Using the Keyboard in Basic

Here's a short movie file about using keys in Basic in the Develop module. The keys are , and . for moving between controls, and - and + for changing the amount.

Missing Pins or Spots?

A few folk seem to be getting caught with this: When using the Brush or Grad filters, the pins go missing. Alternatively the Spot tool isn't visible. The solution is easy: Press H. H is the Hide/Unhide shortcut and is useful for seeing the results of your work, while keeping the current tool active.

LRB QuickSlide

LRB QuickSlide is a basic Flash slideshow gallery for Lightroom. It generates a 620X400 flash SWF in a blank index page that you can then add to another page. Handy for quick galleries and things like Myspace pages etc. Based on some of the code from the not yet released LRB Flash Gallery, there is very little to change in this gallery bar the Flash background colour and the page background colour.

To add the code from this gallery simply copy everything between (and including) <object> and </object> to the new page. Keep the gallery structure intact and you'll be away.

This is free, but includes a link page to my shop page. I will put a donationware version of this online soon, minus the logo and link.
Also on the page is a little icon of slides. Clicking this will stop the slideshow running. Clicking of the left side of the image will go back one photo and on the right will go forward one. The slideshow loops, as will any clicking.

Maybe when I learn to use Flashvars, I'll be able to add things like slideshow timings and borders, but it the meantime, this is it!

Note: Because Lightroom uses Explorer as the plugin preview browser on PC, it cannot load other plugins like Flash, therefore this does not Preview on PC. Sorry, but I have to use HTML to map to XML here for the gallery, and I can't do it any other way (as in, it's not in my skill set). If you comment that you can't preview it on PC, I won't approve the comment, because I've already mentioned it. (Cue loads of comments on PC vs Mac that won't get by either). When you export an SWF in Flash, it allows either local or network access, so you have to preview online. I'm not trying to alienate users here! Really!

Download | Sample Gallery | Installation Instructions

Update: Using XML to create the Speed slider as suggested by John Beardsworth, I've now updated to version 1.01 which has a speed slider from 2-10 secs. Also I moved the slideshow icon to prevent it hiding the watermark. Download 1.01

Happy Christmas

Or whichever holiday you are celebrating this week. I'm away for a few days visiting, but will probably have some stuff to publish before the new year.

LRN Interview

I've posted an interview with Lightroom Plugin developer Timothy Armes over on Lightroom News. Tim is the creator of LR/Mogrify and LR/Enfuse amongst others.

Prepping and thanks.

I've a new series of video tutorials recorded for Lightroom News. With a bit of luck I'll get the first one online shortly.
For a change this was done in segments, to try and work around a rather active 4 year old! There should also be more Lightroom News news soon enough. I've mentioned a recent trip to London for a Strobist seminar on my other blog, but not here. As any regular reader of Lightroom News would know, the site is owned by Jeff Schewe and Martin Evening (of Pixel Genius). I've spoken many times with both via email, phone and Skype, but that weekend was my first time meeting them in person. All I can say is that they are truly 2 great guys. Thanks again to Martin and Camilla for their hospitality, and I hope I wasn't too much bother!

Lightroom Secrets

In an unexpected tit for tat, I see that fellow Lightroom Help Moderator Gene McCullagh has me as the Featured Site on his Lightroom Secrets blog. Gene is an excellent teacher and has many great tips himself!

Lightroom 2.2 available

Lightroom 2.2 is now available. (Mac, Win). Among the cameras added to this release are the Canon 5DMkII and the G10. There were quite a few bugs fixed, including one that was affecting my galleries: the 150 character limit on text. I don't know what the new limit is, but I'll endeavour to find out. I had to revert to older, undocumented, code in the meantime, so I'll be happy to bring everything up to date vis the SDK.
One final thing about this release is the addition of non beta Camera Profiles, which are now part of the package.

Photoshop Lightroom 2 Made Easy

I've just been sent the signed off cover for for my book:



I think we're nearly there with it now!


Update
I suspected this might be on Amazon....

Cool Crop Tip

Lightroom Help Administrator Anita Dennis has just posted a cool tip in response to a help question. The question was:

How can you maintain one crop size, like 8x10 without having to select it each time as you go through a folder of pictures?

And the answer?

Use the keyboard shortcut S, which lets you crop to the same aspect ratio as the previous crop.

Bear in mind that you need to be in Develop for this to work and that you must apply a crop to the first image. The ratio in the crop is copied to the next image. It's not in the same location though. It's centered and will be the same height/width as the image depending on the ratio and orientation. To apply the same crop to a number of images (i.e. same location and size) use the Sync.. button with Crop selected in the dialog.

New Voices

Fellow Lightroom Guru and Moderator on Lightroom Forums Brad Snyder has got a new job. He writing for O'Reillys Inside Lightroom Blog. His first article is an excellent look at an event shooters workflow. In Brad's case it's equestrian in nature, but the techniques can apply to any event.
The Inside Lightroom blog did lose Adobe as a sponsor, and considering Adobe just axed 600 jobs, it's good to see they've new blood to take the reins. I had an offer once to write for them, but I choose Lightroom News instead. Good luck Brad!

Adobe Ouch

While I'm only looking at this from the outside, all I can say is "Ouch!". Adobe is laying off 600 employees worldwide. While I've seen a few names mentioned, I've no idea if any of the Lightroom team were lost. Whether or not, there will be a few extra people home this Christmas with no jobs. Never a good time. Still some have mentioned a reasonable severance package, so hopefully it's not all bad news.