Loupedeck puts Lightroom controls right at your fingertips
Nov 3, 2016
John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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Control decks have only just recently started to become popular with photographers. They’ve been an integral part of video editing & colour workflows for years, though. Now that the lines between stills and video cameras are a little blurred, the reach of these useful devices has expanded. Other devices like the Palette Gear, and BrushKnob have started to pave the way. But now, we have a more complete desktop controller for talking to Lightroom.
The Loupedeck allows you to quickly and easily access many of Lightroom’s most used tools without having to hunt through dialogues or scroll down lists of options. The control console is aimed amateur and professional photographers who want to work efficiently. Anybody who’s ever come home from a wedding or vacation with a couple of thousand images to sift through is going to understand the benefits of such a device.
Created by Mikko Kesti in Helsinki, Finland, the Loupedeck isn’t the first device to provide this sort of external control. It does, however, seem to be one of the better looking and more functional ones. It has a modern and intuitive interface, with everything neatly laid out and easy to access.
Having dials for basic functions like exposure, contrast and clarity, makes adjustments go much more quickly. I would expect it to offer quite a substantial degree of control at speed, too. the amount of controls it offers is actually quite staggering. From the basics to individual colour dials and image ratings, right at your fingertips.
Of course, things like star ratings can be applied quickly and easily using your regular keyboard. Shortcut keys are available for some of the other functions, too. Not having to keep moving your hand between your keyboard and the Loupedeck, though, is going to speed up workflow and productivity.
The first production run of the Loupedeck is being crowdfunded through Indiegogo. While it’s going through its current crowdfunding phase, there’s some pretty drastic discounts. Backers can expect to pay $249 at the moment for one of their own. The regular retail will be $399 once the campaign is over.
Even at a regular price of $399, it’s not a particularly outrageous sum. The Tangent Ripple is a similar control deck for colour grading video. That one comes in at around $350 and doesn’t offer anywhere near as many options. To start getting a few more options with video, you’re looking at $1,500 for the Tangent Wave. More extreme video editors out there, could spend as much as $28,500 on the Blackmagic Design DaVinci Resolve Control Surface.
Suddenly, $399 doesn’t look so bad, especially when you consider the time this could save in post. I imagine for most working professionals, the time it frees up would probably see the device paying for itself within just a few short weeks. For hobbyists, this is a more considered purchase based on how much one values their free time.
You can find out more about the Loupedeck over on their website, or back the campaign and order your own through Indiegogo.
Personally, while I think this is a fantastic idea, and a potentially great product, I won’t be backing it. I simply don’t use Lightroom enough to justify it (I prefer a Bridge/ACR workflow). If it proves to be popular, though (and it’s already over halfway funded with a month left to go), then it could inspire other companies to start producing similar devices. Devices that aren’t limited to just lightroom, can be configured for ACR, Photoshop, Affinity Photo, Capture One and the plethora of other software out there.
What do you think? Are you going to back this project and get one for yourself? Have you already backed it? Or are you going to sit back and see how the market responds? Do you think a device like this would help your own workflow? What would you like to see added that the Loupedeck is missing? Let us know in the comments.
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John Aldred
John Aldred is a photographer with over 25 years of experience in the portrait and commercial worlds. He is based in Scotland and has been an early adopter – and occasional beta tester – of almost every digital imaging technology in that time. As well as his creative visual work, John uses 3D printing, electronics and programming to create his own photography and filmmaking tools and consults for a number of brands across the industry.
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27 responses to “Loupedeck puts Lightroom controls right at your fingertips”
for 5 times the price of a midi controller which can do the same !
Can you suggest some model?
I don’t know if my Korg NanoKontrol 2 (70,- euro) can do exactly the same but it gives me the external controls i like.
nanocontrol can do it (Lightroom + knobroom plugin + osculator app)
https://www.amazon.fr/Novation-Control-encodeurs-launchpads-LaunchPad/dp/B00F9SX2EE/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1478193798&sr=8-4&keywords=controleur+midi
I don’t think that it would work, because I think that Novation one have end stops for the knobs. Correct me if I’m wrong.
I would sugest: “Arturia Beatstep Controller & Sequencer”
it’s working like a charm :)
that price…
This is NOT a DIY project
Pfixer Minimal – more than half the price and is spot on
Mac only.
That price for only light room no thanks
Tight and all, but price…
Problem with the suggestions put forth here is that none of them were specifically designed for Lightroom use and are simply hacks and non-intuitive.
so pointless though!
No, it will definitly nothing for my desk.
Any midi controller + knobroom plugin do the same for me too (http://www.knobroom.com/)
I use a berhinger bcr2000 at home and a nanokontrol on deplacement for the same result
But it’s a good thing to see more and more of that controls ; we could hope more upgrades instead of being a ‘secret’ communauty
Julien, do you know if Knobroom works with ACR? LR doesn’t really work for my workflow.
Hi tompano1 ; sorry i’m not english ; can you explain me what is ACR for you ?
For me, i try a Behringer with knob only, a behringer with slider, a nanokontrol (knob and slider) and that have work every time.
Sometimes the plugin knobroom don’t work ; so I realize adding an app (osculator) resolve lot of matters ; specially to set up buttons and not knob and sliders only
Anoter thing I discover is that USB is not working very well, i have bought a USB/MIDI adaptator with IN/OUT to get it work well
Oh sorry what I meant was I prefer using Adobe Bridge and photoshop to Lightroom. Do you know if you can set up knobroom or something similar for that?
Knobroom is a Lightroom plugin only.
In your case, try using OSCULATOR on background while working on bridge or photoshop.
This app scan the Input signal from a midi controller ; then associate Hotkeys ; then resend it via Output Signal (an example at http://www.osculator.net/wp/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/hud-graph.png)
But sorry, i’m talking for Apple product ^^ Are you on Windows or OSX ?
All right I’ll check out OSCULATOR. But in the end do you find that it’s worth the investment? I’m on mac.
In my mind for photoshop, a wacom tablet is a better investment for sure
For lightroom, if you already have a midi player, it’s a good thing to convert it for lightroom But investing on it from zero depend of your lightroom skills.
Are you using preset or really use all sliders ?
Depending of how many photo I have to retouch, sometimes I prefer using mouse instead of the midi.
Here is the canvas model I’ve done for my BCR2000
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/0d24a0e4db4fece9044d059118519596e82fb28f9fe36a53a496c0bdd69abd4f.jpg
Ask Adobe add MIDI support to Lightroom and use any controller.
Nope….?
$250 and a six month wait? not only no, but HELL no.
I don’t use a tone of buttons but a handful would compliment my keyboard nice and take up less space – Be sure to check out Palette – https://store.palettegear.com