Get Back to the Library

From any module in Lightroom you can easily switch back to the Library module. Press G to go to the Grid view. Press E for the LoupE view. If you want the Compare view then press C.

Hand Color Old Photos

The introduction of localized adjustments via the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 2 is just beginning to reveal many creative uses. One possibility that may not be readily apparent is the ability to colorize or hand paint old black and white photos. We’ve all seen many Photoshop tutorials on how to apply this classic and nostalgic technique. But now, it’s possible to do directly in Lightroom.

Let’s start with an old photo. The young lad on the right happens to be my father-in-law who recently turned 90!

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Hide and Show Panels

Need more room to see your image? Press TAB to hide the left and right panels. Press TAB again to show them again. If you press Shift-TAB you can hide all the panels (except the toolbar). Want them back? You guessed it! Press Shift-TAB again!

It’s Time for Spring Cleaning!

Spring is in the air and every photographer’s thoughts turn to… cleaning out the accumulated gunk in your Lightroom Catalog!

Seriously, though, now is a good time to go through your Lightroom Catalog(s) and see if you are carrying any excess baggage. Take a look at:

• Virtual Copies: During the course of creating fantastic images we sometimes make several virtual copies before our final product. If you no longer need some of those copies delete them. Having them around gives you that many more images to work with, scroll through, filter, etc.
• Keywords: Take a look through your keyword list. Look misspelled keywords (sumer instead of summer)  or duplicates with different cases (dog, Dog, and DOG). See if you are using singulars and plurals (boat and boats). Consolidating your keywords and correcting errors will make your list shorter, more manageable, and far more useful.
• Collections: Sometime we create temporary collections while working on a project or reorganizing our catalog. See if you left any of those temporary collections lying around and delete them.
• Develop Presets: I don’t know about you but I seem to have a compulsion to collect Develop Presets. Consequently my list becomes unwieldy. Take some of those lesser used or unused presets and move them out or Lightroom. That will clean up your list and make the ones that remain more noticeable.
• Images: Yes, I know that all your images are like your children but take a critical look again. You may have some that really aren’t that great. If you still can’t bring yourself to delete any try gathering them into a collection and export them to a different catalog. That will leave you with a smaller catalog of higher quality images!

In general, take a look through Lightroom and clean out things that have accumulated over the last year and make your experience more enjoyable.  Don’t stop with Lightroom! While you are at it clean up your hard drive as well. Then go out there are start shooting and filling up that catalog!

Moving Your Images From iPhoto to Lightroom

Earlier versions of Apple’s iPhoto stored its library information in a regular folder structure. Around version 7 Apple changed that approach and iPhoto began hiding its folder structure inside a package file. While this makes the applications presence on the drive neater and theoretically more portable, it does hide the images in iPhoto’s library from Lightroom.

If you want to migrate your iPhoto library to Lightroom I have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that it is relatively easy to import the files. The bad news? Your edits will not migrate easily. Unlike Lightroom, files that you edit in iPhoto are saved as a separate file. You can import these edited files but you will have both an original and the edit without any connection between them. Essentially, you wind up with two separate images. If you’re still game here is how you do it.

Locate your iPhoto Library package. It’s is in the Pictures folder by default.

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Lightroom Secrets Goes WordPress!

I have been away for a few weeks working on the transition of Lightroom Secrets from Drupal to WordPress! It has been an adventure in php and CSS. Why did I make this change you ask?

Drupal is an excellent Content Management System. And I continue to use it for many other sites I run. It is extremely powerful and flexible. With all that power and flexibility, however, come some great webmaster responsibilities. It is still my CMS of choice for sites that require a lot of community interaction and participation. But it is not the first choice for sites with a small number of authors (or a single author for that matter!).

That led me on a search for blogging platforms. Of all that I examined WordPress stood head and shoulders above the rest! Easy to install. Easy to use. Easy to extend. Just plain easy!

Not wanting to just migrate to a template that wasn’t uniquely Lightroom Secrets I mustered my somewhat basic/rusty knowledge of CSS and php and started creating my own theme. And that is what you see today!

Everything seems to work so far but I am sure I haven’t tested every aspect. So… I’d like to ask for your help. If you find some parts where the theme breaks or just doesn’t render correctly, please use the contact form and let me know what you found and what browser you where using. I’ve tested in Safari, Firefox, and IE 7. IE 6 users would be especially helpful.

Thanks for your patience and feedback! Stay tuned for new posts!