Exporting Video Straight from Lightroom

Started by DOP, April 06, 2019, 07:54:38 AM

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DOP

If you are using Lightroom for grading of DNG's you can actually export an H.264 video straight from Lightroom without having to export as jpeg or tiff and bring into an editor. Of course this limited format would not be good for editing after the fact in an editor but it is hand if you just need to quickly export and view / share a clip.

It requires a bit of a "hack" to the Slideshow template files since the interface does not let you go below .1 (or in newer version of Lightroom 1) for the Slide Length setting.

I have uploaded 2 templates here. One for 24fps and one for 30fps. I've tested the 24fps template but not the 30fps. Should be good based on the math, but...

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mnczngo798r6v2c/AACGprxZecG1ekfGpktcqtRVa?dl=0

To use it just

  • Import the template into the Slideshow model of Lightroom
  • Select the template
  • Click Export Video below the template browser

I think you could technically add the .wav file in if you wanted sound too but I haven't tried.

NOTE: There is a bug (I presume) in LR that causes it to drop several of the frames at the end of the video, at least in my 24fps test. This might be because it forces the fps of the exported video to 29.97 and there seems to be no way around it. However, the video does playback at the correct speed despite this.  So you may need to add extra frames (images) at the end before exporting to account for this.  Maybe someone can try it with a 30fps export and let me know. I don't have the time right now.

I am also getting a huge black mat around the video for some reason. At both 1080p and even 720p despite my original files being 1824x1026. Will hav etc play with that too.
Canon 6d / 70d

Danne

There's also ae with raw capabilities and tons of export options. And of course Mlv App, dedicated mlv processor, but I assume you prefer lightroom for some reason.

scrax

I used some presets for making timelapses with LR years ago and they were working ok but can't remember where I got them.
just found this that maybe you can use to compare with yours
I'm using ML2.3 for photography with:
EOS 600DML | EOS 400Dplus | EOS 5D MLbeta5- EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro  - EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM - EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM - 580EXII - OsX, PS, LR, RawTherapee, LightZone -no video experience-

DOP

Quote from: Danne on April 06, 2019, 09:09:26 AM
There's also ae with raw capabilities and tons of export options. And of course Mlv App, dedicated mlv processor, but I assume you prefer lightroom for some reason.

MLV App is what I use for initial conversion to CinemaDNG. The devs have done a great job with it but I have a very long history with Lightroom and Camera Raw (since LR v1 beta) and it's an integral part of my photo workflow. That combined with my proficiency with and preference for Camera Raw makes it a good fit for my workflow.  AE has come up in my reading a few times but at this time I'm not willing to shell out extra money on top of LR/PS & FCPX which is my current video editor.

Ultimately I'm quite happy with this workflow, just stumbled across this ability to set the slideshows to a specific frame rate and thought it might be useful for other LR users to quickly dump out a preview of what their video will look like. Sometimes you notice a problem once the frames are rendered into a video and it's nice to catch it sooner in the workflow rather than later after pushing everything into another editor, adding to timeline, adjusting things, etc.
Canon 6d / 70d

DOP

Quote from: scrax on April 06, 2019, 01:39:55 PM
I used some presets for making timelapses with LR years ago and they were working ok but can't remember where I got them.
just found this that maybe you can use to compare with yours

Very interesting. Seems they have done the same thing as me for the initial Slideshow presets. It's unclear how to use the Video presets though. Based on the read me it sounds like once they are dropped in Lr's Video Presets folder they should show up as an option in Slideshow > Export Video, but they do not. Perhaps this worked with older versions of LR or I'm misinterpreting something.

Edit: Found this. Seems they may have removed the ability to use Video Presets for exporting. Shitty. https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1234089
Canon 6d / 70d

scrax

Quote from: DOP on April 06, 2019, 07:29:16 PM
Very interesting. Seems they have done the same thing as me for the initial Slideshow presets. It's unclear how to use the Video presets though. Based on the read me it sounds like once they are dropped in Lr's Video Presets folder they should show up as an option in Slideshow > Export Video, but they do not. Perhaps this worked with older versions of LR or I'm misinterpreting something.

Edit: Found this. Seems they may have removed the ability to use Video Presets for exporting. Shitty. https://forums.adobe.com/thread/1234089

Being an old LR user too, I hate where adobe is going with CC and so on, that is just another bad choices from them.
Recently I've sarted to learn and change my workflow to opensource apps for that reason and also because I'm interested in getting a POWER9 IBM processor machine like the Talos or Blackbird

So far only thing that kept me away from linux is LR and PS both are app that I've used since they were in beta so is really hard to change but not always is easy to get thing better, so far I found really nice how LightZone works for example, instead of Darktable that is less intuitive for me at the moment.

I'm using ML2.3 for photography with:
EOS 600DML | EOS 400Dplus | EOS 5D MLbeta5- EF 100mm f/2.8 USM Macro  - EF-S 17-85mm f4-5.6 IS USM - EF 70-200mm f/4 L USM - 580EXII - OsX, PS, LR, RawTherapee, LightZone -no video experience-

DOP

Quote from: scrax on April 06, 2019, 08:06:33 PM
Being an old LR user too, I hate where adobe is going with CC and so on, that is just another bad choices from them.
Recently I've sarted to learn and change my workflow to opensource apps for that reason and also because I'm interested in getting a POWER9 IBM processor machine like the Talos or Blackbird

So far only thing that kept me away from linux is LR and PS both are app that I've used since they were in beta so is really hard to change but not always is easy to get thing better, so far I found really nice how LightZone works for example, instead of Darktable that is less intuitive for me at the moment.

I also disliked the idea of CC in the beginning. Mostly the subscription model. Now I don't mind so much because I use LR mobile sync heavily. It's something I tried to DIY for years and it was always clunky. Even just the mobile sync is almost worth the $10 (ish) a month for the plan.  It's also handy to have a web interface for quick photo tweaks and exports if I'm at work or something and need to quickly export a photo for a client.  There are definite downsides but overall I'm relatively happy with CC.

Opensource is fantastic overall and I do use some open source programs here and there but overall it's not usually well flushed out and mostly I need ease of use, efficiency, speed, integration, etc in my workflows more than I need free or highly flexible.
Canon 6d / 70d

DOP

Quote from: DOP on April 06, 2019, 07:54:38 AM
If you are using Lightroom for grading of DNG's you can actually export an H.264 video straight from Lightroom without having to export as jpeg or tiff and bring into an editor. Of course this limited format would not be good for editing after the fact in an editor but it is hand if you just need to quickly export and view / share a clip.

It requires a bit of a "hack" to the Slideshow template files since the interface does not let you go below .1 (or in newer version of Lightroom 1) for the Slide Length setting.

I have uploaded 2 templates here. One for 24fps and one for 30fps. I've tested the 24fps template but not the 30fps. Should be good based on the math, but...

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/mnczngo798r6v2c/AACGprxZecG1ekfGpktcqtRVa?dl=0

To use it just

  • Import the template into the Slideshow model of Lightroom
  • Select the template
  • Click Export Video below the template browser

I think you could technically add the .wav file in if you wanted sound too but I haven't tried.

NOTE: There is a bug (I presume) in LR that causes it to drop several of the frames at the end of the video, at least in my 24fps test. This might be because it forces the fps of the exported video to 29.97 and there seems to be no way around it. However, the video does playback at the correct speed despite this.  So you may need to add extra frames (images) at the end before exporting to account for this.  Maybe someone can try it with a 30fps export and let me know. I don't have the time right now.

I am also getting a huge black mat around the video for some reason. At both 1080p and even 720p despite my original files being 1824x1026. Will hav etc play with that too.

The massive black matting I was experiencing may have been caused by not using the Zoom to Fill Frame checkbox. I had tested this earlier and it didn't seem to resolve it but is working now. LR does not upsize images for slideshows and there doesn't seem to be any way to change that so if your frames are less than 1080p there will be black matting to fill the space.  Dropping to 720p resolves this.

Updated the presets and re-uploaded to the original dropbox folder above.

You could also use the ones posted by @scrax above. They seem to work the same. However, looking at timestamp in the directory I can see they're from 2010 so there might be some settings that don't translate to the newer versions of Lightroom. So perhaps it's "safer" to use ones created in a newer version of LR. Mine were done in Lightroom Classic CC 8.2.1 which is the latest version right now.
Canon 6d / 70d