Articles
Some images only require a few adjustments and you’re done. Yes. You’re that good!
Other images just ask to be taken down different paths. As artists we often try to find the best expression of the moment we captured. But we don’t always know the steps from capture to masterpiece. We try different settings. Apply a preset or two. Dive into the adjustment brush. and so on. And, even though Lightroom preserves an endless stream of history on an image we don’t always remember at which step we saw one of those “looks” we liked. So what do we do?
Before Lightroom we might have saved multiple copies of an image. One for each different look. Now I know that storage is cheaper these days but how many times do you want to multiply a 25Mb file? Enter the snapshot!
Snapshots are one of the ways Lightroom lets us experiment and keep versions along the way. Even better, snapshots are virtual copies of an image that take up no room (or very very little) on the drive. These are literally snapshots of the settings at the time you take them. Great, huh?
Don’t confuse snapshots with Virtual Copies. We’ll talk about those in Part 2. So let’s see how to make these snapshots.
Read the rest of this story »
Let’s face it. We use Lightroom to keep track of our ever growing collection of images. We spend a great deal of time organizing and perfecting our images. If we are smart, we backup our work. If we are really smart our backup is offsite to guard against the worst.
Well, you can’t get more offsite that the cloud. But it can be quite confusing getting into a solid cloud storage solution. There are lots of avenues and products. All with different costs and complications. Don’t you just wish someone would just sit you down and explain it to you? Just show you how to get set up and start incorporating this cloud thing into your workflow? Your wish has been granted. Brandon Oelling and X-Equals have released a new eBook called Living in the Cloud—Offsite Storage for Photographers.
Read the rest of this story »
The Library module is a powerhouse of organization tools. You can view many images, a few, or one. Zoom in for fine details. Add star ratings. Add color labels. Change landscape to portrait and back again! The list goes on and on.
There is one small problem, however. Many new Lightroom users can be confused by Lightroom’s reaction to some of their actions. Some seasoned users even get confused on occasion. Here’s a typical question I get asked; “I select several images and press 4 to add a 4 star rating. Why does this sometimes add the rating to all the images selected and other times only to my active image?”
The answer lies in the difference between how the Grid view and the Loupe view treat these actions. Although they are both part of the Library module they serve very different purposes. You can think of the grid view like a lawn sprinkler, it gets everything wet. Loupe view is more like a water gun, you aim it at something and only it gets wet. (It’s a weak analogy, I know. But hang in there.)
Read the rest of this story »
Raw Processing Concentrate is described as “A real-world guide to creating stunning images with Adobe Lightroom.” The creators of this tutorial, Rob and Lauren Lim of Photography Concentrate, are two photographers based in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. They bring their experience and passion for the art of photography to these lessons.
This is not the usual module by module introduction to Lightroom. Rather it is a way to approach the processing of your raw images using Lightroom as your tool. Rob and Lauren were kind enough to give me a copy of the tutorials for review and I have to say I did enjoy them. There are over 5 hours of video tutorials. A small portion of the time is spent covering the Library module and Lightroom’s export features. The majority is spent examining the techniques available to you in the Develop module.
The techniques presented in the videos are sound and can be quite useful when you are faced with how to address an image and what road to take it down from an artistic perspective. If you are struggling with how to process your images or just a bit overwhelmed by all of the options Lightroom affords you, then this tutorial is for you.
Read the rest of this story »
If you have been using Lightroom and involved with the Lightroom community for any length of time then one of the names that is sure to be familiar to you is George Jardine. George was involved with Lightroom from its beginning and was a Lightroom Evangelist at Adobe until he left in 2008 to explore new creative ventures.
George Jardine started as a professional photographer. His work has appeared in Sports Illustrated, Better Homes and Gardens, Interior Design magazine, and many other national publications. George first joined Adobe Systems in 1993, and in 2003, he began work on the Lightroom project. George currently teaches workshops, consults for digital photographers, and is a freelance video producer.
If you are looking for a great set of tutorials to get you up and running in Lightroom look no further than George’s new Lightroom 3 tutorials. These 15 tutorials focus on catalog management and workflow.
Read the rest of this story »
In the previous article, Creating iPad Albums With Lightroom, I talked about using Matt Kloskowski’s export presets to create albums for your iPad. This method is accessible by both Lightroom 2 and Lightroom 3 users.
However, if you have moved on to Lightroom 3 you can take advantage of one of its great new features—Publish Services. (Thanks to John Beardsworth whose comment on the previous article motivated me to get this article out of draft sooner rather than later!)
A lot of the attention Publish Services has gotten revolves around the link between Lightroom and online services such as Flickr, Zenfolio, SmugMug, etc.. But the other side of this feature is the ability to create links between Lightroom and your drives. And it is this aspect we will exploit here.
Read the rest of this story »
The iPad is an excellent tool for showing off your work. Chances are, though, if you are a Lightroom user you don’t want to fiddle with iPhoto just to get your images ready for your iPad and sorted into albums. And if you are a Windows based Lightroom user then iPhoto isn’t an option for you.
Before we look at how to export your images and create iPad albums I suggest you go read Matt Kloskowski’s recent post Presets—Lightroom iPad Export Settings. Matt describes how to prepare your images and offers two very useful export presets. Download these and then return here. Don’t worry. I’ll wait.
Welcome back! Now that you have Matt’s presets installed we can proceed. This is a fairly straight forward workflow that will make organizing your images on your iPad easy (and iPhoto free).
Read the rest of this story »
Looking for new Lightroom presets? Do you have some great presets you developed and want to share? Well, Presetpond is the place to go!
Presetpond is a new online community for photographers enabling them to share preset-files for and Lightroom. There are also presets available for Aperture.
By registering at the site photographers can upload preset-files to the site along with a set of preview images showing the preset in action. These files can then be downloaded and rated/commented on by the public.
Read the rest of this story »
Victoria Bampton a.k.a. The Lightroom Queen has done it again! Hot on the heels of the final release of Lightroom 3, Victoria has published an updated and expanded version of her excellent book.
If you buy only one Lightroom book then Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 — The Missing FAQ should be it. Unlike other Lightroom books, this one takes the approach of answering users’ questions. Chances are, if you have a question, someone has already asked it and Victoria has answered it. I keep the PDF always ready on my Mac. If history is any indicator then version 3 will become as indispensable as versions 1 and 2 have been! If you haven’t upgraded to Lightroom 3 yet I’d still recommend you get the book that matches your version.
Because of the question and answer format Victoria has chosen, reading the book is like having a conversation. You immediately fall into the role of the user asking these questions and Victoria’s straight-forward answers get right to the point instead of overwhelming you with an unending stream of prose and pontification. It’s relaxed, educational, and great fun to read!
Read the rest of this story »
