Lightroom-Blog.Com

Back from Focus

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 15:55:00 +0000

Hi Folks! I know I've been a bit quiet here, but that's because I was at Focus On Imaging for most of this week, along with preparing for it. I did 2 talks a day on the Phototraining4U.com stand. I know I've mentioned it before, but I'm their Lightroom Master, so I was there promoting this new aspect of the training. The other new Master there was Kenny Martin, showing off a new portrait promotion called 'Photo Noir', or 'Back 2 Black'. I was very impressed with his talks. (As a former MPA president, he's well able to present!).

For my early talk, I did a landscape develop tutorial, followed by a beauty retouch tutorial. In the late talk, I did a little on Split Toning for Sepia and Cross Processed looks, followed by showing off my plugins. The plugin talk was a little short the first day, so I got up early on Tuesday and made a power point presentation to give it more direction.

Thanks to all the people that came up to speak to me both with questions and, of course, those with compliments on the training that's up on Phototraining4U.com.

Finally I should mention that there's plans afoot for a UK tour with Mark Cleghorn from PT4U. We'll be doing a Photoshop and Lightroom tour in November, so keep your eyes peeled for more information on that.

ProPhoto Resource

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 16:03:00 +0000

Cris Mitchell has just announced a whole slew of articles from industry experts for this months Pro Photo Resource online magazine. I've an article on Lightroom Metadata Handling there this month. Go check it out.

Focus on Imaging

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 15:59:00 +0000

Hi folks,
I'll be at Focus on Imaging in Birmingham from 7th-10th of the month (yep next Sunday is the 7th). I get in during the afternoon of the 7th so I don't think I'll be speaking that afternoon. I will be on the remaining days on the Mark Cleghorn/Phototraining4U stand (F50) though. Times are not confirmed yet though. See you there.

The gloves are off?

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 15:11:00 +0000

The photo workflow part of the net seems to be abuzz with experts on the demise of Lightroom with the introduction of Aperture 3. Fellow Irish based photographer Marco Davi make his case for Aperture. And of course he's welcome to that opinion, and he does have some valid points. And one bizzare one.

First up he calls Lightroom's UI clunky. Personally I've stated for years that I find Aperture cluttered. And Aperture 3 certainly has done nothing to change that perception. His statement that he constantly has to click on scroll bars shows that maybe he's not the expert he thinks he is. There are certainly times when scrolling is necessary, but with simple modifiers like Control/Command clicking on a panel to collapse all, and Alt/Option to invoke solo mode, it's not an all the time thing. Personally I can find pretty much most tools under my fingertips. That's because I learned the single key shortcuts that cover the bulk of the getting around in Lightroom. G,E and D, being key to getting about (pardon the pun). Having collections in Develop with LR3Beta means that the library disconnect is gone. In truth, I don't work that way. I do my file management, get my selected images, and then develop those selects. Then back out as needed for export etc. Of course, if you have all the Adjustment options selected in Aperture, then you have to scroll too.

Next up Marco states that brushes work better. Well, yes and no. The mask options do allow the emulation of blending modes in Photoshop, along with mask inversion. These are an excellent addition this type of tool, and Lightroom should have them. Lightroom does allow you to build individual masks with a mix of settings. Mixing Flow and Density, you can easily build quite complex masks. These can be used with the Graduated Filter, which I don't see in Aperture as yet. No doubt it'll be on the must copy list also. With Lightroom brushes, even if you paint with a full setting, you can start a new brush in the same spot and double the amount. Another thing is that if you hover over a brush pin in Lightroom, you can click drag to change the overall setting for that mask, similar to using layer opacity (so if clarity was -100 and sharpening 50, dragging clarity to -50 would force sharpening to 25 for example). For me, there isn't a clear winner, but I'd like to see the improved mask options go into Lightroom.

Presets. No different than Lightroom, so I'm sure this is a reason to switch?

Loupe. If you're on a single monitor system, open the 2nd monitor window. Make it loupe sized, zoom in to 1:1, click Live Loupe. Viola. No charge.

Light Table. Can't deny this is nice, but you can emulate it a fair bit using Custom Package in Print. Again it's not the same, but while I really wanted this feature way back, I rarely need it. When I do need to see many images, I just use Survey Mode.

Full Screen? If you follow me on Twitter, you'll know my favourite shortcut: Shift Control/Command F.

Competition. I'm all for competition. It drives technology forward. But buying two products and into 2 upgrade paths? That's not competition, that's bad finances. Bizzare.

Lightroom 3 Beta has new demosaicing and improved noise reduction that make the image quality outstanding. And as a photographer, this is what truly matters. Everything else is a distraction.

And as a Web plugin developer? Web in Aperture sucks, unless you want to make your own full pages from scratch using tokens. There's no way to make something that can offer the level of customisability that you can get in a Lightroom Web plugin. My website plugins couldn't happen in Aperture.

There's still great stuff in AP3. Video import, video inside slideshows. Timeline is a great feature. But, there's very little customisability for the user, same as Web. Places is excellent, but to me faces is more consumer oriented and not really beneficial to my workflow. Maybe if I shot more events?

I'm not the only one commenting on this, Matt Kloskowski has a post over on Lightroom Killer Tips too.

Fixing a weak catchlight in Lightroom

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 20:36:00 +0000

Hi folks,
With all the plugin related stuff going on recently, there's been little time for a video. So here's a short one to help with catchlights.

Make sure you click through to see it at a larger size.

One day of discount

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 03:20:00 +0000

Hey folks,
just a quick reminder that the intro discount on LRB Exhibition will run until 23:59:59 Fri 12th MST. So a little over 24 hours still left on it.

Import video up on PT4U

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 04:21:00 +0000

My 20 minute video covering Import is now up on PhotoTraining4U.com. It covers the Import dialog and Auto Import among other things.

In Progress

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 19:13:00 +0000

There's been a few feature requests in the few days since LRB Exhibition was launched. I'm glad to say it's getting good reaction. Anyhow, here's the list of stuff that have been added/fixed/changed since release based on user feature requests.

1.1 changelog

Added Top Gap

Added Numbers checkbox

Added body image check box.

Fixed repeat

Changed less for fewer

Change UI colours

Added a Switch to the galleries to hide the menu and force all images into Gallery 1, acting as a single gallery rather than a website.

Added Number Height slider

Added Menu Gap slider

Menu gallery swap

Menu and Identity Plate transparency choices

Added Flickr code and made icon.

I'm sure there will be quite a few more feature requests before 1.1 goes out, feel free to add them to the comments at the end of the LRB Exhibition post.

LRB Exhibition

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 03:04:00 +0000

Written from the ground up with new internal code and ideas, LRB Exhibition is a new 'Website in a gallery' plugin for Lightroom's Web module. From the Portfolio family, it allows the user to create home, about, contact and general use pages, along with 6 galleries and 2 external links.

The main image area in the gallery is based around a single image preview in an enclosed space. Using jQuery, each slide can be navigated to either using the navigation arrows, or numbered links to the relevant slide. LRB Exhibition is far more mature that LRB Portfolio was at version 1.0, in fact it's almost par with LRB Portfolio 2.51, and probably equal to 2.4. It does however have features not available to LRB Portfolio, such as per page image and text placement and a floating text box.

Install.

Mac: Double click on LRB_Exhibition.lrwebengine to install.
PC: In Lightroom Preferences (Edit>Preferences), click Presets. Click 'Show Lightroom Presets Folder'. Open the folder. Look for a folder called 'Web Galleries'. If it's not there, create it and drop LRB_Exhibition.lrwebengine inside it. Restart Lightroom

Intro Video.

Here's a quick look at using the gallery. Click through for the full size verion.

There will be more forthcoming.

Basics

A basic look at how this gallery works:
Create a collection of images you want on the website. Decide how many galleries you will have and then sort them into order for each gallery. You might have 35 images for the first gallery, 20 for the next and maybe 26 for the 3rd of the 3 galleries you've decided you'd like.
Next go to Web and select LRB Exhibition from the list. Make sure All Fimstrips Photos is selected in the Filmstrip, or that you've selected all the Photos. Go to the Gallery section and enter those numbers in each gallery section. Give the galleries names for the menu. Now go add details to the Home, About and Contact pages. Same for the Blank page, which can be used for pricing, or services etc. These page have individual text box sizes and locations, along with a choice of locations for the image on the page.

Once you've customised the gallery to your taste, be sure to save your settings as a Template. While Lightroom will remember the settings for the collection, if something bad happens, you're better off with a Template to get those settings back.

A lot of the internal stuff works in a similar way to LRB Portfolio, so you can access that User Guide for more details. Like I say, there will be more video tutorials to add usage.

Features

Home, About, Contact and Blank page
6 Galleries, 2 external links
Google Analytics support
SEO features built in
Custom jQuery Gallery
Multiparagraph, floating text boxes
Clean layout
900X600 images
W3C vaild (base code)

Sample Gallery
Click to view a sample gallery.

Buy
LRB Exhibition is €15 plus VAT.
For the first week of sales, you can get a 20% discount using the sales code LRBEX20. Remember to update the Cart after you enter the code, or it will not be applied. Please note the download allows for 9 updates, after which you require a new purchase.

The Future
Like any software, LRB Exhibition will take on a life of it's own in the wild. Feel free to ask questions or add suggestions in the comments.

LRB Exhibition almost ready

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 18:24:00 +0000

My new web Plugin LRB Exhibition is almost ready for launch. Written from the ground up with new internal code and ideas, this is my second website in a gallery plugin for Lightroom. From the Porfolio family, it allows the user to create home, about, contact and general use pages, along with 6 galleries and 2 external links.

An earlier prototype of the plugin was used to create SkyWaterLand.com. It's been much improved since then though. Once I get the all clear, I'll upload and launch the product. This will be the same price as LRB Portfolio (15 euro), but I will have a 20% Discount for the first week. The code for this will be announced in the launch post.

The main image area in the gallery is based around a single image preview in an enclosed space. Using jQuery, each slide can be navigated to either using the navigation arrows, or numbered links to the relevant slide. LRB Exhibition is far more mature that LRB Portfolio was at version 1.0, in fact it's almost par with LRB Portfolio 2.51, and probably equal to 2.4. It does however have features not available to LRB Portfolio, such as per page image and text placement and a floating text box.

Launch should be very soon. And no this is not vapourware!

Phototraining4U

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 15:38:00 +0000

So my tenure as Lightroom Master for Phototraining4U.com has begun. The site has a whole series of training videos covering Wedding, Portraits, Fashion, Business, Wildlife and Photography Post Process, amongst others. It's owned and run by Mark Cleghorn, who has produced those great training videos for Lastolite. The site has a yearly fee of £199, but if you use the discount code SEAN with the link above, you'll get a whopping £50 discount as a new member. This yearly fee allows unlimited access to all the videos on the site.

There's also a FreeView section on the site to give you an idea of the videos that are on offer. There is a really broad range of training there, with new videos being added every month, increasing the value of your membership as time goes on.

The videos I'm producing for Phototraining4U.com are much longer than the ones I've done here on the blog and cover more ground.

Lightroom 2.6.1 posted for Leica users

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 26 Jan 2010 23:02:00 +0000

Adobe have posted Lightroom 2.6.1 to their servers. This is not available via the normal update mechanism.

Mac OS: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4644
Windows: http://www.adobe.com/support/downloads/detail.jsp?ftpID=4647

This 2.6.1 update contains a single change compared to 2.6: a fix for the problem that would cause LR to crash when processing some M9 files, primarily observed by users under 64-bit, but occasionally under 32-bit as well. There are no other changes.

LRB Portfolio 2.51 update available.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 19:55:00 +0000

LRB Portfolio has now been updated to version 2.51. This update has substantial under the hood changes to overcome the way Lightroom generates CSS. Now when you export (or Preview in Browser), LRB Portfolio creates a new CSS file from internal settings, but based on a template CSS file. It's taken a while to get it right.

In addition there are some new features:

A Text Width slider that allows the user to set the width of the text in the Home, About, Contact and Blank pages.
An ID Plate Offset Slider that allows the user to nudge the ID Plate for better alignment
The non Gallery pages now use a separate header file to prevent an error in IE.
The code is now W3C valid. For the record, it's possible to have useless valid code, but as some people are bothered by this, it's done.
Fixed an IE bug where the ID plate could be hidden by the menu.

There are a few other bits and pieces changed, but mostly internal stuff. This was particularly hard work, with not a lot to show for it on the surface, but it was all still needed.

New customers can purchase the plugin from the LRB Portfolio Website. Current users can get the plugin from their download link, which they were encouraged to save on purchase. Support is available at the Lightroom Forums LRB Portfolio thread.

Update: Just pushed out 2.51 with layout fixes for the mail.html file page, which had orphaned CSS. I hate it when stuff like that happens.

Coding and keeping it safe.

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 16:58:00 +0000

This is a Lightroom post in the sense that it's talking about coding plugins for Lightroom. If you're not interested in coding, you can stop right here and keep 5 minutes of your life.

I've lost track of the number of versions of LRB Portfolio and other plugins I have on my drive, both as code, and compiled. I literally have folders of them. Why? Well, because I've lost my codebase before and had to redo an update from memory, way back in between version 1.1 and 1.2. I overwrote the code with complied versions by accident. That really sucked. I called myself obscene names, but I got over it.

Talking with other developers, I heard about different ways to manage code. One of them was Subversion, but it seemed too complex for the simple codebase I have. Coda, the software I use for coding plugins and websites, has subversion built it, but it seems really geared to websites, and not good for plugins. It may well be fine, but I couldn't get my head around it. My interest was purely academic, and I'd no reason to find a particular product.

Then something terrible happened. Somewhere between LRB Portfolio 2.3 and 2.4, an entire block of code, in the main file of the plugin, got overwritten by text. I literally have no idea how it happened. I just opened the file to edit and half of it was gone. I was able to replace the bad bits with the 2.3 code, but all the new stuff was gone. That sealed the deal for me, I had to find a way to keep my code safe always, not just when an update was launched.

After much seeking, I found a really cool piece of software called Cornerstone, from Zennaware. It does full Subversion, but I only need a tiny part of the functionality. Normally you would use a server, but I'm just using a folder on my drive. The 15 day trial seemed more like 15 days of having it open, than 15 successive days. Still they proved I needed the program, so I parted with my $60 happily.

Here's my workflow.

I have a repository on the drive and I have a working copy checked out. I do all my edits in Coda and Cornerstone keeps track, making new copies in the background as I save. I can always step back to a previous version at any time. When I get to a point where I want to test the plugin, I commit my changes. I can choose to add text to a log file, helping figure out which previous version I might need in the future. Next I select the working copy and click on the 'Export' button. I've set this up to create a copy in the Web Galleries folder of Lightroom. While the export is happening, I restart Lightroom. The export is fast, so when Lightroom reopens, I can immediately see the changes.

What's great about this is that the version in Web Galleries is no longer a precious commodity. I simply export the current working copy. Because Coda is working on a safe copy, with automatic backup, this working copy is used to make the compiled version of the file for beta testing. I have a script that copies the folder specified, and tags .lrwebengine to the name. It then opens this new folder and compiles the 2 .lrweb files, leaving the plugin ready for distribution. At this point, there's a compiled version, the working copy, the copy in Web Galleries, and of course all the versions in the repository. Because of this I can then continue working on the plugin, knowing that finally, the code is safe.

Accessing the Resources folder inside LRB Portfolio

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 17:42:00 +0000

Here's a shot video for those wondering how to access the Resources folder in LRB Portfolio to add avatar and background images.

Click through and select HQ to see the higher quality version.

Practical Presets

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:40:00 +0000

Presets are great for a number of reasons. Easy to get a look, Easy to preview using the Navigator, and repeatable would be high on the list. It's wonderful to get a look and save it as a preset. But sometimes, you apply that to another image and.. Ugh.. it's terrible. Why?
Well if you did a lot of work to get to that point, the base settings may be too much for an ordinary image.

For presets to be universally good, there are some basic things we need to understand. First off, presets for Raw and JPEG/TIFF that use all the settings need to be different. Lightroom applies +50 Brightness and +25 Contrast to Raw files by default, while JPEG/TIFF is left at 0. This makes a big difference in the look, requiring different presets. There is another option of course, and one that I think is the universal way to approach preset creation.

For every look you want to create repeatably, start work on an image with the exposure and colour corrected. When you want to save the preset, only save the the settings that create the look, but not the settings that fix the exposure and colour. For example, let's say I add +0.5 stops to my exposure and then take 500 degress off my temperature to correct an image. I then do some split toning and add a tone curve to create a cross processed look. If I then save this as a preset with all settings on, and then apply it to an image that is corrected take, then the look will be brighter and cooler than wanted. So instead I save the preset with Split Toning and Tone Curve only selected. This means the look can be created independently of the original images exposure issues.

For ease in finding the correct exposure, make a folder of presets that have different exposure levels in 1/3 stop increments. When you save these presets, make sure only Exposure is ticked in the New Develop Preset box. This way you can simply hover over the exposure presets in the left panel and see which one looks correct for the image via the preview in the Navigator.

Only choose the necessary setting when creating the preset

This can also be done for White Balance Temperature, allowing you to get a rough White Balance visually (assuming you haven't used a colour chart or gray card).

A final option is to have a series of contrast curves saved with only Tone Curve selected when saving. This method of building up looks means you can quickly find a combination of presets to give you a final look for your image in Lightroom.

Action Keyword List

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 18:28:00 +0000

As you can probably guess from my recent review of the WAMP tutorial, I'm in an asset management state of mind. As part of the process, I'm starting to build up better keywording. My list is not completely flat, but it's not anywhere near hierarchical. With that in mind, I'm building lists. So here's my Action Keyword List. This is about 250+ 'ing' words, like swimming, running, crying, bobbing etc. I made this list by searching for action words. I was thinking that if you had a collection of images that contained at least one of each of the words, you'd have a good stock selection. To install, unzip and then in Library, choose Metadata>Import Keywords. The top level keyword (Action) won't export.

You can learn more about Keyword lists from Richard Earney's article on Lightroom News. Also you can get other free lists from Nick Potter. I've added to his Geography list for myself with Irish Provinces and Counties.

'Where the #%*! Are My Pictures?' Review

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:34:00 +0000

'Where the #%*! Are My Pictures?': Luminous Landscape Guide to Asset Management is a downloadable tutorial with Michael Reichmann and Seth Resnick. This has been on the market for quite a while, but I've not really had the time to purchase and download it until now. Weighing in at almost 3Gb, it's a substantial download. The question is, is it worth getting?

Well to answer that let's take a look at what it contains. Essentially these videos are Seth Resnick talking about how he uses Lightroom as an Asset Management tool. Michael interjects with his opinion when it suits, but essentially this is all about Seth.

The video kicks off introducing concepts and then shows Seth shooting from the roof of his apartment block. They then work through the import process and general management of the images, including filenaming, folder management, metadata templates and even Develop presets on import. Other aspects of file management get covered, like ranking, keywording and filtering are covered. There's even a section with Seth's scare story on archiving. For those mixing laptops and desktops, that gets covered also.

The tutorial is very easy to watch. The conversation is quite laid back, and everything is done slowly making it easy to take in. For me it's covering old ground in a lot of places, but hearing it from the master really helps methods sink in. I found lots of valuable tips, tricks and advice along the way. Even the longer sections seem to fly, a definite sign that Seth makes a dry topic interesting. There's a lot of banter and joking, but this all adds to making these an easy watch.

I would have no hesitation in recommending this to all users of Lightroom, no matter what their experience level with asset management. There's something here for everyone. For the record, I did purchase this myself, and have no ties or affiliation with the title.

Happy Holidays

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 20:36:00 +0000

Wishing you and yours a happy holiday. I'm staying put this year and have my mother in law visiting for Christmas. Lightroom-Blog will be quiet over the holiday season, but I'll be around on Twitter as @lightroomblog.

Lightroom 2.6 and Camera Raw 5.6 final releases available

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 05:13:00 +0000

Tom Hogarty has announced the availability of Lightroom 2.6 and Camera Raw 5.6 as final releases on Adobe.com and through the update mechanisms available in Photoshop CS4 and Lightroom 2. These updates include camera support for the following models: Canon EOS 1D Mark IV, Canon EOS 7D, Canon PowerShot G11, Canon PowerShot S90, Leaf Aptus-II 5, Mamiya DM22, Mamiya DM28, Mamiya DM33, Mamiya DM56, Mamiya M18, Mamiya M22, Mamiya M31, Nikon D3s, Olympus E-P2, Panasonic DMC-FZ38, Pentax K-x, Sigma DP1s, Sony A500, Sony A550, Sony A850,

Release Notes:
Camera Raw 5.6 and Lightroom 2.6 provide a fix for an issue affecting PowerPC customers using the final Lightroom 2.5, Camera Raw 5.5 and DNG Converter 5.5 updates on the Mac. The issue, introduced in the demosaic change to address sensors with unequal green response, has the potential to create artifacts in highlight areas when processing raw files from Sony, Olympus, Panasonic and various medium format digital camera backs.
The Lightroom 3 beta has not been updated with this new camera support. If you’re working with one of these newer cameras and the Lightroom 3 beta, please use the DNG Converter 5.6 to convert proprietary formats to DNG files that can be used in the Lightroom 3 beta.
This release includes improved camera profiles for the Leica M9 and Ricoh GXR.

Camera Raw 5.6 Download: Mac, PC. Lightroom 2.6 Download: Mac, PC.

Photo Training 4 U

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:15:00 +0000

Some of you may have noticed the Photo Training 4 U link in the recommended section.. Well that's there because I'm creating exclusive content for them about Lightroom. The site covers a range of photo training topics, like Portraits, Business, Photoshop etc. Andy Rouse, the wildlife photographer I interviewed a while back for Lightroom News, is also on board with Wildlife training. There is a Free View section where you can also look at certain movies for free.

Gallery Book

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 12:00:00 +0000

I've been busy over the last 10 days reediting older material to form a book on writing HTML galleries for Lightroom. I'd written quite a lot of it before, but the code base was out of date, so essentially I'm rewriting the code and adding on a lot more to it. I'll be presenting it to my publisher when complete, and if they don't want to take it, I'll look at the e-book route.
The book includes the plugins being created at various stages, so you can look at what's happening and form a reference for future plugins. It's not meant to replace the SDK, but to compliment it. I've written it to work by example, rather than hard core API material. Along the way I'm adding in tips and workarounds for things. For now this is one of 2 or 3 core projects I'm working on, so if things are slow here, you know why!

LRB Portfolio video

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:22:00 +0000

I've created a short video covering how to set up images for the LRB Portfolio galleries, along with showing how to create a gallery index page. Make sure you watch this in HD to see things better.

LRB Portfolio Featured Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (Sean McCormack) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 17:35:00 +0000

It's about time for a new Featured Website for LRB Portfolio. And this time it's the turn of London based photographer Robbie Ewing.

I like how Robbie has used a dark look with white bars. Simple but beautiful. I'm a big fan of simple looks for web sites. He's also used grey text which helps make the type easily readable.

Photographically, I love the night images of London, the abstracts and the still life images. The people and street images are good too, I'm just a sucker for city evening shots.