Tip – Better Slideshows

One of the biggest complaints about Lightroom 1 and slide shows was that when you started your slide show, the person viewing your it always saw the first slide onscreen before the slide show even started. For example, if you’re showing a bride and groom the photos from their wedding, when they sit down, they see the first image onscreen without any music or anything which totally kills any emotional impact. Well Lightroom 2 has the option to create an intro screen to help out in this area. So, go ahead and set up a title slide (or just leave it black, but turn on the title slide feature in the Titles panel). Now, here’s the tip: When you make a slide show presentation for a client, before the client is in front of your monitor, start the slide show, and as soon as it appears onscreen, press the Spacebar to pause it. Now when your client sits in front of your screen, they don’t see your first photo—they see a black screen (or your title screen). When you’re ready to begin your presentation, press the Spacebar again and your slide show starts. Hope it helps you out some time. Have a great weekend.

Video – Saving Files Between LR and Photoshop

This week’s video is kinda like a public service announcement. Earlier in the week, Scott Kelby called and said he saw a weird glitch when saving a photo in Photoshop that came from Lightroom. He asked if it happened to me when I tried, and sure enough it did. I tried to write it out, but I realized it was just taking too long and a video is much easier to show. Now, before you watch it you should realize its not the end of the world. Lightroom’s Photoshop integration still works just fine. Its just something to be aware of (if you happen to be doing something similar to what we were doing) in case it happens to you. Enjoy!

Click here to download the video to your computer. [Right-click and choose the "Save As" option]

Stolen Preset – LR on a laptop Identity Plate

One of our editors for Photoshop User Magazine, Mike Mackenzie, recently sent me a link to a really neat Lightroom add-on/preset/whatchamacallit. It’s called Gavin’s Greyscale Gradient (from photographer Gavin Gough) and its an identity plate preset that shows you the tonal changes from white to black in 19 stages. Basically, it allows you to check that you’re seeing all the tones that you want to be seeing. Why? Well Gavin points out that most of us calibrate our main screens, but since many of us are often working on a laptop, a small shift in viewpoint (or the angle at which we’re viewing our screen) can totally change the way the colors and tones look. I’d even argue that many folks don’t even calibrate their main screens (and certainly not once a week like you’re supposed to) which makes this even more useful. Anyway, here’s the site to download the identity plate and they’ve even got directions on how to install it. Have at it!

UPDATE: I learned that there’s a version 2 of the graphic. You can get to it here.

Tip – Using the Detail Panel for Spots

First off, I wanted to thank everyone for their comments on the Sharpening Workflow video I did the other day. There’s some good follow-up questions to answer that I’ll get to early next week. Now on to the tip: The Detail panel’s preview (in the Develop module) was created to give you a 100% (1:1) view of your image, so you can really see the effects of your sharpening adjustments. But it’s also great to keep it open when you’re removing spots, because you leave the main image at “Fit in Window” size, and still see the area you’re fixing up close in the Detail panel’s preview.

Video – My Sharpening Workflow in Lightroom

Sharpening is always a hot topic when it comes to working with Lightroom and Photoshop. We have sharpening sliders in the Detail panel in Lightroom and we also have sharpening controls when it comes to printing and even more sharpening in Photoshop. Which ones are you supposed to use and in what order? That’s what I’ll cover in this week’s video.

Click here to download the video to your computer. [Right-click and choose the "Save As" option]

Presets – More Retouching Presets

Today I’ve got an update to some older retouching presets I created for the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom 2. On an interesting “retouching” side-note (and one that I promise I did not plan) Scott Kelby wrote a really fascinating article on the Kelly Clarkson retouching controversy. What I found most interesting is that it’s not about what you’d think (a retouching ethics article). They’ve been done to death. It’s about an entirely new angle on retouching that nobody ever speaks about, but is an absolute reality. Definitely worth a read.

OK back to the presets. This update happens a lot for two reasons: 1) I add new presets and, 2) As I use my presets for a while I find that I need to change their settings. These presets focus on some of the basic retouching effects you can achieve with the Adjustment Brush. Now, before you download them, keep one thing in mind. These aren’t for high-end fashion retouching. Photoshop is still the best place for that. They’re geared for some quick enhancements that you can do right in Lightroom when you just don’t have the time to move the photos into Photoshop. In this set, I’ve included:

1) Brightening/Whitening Teeth
2) Whiten Eyes
3) Red Lips
4) Iris Enhance
5) Skin Softening (Low)
6) Skin Softening (High)

Just like the last set of retouching brushes, I tried to stay pretty conservative on the settings but one of the challenges I came across was the settings worked differently on different photos. But I do think they’re a good starting place. Plus, you can always quickly adjust the sliders after you apply them.

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.

NOTE: A number of Mac readers commented that their presets were not stored here. Here is the location that a few readers gave, though mine are not located here: Pictures/Lightroom Settings/Local Adjustment Presets

3) UNZIP the file you downloaded from the bottom of this post. I repeat UNZIP the file you downloaded. Do not try to install the ZIP file

4) Copy and paste the “.lrtemplate” files into the Local Adjustment Presets folder.

5) Restart Lightroom

Enjoy!

• Click here to download Matt’s Retouching Brushes.

Weekly Worth-a-click

Here’s a few links worth checking out while you’re web surfing today:

• Tom Hogarty (Lightroom Product Manager) has a “Meet the Lightroom Team” video up on his blog. This time around he’s featuring Andrew Rahn.

• Scott Bourne featured this site in his “Favorite online places to get more info about photography” post. Now I realize you’re already here so you don’t need a link but the rest of the article is worth reading because there’s some cool links as well.

• Kubota Imaging Tools has announced the RPG SpeedKeys keyboard for Lightroom. I was able to demo one of the RPG key’s keyboards a while back and love it. Its for all those people that ask “Isn’t there a keyboard shortcut for [insert your favorite command here]?”. You can even program keys for presets and lots of other stuff. The only problem I’ve had with it is the price but if you’re a working
pro and you save 15 minutes a week with it you’ll get your money back pretty quick. Here’s a youtube video to see more.

• I get a lot of questions about watermarking photos from within Lightroom – especially when websites are concerned. Sean McCormack did a quick little tutorial on how to use plug-in developer, Timothy Armes’, LR Morgify plug-in to actually watermark photos for your Lightroom web gallery. It’s a little clunky (not because of Sean but because LR just doesn’t have this feature built in) but I’ve got to admit, its one of the best options I’ve seen.

Have a great day!

Video – Tips for Laying Out Your Prints

I get lots of questions about how to lay out your photos for a specific size print. In Lightroom we’ve got contact sheets, grids, picture packages and lots of control over printing. But if you want, say a simple 8×10, what’s the best way? If you want to print a borderless 5×7 what do you do? That’s what we’re going to tackle in this video.

Click here to download the video to your computer. [Right-click and choose the "Save As" option]

Tip (and random fact) – Resetting Presets

Happy Friday folks. I’ve got two things for you today. First is the random fact about Lightroom that I read from Lightroom engineer Troy Gaul (you see his name on the screen when you launch Lightroom). Its actually not educational in any way, but I got a kick out of it because I always joke about this one in my classes. Now I know the answer why. Ever wonder why Survey Mode in Lightroom has a keyboard shortcut of N. Seriously, N isn’t even in either either “Survey” or “Mode”. Its actually because, during development, Survey Mode was called “N-up” Mode. Now I feel like I can’t make fun of that keyboard shortcut anymore

Ok, on to the tip. Have you ever ruined the Lightroom default presets or deleted one of them all together? If you go to Lightroom’s preferences dialog, you’ll see a Presets tab. If you click on it, the bottom of the dialog shows a way to reset all of Lightroom’s presets. But not just all of them in one full swoop. The cool part is that you can reset any one area you want by clicking on the button. So if I just want to get back to my original Export presets then I just click that button instead of resetting all presets in Lightroom.

That’s it for this week. Have a great weekend.

Two New Contests!

If you’re the contest-liking type then you’ve got a couple of really great opportunities here.

1) Scott Kelby is running a contest on his blog for sports-shooters. Basically, you submit your best sports photo (you can’t be a pro shooter though). Mike Olivella (a pro shooter himself) along with Scott will pick their favorite. The winner will get flown to Tallahassee, FL to shoot a Florida State Seminoles game (boo!!!! Sorry, I’m a South Florida Bulls fan) on the sidelines with Mike and Scott. There’s lots more to it so check out Scott’s blog for a video.

2) Layers Magazine is running a sweet contest called “How CS4 Saved the Day”. You submit your story about how CS4, well, saved your day. Each week they pick a winner and you get lots of free software and prizes. At the end, they’ll pick a grand prize winner who gets the entire Creative Suite Design Premium, a ticket to Photoshop World, Kelby Training subscriptions and lots of other free stuff. You can find out more about it here.

Good luck!