Friday Tip – Cropping the cool way

Time for the Friday tip again. Scroll down to the next paragraph to read it. Keep reading here if you live anywhere near the Philadelphia area and can get some time off next Tuesday morning (June 3). If so, I’ll be teaching a free class on Photoshop CS3 sponsored by Adobe and CDW. There’s actually some other Creative Suite stuff being taught during the day but my part is in the morning. Anyway, it is indeed free and all you have to do is sign up here.

Now for the tip. I named this post, Cropping the Cool Way because there’s a really neat tip for cropping. Try this. Next time you’re going to crop a photo, you’ll obviously go into Crop mode (just press the R key). Then you drag around the handles to get your crop just right. One of the problems is that you still see the non-cropped areas of your photo (albeit in a darkened state) and some people find that distracting. If you’re among the distracted type try pressing the L key twice (one for Lights Dim mode and once for Lights Out mode). This blacks everything but the photo and the crop handles. This way you can crop in a totally black area and you’re always seeing exactly what your photo will look like after the crop. Take care and if you do stop by the event in Philly on Tuesday make sure you come up and say hi tell me how much you like the Lightroom blog/podcast

Video – Importing the Exports

Happy video day. This one comes directly from a question I got earlier this week and a question that I get every single time I teach Lightroom. It has to do with what you do with the photos you export from Lightroom (using File > Export). Lightroom 2 beta actually has a new feature that deals with this but let’s face it – it’s not ready for prime-time production work and I strictly use it for “Play” purposes as I know most of you do too. So what about Lightroom 1? How do you manage the photos that you’ve exported for a client if, say, you need to keep track of them? Well I’ve got a solution in this video.

Click here to watch the video. (16Mb)

Oh yeah, make sure you listen to the end where I pose a question about if/how/why you do this and post a comment here on the blog. Thanks!

Preset – UPDATE: My Auto Preset

Last month, I made my Auto Adjustment preset available for download. This was a preset meant to be applied when importing your photos into Lightroom (you can read more about it here). At the time, I had just started using it and was really happy with the results so I wanted to share. However, since then I’ve come to realize my auto fix preset had a few flaws. First off, it added Clarity to everything. Great for landscapes and still life… bad for portraits. I also realized the edge darkening (Vignette setting) was too strong (again, good sometimes but bad other times). So I’ve gone in and made a few changes to this one and I’m making my new version available. This time, though, you get two of them 1) Auto Preset for Portraits 2) Auto Preset for Everything Else. Post a comment and let me know how they work for you. See ya.

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s Auto Adjustment Presets
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

Friday's Tip – The Alt/Option Key

Woo Hoo! It’s Friday and it’s a long weekend (Memorial Day on Monday) – you can’t beat that. Today my tip is simple – the Alt/Option key… just press it every now and then. Seriously, I know it’s weird but that old Alt/Option key changes certain sliders when you press it. For example, if you hold down the Alt key (Option on Mac) and start dragging the Exposure slider (or the Shadow slider for the darks), you’ll see everything turn black. As you drag toward the right, you’ll eventually start seeing some colors appear. That’s Lightroom’s way of telling you those areas will be clipped (all white or all black) if you don’t pull back on the slider. It’s a good visual way to set your exposure and shadow settings without leaving your clipping warnings (those obnoxious blue and red splotches that appear on your photos) on all the time.

But it doesn’t stop there. Try it in the Split Toning panel when adjusting the Hue slider. It gives you a 100% saturated preview of the color you’re hovering over. Also give it a try in the Detail panel when sharpening. It works for a few of the sliders there.

Finally, if you know of anymore feel free to add them as a comment here. I’m sure I missed a few. But don’t be alarmed if I delete your comment, and just update my post and take full credit for your blatant reminder that I missed a use of the Alt/Option key (just kidding). Enjoy your weekend folks and if it’s a 3-day weekend for you, enjoy it even longer.

Chromatic Aberration Day

I’ve seen a few questions lately on using the Chromatic Aberration settings in Lightroom. Honestly, I don’t use ‘em much. I’d end up spending more time finding a photo to demo with then I would recording a tutorial on how to use the settings. So instead of doing that I figure I’d point you to two places to learn more about it. I think both are brief and to the point which is one of the main things I look for when learning.

1) The Adobe Wiki
2) Michael Clark’s article on Chromatic Aberration tricks (make sure you check out the two links he mentions in it as well)

Happy Chromatic Aberrationing! And remember, if you’re seeing aberrations in your photos and they’re not chromatic then you may have bigger problems

Free Presets – 5 Across Vertical Print

It’s time for another print preset and this one came out of one of the Mothers Day gifts I prepared for my wife. Actually, truth be told, I stole the idea from Scott Kelby. See, he was photographing his kids the Friday before Mothers Day as a gift for his wife and asked that I come take some photos of all of them together. Then, almost as if a lightbulb went off (or it could have been when Scott asked “hey, you want me to leave everything set up so you can shoot your kids too”), I got the idea to do the same for my wife. So I did, and I played a nice slideshow for her on Mothers Day morning and then printed some of the photos for her. While I was processing the photos I wanted to create a neat looking print template and I just happened to have 5 vertical photos selected when I went into the print module. Now…I had actually tried my hand at creating a similar preset earlier this year but there were some issues with a Lightroom update. Anyway, after a bit of playing around these presets are what I came up with. Now, you could just as easily create this with 5 landscape photos as well but I found it looks better with portrait oriented photos or at least photos that you can force into that space. So have it ‘em. There’s actually 2 – one centers everything with no room for a name or identity plate and the other one is weighted toward the top with room on the bottom for some text. Enjoy!

PS: Oh yeah, if you didn’t get it. Make sure you install these while you’re in the Print module – not the Develop module. Sorry, as you can imagine, I’ve gotten a lot of questions on this. Just right click in the Preset area in the Print module and choose Import.

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s 5 Across Vertical Print presets
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

Saturday Video Tip? Cool Brushing in LR

I know… the unexpected Saturday post has reared its head again. Better yet, it’s the unexpected Saturday Blog Post Video tip! You just can’t beat that can you Anyway, this week I’ve got a 1 minute video tip for you on some very cool brushing options in LR 2 beta. I know it’s just in beta and version 2 isn’t out yet, but this is one of my favorite tips in version 2 and I’ve been dying to show it. Enjoy and have an awesome weekend.

Update: Apparently this doesn’t work in the Windows version of the beta. I haven’t been able to test this out for sure (but many comments have been left alerting me of this) but it’s looking like a no-go for Windows. Sorry about that.

Click here to watch the video. (10Mb)

Invite a Friend to Lightroom 2 Beta

This one kind of snuck past a lot of people but it’s starting to surface now because it’s been over 30 day’s since LR 2 beta was announced. Here’s the deal. If you own Lightroom 1 then you can download and use the LR 2 beta until it expires in August. However, if you don’t already own LR 1 and you install the LR 2 beta on a machine that doesn’t have LR 1 on it, LR 2 will expire in 30 days from the day of install. Now this is where it gets tricky. You can have a friend (who owns LR 1) invite you to the full duration of the beta program. You can invite up to 5 people at a time. Here’s the link. What if you don’t have any friends? Well, my friend (see, there… I’m your friend) then you’ll have to resort to begging other people to invite you. The best place to do this would be to contribute to the discussions and make some friends over at the LR 2 Beta forums on Adobe’s website. Also, if you’re a NAPP member there’s a dedicated Lightroom forum on the NAPP member website.

To recap:
• To invite a friend click here
• To visit Adobe’s LR 2 beta forum click here
• To visit NAPP’s members only Lightroom forum click here
• To make friends, click here.

Weekly News, Links and Gossip

It’s another gorgeous 80 degree day here in Tampa, FL and it reminds just why I love to live in Florida. Anyway, here’s a quick roundup of some Lightroom stuff I’ve found recently.

• I found an interesting read about utilizing Facebook when it comes to our photography. While Lightroom doesn’t really have hooks directly to it, Photoshop Express does. Either way, it’s kind of neat to see where things may be heading.

• Chris Orwig has a sweet article on some workflow features for Lightroom over at Layers Magazine’s website. While you’re there make sure you check out RC’s daily blog. Lots of great things for photographers and designers alike.

• Lightroom Galleries has an update to their wide range of galleries with the Lightroom Contact Form gallery. You can find it here.

• At Photoshop World in Orlando last month, my publisher (Peachpit press) asked us to film some videos based around Joe McNally’s book, The Moment it Clicks. They asked us to share a “click” moment with the audience. Here’s a link to mine as well as a few others who participated.

• (Blatant self-promotion alert!!!) The Digital Photography School created a list of 9 Hot Photoshop Books. I’m extremely proud to say that 2 of my books (Layers and the Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers I co-authored with Scott) made the list. (FYI… I’m still signing books if you order from Kelby Training)

• In other book news, Scott Kelby is currently entrenched in his Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers. I’ve seen a glimpse of some stuff he’s putting in there and let me tell ya’, no one is out there teaching Lightroom like this. I’ll put it to you this way. There’s not another author/trainer in the world that has personally come across as many Lightroom users as Scott has. So he knows first hand exactly what everyone wants to know. Obviously, the book is available for pre-order so if you want to be the first to get the book when Lightroom 2 ships (beta expires in August so you be the judge) you can pre-order here.

That’s it for today folks. If you’ve got any cool links or Lightroom/Digital Photography/Workflow related links please post ‘em in the comments area. Thanks and I hope you have a great Wednesday.
(photo credit: Chris Orwig)

Presets – Warming Filters

Happy preset day everyone. I’m going back to basics this week with a set of Develop presets that mimic an adjustment I use all the time in Photoshop – Photo filters. In particular, this week’s download is a set of warming filters that give a, well, warm or morning-ish, or sunrise-ish kind of feel to your photos. (No, that doesn’t mean you can sleep in and shoot at high-noon ) While there are some filters that you still need in your camera bag (polarizer, neutral density filters), a warming filter is something I simply don’t carry anymore. There’s really no reason, as Lightroom and Photoshop can recreate these effects easily. The presets that you can download below have 3 levels of warming. Level 1 is the weakest warming effect (closest to traditional 81a) and Level 3 is the strongest. I know I could have added lots of levels in between but, for me personally, when faced with too many choices I usually wind up making no choice so I wanted to keep it simple. That said, I’m working on some presets that warm portraits a little differently then they warm landscapes so we’ll see what I come up with. But for now, enjoy!

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s Warming Filters Presets
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.