Free Live Webcast Today / Photoshop Compositing Book Update

Hey there! Don’t forget that I’ll be hosting a free live webcast today at 4pm EST. to celebrate the release of my Photoshop Compositing Secrets book. Scott Kelby will also be on hand to help field your questions to me, and of course I’ll be doing some demos and sneak-peaks from the book. You can sign up and watch right here.

Also, in other book related news:
• The book is still sold out on Amazon.com. It says shipping in 1-3 “months”, but I sure hope that’s a misprint
• You can still buy it here at Barnes and Noble.
• I’m still signing all of the copies if you buy them at Kelby Training’s website here.
• And of course it’s always available digitally (not PDF) on the Kindle, Nook, and iBooks.

Here’s a few people I paid to write nice things about the book… Totally just kidding But, here’s a few reviews in case you’re still on the fence:
• Terry White wrote about it on his tech blog with some examples
• Glyn Dewis wrote an in-depth review here.
• Douglas Sonders wrote about the book here.
• Jeff Revell (Jrev!) posted a review on his blog.
• William Beem wrote specifically about the iBook version (and why he likes it better) on his blog.

Lightroom Presets – Sin City Look

Hey there! I hope everyone had a good hurricane-free weekend. My sympathies go out to anyone along the east coast that was affected by Irene.

Before we get to the presets, don’t forget that I’m doing a free (LIVE) webcast tomorrow to celebrate the release of my Photoshop Compositing Secrets book. Scott Kelby is co-hosting it with me. I’ll spend about an hour going over various techniques and concepts behind compositing and some sneak peaks into the book. It’s totally free and you can sign up here.
(BTW… We’re not giving away free copies of the book, but I’m sure that we’ll have some cool bundles with the book if you purchase a NAPP membership or a DVD bundle so stay tuned)

OK, on to the presets. This week I’ve got another batch for you that comes from updated-preset vault. My original Sin City presets were really popular so I’ve gone and updated them for Lightroom 3 (about time eh?). The main idea behind the Sin City look is pretty much a desaturated high contrast photo with some red saturation left in. The preset is mostly a desaturating effect. But it also leaves certain colors saturated (reds and oranges). The idea behind this is that you’ve got to have something in your photo that has those colors in it. Even if it’s just a photo of people though, it should work since the skin tones will fall in those saturated colors. Also, there’s two flavors to this preset – a light red one and a dark red one so it changes how bright the reds appear.

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s Sin City Presets

To install:
1) Unzip the preset zip file on to your desktop. Then double click the .LRTEMPLATE file to install
OR
1) Unzip the preset zip file on to your desktop
2) Go to the Develop module. NOTE: YOU MUST BE IN 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

Big News – We’ve Launched a Lighting Magazine!

Hey everybody. Big news! Today we’re officially launching a brand new magazine, totally dedicated to lighting – it’s called “Light It Magazine“. Scott and I are co-editors of the magazine and we’ve wrangled some of the top lighting wizards and up-and-coming talent that’s out there. It’s a digital magazine and just on the iPad right now. The first issue is totally free and I’ve gotta tell ya, it’s beautiful! Seriously, the images are huge, our design team did an amazing job with the layout, and it’s going to blow you away when you see it. Head on over to download (for free) the first issue. Also, don’t forget to stop by Scott’s blog and watch the video.

Lightroom Video – Everything I Know About the Adjustment Brush

I’ve been wanting to do a series of videos called “Everything I know about…” for certain tools in Lightroom 3. I figured I’d start with the Adjustment Brush tool since it’s got a ton of tiny little keyboard shortcuts that go along with it that you’d never normally find without know the secret ancient handshake Have a great day, and I hope you enjoy!

Lightroom Video – Before/After Composite

This week it’s time for another Before/After video. They always seem to be the most popular so I figured I’d throw a twist in, and show you how I’d start a composite in Lightroom and bring it over to Photoshop. In fact, this is probably the way most of my composites start, since I shoot tethered to Lightroom most of the time. And, as luck would have it, my Photoshop Compositing Secrets book just came out. So this video just happens to be curiously timed with it’s release Seriously though, if you’re interested in compositing I hope you’ll check out the book at one of the links below:

• You can watch the full video promo of the book here. It really describes what the book is all about.
• You can order a signed copy of the book from KelbyTraining’s website here.
• Here’s the link to buy the Kindle, iPad, or paperback version from Amazon.
• Here’s the link to Barnes & Noble.

Hope you enjoy! Let me know what you think.

Lightroom Presets: Insta-Lightroom Nashville-like Effect

Every time I turn around, I see photos from the Instagram app that have that old vintage look to them. It’s kinda funny, because it can throw up a photo of someone’s shoes, but it always seems to look good when it has a old-vintage style with a really strong vignette added to it

Anyway, here’s a free preset that mimics the style. I added a little more green to mine for the super-vintage feel to it but I think you’ll have a good time with it. I even used a pair of shoes as one of the sample photos below Let me know what you think. Thanks!

Here’s a couple of samples. (click to see it larger)

(note: images courtesy of Fotolia.com)

• Click here to download the preset.

To install:
1) Unzip the preset zip file on to your desktop. Then double click the .LRTEMPLATE file to install
OR
1) Unzip the preset zip file on to your desktop
2) Go to the Develop module. NOTE: YOU MUST BE IN 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