PhotoWalkPro

I use a lot of images in my blog.  To save time in preparing them for upload I use a great little feature in Lightroom called Export.  I know, it doesn’t sound very sexy but the time it saves me means I can spend more time typing and less time resizing, changing color spaces, and moving files to my blog folder.  Since I import all of my images to Lightroom, the Export function is my logical choice for handling all of these functions and since I have it set up as a preset, all I have to do is select my images and my preset, that’s all there is to it.

The real secret to making this feature work for you is to set up your User Defined Preset.  When you first click on Export under the File menu, you will be presented with a dialog box to define your parameters.

Start by selecting the location where you would like your images to end up once exported.  Next, set up your file naming.  You can use the pre-defined choices or set up your own naming convention.

To set up your own naming convention, click on Edit from the drop-down menu.

Next, choose the type of file you would like to export your photos as.  I choose JPEG for mine but there are several file types to choose from.  If you use the JPEG option, you will also be able to select the image quality.  The larger the number, the higher the quality and the less compression that will be applied.

The next section will define the image settings for your exports.  If you are exporting for the web, you will want to select sRGB.  You can also choose to have your images resized for your particular purpose.  I choose 800×800 which means that my images are resized to fit within that pixel dimension while maintaining their aspect ratios.

The last two options allow you to add some metadata and define what you would like to happen after the export is complete, i.e., open the images in a folder, open them in Photoshop, burn them to a disc, or do nothing.  I like mine to open in a folder view just to verify that I didn’t forget anything.

Now that all of your settings are in place, click the Add button at the bottom left of the dialog box and then name your preset.

That’s it for the setup.  You are now ready to process your images with a couple of mouse clicks.  To make it happen, just go to the Library in Lightroom and ctrl-click on the images that you want to export.

Now go up to the File menu, click on Export with Preset, and then choose your newly created preset.

That’s all there is to it.  You images are now waiting for you in the folder of your choice.  This is a great little time saving tool and will work for many of your processing needs like making a burn folder or preparing images for email.  So give it a shot and see if it doesn’t save you a little time for the rest of your busy day.

Yesterday I finished off my post with a couple of HDR images.  Today I want to run down exactly what I did to one of those images, post-tonemapping.  The image was tonemapped using Photomatix Pro 3.0.  For those that aren’t familiar with tonemapping, it is a process that is used to take a 32-bit High Dynamic Range image (which is not viewable on a standard monitor) and map the tones and colors back to a viewable 8 or 16-bit space.  Don’t worry, that’s about as technical as I am going to get here.  So just to refresh you memory, let’s take a look at the original image, straight out of the camera.

Now let’s have a look at the HDR tonemapped version.

As you can see, the tonemapped version is not ready for prime time viewing by any account.  Normally I would take the image into Photoshop and start my burning and color adjustments and other tweaks to get my final image.  This time I thought I would do all of my post-tonemapped processing in the new Lightroom 2.0 Beta.  There are some great new tools in the beta that really eliminate the need to take the image into Photoshop, most of the time.

So the first thing I did after importing was to move over to the Develop module.  From there I made overall adjustments to the image using the Basic panel.  The only adjustments I made were to the Exposure, Clarity, Vibrance, and Saturation (see panel below)

Then I moved down the panels to the Tone Curve panel.  I adjusted my Highlights, Lights and Darks to give me the level of contrast that I wanted.

These features are all available in the 1.x version of Lightroom but coming up are some tools that are only in the beta version. First, I used the Retouching tool to do some localized dodging and burning.  This is how dodging and burning should work in Photoshop.  This tool just flat out ROCKS!  Not only can you paint in the amount of dodging and burning that you want while changing the brush size, you can also increase or decrease the effect using the Amount sliders.  You can also add new dodging and burning points that are individually adjustable.  And just like everything else in Lightroom, you aren’t really applying the effect to the image, just a representation of your image so it’s never final until you export it.  Oh, and you can also see your painted on mask by hovering your mouse over each paint point.  So here is a look at my Dodge mask.

And here is my Burn mask.

After dodging and burning, I cropped the image.  The Crop tool is still unchanged but why mess with perfection?

Finally I added a vignette in the Vignettes panel.  Notice that it’s plural as in more than one.  This is another great change that has been added to 2.0.  One of my frustrations in working with the old version was the inability to add vignettes to images after they had been cropped.  Unless the crop was exactly in the middle of the image, the vignette was always off in one or more corners.  But not any longer.  Now you can vignette using the using the standard Lens Correction sliders found in ver. 1.x, or you can use the Post-Crop sliders which actually apply an even vignette to your cropped image. WooHoo!  It’s the little things, you know?

And there you have it.  All of the steps that it took for me to go from clowny to cool and it took a heck of a lot less time to do than it did for me to write about it.  Here is the final image that was posted yesterday.

If you have been thinking about downloading the beta but haven’t quite gotten around to pulling the trigger, do yourself a favor and head on over to Adobe Labs and grab yourself a copy while you can.  I believe that the 2.0 Beta will run through the end of August of this year which will give you plenty of time to explore all of the great new features.  Rumor has it that they might even sneak in a few more goodies into the finished product.  I’m just covered in photogeek goosebumps.

During the keynote speech last week by Adobe’s John Loiacono, Johhny L made a live link with a crew of internationally renowned photographers down in Tasmania that have gathered for a live test-run of the new Lightroom 2.0 Beta.  During the shoot, the photographers will be shooting, uploading, sorting, and adjusting their images.  As a sponsor of the event, LowePro is supplying all of the photographers and the Adobe crew with all of their gear bags.  O’Reily Media is feeding all of the blog coverage to the LowePro site where you can follow along with daily shooting and get first hand information from the photographers in the field on the new Lightroom Beta, LowePro bags, and other great Lightroom Adventure information.  To see the blog, follow this link. Other sponsors of the Lightroom Adventure include Epson, DigitaRailroad.Net, and Quantas.

I’m going to be conducting my own field test this week as I head off to Dubai in the U.A.E.  I leave this coming Wednesday and going with me, along with all my camera gear, will be my newly downloaded copy of Lightroom 2.0 and a new LowePro Fastpack 250 photo backpack. I have written before about my search for the perfect travel backpack and this one looks pretty promising.  It has a side-load compartment for easy camera access, a side entry pocket that will hold my laptop, and lots of pockets to hold my other goodies.  Best of all, it is small enough to fit under the seat on the airplane.  I’ll be giving this bag a real run for its money as it hauls my gear half way around the World and through the deserts and concrete jungles of Dubai.  I’ll have lots of time to write my review on the 18 hour return trip next week.  I will also be searching out wi-fi connections along the way so that I can upload images all through the week.  Make sure you stop by and follow along with me as I take a different type of Photowalk.

Now speaking of Adobe, scroll down to the next post to see some news about Photoshop Express.

I received an email from one of my readers who had been looking at my online galleries. All of my galleries are created in Lightroom and he wanted to know how I put the Back to Gallery link on my pages instead of the standard email address. So here is exactly how you can accomplish this.

To create the link-back, you need to go to the Site Info panel of the Web development module in Lightroom and look for the Contact Info section. Once you are there, click inside the Contact Info section to rename it. Whatever you type will appear as the link name on your page. I labeled mine “Back to Gallery Page”. Then go down to the next section called Web or Mail Link and type in the address of the page that you would like to link back to. Don’t forget to include the “http://”. Now when you generate your page it will have that handy link-back instead of the email address.

Here is an example of one of my gallery pages with the link-back section.

After you have made this change, you can save your new design as a pre-set by going over to the Template Browser on the left-hand panel and click Add to save your changes as a pre-set. The next time you want to create a gallery, just select your pre-set and your link section will automatically be inserted along with any other changes you have made. The nice thing about saving your pre-set is that you aren’t locked into those changes, they just act as a starting point so you can still go back and change any element within the page.

The other question I was asked was how to move the link section to the left side of the finished page. I really didn’t have an answer for this because I believe it would involve editing the actual flash or html template which is beyond my abilities. If you have any suggestions for doing this, please feel free to share it in the comment section.

Lightroom is a great program.  You can find discussions all across the web about the power of the program and how beneficial it is for photographers.  To get a taste, check out Matt Kloskowski’s great Lightroom Killer Tips blog.  One of the things that immediately drew me to Lightroom was its ability to take my images and create gallery pages using both html and Flash.  It’s easy, it’s very customizable, and it loads the galleries directly to my host site without making me jump through any extra hoops.  But there was always one little thing that drove me a little batty and that was where Lightroom wanted to put my copyright info when I had vertical/portrait oriented images.  For some strange reason, Lightroom always wanted to stick the copyright in the top-left corner, reading down the left side.  It’s like it turned the image horizontal, applied the copyright, and then rotated back to vertical.  And there was no way of changing this, save turning off the copyright (which I am really reluctant to do).  This past weekend I created some new galleries to update my Gallery page.  What I didn’t notice until today when talking to my #1.1 fan, Mike Meyer, was that Lightroom doesn’t do the funky rotating copyright anymore.  It now places all copyrights in the bottom left corner of the image.  I’m not sure how I missed this change except to say that it was fairly unheralded.  I am now inspired to go back and recreate my older gallery pages so that all of the copyrights are the same.  My thanks to Adobe for fixing this little annoyance.  Now if they would just give me a little more control over the font, my life would be complete (you know what I mean).