The Lightroom Conspiracy

I bet that title drew you in didn’t it? Come on, face it. Anything with the word conspiracy is bound to make you want to read more right? Well, last week, Scott Kelby and I sat down to talk about the mini-Lightroom conspiracy that we’ve read about lately. It really all started when Lightroom 2 came out, but then when CS4 came out last week, things got taken to another level. So if you’ve a) been having some performance problems with Lightroom, or b) been wondering that now that CS4 is out, is there really a need for Lightroom 2 anymore (since Camera Raw is now the same), then jump over to Scott’s website and check out the video. Here’s the link.

Photoshop CS4 has been announced

It’s late Tuesday, but I didn’t want the day to go by without mentioning this one since Photoshop is my “gig” and all. Adobe has announced the brand new Creative Suite CS4, which means there’s a new version of Photoshop coming out. It’s not out yet but Adobe generally starts shipping within a month or so after they announce (at least that’s judging from the past). Since most Lightroom users, use Photoshop as well I figured you’d like a look at the new features so make sure you visit the links below for Photoshop (and other creative suite programs) coverage from the NAPP gang.

• NAPP’s Photoshop CS4 Learning Center

• NAPP’s Exclusive Members Only CS4 Videos

• I also had another online training course go live at Kelby Training’s website. It’s called the Photoshop CS4 Power Session and it’s an in-depth look at all the new features. I know no one has the software yet but subscribers are free to log in and get a head start. I really took an in-depth look at all the new features and all of the little settings in CS4 and exactly when and where you’d use them. I’ll also be updating the course as I find new stuff in the coming weeks.

• Layers Magazine Creative Suite CS4 videos (yes, videos on all the Creative Suite apps)

• Terry White’s Create Suite podcast takes a look at Photoshop, Bridge and Camera Raw in CS4

• Jeff Revell also has a new flash as well as a “Why I still use Bridge” article worth checking out

So the magic question… do you plan on upgrading? Let us know in the comments. See ya.

Lightroom 2.1 Release Candidate is Up

Adobe posted a Lightroom 2.1 release candidate on the Adobe Labs website on Friday. If you’re wondering what a release candidate is, think of it as “we’re ready to go, but we’re just making sure”. That’s why it’s on the Adobe Labs website because it is technically beta software but it’s supposed to be very stable.

Now, the one question on everyone’s mind is probably going to be performance. Is it better? If you look at the release notes on the website, performance (especially around the Adjustment Brush) is mentioned as something that has been worked on but it’s also mentioned as something that continues to need work. I’d be interested in hearing your input if you’ve installed this update yet so make sure to leave a comment and let us know. I’ve got my head down in a few projects today but as soon as I get some extra time I’m going to install it and I’ll report on my adventures when I do since I’ve got some performance issue with the Adjustment Brush as well.

Here’s the link to download the 2.1 update. Oh yeah, don’t forget to scroll down for a “Worth-a-click” post.

Weekly Worth-a-click

Happy Monday folks. Hope you had a great weekend. Here’s a few links that are worth a click:

• Scott Kelby’s new Lightroom book is out and tearing up the best seller list (top 100 of ALL books on Amazon!). If you’re thinking about grabbing a copy, Jeff Revell (from Photowalk Pro) wrote the first review that I’ve seen so check it out.

• Frederick Johnson from Adobe did an interview of me when we were at Photoshop World. Here it is.

• Just an overall cool story of how LR and PS are helping a 16-year old photographer get started.

• A very quick and concise review of LR2 for anyone still holding out

• Syl Arena over at Pixsylated (have I ever mentioned that I love the name of his site) wrote a good article about the benefits of shooting tethered into Lightroom.

That’s it for today. I’ve got some cool presets based on some comments from last week that I’ll have out this week as well so check back. See ya.

Video – Ins and Outs of LR Preferences Part 2

Last week, I kicked off a two-part video on the ins and outs of Lightroom’s preferences. It went over really well and spurred some great comments to so make sure you go back and check it out. In the video, I covered most of the preference dialog but left the interface prefs for this week as well as all of the catalog preferences. So that’s where I’m picking up this week. I hope you enjoy!

Click here to watch the video. (20MB)

Presets – Darkening Brush Presets

Since Lightroom 2 came out, I’ve realized a whole new area for presets has emerged – Adjustment Brush presets. If you haven’t seen it yet, go to the Adjustment Brush tool in LR 2 and click on the Effect list. There’s a few defaults at the top but you may notice one called Soften Skin which is actually a custom preset. Well, it got me thinking about brush presets I use a lot so I’ve started coming up with some. This week, I’m releasing my darkening brush presets. In a nutshell, they adjust the exposure to a negative number (-1/3, -1/2, -2/3, and -1 stop). I realize I could have gone further but then the list gets rather long and, frankly, I rarely find myself darkening something by more then 1 stop with the brush (I use it more for subtle changes). It won’t stop here though. I’ve got more that I’ll release in the coming weeks but I thought this was a good start.

Anyway, these are a little different to install from the regular Develop presets so here’s the instructions.
1) Navigate to your Lightroom presets folder. The easiest way to do this is to go to Lightroom’s preferences by clicking the Lightroom menu and choosing Preferences (PC: Edit > Preferences). Then choose the Presets tab and click the “Show Lightroom Presets Folder” button to open the Lightroom Folder.
2) Now go into the Lightroom Folder. Then go into the Local Adjustment Presets folder. You’ll know you’re in the right folder because you should see the file “Soften Skin.lrtemplate” there too.
3) Unzip the file you downloaded from the bottom of this post.
4) Copy and paste the “.lrtemplate” files into the Local Adjustment Presets folder.
5) Restart Lightroom

Now when you go to your Adjustment Brush you should see the presets in the Effect list near Soften Skin. Pretty neat huh? If you’ve got any comments or ideas for some other ones, let me know in the comments area. Have a great day!

• Click here to download the Darkening Brush presets.

Video – The Ins and Outs of LR Preferences

Last week at Photoshop World some one asked a question about the preferences in Lightroom. After answering I realized it would probably make for a good video, as there’s lots of little things in the preferences that are worth checking out (as well as lots of prefs. that aren’t worth worrying about). Oh, and this is only part 1. I realized this video would be really long so I broke it up into 2 parts and part 2 will run next week. Sound good? Make sure you listen to the end of the video and leave a comment about the preferences you find most important. Thanks!

Click here to watch the video. (15MB)

Presets – Camera Profile Presets

First off, a big thanks to all of the readers/visitors who were at Photoshop World last week and came up and introduced themselves. I had a great time there and it was so cool to get to meet some of the people that visit/post here. Now, on to the presets…

A couple weeks ago, I posted a video on the beta Camera Profiles that Adobe has released over at the Adobe Labs website. At the end of the video I mentioned creating Develop presets for those profiles you like the most, so I decided to do just that for myself. Then I figured I might as well share them this week so you don’t have to do the work. The really neat part about using presets for these profiles is that you don’t have to select them in the Camera Calibration tab to see what they look like. Instead, just hover over the preset name in the Presets panel and the Navigator will show you a preview so you can quickly see what each looks like. I’ve created presets for all of the Nikon and Canon profiles (separate downloads below). The one prerequisite is that you’ll need to have the camera profiles installed in order to use them so make sure you go back and watch the video to see how.

READ THIS FIRST: These presets only work if you’ve installed the profiles first. They are not the profiles themselves, but presets to apply the profiles. Also, since the profiles only work with Raw or DNG files, the same holds true with the presets.

• Click here to the video about the new camera profiles.
• Click here to download the Nikon Camera Profile presets.
• Click here to download the Canon Camera Profile presets.
• Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

A Quick Q&A Post

Hi everyone. I’m at Photoshop World this week but I wanted to get in a quick Q&A post. I’ve been building a list of questions I’ve been asked here and I’ll start working my way through them over the next few weeks. Here goes:

Will those Camera Profiles (video from last week) from the Adobe Labs website work with JPEGs too?
No, sorry about that. I recorded that video and realized after it was up that I didn’t say that they don’t work on JPEGs. They only work for raw and DNG files.

Matt, what camera and lenses do you use?I use a Nikon D300 with the MD-10 battery grip. My lens are (all Nikon by the way):
• 17-55 f/2.8
• 70-200 VR f/2.8
• 105 Macro VR f/2.8
• 50 mm f/1.4
• 24-70 f/2.8
• 18-200 f/3.5-5.6

Matt, you posted some Hawaii photos the other week. What lens was used to take the “Another Sunrise” photo? How about the one of the little girl?
Believe it or not, 90% of every photo I took in Hawaii was with the Nikon 18-200 VR lens. Some people say it’s not as sharp but I think it holds up just fine and you can’t tell in my prints. There’s definitely a place for the better glass, but when I was walking around shooting everything from my kids boogy boarding to beautiful landscapes that lens really came in handy and I would have missed many opportunities if I didn’t have it.

Matt, why won’t you address the issues and bugs with Lightroom 2?
Mainly because I simply don’t have them. I can’t write about them if I don’t experience them myself. I do see some sluggishness with the Adjustment Brush but it’s not prohibitively slow for me. I usually just have to wait a few seconds for it to render. I have done just what I recommend everyone does and made mention of it over at the Adobe forums. I know they read them and that seems to be the best place.

I have a bunch of raw files on an external disk, which I connect to my laptop when I want to work on them.  I am wondering, is there a way to work on the thumbnails (global exposure corrections, not meta-data) without being connected to the external hard drive?
Unfortunately no. You can do most things in the Library module to them (keywords, metadata, sorting, etc…) but you can’t do any Develop module things to your photos until you reconnect the hard drive.

That’s just a few Q&A’s but I’ve got a big list. Gotta go get ready for one of my classes though! If you’re at Photoshop World make sure you stop by and say hi.