Lightroom: Droplets - Launching Photoshop Actions from Lightroom using Droplets

Speed up your workflow in Lightroom by launching Photoshop Actions using Droplets. I use it constantly and I highly recommend you try it out

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Keep up the good work, Jay! I have my daughter working through the book Layers (Matt Kloskowski) at this point to get her up to speed, but I'm going to be pointing her in your direction!

Thanks Tony, and that is a good book from what I hear!! I prefer watching video tutorials though myself! Seems easier to comprehend for my learning style I guess.

Best,
Jay

jason324 wrote in post #11673729
Thanks Tony, and that is a good book from what I hear!! I prefer watching video tutorials though myself! Seems easier to comprehend for my learning style I guess.

Best,
Jay

I wouldn't disagree, but my daughter is, well, she has a mind of her own and so I just put a few books in front of here and hope she picks up on them! She's been working with Lightroom and Photoshop for some time but slow to pick up on the learning curve. Right now I have here working through Layers and glancing at "Skin" by Lee Varis (she's a people shooter)...if she picks up her momentum that's where I think she'll be more motivated to spend time with Web tutorials!

If you launch into photoshop and bring back in, aren't you re-importing a different image it's no longer that RAW image to work with?

I haven't tried droplets since.... LR1? Totally forgot about them and they're much easier to set up now. Thanks for the reminder.

kaitlyn2004 wrote in post #11675087
If you launch into photoshop and bring back in, aren't you re-importing a different image it's no longer that RAW image to work with?

Using a Photoshop droplet is much like using an LR plug-in -- it gets saved according to how you design the droplet and no, not as a Raw file. Photoshop has to have an image file to work with such as tiff, psd or jpeg. That's why a droplet works with the LR Export module -- you are exporting to a tiff/psd/jpeg and so when you "drop it" into Photoshop photoshop can open it and process it and save it without hassle.

If I'm not mistaken, the one "lack" with droplets is that they can't automatically be re-imported into Lightroom like you can using the Edit with Photoshop operation or with a well-designed plug-in. Maybe I'm mistaken about that and someone can correct me. But they can be great for, say, running a particular output sharpening routine and then saving the results in your needed format. If you have a habit of say resizing and sharpening in Photoshop in a global way, then saving for the Web you can put that all as an action then save it as a droplet and you're off and running as an Export Action in LR!

[EDIT] WHOOPS! Check Jay's note below showing that I was mistaken about re-importing!

Good explanation Tony. Thanks!

You can have the images re-import, but you will need to save them within the action and then check the re-import box towards the top of the export dialog when you test it. It all depends on the action what you can and can't do as it relates to the Lightroom droplets.

Testing is key with actions and droplets. It may take a few try's if your creating your own actions.

Best,
Jay

wow just tried this and it worked...thanks for the tutorial. Now I had a question. In my LR i was unable to select the placement of watermark. And the layout was different than the one you had in the video, so I am guessing we have different version of LR or is there a setting that I can change to get that option to select placement of watermark? Also is there a way to set default watermark and size? Thanks

xxmxaxrxyxx wrote in post #11712622
wow just tried this and it worked...thanks for the tutorial. Now I had a question. In my LR i was unable to select the placement of watermark. And the layout was different than the one you had in the video, so I am guessing we have different version of LR or is there a setting that I can change to get that option to select placement of watermark? Also is there a way to set default watermark and size? Thanks

Thanks for the comments

There is a bunch more options in Lightroom 3. You can edit your watermark right from the export dialog box in Lightroom 3, so it's really easy. If you don't have that option, I think you have an older lightroom. In that case your pretty limited with your watermark placement.

Jay