Lightroom-Blog.Com

LRB Portfolio 2.13 now available

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:26:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:46:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:35:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 19:35:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 11:03:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 00:31:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 13:56:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 06:02:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 03:54:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 06 Jun 2009 04:09:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 05:38:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:14:00 +0000

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.

Select the files
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.
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.
In File Naming, set the naming to 'Filename' to retain the same name as the Raw.
Choose Jpg and the colour space of your choice in File Settings. I'd go with sRGB myself, just for web compatibility.
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.
Hit export.
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.

Use with extreme caution

Interim Fix for Facebook link in LRB Portfolio.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sun, 31 May 2009 06:59:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:25:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:14:00 +0000

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?

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 23 May 2009 01:31:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Thu, 21 May 2009 18:06:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:40:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 16 May 2009 17:00:00 +0000

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.

Click Add to Cart to be taken to E-Junkie.com for your download.
This product is donationware. If you find it useful, then please return and donate.

Known issues: The link button in the Plugin Manager isn't happening :)

To come.. Metadata Plugin #1

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 16 May 2009 15:34:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Fri, 15 May 2009 23:45:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Fri, 15 May 2009 18:58:00 +0000

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

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Wed, 13 May 2009 15:21:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 09 May 2009 08:43:00 +0000

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.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 09 May 2009 08:37:00 +0000

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 :)