Various rundowns and impressions have been posted over the internet on the impressions of Adobe Lightroom 4 Beta so far. For me, I wanted to see how the new video editing interface worked. This came after downloading the Technicolor Cinestyle Color Profile for my Canon 5D Mk II. To be quite honest with you, I don’t see why I couldn’t have just manually set the color, saturation, contrast, and sharpness settings myself. However, I do see how it allows the user to have more latitude with their editing providing you’ve got a working knowledge of color theory.
Gear Used
Quick Workflow Tour
First off, you can only do minor and quick edits to your videos in the Library panel. And even those are limited. When I tried to apply one of my custom Lightroom preset profiles to the video, this is the message I got:
And this is what happened afterward:
That’s not so awesome. So, I had to revert the file back to its original by constantly pressing Command+Z on my laptop because there is no reset function in the Library mode that I could find that also worked. (If I can be proven wrong, please do so.)
Then I needed to export the file as an H.264 codec because when I tried exporting as the original, it didn’t work out so well in that all my color alterations were removed.
Finally, I imported the videos into iMovie, cut them up and set up the video you see below.
Findings
I really, really wish that Lightroom 4 will allow for much more video editing abilities as a great deal of my work makes me shoot both stills and video. At the moment, I’m shocked because even Windows Movie Maker (a free program) allows a user to have more versatility with their editing. I’d love to be able to cut together videos in a way almost like Premiere or Final Cut. In practice, it would be a lot easier for me to do so in one program vs switching to others.
Additionally, the little editing that is possible is tough to work with. Changing a setting, like the tint for example, is tough because if you press the fast forward button (or what looks like it) then you’ll go very far over without knowing how many degrees over you’ve gone. I’d like to be able to see all of this as well with the White Balance setting and others.
Oh wait, that’s in the Develop Panel. Lightroom 4 Beta has this already. But it can’t be applied to videos. That’s a major, major bummer as I’d gladly pay to be able to do all types of editing in one program vs having to wait for another company make a plug-in to work with Lightroom 4 (and someone is bound to do it, whether it by Nik, OnOne, or Athentech.) As it currently stands, you can’t export a video file into another program for editing when you right click a file and then choose, “Edit in.”
To be honest, after using Athentech’s Perfectly Clear software, I’d love for them to make a video editing profile plug-in for Lightroom 4 and I feel like that is where they could potentially cash in quite a bit with lots of photographers only wanting to make minor edits to their videos and that’s it. Retouching someone’s skin is a big can of worms that requires working down on the pixel levels. I used to do that back in college.
And with big players like the Canon 1D X, Nikon D4, and loads of others like the possible Canon 5D Mk III, Nikon D800, Olympus OM-D and Sony A99 on the horizon (rumorizing here) then we should have the appropriate tools to work with the multimedia professional.
Results
Please Support The Phoblographer
We love to bring you guys the latest and greatest news and gear related stuff. However, we can’t keep doing that unless we have your continued support. If you would like to purchase any of the items mentioned, please do so by clicking our links first and then purchasing the items as we then get a small portion of the sale to help run the website.