April 1, 2009
Posted by Martin Evening
Click to view movie
Those of you who attended my sessions on Lightroom at the recent Photoshop World conference in Boston may remember me saying that some of the session content could also be found here on the Lightroom-news website.
In this movie I wanted to show a comparison between the Saturation and Vibrance sliders and in particular the damaging effect a Saturation boost have on the highlight channel clipping. I also go on to show how to restore detail through the use of targeted HSL adjustments and finally, an example of where screen preview color management may fall apart and how to relate the Vibrance adjustments you make in the Develop module to the actual final print.
Please note this video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.
March 21, 2009
Posted by Martin Evening
Click to view movie
In this movie I wanted to explain the difference between using the Exposure and Brightness sliders. The first section shows a basic introduction where I use the Exposure slider first and then fine-tune the remaining Basic panel settings. I then go on to demo the use of a strong negative Exposure adjustment. This is followed by an example of why an Exposure led image adjustment will produce an image with better image detail in the midtone to highlight areas compared to a Brightness slider led adjustment.
Please note this video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.
March 13, 2009
Posted by Sean McCormack
After much editing and an eventual rerecording, here’s the second installment in our series about the Toolstrip. Here we discuss the Spot Removal tool.
This video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.
March 9, 2009
Posted by Martin Evening
Click to view movie
The humble Blacks slider plays an important role in allowing you to optimize the contrast of your photos as you process them in the Develop module. This movie clip is all about how much to safely clip the blacks when working with different types of images as well as how the black clipping point you set in Lightroom relates to the black clipping point of the print output process. The answer to the question ‘how black should I make my blacks’ may be easier than you think.
Note that in the final section where I compare different output profile conversions, the Black Point Compensation box must be kept checked (which is the default setting). You would also want to make sure this box is checked when making a print via the Photoshop Print dialog. And in the case of Lightroom printing, this is always enabled anyway.
Please note this video is in Quicktime format. A player can be downloaded from apple.com.
March 5, 2009
Posted by Martin Evening
Just released recently from HDR Soft is a plug-in that allows you to export photos from Lightroom directly to Photomatix Pro and automatically reimport the processed tone mapped HDR image back into the Lightroom catalog. To use this plug-in you will need to download and purchase the latest version of Photomatix Pro which includes the export plug-in and instructions on how to install in Lightroom for Mac and PC. Here is an initial test I carried out that shows how the plug-in works in Lightroom after installing.
March 4, 2009
Posted by Sean McCormack
Senior Lightroom Engineer Eric Scouten, has announced an update to the Lightroom SDK (Software Development Kit) on the SDK Forum:
Hello all … we’ve posted a minor update to the SDK documentation at the Lightroom Developer Center.
http://www.adobe.com/devnet/photoshoplightroom/
The PDF documentation is updated to reflect a few errors that have been brought to our attention in the last few months.
Also, one function on export service providers was inadvertently omitted from earlier documentation. This function (updateExportSettings, p. 36-37 of new PDF) allows you to override specific settings before Lightroom begins rendering the exported files.
March 3, 2009
Posted by Sean McCormack
Lightroom 2.3 and Camera Raw 5.3 Final Release is now available from Adobe.com.
Beyond the following list of bug fixes and existing camera support for the D3X and Olympus E-30 there is also preliminary support for the Epson R-D1x raw format.
Lightroom 2 Bugs – Fixed
In the Windows 64-bit version of Lightroom an sFTP upload process could cause Lightroom to crash.
Slideshows could return to the first image randomly during playback.
A memory leak could cause Lightroom to crash while attempting to process files with local adjustments.
Canon EOS 5D Mk II sRAW files could process with artifacts in Lightroom 2.2.
Lightroom 2.2 could cause disc burning to fail for Windows customers.
Attempting to undo(CTRL-Z) a single step in Lightroom 2.2 on Windows could cause a series of previous actions to be undone.
Lightroom 2.3 also adds additional languages:
March 2, 2009
Posted by Sean McCormack
Matt Dawson has already given us the Export Backup plugin for Lightroom, but now he’s added a plugin to simplify Metadata Entry into Lightroom to the list. Those who are familiar with Jeffrey’s Friedl’s Metadata Viewer Preset builder, will have an idea what this can do. The main difference is that Jeffrey is using undocumented V1.1 features in creating the list, whereas Matt is using current SDK2.0 information to build his. Matt notes that Jeffrey is currently too busy to update his version, but also that his version caters to plugin metadata.
Matt details how to add your own tagsets in his Lightroomforums.net post about the plugin.
March 2, 2009
Posted by Martin Evening
Click to view the movie
Shortly after the release of Lightroom 1.0, I made a video tutorial which showed how you could use the HSL panel controls to achieve improved, reduced noise Grayscale conversions in Lightroom. That particular problem was resolved with one of the later Lightroom 1.x updates and it is now fine to use the Grayscale panel controls to achieve optimum black and white conversions. In this movie I wanted to show how you can also fine-tune the Grayscale conversion setting by combining these with Camera Calibration panel adjustments.
February 12, 2009
Posted by Sean McCormack
While there is a Shortcuts section to Adobe Community Help for Lightroom, it’s part of the full Help document and takes a little effort to print separately. In response to user requests on this, Senior Solutions Engineer for Education Rick Miller has produced the Lightroom 2 Shortcuts PDF Reference Guide.
