New to LR

[twirlerzmom]

I'm not only new to LR but also to posting here at DD. Anyway, everyone raves about LR but I find myself not using it too much because the colors seem to be more washed out compared to when viewing the same photo in Elements or ACDSee. Does anyone know how to fix this? I've calibrated my monitor and my photos print out fine when using ACDSee. Elements tends to be more saturated but I know that and adjust for it, but LR just seems blah, no punch to the colors.

Also, what books, sites, etc would you recommend for learning what editing process to do first, when, etc in LR? I'm not a photography guru so I don't quite understand what each development mode does or how to use them to my advantage but I would love to really learn how to use this software to my advantage. Oh, and I'm using LR v.1. Figured I shouldn't upgrade to 2 unless I understand the 1st version. Or is version 2 much better and worth the upgrade?

TIA,
Jan

[hguenthe]

Sorry, I don't know LR but suspect your color issue is that Elements and ACDSee you are looking at things in the sRGB color profile and LR is putting them into Adobe RGB color profile which isn't as saturated. Maybe see if there is a setting/preference to import into the sRGB color profile if that is what you prefer.

[twirlerzmom]

Thank you Heather. It was set to AdobeRGB and have since changed it to sRGB. But I see there is another setting-ProPhoto RGB which says that is the best one to ecompass all the colors within LR. I've set mine to sRGB now but I'm now wondering if ProPhoto is the best color setting to have?