Just got Lightroom. Need Help!

Alright so i have a few questions. First of all, the only thing i have besides Lightroom is Canon DPP and Photoshop Elements 7. I don't have the money to buy CS5 right now so does anyone edit their photos with Elements? If so, is it decent? Since i have lightroom, the only thing i would be using PS for would be sharpening and whatnot.

Also since i just got lightroom i don't have any RAW pics to mess around with since i am just starting to shoot in RAW. Would anyone be willing to send me a pic or two for me to play around with in lightroom? Doesnt have to be anything special...just maybe some landscape or something..

Lightroom seems complicated by the way haha. Like after i edit the picture in lightroom, how to i save it to print or save it as JPEG? Because when im editing in lightroom its not automatically saving my original files right?

Lightroom does not modify your originals. After you make your edits, you EXPORT to create a file with your edits.

Dirty Murd wrote in post #11507339
Also since i just got lightroom i don't have any RAW pics to mess around with since i am just starting to shoot in RAW.

Doesn't your 450D produce RAW files? Take your own pictures and play with those.

so after i edit and play around with a certain photo in LR, i export it to a separate folder somewhere? Sweet! Thanks!

Anyone else for the other questions i asked?

You don't need to "save" pictures in Lightroom after you edit them. Lightroom keeps its own catalog of thumbnails. You can export your picture to whatever format you want. BTW, Lightroom works best with RAW files. You can then export to JPG's if needed. Congrats on your purchase. You'll love Lightroom.

Oh yeah, i know it works best with RAW...thats the reason i got it.
As for my last question...after editing in LR is PS Elements 7 a decent program to use to sharpen the picture and do any other touches? I only have Elements...not any of the CS ones :/

Oh yeah...also anyone willing to send me any RAW pictures to play around in LR with since i cant shoot right now..
email: jordynmurdock@yahoo.co​m

Why not use Lightroom for all your edits? It can do just about everything you need to do. Even has a local adjustment brush.

Can you sharpen images in LR by using methods like USM and High-pass? Which i can do easily in PS..

I really don't think you want people emailing 20+MB raw files to you. If you google '.cr2 sample file' then you should find several to play with.

I, and many others, find that LR is all that's needed for editing. The sharpening in LR is excellent. When you've got an image looking the way you want you can export the result as jpegs, suited to the final purpose - display on the Web, sending to an external print company, copying to a mobile device (i.e, an iPad). All those will require images with different sizes and different amounts of sharpening. With LR it's easy to produce them all from the one raw file, then delete the jpegs once they've been sent to their destination and they're no longer needed - you can always recreate them.

Printing from LR is also very easy - no need to create an intermediate jpeg.

Dirty Murd wrote in post #11507387
Oh yeah...also anyone willing to send me any RAW pictures to play around in LR with since i cant shoot right now..
email: ordynmurdock@yahoo.com

You have e-mail..

hollis_f wrote in post #11507418
I really don't think you want people emailing 20+MB raw files to you. If you google '.cr2 sample file' then you should find several to play with.

I, and many others, find that LR is all that's needed for editing. The sharpening in LR is excellent. When you've got an image looking the way you want you can export the result as jpegs, suited to the final purpose - display on the Web, sending to an external print company, copying to a mobile device (i.e, an iPad). All those will require images with different sizes and different amounts of sharpening. With LR it's easy to produce them all from the one raw file, then delete the jpegs once they've been sent to their destination and they're no longer needed - you can always recreate them.

Printing from LR is also very easy - no need to create an intermediate jpeg.

I apologize for my noobiness but would you mind explaining a little about LR's sharpening? Where i could find it...

Also i always send my files to external companies for printing...i don't have the printer or paper to print 16x20s or 20x30s which i have some hanging in my hall way and they are superb.

Are you familiar with the different modules in Lightroom? All the editing features are in the DEVELOP module. Have a look at any of Scott Kelby's books. They are a great help.

Yeah I'm looking at the Develop module right now. Just opened it up...is the sharpening tools there too?

Dirty Murd wrote in post #11507450
Yeah I'm looking at the Develop module right now. Just opened it up...is the sharpening tools there too?

Yup, in the section marked 'Detail'. The options for Radius and Amount are similar to those you'll be used to with USM. The Detail slider can help retain detail and the Masking slider will restrict the area that sharpening is applied to - hold the ALT key down while changing it to see what's masked out.

For all the tools in the Develop module the best thing to do is twiddle with them and see what happens. You can always undo and get back to the original.

There's also ouput sharpening that you'll see as on option in the Export dialog. It sharpens depening on the final output image size.

Sorry to be a pain....read the manual.

hollis_f wrote in post #11507478
Yup, in the section marked 'Detail'. The options for Radius and Amount are similar to those you'll be used to with USM. The Detail slider can help retain detail and the Masking slider will restrict the area that sharpening is applied to - hold the ALT key down while changing it to see what's masked out.

For all the tools in the Develop module the best thing to do is twiddle with them and see what happens. You can always undo and get back to the original.

There's also ouput sharpening that you'll see as on option in the Export dialog. It sharpens depening on the final output image size.

Does it automatically sharpen in the output or does it give you more options?