Lightroom News

I'm a Lightroom fan.  No surprise there if you've followed the blog for any length of time.  As someone who's both hooked on photography and loves technology, Adobe Lightroom is one of the most powerful and well written applications I've had the privilege of using.  If you haven't given it a try to see how it can give you a very valuable tool for your post production toolbox, here are a few things you might want to consider.

1. You can download a free trial of Adobe Lightroom 3 from Adobe.com and try it for yourself without obligation.  No, I do not get paid commission.  I just think this is an incredible application and you owe it to yourself to at least try it out.
2. You can find all of my Lightroom blog posts on this site by clicking here.  Try flipping back to the earliest posts and work your way forward as they, for the most part, review Lightroom functionality in the order that would match most work flows. 
3. If you have tried Lightroom, but haven't "ponied up" yet, you can get an amazing price on the software by clicking here for a limited time.
4. If you'd like the to own what I consider to be the most comprehensive resource available to help you get the most out of Lightroom 3, consider Scott Kelby's "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers".

If you're STILL not sold, but do not have any post production software to help you catalog and edit your photographs, a friend shared another link with me this past week that I thought I'd pass along here as well.  Cyberlink has developed an application which they are positioning against Lightroom and Apple's Aperture software called PhotoDirector 2011.  I have not reviewed the software, and probably won't, but if you're drawn to free stuff, Cyberlink may have a deal you'd like to check out.

Until next week, keep click'n.
-Ken

Lightroom Identity Plates–The Curse of Scaling

It’s no secret I’m a Lightroom believer.  Up until recently it’s never let me down, but I think I’ve finally found an scenario where it simply falls short – the scaling of a graphical identity plate on prints.

About a year ago I blogged about creating a 2 line identity plate in Lightroom.  For one reason or another, Adobe hasn’t accommodated those of us on the Windows platform to be able to create a multiple line textual identity plate within Lightroom.  Instead, we must resort to creating the plate as a graphical file.  It sounds simple enough and it actually is pretty easy, but here’s the problem.  Scaling.  When you add the graphical identity plate in the Print Module, it automatically scales to 100% of the page size and not the size of the graphic.  Odds are pretty good that you didn’t create the graphic to be the width of the entire page so you’ll immediately notice that the text in the graphic is somewhat distorted.  Even when you scale the plate down to the size you intended, odds are pretty good it will STILL be somewhat distorted.

This hasn’t been a problem for me in the past as I’ve been confined to printing simple posters, etc. for my own use.  Now, however, I’m working on a limited edition print to benefit one of my favorite charities and “good enough” or “okay” are not acceptable outcomes.  It needs to be perfect.  No matter how hard I tried (and how much money I spent on what ended up to be “sample prints”), the text still appears “soft”.  In my example, the page size is 30” wide so I made the identity plate exactly 3” wide and then scaled it to exactly 10%.  Nope. Still “fuzzy”.  So what to do?

Post your question to the nice community of folks on the Adobe forums.  At least that’s what I did.  You can view the entire thread here, but the short answer is to prepare the print as you normally would to provide to a commercial printer, but WITHOUT the identity plate.  Then open the jpeg file produced by Lightroom into Photoshop and recreate the identity plate on a new layer and save it back to the jpeg file using the maximum quality settings. 

This may sound like common sense, but I was worried that “re-saving” back to the jpeg file was going to result in loss of image quality because it was being further compressed.  It took someone with experience with the process to convince me it wasn’t worth worrying about before I actually tried it.  While I don’t have the actual print in hand yet, I did do a compare of the jpeg images within Lightroom; the one where the jpeg with identity plate was produced from Lightroom and the one where the identity plate was saved from Photoshop.  It appears to be true.  I can see no discernable difference in the quality of the actual photo even zoomed in to high magnification.  Well, almost no difference…

The top line is the text captured from the file with the identity plate scaled to 10% in Lightroom.  The bottom is the exact same text produced directly in Photoshop.

Hopefully this is something that is addressed in future releases of Lightroom because so far it’s the only scenario I’ve encountered in my workflow where there isn’t an acceptable solution.

Camera Calibration in Lightroom 3

If you've been following the Lightroom posts you probably already have a good appreciation for the benefits of shooting in RAW format.  If not, you might want to check out "File Formats...Which One Do I Use?".

One important consideration not covered in that post, however, is that when you import RAW images into Lightroom, that's exactly what you get. The "RAW" image.  No added contrast or sharpening. No applied picture styles like "Vivid" or "Black & White".  You simply get the RAW, unmodified image which in most cases looks rather flat and dull when compared to the preview you saw on your LCD screen which included those types of adjustments. So why would you ever want to shoot in RAW if it doesn't apply those in-camera adjustments?

In a word, flexibility.  As mentioned in the linked post above, a RAW image contains MUCH more detailed information to allow you a greater amount of latitude in post processing which you simply cannot achieve with JPEG images.  Luckily, Lightroom provides a way to "fast track" your development process by helping you get your RAW images to more closely match the image you saw in your camera LCD.  It's called the Camera Calibration Panel.

Camera Calibration is camera specific meaning you can have different default settings here for each camera in your arsenal and Lightroom will automatically apply the correct default after reading the image metadata to determine which camera took the photo.  Let's take a closer look at the panel options:

• Process - Lightroom 3 introduced a new processing engine (2010) used to apply changes to your image.  The "old" engine (2003) also appears in this list.  If you have images in your catalog which were processed with the non-current engine, a small "!" symbol will appear in the lower right corner of your image to inform you the image has not been processed by the latest engine.  Click the icon if you'd like to reprocess the image using the most current processing method.
• Profile - Adobe has provided a series of profiles you can select from to attempt to match the picture style options you have in your camera.  These profiles are then applied to your RAW images to give you a "head start" in your development process.  You can even create and save your own profile if you wish.  Just search Adobe's web site for "DNG Profile" for additional information.  As you can see from the screen shot, I've settled on the "Camera Vivid" profile as I tend to like the extra color saturation.  You cannot change this option on JPEG images.
• Sliders - The remainder of the sliders give you control over adjusting the tint in the shadows and/or the hue or saturation of the primary colors.  If you always seem to be toning down the reds, you can make those adjustments in this panel.

Now that you know what it does, here's a little advice on how to make it work for you.

1. The next time you set out to shoot your favorite subject matter, set your camera to record both RAW+JPEG.  Whatever in-camera adjustment settings you've configured (picture styles, contrast, sharpeness, etc.) will be applied to the JPEG images, but not the RAW images.
2. Import both the RAW and JPEG images into Lightroom.
3. BEFORE applying any other adjustments to your RAW image, jump over to the Camera Calibration panel in the Develop Module.  Take a few minutes to analyze the results of each of the Profile settings on your image.
4. When you find the profile setting that you like, compare the adjusted RAW image to the original JPEG.  How do they stack up against one another?  If the RAW image still shows some hue or saturation differences from the original JPEG which you'd prefer not to have, take the RAW image back into the Develop Module and adjust those settings in the Camera Calibration panel.
5. When you're satisfied with the adjustments, make another comparison against the JPEG image.  Repeat this process until you're satisfied with the RAW image adjustments.

Lastly, we need to apply these changes as the default for your camera so they are "automagically" applied each time you import images. 

While viewing your adjusted RAW image in the Develop Module, hold down the Alt key on your keyboard and click the Reset button at the bottom right of the panel.  This will present you with the "Set Default Develop Settings"  dialog for you to click the "Update to Current Settings" button.  That's it.  Now every time you import images from that particular camera, these adjustments will automatically be applied to get you started in the right direction.  You can now effectively forget about the Camera Calibration panel (until maybe you buy a new camera ;).

WARNING! (or bonus depending how you look at it).  If you made any other adjustments in the Develop Module (exposure, contrast, white balance, etc) before clicking "Update to Current Settings", they also just became part of your default.  Generally speaking, you would only want to default the settings in the Camera Calibration panel, but if you always find yourself making the same adjustments (exposure, brightness, clarity, etc) on every image, there's nothing to stop you from setting those defaults too.

If you've been afraid of RAW because it "messes up your photo" when you import your images, give these instructions a try and let me know how it goes.  It will help you to open a whole new world of possibilities in your post processing.  If you're interested in getting more information on the subject or any other Lightroom topic, consider Scott Kelby's book, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter).  It's my one stop source for all Lightroom information.

Until next time, keep click'n.

-Ken

Lightroom 4 Brings New Life to HDR

Last August I experimented with a Lightroom only HDR image just to see how close I could get it compared to using some other HDR work flow such as Photomatix.  The results were promising.  Now, with the new "Basic Panel" controls in Lightroom 4, things are looking up even more.  Time for another experiment.

For my source image, I chose the shot that pushed me into the world of HDR, "The Great Escape".  You see the original unedited version above.

Here are the steps I took to process the image in Lightroom 4.

Upgrade Process

1. Updated it to 2012 Process engine.  This image was originally imported using LR3 and the 2010 Process engine. Until you upgrade the image to the new process engine you won't even see the new Basic Panel in the development module to be able to use it.  Look for the exclamation icon in the lower right of your display window.  Click on the icon to access a dialog box that will help you upgrade.  You can also chose the Process option in the Calibration panel.
2. Adjust the Basic sliders.  With the image upgraded to the 2012 process engine, you will now see the new LR4 Basic Panel. Gone are the Recovery and Fill Light sliders, replaced with Highlights and Shadows.  These new sliders really provide you with more control over adjusting just those parts of your image that need it.  In this example, I pushed up the troubled shadow areas of the foreground without any adverse effects on my colorful sky.



LR4 Basic Panel

3. Local Brush Adjustment.  Even with the magic shadow slider, the silhouette of the bluff in the background still needed a little help.  After painting the dark areas, I started pushing the various sliders, including the new local "Noise" reduction slider until things started to fall into place.

LR 4 Local Brush

The end result...


I don't know about you, but I find myself fairly impressed.  My need for HDR in my landscape images was to overcome the tonal range limitations of my camera.  The new Basic Panel in Lightroom 4 is a very serious tool to help fit that need.

Lastly, I wanted to comment on LR4 performance.  I've seen a lot of comments out there about things seeming a little "doggy" in the development module and based on my limited experiences to date, I'd have to agree.  It's not unbearably slow, but it also isn't what we've come to expect from Lightroom.  I can remember similar complaints when Lightroom 3 came out of beta and it didn't take long for Adobe and the user community to get things rectified. 

Have any experiences of your own with the new Lightroom 4 Basic panel?  Share your thoughts using the comments section below.

Until next time, keep on click'n.

-Ken



After the Shot

So Now What?
So we've spent some time talking about ways to get to know your camera, how to improve upon your photography skills, and even touched on a few post processing topics (see "Tips and Tricks" posts to review).  You've put that information to good use and just spent a fun filled day with your camera capturing image after image of your favorite subject. You now have 400+ images on your memory card, you're sitting in front of your computer about to upload your treasure and you suddenly think, "You know, I really like this photography thing, but there must be a better way to manage all of these pictures".
Congratulations! The first step to any recovery is to recognize that you have a problem.  You've just come to the realization that Windows Explorer and Windows Photo Viewer (or Mac equivalents) are NOT long term solutions to managing your valuable photo treasures.  You just took over 400 photographs in one day.  How are you going to find that 1 special image three years from now?  Remember that cute picture of the kitten sleeping on Uncle Arnie's bald head?  Yeah, where'd you put that? What day was it again? And what about the sensor dust spots? Windows Explorer and/or Photo Viewer aren't going to help you there.  And then, to top it all off, you just took the most AMAZING, once in a lifetime shot that's going to finally bring you fame and fortune... but it's a little dark... maybe a little skewed too... and it would have been even better if that little old lady with the walker hadn't raced into the edge of your frame... if only....

Lightroom to the Rescue
Yep, "if only".  If you can relate to any of the above, it's time for you to consider Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.  I've mentioned this amazing application on the blog before and I'll continue singing it's praises to anyone willing to listen.  If you're an Apple fan and saying, "Yeah, but what about Aperture?", my answer is "I don't know".  See, I'm a PC.  Aperture is only for Mac.  Even if it was available for PC, having had a taste of Lightroom, there's no way I could even consider moving.  I did try Microsoft's Expression Media for a while, but in truth, that's really a different animal.  It does a decent job with "asset management" or helping to manage your library, but it doesn't come close to providing you the development tools available in Lightroom.

Alright Already!
OK. Time to get off my soapbox.  I guess what I'm trying to convey is that if you know you're hooked on this "photography thing" like me - even if it's just shooting the kids with a point and shoot - I would STRONGLY urge you to consider making Lightroom your next photography related purchase.  Like we discussed in the post about buying a tripod, there are some areas where you just shouldn't "skimp" and this is another one of those areas.  Lightroom will help you keep track of your images via it's Library module, allow you to fix problems or enhance photos in the Development module, help you build powerful presentation tools in the Slideshow and Web modules, and give you incredible control over printing your masterpieces in the Print module.
In the coming weeks we will be reviewing some of the incredible functionality found within Lightroom and how you can use it to make your photography life "after the shot" so much easier and much more complete.

Until next time, keep clickn'
-Ken

Lightroom Split Toning: Duotone Step-by-Step

There are a several reasons I post a weekly blog to discuss Adobe Lightroom 3.  First, I think it's an incredible application and deserves to be on every photographer's computer.  Second, if it is on your computer it only provides benefit if you know how to use it so I'm happy to share what I know.  Third, it's helping ME to learn more about Lightroom because I can't write about it if I don't know about it.

If you've been following these blog posts, you know it's no secret that my primary source of knowledge on Lightroom comes from Scott Kelby's, The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers.  If you still don't have a copy in your library, click the link above and purchase the book.  When it arrives, wrap it up, put a bow on it and address it to yourself from Santa for Christmas.  You've been good this year, you deserve it. ;-)

Alright, on with the Lightroom post.  This week we're going to do something a little different because using the Split Toning Panel is new to me too so I've decided to do a step-by-step walk through to share what I've learned about processing a duotone image.  Hopefully you can take something away from it as I did.

Selecting an Image

My first task was to flip through the ol' library to try to find an image with which to experiment.  I decided upon this image of my sister and brother-in-law's lab, Tucker.

My goal was to make a "moody" image of the pouting dog so my next step was to put the focus solely on the dog and get rid of any "noise".  The result was the processed crop you see below. 

LR Adjustments = Crop, Exposure -0.3, Clarity +43, Vibrance +20
and some sharpening







Converting to B&W

Now that I have an image to play with I need to convert it to black and white as the first step toward creating my duotone.  To preserve my original, I first made a virtual copy using the tip from last week - Ctrl + '.

We previously reviewed converting images to black and white where I made reference to Scott Kelby's "preferred" method of conversion from his book.  I took his advice this time and performed the following steps:

1. Selected the Black & White treatment from the Basic Panel.
2. Pushed the Exposure slider to the right until the highlights just started to blow out.
3. Pushed the Recovery slider to the right until the highlight clipping warning disappeared (white triangle at top right of histogram).
4. Pushed the Black slider to the right while holding down the Alt key until I started to see some pure black in the image to provide that black and white "pop".
5. Bumped the Clarity slider to the right to to provide more midtone contrast.
6. Used the Tone Curve Panel to further adjust the contrast of the entire image.

The resulting B&W is seen below.



LR Adjustments = B&W Treatment, Exposure +0.87, Recovery 33, Blacks 26, Clarity +82, Highlights +22, Lights -72, Darks +15, Shadows -22


Converting to Duotone

Having converted to black and white the image is already starting to provide that "moody" feel.  I like the looks of this image so I made another virtual copy at this point (Ctrl + ') before moving to the Split Toning Panel.

According to Mr. Kelby, the secret to a good duotone is to ..."just add the color tint to the shadows".  I achieved this by increasing the saturation of the shadows and then adjusting the hue to a color that provided "more mood".

After adjusting these two sliders, I was looking at my very first attempt at processing an duotone image.



LR Adjustments = Split Toning Shadows Saturation 28, Hue 30



... and Then a Funny Thing Happened...

Well, we could stop right here as we've succeeded in creating a duotone image using the Split Toning panel, but I'm not overly excited about the result.  As I committed to doing a "step-by-step", why not finish the journey all the way to the end.

One of the things I like to do when learning a new tool such as the Split Toning Panel is to compare my results with those I'd have gotten with one of the existing Lightroom Presets.  In this case, I made another virtual copy of the original color, cropped image from above and applied the Lightroom Preset "B&W Creative - Sepia Tone".

The duotone I created is on the left, the image converted using the "B&W Creative - Sepia Tone" preset is on the right.  I don't know about you, but I'm liking the image on the right better.  The benefit you get from  comparing your results to those of the presets is that by comparing the slider settings you're able to gain an even better appreciation of how each impacts your images.

Now we're almost to the end. Almost.  While trying the various presets and comparing the results against one another I finally decided on the "B&W Creative - Antique Grayscale" as the one that portrayed the mood I was hoping to achieve.  I also used the spot removal tool to remove the bug or whatever it was from Tucker's neck.  So here (drum roll please) is my final image of the pouting puppy, Tucker...

Conclusion

Well, it's taken a while (not the typical "snippet" post), but we've come to the end of today's journey.  Hopefully it's helped you (it helped me) to appreciate the Split Toning Panel as well as the power of the presets within Lightroom.  Not only can they provide quick, one click development options, but they also provide a great learning experience when you compare and contrast their settings against your own.

As for poor pouting Tucker... don't feel too bad.  If you look closely you'll notice the puppy's fur is still wet from having been playing catch in the lake for more than an hour before this photo was taken :-).

Until next time, keep click'n.
-Ken

Recover from the Lightroom 4 Tone Curve Bug

Having a background in software, I can attest to the fact that no matter how diligent you are in testing a new application, no matter how many beta cycles, there is always something that slips through the cracks and evades discovery until AFTER its released into the wild.  The largest of these gremlins in the latest Lightroom 4 release is the "Tone Curve" bug.

If you're not aware, when you upgrade a previously processed image in Lightroom 4 to the latest 2012 Process engine, one of the things it DOES NOT do correctly is to bring forward any tone curve adjustments.  They are simply lost.  For many, this is a BIG deal.

Adobe is well aware of the issue and is already close to having a hotfix available to correct the problem.  If you've already upgraded to Lightroom 4 as I have, here are a few tips to help you avoid or recover from the "Tone Curve" bug until the fix is available.

1. As a general rule, only upgrade one image at a time to the new processing engine until you're confident things are working as planned.  Then you can upgrade the rest of your catalog knowing things will be as you expect.  Point #1 in this post outlines how you can upgrade the process engine for an image.
2. If you have upgraded and discovered you're image has been negatively impacted by the tone curve bug, don't panic.  Remember, all edits in Lightroom are non-destructive (they never alter  your original image), even the process upgrade option.  Simply jump into the development module and browse through the History panel to find the step immediately before "Update to Current Process (2012)".  Click on that previous step and you have your image back.  If you want to clear the history for everything but this view of the image, right click to create a snap shot on that step.  Once you've named your snapshot, click the "X" (Clear All) button at the top of the History panel and everything else is removed.

I'm sure we'll be seeing the fix coming from Adobe in the near future.  In the meantime, don't let this prevent you from upgrading your existing installation to Lightroom 4.

Have any experiences with Lightroom 4 that you'd like to share?  Drop us a note using the comments section below.

Until next time, keep on click'n.
-Ken

The Lightroom Tone Curve

This week we tackle "the curve".  The Tone Curve panel that is in Adobe Lightroom 3.

The Tone Curve provides you a tool to apply contrast to your image.  It's different from the contrast option in the Basic Panel as it gives you much greater control over how the contrast is applied.  Let's take a quick look at the various ways to apply contrast with the Tone Curve panel and, once you understand your options, I'll leave you with a few links to videos on "The Power of Curves" by Michael Frye to better understand curves.

• Point Curve - The easiest way to experiment with the contrast in your image is just to select an option from the "Point Curve" drop down. Your options are Linear, Medium and Strong.  I usually switch from Medium to Strong as a place to start and go from there.
• Sliders - You can also use the individual Region sliders to impact various areas of your image.  Highlights, Lights, Darks, Shadows can all be adjusted individually with the various slider controls.
• Manipulating the Curve - You can actually grab points right on the curve line itself and drag it up or down.
• Targeted Adjustment Tool (TAT) - Using the TAT (click the circle,up/down arrow icon in the upper left of the Tone Curve Panel), you can position your cursor over a particular area of the image and drag up or down to impact the contrast of that particular color range in the photo.  This is a very powerful way to adjust contrast.

Now this is a "bare bones" overview of the controls.  To better understand what it is you're doing by moving any of the controls, I highly recommend taking a look at the following videos by Michael Frye.

"The Power of Curves" series illustrates adjusting levels and curves with Adobe Photoshop CS5.  The same principles will apply in Lightroom so this is a good place to start in order to provide you a proper background.

The Power of Curves - Part 1 with Michael Frye
The Power of Curves - Part 2 with Michael Frye 

The "Curves in Lightroom and Camera Raw" series take the principles from "The Power of Curves" and shows you how to accomplish the same thing within Lightroom using the Tone Curve panel.

Curves in Lightroom and Camera Raw - Part 1 with Michael Frye
Curves in Lightroom and Camera Raw - Part 2 with Michael Frye

That's all for this week.  Next week we'll start with the HSL/Color/B&W panel.

Until next time, keep click'n.
-Ken

How I Learned Lightroom

Now that we've started to get more in depth on the abilities and uses of Lightroom 3 here on the blog, I thought it would be worth repeating "Ken's 2 Thumbs Up" endorsement of Scott Kelby's "Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers". 

I'm not going to launch into any "point-by-point" review.  If you want that just click the link above and read what other Amazon purchasers have to say.  I will say, however, that I LOVE this application and every time I pick up this book I learn something new.  In fact, it's thanks to this book (and it's predecessor on Lightroom 2) that I've been able to become proficient with the tool.  While it can be technical, Scott's book also points out just how intuitive it is which makes it that much easier to understand and use. If you're using Lightroom, you need this book in your library.

ICC Color Profiles - Step 3 Toward Quality Prints

Over the last couple of weeks we've discussed the importance of screen calibration and paper selection in your quest for quality prints.  Today, we're going to talk about ICC Color Profiles and how to leverage them within Adobe Lightroom 3.

First, what the heck is an "ICC Color Profile"?  The short answer is that it is instructions for a specific device on how to render colors correctly.  For example, most paper manufacturers, including Red River Paper, have gone through the process of printing on their papers with popular printer models to understand how well the paper and ink pigments play together.  If they find variances between what they expected and what they received in the print test, they can then develop an ICC color profile to adjust for those differences.  Make sense?  If you'd like more information on ICC profiles, this is a pretty good resource.

Alright, so you have your favorite paper loaded into your printer, you've downloaded the correct ICC color profile, but how do you get Lightroom to use it?  Generally there are two simple steps necessary to have Lightroom instruct your printer to use the profile.

1. In the Print Module within Lightroom, scroll down to the "Print Job" panel.  Under the Color Management section you will see an option for "Profile".  Use this option to locate and select the ICC color profile on your computer.
2. In addition to telling Lightroom to use the profile, you may also need to instruct any print driver software to allow the application to deal with color management.  On our Epson R1900, this means selecting the printer properties, clicking the Advanced tab and selecting the options as seen below.

With these 3 new tools in your arsenal - screen calibration, quality paper of various sizes, and ICC Color Profiles - you're now ready to start your journey into the world of print.  The Print module within Lightroom 3 has a nearly overwhelming number of bells and whistles and over time we'll learn about them together. 

Next week we'll start discussing the "test print" process and what I've learned to help mitigate the amount of trial and error (aka wasted paper and ink) required to produce output ready to hang on the wall.

Until next time, keep on click'n.

-Ken

Lightroom 3 Spot Removal

In last week's post "Attack of the Dreaded Sensor Dust Bunnies!", we discussed sensor dust, how it appears on your images and provided some advice on tools and resources to rid your sensor of the little monsters.  That's all well and good, but what do you do with the 400 images you took when the sensor was dirty?  Enter Lightroom and the magic of "spot removal".

The Enemy

Here's another image peppered with sensor dust.  As mentioned last week, the dust likes to reveal itself at higher f-stops.  This image was taken at 18mm, ISO 100, f/22 for 0.6 seconds.  Time to lose the spots.

The Spot Removal Panel

Inside the Lightroom Develop Module, you can access the spot removal tool by clicking the spot removal icon (see red arrow) or pressing the shortcut key "Q". Once selected your cursor will turn into a cross-hairs icon and we're just a click away from "dust bunny space invaders".

Here's the battle plan:

1. Zoom in to 100% (1:1)
2. Position the cross-hairs over a spot.
3. Adjust the brush size so your cursor just encompasses the dust spot.  You can use the scroll wheel on your mouse, the slider in the Spot Removal Panel or the bracket keys on your keyboard to adjust the brush size.  Using a brush that is too big can result in unnatural looking areas in your image.
4. With the brush size adjusted, click on the dust spot. You will see a circle with a "+" symbol appear around the spot and another circle near the first.  This second circle is the area being "cloned" over the top of the dust.

5. Generally, Lightroom is pretty good at selecting an appropriate area to clone over the spot.  If, however, you need to reposition the location of the cloning circle, simply place your mouse over the circle until it turns into a hand icon. Click and drag the circle to a more appropriate cloning area on the image.  You can also re-size the circles to refine your spot removal.  To remove a spot removal, just right click on the circle with the "+" symbol and select delete.
6. Repeat steps 2 - 5 for each spot.  You can hold down the space bar to drag the image around your screen to make the other dust spots visible in your viewing area.  When finished, click the "Done" button in the lower right of your image.  If you find you need to make more revisions, just select the spot removal tool again and continue.

The Finished Product

In this before/after image you can see the spots have "magically" disappeared.  While Lightroom makes quick work of dust spots I've found it to be an iterative process.  Just when you thought you got them all, you'll find another one.  The better option is to obviously not have the dust spots in the first place, but in the event that you do, know that Lightroom has you covered.

Until next week, keep click'n.

-Ken

Pack Your Bags and Move to Lightroom 4

Last week Adobe released Photoshop Lightroom 4 with the added bonus of cutting the retail price in half!  It is now more in line with competitors, such as Apple's Aperture, and in a position to capture the portion of the user market that it doesn't already own.

While I unfortunately couldn't afford the time to play with the beta this time around, I did take the plunge and upgraded to the final release this past weekend.  The following outlines the process I followed with the upgrade:

• Backup the Catalog - ... and then back it up again.  My main catalog resides on my laptop and gets backed up to a Windows Home Server each night.  Additionally, I use a utility called SyncToy to replicate changes of my local photo directory to both a share on the home server AND to an external USB drive.  If you're interested in synchronizing your files to the "cloud", check out Microsoft's Windows Live Mesh.
• Educate Yourself - While you're waiting for your backups to finish, head over to the Adobe Lightroom 4 Launch Center hosted by NAPP.  There are some great videos outlining some of the newest features in Lightroom 4.
• Further Educate Yourself - Backups still not done? Jump over to Amazon and pre-order Scott Kelby's new Lightroom 4 Book for Digital Photographers.  This will be the 3rd LR book I will own written by Mr. Kelby for good reason.  They're well written and you're guaranteed to learn something new every time.
• Run the Install - With multiple backups secured, it's time to run the install.  There's not much to say about this task other than click the button when it asks you to.
• Update Your Plug ins - If you're like most LR users, you probably enjoyed a few export add-ons from our good friend Jeffrey Friedl.  Time to upgrade to the latest versions, and, since you'll have received a new LR serial number with your upgrade, donate some more well deserved appreciation to Mr. Friedl.

And there you have it. Welcome to Lightroom 4.

Over the next several weeks we'll take a look at some of the new bells and whistles introduced in the latest version of this incredible application.

Until next time, keep click'n.
-Ken

Scott Kelby's "The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Book for Digital Photographers (Voices That Matter)"

If you're new to Adobe Lightroom or maybe just upgraded to Lightroom 3, you just might want to check out this book.  I own Scott's book on Lightroom 2 and just ordered this updated version too (and btw, I saved another $10 by using my NAPP membership discount :-)
The new tools for lens and noise distortion are phenomenal, the web publishing services for managing your online images is awesome, and these are the "extras".  Just wait until you learn to adjust exposure compensation, use spot removal, sharpen detail, adjust mid tones, catalog and organize, etc, etc... the list is endless.  I've said it before and I'll say it again.  As a manager of a software development team, this is one of the most well written, user friendly applications I've ever laid my hands on.  Yes, there is a lot to it, but with this book you and Lightroom 3 will be old friends in no time.

Lightroom Only HDR?

Last summer, an Ephraim sunset and 2 adirondack chairs gave me a gentle push into the world of HDR.  This year, another Ephraim sunset and 2 different adirondack chairs raised a new question - Can you pull off an HDR image in Lightroom without any plug ins or 3rd party software?

The first step was establish a baseline for comparison.  The above image is the composite of 5 frames shot +-1 EV apart and then run through the ever popular HDR Soft's Photomatix Pro with the default settings and no further adjustments.

The next step was to take 1 of those 5 exposures and see how close I could come to the above by processing it within Lightroom.  The shot below (-1 EV) was the starting point.

As you can see, the exposure for the sky isn't too bad, but the foreground is nearly blacked out. How do you adjust just the foreground? When you're talking about a localized adjustment of this type in Lightroom, 3 development tools come to mind - Fill Light, the Graduated Filter, and/or the Adjustment Brush. Fill Light is still really a global adjustment so toss that one out. 

As I have a fairly defined line delineating light from dark, I decided on the Graduated Filter - 2 of them in fact.  The first I used to drive up the exposure of the foreground rocks, chairs and sidewalk.  The second one focused on reducing the brightness of the sky.  Here's the end result.

...and one more side-by-side for comparison... Photomatix HDR on the left, LR image on the right.

Click for Larger Image

Not too bad?  There are some obvious pluses and minuses for each.  For example, the Photomatix image on the left has a nasty halo around the sunlight reflecting on the lake, but the colors in the sidewalk are more intriguing than what appears in the Lightroom image on the right. 

Now to be fair, one doesn't usually just throw 5 exposures into Photomatix and then accept what comes out the other end without a little more "tweaking".  The point of the experiment is, however, that if you are shying away from HDR because you don't have Photomatix or one of the many other HDR applications, you may just be surprised by what you can pull off using just Lightroom.

Until next time, keep on click'n.

-Ken

Microsoft Surface Pro for the Photographer

It’s been a long, long wait, but it’s finally here.  The Microsoft Surface Pro is on the market and I’m lucky enough to have spent the last week setting mine up and using it for my photography tasks.  That’s right.  A tablet form factor running Lightroom and Photoshop!

For 7 months I got to read editorials saying things like: “It’s too heavy. It’s too expensive.  There’s not enough available storage.  The battery life is horrible. The wide screen is awkward. The kickstand isn’t adjustable. Who uses a pen anymore?” Blah, blah, blah, blah!

Now that I finally have it in my hands, here’s my response: “WHO CARES!”.  Yes it’s a tablet and if that were all it was the naysayers may have valid points.  What they were all overlooking, however, is that this is also a fully functional Intel powered laptop!  I’m running Adobe Lightroom 4, Adobe Photoshop CS 6, Microsoft Office 2013, Windows Media Center, no compromise web browsers and on and on and on.  In short, I am PRODUCING content and not just consuming it all on a device slim enough and lite enough to slide into my messenger bag with my Nikon D300s and my work HP EliteBook laptop.

With all of that being said, here are a few of my personal observations for those of you who may be considering your own Surface Pro now that stock is beginning to be replenished.

• Windows 8 –  I’ve been using the new OS on my work computer for a while, but on a touch-based device it really comes to life.  Forget about the Start menu and embrace the efficiencies of the new design.
• Tablet Experience – The screen is incredible. A visual treat with a very responsive feel to your touch.  While there is definitely still “app discrimination” when compared to the iPad and Android markets, things are coming around and I’m confident that the Surface will help accelerate the pace. One area that did catch me off-guard was the fact that so many magazine publishers only allow Amazon to cater to iOS and Android.  For example, Outdoor Photographer is available via Zinio, but you won’t find it on Amazon.
• Desktop Experience – Having used Windows 8 for awhile now, the only challenges to using the full desktop environment on the Surface have been 1) Getting accustom to the Type Cover and, 2) text scaling.  I have purposely limited myself to he Type Cover so that I’d become more efficient. I’ll be honest, I won’t win any typing contests, but it’s still better than being limited to an on-screen version (new wireless keyboard and mouse arrive for my desk today).  The text scaling comes into play when connected to an external display.  Out of the box, the Surface Pro is set to scale your text to 150%.  That’s a good size when you’re packing 1920x1080 pixels into a 10” space, but not so great on a 24” external display.  It’s a shame text scaling isn’t display independent, but I’ve found what works best for me is to default back to 100% as most of my desktop experience happens on the external display.  On the occasions where I only have the 10” display, a few keystrokes (namely Ctrl + ‘+’) allow me to zoom in at the application level.
• WiFi Only – I tend to be where the WiFi is so the lack of a cellular radio doesn’t impact me all that much.  If I must, must, connect, there’s always the option to tether to my phone.
• Storage – I’ve done a few proactive tasks here to help make my 128GB go as far as possible:
  • New Lightroom Catalog – I’ve backed up my old (and somewhat bloated) Lightroom catalog to my external drive and started over.  Well, I imported my keyword hierarchy, a few other preferences and of course my “best of the best” photos, but otherwise it was time for a clean start.
  • “My Documents” on “D:” – I popped in my 64GB microSXDC card, formatted it with NTFS and changed the default location for the “Documents” library to point to this new drive.  From what I’ve read, you cannot install applications on external devices so reserving space on the C: drive for apps is something to consider up front.
  • Available Space – I’m still at 66GB free with Lightroom, Photoshop CS 6, Photomatix, Topaz Adjust, Word, Excel, OneNote, Chrome, Kindle, Live Writer, Movie Maker, Media Center, Total Theater, etc……  I am not loading my music library as I already have it on my phone and any movies (which look awesome on this display, btw) or other large files go to the external drive.  This leaves me with ample room for the photos I’ve yet to take and process.
  • Backups – I have a few OneNote docs on my SkyDrive for convenience, but limited to satellite internet at home prevents me from overusing cloud-based services.  I do, however, backup EVERYTHING to my Windows Home Server each night.

Oh, and that pen thing…. It ROCKS! While I’ve used it occasionally in OneNote, its value to me is inside Lightroom and Photoshop.  Yeah, editing photos on a 10” display isn’t something you’ll want to do everyday, but when you have detail work to do with that pen, it blows away my old Wacom tablet.

For now, that’s all.  Is the Surface Pro the holy grail of all computing devices? Probably not.  If you asked me what I’d change, however, I’m not sure I’d have much in the way of answers.  It’s the form factor I’ve been waiting for to provide the ultimate in portability which, in itself, asks for compromises.  The selling point for me was the fact that I can be productive wherever and whenever and in that space, I have not been disappointed in the least.

Update: This morning I had the opportunity to test drive the Type Cover.  As I was never a very good touch typist and with productivity being my aim, I’ve made the switch.  For a few bucks more and a couple of extra millimeters in thickness, I can now proclaim that I’ve relinquished the “Backspace” key as my favorite key.

Lightroom 3 - Sharpening & the "Alt" Key

Click for larger image

Last winter we discussed the Lightroom 3 Detail Panel in the post "The Lightroom Detail Pane".  In that post we learned how to use the "Alt" key to help mask your image before applying sharpening to the photo.  What we didn't discuss, however, is how the "Alt" key can be used in combination with ANY of the Sharpening sliders to help identify what areas of your image will be impacted by the adjustment and to what degree.

To help illustrate, we've invited young Mr. Grosbeak here to assist.

The Sharpening Exercise

How much? How little? What for?...  Guess what.  Just with all other adjustments in Lightroom, there is no "stock answer" except for "It depends.".  It depends on your intended output (screen, print, etc), your personal preferences, the photo itself.  The best I can do is share with you my version of "how to" and the rest is left to you and your experimentation.

Step 1 - Masking

In most Lightroom adjustment panels, I find the "top down" approach often works best.  That is to say you would adjust the sliders in the order they are presented starting at the top and working your way down.  Except for the Sharpening panel. :-)

If you expand the photo above, you'll notice there is a fair amount of noise in the blue sky background.  I'd been trying to capture one of those zooming hummingbirds feeding in the crab apple blossoms so I had my shutter speed cranked up to 1/1000th of a second (still isn't fast enough btw) which resulted in an ISO of 1100 in this case.  The thing I DON'T want to do while sharpening this image is to further enhance the noise in that blue background.  Enter the Masking slider.

 

By holding down the "Alt" key while sliding the Masking slider, a negative of your image will appear.  You'll notice the image to the left (Masking = 30) still shows a fair amount of grain in the dark area.  Continuing to drag the slider until that grain goes away (see right image, Masking = 57) will ensure that whatever additional sharpening adjustment you makes will only apply to the non-black (masked) areas.

Step 2 - Detail

The Detail slider is responsible for the edges in your image.  As a general rule, I don't find I adjust this slider much UNLESS the other sharpening adjustments have introduced the dreaded "halos" around your edges.  In that case, moving the detail slider to the left can help mitigate the halos.

In our sample image above, the edges of the soft flower pedals are probably not going to be as noticeable as say the head feathers on the grosbeak.  When working on more detailed areas like this, I prefer to leverage the preview panel inside the Detail adjustment pane at a 2:1 magnification (right click on the preview to change magnification).

Holding the "Alt" key down while moving the Detail slider provides a sort of "embossed" look that will give you a better view of the detailed edge.  When making these adjustments I usually move the slider all the way to the left and then gradually bring it back to the right until start to notice more pixelation of the area you're adjusting - in this case the head feathers - and then back it down just a hair.

CAVEAT: When making adjustments in the preview window, the preview doesn't seem to be respecting the masking you've already applied.  In other words, the sky portion of the image also appeared to be impacted by the adjustment, but this is limited only to the preview and not the actual image.

Step 3 - Radius

The Radius slider controls how far out from the edge will be impacted by the sharpening adjustment.  Using the "Alt" key in conjunction with the slider will again present that "embossed" view to allow you to better see the impact on the edge. 

In this screen shot, I've moved the slider all the way to the right to illustrate how the edge is expanded by a white halo in the preview screen.   You may want to also be sure that you have the main window zoomed in at 100% and keep an eye on the "white halo" on the other parts of your image.  Back the slider down until white halo just disappears.

Step 4 - Amount

Up to this point we've only adjusted the supporting settings for the actual sharpening.  As the Lightroom default for the "Amount" setting is 25 and not 0, those adjustments have already made noticeable changes in your image.

Holding down the "Alt" key in combination with the "Amount" slider reveals a grey-scale image.  There is really only one scenario in which I find this to be helpful and this image is a good example.  If you have a high degree of color saturation in your photo it can sometimes be difficult to recognize the effect of the sharpening adjustments in those areas.  The red-breast on the grosbeak is a good example.

When adjusting the "Amount", it is again a good idea to zoom in to 100% on your main image as well as focus on a particular important area of  your image inside the preview window at 2:1 magnification.  Slide to the right until the edges start to go "too far" and then back it off just a little bit.

Once you're satisfied with the amount of sharpening applied, you may find it necessary to go back and fine-tune some of the other settings.

One last sharpening tip.  If there is anything in your image with an eye that isn't a potato, make sure to give it special attention in the adjustment process.  Again, using the preview window at 2:1 magnification helps that process.

Until next time, keep click'n.

-Ken