Lightroom Secrets | All Things Adobe Lightroom!

Free Goodies from onOne

Apr 222011

In most cases the old adage “If it’s too good to be true…it probably isn’t!” applies. However, in the case of onOne Software this maxim does not apply!

Even if you have never used any of onOne’s great plugins you can take advantage of their small treasure chest of free products. There’s a free edition of PhotoTools 2.5 with 26 actions and effects. Or perhaps you want to add some edges or textures to your work? There is a free edition of PhotoFrame 4.5 with 30 edges, textures, backgrounds, adornments, and even a few album layout templates!

Not enough? An ever-expanding collection of free Photoshop Album templates, layouts, backgrounds and textures awaits you.

If you like to experiment with using presets in your workflow one of the best of the free items at onOne is a three volume collection of presets for Lightroom! (there are even versions for Camera Raw and Aperture) There are over 190 presets available for Lightroom 1, 2 or 3. (Versions prior to 3.0 will not be able to access all of the presets, however. But, hey, their FREE remember!)

Volumes 1 and 2 were created by Photographer and Photoshop Hall of Fame winner Jack Davis and include:

8 White Balance presets
11 Tone Curve presets
4 Vibrance presets
18 HSL presets
12 Black & White presets
5 Warm Tinting presets
5 Cool Tinting presets
16 Vignette presets
10 Antique presets
10 Edgy presets
10 Glow presets
20 Gradient presets
10 Local Adjustment Tools

Automating Your Workflow

Posted by Gene McCullagh 12 Responses »

Apr 102011

There are quite a few features in Lightroom to help you automate your workflow. In every module you will find things to make your life easier! Well, workflow-wise anyway. Publish Services offer a streamlined way to keep your catalog and remote sites in synch. Develop presets let you quickly apply settings you have honed over time. Publishing a website? The Web Module assists you in putting it all together and even has FTP built in to get your masterpiece up on the web in no time! And so the list goes.

Still. There are opportunities to take your workflow to the next level using other technology in concert with Lightroom. We took a look at one technique in a previous post Abbreviating Lightroom. There we leveraged the power of text expanding utilities to make text entry quicker. Let’s take a look at another way to automate and streamline our workflow.

Before we begin I have to apologize to the readers who use Windows. The sample workflow solution I am writing about will only work on a Mac. But please don’t stop reading if you use Windows. Take a look at the workflow automation here and let us know if there is a way to accomplish something similar on the Windows platform. Use the comments section. If you are up for writing an article contact me. We like having guest authors and our Windows colleagues will appreciate it!

Adding Style to Low Contrast Photos

Posted by Dan Moughamian 3 Responses »

Apr 052011

Sometimes there’s no way around it: we have to get out there and photograph in less than ideal weather and lighting conditions. The picture at right exemplifies this type of situation. My wife and I were on a weekend retreat and the days we had allotted for photography ended up being cold and overcast. But, there were still some interesting sites to see, so we headed out with our cameras and found this pier and lighthouse on Lake Michigan (Michigan side).

Even after tweaking the exposure and contrast a bit, the image is still very flat. We have two choices in this scenario: 1) we can try to make it look like good light (i.e. fake it), or; 2) we can work with what we have and try to stylize the image in a way that accentuates what’s important in the scene and speaks to the conditions that were present. I think in many cases, it’s best to go with the latter option. The image below is the stylized version and it only took a few seconds to create. Let me share with you how I did it and why.

Drop In Anytime… We’re Family!

Posted by Gene McCullagh No Responses »

Mar 312011

There’s something new over at Adobe! A new feedback site has been launched over at photoshop.com! You can get there directly by going to feedback.photoshop.com. It looks to be a great way for users and the Photoshop Family teams to interact and discover new and exciting ideas for future versions of all the Photoshop Family applications. Whether it’s Photoshop, Photoshop Elements, Camera Raw, and yes, Lightroom, there is a way to not only offer up your ideas and suggestions but also interact and elaborate on them.

This is also a great way to report issues and bugs. Team members and users can talk about them. All this interactivity can only make all of the products better and help Adobe guide development in the direction users want.

Super Photo Editing Skills Tutorial Available

Posted by Gene McCullagh No Responses »

Mar 132011

Rob and Lauren over at Photography Concentrate were excited to send me their latest Lightroom tutorial Super Photo Editing Skills for review. I was happy to oblige having seen and reviewed some of their prior offerings. Before we get to the review, however, I have to say that Rob and Lauren are among the nicest people you will meet out there in cyberspace! The About section of their site says it all…

We are two professional photographers who think this is the best job in the universe. We like it so much, in fact, that we want to help other people do it, so they can be super happy too.

This tutorial is presented by Rob. While he bills it as a tutorial it is much more that that. It’s really a Workshop-in-a-Download as far as I’m concerned. I thoroughly enjoyed watching these videos and following along. Rob’s style is relaxed and entertaining. The content is professional and covers quite a bit of ground. Here’s is a sample of one of the shorter videos (I’ve adapted the size and quality a bit for bandwidth purposes).

http://lightroomsecrets.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/SPES0202.flv

Silver Efex Pro 2

Posted by Gene McCullagh 6 Responses »

Mar 082011

Silver efex pro 2 box In this age of digital color imagery we sometimes forget the subtle beauty of Black and White. Lightroom’s Black and White conversion features are indeed superb. But if you want to take it up a notch take a look at Silver Efex Pro 2. Here is some background from Nik Software…

Nik Software (www.niksoftware.com) is now shipping Silver Efex Pro™ 2, a major upgrade to its award-winning Silver Efex Pro software. Many photographers regard Silver Efex Pro as the leading solution for creating black-and-white images, delivering new features, better performance, and an improved workflow. Silver Efex Pro 2 offers a unique darkroom-inspired workflow and the ability to fine-tune images with precise selective adjustments powered by U Point technology. To learn why Silver Efex Pro is the leading black-and-white imaging software, users can watch training videos, download a free trial, download visual preset styles, and join live online training sessions at www.niksoftware.com/silverefexpro

“Nearly every pro I know already uses Silver Efex Pro to create their B&W conversions, but I can tell you this: they’ll all be upgrading to version 2 the minute it comes out. It’s that good!” said Scott Kelby, President, National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP). “Nik Software really gets the whole user experience for photographers, and you can see that attention to detail throughout Silver Efex Pro 2. When it comes to creating fine art black and white conversions, this changes everything,” Kelby concluded.

Silver Efex Pro 2 introduces new features that offer even more control over image detail, contrast, and tonality, making it easier to go beyond the limits of the traditional darkroom. The software’s new features include the History Browser for endless experimentation, revolutionary algorithms such as Dynamic Brightness, Amplify Blacks and Whites, Soft Contrast, and Fine Structure, plus finishing touches like Image Borders and selective colorization.

Abbreviating Lightroom

Posted by Gene McCullagh 6 Responses »

Feb 052011

Lightroom by its nature helps us be more efficient when working with our images. There are numerous features to speed us along the way when cataloging and processing. Presets, templates, keyword suggestions and so on, cut little bits of time off the tasks at hand. This makes our imaging life a little easier.

However, let’s not forget that Lightroom doesn’t exist in an Operating System vacuum. There are many applications we can leverage to make Lightroom that much more efficient and powerful. We already know this. After all, we can round trip more complicated editing tasks to Photoshop. Many excellent plugins can be installed to fine tune our editing. So let’s take a look at another way to enhance our Lightroom efficiency – text replacement utilities.

If you haven’t used a text expansion utility you need to give one a try. There are countless bits of text you frequently type. Whether it’s your address, or a paragraph about you, or even a full blown model release, these utilities let you set up a small abbreviation for the text. Then, when you type that abbreviation the utility springs into action and substitutes your text for the abbreviation. Some don’t limit you to text and can substitute images and formatting as well! Once you get used to this you will wonder why you didn’t use them sooner.

Adobe Community Professional 2011

Posted by Gene McCullagh 9 Responses »

Jan 292011

I received the news yesterday that I have been named an Adobe Community Professional for another year! I am truly honored to be part of this great group of professionals. Thank you Adobe!

It is truly a joy to be able to assist other users learn how to better use their Adobe technology. So thanks go to all of you as well.

If you are unfamiliar with the Adobe Community Professionals program here is part of what Adobe has on their website about the program:

The Adobe Community Professionals Program is a community based program made up of Adobe customers who share their product expertise with the world-wide Adobe community. The Adobe Community Professionals’ mission is to provide high caliber peer-to-peer communication educating and improving the product skills of Adobe customers worldwide.

The full list for 2011 isn’t out yet but I do know that a few of my digital colleagues have made the list:

Congratulations to all!

Lightroom Secrets Has A New Look!

Posted by Gene McCullagh 4 Responses »

Jan 212011

We were long overdue for a refresh and here it is. I hope you like the new design. There have also been changes under the hood so if you find any problems while roaming about please let me know. You can add a comment to this article or use the contact form.

And thanks again for reading Lightroom Secrets!

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