News: Lightroom 4 Is On the Mac Store

Adobe’s Lightroom Product Manager, Tom Hogarty, announced that Lightroom is now available on the Apple Mac Store (for North America only). I think overall it’s a good move for Lightroom. For new Lightroom users out there who are on the Mac store and may never have otherwise heard of Lightroom, this is just another way to get it into their hands. However, there area few, caveats, shall we say

1) It’s for Mac only (duh!). This probably doesn’t seem bad if you only own Macs. However, I can tell you from being on the road teaching Lightroom over the last few weeks, there’s LOTS of people out there that have both a Windows and Mac machine. The boxed version and download version of Lightroom can be installed on both Mac and PC.

2) Updates will take place through the Mac store. From personal experience of being the managing editor of a digital magazine (Light It magazine) that’s delivered through the Mac App Store, that (sometimes) approvals can be a pain in the neck. So, when Adobe feels an update is ready they’ll release it. That doesn’t mean it’ll be immediately available on the App store though, as it may take a few days.

3) There’s no upgrade pricing. So basically, if you have LR1, 2 or 3, you can can’t get the upgrade price to 4 (only $79) on the App store. Instead, you’ll pay $149. And there’s no guarantee that when 5 comes out, and you bought LR4 on the App store, that you’d be able to upgrade as well.

My Take: I kinda wonder if I’m alone in doing what I do. But, I have a Mac and when I see software I want to buy that’s on the App store, the first thing I do is go to the software makers website to see if I can buy it direct from them. For me at least, I prefer to buy a copy of the software straight from them. I may be crazy, paranoid, whatever… but that’s just the way I do it. That said, if I can’t buy it directly from the developer, then I have no problem buying something through the App store. It’s just not my first choice. And remember, Adobe’s just trying to create another channel for which to buy Lightroom (if you owned a product you’d make sure you’d get it out there in as many stores as you could right?). They can’t control the App store policies when it comes to upgrades and updates. Anyway, just thought I’d let you guys know what the deal is. Hope you have a great weekend.

Lightroom News and Stuff

• A new date was just added to my Lightroom 4 Live tour. We’ll be in Lansing MI on June 12th. It also looks like we’ll be in Washing DC that same week and probably San Francisco the week after but I’ll keep you posted.
• Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate 2 is on the Adobe Labs website. If you had any problems with Lightroom 4, it’s definitely worth downloading.

Lightroom Product Manager, Tom Hogarty, has a great write up about some of the new Color Fringe Correction features in Lightroom 4

• Moose Peterson’s BT Journal is now available on the iPad.
• Don’t forget about the Student Discount for the Google Plus Photographers Conference. It’s just $99 for students with the code… wait for it… GPLUSSTUD. Gotta love that promo code huh?
• I’ve been getting a TON of questions on the difference between Photoshop (and Bridge) and Lightroom. If you’re still wondering if Lightroom is for you then check out the videos that Scott and I did called 100 Ways that Lightroom Kick’s The Bridge’s Ass for Photographers.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Join Me for a Free Photoshop CS6 for Photographers Webcast Today

First off, I wanted to say thanks to everyone who came out to my Lightroom 4 Live seminar in Minneapolis yesterday. There were almost 350 photographers there. We had a great crowd, lots of laughs and everyone I spoke to seemed to learn a lot throughout the day (in spite of my poor drinking habits – sorry inside joke… you had to be there – and no, it has nothing to do with alcohol)
If you’re in LA or Chicago, you can still sign up for seminars this week (Thursday in LA and Monday in Chicago).

In other news, Adobe officially announced CS6 yesterday. In celebration of the announcement, the Photoshop Guys over at NAPP are doing some free live webcasts called 6 Days of CS6. It started yesterday and continues throughout the week (schedule is below). I’ll be on today with a free webcast that goes over Photoshop CS6′s new features for photographers. I’m traveling the rest of the week doing more Lightroom seminars, but you can catch the guys doing webcasts all week. Here’s the schedule and I hope you’ll be able to join us.

10 Reasons to Go to the Google+ Photographers Conference

I’ll be teaching at the Google+ Photographers Conference next Month in San Francisco. It’s definitely going to be an event that’s the first of it’s kind and I hope you’ll be able to join me (along with lots of other great instructors) there. In case you’re not sure what it’s all about, here’s 10 Reasons why I think you should go.

1. Live Shooting Lounge: You’ll be able to put your newly acquired photography and lighting skills to the test at our Live Shooting Lounge. In this perfectly lit space, you’ll have the opportunity to shoot a variety of themed scenes featuring live models.

2. Photowalks: Get out there with your camera. That’s one of the main attractions to this conference… you’re supposed to bring your camera. There’s a bunch of smaller more intimate photowalks with the instructors so you can get some small group learning time with them as well as the new people you’ll meet there.

3. One-on-one portfolio reviews: There’s no better way to improve your photography then getting your work reviewed by a pro. It’s one of the things that’s helped me the most in my career and I think you’ll find it one of the most valuable experiences out there.

4. Google will be there: Who better to learn about the ins and outs of getting seen and heard on Google+, than Google themselves. Bradley Horowitz, Mike Wiacek, and Brian Rose (some top names from Google) will all be there and I’m sure we’ll see plenty of other Google folks make an appearance too.

5. Google is poised to become the social network of the future. I attended WPPI this past February and all you heard the photographers talk about was leveraging social media for your photography. Well, if you’re looking to stay ahead of the curve, then G+ is the best place.

6. Photoshoots Galor!: This place is built for shooting. Bring your camera. Trust me, they’ll make sure you have something to shoot.

7. Guy Kawasaki will be there: This is the person that literally wrote the book on G+ and plenty of other best-selling books. Personally, I’m really excited about meeting him.

8. Learn from some of the hottest photographers out there: One of the things I’m happiest about is the line-up of photographers I’ll be teaching with. Scott Kelby, Trey Ratcliff, Jeremy Cowart, Alex Koloskov,
Catherine Hall, Peter Hurley, RC Concepcion, Brian Matiash, Erik Valind, Lindsay Adler, and Colby Brown. That’s one killer list of talent all in one place.

9. Panel Discussions: I love classes where the attendees get involved. There’s panel sessions throughout the two days, and they’re the perfect place for that. Not only do you get to see several instructors get together to share their thoughts, but panels typically turn into a two-way street – where the class asks questions and gets to hear the views from several people at once.

10. There’s nothing like being there – I know it’s going to be broadcast on the internet. But there’s a reason that many conferences, seminars and shows are posting some of their biggest numbers ever. It’s because people still like to get out and interact. There’s a networking and level of learning that you get from being there that you simply don’t get when you watch something online.

And if you can’t actually make it to the conference, there’s going to be plenty of live streaming classes and events from it so stay tuned over at gpluspc.com. I hope to see you there.

Lightroom Tip and Seminar Contest Winners

Happy Friday everyone. I’m in Portland, Oregon right now getting ready to head up to Seattle. I’ll probably be shooting at Olympic National Park this weekend so if you’ve got any great photo spots, I’d sure appreciate it. Anyway, I figured I’d close up the week with a tip as well as post the winners who got a free ticket to my Kelby Training Lightroom 4 Live seminar later this month.

Okay, first… the tip. This one is for spot removal and making it more efficient in Lightroom. Instead of zooming in and dragging your cursor around looking for spots in your photo, you can help Lightroom search section by section to make sure you don’t miss any areas. First, zoom in to your photo to 100%. Then go to the Navigator panel (top left of Lightroom) and place the square in the top left of your photo (like you see below).

Now…ready for the cool part? Just press your page-down key. Lightroom will automatically move your little zoomed-in square to the next section below so you can check that area for spots. Press it again and it keeps going down. When it hits the bottom of the photo it’ll automatically shoot right up to the top of the next section of your photo and keep going. You gotta give it a try to see it in action but it works great.

Next, the winners for my Lightroom 4 Seminar. Don’t forget that if you didn’t win, you can still go Here’s the link on the Kelby Training Live website to find out more about the dates and outline for the day.

• Minneapolis: Gregg Jaehning
• Los Angeles: Jerry W.
Ronda Morris, you almost won but you called me Scott (just kidding, that didn’t keep you from winning – I just got a kick out of it)
• Chicago: Philip Merritt
• Lansing: Rich Wyllis

Win a Free Ticket to the Lightroom 4 Live Seminar!

This month, I’m kicking off my Lightroom 4 Live seminar tour from Kelby Training. First I head to Minneapolis, then on to Los Angeles, Chicago, and Lansing, Michigan. If you’ve been wanting to finally figure out how to work Lightroom into your photography this is a fantastic chance to come out and learn it from the ground up. I actually just got done (today as a matter of fact) updating the workbook for the event (yes, you get a workbook with everything so you don’t have to scribble notes the whole day). It gave me the chance to go through and tweak/add all those little things that I found gave people trouble the last time I taught the seminar. Plus I added all of the new stuff for Lightroom 4 (like the new Books module and all the new Develop module sliders).

Okay, now that I’ve got all the promotional tour pimping out of the way, I wanted to give you a chance to win a free ticket to the seminar. So here’s the deal. Leave a comment with the city you’d like to attend the seminar in (here’s the dates of all the seminar stops) and I’ll pick 1 winner for each city later today.

• Minneapolis: Monday April 23rd
• Los Angeles: Thursday April 26th
• Chicago: Monday April 30th
• Lansing, MI: Monday May 21st

Here’s the link to find out more about the entire day and sign up. Good luck and I hope to see you there! Oh and as always… if you are attending make sure you come up and say hi. I always love to hear from friends of the blog

Lightroom 4.1 Release Candidate is Up on Adobe Labs

I’ve heard from a few people having issues with Lightroom 4 so I figured I’d let you know that Adobe has a Release Candidate up on the Adobe Labs website. Here’s a link to the page that talks about fixes in the release candidate. Some of the fixes include:

• Lightroom 4 did not properly open external applications when using the “Edit In” functionality.
• Point Curve adjustments made in Lightroom 3 have been restored.
• Addressed performance issues in Lightroom 4, particularly when loading GPS track logs, using a secondary monitor, and the controls within the Develop module.

Keep in mind this is a release candidate, so it’s kinda like a step above beta. But if you’ve been having these issues, it’s probably worth installing. Oh, one more thing. You can’t install this along side Lightroom 4 – it’ll actually replace Lightroom 4. Again, here’s a link to tells you all about it. And here’s the link if you want to download from the Adobe Labs website.

My Favorites From Photoshop World Washington DC

This was one of the most fun, most inspirational, most friendly Photoshop World’s I’ve been to. I’m not sure if it was because the location was new which meant more people (and new people) could come, or because of the great weather that the northeast has been having, but Photoshop World DC was a blast. So much so that I felt I had to write a Top 10 Favorites List just to thank a few people and, well, I don’t know. I just felt like I had to write it. So here goes:

Favorite Photo: This one. It was take about 1 second before Moose dropped me!

Favorite Quote From Photoshop World: “Be a person who is a brand. Don’t be a brand.” – @MikeWiacek. Mike joined us on a Google+ For Photographers panel and I have to say that he killed it. He had such great insight on using Google+ for photographers and, although I know he was really busy, I’m incredibly thankful he joined our panel. Thanks Mike!

Favorite Portfolio Review: I reviewed a bunch of portfolios this time (way more than usual), and one that stands out was from Timothy Brooks. He’s in high school and the first photo that’s in his portfolio (and on his home page) just made me go “Wow!”. This kid is gonna go places. He had a great head on his shoulders and tons of talent and drive to go along with it.

Favorite Meal at Photoshop World: The instructor intro-kick-off party at Famous Luigis Italian Restaurant. Mmmmmmm… The Rigatoni was awesome!

Favorite new friend: My buddy John Lauritsen, who brought me two bags of Swedish Fish and Luis Morales who gave me some red Swedish Fish attached to his card (apparently I have a case of SFED… Swedish Fish eating disorder).

Favorite Class from New Instructor: Glyn Dewis’s class at the Kelby Training theater

Favorite Late Night Event: There’s a tie. I had a blast at the Photoshop World After Hours party at Ibiza night club. Everyone who stayed around after with us had even more fun (and no Rob Gordon I didn’t leave you). But I also had a blast on our post-Midnight Madness Burger Run. Even though it turned out to be pizza instead (that’s a long story you can read about here), it was great! Make sure you read how I was almost shanked!

Favorite Just-Hangin-Around-Moment of Photoshop World: It’s hard to pick just one, but I absolutely had a great time chatting on pre-conference day with RC Concepcion, Jeremy Cowart, Greg Heisler, Cliff Mautner, and Brad Moore about the photography industry, social media and whatever else came up. Just getting to talk to people are one of the very reasons I still love going to conferences.

Favorite Expo Floor Setup: Of course, Westcott wins again with their shooting bays, but Adobe rocked with a live hands-on Lightroom lab right next to it. I even got to help an attendee’s (Brad Balfour) son with his photos and he actually won a prize. So cool!

Favorite Costume at Photoshop World: Without a doubt, Russell Brown from Adobe as Abe Lincoln (here’s the photo).

And My Least Favorite Moment of Photoshop World: When I went on a photo shoot and brought everything but my camera. You can read about it here

Adobe’s Lightroom Lab at Photoshop World

Just figured I’d let you know (if you’re at Photoshop World) that Adobe actually has 2 booths on the expo floor (Booth #455) at Photoshop World. I’ll be at the 2nd booth around 3:30 on Sunday for a while too. The 2nd booth is next to Westcott’s “Shootout Bays”. The idea is that you shoot some photos of the live models (lit with Westcott’s lights) which is an awesome experience in itself because of the creative sets that Westcott produces. Then take your images right next door to Adobe’s lab, upload them to Lightroom 4 and play until your heart’s content. You’ll even be able to submit your favorite photo to Adobe and they’ll pick 3 winners who get a copy of Lightroom 4 and one grand prize winner who will get CS6 Design Premium when it ships. Sweet!!

Photoshop CS6 Beta is Here!

You’ve probably seen some sneak peaks over the last few months, but now it’s official. Photoshop CS6 Beta was just announced. Adobe’s been releasing public beta’s for a few versions of Photoshop now. It gives people the chance to test it out before it’s ready for prime time. Lightroom spoiled me for the dark interface. Up until now, every time I go to Photoshop I feel like I’m stepping back in time – to me, the dark interface seems sleeker and more future oriented (plus, my photos just look better against a dark interface). I’ve been working with CS6 Beta for a while and I’m already hooked on the new interface. It feels weird to go back to CS5 at this point. But of course, there’s lots more. Scott Kelby and I did a quick intro video (click the thumbnail here). But we also have the NAPP Photoshop CS6 Beta Launch Site right here. It’s got plenty of video tutorials, tips, FAQs, and even an interview with the Photoshop Product Manager. The CS6 Beta is free to download and you can grab it from the Adobe Labs website.