Interim Fix for Facebook link in LRB Portfolio.

I've been aware that there is an issue with the Facebook link in the Contact section of LRB Portfolio. I thought it was due to the '?' in the profile address. As it turns out it was much simpler and much more my fault. The fix is very easy, so while I've already fixed it for a future update, you can easily fix it yourself. This will save one of the precious downloads. If in doubt, backup the gallery first.

1. Open Preferences.
2. In the Presets Tab, click 'Show Lightroom Presets Folder'.
3. This opens an Explorer/Finder Window.
4. Open the Folder 'Web Galleries'
5. Look for LRB_Portfolio.lrwebengine.
5. On Mac, right (or control) click on this and choose 'Show Package Contents. For PC users this is just an ordinary folder.
6. Locate the file contact.html and open it in a text editor (NOT a word processor).
7. Around line 90, search for Facbook and change it to Facebook.
8. Save the file and restart Lightroom.

Aternatively, the exported contact.html (or whatever you named it) will show <a href="nil">, replace the nil with the correct link.

Brian Reyman Lightroom Shortcuts

Brian Reyman has posted a very pretty and interactive Keyboard shortcuts PDF. While the keyboard shortcut list is already supplied on Lightroom Help, this is a neat package of it. Currently PC only, but I'm hoping Brian will release a Mac version also (as I've hinted at him over at Lightroom Forums).

Update: As per the comments, Brian has now posted a Mac version. Thanks Brian!

Teaser announcement... New Export Plugin

Those of you paying attention on Twitter might have been as surprised as I when my first ever Export Plugin worked. I'd been having an issue getting one part of the plugin to talk to the other. The plugin worked with manual entries internally, so I know it wasn't there. All good now. I've got the error codes working and the plugin now returns the Twitpic URL when completed.

And on to the announcement.

Lightroom-Blog.com is pleased to announce it's forthcoming Lightroom to Twitpic export plugin. This plugin allows the user to upload to Twitpic and have the option of posting the link to Twitter, along with a message, or simply to upload the image. If unsuccesful, the plugin posts the Twitpic error message, or if successful, it posts the URL into metadata, accessible via a custom Tagset in the Metadata Panel.

The plugin needs a little polish before it's ready for general release, like a better logo than I have, and a bottom of dialog section to link back to the plugin details and twitter signup page.

Metadata Plugin Schema got you down?

The Lightroom SDK covers the basics of creating a Metadata Plugin quite well. Detailed examples and explanations abound. I got a basic plugin going quickly and then went on to add new features to it. Two things I noticed I could add to the fields were

searchable=true,
browsable=true,

So I added searchable=true and then restarted Lightroom. Yes I know I can just reload the plugin, but sometimes restarting can rule out silly issues that may arise. All was well, or was it?
When I enabled the plugin I got a message I simply did not understand. It referred to a change in schema, with an increment in field version number needed to correct it. I had no idea what to do.. I tried expanding the schemaVersion code section and incrementing the schemaVersion. No joy. In the end I rang John Beardsworth. We'd been chinwagging online about Lua and the SDK and I figured he might be able to direct me. He was. It was all quite simple really. Each field you create also needs to have a 'version=x.x' line, which must be incremented when you change the properties of the field.

Obviously I got this all sorted, because lots of you are downloading LRB Releases. No reflection on the SDK writers as versioning is mentioned in the SDK (page 55 to be precise). It's marked as optional, but if you are making changes to the field, then you need to use it.

Creating an IR Camera Profile

Hi Folks,
I did a version of this video a while ago, but never published it properly. After going through a series of Screen Capture applications, I'm now mixing Screenflow with Stomp to give you these, hopefully, improved videos with zooming and panning.

This video covers the creation of a camera profile for my Infrared Camera, a converted Canon 400D. The conversion was done by Advanced Camera Services in the UK (they also do it for Europe), but Life Pixel do it in the US.

Now, I'm still getting used to Screenflow, and I will improve the audio further (it's still better than a lot of videos I see online), so bear with me. The intro was done with the 5D Mark II, so try not to laugh too hard.

Addendum: I said color calibration when I meant white balance as I hovered over the WB slider in the DNG profile editor. Also you can get the Matt Dawson script I mentioned from his site, The Photo Geek.

Today's show was brought to you by the Shortcut

Shift + Command + Option + , or as it is on PC, Shift + Control + Alt + , .

It's the shortcut that brings up the Plugin Mananger, very useful when you're working on a Plugin!

LRB Releases

For my first metadata plugin, I've created an extension of the SDK examples. This plugins allows you to tag an image with a Model Release or a Propery Release as required. For the more organised it also allows you to give it a number. The even more organised could scan in the release and name it with this number, making it easy to search for.

As with any Plugin, open the Plugin Manager (File>Plugin Manager). Click Add on the bottom left to start the process. In the window that appears, navigate to where you've stored the plugin (e.g. you could put it in My Documents/LR Plugins, or Documents/LR Plugins), then select it. Finally click the Add Plugin button on the bottom right.

You may get a request asking to Update the Catalog. Lightroom does this to add the new fields to the catalog. Click Update.

To use the plugin, open the Metadata panel at the bottom right Panel. From the preset list choose 'Release Forms Tagset'.

From here you can use the Model and Property Release menu to choose Yes, Not Required and No Release from the list. You can also enter the form number if you use such things.

Disclaimer. This Plugin is free and is offered as is. Use is at your own risk. I have used it successfully here, but offer no warranty or guarantee that it will be successful for you. By downloading this plugin you accept all liability for any damage that may occur, and release me from any such liability.


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This product is donationware. If you find it useful, then please return and donate.

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To come.. Metadata Plugin #1

So I delve into the madness that is Lightroom Plugins. While they are Lua based, they are very much removed from the world of Web Engines.
The SDK only covers so much and you'd need to be aware of everything in it to get by. For instance the metadata examples don't contain version numbers, when you need this to allow the plugin to update. Also I think (only guessing) that because I started without one, and tried updating schema, that it is need there also.
So enough bellyaching about it, and off I got to make a nice post and polish up my first plugin.

New Look

So the decorators have been in and we have a new look. While the old template looked great, I wanted something a little more custom. I've actually had the basis of this new blog template started when I launched the LRB Portfolio website. I've finally gotten around to getting it (mostly) done and online. Of course because it's my first attempt as such a thing, I will need to iron bits out as I go..

All you IE users will have to tell me what's broken though..

I finally got a look in IE7.. ouch, dropping Div's.. off to work I go. Fixed.

LRB Portfolio 2.12 update now available

I've updated LRB Portfolio to 2.12. As with all other versions, this is available at your download link. To update, redownload the file.
This is a bugfix release with the following fixes:

• Fixed a Firefox issue where it puts borders around the menu images when images were selected.
• Deleted an erroneous file called " head.html", which was being read as "head.html" on PC.
• Fixed a bug which broke the new charset options

For more info about LRB Portfolio, check out the LRB Portfolio Website.

Link Love

I've been busy with stuff so here's a little link love to keep you going:

I mentioned this on Lightroom News, but Thomas Hawk (of Zooomr fame) has a new post up on his current workflow. Good read.

Syl Arena also talks about workflow from the point of view of Image Mechanics.

John Beardsworth has 2 3 new plugins. One is for Pseudo ratings in contact sheets, while the other lets you see the size of a group of files. The third lets you Find Missing Files. John is waxing lyrical the process of learning Lua to create these plugins: Since doing the screenshot, I have updated the plug-in after finding how to round to x decimal places in Lua:

function round(what, precision) 
return math.floor(what*math.pow(10,precision)+0.5) / math.pow(10,precision) 
end 

For those who don't quite appreciate the elegance of that beautiful expression, here's how you'd do the same thing in ugly, functional Microsoft's VB:

round (what,2)


John is also on Twitter as @barbaricca (sorry John, I couldn't resist).

The X= blog has a post about Camera Profiles from Michael W. Gray. I see Michael still has the old Beta profiles installed. He details how to set the default profile also..


SlideShowPro for Lightroom has also been updated to version 1.4.5.

Web Shortcut of the moment.

As I'm working on a new Web Engine, I'm using CSS Edit to check my layouts. To do this I need a rendered site, so I currently needing to Preview in Browser a lot. Rather than constantly opening the Left Panel to click the button, I'm using Cmd + Option + P (PC: Ctrl + Alt + PC). It's a great way to check how your Web Gallery looks in a browser. Once you have the Preview visible, you can cut and paste the address into other browsers to check compatibility.

In the update process.

I've had a complied version of LRB Portfolio ready to go. At the same time, I've been working on a new plugin with a similar feature set (well a few actually), but a very different design.. and using thumbnails. I'm not done with it yet by a long shot, but in the process I've found some niggles which have put the 2.12 update back a little. I've one or 2 more things to iron out for 2.12 and then I'll release it.

The new plugin is currently running the with working title 'LRB Allnighter'.. Just for fun of course. I'll think of a real name.. I will, honestly :)

White Balance via Keys.

Like pretty much everyone, I don't know everything there is to know about Lightroom. In fact, I think that there is no one person that does, but as a collective we do know quite a bit of stuff. Because I this I love finding things I never noticed, or for that matter, don't recall reading or hearing before. One shortcut that lead to a recent video was using Shift Command R (Shift Control R) to reset an image.
This time, I've found something that's probably well know, but seeing as I found it by accident, I thought I'd post it.

The video I linked to above let's you change Basic Panel controls including White Balance, but here's a quicker way. Press W to enter White Balance. This activates the White Balance eyedropper, but also some simple shortcuts. Pressing the up and down arrows will increase the Temperature, while the left and right arrows will change the Tint.
The temperature changes in increments of 50, while the Tint changes in increments of 5. As with most other settings in Lightroom, holding the Shift key will allow larger jumps. In this case, the Temperature changes in increments of 200, while the Tint changes in increments of 20.