[HermanLee]

Guys,

You might want to check this out. I don't know if anybody has known about this or not.

Somebody at Olympus forum found this great feature of Lightroom 2 that is not documented yet.
Basically what he found is that LR can detect the focus area in a photo.
What you need to do is:
- Go to Library tab
- Click Loupe (E) on toolbar (T)
- Select the viewing ratio anything bigger than normal. For example: Fill or 1:1 or 2:1
- Don't use your mouse to pan the photo, instead use your Left/Right Arrow Key to move to the Previous/Next photo.
- Look on the Navigator window on upper left. There you will see the Rectangle window moving along following the focus area.

This will be a great feature for us who got fooled many times with blurry picture because the sensor is focusing on different area than what we intended to focus on.

I tried it on some bird photos where I got not so sharp picture and I found that this LR feature point on the tail of the bird where I actually was aiming at its eyes.
And the LR got it right, the tail part is the sharp area.
No wonder I got blurry photo.

Hope you can try it and see whether it works the same with you or not.

[Jodokast96]

If I recall correctly, PhotoMe tells you this as well.

[krypticide]

Doesn't work for me. All it does is go to the next image, zoomed at the same place as the previous image.

Isn't that just telling you what part of the photo you are looking at? Like in photoshop? Try moving the rectangle by grabbing it with the mouse it should change the area you're looking at. It is only a navigation aid not a "camera focus" point.

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Last edited by graphicgr8s; 05-06-2009 at 09:23 PM.

[stevebrot]

Interestingly, the same feature is present in LR-1. Though I have to confess that it is not particularly accurate. A lot depends on the subject.

Steve

[Venturi]

Whatever it is actually doing, I seriously doubt it's picking up the sensor focus location. What it does do however is remember where the last place you clicked in either the navigator window or the loupe window and when you cursor to the next image it'll pick the same place on that image. It seems to also remember where you clicked last on a specific image and if you flip back to it after viewing others it will return to the same position.

I just ran through about 100 shots in LR2, including some film scans, and there was no logical rhyme or reason to its behavior except as described above.

[stevebrot]

Whatever it is actually doing, I seriously doubt it's picking up the sensor focus location. What it does do however is remember where the last place you clicked in either the navigator window or the loupe window and when you cursor to the next image it'll pick the same place on that image. It seems to also remember where you clicked last on a specific image and if you flip back to it after viewing others it will return to the same position.

I just ran through about 100 shots in LR2, including some film scans, and there was no logical rhyme or reason to its behavior except as described above.

That makes a lot of sense...from both a work flow and a practical point of view. I just checked it out and you are very correct.

The good news is that what started as a possible good feature is now a great feature for my work flow. I often need to compare the fine focus for different compositions. This feature allows me to compare similar regions quickly between selected images by using the <-- and --> keys. Bravo!

It works like this:

• Select several images in Library view (CTRL-Click)
• Change magnification to 1:1
• Use the <-- and --> keys to move between them
• Adjust the frame location for each image
• Compare freely!

Steve

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Last edited by stevebrot; 05-06-2009 at 10:13 PM.

[HermanLee]

Whatever it is actually doing, I seriously doubt it's picking up the sensor focus location. What it does do however is remember where the last place you clicked in either the navigator window or the loupe window and when you cursor to the next image it'll pick the same place on that image. It seems to also remember where you clicked last on a specific image and if you flip back to it after viewing others it will return to the same position.

I just ran through about 100 shots in LR2, including some film scans, and there was no logical rhyme or reason to its behavior except as described above.

Venturi,

I think you're correct here.
After running through a lot of pictures trying to prove this theory, I found out that the navigator seems to memorize the old selection area.

The funny thing is, I tried to take several new random photos with my camera with different focus point and the LR can not detect it accurately 100%
Sometimes it seems guessing near the focus area but it doesn't do it all the time.
But I noticed that when the sharper area is near center, the window tends to move closer toward the focus area.
So it seems to know the focus area but not too precise.

I don't know. Maybe LR engineers have something in their sleeve for their next release.

[flyer]

To start with, what were you doing on an Olympus forum?

[tlwyse]

Somebody at Olympus forum found this great feature of Lightroom 2 that is not documented yet.
Basically what he found is that LR can detect the focus area in a photo.

That's not what is happening at all. All it's doing is remembering the last region where you had placed the loupe on that photo. It will default to the last position/region for each new photo where no loupe position was set.

Try importing some new photos into your library and try the same thing. The loupe rectangle will stay in exactly the same position for each photo. Move the loupe to a new region and it will be in that new region for every other photo. Now change the loupe position for two different photos and then toggle between them. It will remember the loupe position for each photo.

Nice try!

-Terry

That's not what is happening at all. All it's doing is remembering the last region where you had placed the loupe on that photo. It will default to the last position/region for each new photo where no loupe position was set.

Try importing some new photos into your library and try the same thing. The loupe rectangle will stay in exactly the same position for each photo. Move the loupe to a new region and it will be in that new region for every other photo. Now change the loupe position for two different photos and then toggle between them. It will remember the loupe position for each photo.

Nice try!

-Terry

Ain't that about what I said?



For Damn Brit

[HermanLee]

To start with, what were you doing on an Olympus forum?

Yves,
because I believe that there is no limit/boundary to finding wisdom/knowledge
It's a big world out there...and there's always somebody that is better than us in some other ways.

Yves,
because I believe that there is no limit/boundary to finding wisdom/knowledge
It's a big world out there...and there's always somebody that is better than us in some other ways.

Amen. Amen and Amen

[Venturi]

Pshaw! PENTAX OR DIE!

[HermanLee]

Pshaw! PENTAX OR DIE!

Whoops...miss
because I'm w/ Pentax but stealing Olympus technique