Antarctica: Ian Lyons

Ian Lyons is just back from Antarctica:
"I've just returned from a photo shoot in the Southern Ocean and Antarctica with the best part of 7000 images to sort, edit, etc through. Rather than wait for this exercise to be completed and since the site hasn't been updated in a couple of months I have put together a quick and dirty Adobe Lightroom Flash Gallery that contains a small sample of the type of subject matter captured. Places visited included the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, South Orkney and the Antarctic Peninsula."

Possible Profile solution for HP printers on XP

In this Adobe U2U forum post, U2U member Joe Soaper outlines how he solved his Lightroom Print issues with his HP printer:


After much sweat, tears, cursing, and perusing of the related print quality forum threads, I seem to have solved the issue which resulted in vastly different prints from LR when compared to prints using the same colour management settings in Qimage.

I'm using an HP D7160 with HP paper & ink, and the supplied HP profiles for the media (Premium, Premium plus & Advanced paper types) but was getting a virtually posterised output from LR, even after setting the correct profiles and allowing LR to manage the colour settings.

I also tried allowing the printer to manage settings using ICM - and the result was even worse than the LR output.

However, I stumbled across a web reference to .icc & icm file suffixes for profiles. The latter suffix is needed by windows to implement the profile - and it appears that the HP profiles (installed from their driver CD) had dumped them into the windows profile folder using the .icc suffix.

Changing the the suffix from .icc to .icm solved the problem and resulted in accurate prints from LR using application managed colour settings.

I have no idea why, when the profiles worked in Qimage when they were still listed with an .icc suffix - but changing to .icm now results in acceptable prints from both Qimage and LR.

Hope this of help to all those others on the point of taking a baseball bat to their printer

Lightroom and Nikon Modes

There's an article on Nikon Mode Presets over at Nikonians.

In it Rick from Colorado states:
"Try these camera calibration settings in Lightroom. They're not an exact match for Mode III, but they'll get you in the ballpark.
Red Hue: -25
Red Saturation: +35

Green Hue: 0
Green Satuation: +10

Blue Hue: +10
Blue Saturation: -25

Depending on which contrast setting you prefer in Capture or in-camera, you may need to adjust some of the other parameters as well. A "normal contrast" setting in NX is similar to a "strong" contrast curve and a contrast setting of around 30-35 in Lightroom. These settings work fine in ACR as well.

In practice, I have presets in Lightroom and ACR called Mode III Color, Mode II Color and Mode III Default. The first and second simply change the values on the camera calibration tab, with the Mode III one using the values I just mentioned, and the Mode II reflecting zeroed settings. Those enable me to quickly change between two different color palettes. The Mode III Default setting incorporates color mode, tone curve and contrast values and gives me the equivalent of Mode III and a normal contrast curve. It replicates a combination I use frequently with Capture.

Rick, Nikonian in Colorado"

Adobe Lightroom Podcast #28: Phil Clevenger, Grace Kim and Mark Hamburg

Adobe Evangelist George Jardine has uploaded Podcast #28 to his iDisk. It features Lightroom UI designer Phil Clevenger, Lightroom Creator Mark Hamburg and User Researcher Grace Kim. It should be available in iTunes soon or via the Lightroom Podcast RSS feed.
George has left a little of the light banter in at the start. I wondered if it was accidental, but he's assured me it's deliberate.

From the show notes:
“I think pretty much any software has a personality, but a lot of times it's something that one sort of stumbles into, and people don't think about that as part of the design process. When I started the project, I wanted to do something that was more visually interesting, for example, than Photoshop, and tried some directions in that regard. And I did bad KPT imitations.” - Mark Hamburg

“I think the exercise really brought to light people's implicit assumptions about what they thought the Shadowland personality was, or should be. Things that were kind of hard to articulate, but people just had them as working assumptions.” - Grace Kim

“While people in different parts of the country may have different notions of what sleek or stylish may mean, I think everybody knows what butter is.” - Phil “Butter” Clevenger

This podcast was recorded on Monday December 11th, 2006, at Adobe headquarters in San Jose, California. In this podcast, we take a retrospective look at the entire design process of Shadowland, and how personality played a role in the final look and feel of the software. Phil discusses the efforts that went into designing Shadowland to help keep your photography the focus of attention, and visually more important on the screen than the user interface.

The views and opinions of the participants in this podcast are their own, and do not reflect or represent those of Adobe Systems.

Duration: 29:01

Bluefire Blog: Editing your Flash Gallery style.xml

The Bluefire Blog has great advice on customising the output from your flash gallery by editing the style.xml located in the resources/styles folder inside your gallery. From the first post on this:
"The controls within the Web tab allow you to customize the Lightroom Flash Gallery templates in a lot of ways. However, you can customize them much further by editing the XML files that are generated when you export a gallery. This requires almost no knowledge of Flash or HTML, and can be done with almost any text editor.
"

Upgrading your Beta 4 Library to Version 1.

The upgrade path from a Beta Library is fraught with peril. Not really, but it does require patience and understanding, especially if you have large Library.
I've prepared a video as I do a jump from Beta 4 to V1. Before you begin your upgrade, please read the Readme and help files. Heed the warnings about upgrading therein. Unhide all image files and Import all Photo Binders into the B4.1 Library before starting. On that note, upgrade previous Libraries to B4.1 also. The process will backup the B4 library, in the event of a failure. To aid you in your upgrade here is the video: Library Upgrade Video.

Create your own Metadata-Viewer Preset

Author Jefferey Friedl has placed his Metadata Viewer preset generator online.
In the Metadata Pane, you can select what type on Metadata you want to view using the drop down menu (as per screen shot). Jeff's tool allows you to create your own.
Follow the instructions in the file on where to place it.

There are warnings on using these files though
"This file is formatted for use with Lightroom Version 1.0. There are no
guarantees that this file nor the instructions herein will be supported by any
other version of Lightroom.

This file itself may be inspected, edited, and redownloaded at:

http://regex.info/Lightroom/Meta/View=j2z

Adobe does not officially support the use of this file; use at your own risk."

The file listed in one I've created and it works in Lightroom Version 1.

Other ID Plates uses.

John Beardsworth has a great followup post to my recent video post on borders.

"Sean McCormack's latest Lightroom video shows how to add a decorative border to a print. He's using the Print module's ability to overlay an image other than the identity plate.

I noticed the same feature when I was writing my Lightroom book, but didn't think of a decorative border. Instead I came up with a more prosaic application - adding a copyright symbol to contact sheets, using a transparent tif file for the symbol. Funny how people find completely different uses for things."

Information for RSP users.

Tom Hogarty has placed his RSP Faq online on the U2U forums:

Tom Hogarty - 09:07pm Feb 18, 2007 Pacific

Q: When will Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 be available for RawShooter Premium customers?
A: The Photoshop Lightroom offer email for RawShooter Premium customers will be distributed by February 23rd with instructions on how to obtain a free downloadable copy of Lightroom 1.0.

Q: Can RawShooter Premium customers get started with Photoshop Lightroom before receiving the offer email?
A: Yes, please download the 30 day trial version of Lightroom at the following URL and the offer email will provide instructions on how to obtain the serial number that will license the trial version of Lightroom.
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_lightroom&loc=en_us

Q: Where can I find documentation for Photoshop Lightroom?
A: Tutorials and documentation for Photoshop Lightroom can be found at the following URL:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/designcenter/search.cfm?product=Photoshop+Lightroom&go=Go

Q: Who do I contact if I don’t receive an offer email by February 23rd?
A: If you are an owner of RawShooter Premium (RawShooter Essential users do not qualify for this offer) and you do not receive an offer email by February 23rd please contact Adobe Customer Service in your region for further assistance. (http://www.adobe.com/aboutadobe/contact.html)

Q: How can I convert my RawShooter Premium settings to Lightroom or Photoshop Camera Raw compatible settings?
A: A free settings conversion tool will be posted to the following URL on March 5th for use by RawShooter Premium customers. http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Pixmantec_RawShooter_Migration_Tool

Regards,
Tom Hogarty

Lightroom Trial available.

I havn't found the official Adobe note, but as it's all over the forums, the address to download the 30-day trial is:
http://www.adobe.com/cfusion/tdrc/index.cfm?product=photoshop_lightroom&loc=en_us

Making and Using Borders in the Print Module.

As we were painfully aware throughout the Beta cycle, there was no way to add borders or frames to our precious prints in Lightroom, bar a 20 pt stroke. Well through the genius of Andreas Norén, we have found and tested a way. Sid Jervis up at Lightroom Extra has detailed one way of doing it. Here I present a way to do it in Print, without affecting your current ID Plate (that's the clue!). I'm also including my frame for you to test this.

But what about the 60px limit on Graphical ID Plates, I hear you ask? Well this is not an image limit, it a size limit based on the height of the ID Plate in the Module picker. Bigger than this and the ID Plate will not fit. But as we're not using it this way, the size doesn't matter.

Side note: I edited this in Garageband, but it threw a hissy fit so I've left in my patented 'Okays' and left out the new little jingle I wrote :(.
Update: I managed to figure a way to get rid of most of them, but no new jingle :)

Jennifer Apple on Lightroom-News.com

Jennifer Apple of Photoshopsupport.com has posted her first article on Lightroom-News.com. In it she covers a preview of 7 books on Lightroom available for preorder. I had posted the links to Amazon.com Lightroom books in the U2U forum, but never got around to writing about it. I thought it would make a good article. I was right!

As we count down.

Lightroom will begin shipping and downloading on the 19th as the whole world and his dog know by now. V1.0 is finished and ready for release to a very expectant audience. Not counting multiple downloads, over 570,000 individuals downloaded the Beta's. That's a big crowd to have waiting, not to mention the newcomers since the Launch on the 29th January.
I've outlined a lot of the new features (but not all) on Lightroom-News.com, but that still won't satisfy those who want the program now.

If I were seeing the program for the first time since Beta 4.1, I would be over the moon with the new features. The key thing for me that changes the usability of Version 1, is Spot Removal. This brings almost 90% of my workflow into one application. A good sharpening/noise reduction toolset would bring it to 90%. The remaining 10% is for special files (final selects) requiring skin retouching and other layer based edits. Unless someone writes a dedicated retouch module (which is more than possible), then access to Photoshop is always going to be required. I'm very happy that I can now choose to do my Edits as ProPhoto RGB PSD files, rather than Tiff. I prefer using Photoshops' native format. Lightroom will recognise and show multi-layer PSD files. You need to choose Edit Original though, when going back to Photoshop, or else Lightroom will send out a flattened image. Also Maximize Compatibility must be turned on. All this leaves for me to say is : Roll on the 19th!

Richard Earney: Inside Lightroom

A long time ago I started a thread on Develop Preset Sharing on the Lightroom Beta General Discussion forum. I had found a method for sharing Develop Presets across forum threads. Richard Earney jumped in and devoted a page on his site to keeping these presets. His site has all grown up now and has its own domain now. Inside Lightroom features a wealth of Develop Presets contributed by members of the forums and by luminaries such as Martin Evening, Ian Lyons and John Beardsworth. The most recent addition was even inspired by Lightroom boss Mark Hamburg: 'Hamburg's Funky Twist".

The site is not snobbish and everyone is free to submit their own presets. In order to help you understand the nature of presets, Richard has written 'The Anatomy of a Preset'. How much is it? Well it's free actually and can be downloaded from the site.
As well as being a fellow prerelease tester, Richard runs Method Photo. He is a Licenciate of the Royal Photographic Society and is a Series Editor for the forthcoming Digital Workflow series from Focal Press.

Video Vote:

You've seen the blurb and now you want to see the feature.
Drop comments on what you'd like to see covered in my quick dirty video series.
All suggestions welcome.

Lightroom-News

I'd like to announce Lightroom-News. I feel the need to because A long time ago, in a clandestine, dimly lit street, a stranger approached from out of the fog. His large frame was hidden in his dark cloak, while his hat covered any trace of his face. Just as he passed, he turned and glanced at me. A chill filled me. My body froze, while my once strong legs melted like butter on a pan. With nowhere to go, I was forced to turn and face my fear. In a booming voice he said' So Martin and I were wondering, would you like to get involved with Lightroom News?'. "Yes" I said after a little thought.

And now it's live and well worth looking at. LRN is a sister site to Photoshop News and will provide a central location for Lightroom related things from news to tutorials, including reviews and issues.

Metadata Browser

I've put together another short video, this time on the Metadata Browser. The Metadata Browser is a powerful feature that allows you to find things by Lens, Camera, Creator, Date, File Type and Location.