that if you ever want to rearrange folders, you should do so from within LR, therefore of course having to return to the folders panel for this task. Otherwise you will have missing images, and the workload to relink.
Cornelia

Using Multiple-level folders in lightroom import

Let's say I want to import images into the following directory structure "USA\New York" where "USA" and therefore "New York" does not exist. I cannot use "Into Subfolder" as multilevel directories can not be entered here.
So I need to create the USA folder first and then import into "New York" ( switch lightroom will automatically create if it doesn't exist).
To create the "USA" folder I can click here:
This displays a windows dialog to create the new "USA" folder
After clicking on Select Folder we return to Lightroom but newly created and selected folder does not appear in the destination folder list:
The only way I can figure out how to add the USA folder is to exist Import and get into it again.
Once in appears in the list I can create the New York folder during the import by adding it here:
Why do I have exit the import dialog and start it again to see the "USA" folder, especially when it was selected and passed back to Lightroom ?
Is there way to refresh the folder list in the destination list without exiting Import ?
For me it makes no sense to add the ability to create a folder and then Lightroom doesn't use it.
Regards,
Gary

I think the Create New Folder button is designed for the folder the images are to be stored in, which in your case will be a sub-folder. So I guess the parent folder must already exist.
For example I keep all my photos under the year they were taken so it is then easy to create new sub-folders.
See #5 at the link below:
Import photos from a camera or card reader

Nik Plugins Equivalent in Lightroom?

I have been demoing the NIK SilverFX plugin and it seems to get me exactly what I am looking for in an image very quickly. I was wondering if it is possible to get exactly the same result by using only Lightroom adjustments. I'd prefer not to have to render to TIFF, make the Nik changes then save back into Lightroom. I don't mind paying for Lightroom presets if anyone knows of any which mimic the Nik results.
Thanks
David

Getting the "exact" same result using only Lightroom adjustments in every instance is highly unlikely. Getting close is doable, but tends to require a lot more work in Lightroom than is required in the Nik SilverFX plugins. Whether there are Lr presets that can truly produce the same result is a matter of opinion, mine being, most promise a lot and deliver very little. Best you stick with Nik and save yourself a bunch of time, hassle and money.

Choose Values by Level equivalent in BI Beans JSP?

We are converting our Express cubes to BI Beans JSPs. In Express, there was a button titled "Choose Values by Level" that would allow the users to, for example, quickly select each Month in the Time dimension. They would click the button, choose Time-->Select Each Month--> OK and then all the months would be listed without having to drill down All Time-->Years-->Quarters-->each month. Is there any way to do this in a BI Beans jsp?

Some of the top buttons in Express have been moved to "Refine Selections" option in BI beans.
To get to it, in your BI bean JSP, add a button (drag & drop it from the component pallette.)
Right click on the button & set BI action - > select Show refine selection.
Save.
When you run the JSP, click on the Button - it will take you to the Refine selections screen. Click on Create a new step or edit step for dimensions. You should be able to see various options to view the data.
Its a very powerful screen - has a lot of features, but will take some practice to get the hang of it.
Good luck!

Lightroom JPEG files far larger than equivalent Photoshop files?

I'm using Lightroom 2.3 on a Mac. If I take an image and export it from Lightroom as a JPEG at the 60 quality setting, the resulting JPEG is typically around 2-3 times larger than the same file saved from Adobe Photoshop CS3 using the High Quality setting in 'Save for Web and Devices'.
Lightroom does not appear to be generating a preview or anything else that would account for the disparity.
To get Lightroom to shrink files down to the sizes that Photoshop produces, I need to reduce the quality to a level at which the images contain glaring JPEG artifacts.
I'd like to use Lightroom as part of my web workflow, but this is pretty much a showstopper. Exporting to TIFF, then using Photoshop batch actions to try to automate a conversion to JPEG runs into the problem that Photoshop's "Save for Web and Devices" command can't be fully automated (it's not possible to override the save location).
So my questions are:
1. Why is Lightroom's JPEG compression so poor in comparison to Photoshop's?
2. Is there any way to get around this?
3. Is it safe to use Photoshop's standard 'Save as ...' command in place of 'Save for Web and Devices' when preparing images for the web (I have a distant memory that 'Save As ...' used to export metadata that would choke certain browsers, but I don't know if that's still true in CS3).

It looks as if metadata contributes about 4-8K to the image. Photoshop is stripping a large part of the metadata (even with 'include XMP' on), which contributes to the difference, but doesn't explain it completely.
Here are some test results:
Test Image #1: 660 x 440:
Lightroom 2 (60, with metadata) - 170,904 bytes
Lightroom 2 (60, without metadata) - 164,142 bytes
Photoshop CS3 (60, no metadata) - 141,489 bytes
Photoshop CS3 (30, no metadata) - 72,394 bytes
Test Image #2: 660 x 440 (no metadata)
Lightroom 2 (70) - 124,231 bytes
Lightroom 2 (60) - 88,448 bytes
Lightroom 2 (60) - 80,560 bytes
Photoshop CS3 (Save for Web 70) - 94,032 bytes
Photoshop CS3 (Save for Web 60) - 69,654 bytes
Photoshop CS3 (Save for Web 30) - 32,287 bytes
Photoshop CS3 (Save 8) - 93,517 bytes
Photoshop CS3 (Save 7) - 73,067 bytes
However, there's a quality difference to be taken into account as well. Photoshop 60 is about equivalent to Lightroom 70.
To compare the images, I took the original image (scaled to 660 x 440 by Lightroom) and layered the JPEG over it, then set the layer to 'Difference' to reveal JPEG compression artifacts. Lightroom at quality level 60 shows visible artifacts; Photoshop Save for Web at level 60 does not. To get the artifacts to disappear, I have to take Lightroom up to about 70, by which time the Lightroom files are almost twice the size of the Photoshop files.
Just for amusement, I tried Graphic Converter as well. GC is a great program, but its JPEG conversion turns out to be vile: even at a quality setting of 100, the artifacting on fine near-vertical lines is obvious to the naked eye.
Using Photoshop's own 'Save' (rather than 'Save for Web') command yields similar results. quality level 8 in 'Save' appears to be fractionally poorer than quality level 60 in 'Save for Web'.

Sync between Lightroom 3 and Photoshop CS5

I continue to have problems with updating the Lightroom 3 catalog. Yesterday I highlighted 4 icons of CR2 files and opened them in CS5 to do a photomerge. I saved the result as a psd file then as a jpeg file in the same directory that the CR2 files were stored. On returning to Lightroom, those files were not in the catalog so I went ahead and imported them into the catalog. No luck--still no icons. The original files had been tagged with a keyword so I highlighted the keyword and then clicked the right arrow next to the keyword. The icons then appeared but after another minor edit in Photoshop they disappeared. I wanted to copy the jpeg to Flickr and eventually did so but it took multiple steps of closing Lightroom, choosing the keyword, filtering the files before I got it done.
I am relatively new to Lightroom but worked extensively in PSE 6 and earlier versions and do not remember having anywhere like the problems I have experienced with Lightroom. My impression is that Lightroom is designed for a specific workflow, not to serve as a reliable database to keep file versions and edits easily accessible.

I finally figured out where the edited files went--to a higher level subdirectory. Lightroom was not happy with my directory structure which had the pictures in subdirectories three levels below the /User/xxx/Pictures directory in Windows 7. Importing images always required choosing the correct subdirectory and apparently this problem carried over when I sent images to Photoshop and saved changed versions. I did find the specific option to send to Photoshop to create a panorama and that process worked correctly to place the panorama in the original directory.
Anyway, having struggled with this mess I spent quite a bit of time moving images to a higher level subdirectory. Do you have any insight into why Lightroom chokes on what worked perfectly well with Photoshop Elements?

Lightroom imported and upgraded my elements catalog I have the metadata and no pictures

I have photoshop elements currently and have decided to upgrade to lightroom 3.4. So I downloaded the trial version anxious to try it, during the installation I was asked about upgrading my catalog from elements.... sure I'm going to be using lightroom mostly from now on anyway, so I did this and started lightroom ready to play. What I found was this.... light room found all my photo's but says there is no picture to display. I can click on any "blank tile"(I'm not sure what you call them) on the screen that shows the picture name and I get the metadata for the picture but no picture. figuring the problem must be with myself I then tryed my other computer, a laptop that is not long for this world and soon to be replaced and the program works!!! ?? As I said the laptop is dying and only works when it wants to,but both my machines are running vista32bit, same photo's the only thing is different is I store my photo's on my desktop's external harddrive. So thinking that could be the problem I stored them main hard drive still no luck I also tryed reinstalling the program, reupgrading the catalog.
The little bit of lightroom I have played with; (on the laptop when it works) I 've got to have this program!!! only I can't get it to work.
help!!!
Mike

I'm guessing here, but it could be the external HD is referenced differently by Elements and by Lightroom.
In Lightroom, go to the folder panel on the left and see what letter drive Lightroom thinks the photos are located on. Then go to Windows and see if this drive has the same letter. If the letters don't match, then the solution is relatively simple (I think), you need to change the drive letter in Windows to match what Lightroom thinks it should be (although this *could* screw up the Elements Catalog, if you will still be using it). An alternative solution is to tell Lightroom that the photos are on a different drive, by going to the top level folder in Lightroom, right clicking on it, and select Find Missing Folder and point it to the proper location of the photos.

External hard drive renamed, now lightroom does not see my files

I have been putting all my pictures in a folder on my external hard drive and then pulling them into Lightroom as they are added. The external HD was named (J:). I just went on vacation and decided to take a laptop and my hard drive along to work on photos. WHen I returned and plugged my hard drive back in to my regular desktop it showed up as (L:). I tried to simply rename it, but that did not work. Lightroom does see any of my folders as they were all mapped to the (J:) drive.
Any ideas?
Unicorn 2525

Right click on the top level folder in Lightroom folder panel and choose Finder Missing Folder or Update Folder Location. The first usually only shows in your situation, but on occasions it might note, therefore the second should be enough. This linked tutorial should guide you through the remaining steps.
http://www.computer-darkroom.com/lr2_find_folder/find-folder.htm

Which CC program do you recommend for viewing & organizing videos?

Quick Background: I have over a TB of family video clips. Some are my own, some are old transferred family films from as early as the 60's, and others are video clips taken at reunions and weddings by family members who have chosen me to make something of them. I've done photography for years and use Lightroom & Photoshop. Now with my CC account I've been teaching myself how to use Premiere Pro so I can begin working on this family project.
My Question: Im looking for the equivalent of Lightroom for Video. A program I can use to import my clips, rename, organize, see metadata, view, maybe do minor editing & trimming, rate/flag, and (maybe most importantly) allow some type of keyword tagging. Then open in Premiere Pro for more extensive editing. It would be great if, like Lightroom, the finished project could then be exported into the finished formats I need.
What I've tried: I understand Lightroom can import video, I tried this with a sample of clips but found LR pretty limited for working with videos (which makes sense). There are a lot of CC programs that I do not know the function of. I've been reading a little about Prelude, but I can't find a recent tutorial on Lynda.com; I tried searching "Adobe Prelude" but that only turned up Prelude CS6 Workshops from April of 2012? This makes me wonder if the Prelude program isn't very popular since tutorials of its updated version aren't available or in high demand? (Searches on Lynda.com for "Adobe Prelude CC 2014" found nothing).
So this is where I thought the Adobe Community would be a great resource. What are the "video people" out there using? And what should I stay away from? I so appreciate anyone who can take time to share their expertise and help me begin this project on the right foot.
Michele

The issue of changing native folder hierarchy and/or naming conventions has little to do with solid state media and everything to do with the container and header data that links the audio/video streams with the metadata and thus allows the content or "media essence" to be properly decoded and played. This is the very reason to use a tool like Prelude or Premiere's Media Browser or even Bridge or Lightroom or a third party logging tool like metafuze or shotputpro, or dedicated camera format software such as sony xdcam clipbrowser or panasonic p2 browser, redcine x, ect, as these tools all are designed to parse the captured A/V data and make properly syntaxed edits to the metadata either embedded directly into the media container or in Prelude and Premiere's case can also be written back to a sidecar or associated XMP file, which is a flavor of XML that contains all the original captured metadata plus any changes and/or additions made via these tools.
The dangers come into play when changes to the native file naming convention or folder hierarchy are done directly to the media content via finder on mac or explorer on windows, as changing at that level can break the relationship between the metadata stream and the media essence since the changes are not being written to the metadata or content headers or being handled in a manner referred to as transmuxing..
Prelude & Premiere's Media Browser both allow for looking into the native files non-destructively and safely modifying either the metadata linked to the native media or also allows for a transcode to be done which will then copy or recreate a new media file in whatever format selected along with a new metadata stream.
Prelude is a nice utility and Premiere's Media Browser an amazing tool for organizing, modifying and selectively ingesting media and or making quick selects and assemblies.

How do I search for a keyword?

How do I do the equivalent in Lightroom of the keyword search that's in Bridge? LR Find appears to be finding IMAGES that contain a keyword when I specify "Keywords" in the text find, rather than finding the keyword...
What I'd like is to be able to see all the keywords that contain what I enter, NOT the images that contain that keyword - again just like it works in Bridge...

If you're talking about searching based on the content of the documents uploaded, you will definitely need to integrate with a search engine to do periodic indexing of your content. The two most common search engines used with WLP are Autonomy (a light version is included with WLP) and Apache Lucene (free, highly customizable solution).
You should find good docs and articles on dev2dev to get started with either one.

I want to remove volumes from 'Import' - 'Select a source' list

Hi all,
First, I'm using the new Lightroom v4.1 on a Windows 7 x64 system.
As the title to my question suggests, I'm trying (without success) to remove volumes from the list that's shown when a user clicks on the 'Import' button (lower left of screen) and 'Select a source' which, naturally, shows all the drives in my system.
There are five volumes; four internal and one external.
There are only two drives which contain photos that I'm interestered in importing/editing.
The other drives contain files that I have no interest in editing or organizing.
For example, several hundred (scanned and collected) very old family photos that I wish to keep pristine, with no editing of any kind. As for placing them in collections, I already have them in dated, carefully named folders.
So, as this is a shared computer, I want to remove the volumes (drives) so that the aforementioned photos can't be inadvertantly imported.
Can someone please point me in the right direction how to do this?
Thank you.
Yours,
Hugh

There is nothing within Lightroom that will cause it to ignore a specific drive permanently. You'd have to go above Lightroom to the system level to prevent Lightroom from seeing the drive. Not sure how to do that, but it's probably possible.

LR4 on PC and Laptop help

Hi,
I have LR4.3 loaded on my PC (with serial # and cd).
I imported files to DNG, made adjustments ect. And saved to a catalog on the PC hdr drive.
I repeated the above process several times.
From time to time I also backed up the catalog when suggested by LR.
I backed up everything to an external drive.
I recently bought a laptop and installed LR on the laptop and upgraded to 4.3.
When I try to work from the "external" hard drive, I can't open the catalog(s).
Any thoughts on what I did wrong or am doing or not doing?
Thanks

Yes, it is clear.
To achieve this two things have to be done:
1) your photos have to be moved from the C-drive to the external drive. I take it this has happened already since your screen shot shows the images on the C-drive as "missing".
2) the catalog ( = Lr database) has to be moved from the PC to the external drive. Since both computers (PC and laptop) need to write into the same catalog in order that you can see the edits done on the PC also on the laptop (and vice versa), they both need to have access to the catalog (= database). So it has to be on the external drive.
(Just as an aside: there is also a way to accomplish this with two catalogs (= databases) and merging them later on - but I think that would confuse things at the moment. So I am not elaborating on that).
To move the catalog (= database) to the external drive: find the file with he extension < .lrcat>. By default it is in the folder <My Pictures/Lightroom> . If you can't find it, do a search for a file with < lrcat>. While Lr is closed move this file with Win Explorer to your external drive. I suggest you create a new top-level folder called <Lightroom catalog and Previews> and put the catalog file in there. You can also move the previews folder in there. The previews folder is a folder with the extension < .lrdat>, and you will see it right next to your catalog file. Moving the previews folder is not critical because Lr will create new previews "on the fly" if it doesn't find any.
Once your catalog file (= the lrcat-file) is on the external drive (and your photos are also there) double-click the catalog file and Lr will open.
Since the catalog (= database) was created while the images were still on the C-drive, the link that Lr had established between the catalog and the image files is broken, and you see the question marks on the frames of the images (in Grid View) and in front of the folder names. Your screen shot shows that. Now you have to re-link Lr with your image files (= photos).
I gave you the two links in my post # 13. Read and watch the tutorial, and you'll learn how to re-link your photos.
Just one warning: Do not re-import your photos. Re-importing creates havoc with your catalog, creates unnecessary duplicates, and you loose your edits. The import is strictly for images only that have never been imported in Lr.
So, you have your work cut out. Good luck! If you run into problems, ask.

Cannot download SPS15 for SAP ERP 6.0 from MOPZ

Hello gurus,
I need your help. I am planning to upgrade my ECC 6.0 system to EhP4 SPS3, but for this I need to update my system first from its current level of SPS09 to SPS15 (SP Level equivalent of EhP4 SPS03), so for this I want to download SPS15 from maintenance optimizer for my system EC2 which is an ERP 6.0.
There are two update options, right: Maintenance and Enhancement Package Installation. I chose maintenance, and then clicked next. But all i see is the following:
TArget Enhancement Package Version: SAP ERP EhP4 / NW7.01
Target enhancement package stack: SAP ERP EhP4 on NW7.01 - SP Stack (02-09)
But all i want to download is SPS15. How can I proceed?
Please advise.
thanks a lot in advance!
Cha Cha

Hello,
You can download SP stacks for ERP 6 from https://websmp130.sap-ag.de/sap(bD1lbiZjPTAwMQ==)/bc/bsp/spn/swdc/sps/index.do?pvnr=01200615320900001296&u=&session_id=saI04682020110726143831SID%3aANON%3apwdf4962_OW1_01%3aV1BCP1X74ObZRnSxXvbbcuh1vWLml2Fhd4HPbVs2-ATT
if the solution of your support message takes long. You can always request the approval of the download basket with a message under component SV-SMG-MAI-APR.
Best regards,
Miguel Ariñ

Levels equivalent in Lightroom

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