Ten Great Tips to Get You Started in Lightroom

Adobe’s Photoshop Lightroom is the digital photographer’s ultimate assistant. But don’t just take my word for it. Head over to LayersMagazine.com to find an article by best-selling author Scott Kelby in which he gives ten great tips to help get you started with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Scott is a professional photographer that’s been around this software since it’s inception. If there’s a better way to do things in Lightroom, you can bet that he’s found it. Scott’s tips include keyboard shortcuts, techniques for using Lightroom tools, as well as suggestions for how to better arrange your workspace. Check them out here.

New Blog for Wedding Photographers

I recently came across a cool new blog for wedding photographers called Flash Flavor. It’s fairly new so it’s just starting to gain some momentum but it seems that they’ve been keeping up with posts regularly so far. I really liked the post where he showed how he put a speedlight in the “Just Married” limo – what a cool idea! It’s definitely worth a visit so go check it out at www.flashflavor.com.

I'm off to Europe!

Yep, I’m off on a vacation (and a little work) with my wife to Europe this week. First we’ll fly into Brussels, Belgium and then on to Amsterdam. I’ll be teaching a few sessions at Adobe’s own event – Adobe Live. The first leg of the 1-day conference is in Belgium and then I’ll be teaching two days in Amsterdam. The rest of the time I get to play! I’m so psyched as I’ve never been to either location so wish me luck. That said, I’ll be trying to keep up with posts over the next week or so but if I don’t, you can guarantee it’s because I’m doing one of the following: a) teaching at an Adobe event b) out shooting or sightseeing c) eating Belgian chocolate d) or drinking some fine Belgian beer. Tot ziens! (by the way, that’s good-bye in Dutch – I think ).

Video – Creating Versions (Virtual Copies)

I’d have to say that Virtual Copies are one of my favorite features in Lightroom. This is a feature that sneaks under most people’s radar, but I think they’re incredibly powerful. Think about it this way. How many times do you want to see your photo as say, a color photo – then maybe in black and white – then maybe even as a sepia-tinted photo? Imagine what a pain in the neck it would be to try and create the black and white, and then have to undo to get back to the color version all of the time. That’s where Virtual Copies come in. They basically let you create different versions of your photo without one harming or affecting the other. Check out this week’s video to learn more about them.
Click here to watch the video (22mb)

Video – My Top 10 Shortcuts

This week’s video is taking a slightly different spin then usual. Usually, I show you some type of tool or technique in Lightroom but this time I’m showing you my top 10 favorite shortcuts. These are things that I use all of the time because they help me work faster. When I demo Lightroom I always have people come up to me and ask “How’d you do that so fast”. Sometimes I even forget because these shortcuts have become second nature. So… I figured I’d share them with you and hopefully you can put them to as good a use as I have. Enjoy!

Watch the video here (32 mb)

Location Lighting Kit

Hey everyone. Based on the huge demand that B&H Photo received for Scott Kelby’s lighting equipment used in many of his demos, they went ahead and put together the Scott Kelby Location Lighting Kit. It’s out of stock right now but if you do manage to pick up the kit from B&H, Scott went ahead and created a video of how to set it up and use it. Check out the video here or click here to purchase the kit from B&H.

Video Tutorial – Printing with Borders

I have to say that it’s pretty darn amazing to see that Lightroom users are already coming up with ways to tweak Lightroom and get it to do things it probably wasn’t originaly built to do. A while ago, at Photoshop World, I saw a demo at onOne Softeware’s booth about tweaking the identity plate in the Print module to print a border around a photo. I had also heard about a post on Sean McCormack’s blog where he did something similar. So this week’s killer tip video is based on just that. By the way, in the video I mention a link to iStockphoto.com to download the same borders (and more) that I used. Just click here to go to the iStock page with those borders.

Click here to watch the video. (29 Mb)

Friday Tip – Black and White Tip

When I convert my photos to black and white, I usually nail the exposure and white balance before the conversion. That means setting the White Balance, Exposure, and Blacks settings. However, when you make the black and white conversion it’s always good to revisit those settings. Depending on which conversion method you use (one of the presets in Develop or by clicking Grayscale) Lightroom can change things about your photos. Sometimes the Exposure and Blacks settings worked great for the photo when it was in color, but maybe they need to be tweaked once it’s black and white. So the moral of this story… convert to black and white and then check your shadows, highlights, and midtones again, just to make sure the photo looks its best.

Lightroom Tour in New York, Atlanta, and Boston

If you haven’t heard the news yet, Scott Kelby is taking the Lightroom Live tour to Boston, Atlanta, and then on to New York. Scott teaches this 1-day seminar in that same down to earth, plain English style that he’s so popular for. Last week, he kicked off the tour in Los Angeles to a packed house of over 800 people. That just goes to show you the popularity that Lightroom has gained over a short period of time. Anyway, it was so successful that he’s taking it to some other great cities soon. If you want to learn Lightroom and how it fits in with the whole digital photography workflow (including how it’s used with Photoshop) then you’ll want to check it out at www.photoshopseminars.com.

Wednesday Inspiration – Dave Hill Photography

One word describes today’s inspirational link – WOW! Dave Hill’s photo techniques have been discussed in literally hundreds of web forums. It’s got a dark-gritty-surreal look to it that makes it immediately recognizable as his own. Forget about figuring his methods out for a moment and just enjoy his photography though – his work and lighting is just beautiful. Plus, his website has some behind the scenes videos that make visiting well worth it. Check it out at www.davehillphoto.com.