The post Why Lightroom is Hard For You appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>If Lightroom is hard for you, there may be a very simple, yet profound reason.
These days, most folks don’t seem to struggle with things like making their photos brighter or darker in Lightroom, or how to add more contrast or Clarity — those things are pretty straightforward now thanks to all the photo editing apps we use on our phones (including Lightroom). And yes, we can always get better at editing our images, but in my experience the area where people seem to struggle the most is organization. Hands down, this is where some people hit a wall and seem to be really stuck.
Take a look at your computer. Not in Lightroom — just on your computer itself. Are all your image files neatly organized? Is everything under one single folder; easy to find, easy to get to? Or, are your image files kind of all over the place. Some folders are out on your desktop, some are in your Pictures (or My Pictures) folder but some are in your documents folder, or other places on your hard drive, or some on are external hard drives that maybe aren’t’ currently connected to your computer? If that’s the case — your images aren’t reasonably well organized on your computer, chances are you’re struggling with getting organized within Lightroom, too.
While it is possible to have a messy hard drive structure, and have Lightroom bring order to it all, it’s fairly unlikely that’s the case. On the flip side; if you’re images themselves are organized in a decent manner on your computer, then the Lightroom part should be a breeze.
It’s you’re struggling with your Lightroom organization; start by getting your images organized on your computer first. Get your images all in folders, within one main folder (I would recommend your Pictures folder on Mac, or My Pictures on Windows — put ALL your folders of photos inside that one folder). When you move folders of images around on your computer like this — outside of Lightroom — Lightroom will immediately lose track of where the images in that folder are now located. So, click on the Question Mark icon that now appears on those folders inside Lightroom Classic’s Folder panel and just point Lightroom to where you moved them to, so now it will know where they are. This should be easy, because they should all be in the same place (in your Pictures or My Pictures folder).
Here’s what else I would do: I did a whole online class on a system of getting organized in Lightroom like this; starting with getting your images organized outside of Lightroom first. The method is used by thousands and thousands of photographers, and this system I created is even taught in colleges and universities around the world as well. It’s called my “Simplified Lightroom Image Management” System (or SLIM System for short) and it takes you though how I organize my own images. It’s really simple (henceforth the name), and I think it could really help you make sense of it all. Once all your images are organized, and backed up; your whole Lightroom life will be greatly improved, and you’ll sleep much better at night for it.
Here’s the link to my course (you can join for $10 bucks and watch it right now). Check out the official trailer for it (below):
You could be totally organized this weekend. Imagine what it would be like if could know exactly where all your images are located — inside and outside of Lightroom and you can find the images you want fast. Imagine being totally backed up, organized and efficient. It’s easier than you’d think will just a little help and guidance. If Lightroom is hard for you, I really believe this is the course that can change it all for you. I hope you give it a look this weekend.
Here’s wishing you an organized, fun, happy Lightroom weekend.
-Scott
P.S. Do you live near Seattle? Come out and spend the day with me next Wednesday. It’s 100% money-back guaranteed if it’s not the best photography seminar you’ve ever attended at any price, ever! Tickets here.
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]]>The post Adobe “Sneak Peeks” New “Direct Import” Feature for iPhone and iPads appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>I love when Adobe sneaks stuff like this! Thanks, Tom.
Have a great Thursday, everybody!
-Scott
P.S. I’m in Atlanta and Seattle next week with my new seminar – come out and spend the day with me. http://kelbyonelive.com
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]]>The post New Functionality to Export Develop Presets appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>To start, you’ll need to create a preset group (if you haven’t already). Guess what? That part got easier too! Here’s how:
Step 1: If you’ve created custom presets, but never created a preset group, then all of your custom presets will be in the User Presets group. Expand user Presets, and right-click the preset you want to move into a new group, then choose Move from the contextual menu.
Step 2: In the Move Preset dialog that appears, click the drop-down menu and choose New Group. Then enter a meaningful name for the new group name and click Ok.
Your new preset group is created and the preset you right-clicked on is moved into it. Easy-peasy. Move any other presets you intend to add to that group by right-clicking each preset in turn, and choosing your new group from the menu. Create any other new preset groups as desired.
Now that you have a custom preset group you can easily export that entire group in one move, and even have it compressed into a zip file as part of the process. Here’s how:
Step 1: Right-click the preset group you want to export and choose Export Group from the contextual menu.
Step 2: Choose where on your computer that you want to save this file (pick an easy place to find), and note that it will be compressed into a zip file for easy delivery or storage. Also note that the name of the preset group will be used for the name of the zip file. Handy.
Note, you can also export individual presets by right-clicking a preset and choosing Export from the contextual menu.
I created a couple of “starter” presets that I loosely identify as either landscape or portrait that give me my desired settings for beginning to process a raw (or JPG) file based on the primary subject of the photo. The settings I chose to include are:
There are just subtle differences based on if there is a person in the photo or not (basically). If you’d like, you can download that zip file for your own use.
If you decide to download that preset group (zip file), here’s how to import it into Lightroom Classic (note those presets will only work in the latest version of Lightroom Classic):
Step 1: Open Lightroom Classic, and switch to Develop module.
Step 2: Go to File > Import Develop Profiles & Presets (if it is grayed out, make sure you are in Develop).
Step 3: Navigate to where you downloaded that zip file (most likely your Downloads folder), choose it, and click Import.
The new preset group should appear in your Presets panel, and there will be four presets (raw & JPG variations). If you don’t like them (no hard feelings), just right-click the preset group and choose Delete Group from the contextual menu.
This functionality makes it much easier to share presets as I am here, but more importantly a way for you to backup your presets and transfer them to your other computer(s). Enjoy!
Side note, you can also import those into the cloud-based version of Lightroom for Mac/Win (if you use it), and those presets will be available across all of your devices.
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]]>The post Lightroom in 60-Seconds: Reordering & Hiding Stuff to Speed Your Workflow appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Not bad, right? Lots of cool buried treasures in Lightroom.
Have a great Tuesday, ya’ll!
-Scott
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]]>The post What To Do When Lightroom Asks If It’s OK to Update Your Catalog appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>When Adobe releases an upgrade to Lightroom with new features (like the one they released last week) and because of that update, it requires you to let Lightroom upgrade your catalog so it can work with this newly updated version.
After you download this recent update, when you launch Lightroom you’ll see the message dialog below.
What you’re seeing is a pretty standard message (even though the part in bold sounds kinda scary). Clicking upgrade won’t erase your images or anything crazy like that. In fact, when you click the ‘Upgrade’ button, once the upgrade process is done you probably won’t notice anything different at all (well, except that you’ll have a different splash screen, and a few new features, and probably none of them are the ones you were hoping for). In short, it will be business as usual.
It doesn’t delete your old catalog — it creates a brand new catalog based upon your old catalog with all the same photos, sorting, edits — all the exact same stuff, and it puts it in the same folder as your old catalog (so yes, now you’ll have two catalogs. The old one will no longer work with this new upgraded Lightroom, but you have a new catalog that works and looks just like your old catalog, so nothing really lost here.
I just hit the upgrade button and move on. The only reason I can think of that you might want to backup your Catalog and preview file is that you don’t think you’ll like this version, or to protect yourself in the event something is terribly wrong with this particular upgrade (that hasn’t happened so far, but I guess it’s possible). So, if you feel the least bit queasy before you hit Upgrade, you can certainly back up your catalog (here’s how), but just so you know, I don’t do that — I don’t think it’s necessary, especially since you do have your original catalog still intact.
Hope you found that helpful.
-Scott
P.S. One week from today I’m teaching my “Ultimate Photography Crash Course” full-day seminar in Atlanta and then in Seattle a few days later on Wednesday, Nov. 20th. Hope you can come out and spend the day with me. Tickets and info here.
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]]>The post Heads up: There’s a pretty big issue for Lightroom “cloud” users who take their images over to Photoshop appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>If you take an image from Lightroom over to Photoshop and you add some layers, when you save and close the image in Photoshop, it goes back to Lightroom automatically. Even though it will appear like any other image in Lightroom, both versions of Lightroom (Classic and the cloud version) respect those layers and leave them intact behind the scenes.
If you want to re-edit this layered image over in Photoshop again, and have the layers still intact, all you have to do is choose “Edit Original” (as shown above) when you this file reopens in Photoshop, the original layers are all there. That works for both versions: Classic and Cloud. So far, so good.
When you take a layered file back to Lightroom cloud, if you do anything to that file in Lightroom cloud — move the Exposure slider; add some contrast, add some Clarity — whatever — without warning Lightroom Cloud flattens the image. Your layers are gone! That doesn’t happen in Lightroom Classic, but for some reason, it does flatten your image in the Cloud version. Yikes! Reopening that image using “Edit Original” won’t help — the image is already flattened.
I’m surprised that there’s not some kind of warning; some pop-up dialog to at least warn you, “Any adjustments made to this file in Lightroom will result in the layers being flattened” or something like that. It won’t fix the problem, but at least you know up front — instead of finding out after it’s already too late. Anyway, this is important to know now if you use Lightroom cloud.
I hope you found that helpful.
A woman came up and told me she had shooting professionally since the late 1970s, but she had been really stuck in a rut with her photography. She had really lost that spark — that enthusiasm and joy that comes from photography, but she wanted to tell me that as a long-time pro, while she knew a lot of what I taught that day, what the day did for her was it inspired her again. She said it relit her flame for photography and she couldn’t wait to get back out there shooting, and she wanted me to know that. You can’t imagine what that meant to me.
Each morning, before my seminar, I say a series of prayers, and one thing I always pray for is that something that I teach in the seminar would inspire some of the photographers there that day. For me, this was a prayer answered, and I was on cloud nine that she would stick around after everyone had left just to let me know that. It totally made my day (and I was having a really good day). I love teaching. I love that I get to do this at all, and I am very aware and incredibly grateful that I get to do this at all.
Thank you to all the photographers that came out to my “Ultimate Photography Crash Course” seminar in San Francisco on Wednesday. Hands down one of the most fun crowds of the year (and thanks for the great turnout, too!). Next stops: Seattle and Atlanta in just a couple of weeks — tickets and more details here. Come on out — you’ll super dig it, and I would love to meet you.
Have a great weekend, everybody! I hope it’s your best one this year so far!
-Scott
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]]>The post Tamron’s New Prime Lens Series for Sony Mirrorless Offers More Choices for Creative Expression appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Tamron has just announced three new models for Sony E-mount full-frame mirrorless cameras. In addition to bright F/2.8 apertures, all three new prime lenses have enhanced close-focusing capability (1:2 reproduction ratio) and all are marvelously compact. Choose the ultra-wide 20mm F/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2 (Model F050) to stretch your imagination. Or the 24mm F/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2 (Model F051) to widen your horizons. And the must-have lens for everyday use is the 35mm F/2.8 Di III OSD M1:2 Model F053. The close-focusing capability lets you capture scenes dynamically by leveraging the unique perspective. Enjoy many different types of photography including nature, tabletop, and family snaps. All three lenses are light in weight and compact—so you can you travel light or pack all three!
For outstanding performance, each lens is constructed using special glass materials including LD (Low Dispersion) lens elements and GM (Glass Molded Aspherical) lens elements effectively arranged to quash aberrations. And Tamron’s legendary BBAR (Broad-Band Anti-Reflection Coating) successfully reduces ghost and flare. Moreover, leveraging your camera body’s features* each delivers, throughout the frame, high resolution performance that maximizes the benefits of the latest high-megapixel cameras. You will experience an all-new mode of expression with these dynamic fixed focal wide-angle lenses.
*When shooting with the camera’s lens correction function enabled.
Get Closer to Your Subject. Enhanced Close-Focusing Capability
The MOD for the 20mm, 24mm and 35mm is 0.11m, 0.12m and 0.15m (4.3, 4.7 and 5.9 inches) respectively. Plus, the maximum magnification ratio for all three is 1:2 so you can fill the frame, even when shooting small objects. You’ll never again be frustrated because you cannot get close to an object while shooting. This remarkable performance allows users to create compositions that exploit dramatic perspective (closer subjects are larger, and distant ones are smaller). With a bright F/2.8 aperture you can produce a one-of-a-kind photo and leverage the beautifully blurred background bokeh.
Extreme Portability Increases Versatility and Comfort
Designed to match light weight, full-frame mirrorless cameras. Overall length is just 64mm (2.5 in.). They are comfortably portable, highly maneuverable, and amazingly easy to use and compose. Because the overall length does not change when focusing, you can get as close to an object as you need to without fear of accidentally bumping the front element.
For convenience sake, all of the lenses in the series have the same 67mm filter diameter. You can share the use of a single polarizing (or other) filter and avoid the aggravation of searching through lens caps when changing lenses. Built with convenience and ease-of-use in mind, you’ll be attracted by the compact size and thoroughly dazzled by the outstanding performance.
The Tamron 24mm and 35mm for Sony mirrorless will be available November 20 and the 20mm is scheduled for January 2020. All three have the same attractive price of $349. Click here to learn more.
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]]>The post Lightroom in 60-Seconds: What to do when your photo goes missing! appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>I hope you found that helpful.
Looking forward to meeting a whole bunch of you tomorrow here in San Francisco at my seminar.
-Scott
The post Lightroom in 60-Seconds: What to do when your photo goes missing! appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>The post November 2019 Updates to Lightroom Classic, Lightroom, and Camera Raw appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Lightroom Classic has been updated to version 9.0, and with it some welcome additions, fixes, and new camera support. Let’s take a look. Also, don’t be surprised when you are asked to upgrade a copy of your catalog on first launch.
This one has been a frequently requested feature for as long as I can remember. If you’ve ever had the need to export the same batch of photos using different export dialog settings, that day has finally arrived. Now it is as simple as checking boxes next to the export presets you want to use, and away you go.
On the exporting theme, we finally have a built-in method for exporting an entire group of Develop presets. Just right-click the preset group you want to export. You can also export individual Develop presets in the same manner.
One of my all time favorite features has been the ability to merge to pano (or HDR and HDR pano), but I was never a big fan of the Boundry Warp function. Today we gain a new option called Fill Edges (also added to the new version of Camera Raw), which uses Content-Aware Fill to create pixels in the empty (white) area around the edges. So far I’ve been impressed with what it can do.
When we got the ability to apply color labels to folders and collections I think we all scratched our heads about why the filtering option was all or nothing. Scratch no more! Now the color label filter has the options we wished we had from the start.
That’s the highlights for Lightroom Classic. I added links to all the new camera and lens support at the bottom of the post. Head here for Adobe’s more in-depth round up of new features to learn more.
The cloud-based Lightroom family of apps have also been updated with very welcome new features on each of the platforms. Let’s explore those starting with the desktop version for Mac and Windows.
I’m super excited to see these guided tutorials and interactive edits arrive on the desktop versions of Lightroom. While these may benefit brand new users the most, I have found it fascinating to see how other photographers make use of these tools. I’m also proud to have had the opportunity to contribute tutorials to the Lightroom Education Team account.
They are all easy to click through, and if you check out the Discover tutorials you have the ability to save the settings used as a preset of your very own.
This is probably the most overdue and valuable addition to Lightroom. Previously, the lack of export options have made this app a non-starter for many people. We now have the ability to choose different file types, color space, output sharpening, and more.
The same functionality added to Lightroom Classic and Camera Raw has found its way to the desktop version of Lightroom too.
We can finally print and make books! This was another potential non-starter for anyone who wanted to print their photos using the cloud-based Lightroom or missed the Book module. Now, through a partnership with WHCC and Blurb, there is a new “connector” built-into Lightroom that allows you to provide access to your cloud-based photos to those services.
This will facilitate the migration to the cloud for any Photoshop Elements users.
The mobile versions of the Lightroom app got some love too.
I’m very grateful that this was finally added to iOS (it was already available to Lightroom on the other platforms). Now you can edit one photo, then copy its settings and apply those settings to a selection of other photos. Huge time saver!
Android and ChromeOS (with iOS soon to follow), now have the ability to choose advanced options when exporting copies similar to what was just added to the desktop version of Lightroom.
Of course there are always new cameras added to the list of supported raw formats, as well as new lens profiles. If you run into any problems or have suggestions for new features visit the Photoshop Family Forum.
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]]>The post How To Use Lightroom’s Guided Edit For Fixing Perspective Issue appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Last week I was recording an online course called “A Photographer’s Guide to Chicago” and one of the locations I talked about was a parking garage where you can shoot down on an intersection of the “L” (Elevated trains). When my co-host Larry Becker saw the behind-the-scenes shot of me taking the shot (shown above), he asked how could I possibly get the shot straight at the angle I was shooting from. The answer? Lightroom’s Guided Edit. Here’s how I used it to fix the perspective issue.
STEP ONE: Here’s the shot, taken at the angle you see in the behind-the-scenes shot. To straighten the photo, go to the Transform panel and click on the Guide Button. When you click on this, nothing happens because there are two other steps. One is to click on the Guided Upright Tool (shown circled above), and then next is to drag it out over areas you want to be straightened (we’ll do that in the next step).
STEP TWO: I’m going to click and drag out the tool along the left track (I added a red two-headed arrow here to show you where I’m dragging. The tool itself lays down a white line, but it was hard to see it in this small capture, so I added the red line just as a visual. When you use this tool, the lines will be white. When you drag out the first line, nothing happens yet either.
STEP THREE: When you draw the 2nd Guide Edit line out (as seen here, where I dragged along the track on the right of my first line) you can see the image starts to straighten out. Depending on the image, you might only need two lines, but in this case, the image still looks skewed (the tracks look like they’re leaning downward from right to left through the horizontal middle of the image).
STEP FOUR: Here’s the third line — right down the tracks in the center.
STEP FIVE: I dragged the fourth and final line down the opposite tack and you can see, it’s pretty close now, but look up at the top center track and you can see that when the fourth Guided Edit line did its thing to straighten out the image, it make the top centerline off by a little. Easily fixed because you can reposition the lines once they’re in place by clicking and dragging.
STEP SIX: I dragged the little repositioning dot on the top line, (not quite sure that’s its real name) shown circled above in red and dragged it upward so it’s straight along the track again, and the image readjusts (as you can see here) and now it’s nice and straight.
Hope you found that helpful.
Have a great week, everybody!
-Scott
P.S.Tomorrow, I’m off to my seminar in San Francisco on Wednesday. Hope you can come out and spend the day with me. Tickets and info here.
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