LRB Portfolio 2.13 now available

LRB Portfolio has been updated to 2.13. Bug fixes include live update issues, facebook linking. New features include Twitter/Facebook/MySpace buttons, and the ability to remove the Cmotion ‘End of Gallery’ message. I've also added a 'Pinks & Purples' sample template.

New users can purchase from the above link, while current users can obtain the current version from their download link.

Lightroom 2.4 available.

Despite a number of premature postings yesterday, leading to a 2.3 download, Lightroom 2.4 was launched at 9.01 PST last night (WIN | Mac). In case people have missed the connection, pretty much every Lightroom related release happens at this time.

Along with support for the following cameras:
Canon EOS 500D (Digital Rebel T1i/EOS Kiss X3 Digital)
Canon PowerShot SX1 IS
Epson R-D1x
Hasselblad CF-22
Hasselblad CF-22MS
Hasselblad CF-39
Hasselblad CF-39MS
Hasselblad CFH-22
Hasselblad CFH-39
Hasselblad CFV
Hasselblad 503CWD
Hasselblad H2D-22
Hasselblad H2D-39
Hasselblad H3D-22
Hasselblad H3D-31
Hasselblad H3D-39
Hasselblad H3DII-22
Hasselblad H3DII-31
Hasselblad H3DII-39
Hasselblad H3DII-39MS
Hasselblad H3DII-50
Kodak EasyShare Z980
Nikon D5000
Olympus E-450
Olympus E-620
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1
Pentax K-7
Sigma DP2
Sony A230
Sony A330
Sony A380

This release also fixes the following bugs:

Web galleries with a Collection Title of six characters would not export or upload
The crop aspect ratio could revert to the last selected ratio even when reset to original
The crop aspect ratio in Quick Develop could be lost after a crop adjustment
The crop aspect ratio lock could be lost after an orientation switch
Images could preview incorrectly when imported using the MTP/PTP USB protocol
Sony .ARW files may not have been recognized by Lightroom’s import dialog
The Japanese language configuration of Lightroom on Mac OS X 10.5 could fail to switch to the print module if the HP B9180 was set as the default printer
Metadata options that are intended for use were dimmed incorrectly when exporting DNG files
The Japanese language configuration of Lightroom on Mac OS X was missing a shortcut for “Zoom Out”
Several translation and shortcut corrections were made for the eight additional languages introduced with Lightroom 2.3


Camera Raw 5.4 is also available (WIN | Mac). This is needed for Edit in Photoshop commands, to allow a file to open without creating an intermediate file. The DNG spec is also updated to 1.3.

More details are available from the official announcement at Lightroom Journal.

Links for IPPA attendees

For the IPPA attendess, here's the 2 galleries I mentioned:

LRB Portfolio: http://lrbportfolio.com
TTG Highslide: http://lightroom.theturninggate.net/html-galleries/ttg-highslide-gallery/

Menus

It's a bit obvious if you're looking at the Blog, but for those on RSS, we've a new menu bar. Because there's 330 posts on the blog, things can be a little inaccessible at times. I've put a lot of the related stuff into their own page, which then references either the post, or the related web page.

Timelapse Movies from Lightroom

Santa Ponsa from Sean McCormack on Vimeo.

As you may or may not know, I'm a huge fan of Timelapse movies. Now I haven't exactly been going around the world shooting stuff like Ross Ching, but I have shot timelapse all around Connemara, County Clare, in Scotland, London and even Mallorca in Spain. I even begged Jeffrey Friedl to help in the form of writing a script that allowed me to create panning and zooming using only Lightroom metadata.

Well last night, with a lot of help from some buddies on the Lightroom SDK forum, I managed to do something that I'd been hinting at to Timothy Armes.. I wrote a post process plugin, that allows me to send the exported files to FFMPEG and create a movie from them. FFMPEG is a cross platform, open source video application. It doesn't come compiled and needs substantial massaging to get it compiled. Still I found a compiled version for both Windows (untested) and Mac OS X.
Now the plugin is very fragile and needs a lot of polish. I'm not sure it's something I intend releasing, because of this fragility. However, if you are a timelapse creator that uses Lightroom, please contact me and we can test and work on it further. Basically if you mix the panning ability from Jeffrey's Pan script and this Export plugin, you can pretty much create cool timelapse within Lightroom.

The movie at the top was creating using panning from the Pan script and exported from Lightroom via my export plugin.

Web Galleries and Web Templates

As there seems to be some confusion between what constitutes a Web Gallery and a Web Template, I thought I'd put some words down about it. The heart of the design of a web gallery in Lightroom 2 is the 'Engine'. This is where all the code is that allows you to make design choices like colour, image size, what metadata is shown etc. Lightroom ships with 5 of these: 2 Adobe Engines (the HTML and Flash Galleries) and 3 from Airtight Interactive (SimpleViewer, AutoViewer and PostcardViewer). These appear in the Engines panel at the top of the Right Panel. The remainder of the Right Panel is where you can change the setting that the Engine provides.

Templates on the other hand are snapshots of the settings used in a gallery. Each Gallery engine has default settings that the gallery will revert to if it's loaded again (by selecting anther gallery and then switching back, for example). To allow you to keep the colours you've set, along with any other changes you make, you can save them by creating a Template. These are to be found in the Template Browser under the Preview Panel over in the Left Panel. To create a Template, Click the '+' beside Template Browser and give your template a name and a folder location.
To select and use a template, click on the name in the Template Browser.

You can have numerous Templates for any one Gallery. Anyone can create a Template. Creating a Gallery is a bit harder, but it is explained in the Lightroom SDK. Lightroom Blog has a number of Galleries available, as does The Turning Gate. You can also get SlideShowPro and stuff from Lightroom Galleries.

This weeks shortcut.

While I know this has come up on Twitter, here's a variant.

Press 'V' to make an image convert to Black & White. Press again to go back to colour. Easy?
Now in Develop, press and hold 'V'. It goes to grayscale.. Now release the key.. It goes back to colour.

It's a cool way of seeing if an image works in B&W quickly.

If you try it in Library, you'll get what Don Ricklin calls a 'psychedelic effect', i.e it strobes between B&W and colour!

Lr2TweetPhoto

I'm happy to announce that Lr2TweetPhoto is now available. Lr2TweetPhoto is a plugin for Lightroom 2 that allows the user to export a photo to the TweetPhoto online photo service. As with the website, this allows you to either upload the image, or upload and post a message on Twitter, along with a link to the image. This link, the Twitter Username and the URL of the image on TweetPhoto are stored in metadata and accessible via the provided Lr2TweetPhoto Metadata Tagset (or Metadata Viewer Preset as it has been called). The image generated is an sRGB Jpeg, and is put in a temporary location, which is then deleted once the export is finished. You can of course download the file via the link if so desired. If you opt not to post to Twitter, the Message box becomes inaccessible. A Signup button is built in to allow new users to create a Twitter account.

Other features include the ability to add GPS data to the exported image, either manually, from the Lightroom GPS table or via the Geoencode plugin, and image tagging. Both a demo and full version are available. More details can be found at the dedicated page..


Lr2TweetPhoto

IPPA Talk

I'll be giving a talk with the IPPA (Irish Professional Photographers Association) on June 22nd in the Hodson Bay Hotel, Athlone. More detail from the IPPA website: http://www.irishphotographers.com/events.php?item=10.

Lr2Twitpic plugin

Update: for those linking, please use http://lightroom-blog.com/lr2twitpic

Lr2Twitpic is a plugin for Lightroom 2 that allows the user to export a photo to the Twitpic online service. As with the website, this allows you to either upload the image, or upload and post a message on Twitter, along with a link to the image. This link, the Twitter Username and the URL of the image on Twitpic are stored in metadata and accessible via the provided Lr2Twitpic Metadata Tagset (or Metadata Viewer Preset as it has been called). The image generated is an sRGB Jpeg, and is put in a temporary location, which is then deleted once the export is finished. You can of course download the file via the link if so desired. If you opt not to post to Twitter, the Message box becomes inaccessible. A Signup button is built in to allow new users to create a Twitter account.

The plugin comes in 2 forms, a demo version that allows 10 exports before being disabled. As Twitpic tends to be a single image at a time service, this should be more than enough to form an opinion about requiring the plugin or not. The full version works in exactly the same way, but is not restricted. The full version is available for download via e-junkie for a coffee busting €2.50 (introductory offer).

Errors
The Plugin traps Twitpic errors and displays the text in a dialog. The list is not exhaustive, but covers incorrect username and password, incorrect file type and file too large (over 5Mb).

Note: As with the FTP presets in Lightroom, this sends text, including the password, in the clear, so be warned if you are using someone else's network, they can snoop out your password.

Known issues: Sometimes if the plugin is used immediately after starting, Twitpic will return an incorrect file type error. As the plugin automatically creates an sRGB Jpeg, it can't create the wrong file type. I suspect the file sends before it finishes processing. Simply resend the file and it will work the second time.

Install and use. To install this plugin, open the Plugin Manager (File>Plugin Manager) and click Add on the bottom left. Navigate to the unzipped file and choose it. The Plugin is now installed. To use click the Export button in the Left Panel of Library. Alternatively use the shortcut Shift Command E on Mac or Shift Control E on PC. Click the top of the Dialog (default says File on Disk) and choose Lr2Twitpic from the list. Enter your Twitter Username and password, along with an optional message. Choose from the other options including file sizing (recommended!) and watermarking. Click Export when ready.

Metadata
To view the custom metadata associated with this plugin, click the preset field beside the title of the Metadata panel and select Lr2Twitpic from the list.

Demo Download
Click to download demo. By clicking the link the user agrees to the EULA agreement.

Purchase
Click Add to Cart to be taken to E-junkie where payment can be processed. By purchasing the user agrees to the EULA agreement.




Support
Support can be obtained at http://lightroom-blog.com/forum

World Wide Photo Walk

While not directly a Lightroom thing, I am taking part in this..

The second annual world wide photo walk takes place on the 18th July this year.
I applied and was accepted as walk leader for the Galway walk. There are requirements to lead the walk, such as having lead a camera group or teaching classes. As I've done both, and seeing no one else had applied, I applied.

Anyway, the walk is limited to 50 people, so if you are interested, go to the page on the world wide photo walk page and sign up.

worldwidephotowalk.com/galway-gy-ie/

What is a Photo Walk? Well pretty much as it sounds, you takes photos and walk. There are prizes for the best photo of the walk, and photos get featured on the website. The idea of a world wide photo walk is the brain child of Photoshop author Scott Kelby. It's all about meeting other photographers and having fun in the process.

Replacing Raw with Jpg

While not a workflow I would recommend, I do get asked this question often: How do I replace my Raw files with Jpg?

Why would someone do this? Often you find it's because they have a series of family snapshots or some such that look adequate in the Raw. They don't feel they need to keep large Raw files taking up space where a Jpeg will do fine. Giving arguments about digital negative falls on deaf ears, they want rid of the Raw.

It's actually remarkably easy to do.

1. Select the files
2. Run Export from the Export button, the File > Export menu, or use the shortcut Shift Command E on Mac or Shift Control E on PC.
3. In the Export Location choose the following options: Same folder as Original, Add to Catalog. Leave Subfolder off and don't stack the images. The figure below shows how it should look.
   
   
4. In File Naming, set the naming to 'Filename' to retain the same name as the Raw.
5. Choose Jpg and the colour space of your choice in File Settings. I'd go with sRGB myself, just for web compatibility.
6. The rest I would leave blank, no resizing/sharpening/watermarking. The only exception might be to bring down a 21MP file to a 10MP file.
7. Hit export.
8. When export is completed, I would then immediately mark the currently selected images as Reject, then use Photo > Delete Rejected Photos. This is a better option that hitting Delete, which would only remove images from a collection rather than delete them. The beauty is that once the export has finished, those images that are selected are the Raw files, ready for removal.


When this is done, the folder will be full of Jpg versions of the Raw files, with the Raws removed.

Use with extreme caution. Test on one or 2 files you were probably to delete anyway to be comfortable with it.