Unexpected Tip Saturday
Happy weekend folks. As you’ve noticed it’s an unexpected blog day. I’m trying something new out by blogging on Saturday. Not because I plan to continue to blog on Saturday’s but more because I just finally got internet access on Friday night (my hotel’s wireless apparently is more like connection-less). Anyway, I’ve got some photos to share from the workshop I’m teaching at, but if you want to skip straight to the tip just scroll to the end of this post.
Great Smoky Mountains Workshop Update/Photos
I’m about halfway through my workshop in the Great Smokey Mountains and we’re having a blast. As always, I’m meeting some really great people and within a few hours you’d think we all knew each other for years. Plus, I’m incredibly impressed at the number of great photographers in this workshop. It really is inspiring to be shooting along side these talented folks. I thought I’d share of few of my photos so you can see the kind of scenery that we’re in.
Photo 1 – Here’s one from our sunrise shoot on Thursday (shot with my Nikon D300 and a 17-55 lens)
As you can see, the sky wasn’t anything spectacular and was pretty much a bust. So, I did what any self-respecting photographer would do… I ditched the wide lens and put the 70-200 zoom on and started looking for the photo within the photo. Here’s a few more
Photo 2 – Another from the sunrise shoot (Shot with 70-200 Nikon VR lens)
Photo 3 – Yet one more from sunrise (Shot with 70-200 Nikon VR lens)
Photo 4 – This is a church we saw on the drive through Cades Cove (Shot with 17-55 lens)
And Now for the Saturday Tip
I was actually reminded of this tip by Garth (Alan Sisto) Brooks, a guy in my workshop this weekend. We joked around because if you put a cowboy hat on him, he’s a dead-ringer for Garth Brooks. Anyway, let’s say you apply a bunch of changes in one of the panels in the Develop module. For example, maybe you tweak a bunch of sliders in the HSL panel. Later, after making a bunch of other changes, you decide you want to reset the sliders in the HSL panel. You could manually drag each slider to 0 but that’s a giant pain the butt. Instead, hold down the Alt (Mac: Option) key. The panel will then display Reset Saturation (or whatever panel you’re in) button. Just click on it to reset the sliders for that panel but not everything else in the Develop module. It works for all the panels though so make sure you give it a try.
I hope you’re having a good weekend. We’ve got an early AM shoot on Saturday morning (I’m writing this on late Friday night). It looks like it’s going to rain so we’ll be heading under some trees to shoot the streams in the mountains. Cross your fingers that I don’t fall in : )
Great shots Matt —
Great pics from your trip to the Smokeys. I live in Maryville which is right next door to where you were this past weekend. I would have loved to attend your workshop however I was out of town all day Saturday. I do have a question, how did you get the sky looking so blue?
Hey Matt –
Well, if this is my “15 minutes of fame”, I’m in trouble. 🙂 It was a great workshop and I really enjoyed working with you and the two Bills (Fortney and Campell, for others reading this comment). Hope to work with you again soon!
Everyone else – if you ever get a chance to do a workshop with Matt, be sure to do it… he’s a great teacher and you’ll learn things you didn’t know before… or at least, easier ways of doing the same things you already know how to do!
Alan
Hey Matt. If you have time can you tell me where you shot this. It’s looks familiar. Boy , I really want to come to one of these workshops. I’d like to do one with Bill Fortney and you if that should ever come to pass. I will keep checking and saving. Thanks to you and also Laurie Excell for all that you have done for my photography.
Cheers, John
Hi Matt,
Excellent tip, thanks once again 🙂 The talk of sunrise shoots reminded me to upload a shot I took recently over the Blue Mountains in NSW, Australia to my website, I’m only a beginner with all this, but I was really please with how it came out:
http://oyayu.com/photos/16
Hi all,
I got the opportunity to be at the same workshop this weekend with Matt. It was great getting to spend time learning workflow from Matt and getting photography adivce from the very generous instructors at Great American Photo Workshop.
Matt is a very humble, patient person. He is a fantastic instructor who cares deeply that his students understand and learn, He is also an excellent photographer in his own right and many of the photos that wow you in his tips are his own shots. I think if many of us were as talented and as creative as Matt is, we’d be doing a lot more bragging than he would ever think to do.
I am very appreciative to have gotten to spend time working with and learning from Matt this weekend. If you have the opportunity to take one of his classes at a NAPP Seminar or Photoshop World, or are lucky enough to be on one of his workshops, run don’t walk to get there, you will not be sorry! Matt is really an all-around great guy. It is easy to see why he is such a great instructor.
Hope you made it home safely today, Buddy!… Whoah… Feedback!!!
hey ! I just wanna say hello from France and tell you how much the photoshopusertv program and all the tips are useful !!
keep up the good work !!
Marina
Hi Matt,
i´m a long time reader but first time writer of your blog. I like your Blog very much and it´s very inspiring. Thanks a lot. In your todays post you forgot to mention that you can archive a similar effect by clicking on the black/white squares in the headline of the section, to toggle on and off the changes you made in every section of the Develop module.
Keep up the good work, greetings from Germany,
Kay
Work’s great, I never heard of this before. Thank you very much 🙂 (Great Photos btw.)
James George: The workshop was through http://www.gaphotoworks.com and it looks like Matt is doing another workshop with them in October at Acadia. Not sure that Matt has a calendar of where he’s going to be anywhere… But I hear many upcoming events on Photoshop User TV. (Just a FYI till Matt can reply:-)
ohh that is very nifty! I can see myself using that a lot.
Wow! I didn’t know you were going to be in the Smoky Mtns this weekend! I am devastated- I can’t believe I missed the opportunity to meet you. I love you work! I know that church in Cades Cove-It is ancient. If I wanted to attend the workshop with you, how would I have signed up? and if I wanted to contact YOU, how could I do that or where would I find out info of where you’re going to be? You were literally in my back yard and I didn’t even know it. I hope you get a shot of the creeks and tributaries there in Cades Cove, especially at Abram’s Falls. I have a shot from there, but I have know idea how to show you. Its one of my favorite shots that I’ve taken.
Hey Matt,
Thanks for the Saturday Tip! I’ve been wanting to know how to do that for a long time. Like you said, drag sliders is a pain. My recent method has been to double click on the slider button, which will put you back to original position. This is way easier!
Photos are cool!
Dennis
Hey Matt…great shots, looks like you were at Clingmans Dome. If not get up there at 6AM..amazing. I did a fall 07 workshop there with Aspen WS, C Borland, B Willmore and Marv Miller,my head is still swimming from that. Make sure u guys have the Jack Daniels Glazed ribeye at Timbers and the all you can eat catfish at the Back Porch. Maybe I’ll see ya in Bar Harbour next fall.
-cb
Matt,
You might also have mentioned that double clicking on the slider will reset an individual adjustment to it original (default) position. Using the alt plus double click resets everything in the panel.
Emmet
Nice work!
jkd
Hey Matt, If I wanted to post a general question about some feature of Lightroom, not specific to any of your blog posts, where would be the best place to do that?
Matt,
Thanks for the Saturday tip, and for the Layers book that I just received. Today I’m more interested in your photos of the Smokies since I’m heading up there for a photo shoot next week. Cades Cove, Tremont, Greenbrier, Roaring Fork and Little River Road are all on my itinerary. If you upload a (Lightroom) gallery of pictures from the workshop, give us a link.
Thanks again,
Joe
photo 2 is wonderful—great depth & color!! Thanks for sharing.
You really don’t need the [Alt] key. It just shows you where to double-click.
Woah.
I wasn’t expecting that.
Hey Matt,
Now this is serious stufff … blogging on a Saturday :o)
Love the shots from the workshop … the locations look just stunning. With all the workshops you guys run out in the US, as well as PSWorld I could find myself ‘across the water’ for most of the year … all I need to do now is to convince Mrs Dewis that it’s all work and no play :o)
Have a great rest of the workshop and I look forward to finally catching up in Vegas later in the year.
All the best,
Glyn