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]]>Here’s a link to watch the course right now. You can own it for $29, or you can watch it (and nearly 1,000 other full-length courses) as part of a KelbyOne Pro membership. People are super-digging this one – I hope you’ll give it a watch.
Okay, onto Terry’s Lightroom Q&A:
Q. How do I switch from Lightroom to Lightroom Classic?
A. That’s a big question, but not uncommon. Sometimes photographers who are just starting out begin with Lightroom. Usually, it’s because they didn’t know there was more than one version, so they get the first one they see on adobe.com, which is usually Lightroom (Lr).
Switching to Lightroom Classic (LrC) is actually not hard. Because your images are already in the cloud in their full resolution, Lightroom Classic can sync all of your images to a folder on your hard drive. Your albums will come down as collections.
Start by installing Lightroom Classic, then turn on Start Syncing in the upper-right corner in the cloud menu. That’s it! Your images will start to sync into Lightroom Classic. One thing you should consider before enabling sync is to choose a folder where all of these images will download; perhaps a folder on an external drive that has more space on it.
Go to Lightroom Classic (PC: Edit)>Preferences and click on the Lightroom Sync tab. Enable the checkbox that says Specify a Location for Light- room’s Synced Images, and then click the Choose button. Navigate to the folder you wish to use, and click Choose. Once the images are downloaded and in LrC, you can use LrC to move them at any time to different folders in the Folders panel or on different drives. Note: Be sure only to move images inside LrC; if you move them outside LrC, it will lose track of the images and tell you that they’re missing.
Q. I love using collections, but I’m frustrated by not being able to add an exported JPEG to a collection at the time of export. Am I missing something? Many thanks!
A. Hi! I love collections too, but maybe I don’t under- stand the question. Are you saying that you want the JPEG you export to somehow be reimported into the catalog and added to a collection? Or are you saying that when you export an image from, say, a folder, you wish it to be added to a collection too? Neither of those are ideal workflows.
It’s best to put images into the collections where you want them. Do your edits, and then do your exports. The images will then be in the collections you want them in at all times throughout the entire process.
Q. My phone seems to be running out of space. When I checked, it looks like Lightroom is using more space than it should be. Is there a way to fix this?
A. I’ve run into this problem myself. All of a sudden, the space on my iPhone drops by 20–30 GB. Lightroom caches recent images to your device as well as images you’ve been editing. Normally, the cache clears over time; however, sometimes, it can get stuck and not clear properly. This doesn’t happen often anymore, but if it has happened to you, you can manually clear it anytime to reclaim the space it uses. Here’s how:
Launch Lightroom on your mobile device and tap the settings icon (gear). Then tap on Local Storage. Once you’re there, it will take a moment to calculate your local storage usage. Once it does, you can tap the Clear Cache button. This will remove the cached files from your device. Don’t worry; your images are still in the cloud along with the edits you’ve done (Lightroom will even tell you this with a pop-up message where you can click Clear or Cancel).
Q. Editing in Lightroom is great because it’s non-destructive. I’m afraid to edit in Photoshop because I could make a mistake that screws up my image. Is there a way to keep the photo nondestructive even if I take it into Photoshop?
A. Photoshop, by its nature, can permanently alter pixels in your image, but this isn’t a bad thing, and there are several techniques you can use to protect your original from being altered. When you choose to edit an image from Lightroom Classic in Photoshop, you can protect your original by editing a “copy” in Photoshop. This happens automatically if you choose to edit a RAW file.
If you’re editing a JPEG or other format, you will get a pop-up dialog asking if you want to Edit a Copy with Lightroom Adjustments. Always choose this option because when you do, it will send a copy of your image over to Photoshop. Anything you do to this image will be done to the copy, not the original. This also happens automatically when you use Lightroom.
Another Lightroom Classic option is to send the image over to Photoshop as a Smart Object by Right-clicking on the image and choosing Edit In>Open as Smart Object in Photoshop.
This will still send a copy, but even the copy will be protected as a smart object once it’s in Photoshop. This way, any filters you run on it will be non-destructive.
Q. I noticed when I’m in the Develop module that there are triangles in the upper-left and -right corners of the Histogram panel. Some- times they’re different colors. What do these triangles mean, and why are they sometimes different colors?
A. These triangles are warnings and are even useful for fixing the issues that they warn you about. The triangle in the upper-left corner of the Histogram is your shadow-clipping warning. The triangle in the upper-right corner is the highlight-clipping warning.
Ideally, you want both triangles to be grayed out. The different colors represent the severity of the warning. If either triangle is solid white, then that means the clipping is severe. A white shadow-clipping warning means that there are large areas of your photo that are completely black with no detail. If the highlights triangle is solid white, that means large portions of your image are completely blown out.
The other colors mean that there’s less clipping. If you hover your mouse cursor over either triangle, you’ll see the areas being clipped in your image, highlighted in blue for clipped shadows and red for clipped highlights. You can remove or reduce the clipping by dragging directly on the far left or far right side of the histogram below the triangles to adjust the Blacks and Whites, respectively, of your image and hopefully get the triangles to gray.
Thanks, Terry. Here’s wishing you all a great weekend!
-Scott
P.S. Thanks to everybody who came out to my keynote presentation at the ClickCon conference in Chicago this week. Met so many great folks, and had a wonderful time. Thanks to Adobe for having me here, and to Sherry and the crew from ClickCon for the hospitality.
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]]>The post Discover Common Photo Editing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>In the age of digital photography, editing your photos is an integral part of the creative process. However, it’s important to exercise caution and avoid common mistakes that can detract from the natural beauty of your photos. In this blog post, we explore eight prevalent photo editing mistakes and offer some practical tips on how to avoid them. In the following video we use ON1 Photo RAW, powerful photo editing software that’s like having Lightroom and Photoshop in one application.
Using filters and effects can be tempting, but exercise moderation. Instead of muddying up your photo, opt for a balanced approach. Consider using milder filters or adjusting the opacity slider. To maintain the photo’s integrity, selectively apply the entire Effects tab rather than just one filter.
White balance significantly impacts the overall look and feel of your photos. Avoid the mistake of leaving your images too cool or too warm. Correct white balance using tools like the white balance dropper or temperature slider. Experiment by pushing the slider to the extreme and then easing it back into a natural temperature.
Vibrant colors can be visually appealing, but it’s important to maintain a natural and clean look. Avoid the common mistake of oversaturating colors, as it can lead to distracting and unrealistic results. Desaturate the image completely and gradually reintroduce color. Using a reference image and matching color saturation can also help achieve realistic colors.
Excessive detail and sharpening can give your photo a “crunched” or overprocessed appearance. Understand the best practices for adding detail and texture to your photos. Remember that the structure slider modifies the entire photo when applying adjustments globally. Consider using selective techniques like masks or local adjustments to maintain a natural appearance.
Noise can diminish the quality of your images and remove essential details. Address noise-related issues using tools like NoNoise AI, which effectively reduces noise while preserving image details. By eliminating noise, you can create visually appealing and professional-looking photographs.
Overdoing exposure adjustments during editing can negatively impact your photos. Use clipping warnings to ensure you retain details in the highlights and shadows. Utilize local adjustments to selectively apply exposure changes where needed. Techniques like dodging and burning in Local Adjustments can help you control exposure more precisely without making global adjustments.
Cropping your photos can eliminate distractions and create a stronger composition. Ensure your images appear natural by leveling them to straighten the horizon. Use overlays and the level tool to align the grid with the horizon effectively. Mastering the art of cropping and leveling can enhance the overall impact of your images.
Feathering is essential for blending adjustments and filters naturally into your images. Avoid leaving harsh edges in your masks, as they can make your edits look unnatural. Adjust the brush’s softness or feather your luminosity or color range masks to create a smooth transition between masked and unmasked areas. Remember to feather masks appropriately and decide when a hard edge is necessary.
By avoiding these common photo editing mistakes, you will quickly see the quality and impact it will have on your images. Remember to exercise moderation with filters and effects, correct white balance, maintain natural colors, apply detail and sharpening judiciously, address noise, adjust exposure carefully, crop and level strategically, and feather masks for seamless blending. With these tips in mind, you’ll be on your way to creating stunning and visually pleasing photographs. Happy editing!
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]]>The post The August 2023 Issue of Photoshop User Is Now Available! appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>The August 2023 issue of Photoshop User is now live on the KelbyOne site and the KelbyOne app for iOS and Android.
In this issue, AI is on track to becoming an ubiquitous part of society, so jump aboard as we train you to use Generative AI to help you build composites in Photoshop (Beta); plus, revisiting Lightroom on the web; re-creating bitmapped computer graphics of old; fixing perspective distortions in both Lightroom and Photoshop; creating an animated tracing effect; protruding images outside of text; and so much more!
This issue’s cover image by KelbyOne member Russ Everett
Current KelbyOne members can log into their account to access the new issue, or you can visit https://kelbyone.com/magazine to sign up and start reading today.
KelbyOne Pro members have access to more than 120 back issues of Photoshop User magazine all the way back to January 2012, plus all 64 issues of Lightroom Magazine. Not a Pro member yet? Click here for more information.
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]]>The post Add Border and Share appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>First, to find it take the photo you want to add the border to into detail view, and when edits are finished, tap the Share icon to open the Border Options screen.
From here you might want to start at the bottom and work up by first tapping the desired border size. So, if this was going to Instagram and I wanted to have a canvas that was 5:4 I would tap that icon to start.
Next, adjust the Thickness slider to your liking. The thicker the border the smaller the photo.
And finally, choose your color. There are a series of preset color swatches you can choose from, or if you want to select a color from the photo, tap the eyedropper icon and move the color picker around the photo to find a color.
You can go back and tweak settings to dial things in just the way you want them, then tap the Share icon at the top to begin the exporting process.
From here you can share directly to a social media app or just save the copy to your device and share as you wish. A simple, but useful feature that I hope will appear across all versions of Lightroom in the future.
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]]>The post I’m Teaching My First In-Person One-Day Seminar Since 2019 appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>WHO: Just me
WHAT: My full-day “Ultimate Photography Crash Course” live seminar
WHERE: In Orlando, Florida, at the Orange Co. Conv. Center or watch LIVE ONLINE
WHEN: Tuesday, August 15, 2023
TICKETS: Just $99, either in-person in Orlando with me or online (your choice)
Here’s the link to reserve your spot (in-person seating is very limited – we’re in a small, intimate, beautiful theater in the convention center. Hope you can make it.
What a cool event for people into people photography (Portraits, fashion, etc.). It’s lots of sessions, but it’s a hands-on conference with lots of live model shoots, location shoots, and workshops, and it’s really pretty unique in our industry. I’m doing the keynote that kicks off the conference the night before (Monday night), and I hope you can come. Here’s the details:
WHO: Me and a huge roster of instructors
WHAT: The ClickCon Hands-on Photography Conference
WHERE: Chicago, IL
WHEN: My Keynote is Monday, July 31, and then conference starts Aug. 1, 2023
TICKETS: Vary, but $40 for tradeshow only. $399 for the 3-days or $599 for their Ultimate Pass.
Here’s the link for tickets and more details.
And I’m thrilled to be one of its Keynote speakers. The BILD Conference, produced by the folks at B&H Photo, moves into New York’s Javits Center, which fits nicely into the location and is close to the time slot where the beloved Photo Plus Expo used to be held each year.
Steller collection of instructors and four different training tracks – this will be awesome, and I hope I’ll get to meet you there in person. It’s coming up Sept 6-7, 2023. For more info and tickets, hit this link.
WHO: Me and a stellar roster of instructors
WHAT: The BILD Photography conference
WHERE: Javitz Center, New York City, NY
WHEN: Sept 6-7, 2023
TICKETS: You can get ’em right here.
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]]>The post Get Early Access to a New Way to Edit in Lightroom for Mobile appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>As long as you keep scrolling, you get access to all of the tools. The new editing interface is much simpler and cleaner and fits without scrolling.
To get there, tap the 3-dot menu in iOS (3-line menu on Android) and go into App settings.
There, look for Early Access and tap that …
Then toggle on New Editor to enable to the new editing interface before tapping the X to close out of App settings. You can also go into that menu to send feedback to Adobe through the app.
A few things to note:
When you tap Edit, you’ll see the icons for the editing tools appear above the bottom toolbar.
I’m still giving it a test run, and I’m not sure what to think, but one thing I noticed on iOS is that when you rotate your device to landscape orientation you lose the editing tools and just see the photo alone. I did find it useful to have the tools along the side when editing some landscape orientated photos. I do appreciate the opportunity to explore, test, and give feedback before it becomes a final change. You can always disable Early access and go back to the original editing layout (for now). Try it and let me know what you think!
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]]>The post How To Do Client Proofing In Lightroom appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Thanks, Terry!
It’s not to late to come join us – take a look at the speakers, the classes, the whole nine yards here, and come and join us tomorrow – it’s the first conference of its kind all on a suite of plug-ins, and there’s so much to learn. Here’s the link for all the details and tickets. Hope you can make it.
This is going to be a great week – here’s wishing you the best!
-Scott
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]]>The post How To Get The “Mimo” Look in Lightroom For Your Black & White Images appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Thanks to Mimo for sharing that (and for being on the show and for recording some amazing courses for KelbyOne during this visit).
I am super psyched to be on stage next month at Orlando’s Orange Country Convention Center for an updated version of my “Ultimate Photography Crash Course.” I took all the things I would share with a friend if I had one day with them to make a real impact on their photography and their post-processing, and I put it all into this one day. I’m so sure you’ll love it; it is 100% money-back guaranteed if it’s not the best live photography seminar you’ve ever attended at any price, ever!
You can attend in person in Orlando, but if you can’t get to Orlando, you can watch it live online as it happens. Best of all, it’s only $99 for the full day. For tickets or to get one of the very limited seats we have in person in Orlando, visit kelbyonelive.com and I’ll see you August 25th in Orlando for a day that will change everything.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
-Scott
P.S. I’m doing the opening keynote at the ClickCon conference up in Chicago on July 31st, and I’m focusing on Photoshop’s incredible AI-powered features. If you’re at the conference, I hope you’ll come and say hi. Here’s a link for tickets (the conference is packed with live shoots – over 200 models and 50 hair/makeup artists with tons of shooting bays and themed shoots. It’s going to be awesome.
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]]>The post Changing The Background Color Behind Your Images appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Above: Here’s my current background color, which I have set to Dark Gray (Lightroom’s actual default background color is “Medium Gray.” To change the color, just right-click (or Ctrl-click) on the background area outside your image, and a pop-up menu of background color choices appears (as seen here). In this case, I’ll choose Light Gray.
Above: Here’s what it looks like when you change the background to ‘Light Gray.’
Above: you can also change the Background color for your main and secondary screen by going to Lightroom’s preferences, clicking on the “Interface” tab up top, and then choosing your background color from the pop-up menus you see above.
Every year I would look forward to heading up to New York in the fall for Photo Plus Expo, but unfortunately, COVID pretty much put an end to that great show, and for the past couple of years, there has been no New York event for our industry…until now. The awesome folks at B&H Photo, who have been doing some ground-breaking live events on both coasts, are now launching the Bild Expo 2023, coming to New York City’s Javits Convention Center, September 6-7, 2023, and I’m thrilled to be of the keynote presenters.
I just can’t tell you how thrilled I am to see B&H Photo doing this, and it also happens to coincide with B&H’s 50th Anniversary, so I know this will be a very special event. They’ve put together a world-class
Here’s the link for more details and tickets. Congratulations to B&H for returning an exceptional live event to New York City. I can’t wait!!!
Here’s wishing you a kick-butt week! It’s going to be a great one!
-Scott
P.S. Tomorrow I’m the guest on Vanelli’s Podcast, which is running as part of B&H’s online ‘Event Space’ and we’re talking about travel photography, post-processing, and how to “unleash your creativity.” I hope you can join us (it’s free). Here’s the link – 1 PM ET on Tuesday.
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]]>A. It’s because one time, you were looking at the White Balance presets for a RAW image, and the other was a JPEG or TIFF. You only see that longer list of preset choices when you’re working on a RAW image — if you click on the JPEG or TIFF image, you’ll only see Auto and Custom as your choices because the white balance you chose in in the camera is already assigned to JPEGs and TIFFs. That doesn’t mean you can’t use the white balance for JPEGs or TIFFs — you absolutely can — use the Tint and Temperature sliders as well as the White Balance Eyedropper tool (or choose Auto white balance from the pop-up menu). The difference is — you don’t get all those other choices like you would from a RAW image where the white balance preset isn’t already “baked in” (so to speak).
Q. I’ve been using Collections for a while now, but why would I need to use a Collection “Set?” What are they for?
A. Think of Collection sets simply as folders, just like the folders on your computer. You use folders on your computer to keep things organized, right? Same thing with Collection Sets. So, for example, if you took a vacation to Europe and wanted to keep your images from your trip organized by country, you could create a Collection Set named “Europe” and then make collections of images from all the counties you visited (for example, Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and so on), and then you’d drag those into your “Europe Collection Set so they’d all be just one click away (you’d look inside your Europe Collection Set and inside you’d see Collections of all those countries). It’s just another tool for keeping your collections organized, and it’s a really handy one. Note: If you’re using Lightroom for the Cloud, these Collection Sets are called “Folders.”
Q. Why would I ever want to turn on Draft Mode Printing?
A. For speed! Well, let me qualify that — it’s to speed up printing when you have a multi-photo layout, like a contact sheet. For example, let’s say you have a layout with five rows and six columns. Those images are going to be fairly small in size, but Lightroom will still send 30 high-resolution images to the printer to make that tiny thumbnail-size images. Turning on Draft Mode Printing sends the JPEG preview instead, and the image prints a LOT faster (and because the size of the images is so small, in most cases you can’t see any difference in quality). The only downside of using Draft Mode Printing is that it’s so fast people get hooked on it and want to use it all the time, even when they’re printing a single image, or two images, so that’s the only thing I could caution you about it — it’s easy to get hooked on, but when printing large single images you will almost certainly see a difference in quality. Just so ya know.
Q. Is there an easy way to get the images I’ve been organizing in Elements into Lightroom and keep all the albums I had intact and still have all the keywords I’ve added?
A. Absolutely, and Lightroom will pretty much do it all for you. Just go under the File menu and choose ‘Import a Photoshop Elements Catalog,” which will bring up the Import an Elements Catalog dialog box. It automatically chooses the catalog you used last in Elements (if you want it to import a different catalog, you can choose it there). Now just click the Import button, and Lightroom will take it from there. Any Albums you made in Elements appear in Lightroom’s Collections panel as Collections, and all your keywords will still be in place.
Q. Why does my image look different when I take it from Lightroom to Photoshop. The color is definitely different.
A. It’s probably because Photoshop isn’t set up to use the same color settings as Lightroom’s default color profile, which is ProPhoto RGB. To switch Photoshop to ProPhoto RGB, in Photoshop, go under the Edit menu and choose ‘Color Settings’ to bring up the Color Settings window (shown here), and then under Working Spaces, from the RGB pop-up menu, choose “ProPhoto RGB” as shown here, and then click OK. Now Lightroom and Photoshop share the same color settings, and your image color will look consistent as you move back and forth between the two programs.
Q. How come sometimes the Filter Bar appears across the top of my thumbnail grid in the Library, and sometimes it doesn’t?
A. It’s probably because you hit the “backslash” key on your keyboard at some point, and that’s how you toggle on/off that menu.
Hope you found those helpful.
I’m the guest on Steve Brazill’s awesome “Behind The Shot” Podcast
Steve had a great topic – “What to expect from a photo critique,” and we looked at the good, bad, and ugly of giving and getting photo critiques. Steve is the king of photography podcast interviews – he’s the best and it was a really fun, lively, and certainly sometimes controversial talk. Here’s where to check it out:
Behind the Shot Website: https://behindtheshot.tv/2023/07/13/what-to-expect-from-a-photo-critique/
YouTube: https://youtu.be/q2Pzx0FwOsc
Apple Podcasts – Video: https://itunesvideo.behindtheshot.tv
Apple Podcasts – Audio Only: https://itunesaudio.behindtheshot.tv
Google Podcasts: https://googlepodcasts.behindtheshot.tv
Spotify: https://spotify.behindtheshot.tv
Hope you get a chance to check it out (and thanks to Steve for having me on his show).
Have a great weekend, everybody.
-Scott
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