Lightroom 1.1 Is Here

After many weeks of rumors and innuendos, Adobe has officially released the 1.1 update to Photoshop Lightroom. I gotta tell you, even though this is a dot-1 update, it’s major. First off, it includes an update to Camera Raw so now Lightroom has all of the cool things in Camera Raw 4.1 – Clarity, Sharpening, improved Noise Reduction. It doesn’t stop there though. One of the single most popular questions I get about Lightroom is how to move your library from a laptop to a desktop and vice-versa. Well 1.1 has a new catalog export feature that allows you to do just that. Plus, it’s now got Windows Vista support too. Now do you want the really good news? It’s free (that is if you already own Lightroom). So go now (NOW!) to Adobe’s website to download the Lightroom 1.1 update.

More NewsYep, there’s more. My brand new online training course is now live at www.photoshoptraining.com. Actually, the DVD will be shipping in about a week or two as well so you can choose whichever method is best for you. I’ve gotten a ton of requests for this so I’m really excited about it. Here’s how it works. There are 21 video lessons (plus some bonus stuff). They’re all around 5 minutes each so you don’t have to sink a whole lot of time into learning Lightroom. In the video lessons I walk you through the major features in Lightroom in a workflow order – from Import straight thru to processing, then to Photoshop, and finally to the output features in Lightroom. NAPP members get it for $49.99 (the public price is $69.99). There’s nothing like it out there now so check it out. Visit www.photoshoptraining.com to find out more.

Monday Video – Archiving Photos

In this week’s video I’m tackling one of those questions I get just about everyday – archiving photos with Lightroom. It’s actually a great question and I know a lot of folks out there have the same issue. How do you archive your photos from Lightroom so you can free up hard drive space but still maintain and manage your photo shoots in Lightroom? I’ll warn you ahead of time, there is no “Archive” feature in Lightroom right now. However, in this video I’ll give you a strategy of how you can at least come close to archiving and still allow Lightroom to manage your photos.

Click here to watch the video. (10 Mb)

Friday Tip – Resetting Tone

If you’re working in the Develop module chances are you’ll be working with the Tone and Color settings in the Basic panel. Well if you ever want to reset your Tone or Color settings without resetting the changes to your whole photo (Cropping, etc…) try this. Hold down the Option/Alt key. When you do that you’ll see the words Reset Tone and Reset Color appear instead of Tone and Color above the sliders. Just click to reset those settings but leave everything else as is. Well, that wraps up another week. Have a great weekend.

Back from Banff

Well I’m back from my trip to Banff National Park and LA (talk about 2 totally different places to be in one week). Click here to see a photo taken of me by Bruce Johnson, one of the students in the workshop and one kick-butt photographer. I had an incredible time last week in Banff with the Great American Photography workshops and the folks that were in my class. The weather wasn’t perfect, but the group that was there totally made up for it. It was sunny at times, it rained at times, heck, it even snowed sometimes, but everyone was just psyched to be in such a beautiful place. We shot a lot and learned plenty about the Lightroom and Photoshop workflow. I just wanted to say thanks again to everyone that was there. If you’re thinking about attending a workshop, I’m teaching another one in October in Page, Arizona. We’ll be shooting the Antelope Slot Canyons as well as some other great stuff, so make sure you check it out – it’s filling up fast. Visit GAPhotoworks.com for more info.

Lightroom and the Adobe CS3 Conference

Today, I’ll be teaching Lightroom and digital workflow in the Pro Photography track at the Adobe Creatively License Conference in LA. The conference isn’t just about Lightroom or Photoshop though. It’s got a print design track, video track, rich internet application track, web design, and design classes as well. So, if you’re in LA and thinking about attending the event, make sure you come by and say hi. Oh yeah… they’re taking the same conference to New York next week. I’ll be heading up the weekend before to visit family in New Jersey (exit 9 for all of you Jersey residents – you know what I mean) and then to New York on Monday the 25th. Hope to see you there.

Workflow Tip – Crop First

Here’s a quick workflow tip for you. If you’re wondering when the right time to crop is then consider this. When you work through processing and developing your photos, chances are you’re going to be looking at the histogram often, right. Well, why leave an area in your photo that may affect the histogram significantly, when you’re just going to crop it out later? That’s why I crop first. Actually, second – I white balance first then I crop. You’ll see that when you crop in Lightroom the histogram changes as you change the crop area. This means that the histogram you see is the real histogram and you can make better decisions when toning your photos. Happy cropping!

Neil and Susan Silverman Photography

This week’s gallery spotlight is Neil and Susan Silverman (the Silvermans). They teach workshops for the Great American Photography Workshops and they’ve both got some really amazing work. I was privileged to be able to participate a couple years ago on a workshop with them in Bar Harbor, Maine. Let me tell ya’ – these two are passionate about photography. Neil is an absolute maniac and he will make sure your camera gets a work out when you’re with him. The best part about this is that now I’m sitting in the Dallas/Ft. Worth Airport and I’m on my way to teach along side them during a workshop in Banff National Park (yep Dave Cross’s homeland). I can’t wait. I’ve seen the photos of Banff and they’re amazing. I’m sure the Silvermans have scoped out some very cool places while we’re there. After we shoot I’ll be taking the group back to the classroom to process our photos from start to finish in Lightroom and Photoshop and back to Lightroom again. I’ll try to post some photos along the way. See ya!

Video – Renaming Photos in Lightroom

This week’s video is on renaming photos once they’re already in Lightroom. Now, you may already know you can rename when you import into Lightroom. But what if you don’t? I’ve heard many requests for a Batch Rename feature similar to what we had in Bridge. Well Lightroom has a feature that’s does just that. It’s useful for renaming a bunch of photos or just one if that’s all you need.

Click here to watch the video. (18 Mb)

Tip – Has your photo been edited?

Ever want to quickly tell if your photo has been edited in Lightroom. Come on, you know when you’re sitting there alone at night the urge comes over you and you just can’t help it. You HAVE to know if a photo has been edited. Seriously though, I’ve found many times where I just wanted to see if I’ve done anything to a photo or not. If you get the urge too, there’s a quick way to tell. When you’re looking at your photos in the Grid or Filmstrip views you may see a little +/- icon on them. If you see that icon then the photo has been edited. If you don’t then it hasn’t. Also, you can tell if the photo has been cropped because there’s a little crop icon on it too. Finally, there’s a little tag icon that let’s you know if this photo has keywords applied to it. So from left to right they go like this: keywords, Crop, edits. That comes in handy if you just want to see if you’ve done anything to the photo yet. Have a great weekend!

Removing Dust Spots from Multiple Photos

Ever go on a photo shoot only to get back and realize there was some type of dust or spot on your lens. So not only is the spot there for one photo but it’s there on all of your photos. In Photoshop it would be a royal pain in the butt to get red of each one of them but in Lightroom it’s a breeze. By using the Remove Spots tool along with the Synchronize feature you can get rid of those spots in just a few seconds. While you’re at it, don’t forget to submit your entry to win a signed copy of Scott Kelby’s best-selling Lightroom Book for Digital Photographers. It’s already climbed up the charts on Amazon and is the absolute best Lightroom resource out there. Watch the video to see how.

Click here to watch the video. (34 Mb)