Q&A Day
As you know I get lots of questions through the comments here on the site so I’m picking off a few from the list to answer. Here goes:
Q) After removing the beta profiles, I see profiles for Camera D2X Mode 1,2, 3 (for Nikon only) and standard Camera profiles like Landscape, Neutral, Portrait etc. I use Nikon D90. Should camera profiles for D90 appear instead of the D2X? Or should I use standard Camera profiles like Landscape, Neutral, Portrait?
A) Yeah, this one is weird. Although the profiles are called D2X they’re actually profiles for all Nikon cameras. Honestly, I don’t really get it. But I kinda like the D2X Mode 3 profile personally and use it often. So regardless of what camera you have, don’t be alarmed that the D2X profiles show up. Unless you own a D2X you won’t see any profiles with your specific camera name.
Q) Those Camera Profiles are a neat feature in LR2.2 , but what about the two newer Canon styles released recently to improve skin tones…called P-Studio and P-Snapshot – I don’t see these?
A) From what I can see from Canon’s website, these profiles appear to be Extended function styles. There are no Lightroom equivalent profiles available for them like there are the other Canon picture styles.
Q) Is there a way to password-protect a Lightroom catalog? What I’d like is when I open LR and select a catalog, a dialogue box with a password would come up to get into it.
A) Nope. Not a bad idea though.
Q) I downloaded your print presets but I am not able to install them to my develop module?
-or-
When I try to install your print presets I get the error “The Preset File was the wrong type of preset”?
A) This means you broke Lightroom for good 🙂 Just kidding. I get this question every single time I release a print preset. Probably because I usually release Develop presets and folks are used to installing them in the Develop module. First off, you can’t install any print presets into the Develop module. They are for the Print module only. If you ever get the error message listed above, it just means you were in the Develop module (or Web or Slideshow) when you installed them and not the Print module. So double check which module you’re in before you try to install the print presets.
Hi Matt,
Just wondering if i was missing a step. I loaded the new presets but they don’t seem to work from the user preset list. They don’t do anything to my image. The beta ones work from the camera calibration list though. Should i be doing something different?
thanks
mike
Matt,
Today I use Photoshop for preparing a file for print at a pro lab. The file is normally a 32″ x 32″ canvas in which I place all my different images at the appropriate size I want printed.
In Lightroom I believe it is not possible to create a print (either for printer or JPEG output) that has different images of different sizes. From my understanding you can only have one or the other.
Is this true or do you have a work around for this besides having to go into photoshop and setup your own print sheet with chosen images each time? I was really hoping Lightroom was going to simplify my workflow here.
Thanks,
Craig.
In my search for help choosing the best laptop for Lightroom, I found this article to be informative http://www.peachpit.com/articles/printerfriendly.aspx?p=1247538 .
Matt,
This question is about HDR and shooting interiors. You mentioned that you need to make sure that you have shadow detail by overexposing the highlights. To make sure that almost all of the LCD display is blinking with highlight warnings. Do I this correct?
-Mike
I am also interested in Tysen’s question about what we need to make LR run quickly. I am buying a new mac, and probably a desktop since my current g4 laptop is interminably slow with the new LR2 even though I have 1.25 gb ram. I moved all of my pics to an external harddrive thinking that it would speed up the process but it takes up to 9-11 sec. for each picture to load in the develop module. I changed all of the settings as the LR book suggested but no improvements. I wondered if loading the pics from an external hard drive via a usb cable was the problem, but I noticed that you had your pics on an external so I figured that couldn’t be it. Anyway, I am all set to buy a new mac in a month when the macs come with the newer software (hopefully) but just wanted to make sure I get what I need to run LR and PS. Thanks for any help. I’ve looked in the LR forums on NAPP and haven’t really found my answer.
It is possible to encrypt a catalog, but not the contents. I use an external program called axcrypt. It is free, open source, but Windows only software. If there’s a MAC equivalent, someone else will need to point it out.
After installation, right click on the LRCAT file choose Axcrypt from the context menu and encrypt it. Don’t forget the password. When you want to access it, just double click and enter the password. When done, it will go back to encrypted format.
You can also create a shortcut to the encrypted file (it has an axx extension) and even change the icon to the LR2 icon, making the process nearly invisible.
Two questions.
1) What is the best/fastest way to download all your presets? My exploration has only resulted in the, “open every preset post and download via the link.” Is there some secret static page that I can go to that lists them all?
2) I’ve been shopping for a new laptop to run Lightroom and Photoshop and I was curious to know what would the “recommended system requirements” be as opposed to Adobe’s “minimum system requirements.” I tested Lightroom out on my fairly new work laptop and it didn’t perform up to my standards or match what I’ve seen in tutorials. I’ve also seen some laptops being sold as “pro photographer laptops,” but they are well out of my price range. I guess I should be looking for things like 64-bit, plenty of ram, and a fast processor, but how many cores or what kind of graphics card? I’d consider both Mac and PC. I’m interested in your expert advice and that of your readers.
Try this link for password protecting a lightroom gallery
http://theturninggate.net/lightroom/password-protect-lightroom-galleries
I did not how to get this message to you so this was the only option i find. I have one simple sequestration to improve Lightroom.
I love to stack my edited files with the original raw files.
But why cant this be done from cataloges?
All the best
Kai jensen
Hey Matt,
I found away to make pre-sets for the Canon extended function styles. It requires that you use the DNG profile editor that was part of the original pre-sets. This profile editor is still beta, but it works great for these. Also, you need to have Canon’s DPP program. Heres what I did.
Load the extend feature into DPP and applied the feature.
Save the picture under a different name.
Convert the picture to DNG.
Load it into the DNG profile editor.
Save it as a Profile and bang you have a new preset.
I used this for Autumn Hues and Twilight. It’s was close enough for me.
Thanks
Dennis
> Although the profiles are called D2X theyÂ’re actually profiles for all Nikon cameras. Honestly, I donÂ’t really get it.
It’s a historical anomaly. Nikon at one time had several different image processing things that all were kind of hidden. Instead of straight Color Spaces, they had these things called Color Modes (and eventually Color Modes AND Color Spaces). On the consumer cameras they had Image Optimization controls. The first camera that really integrated all of this into one better system was the D2x.
With the next generation of cameras we got Picture Controls, and they were optimized in color, contrast, and linearity differently than the old style. Many pro shooters immediately objected. Their new D3 didn’t match their old D2x, so it was difficult to submit batches of photos from both cameras intermixed in a session. So many of us complained, that Nikon fairly quickly took their old optimizations and put them into Picture Controls: the D2XMODE1, D2XMODE2, and D2XMODE3 Picture Controls are attempts to mimic what came together with the D2x style of processing controls. And they actually are pretty close.
So, if you’re shooting with an older Nikon DSLR model and want to mimic that look, you should try the three D2XMODE Picture Controls. However, I’ll point out that LANDSCAPE is a newer take on D2XMODE3 and PORTRAIT is a newer take on D2XMODE1. If all you’re using is newer Nikon bodies, you probably want to use those, instead.
Thanks a lot Matt, for the answer on D2X and other Nikon profiles left after uninstalling beta camera profiles.
Appreciate your efforts.
logge,
Thanks for the extra info on the D2X files, I had never fully understood what that was all about.
hi matt,
a note to the D2X profiles. Nikon created these, because many that switched to the D3 or D300 missed the out of camera look that they got from the D2X before. so nikon created these D2X profiles to let the new cameras simulate the look of the old D2X files. so this has nothing to do with the camera you are using, the idea is only to get the look of the old D2X back
Matt,
I’ve been using LR since 1.0 and really like it. (Good thing since I don’t own Photoshop and am frankly, intimidated by it.) I recently recently switched to the Mac OS X. But now I’m in trouble. I used to use Imagenomic for Windows. Now I need a Mac compatible stand alone noise reduction program to supplement LR 2.2. Any suggestions?