FeaturedThe Lightroom Show

“The Lightroom Show” is On The Air!

It’s here: it’s finally here! Yup, it’s the first episode of “The Lightroom Show” (our new weekly show hosted by RC Concepcion and me), and we covered a lot of ground in just a short time, with lots of Lightroom tips and tutorials (Programming note: the show will air on Fridays).

We pull our ideas for the show from comments and questions our viewers post here, so thanks for all your input and suggestions so far, and keep ’em comin’. We’ll be working next week to set up a link where you can submit your images to have RC and I take them from start to finish through our Lightroom editing workflow, and I’ll let you know as soon as that’s up and running.

At the end of each episode, we plan on wrapping up with some inspiration by turning you on to a cool photographer and for this, our first episode, we’re proud to feature the travel photography work of Elia Locardi (here’s the link to his site, blamethemonkey.com)

Hope you enjoy the first episode and that it helps you along on your Lightroom journey. 🙂

Have a great weekend everybody and we hope to see you back here on Monday for #9 in Scott’s on-going series for new Lightroom users.

Best,

-Scott and RC

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77 comments

  1. Donita Parma 26 August, 2015 at 12:45 Reply

    One of my all time special quotes appears very fitting here uccess is nothing more than a few simple disciplines, practiced every day; while failure is simply a few errors in judgment, repeated every day. It is the accumulative weight of our disciplines and our judgments that leads us to either fortune or failure.?Jim Rohn

  2. Gary Elliott 8 April, 2015 at 07:23 Reply

    One word: CATALOG. The LR catalog terrifies me. I don’t know enough about it to be able to fully understand where my photos are, where the edits are, what is critical to backup, what needs to be moved when moving to new hardware, etc., etc., etc.

    That’s it. The one thing that keeps me from using this otherwise great tool. So, when is the LR Catalog for Idiots/Dummies/PS Users coming to your show.

    Over the life of DOS, then Windows, I’ve no doubts how to handle my photos in standard file system structures where I have total control. I don’t have, nor can I find, that level of educational comfort with LR Catalog.

    Maybe I’m the only one, but I don’t think so. But, maybe…

    Gary

  3. Blair Turner 23 February, 2015 at 19:12 Reply

    Love the printing tip, but I recently made a photo album from Blurb which turned out too dark. Searching online, I read about importing print profiles from Blurb into Photoshop, but some pages have more than one photo on them, and sometimes you have a lot photographs for an album due to the many pages. So, is there a quicker or better way than bringing each photograph into Photoshop and adjust via the print profile, then move back to a catalogue in Lightroom for the album? My monitor is calibrated. Too bad Lightroom can’t deal with printer profiles.

    Thanks,
    Blair

    • Dan S 23 March, 2015 at 23:12 Reply

      Blair,

      I also have a monitor I keep calibrated (once a month). LR does except ICC profiles that can be used as part of soft proofing (small check box on bottom of screen). This has enabled me to send my images off to a Pro Printer Service with results that match my monitor. It also helps to have a daylight lamp to compare as well.

  4. Natalie (QSOgirl) 21 February, 2015 at 15:26 Reply

    My mind is blown by how much useful information you covered in this short time! I am excited to see more. Thank you so much for the amazing content (both in the Lightroom Show as well as on this blog!)

  5. Serena Thomas 19 February, 2015 at 14:48 Reply

    I just watched the first episode ITunes and I found it very informative! That R short cut to go to develop mode and crop is something I never heard of! Keep up the great work!

  6. David Rizzico 16 February, 2015 at 19:19 Reply

    Loved the show, I have a suggestion for an upcoming episode. I noticed that on RC computer the other day during the blind critiques that he was using an overlay other than the default Thirds Crop Overlay, since their are seven different ones it might be nice to see what the advantages to the others are or why RC preferred the one he was using…

    Thanks

    Dave

  7. Robert Payne 16 February, 2015 at 13:19 Reply

    Gentlemen:
    While I have the utmost respect for all the work that is involved in putting together regular blog posts, I was forced to apologize to my students for a “fail” in your first episode. Specifically, not mentioning monitor calibration when prints don’t resemble what is seen on screen is too big to overlook. I was embarrassed when Adobe put that “slider to nowhere” in the first place. It was a bad idea when it first arrived and should not be promoted over monitor calibration… just sayin’…

    • Jeff Hirsch 16 February, 2015 at 19:16 Reply

      Came here to say exactly that! Well put, Robert Payne. I see this again and again with my students and clients.

      Unless and until you are working within a color managed workflow, you will chase your tail all day long and waste a lot of money trying to get prints that match your on-screen display for color and luminance.

      Also keep in mind that even when you are properly calibrated for screen and printer the viewing conditions are radically different for transmitted light (your screen) and reflective light (your print).

      So, unless you are evaluating that print in a properly lit, color-neutral light box, there’s no way to accurately judge it in comparison to your screen display.

      Of course the print is going to look darker compared to your screen until you illuminate it properly. If you don’t have a viewing box, try taking it outside in normal daylight and evaluating it there! Holding it up next to your computer will never be a good way to check a match.

      Your transmissive LCD display outputs light at a very constant temperature and luminance level, but your print viewing environment is likely much more variable as far as color temperature and brightness. The brightness of the print will be completely dependent on the brightness of the light that is hitting it whereas your screen will be quite constant.

      To deal with this in studio, I have a small 65K LED light-panel that I use to illuminate prints that I am comparing to the calibrated display and when lit correctly, they are damn near perfect matches to their on-screen counterparts.

      Calibrate your displays, use profiles for printing, and display your prints in a properly lit environment before you judge them to be too dark.

      If you do this, you shouldn’t have to use that “fudge factor” adjustment right before you print.

      My 2¢ of course. Your mileage may vary.

  8. Paul C 16 February, 2015 at 12:13 Reply

    Wow – you are both so natural together, fabulous rapport. Given time I bet it could have that old D-Town dynamic where you get really down to business with laughter & lots of kit.

    Love it!

    Very high definition, too. Could the camera move a bit tighter in… there was an element of “news-desk” in the framing… you were far away.

  9. Bryan 15 February, 2015 at 18:12 Reply

    Love the show guys, so much potential to be uncovered in lightroom that isn’t always obvious. Can’t wait for next week!

  10. Richard 15 February, 2015 at 06:45 Reply

    I love the show and the tips but I think you need a tighter shot of you guys at the desk, its way to wide and you are too far away

  11. Markus 14 February, 2015 at 11:29 Reply

    Hi,
    thanks for the new show. Got a question for you: When creating presets in LR I’m unsure to leave the Process Version checked. Because if a new Process Version comes out by the release of a new update of LR, it will use the old Process Version if checked. Am I right? But I want the new (better) Process Version applied to my photos.

    Cheers
    Markus

    • lyle 14 February, 2015 at 19:36 Reply

      Click on the right pointing triangle in the center of the photo, above “Kelby One” logo. Try a different browser if that doesn’t do it.

  12. Robert Norris 13 February, 2015 at 20:14 Reply

    Great start guys. Couple of good tips already to speed up workflow! Nice set also, was that a Scott Kelby design? I always have trouble printing for some reason in Lightroom so any printing tips would be great. I can get the print brighter now but I always run into trouble with sizing the print. It seems like you have to do it in three places, maybe you guys have a better method or at least an easy workflow! Thanks!

  13. Tom 13 February, 2015 at 19:30 Reply

    The JW player that is now being used for all the KelbyOne video assets is not optimal and is definitely not user friendly. I would recommend using YouTube or reverting back to the software being used prior to JW Player.

  14. Guillermo 13 February, 2015 at 19:17 Reply

    I’m considering moving from Aperture to Lightroom (especially after attending your Shoot Like a Pro Tour in Columbus!), but I haven’t seen how to replace in Lightroom two key features from Aperture: Faces and Places. I think LR has a map, but – does it have any face recognition piece that can help you tag people? If not, what is the alternative – keywording? (hope not, because I’ll follow the advice on LightroomKillerTips about NO KEYWORDING needed!).
    You guys rock! Thank you very much!

  15. Martyn 13 February, 2015 at 18:25 Reply

    is there any way to lock a photo star rating to the collection? For example, I give a photo 3 stars in on cut through a shoot. Then in another collection I want to cut through a different way and maybe give it 5 stars. I find this a particular problem when making collections with photos from different shoots for different end use projects.

  16. Martyn 13 February, 2015 at 18:25 Reply

    is there any way to lock a photo star rating to the collection? For example, I give a photo 3 stars in on cut through a shoot. Then in another collection I want to cut through a different way and maybe give it 5 stars. I find this a particular problem when making collections with photos from different shoots for different end use projects.

  17. Dennis Zito 13 February, 2015 at 18:16 Reply

    Hey Guys,

    Great show! You know, I’ve used lightroom since v1.0. Never knew about the “R” key. I guess “Crop” and “R” don’t go together. 🙂 Just fyi. I got this tip from Red River Paper. I was having problems with dark prints on their paper so I asked them the question about dark prints. Got a great answer. When I calibrate my monitor, I now set the brightness to 105cd instead of 120cd that is recommended. Before I did this I had to set the brightness in LR to around 30-35 in LR. Now,after testing, I only have to set the brightness to 10. Also, I get better looking prints because the colors aren’t overly saturated when I doing post work.

    Again,

    Great show.

    Dennis

  18. Larry Wolf 13 February, 2015 at 17:36 Reply

    great show!! I have a question. When I transfer a picture from Lr to my phone it comes out darker. What can I do to correct this? Anybody else have this problem?

  19. PGC 13 February, 2015 at 16:55 Reply

    Great show, guys. Timing doesn’t work for me in the UK, darn that employment thing!! Please could you send a podcast link for those of us on windows without iTunes. So excited by the possibilities of this show.

    • PGC 15 February, 2015 at 11:23 Reply

      Don’t worry – I found your RSS feed on the KelbyOne TV-Shows page. Well done guys – this is a fully rounded service. Keep it going!

  20. Jude Baker 13 February, 2015 at 13:17 Reply

    I really enjoyed the show. Loved the tip on brightness because I encounter that issue all the time. I have another printing question, should you size the photo for the print size (i.e., if I am printing a 16×24 canvas should I size the print to 16×24)? Or is that irrelevant?

  21. Ross 13 February, 2015 at 13:05 Reply

    Hey guys, I love how you are staying current. It doesn’t matter what anyone says, staying current is what makes a business succeed. As much as I love photoshop and have used it from its infancy, Lightroom is where its at right now. Top marks.

    All the best,
    Ross
    http://www.rosshurley.com

  22. Philipp 13 February, 2015 at 12:54 Reply

    hey Guys thanks for the great show! I’m an using Lightroom from version 2 and it’s great that I still find tricks and tips that help me with my workflow. Btw Elia is the best I love his work, I was happy to me with him at photokina in Colone!

  23. Mike Donahue 13 February, 2015 at 12:48 Reply

    Great first episode! Great quick hits of information, really struck a nice balance between content and length. I think if you packed much more in there, you’d start to overload and forget some of it.

    Thanks for the show!

  24. Dennis Vogel 13 February, 2015 at 11:48 Reply

    Scott, very good. I like that you guys keep it to under 10 minutes. Easy to watch.

    Is there any way to download the episodes for personal use? I’d like to keep them in my video tips library for future reference offline.

    Again, thanks and keep up the good work.

    Dennis

  25. Jeff Macholz 13 February, 2015 at 11:24 Reply

    Regarding the tip on brightening printed photos, it would be great if Adobe added a “TEST” print to the print module where you could select three or more percentages of brightness and have it print selection (or the whole print) with increasing percentage of brightness from left to right. That way you wouldn’t have to waste several sheets of test prints.

    • lyle 14 February, 2015 at 00:34 Reply

      You can do that using a 4×5 bleed template and a layout with 4 4×5 on same sheet. (I think I have the terms right…)
      Use your 4×5 template to sequentially save individual jpgs, each with increased brightness values (put value in filename…) – then import the 4 jpgs and plug them into the 4-4×5 sheet – print it with no adjustment. ( If you turn on Page – Print Info in your 4×5 template and choose field “Custom” – you can type it in and it will show on the print in text). Maybe that will help save you some paper. I only print at costco and this is how I zeroed in by making 20 4×6 prints with varied brightness and contrast settings one time, and telling them to make no adjustments. Best $4.00 I spent in a long time…

  26. Florian 13 February, 2015 at 11:16 Reply

    Scott & RC- Great stuff! Love the show and the format and the set I recently abandoned Aperture and have used my kelbyone subscription to get up and running with Lr , siand have been an avid reader of this blog ever since. I use Mpix for my prints so does this brightening tip need to be applied if you are saving a print as a JPEG? An episode(s) on creating prints from sizing to delivery would be great! Thanks again!

    Florian

  27. Gary Dumbauld 13 February, 2015 at 11:15 Reply

    I like it! I really enjoy The Grid when I have time; I really like the interplay of personalities. The Lightroom Show on the other hand, seems to be more content-intensive. For me (not all that busy, but still……..) it was nice to go right to the tips and tricks. Thanks Scott and R.C. !

  28. Carl Ouellet 13 February, 2015 at 11:00 Reply

    Awesome, the show got to my expectations, nice format not too long right to the point. Long live to the LR Show. But I have a constructive comment to add. The set is great but the camera angle is somewhat too wide it seems you are sitting at 30 feet from the camera, maybe more frequent close up, and the audio sound a little like you are into a cavern.

    Carl O.

  29. Robert Hinds 13 February, 2015 at 10:48 Reply

    Hi guys,
    I love the Killer tips site and the new lightroom show! Thanks!
    One question about the first show. I like the printing 20% brighter tip. Is there a similar way to do this, without going to Ps, when you’re sending it out to be printed? If not, how would you lighten it up for enlargement printing? I just had this happen when I sent out a big enlargement and it came back too dark. Thanks!

    • Rob Sylvan 13 February, 2015 at 11:14 Reply

      Yes, watch the video a little longer and RC shows you the Print Adjustment option in the Print Job panel. Works when saving out to JPG too.

  30. Kevin Graham 13 February, 2015 at 10:46 Reply

    Great show! Looking forward to the others. This may be more of a The Grid idea than for the smaller context of these shows – But, I would love shows on Post Processing Workflows. As you bring in guests, talk through what they do with the photos after they are captured. Every photographer has a different workflow process, it would be very interesting to hear it.
    How does an wedding photographer go through their files differently than a sports photographer, etc.

  31. Ray Fidler 13 February, 2015 at 10:44 Reply

    Thanks for the show great tips. A question- when sending your prints to a lab is there an option in Lr to achieve what you did in PScc by duplicating the layer and changing the blend mode to screen, then adjusting the opacity?

  32. Phill 13 February, 2015 at 10:17 Reply

    Great show guys! Scott, just happened to notice that you had a Mortal Kombat or Street Fighter inspired preset in your User Preset list called “Finishing Move.” What do you happen to use that for? Final sharpening or something?

  33. Steve Goldenberg 13 February, 2015 at 10:07 Reply

    I’d love to see you guys do an episode where you compare the various faux grain options we have available through LR, VSCO, Nik Silver Efx etc.

  34. Al Buyck 13 February, 2015 at 08:00 Reply

    Love the new show !!!! I have a question about “brightness for printing”. I send most of my printing out but I have had the dark print issue as well and specifically in the blurb book module. What do you suggest as a way to lighten all the pics in a book before I send the book to blurb. Thank you for the new show.

    • Scott Kelby 13 February, 2015 at 10:12 Reply

      We can cover that on an upcoming episode. There is something that can be done, but it takes a little more than just moving a slider. Not a bunch more, but some. We’ll tackle it for you. 🙂

  35. Bob van Ooik 13 February, 2015 at 07:14 Reply

    Been using the ‘R’ shortcut since version 1 to bring me to the develop module. Or better said, I just type double ‘R’ and start developing 🙂

  36. Gunnar 13 February, 2015 at 05:55 Reply

    Hi.
    Liked your tip about dark printing but is there a smart way to fix the same thing for files I send (as JPG) to a lab thats printing my files?

    /Gunnar

    • OmarSV11 13 February, 2015 at 08:08 Reply

      My advice would be to check that jpg on several displays (another monitor, laptop, cellphone, tablet) so you can compare how it’s the brightness and contrast across them. I tell my allumni to calibrate (with no hardware calibrator) with a warm ambient light behind the monitor, putting contrast to the max and the lowering brightness to a point where it looks comfortable to the eye, then lower the contrast to a same point. Usually helps. But I tell them that nothing beats to have hardware calibrated monitor.

      Another software solution that’s avaliable for PC users is Calibraze which does the exact same procedure I mentioned above with great results.

  37. Paul Kloeden 13 February, 2015 at 05:26 Reply

    Hi Guys,

    great first episode, and I really like the idea of the show.

    Following on from RC’s tip about brightening up images for printing, is there something similar that can be done when exporting to a Blurb book?

    Cheers,

    Paul

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