Lightroom 4 & Photoshop CS6

betweenCOLOR WORKFLOW

FOR ALMOST EVERY LIGHTROOM USER WHO FINDS THE NEED

TO DO PIXEL-BASED EDITING ON IMAGES, SENDING IMAGES

FROM LIGHTROOM TO PHOTOSHOP IS A PRETTY COMMON AC-

TIVITY. PRIOR TO THE INTRODUCTION OF BOTH LIGHTROOM 4

AND PHOTOSHOP CS6, THIS OFTEN CAUSED MUCH TEETH

GNASHING BECAUSE OF UNEXPECTED COLOR SHIFTS. THIS

HAPPENED FOR SEVERAL REASONS, INCLUDING THE FACT

THAT PREVIOUS VERSIONS OF THESE TWO PROGRAMS USED

DIFFERENT COLOR ENGINES BEHIND THE SCENES.

J O E B R A DY

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NOW, LIGHTROOM 4 AND PHOTOSHOP CS6 SHARE THE

SAME COLOR ENGINE AND IMAGES CAN BE SENT BACK

AND FORTH WITHOUT FEAR. TO MAKE SURE THAT ANY

EDITS YOU DO IN PHOTOSHOP DONT CAUSE ANY COL-

OR OR TONAL SURPRISES, ITS IMPORTANT TO HAVE

A COLOR WORKFLOW BETWEEN THE TWO PROGRAMS

THAT PROVIDES THE MOST ACCURATE EDITS.

L IGHTROOM 4 COLOR SETT INGS

Lightroom works in a color space called Melissa RGB. This space is essentially ProPhoto RGB with a mod-ified gamma curve set at 2.2. Before going into the Photoshop color set-tings, lets make sure that Lightroom will send images into Photoshop with the correct settings.

Start by making sure that when you send an image from Lightroom 4 to Photoshop CS6 that youre using the ProPhoto RGB color space with a bit depth of 16 bits/component. These options are found on the External Editing tab of the Preferences dia-log in Lightroom (Lightroom [PC: Edit]>Preferences). This will keep col-ors from shifting and provide a great match in color and tone. While its true that ProPhoto RGB uses a differ-ent gamma curve than the default in Lightroom, the differences on your monitor are negligible. Lightroom does recommend exporting TIFF files into Photoshop, but if youre stuck in your ways and prefer to keep PSD files, thats fine. Just make sure to click the Maximize Compatibility checkbox when you save the file in Photoshop. (Note: To check your cur-rent Maximize Compatibility settings in Photoshop, go to Photoshop [PC: Edit]>Preferences>File Handling. In the File Compatibility section, youll see a drop-down menu for Maximize PSD and PSB File Compatibility. Your options are Never, Always, and Ask.) Dont concern yourself with the Res-olution number, the default of which is 240. It has no effect on the file youre editing.

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PHOTOSHOP CS6 COLOR SETT INGS

Before you bring your images into Photoshop, its important to make sure that the color settings in Photoshop are set to make transferring from Lightroom as accurate as possible. You can access these choices under Edit>Color Settings. The most important selection is the first onethe RGB Working Spaces. You want to make sure that ProPhoto RGB is chosen. The three choices below dont concern most photographers, so leave them at their default settings.

Below that is a section called Color Management Policies. The important thing here is to always select Preserve Embedded Profiles. The rest of the options here wont concern you in this workflow, nor will any of the choices available when you click the More Options buttonthose defaults are fine.

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BEFORE YOU DO ANY ED ITS, CAL IBRATE YOUR MONITOR

Its always important to mention that any editing you do in Photoshop or Lightroom assumes that your monitor is calibrated. Youre making edits to your images based on how it looks on your screen, so you need to know that the image you see on the monitor is accurate.

The single biggest complaint from most users is that they get prints back from their lab or off their printer that are too dark. An overly bright monitor (as most are) is the greatest cause of dark prints because youre judging your images based on your bright display. A monitor calibration system is a must for anyone doing their own image edit-ing. You need your monitor to show your image as accu-rately as possible and you cant do this by eye. A device like the ColorMunki Display from X-Rite (http://kel.by/VFub0l) is an easy-to-use tool that will get your monitor calibrated without any need to know about color management. If you dont get your monitor under control, then your edits are just guesses!

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ALL PHOTOS BY JOE BRADY

NOW YOU CAN MAKE YOUR IMAGE ED ITS IN PHOTOSHOP CS6

With your color policies in Lightroom 4 and Photoshop CS6 now set to bring you the most consistent color and tone, you can safely make your edits. With your image selected in Lightroom, go to Photo>Edit In>Edit in Adobe Photoshop CS6. Make all of your edits in Photoshop and when the image looks the way you like, simply Save the image (not Save As). When you go back to Lightroom 4, youll find the saved PSD or TIFF file sitting next to your original RAW file in the Filmstrip. Remember that the file type was determined by the choices you made in your Lightroom 4 preferences for external editing. All of your layers will remain intact when you open this file again in Photoshop using the Edit Original option in the Edit Photos with Adobe Photoshop CS6 dialog. You can now prepare your image for printing from Lightroom and take advantage of the soft proofing features, which well cover next issue. n

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