Playing with Lightroom 4 - an improvement over version 3 (many images)

Having read a couple of the threads posted over the past few days suggesting that Lightroom 4 is worth a look, I fired up the current beta (available to anyone from Adobe Labs: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/lightroom4/ )

I've been pleasantly surprised and also found that LR4 gives better control over highlight recovery and gave me a better image with very little fiddling.

I've presented some examples of what I've found below in case anyone is interested.

Please note beforehand - that this is not designed to be a test of the EPL3 sensor, I know it's pretty noisy in the shadows and DR isn't the best on the planet....

Also please note that this is not supposed to be a wonderfully composed image or anything, - it's just one I took quickly when looking for a scene with challenging DR - a bright sky, with a shadowed foreground.

For those who might be too impatient or busy to look at all the samples below - here's the "Too long, didn't read" version:

Original Image:

Lightroom 3:

Lightroom 4:

You can also look at the original files here: http://bowerman.smugmug.com/Other/LR-4-Testing/21051741_MZ4wsm# !i=1673973884&k=CRKJjwm

For those who still want to see all the comparisons, please read on below!

First, straight out of camera jpeg:

As you can see, straight out of camera, the sky is clearly blown out, and there is little detail to be seen in the shadows.

Next, out of camera jpeg with in-camera auto shadow adjust applied:

This looks better at this size, but again, the sky is blown out - good to see some detail recovered in the shadows (although at closer viewing it is very noisy with overly strong NR removing details - see later for 100% crops)

Now for the raw conversions:

First LR3 - straight raw with no adjustments

Not much to say other than LR3 favoured the sky over the shadowed area, but still some significant areas showing as blown in the highlights.

Now LR4 - again straight raw with no adjustments

A little better than LR3 - less blown highlights in the sky and slightly lighter shadows... still not great though

Now let's see how LR3 and 4 handle when asked to 'auto fix' the image:

LR3

Here LR3 has pulled back detail in the sky, but not so much in the shadows - still quite a harsh falloff in the highlights in the sky though.

LR4

LR4 doesn't do a great job when asked to auto fix the image, the transitions in the sky are a little gentler than LR3 although not as much detail has been recovered.

Now lets actually get hands on and make a few quick adjustments with the sliders:

LR3

The following adjustments were made: exposure -0.14, recovery 67, fill light 66, Luminance NR 25

Not too bad, better than the in camera options, but the sky is still quite blown out and the fill light isn't most flexible way to lighten the shadows - still, not too bad.

LR4

This is where LR4 comes into its own, with more detailed sliders to control highlights and shadows, I was able to quickly produce a superior result - there is more detail in the sky, smoother transition into highlight areas and more detail in the shadows.

Settings used: highlights -85, shadows +63, whites +22, blacks +27, clarity +24, vibrance +17, saturation +27, Luminance NR 25

I've also posted some 100% crops below - you can see that the in camera jpeg is really not suitable for close viewing but the raw conversions are much more usable - I also see a slight improvement in the noise reduction from lightroom 4 vs. 3 - there is a little less green splotchy noise in the shadow areas, overall less colour noise - wish I had taken the image with my GH2 to see how much extra detail could have been massaged from the file!

Hope this may have been of interest to some of you, look forward to see your own LR4 findings too!