Video Podcast #53 has been posted, with Martin Evening

Video Podcast #53 has been posted, with Martin Evening
While Martin is a fellow editor on Lightroom News, he's by far a more experienced photographer than I. So I have to say, it's great to see this second video on the photo shoot for material for his new Lightroom Book. Discussing the content, he alludes to the book being more workflow related. I'm already dying to read it!
George Jardine has really pulled out the stops on this. The quality of the editing and camera work is great and really fits the material. Well done lads!

As usual the podcast can be had from George's iDisk: http://idisk.mac.com/george_jardine-Public?view=web
This podcast is labeled ‘20080312 Video Podcast - Martin Evening Book Project’ in the Public directory.
Or, it can be found on iTunes by searching under Podcasts for ‘Lightroom’. The RSS feed is:
http://rss.adobe.com/www/special/light_room.rss

(Via George Jardine on Lightroom and Digital Photography.)

SWPP: Professional Imagemaker

All of you SWPP members should check out the new issue of Professional Imagemaker magazine. It just came in the door and I notice they printed my Lightroom Develop article! It covers the beta and includes sections on skin retouching, negative clarity and and spot removal, as well as fixing underexposure etc. It begins on page 78.

I wrote this not long after the beta came out, but I wasn't sure when it would be published. Again if you do read it, feel free to leave comments here! You can see a web version here:
http://swpp.co.uk/pi-june-2008/index.htm, but it's quite small.

Web Gallery production and other news.

Lightroom-Blog has been quiet recently. Trust me it's not intentional. I'm actually very busy with Lightroom related things, along with actually working!

I've gone as far as I can with the Flash Gallery I mentioned before and I'll be releasing it when I get time to write a quick readme/instructions for it. I will probably supply a logo free version file for those making donations(and then asking-helps with the mind reading!).

I'm updating HScroll to Version 2.0 at the moment. It's mostly ready, but I'm awaiting the V2 release so I can add any new gallery features that might appear.

When I initially created the menu system for both Scroll galleries, it was to ease creation of a website for users, something not possible with Lightroom default galleries. Both Matthew Campagna and Joe Capra took the menu idea a step further in the meantime with Pages and LRG Complete. Not to be outdone, I've created a single page that creates a whole website with a home page, about page, contact page and 3 galleries with 20 photos in each. There is a full menu system. This is also awaiting a V2.0 release, but I could drop code to make it 1.4 compatible easily. You can see an example of this gallery in action here.
The contact page uses a PHP form rather than a straight email address. I wrote this myself to prevent 3rd party licensing issues with scripts. I may include this in the standard HScroll gallery also. The final version of this website gallery will also have a few nifty features, so I'll probably be accepting donations for this, as it was a lot of work.
Please leave comments here, letting me know what you think. The contact form in the sample is not connected, I don't want mail from it!

I'm also very busy with rewriting sections of my Lightroom book for GMC pubs. I had it mostly finished when V2 loomed on the horizon, so I'm now hastily rewriting old sections, while adding in new things, such as Local Corrections. This is a basic book, under commission from GMC, but it does contain more advanced tips also. More details will follow as I'm allowed to release them!

During the waiting period I also started a potential eBook on creating web galleries. It's about 2/3rds done, but on hold for now. I'll get back to it after the Lightroom book is done. It's not a full sized book, so I don't think it will make the print phase at any stage.

I'll be doing more speedlink posts also, just to keep up activity here!

Moving files from laptop to desktop.

Over the bank holiday weekend I was in Kerry. The weather was quite variable and made for interesting shots, so I shot loads! Because I was traveling reasonably light and need to buy larger memory cards (2 Gb is really too small for a 40D), I had my laptop with me. So now I'm at home with a laptop, full of edited and selected photos. So what do I do?

1. First off I select the new folders from the Folders panel. I'm saved in 2008/06/01 order so I can pick the correct ones by selecting the right dates!
2. Then I select all, to make sure each image is selected. On the road it's better to make snapshots, rather than virtual copies as these transport more easily.
3. From the Metadata menu I use Save Metadata to Files. Control/Command S is the shortcut.
4. Next I restart my laptop in Target Disk mode by holding down T as it boots up. PC users with a firewire port can create a firewire network, or use an external drive to do the transfer.
5. I then choose Import Photos from Disk.. from the File menu. When the dialog comes up I navigate to the laptop drive icon and then choose my folders.
6. Because I've already done stuff on the laptop, I choose none from Develop and Metadata settings and Filename from the renaming menu.
7. Finally I go get a cup of tea, because there's a lot of files to copy over!

Alternatively I could choose the files and use the File>Export as catalog command. The restarting in Target mode, I could use File>Import from catalog from my desktop catalog. Because I've not made any collections, I didn't see the need for the extra time involved. Of course if I'd made previews of all the files, then it would make more sense, because I'll need to generate these on the desktop.