Lightroom Secrets | All Things Adobe Lightroom!

Back to Basics: The Crop Tool

Nov 302011

Tucked away in the Develop module is a seemingly innocuous little tool – the crop tool. But, looks can be deceiving! There is quite a bit hidden away in the crop tool to help you find just the right image within your image.

While it is always a good idea to compose your shots and get it right in the camera there are still many instances where you will want to crop out some of the extraneous material from your image. Perhaps there is a trash can in the far right edge. Or your horizon splits the frame right across the middle and you’d like more sky than land. Crop tool to the rescue.

In addition to the usual uses for the crop tool, there is also an artistic aspect. Some shots can yield several final images. In fact, there is a whole world of cropping just waiting for you. Don’t believe me? Just take a look at Rikk Flohr’s excellent site all about cropping – Holy Crop!

Lightroom’s Little Vines

Posted by Gene McCullagh 6 Responses »

Nov 182011

A small story before we get started… As I was putting together the screenshots for this article I saw a tweet pop up from Laura Shoe about her latest article “When to Use Lightroom’s Two Different Vignetting Functions.” The coincidence made me laugh. Anyway, check out Laura’s article for more information and while you are at her site check out her excellent training DVD!

People, being the creative beings they are, have long sought ways to enhance and decorate their work. As the printed word progressed, little vines and flowers were added to separate chapters or sections of a story. The french word vignette was used to describe these little vines. Vignettes indicated the edges of a story. Later, photographers started defining the edges of their images by darkening or lightening the outer parts of the frame. This technique also came to be known as a vignette. The image told the story and the vignette helped define the edges.

Back to Basics: Grid View Options

Posted by Gene McCullagh 3 Responses »

Oct 312011

Every so often it is good to review the basics. Sometimes we discover new things. Other times we are reminded of things we learned early on. So let’s take a look at the view options available in the Library grid.

The grid is the foundation of the Library module’s functionality. Here is where you can quickly scan, rate, flag, group, remove, and otherwise deal with and organize your images. Each image occupies a cell on the grid. In its most basic mode your images can be the only thing in the cell.

Lightroom has a myriad of options for displaying information in each cell. This can tell you quite a bit about the image without having to consult any of the panels or modules. Let’s take a look at what we can do with view options!

Don’t Get Clipped!

Posted by Gene McCullagh 2 Responses »

Oct 162011

It happens to us all. Highlights get clipped. Shadows get blocked. What is a photographer to do? I’m glad you asked!

Tucked away in the corners of Lightroom’s Develop module histogram are the clipping indicators. These little triangles can be of great assistance to you when you are adjusting your image and trying to pull details out of highlights and shadows. There is a clipping indicator for the highlights and one for the shadows.

Using the histogram you can see when clipping is happening. When you see spikes at either end of the histogram you can be sure you are losing some information in your image. But it can still be difficult at times to see all of the areas in the image that are blown out or blocked. The clipping indicators can help you target which areas are being clipped.

Tone and Texture: Exploring Black & White Photography in Lightroom

Posted by Gene McCullagh No Responses »

Oct 102011

If you are a member of NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) then take a look in the October issue of Photoshop User Magazine. I had the pleasure of writing the Lightroom feature on black & white photography in Lightroom. (If you aren’t a NAPP member then what are you waiting for?) Photoshop User Magazine is also available at many bookstores.

Perhaps you have some shots that just aren’t working in color. Well, take another look at them in black & white. There could be some real winners lurking in your catalog. You can download a PDF copy of the article by clicking here.

If you haven’t yet investigated the benefits of becoming a NAPP member you should! At only $99 a year it’s a real bargain. Besides the subscription to the magazine you have access to hundreds of video tutorials, tips, tricks, and other things to enhance your Photoshop and Lightroom skills. NAPP also offers an extensive array of discounts. I haven’t really paid for my membership in years. I wind up saving more than the annual dues using these discounts! Take a look at NAPP and join today!

onOne Software Announces Perfect Photo Suite 6

Posted by Gene McCullagh 2 Responses »

Sep 182011

New products Perfect Effects, Perfect Portrait, Perfect Mask and the Perfect Layers update provide photographers with essential tools to realize their photographic vision.

onOne Software, Inc., a leading developer of innovative, timesaving solutions for professional and advanced amateur photographers, has announced Perfect Photo Suite 6 along with new products Perfect Effects, Perfect Portrait, Perfect Mask, and an update to Perfect Layers. All products in the Perfect Photo Suite 6 now work as standalone applications in addition to working directly from within Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, Apple Aperture and Adobe Photoshop.

Giving photographers intuitive tools that work where they do, the Perfect Photo Suite 6 now offers solutions for photographic effects, portrait retouching, creating and working with multilayered files, replacing unwanted backgrounds, image resizing, depth of field control, and edge effects, in one affordable package. The Perfect Photo Suite 6 includes Perfect Effects 3, Perfect Portrait 1, Perfect Mask 5, Perfect Layers 2, Perfect Resize 7, FocalPoint 2 and PhotoFrame 4.6.

With this new version of the Perfect Photo Suite 6, photographers can now move effortlessly between individual applications within the Suite and have complete flexibility to use the products where they work. The Perfect Photo Suite 6 now operates not only as a plug-in for Photoshop but also as a standalone application. This additional functionality means that the Suite can be used directly within Lightroom and Aperture without the need for a separate host application as was previously required. Perfect Photo Suite 6 will continue to include full support for Photoshop CS5 and CS4 with many of the products now functioning as Smart Filters.

You Registered Your Copy, Right?

Posted by Gene McCullagh 5 Responses »

Sep 112011

As photographers we can easily fall into the deep well of creative pursuits and forget about the practical side to creating images. While the rights to your image are set the moment you press the shutter release, proving that is another matter. And that is where the value of registering your copyright becomes important.

Most, if not all, countries have some sort of creative protections in place. I will look at this from the U.S. perspective so please investigate your country’s copyright laws and procedures if you are not in the U.S..

Surprisingly, the Copyright Office has become rather modern and has established a fully online method for registering your copyright! It’s still a government designed system but at least it is electronic! You can get more information at the United States Copyright Office’s website. It is here that you can fill out all the necessary information to register your copyright. Part of that process entails uploading the images you are registering.

Currently the cost to register is $35.00. However, you can upload many many images for the fee! So there’s no excuse now. If you upload 700 images then it’s only costing you 5¢ per image. Now that’s a deal! For a nice walkthrough the process of filling out the forms take a look at the American Society of Media Photographers online submission tutorial.

Brush Buildup

Posted by Gene McCullagh No Responses »

Sep 052011

Adjustment brushes are a really nice feature in Lightroom. Since they made their appearance localized adjustments became easy within Lightroom and I have found less of a reason to roundtrip images to Photoshop for these kinds of edits. A few months ago we took an in-depth look at the adjustment brush, Adjustment Brush Basics – Part 1 and Adjustment Brush Basics – Part 2. If you are unfamiliar with this tool that would be a good place to start.

One of the features of the adjustment brush we didn’t cover in the prior articles is the ability of several brushstrokes to build up. Think of it this way – you find a lovely drawing on your dining room wall (courtesy of your 3 year old). So off to the home improvement store you go to buy some paint. While the can says, “one coat covers” you soon find out the you can still see the masterpiece. When you apply a second coat it builds upon the first and covers the drawing.

Raw Resource

Posted by Gene McCullagh 2 Responses »

Aug 272011

So you’re having some problems opening your raw files? Don’t worry. It happens every now and then. Especially if you have one of those fancy new cameras that just hit the stores yesterday!

The problem is that new cameras often bring with them new proprietary raw file formats. Of course, one solution (and my preferred solution) is DNG format. Take a look at a recent article I did on DNG, A Scoop of DNG With Your PIE, for more info on that.

There is also a wealth of raw troubleshooting information over on Jeff Tranberry’s Digital Imaging Crawlspace. Jeff is a 10 year veteran of the Adobe Photoshop Product Development Team and Chief Customer Advocate for Adobe Digital Imaging! He recently put up an excellent article Why doesn’t my version of Photoshop or Lightroom support my camera?. Jeff discuss a whole host of issues around this problem and offers numerous links to other valuable resources. This is one of those articles you just need to bookmark or send off to InstaPaper or Readability for future reference. If you are having raw problems this should be your first stop!

So take heart! Nearly 100% of these raw issues is temporary in nature. Just keep on shooting and don’t let it slow you down!

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Back to Basics: The Crop Tool

Lightroom’s Little Vines

Back to Basics: Grid View Options

Don’t Get Clipped!

Tone and Texture: Exploring Black & White Photography in Lightroom

onOne Software Announces Perfect Photo Suite 6

You Registered Your Copy, Right?

Brush Buildup

Raw Resource

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