Lightroom Video – Making Selective White Balance Changes

I always like it when new features come out in Photoshop or Lightroom and I end up using them in ways that I didn’t originally think I would. Take for example the addition of Temperature and Tint to the Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter in Lightroom 4 Beta. When I heard about this feature, I thought of specific examples where I’d use it. But none of those examples actually fit what I just noticed this past weekend on a recent trip. I realized I’m going to use them for a problem that I’ve usually gone to Photoshop to fix. But now since those adjustments are in Lightroom I can just do them there. Gotta love it when that happens right? Enjoy!

Nikon School – My First HD SLR Workshop

I’m on my way back to Tampa this morning after a really cool weekend with the guys from the Nikon School HD-SLR Video Workshop. I had planned on attending one at the end of last year but I couldn’t make it. While talking to a friend at Nikon a few weeks ago, I realized they had one in Santa Monica and it just happened to coincide with a trip I had out west so I jumped at the chance to go. I’ve got to say, these guys put on a fantastic weekend for everyone. The workshop was actually taught by 3 guys from NPS (Nikon Professional Services): Scott Diussa, Mark Suban, and Mark Kettenhofen. This was the first thing that struck me as really well done. It wasn’t some third-party company hired to do the event. These are the guys that, on a normal day, handle multiple accounts for NPS and travel all over the country helping Nikon shooters. They work directly for Nikon and know the cameras inside and out so you’re in good hands. Now, truth be told, I’m not a huge HD-SLR guy. From what I hear from my friends that are, it’s like a bug that many people catch and they get addicted. And you definitely get the feeling that the guys running the workshop have caught the bug and they are passionately into HDSLR and everything around it.

(From Left to Right: Mark Suban, Mark Kettenhofen, Funny-looking guy, Scott Diussa)

Saturday started out with an intro to HDSLR and it’s benefits (and potential drawbacks) over regular video cameras. Mark Suban went over some key things you need to keep in mind like shutter speeds. I always kinda knew what shutter speed to use for video, but I never really understood it – now I do. Then Scott jumped in and went over audio (I never knew that he actually went to school for audio). From the questions in class, this part went over really well because it spawned a lot of discussion since audio is so important. Mark K. finished up the day with the creative aspect of all this. What to shoot, how to shoot, interviews, stability, tips about pre-roll and post-roll which is basically recording just a bit earlier and then after what you think you should record, so you have a more natural transition to work with. Although I liked the whole day, this was my favorite part because as a still photographer, this whole video thing seems daunting. Not for technical reasons, but mostly because of the creative challenges. You’re telling a WAY more involved story then with still photos. Then they set us free with an entire bag of demo gear and instructions on how to use it. We all got to borrow D7000′s, several lenses, 3 different mics, lights, batteries, SD cards, you name it – they thought of everything you could possibly need and then some. Sadly we had to give it back the next day

Sunday started with some talk about editing. Then we jumped into interview techniques and Mark did a live interview for the class so they could see all the little tips and tricks you can use to get a good interview. Finally, we finished things off with hands on editing. Nikon even provided a Macbook Pro (already set up with software) for everyone to use to follow along with.

All in all, if you’re interested in HDSLR this was a fantastic kickstart. I’m a great test candidate because I knew nothing going in. There were constant visuals and demos all weekend to really drive the point home. It’s probably not for pros who’ve been doing it for a while, but as some one who really has no experiences and was starting from scratch I finally feel like I can take the next step. Did I catch the video bug like many of my friends? Hmmmmm, I’m not sure yet. It did get me thinking about all kinds of things I could do with video. Now I feel like I know enough to get out there and be comfortable to start working with it. And I feel like Scott, Mark 1 and Mark 2 (as they became known) shortened my learning curve but a TON so, I’m not making “as many” mistakes as I’d have made if I didn’t attend the workshop.

Here’s the link if you’re interested in learning more. They also have several more workshops coming up in Miami, Seattle, Baltimore, Boston and Chicago if you’re around those areas.

Lightroom Before/After Video – Eiffel Tower and Plug-ins

I haven’t done one of those Before/After videos in a while so I thought it was time for another. The photo I’m using here was a photo I took in Paris last year. It was a rainy day which I actually find can help sometimes. I’d always seen a lot of the same photos of the Eiffel Tower, so I went looking for a different view. I remember seeing the movie, Inception, and noticed this really cool bridge (You know, the one that twisted on top of itself in the movie). It was the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, a bridge that crosses the Seine River in Paris. So I kinda set my sites on that being a good location to shoot from. The original photo itself definitely needed some work, as you’ll see in the video. The Lightroom part of it was pretty easy actually and since Lightroom 4 Beta has been out, I find myself re-editing a lot of my photos using the new Develop module controls. There’s a little Photoshop touchup work and lots of plug-in work that I used too. Enjoy!

Why I Don’t Backup My Photos Using Lightroom

If you’ve used the Import dialog in Lightroom, you’ve probably noticed an area under File Handing called “Make a Second Copy To:”. This is Lightroom’s way of letting you make a backup of your photos as you import them. That way you can get your import and your backup all done at once. A while back, some one pointed out that when you use this feature, you don’t have much control over how the backup drive stores the photos. Basically, it just stores them in a folder named “Imported on….”. For me this is a big problem because it’s not how I store my photos in my main photo drive. So now, my backup drive and my main photo drive would be out of sync.

That’s why I leave this feature turned off. Instead, I simply import my photos like normal (by the way, I cover this stuff in my Lightroom In Depth classes on Kelby Training by the way). I store them on my main photo drive in a “Photos” folder and I put subfolders under that for each shoot. So it looks something like this:

Then, once a day/week/however long I simply clone the main photo drive to the backup drive. You could use a simple copy/paste or you could save some time by using a program like Super Duper (some other options including PC). Either way, the goal here is to have your photo backup drive look exactly like your main photo drive. That way, recovering from your backup drive is simple. Don’t get me wrong. I’d rather you use the 2nd copy feature in the Import dialog over nothing at all. But if you want my actual backup solution and why I don’t use Lightroom’s features to help me with this, now you know.

Lightroom Worth-a-click

Happy Friday! Here’s a few Lightroom/Photography related things that are worth a quick click if you’re surfing around.

• A friend of mine from Paris (who I shot with while I visited last year and was a HUGE help!), Serge Ramelli has a Lightroom app on the iTunes store. Here’s the link if you want to check it out.

• It’s not exactly brand new news but I had a new class go up on Kelby Training last month that’s all about Lightroom presets and how I create them. If you’re looking for a peak inside the mind of the preset creator (and some cool ideas for presets) then check out my new class “Lightroom Creative Presets”.

• Gene McCullagh has a follow up to his article on working with a Lightroom on multiple computers.

• DPReview has an interview with Lightroom product manager Tom Hogarty

Lightroom Video – Dynamic Watermarks (well… not really, but kinda)

I always like to do videos that answer questions I get, rather than just doing a video that I “think” everyone wants to know about. Well, this weeks video comes from a question that I’ve gotten in several forms over the last couple years. Recently, some one asked if they could add a watermark to their photos with the current year on them. So basically, Lightroom would have to figure out the year from the metadata (probably not hard) and dynamically add it to the photos when you export them into JPEGS (not so easy). So, there’s really no way to do this, but there is an pretty decent workaround using the Filter Bar which is an area I think a lot of people miss out on. Enjoy!

Your Burning Lightroom 4 Questions Answered From Adobe

I just saw a post over on Adobe’s Photoshop.com blog where product manager Sharad Mangalick, answered a bunch of Lightroom 4 questions. Everything from catalogs, to video, new features, you name it. Below is one question I pulled directly from the page because I’ve been asked quite a bit too, but there’s lots more in the full article.

@luxx11 and @jennawoodward Ask: @Lightroom why can’t I use my LR3 catalogs in LR4? Is there a way to easily transfer my Lr3 catalogue into Lr4?

Sharad: Since Lightroom 4 is still in beta form, we restricted the ability to bring in catalogs created in earlier versions of Lightroom as a safeguard. This will be lifted when we release the final version of Lightroom 4, and you will be able to import prior version Lightroom catalogs, as well as Lightroom 4 Beta catalogs into Lightroom 4.

It’s definitely worth a read. Here’s the link if you get a chance to stop by today.

Lightroom 4 and Windows XP

I’ve seen quite a few comments about the fact that Lightroom 4 Beta doesn’t work with Windows XP (and you can probably guess that the full version isn’t going to work with it either). Last week Tom Hogarty (Lightroom Product Manager) wrote about the reasons behind that decision on his blog. Here’s a quick snippet but you can go here to read the rest:

“As many have noticed, the Lightroom 4 public beta we released last week does not support Windows XP. This decision did not come lightly and was based on a number of factors. With each version of Lightroom, our goal is always to provide a consistently excellent customer experience. Developing and testing across Operating System versions and platforms to ensure that we’re achieving this goal is a significant effort that takes time and resources. XP is substantially different from Windows Vista and Windows 7, and requires a independent testing matrix, which increases the complexity of our development efforts…”

I know it’s always hard to swallow something like this (well, if you’re an XP user that is), but here’s the thing… Microsoft barely support XP anymore. The Mainstream support phase for XP has passed. And it’s 10 years old. I hate to tell ya, but 10 years in technology might as well be 50. I think Adobe absolutely did the right thing here, so that they can indeed continue to provide a good experience for it’s users, and continually enhance Lightroom and push it in the directions it needs to go (and keep the price at a place that it needs to be).

(photo thumbnail courtesy of Fotolia.com)

Lightroom Video – Using External Drives

I saw a great question on my Facebook page the other day (btw… here’s my Google+ and Twitter pages too) and it’s one that I get asked quite a bit whenever I’m out teaching Lightroom. The question was basically this: let’s say you store all of your photos on an external drive (like I do). Eventually that drive gets full and you buy a larger drive. How do you get your photos to that new drive and make it so Lightroom can see them. Luckily it’s really simple and it works the same with just about any version of Lightroom. Check out the video below to see how.

Lightroom 4 Beta and Photoshop-like Cloning and Healing?

Last week, Tom Hogarty (Adobe’s Lightroom product manager) was in town for the Lightroom 4 Beta launch. He co-hosted 4 live webcasts with me throughout the day. As we looked through the list of questions on a break, I saw one that read “Why didn’t you include real cloning and healing tools in LR4 like Photoshop? Aren’t you just trying to keep it so we have to buy both?”. Tom saw the question and immediately said “Let’s take that one”. So we did and he had a great response to it. One I thought was worth a quick post because I think plenty of folks out there wonder the same thing (I know I always kinda secretly did).

To paraphrase, Tom said that when they add features to Lightroom they want to make sure that they’re features that are well planned and thought out, easy to use, and can work within the overall structure of Lightroom (mainly the fact that it has to be non-destructive). Tom explained that there’s not just one retouching workflow in Photoshop. There’s 20 right? Everyone uses the tools just a little different. Some people use Healing, some use Spot Healing with Content Aware turned on, some use the Patch tool, some use the Clone Stamp tool set to the Lighten blend mode at 20% Opacity. When you think about it, there really are a lot of different retouching strategies in Photoshop. For Lightroom to just include a Cloning and Healing Brush doesn’t cut it. Does the brush have Opacity, blend modes, layering, etc…? There’s much more to it then just taking the code from Photoshop and moving it over to Lightroom. They have to do it right or else Lightroom just becomes a clone of Photoshop. Although that seems tempting at first, I’m pretty sure we all don’t want Lightroom to become Photoshop.

In the end, Tom mentioned that this is a feature he’d really like to see in Lightroom as well. Reading between the lines I think we can tell this is at least ON the development table. I guess whether or not we really see it is unsure, but I thought it was really cool that Tom dove right in to that question. And, to me at least, he gave some really good reasons why that technology isn’t there yet, but also answered a question (the whole Adobe making it so we have to buy both thing) that I believe plenty of people have.

If you haven’t see any of the Lightroom 4 Launch Day webcasts with Tom, them make sure you stop by Kelby Training’s website. They’re free to watch and there’s some fantastic info in there that, well, is the stuff you’d only really get from Lightroom’s product manager. Thanks!