PhotoWalkPro

I was going through some old images in Lightroom, just trying to purge some unwanted images that were kind of suckish, to quote my son, when I saw this shot.

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I was working on some images yesterday when I discovered something about the Adjustment Brush that I never knew before.  While burning in an area of the image, I was wishing that I could use the brush for straight lines like I do in Photoshop.  If you want to paint a straight line in Photoshop, I simply click with the brush in one spot and then hold down the Shift key and click in another area and Photoshop draws a straight line between the two spots. Read the rest of this entry »

The Publish Services feature of the new Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta is very similar to the Export function in previous versions of Lightroom.  In  LR2, I actually have a plug-in that allows me to export my images directly to Flickr but in Beta 3 there is no need for any plug-in because Adobe has worked with Flickr and built the service right into the Publish tool.  The big difference between this and the older plug-in that I was using in LR2 is that the plug-in only allowed me to upload my images whereas the Publish Services feature maintains contact with my images and will send any comments from Flickr directly back to Lightroom.  Also, if I make any changes to my images after uploading them, Lightroom will keep track of the changes and if I click back on my published collection I will see any images that need re-publishing.  Of course this only works if you have an active Internet connection but you can also publish to a folder on your hard drive and then use that folder as an upload source to places like Facebook or your stock agency or wherever.  I’m looking forward to seeing even more development on this handy new feature.

Publishing Services is located under the Collections panel in the Library.

The Publishing Manager works just like the Export Manager, with many of the same settings.

When you modify a published file, Lightroom will keep track so you can upload your changes and keep your files current.

Any comments that are left on Flickr are delivered back to Lightroom.

My Lightroom Beta 3 Word of Caution -

Lightroom 3 is currently in beta format and will probably take on quite a few changes before being released as a final version.  If you have downloaded a copy, you should use it knowing that any libraries that you build will not be imported into the final shipping version of Lightroom 3.  That’s because there could be so many changes to the beta version that it would be difficult to program in the imports.  You will however be able to import all your Lightroom 2 catalogs into the final version.

After writing about my desire to add a second line in my ID Plate in Lightroom I received a suggestion from blog reader Andy Klafter.  He wondered if I had tried pressing Option-Return to get a new line of text in the edit box.  The truth is that I hadn’t but as soon as I got back to my Mac I quickly fired up Lightroom and pulled up the edit window for the Identity Plate and then tried Andy’s suggestion.  To my surprise and delight, the cursor moved underneath the current line of text and allowed me to type another line.  I just love learning new stuff!

ID Plate with one line of text

The ID Plate Editor

After moving the text to a 2nd line with Option-Return

After moving the text to a 2nd line

Sadly though, my delight turned to a bit of disappointment when I found that I really wasn’t any better off than before for the following reason.  Although I was able to add the second line, there is no way to format the text beyond changing the size and font style of the second line.  The big problem is that Adobe has not included any way to actually edit the attributes of the text.  There is no way to center justify the text or adjust the spacing between the lines of text or the kerning (the space between the letters).

The lack of these controls really makes having the ability to add the second line of text a little anticlimactic.  I’m sure I will find a use for it but it won’t truly be useful as an ID plate until I can exert a little more control over the actual styling of the text used for the plate. I still want to give props to Andy though for dropping the Option-Return nugget on me and giving me another option to play with in Lightroom.  Of course if someone knows a way to solve my kerning or justify problem I would love to hear about it.

The orchid garden in the Singapore airport

I mentioned in a previous post that I had purchased a Netbook computer to use in my travels in place of my trusty MacBook Pro.  I am happy to report that I am really pleased that I made the purchase.  Before I left home, I loaded my new Netbook with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom so that I could process images from my travels.  I also threw a bunch of movies on the hard drive to get me through some of the longer flight segments and layovers (like the 6 hours I spent in Singapore).  Although I would probably have preferred to have my Netbook loaded with Windows XP instead of Vista, I am pretty happy with the performance so far.  The movie playback has been very smooth using VLC as my viewer of choice.  It’s a free program that will show almost any format out there.  I really didn’t have a choice since the Windows Media Player doesn’t come with many Codecs and some of my video files are in DVD format so I would have had to pay for a codec to watch them (way to go, Microsoft).

The wi-fi has been great whenever I have been in range of a free connection.  The built in antennae has been getting decent reception and my only limitation is the speed of the connection.  It really is perfect for email and web surfing.  Speaking of web surfing, I passed over the clumsy Internet Explorer 8 for Vista and opted to use Google Chrome.  It was fairly new to me since it is not yet available for the Mac but I have to say that I am very pleased with the speed and user interface.  It doesn’t have all of the add-ons that I am used to in Firefox but it is satisfying my need for quick web browsing.

I’m sure that the big question that most of you have is, how does my Netbook handle Lightroom.  Frankly I was a bit skeptical when I installed it, especially since my Netbook, like most Netbooks, uses the Intel Atom processor.  I am happy to report that, after importing a couple of hundred images, the Lightroom performance is actually much better than I had hoped for.  Sure, it’s no where near as fast as my Mac, but I didn’t expect it to be.  It does however allow me to upload with relative speed and moving between the different modules is pretty painless.  I think it does help that I purchased the Acer with 2GB of RAM instead of the standard 1GB that most Netbooks have.  I am also pleased that I opted for the 250 GB hard drive so that I can store a ton of RAW images without concern.  I will transfer these to my Drobo when I get back home and then import them into my Lightroom catalog on my Mac for regular use.  I probably should have brought along my Epson P5000 or a small back-up drive but I was really trying to cut down on my carry-on equipment.  I did bring lots of CF cards so I probably won’t have to delete any of them before my trip is over.

Speaking of Lightroom, I was reading my buddy Scott Kelby’s blog and saw that Adobe has released the Beta for Lightroom 3.  As soon as I finish writing this post I am going to head over to Adobe and download a copy for my Acer.  I have heard that the import process has been upgraded and that imports are even faster now so I will be looking to this speed boost, especially since I will be doing a lot of shooting this weekend, starting with a night shoot in downtown Kuala Lumpur and the Petronas Towers tomorrow night.  I will hopefully have a lot of images to post for you next week.  Until then, check out the NAPP Lightroom 3 Beta Learning Center and then download your copy of the Lightroom 3 Beta over at the Adobe Labs.

Have a great weekend!

The other day I posted a before and after photo that I had processed in Lightroom.  The really impressive thing about the process is the amount of detail contained in a RAW image.  That and Lightroom’s ability to pull out that detail while protecting some of the highlights.  Several of you wrote in asking to see just how I processed the image to get to that final image.  So without further delay, here is a short video showing just how I processed the image.

By the way, several of you commented that you preferred the before image more than the after.  Truth be told, I do to for this particular image.  The point here though isn’t which image is better, rather just how far you can take a RAW image in Lightroom.

See you Wednesday.