Lightroom News – Lightroom 3.6 (and ACR 5.6) Are Out

Some of you may have missed the news in all of the hustle and bustle of the holidays, but Adobe released Lightroom 3.6. There’s some new overall camera support as well as some new lens profiles too. There’s also some minor bug fixes. The best thing to do is check out Tom Hogarty’s blog for the full write-up. And of course, you can download the update over at Adobe’s website or simply just go to Help > Check for Updates after you launch Lightroom. Have a good one!

Lightroom Video – Creating Calendars in the Print Module

Hey everyone! I hope you’ve enjoyed the Lightroom Holiday template ideas that I’ve shared this week so far (and if you did, please share via Facebook, Twitter, Google+, etc…). Sadly, today’s the last day, but I’m sure I’ll be covering other ideas next year as I come up with them. I did save one of my favorites for last though – creating calendars in the Print module. It’s really simple to do and looks great for the new year. You can create one calendar each month or you can create a whole year’s worth so it’s pretty flexible too. Here’s the link to the iStockphoto image(s) that I used, but as I showed you in the video, there’s a ton of other ideas out there as well.

Lightroom Video – More Holiday Graphics

Continuing on with the Lightroom template/tip-a-day theme this week, today’s video builds on what we did on Monday. We used the Watermark window to give our photo a frame. In that example, though, the holiday graphic was pretty much the dominant graphic in the image. This time, I’ve got a few ideas for you to keep the photo as the center of attention and just use smaller graphics around it. Also, in case you’re looking, here’s the link to the red bow image that I used as well as the one with the holiday bell ornaments and swirlys in it. Have a great Thursday everyone!

Animoto and NAPP – Get Two for the Price of One

Hey everyone. I just heard that NAPP and Animoto have a Two-for-the-price-of-one deal this week. Basically, if you sign up for an Animoto Pro account ($249), you get a $99 NAPP membership for free. If you haven’t tried Animoto yet then you at least need to give it a test run (it’s free). It’s an incredibly slick way to turn your photos, video clips and music into one killer video and they do all of the work for you. There’s really nothing else like it out there and people absolutely go crazy over these videos. And if you’re a Lightroom user, they’ve even got a plug-in that lets you preload Animoto video projects on Animoto.com directly from Lightroom. Just select the photos you want to use and press Export – the plug-in automatically resizes your images before exporting them to an Animoto project. So, if you’re an Animoto fan (or think you may become one) then this week is the week to do it (the special ends on Friday). Click here to sign up.

Lightroom Video – Holiday Slideshow Ideas

In keeping with my Lightroom template/tip a day for the holidays this week, I’ve got a video for you on how you can incorporate some holiday graphics into your slideshows. If you haven’t been following this week, I figured I’d do a video each day this week showcasing a way to use holiday graphics and templates inside Lightroom. Think of it as the 5 Days of Lightroom Christmas. Today’s tip involves using the Slideshow module and one of the things you can do to customize it so you’re backgrounds fit the occasion better. Also, in case you’re wondering, here’s the link to the iStockphoto.com image that I used in the tutorial. Hope you have fun with it!

Lightroom Video – Holiday Print Templates

As promised, here’s day 2 of Lightroom Holiday Template week. Keeping with the holiday spirit, I figured it’d be cool to do a video each day this week showcasing a way to use holiday graphics and templates inside Lightroom. Think of it as the 5 Days of Lightroom Christmas. Today I’ve got a really cool print template idea and it works perfect for holiday (or any theme really) photos. There’s a little bit of Photoshop work involved too, but if you watch the video through, you’ll see that you don’t really have to go through all that work (I’m just a glutton for punishment)
Oh yeah, here’s the link to the Fotolia.com image I used today. Have a great Tuesday!

Lightroom Video – Holiday Templates (The 5 Days of Lightroom Christmas!)

I’m in the holiday spirit so I thought I’d do a video each day this week showcasing a way to use holiday graphics and templates inside Lightroom. Think of it as the 5 Days of Lightroom Christmas. Today I’m kicking things off with a way to trick the Watermarking feature in Lightroom 3 to put graphics on top of your photos instead of just a watermark. Also, in case you’re wondering, here’s the link to the Fotolia.com image that I used in the tutorial. But seriously… the sky is the limit here. There’s literally hundreds if not thousands of images out there that you can use for this so explore a little on your own. Enjoy!

Lightroom Video – Skin Softening in Lightroom

Over the last couple of months I’ve taught a few Lightroom seminars around the country. One of the tips I show is using the Adjustment Brush for softening skin. It goes over amazing! People absolutely lose their minds over this one. Mainly because unless you know Lightroom really well, you’d never know there was a skin softening brush in it. Plus, people who like using Lightroom like staying in Lightroom and not going over to Photoshop. This is just one more way that helps you do that. Enjoy!

Lightroom and Retouching

Today’s post has two purposes: 1) To show you some retouching presets that I created a while back and, 2) to let you know I’m teaching a free live webcast tonight on retouching (part of NAPP’s Retouch Week). So… first. A while back I released some retouching presets for the Adjustment Brush. Since then, Adobe has also added some presets to the default list. So if you’ve got both, you’ve got a good bunch of presets for retouching. In fact, I was teaching my Lightroom seminar in Philly the other day and some one came up and asked if I’d show how to use the Adjustment Brush to whiten teeth. I showed him to just go to the Adjustment Brush, go to the Effect pull-down list and there’s a preset for it. Just brush on the teeth and you’re done. Now, I probably wouldn’t use Lightroom for heavy duty beauty retouching but for a quick retouch, it does a darn good job. However, if you’re still on the fence about how to retouch in Lightroom, then read on.

Next, I’m co-teaching a live webcast from 6-7pm tonight with Pete Collins on Retouching. It’s part of NAPP’s Free Retouch Week. One week of free retouching tips, tutorials, techniques, etc… from NAPP. You can watch the first time for free, but the replay will live on the NAPP site for NAPP members only. One of the things we’ll demo tonight is using Lightroom for some quick retouches (mainly for wedding and event photography). These lives webcasts are always a blast. We’ll take some live questions and overall people really seem to dig ‘em, so make sure you stop by and tune in if you’re around. Here’s the link. Have a great day!

500px Has a Lightroom Plug-in

It’s finally here! 500px.com released a Lightroom plug-in that let’s you publish your photos directly from Lightroom to their website. You can create and manage your portfolios right from within Lightroom as well as edit titles, descriptions, read/write comments and even see the photo statistics (views, favorites, ratings). Personally, I’ve been wanting to see this plug-in for a long time now and it makes a perfect addition to Lightroom 3′s Publish Services panel (it works for LR 2 as well but in a limited way).

Here’s the link to download. And if you’ve tried it out then leave a comment and let us know what you think. Have a great weekend everyone!