Video – Stacking Multiple Adjustment Brush Settings

Here’s a quick tip that I showed at Photoshop World last week and it got a lot of “ah ha’s” from the crowd. It has to do with stacking multiple adjustment brush edits of the same setting. In the example I’ll show in the video, I was able to really push the details in some clouds by adding multiple adjustment brush pins with the Clarity set to 100 for each one. Each time you add them you’ll see the effect changes. It’s pretty cool stuff when you think about the effects that are possible with it. Enjoy!

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

News – Lightroom 3 Beta (Part 2)

Hey Lightroom Peeps! (that’s hip slang for Lightroom people)
Today is pre-conference workshop day here at Photoshop World in Orlando. I’ve got an HDR pre-con that starts at 1pm so I’m pretty psyched. However there’s some big news in the Lightroom world today. Adobe has released an update to the Lightroom 3 beta. Full details can be found over at Tom Hogarty’s (Lightroom product manager) blog but I’ll give you my take on some of the big features that are new in the beta.

1. Built-in Tethered Capture – Tethered is a must have and now Lightroom has it (for most of the newer model cameras).

2. Video support – Video is big these days. While you can’t directly edit the video in LR3 Beta, you can now manage it in the catalog just like any other photo which helps out a lot. That includes sorting, rating and ranking video. You can also see info about your video and if you double click, it’ll open the video in your video player.

3. Luminance Noise Reduction Improvements – This is big for me. Personally, I always had pretty good luck with the color noise reduction aspects of Lightroom. But now that they’ve added some sizable improvements in the Luminance Noise reduction you’ll see some pretty major changes in the usability of your high ISO photos.

4. Watermarking – Watermarking was one of the big improvements in the first beta. The placement, size and type of watermarking has been further improved and helps take this feature up a notch.

5. Import – I know this sounds like it’s mostly for newcomers to Lightroom. Veterans pretty much have the import process handled right? But I’ve gotta tell ya. One of the big issues I had with the first beta was that it took FOREVER to render the thumbnails and show me the import dialog because it seemed to be reading all of my attached drives and folders. That’s changed and import is a lot faster now. That said, there’s some overall improvements that make import easier which will help out the newcomers to LR as well.

6. A Full Point Curve – If you’re used to curves in Photoshop (you know, the kind where you can add a point anywhere on the curve) then you’ll appreciate this one. Curves in LR now act more Photoshop-ish. For me, this means some pretty cool possibilities for special effects, and (you guessed it!) presets

If you want to download the beta just click here. Our pal, Terry White, also did a video that you can find here. Also, remember this is just my take on what I consider to be the larger improvements in the 2nd beta release. Tom’s got a full list along with some links at his blog. If you’ve downloaded the beta, let us know what you think here. I’m definitely interested to hear your initial thoughts. Thanks!

Follow Up – How Should I Teach Lightroom

First off, there’s a tip for today in a post right below this so make sure you scroll down to read it. Next, thanks very much for the kind words many of you said in your comments yesterday. And even if you didn’t agree with me, everyone was really civil in the way that they did it. Here’s what I’ve learned and I feel we can now put the discussion to rest:

1) I’m going to keep teaching the way that I do it.

2) If the way that I do it entails something that costs extra money (Photoshop not included – see #3 below), if possible, I will try to make brief mention of the free way. But I’m not devoting a lot of time to it.

3) I’ve realized that I need to be clear on something that I may have taken for granted before. Photoshop is definitely absolutely 100% part of the Lightroom photo-editing workflow. Any videos I do that deal with “start to finish” stuff WILL include Photoshop, so be prepared for that. I don’t even consider trying to do it all in LR because I’m assuming you have PS. If you don’t (and can’t afford it), then pick up Photoshop Elements at $79 which does a heck-of-a lot too. Either way, all of my retouching and detailed work will continue to be done in Photoshop.

4) If I do use a third party plug-in as part of my editing and the video covers that, I will make mention of it in the blurb about the video to let you know ahead of time. This doesn’t include Photoshop (see #3 above).

5) Maybe I need to write a mission statement for Lightroom Killer Tips (that sounds so corporate of me doesn’t it?) Anyway, in the meantime one thing to realize about this site is that it’s not just Lightroom. As my friend RC said, sometimes the “killer tip” is what software or what else you should do “with” Lightroom – not necessarily something within Lightroom itself.

Once again, thanks for your time yesterday. Have a great weekend.
- Mr. Kloskowski

Video Tip – Reordering Photos in a Slideshow

This is another one of those times where I started to write a tip down and realized it was so much easier to show you in a video. This is one I came across while preparing a slideshow last weekend. I wanted to move the order of the photos and let’s just say, I had a small problem. I’ll show you what happened and what I realized the trick is for reordering your photos.

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

How Should I Teach Lightroom?

Weird title for a post huh? After reading some comments from yesterday’s Before/After video with a Black and White example, it got me thinking. A few people commented that the video was a disappointment because not much of the work was done in Lightroom (and it used a 3rd party plug-in). Some even went as far as saying it was a promo for the plug-in. It was odd for me to read that because I was just showing the way I do it and what kind of technologies I’m excited about. So I figured I’d ask you. Not because the comments were so overwhelming (there were only a few). But because I’m genuinely curious. Sure, this is a free blog and I get to control the content so I could teach whatever I want. But let’s be honest – the blog is also exposure for me. I hope that by reading it, you’ll find ways to add income for me and the company I work for.

So how should I teach Lightroom? One of the best scenarios is yesterday’s video. I use a plug-in that costs nearly $200 if purchased alone (which shall remain nameless so I don’t get called a shill, sell-out, and all the other nifty names that come up should we mention another product that costs $$)

Some videos I do have a lot of Lightroom involved and some don’t. Do you want me to hand-pick the ones that make a good LR demo and just show those? I guess I always felt my job is to show you what I actually do with my photos. Let’s face it, the Develop module in Lightroom isn’t rocket science – it’s pretty straightforward once you learn your way around the Basic panel at the top (the main sliders). I always kinda felt the value in the videos was the creative aspect of how to tackle a photo and what things I look for when developing it. Isn’t my job is to show you what I’ve found works best with my own photos? That’s why you’re here right?. You wouldn’t attend one of my workshops or seminars and watch me do something to my photo, and then come up and say “Well Mr. Kloskowski…” (which by the way, I always know its going to be a doozie of a comment when some one calls me mister), “Couldn’t you also do that using” – and continue to describe some other method that you’d learned from some Youtube video a while back. Now, some of you probably would. But I’d give you the same answer I give everyone who asks that question, “Yep, but this is the way I do it”. You didn’t pay me to teach (or reassure) you what you already knew. You paid me because you trust the way I do things and want to see how I do them. And the audience didn’t pay to hear the way you do it, they paid to hear the way that I do.

So the question remains. How should I teach Lightroom? If there’s two ways to do something, what do I do? And if a plug-in that costs money is involved (and I use it and it’s something that I would use even if I owned my own studio/business), should I show it? Or should I just stick to doing everything the semi-free way and assume you’re only going to have Lightroom and Photoshop? You guys pick and I’ll follow.

A few ground rules: You have to pick a side. You can’t say, “teach us all the ways so we can choose”. My videos would take forever and I’d get very little done. And it’s just not fun when you have to show people 3 ways to do the same thing. So please either pick the “Show us the way you do it” side, or the “Show us the free way” side.

So have at it and let me know what you think? Thanks

News Update – Where’s Matt

Hey folks. First, be sure to scroll down and check out the next video post. It’s another one of the Before/After videos and it’s a little different this time.

That said, I wanted to give you a quick “Where’s Matt” update and let you know where I’ll be teaching (at least what I know of) throughout the year.

• First, I’ll be at Photoshop World in Orlando next week. If you’re there make sure you stop by and say hi.

• In April, I’m co-teaching a workshop that I’m incredibly excited about. There’s still a few spots left but they’ll go quick since this is hands on and we’re limiting the number of participants. The workshop is in Arches/Canyonlands National Park. I was there last year and got some of my favorite photos of all time from the trip. But this year we’re doing something really different. Tom Bol is co-teaching the workshop with me. Tom will take us on location to take the class beyond landscapes – we’ll be photographing adventure sports and working with models. We’ll spend a session photographing mountain bikers on the famous Slickrock Trail. We’ll be teaching location lighting techniques including using reflectors, diffusers and TTL flash. I’m really psyched about this one, as I think it brings together a killer location with some really neat adventure sports photos.

• In May (May 26-29) I’m teaching a landscape workshop on the Oregon Coast. I’ve been wanting to get out there for quite a while so I’m excited to finally make the trip. It’s hands on and covers both the shooting and post-processing aspect of photography. We’ll start with sunrise shoots in the field. Then head to grab some breakfast and take a bread/nap. In the afternoon we go into the classroom where you’ll learn the photography workflow as well as have time to work on your photos with me right there behind you helping out. Then we head out for another sunset shoot to cap off the day. Again, its limited and pretty full but you can find out more details and snag some of the last spots here.

• On August 30 – Sept. 3 Photoshop World heads to Vegas again and I’ll be there with some brand new classes.

That’s all I know about for now, but things will definitely change as new seminars come up. I’ll be sure to keep you posted here as things get added. Thanks for giving me a minute. Now check out today’s latest Before/After video.

Video – Lightroom Before/After for Black and Whites

This week I’m heading straight to the request lines for Lightroom Killer Tips. A couple of weeks ago some one requested a before/after video on black and white conversions. It’s actually much easier than most people think, but there’s a few tricks to the whole process so I figured I’d share how I do it. Enjoy!

NOTE: I’m adding this after reading some of the comments. I personally use a plug-in from Nik software that I mention in this video (I also show you the LR way). Here’s the thing. I can only show you the way that I do my Black & White conversions. I understand there’s other ways to do it, but this is the way that I do it. It’s not a Nik Software promo. In fact, I’d gather that Nik Software (unless some one from Nik is reading the blog today) doesn’t even know I posted this, nor do they know that I use their software for my B&W conversions.

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

Presets – Hard Edgy Look

Before we get to the preset, I wanted to let you know that Datacolor (makes of the Spyder monitor calibration system) is hosting a free webinar on Wednesday March 17 from 2-3pm. Here’s the details.

OK, on to the preset. This week I’m going back to an edgier look for a preset. I’ve actually included two in this one – hard edge and soft edge. They’re both pretty contrast and come from a look that I see out there a lot lately. You’ll find there’s a little bit of everything thrown into this one. If it looks too strong (or not strong enough), I’ve found that tweaking the Exposure and Blacks sliders usually helps, as its hard to create a preset that nails Exposure and Blacks for every photo.

As always, your comments are welcome. Download ‘em and let me know what you think.

To install:
1) Unzip the preset zip file on to your desktop
2) Go to the Develop module. NOTE: YOU MUST BE THE DEVELOP MODULE
3) Go to the Presets panel on the left. Right click anywhere in it and choose Import.
4) Select the .lrtemplate files you unzipped in Step 1 and click Import NOTE: DO NOT IMPORT THE ZIP FILE

• Click here to download the preset.
• Click here to see a sample of the preset.

Tip – A Bunch of Crop Tool Tips

It’s Friday and I’m heading up north to shoot my sister-in-law’s wedding. Wish me luck Anyway, I figured I’d close out the week with a few crop tool tips.

• Press R to get to the Crop Tool. It works even if you’re in the Library module.
• Once you’re in Crop mode press the letter O (for Overlay) to change the overlays that you see on your photo. They’ll toggle between the rule of thirds, a grid, and several other overlays that you’ll never use
• Press A to toggle between constraining/not constraining to the aspect ratio
• Press Cmd-Shift-R (PC: Ctrl-Shift-R) to reset your crop all together.
• If you’ve changed the Aspect Ratio on a previous photo then press the letter S to set that same aspect ratio for the next photo.
• And finally, a really cool way to crop is to go into Crop mode. Then press the letter L twice to go into Lights Out mode. Now you have your photo in crop mode with none of the clutter of the interface. Press L again to get out of Lights Out mode.

Happy cropping and have a great weekend.

How Backing Up Just Saved My Butt

You probably always hear people talk about backing up right? Well something happened to me recently that I figured I’d share in hopes that anyone not backing up, will start to.

The Night Before My Trip to Dubai
It all started last week. I taught at Gulf Photo Plus in Dubai. The night before I left I did as I always do every night – backed up my Mac with Super Duper (it creates a bootable backup of my entire drive). I have it on an auto backup setting so at some point during the night a backup is created on to a Western Digital MyBook drive. However, since I was also traveling to teach, I always make a backup of the backup to travel with me. That way, if something happens to my computer I have a bootable backup that I can plug into any laptop and still go on teaching. At this point, everything was fine.

My Flight to Dubai (where things went terribly wrong)
First we flew to Atlanta to catch the 15 hour flight to Dubai. At the Atlanta airport I grabbed my laptop to send a quick email only to find it started into a blank gray screen. I tried every key combo I knew to start in single user, safe, whatever mode that I could think of – nothing! Then I called our IT guy (Paul) and asked what he thought. The outlook was bleak, but he asked if I had a backup and to try to boot from that. So I did. Things started booting and then froze and I got an error about my backup drive being corrupt. Ugh! Oh yeah, all of this was happening as they were boarding my flight.

On the Plane
So now I’m on the plane heading over the Atlantic Ocean and trying everything I could to figure this out (with no internet access by the way). After about an hour I lost all hope. My computer would only show a gray screen and wouldn’t boot into my backup drive. I started to weep and quickly took advantage of Delta’s free beer and wine offer on international flights

Day 1 in Dubai
Once I arrived I went up to the rooftop bar to hang out with some of the other instructors. I met David Nightingale there for the first time. As I told him my story, he immediately said let’s go check this out and spent about an hour with me trying to figure things out (seriously, this guy barely knew me and was helping me out). Again, no luck. My backup drive wouldn’t even mount to his computer. Double Ugh!

Day 2 in Dubai (my birthday by the way)
After Mohamed Somji, the guy who basically runs GPP, found out of my computer problems, he had someone take me to a computer repair store that he knew of (and one that specialized in Apple computers). I wasn’t there for 5 minutes when they diagnosed that my laptop’s hard drive had crashed. They were able to put a new drive in and have me up and running in less than 2 hours from start to finish (not bad huh?).

But just having a working computer was the least of my problems. I had to teach like 6 classes at GPP and all of them were on my previous hard drive (and backup drive). My photos were safe of course because they’re on a separate drive. But all of my outlines, materials, Lightroom library and everything else were gone.

So I called RC Concepcion at work and asked if he’d run to my house to get the other backup drive. He did and called me later to say that the drive wasn’t working. Triple Ugh!!! After some troubleshooting he realized the power supply was bad and luckily we had another one. Folks, I know this sounds crazy but all of these things were working 24 hours before this. I swear! Anyway, RC and Paul (our IT guy) tried a few things to get me the files I needed but ended up FedEx’ing me my backup drive (I also have a Time Capsule running at home so I knew I had yet another backup in case something happened to the drive in transit).

Day 3
Still no drive. Checked online and my drive was due to arrive the next day (which is when classes started).

Day 4
I went out sightseeing in the morning. Came back and about 1 hour before my class, the drive arrived at the hotel. I attached it to the laptop, restarted and booted from the drive and I was right back to where I was the night before I left for Dubai.

The Rest of the Trip
The rest of the trip went great. I had to continue to boot from my hard drive as the cable that was sent with it was USB and I couldn’t do the laptop hard drive swap (in the amount of time I had) without firewire. No sweat though. All I wanted was the stuff on my drive. I didn’t care where it came from.

Today
Today everything is good. I got back from the trip and was able to transfer everything from my backup drive at home to my laptop drive. It’s as if nothing ever happened. I did do one quick photo shoot the morning I left but I borrowed a camera and CF card from Brad Moore at the office. I deleted the files, but Brad had not reformatted or used the card and was able to use SanDisk RescuePro to recover the photos off the card so I literally lost nothing in this whole ordeal (aside from many hours of sleep and my sanity for a few days).

Moral of the Story
Backup your computer and anything else that’s important. When you’re done backing up, backup again. And heck, while you’re at it, back up one more time just to be sure. If you travel, and having the stuff on your computer is vital to you (as it is for me), then don’t just rely on the backup you travel with. You never know what can happen (as I painfully found out). Your computer bag could be stolen for all you know along with your backup drive. I know I can always find another computer to use, but if my backup druve was gone I wouldn’t have all of the important files that I needed to work with.

Thanks for reading. I hope you either a) feel the need to reevaluate and double check your backup process or, b) feel reakkt really sorry for me