The Lightroom SDK: FTP and Flickr Plugin

Adobe provide a Software Development Kit to help those interested in creating addons for Lightroom understand what needs to happen. General users of course tend to glaze over at the thought of such things. However, in the case of Lightroom there are a few sample plugins that provide additional tools for Lightroom.

FTP Plugin

The SDK contains a fully functional FTP plugin.

Flickr Plugin

There is also a basic Flickr Plugin. It's not as sophisticated as Jeffrey Friedl's but handy in a pinch

Web Gallery

There's a gallery with a thumbnail section, with one large image. Clicking on a thumbnail will open the relevant image as a large image.


There's a few other nifty little plugins there too.

To get the SDK go to http://www.adobe.com/devnet/lightroom/. Download the SDK and open the zip file. Inside is a folder called Sample Plugins, where you'll find the Plugins.

Use the Plugin Manager to add the FTP and Flickr Plugins. The Web Gallery can be installed by putting it into a folder caller Web Galleries inside the Lightroom Presets folder. To open this folder go to Preferences (Edit Menu on PC, Lightroom Menu on Mac), choose the Presets tab and then click the 'Show Lightroom Presets Folder' button. You may need to create the Web Galleries folder.

Pierre from Presets Heaven has done a version of the FTP Plugin. It's identical to the sample plugin, but with a Presets Heaven logo. If you're adverse to looking at the SDK, then perhaps that will suit better.

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

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

Export Backup Plugin

Matt Dawson has updated his Export Backup post process action for Lightroom. A lot of Export Plugins use temporary loactions when exporting (excepting Files on Disk) and this post process action can be added to them to give a local copy of the exported images. New additions in this version include:
Most Recently Used List
Subfolder field
Show in Explorer/Finder checkbox
More information can be had from from the The Photo Geek

LR2/Mogrify

I've mentioned it over at Lightroom-News already, but Timothy Armes has add a cool new feature to his LR2/Mogrify post process action for Lightroom. Before when you added a border to the image, it would be added to the file dimensions. Now you can specify the size to include the border, so for example, you could have an image export as a 600X400 pixel image including border. That's a pretty handy addition if you ask me, especially useful for blogging with a fixed width template!

LR/Mogrify

In an unusual move, Timothy Armes has combined the Lightroom SDK with a 3rd party imaging tool to create LR/Mogrify. Currently up to version 1.7, his Export Plugin manages to add features high in the Feature Request forums. 

• Sharpen on Export: Check
• Create a 2 step border: Check
• Positionable Custom Watermark: Check
• Convert to more than 3 Colour Spaces: Check
• FTP after all this?: Check
  

Based around ImageMagick and the mogrify command, LR/Mogrify is quite a versatile output tool for Lightroom users.

Tim has full instructions on installing both ImageMagick and the LR/Mogrify plugin on the LR/Mogrify page. He's also been fulfilling a reasonable amount of user requests on it also. 

For those that find this free plugin useful, there's a donate button on the page.