Editing images with software like Lightroom typically involves changing parameters like exposure, contrast, highlights, shadows, and so on for more than 90% of your work. These parameters are controlled using sliders that you have to drag with your mouse -- sliders that emulate physical controls. But why not use such physical controls like sliders or control dials directly?
There is an extremely talented landscape photographer called Thomas Heaton whose YouTube videos I find very instructive and entertaining. Recently he featured a new product he was sent to try out: the Loupedeck, a physical console that lets you control Lightroom (the main software I use to sort, catalog and edit my photographs).
Not so long ago I posted a little rant against Lightroom on Reddit. I use Lightroom on a daily basis. It's a great piece of software, and it does two things very well: cataloging and RAW processing. My problem is with the interface.
MIDI2LR is a new free and open source program that lets you edit photographs in Lightroom 6/CC using any kind of MIDI controller. If you've always wanted to go from using your mouse and keyboard to using knobs and buttons, this is something you might want to look into.
In a world saturated by digital controls and on-screen buttons, the team at Palette is looking to create a more tactile future. Originally launched on Kickstarter, Palette wanted to change the way people interact with software by creating hot-swappable hardware modules. We got a chance to test the Palette Expert Kit, which allowed us to map our favorite programs, such as Lightroom, onto three dials, two sliders, and two buttons.
Knobroom is a free add-on for Lightroom that lets you use the knobs …
Lightroom adjustment sliders are nice and all, but wouldn't it be neat if fine adjustments could be made using our hands and physical sliders rather than a mouse and virtual ones? There's an open source program called PADDY for Lightroom that allows you to map adjustment settings in Lightroom to external devices, including MIDI faders with sliders and knobs. Here's the description: