The Story of the Illegal HDR Photo

I was recently in New York and made a trip to St. Patricks Cathedral with the specific intention of taking an HDR photo (click the photo on the left for a larger version). I got my photo but I also got a pretty funny story along the way so I thought I’d share.

First, the details. This was a 9 shot bracketed series taken on a D700 with the Nikon 14-24mm lens. The aperture was set to f/11 and the shutter speeds varied throughout the series. I processed it from Lightroom using Photoshop’s Merge to HDR Pro, then some minor retouching to remove distractions and then back to LR for some post-processing. On to the story…

I walked in to the church with my tripod and camera in hand. As you know, anyone with a tripod is automatically treated like a criminal so I was prepared ahead of time. The security person at the front informed me that I could take photos but not use the tripod in the main isle for safety reasons. Knowing the shot I wanted was in the middle I went for plan B (even though I didn’t have a plan B yet). I walked around the church for about 15 minutes trying to work a different angle but I just wasn’t happy with anything. So I decided to throw a Hail Mary.

I saw my opening. The people had cleared the center isle for a few minutes. Off to the side, I set the camera to a 9-frame bracketed series, turned on continuous shooting mode and tested the height of the legs for the shot I wanted. Then I quickly and covertly walked into the center and put the camera/tripod down. Nobody was in site so I just kinda fake-leaned gently on the camera and held my finger on the shutter. Almost making it look like I wasn’t really shooting (yes, I’m sneaky like that). Since I had my camera set to continuous mode it would continue the auto bracketed series as long as the shutter was pressed.

“Click” – went the first shot. “Click” – 2nd shot. “Click” – third. YES!!! I thought I was in the clear. But as I got to the 5th and 6th frames the shutter speeds started creeping into the 8-10 second range. “Uh oh!” I thought.

Now, anyone who shoots HDR knows that these are the most crucial frames because they give details in the dark areas. Well during the 10 second exposure a security guard walked up and told me I had to move. I asked if I could just have 1 more minute and she said no. Then I asked if I could come back later (“Click!” – only 3 more frames to go) in the day when no one was there. She said no. I proceeded to ask if I could come back early in the morning, maybe before they opened. Oh and by the way “What time do you open?” I asked. She said they opened at 8am but that I had to move now (“Click” – 2 more shots to go).

At this point I still had a 20 and 30 second exposure to go so I had to start talking really slow. I was really getting desperate so I asked if she was married and would like to go on a date. She said no (just kidding on this one). I did ask if there was a place I could go to for media credentials. I was being as verbose as possible though. When she said they had a media contact I asked for the name, number and email address (“Click” – 1 more to go – the long one though). My keen ability to read people (or maybe the irate tone to her voice) told me she was getting frustrated by this point. Knowing I only needed about 25 more seconds, in desperation I asked if she could explain why you weren’t allowed to have a tripod where I was standing. I’d hoped she would give a long answer but to my dismay I received a simple “Because we said so”. I said OK and took my finger off the shutter (the shutter was already open and it was the last shot). I bent down to pick up my bag (making sure I didn’t touch the tripod). I zipped it closed, opened and closed a pouch on the bag a few times. Right at this point another guard approached and said “Sir, we really need you to move out of here now”. Click!. I said “Sure thing!” and being the ever-so-obedient photographer I am, picked up my tripod and walked away.

The Moral of the Story
Ya know, I don’t know what the moral of the story is. I guess I kind of felt like I beat the tripod police for once. I totally understand the need to keep the walkways clear for safety reasons but there wasn’t anyone there for me to pose a safety concern to at this point. So I’m OK with my choice. All in all, I got the shot I came for, didn’t get arrested and didn’t hurt anyone along the way.

What would you have done? Thanks!

Presets – Lightroom iPad Export Settings

I was loading some photos on my iPad this past weekend, and it led me down the path of figuring out what the best Lightroom photo export settings are for it. After working with various settings for a while (and after taking the kids to see the Karate Kid movie) I realized a few things.
1) I got better results from saving images to exactly the size of the iPad’s screen rather than letting iPhoto or the iPad resize them. For example, I had sent an email to myself with the photo you see below. It was a hi-res version of the photo and when I saved it to the iPad it looked really bad on screen.
2) The new Karate Kid movie is nearly the same as the original one (still pretty good though and the kids liked it)
3) The iPad won’t automatically zoom an image to fit the screen. It’ll put a black box around the edges if the photo’s aspect ratio isn’t the same as the iPad’s screen size.

So I created two presets. One that preserves the photo’s original aspect ratio (iPad will automatically add a black box around edges) and one that fits the photo to the full iPad screen (by automatically doing a center-based crop in Lightroom when it exports).

Here’s an example of the difference between the two (click to see it larger):

These are a little different to install than your usual Develop presets:

1) Unzip the preset zip file on to your desktop
2) Go to the File > Export menu to open the Export dialog (NOTE: THESE ARE NOT DEVELOP PRESETS SO DON’T INSTALL THEM THERE!)
3) Go to the Presets panel on the left. Right click on the words User Presets 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 presets.

Lightroom Worth-a-click

Hope you’re having a great Thursday. Here’s a few Lightroom-related links to check out while you’re surfing around today:

• Timothy Armes released a new Lightroom Plug-in called Keyboard Tamer which allows you to redefine most of Lightroom’s keyboard shortcuts (Sweet!!!).

• Jeffrey Friedl has a brand new Lightroom plug-in to help protect you from accidentally deleting your photos.

• Scott Kelby is taking the Lightroom 3 Live! Tour to Ft. Lauderdale on July 12th so be sure to snag a spot soon before it fills up. We’ll also be taking the same tour to LA, New York, San Francisco and Boston in July so make sure you check out KelbyTrainingLive.com for more info.

• The Turning Gate (makers of way cool Lightroom web galleries) has a new slideshow feature in their Lightroom Pages 3.7 gallery.

• For all of you HDR lovers out there, here’s some interesting news about Canon’s patent for in-camera HDR

Have a great day!

Presets – Lightroom 3 Edge Darkening

A while back I released the edge darkening presets that I use in Lightroom. I used to use the vignetting setting and then Lightroom 2 came out and I started to use the Post-crop settings. I wasn’t really happy with them though since the edges just looked kinda “blah”. Now with Lightroom 3 we get the best of both works. We get that burned in edge darkening effect that vignetting gave us but the advantage of using the effect on cropped images.

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

Here’s an example of all 4 of them (click to see it larger):

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.

Lightroom Pro Q&A with Terry White

Hi everyone. Here’s another in a series of mini-interviews with some of the Lightroom pros out there where they’ve answered a short series of questions about how they use and feel about Lightroom:

Today’s Guest: The one and only… Terry White

Bio/Intro: Terry White – Worldwide Design Evangelist for Adobe Systems, Inc. Terry has been with Adobe for over a decade and has extensive knowledge of Adobe’s Creative Professional product line. In his current position, he leads the charge of getting customers excited and educated about Adobe’s Creative Suite Design Premium products. Terry is an Adobe Certified Expert and Creative Suite Master. He has been active in the industry for over 20 years and is the founder and president of MacGroup-Detroit, “ Michigan’s largest Macintosh users group and is a columnist for Layers Magazine and X-Ology Magazine. Terry is the host of the top ranked award winning Adobe Creative Suite Video Podcast. He is also the author of Secrets of the Adobe Bridge and co-author of The iPhone Book, The iPhone Book 2nd Edition, The iPhone Book 3rd Edition and InDesign CS/CS2 Killer Tips.

Q. How many presets do you have in the Develop module?

A. 22 of my own custom ones.

Q. What’s your favorite panel besides the Basic panel ( Sorry the basic panel is too much of a gimmee)?

A. The Detail Panel.

Q. What panel/slider/feature do you use the least?

A. HSL

Q. Do you keyword (All the time/Sometimes/Never)

A. All the time (ok most of the time)

Q. Do you use Collections (All the time/Sometimes/Never)

A. All the time – Collections are my life.

Q. Favorite Lightroom Plug-in?

A. TTG Highslide Gallery 1.1

Q. If you could add one feature to Lightroom what would it be?

A. Wow! That’s a tough one, but believe it or not the thing I’d probably use the most is a Facebook Publish Service for LR3.

Terry White
www.terrywhite.com

Video – Target Collection Coolness

OK, if you’re into using Collections then I’ve got a really cool tip for you this week. They’re called target collections and they work in Lightroom 2 and Lightroom 3. It’s a different (and more convenient) way to add photos to a collection that you’ve already created. In fact, it actually makes a keyboard shortcut available to you for adding photos into a selected collection instead of making you drag and drop.

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

HD version. [Right-click and choose the "Save As" option]

Getting Your Beta Catalog Into Lightroom 3

Since Lightroom 3 was announced last week, I’ve seen a bunch of questions around how to get the work you’ve done in the Lightroom 3 Beta into the full version of Lightroom 3. So here’s a quick tutorial:

Step 1: Open Lightroom 3 (the new full version, not the beta). If you’ve upgraded a Lightroom 2 catalog then great. If not, you can also start from a fresh new catalog if you’d like.

Step 2: Now go to File > Import From Catalog. Navigate to where your Lightroom 3 Beta catalog was stored and choose the .LRCAT file.

Step 3: Lightroom will think for a couple of minutes and compare everything from your beta catalog to what exists in the new Lightroom 3 catalog (if anything). When it’s done, it’ll show you a dialog similar to the one below which lists all of the folders and contents of the beta catalog.

Step 4: The best options here are to leave the defaults. Under File Handling, choose Add the new photos without moving them and click Import. After a few minutes your new Lightroom 3 catalog will look just like your beta catalog did with all of the changes you’d made to your photos.

Hopefully this clears up a few things for you if you’re making the switch from the beta to the full version. Thanks!

Q&A – Lightroom 3

There were a bunch of questions the other day when Lightroom 3 was announced. So I figured I’d dedicate a Q&A day to ‘em:

Q. If I upgrade to Lightroom 3, do I also need to upgrade Photoshop to CS5 to be able to use Lightroom and Photoshop together? (I have Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4 Extended now)
A. Nope. Lightroom 3 will work just fine with CS4 (or CS3 or CS2 or Elements for that matter).

Q. Where can I get some awesome Lightroom 3 training?
A. Great question! No one really asked this but it’s a good way for me to plug a few things. First, Scott Kelby and I will be taking the Lightroom 3 Live tour to a bunch of places in July. You can find out where at KelbyTrainingLive.com. I’ve also got a 3 part course called Lightroom 3 In Depth that goes over everything about Lightroom (Part 1: Import, Part 2: Develop and Edit, Part 3: Showing Off Your Photos). You can find that over at Kelby Training’s website. There’s also the Lightroom 3 Power Session there in case you just want to see the new features in version 3 and how to use them.

Q. Do NAPP members get a discount on LR3?
A. Yes and no. NAPP members get a discount on Adobe software so yes you get a discount but it’s not specifically on Lightroom – it’s everything. Just go to photoshopuser.com/members

Q. Matt, will you just cover LR 3 now (on the blog, seminars, Photoshop World) or will you still cover LR 2?
A. For most purposes it shouldn’t make a difference. While LR3 is a good upgrade, it’s not a game changer. Noise reduction is great but if you’ve followed my training before you’ll know I don’t spend a lot of time training on removing noise. Tethered, slideshows, printing may all have new features but they’re not new to our workflow. So I’ll be assuming you have LR 3 but it shouldn’t impact the overall training that much. Note: I do have some cool presets that I’ll be working on, specifically with the print module in version 3 and a few other things.

Q. Can Lightroom 3 be used to softproof? Naturally, a program made for serious photographers would, but there seems to be a bug in mine in which it doesn’t. How do I softproof?
A. Don’t you just love it when people ask questions they already know the answer to? Anyway, Lightroom 3 doesn’t have a softproofing feature. Photoshop does but I never use it so I guess I’m not a “serious” photographer. My prints look great though! “Naturally” of course

Q. Do I need to keep Lightroom 2 on my computer after I install Lightroom 3?
A. Nope. You can safely remove LR 2 when you’ve installed 3.

Q. Do my plug-ins work with Lightroom 3 (for example, Nik’s Silver Efex Pro or Viveza)?
A. Sure. Your plug-ins should work just fine.

Q. Will my presets from Lightroom 2 work with Lightroom 3?
A. Sure thing. In fact, they should all show up in LR 3 just where they were in 2.

Q. Any advice on how best to upgrade my Lightroom 2 catalog and my Lightroom 3 beta into one?
A. Yes. First get your Lightroom 2 catalog to Lightroom 3. It should upgrade automatically when you install and launch LR 3. Then open Lightroom 3 beta. Go to File > Export as catalog and export the catalog. Then go to LR 3 and go to File > Import from Catalog and import the old beta catalog into your newly upgraded catalog in LR 3.

Q. Thanks for the videos at NAPP – nice quick summaries…. if they’d quit releasing new software all the time I could afford to be a member of NAPP.
A. I know, it’s not really a question but I thought it would be interesting to point out that Lightroom 2 came out in July 2008 – that’s about two years ago. That’s ancient in the software world.

Q. Is there a way to export custom print templates in the Print module as a JPEG?
A. Yup. Go to the Print module and scroll all the way down on the right side to the Print Job panel. Change the Print To setting to “JPEG File”.

Q. I liked that the Import/Back Up feature automatically created a folder with the date of import. But LR 3 doesn’t do that any more. Do you know, if you can turn this feature on again?
A. Quick answer… no

Thanks for all the questions. I hope this helped a little. Have a great weekend!

Lightroom 3 is Alive!

Yup, Lightroom 3 is officially out. I can now stop asking you (in my blog posts) to stop asking me when Lightroom 3 is shipping

Anyway, Scott Kelby and I did a bunch of videos over at NAPP’s Lightroom 3 Learning Center. You can watch the videos as well as see our top 5 favorite features right here. So instead of running down the feature list here, I’ll give you a few Lightroom 3 tips that may sneak by if you’re not paying attention.

1. Check out the presets panel in the Develop module (you know I love presets). There’s some new ones in there and I’m extremely honored that they’ve included a few of mine as well

2. When using the Tethered Shooting feature don’t forget to turn on the Auto Advance Selection option (File > Tethered Capture > Auto Advance Selection. It’s a must have since you generally want to see the photos as you capture them

3. You can now optimize your catalog right from the File menu. Just choose File > Optimize Catalog.

4. When you’re in the Import Dialog your Destination area on the far right side will show your new destination of your photos in italics (see image below). That way you’ll know exactly where your photos will end up.

5. When using the Graduated Filter or the Adjustment Brush, look directly below and to the left of the photo in that little dark gray strip. You’ll see an option called Show Edit Pins. You can choose to automatically display those little pins or turn them off altogether if they’re getting in the way of you looking at your photo. You used to be able to do this in Lightroom 2 but you had to know the secret handshake/keyboard shortcut.

6. I use this one a lot actually, so make a note of it. Again, when using the Adjustment Brush or Graduated Filter you’ll sometimes change a bunch of settings (Exposure, Saturation, Clarity, Sharpness, etc…). Well it’s always been a pain to reset them back to 0 so you could make another change using different settings. Now just press the Option (PC: Alt) key and you’ll see a little reset option appear (circled in the image below). Just click that and all settings will return to 0.

Thanks for stopping by folks. Enjoy.

Lightroom Pro Q&A with Chris Orwig

Hi everyone. Here’s another in a series of mini-interviews with some of the Lightroom pros out there where they’ve answered a short series of questions about how they use and feel about Lightroom:

Today’s Guest: My good buddy Chris Orwig.

Bio/Intro: Chris Orwig is a celebrated photographer, author, and is on the photography faculty at the Brooks Institute in Santa Barbara, CA. Chris brings his unique perspective, creativity and passion to all that he does. As a photographer, he subscribes to Marc Riboud’s observation that “Photography is about savoring life at 1/100th of a second.” Find inspiration and see his work at chrisorwig.com, his blog at chrisorwig.com/flipside or learn about his most recent book at visual-poet.com.

Q. How many presets do you have in the Develop module?

A. One of the biggest challenges in digital post-production isn’t tools and techniques, it’s style, voice and vision. When it comes to presets, I know a number of really successful photographers who aggressively use presets to refine, develop and communicate their style. In contrast, in my own workflow I tend to be a bit more of a minimalist when it comes to presets. I only have a few custom presets and many times these help me to not only speed up my workflow but to think more creatively about how I might process a photograph. In sum, when it comes to presets, I’ve found that having a more condensed list of presets has been more helpful than having hundreds and hundreds of options. Otherwise I just end up “channel surfing” all the presets searching for the perfect look. That being said, we’re all different. Most importantly, in your own workflow, experiment with presets and seek to determine a system that works best for you.

Q. What’s your favorite panel besides the Basic panel ( Sorry the basic panel is too much of a gimmee)?

A. Like most Lightroom users, I spend the majority of my time in the Library and Develop module. And the bulk of that time is spent in the Basic panel. After that comes work with the Black and White and Detail Panels. If I had to pick my favorite panel (besides Basic) I’d have to say it is the panel that isn’t included. I’m glad that Lightroom, even in its most recent release, hasn’t been bogged down with an excess of features. It is simple and strong.

Q. What panel/slider/feature do you use the least?

A. It used to be the Camera Calibration panel in the Basic module and the Slideshow module. Yet, now this is completely changing. With the release of Xrite’s Color Passport and the ability to create a camera profile, I now use the Camera Calibration panel all the time. And I mean that. If you haven’t checked out this new color tool, you’ll want to at least google it to learn more. In regards to Slideshow module, I now use that because Lightroom 3 finally has the ability to export a slideshow to video. It’s incredible to be able to create a different narrative by combining design, image order and audio. Being able to share these shows is a tone of fun.

Q. Do you keyword (All the time/Sometimes/Never)

A. In my own context (commercial photo shoots, personal projects, writing and teaching), I keyword when I need to. In certain situations, I don’t keyword at all. Maybe even more importantly, I’ve found it effective to have my studio manager, digital techs or assistants take on the task of adding keywords. Having someone else add keywords has been working out really well and is definitely something you might want to consider.

Q. Do you use Collections (All the time/Sometimes/Never)

A. I agree with one of my students who is fond of saying, “Collections are cool.” In fact, they are a foundation to everything that I do in Lightroom. I use them for many purposes: organization, speed, creativity, client communication, etc. If you’re not using Collections, perhaps its time to catch this wave. It will give your workflow a boost and buoyancy which will help you to become more effective and creative.

Q. Favorite Lightroom Plug-in?

A. My favorite plug-ins are created by the folks at onOne Software and Nik Software. I use many of both company’s plugins on a regular basis. It’s hard to pick a favorite… so how about if I list a few of my favorites, here goes: Nik Color Effects Pro, onOne Focal Point and onOne Photo Frame. That being said, I like to work with plugins in non-traditional ways. In other words, I rarely use a plug-in as a way to finish a photograph. Rather, I use a filter almost like a cook uses spices or seasoning when creating a meal. The spice or seasoning is used in subtle ways to bring out flavor. I think of using them to add just a bit of style so that it doesn’t over-power the image.

Q. If you could add one feature to Lightroom what would it be?

A. More accurate masking with the Adjustment Brush. That being said, the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom is good. Yet, I look forward to the day when we can “paint” in adjustments with even more accuracy and speed.

Chris Orwig
www.chrisorwig.com