Extras
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom book 1.1 Update:
Lightroom 1.1 extras
We’re not quite done yet. There are still a few more innovations in Lightroom 1.1 that should get a mention. Namely, what’s new in the Slideshow Print and Web modules. For this final chapter I have grouped these new features all together into a single section.
Slideshow module
The Slideshow module has undergone a minor menu change (see below) offering more playback options. There has also been a revision of the slideshow display mechanism. This means that you should see smoother transitions when playing slideshows.
Play menu
The most noticeable change here is the addition of a Play menu. This contains a few menu items that were previously listed in the Slideshow menu and the new items are those highlighted here in yellow. For example, we have: Go to Next Slide and Go to Previous Slide. These aren’t new features, just new to the Play menu in Lightroom 1.1. You will note the keyboard shortcut shown here where you are recommended to use the Command key (Mac) or Control key (PC) plus the left or right arrow keys to progress through the slides. You can also use the arrow keys on their own to navigate the Filmstrip. But the use of the Command/Control key plus arrow will preserve any selection of images that is active. This is now more important in Lightroom 1.1 because Lightroom will make use of selections.
Slideshows and selections
The Slideshow module now has the ability to respect selections made in the Library grid view or Filmstrip when playing photos in a slideshow (providing there is more than one image selected). This will all depend on the option selected in the Which Photos submenu (see below). If the Use Selected Photos option is checked, the Slideshow module will only play the selected images. If Use All Available Photos is selected you will return to the original behavior in Lightroom where playing a slideshow will always play all the photos in the current Grid/Filmstrip and start playing from the first image. And the Slideshow module will now start playing the Slideshow starting from whichever is the most selected or target image.
When you want to run a Slideshow you can, as before, use the Preview button (shown below) in the Slideshow toolbar to run a preview of the slideshow in the Content area. But you can now also use Play > Preview Slideshow to do the same thing, or use the Option+Return (Mac), Alt+Return (PC) keyboard shortcut.
And if you want to force Lightroom to run a slideshow using all photos, you can use: Play > Run Slideshow with All Photos or the Shift+Return keyboard shortcut. This means that you can keep ‘Use Selected Photos’ in the Which Photos submenu selected so that the default Lightroom behavior is always to respect selections (which I think most people will prefer) and use the Shift+Return shortcut whenever you want to override this default and run a slideshow that plays all photos instead.
Print module
Print overlays
If you go to the Layout panel in the Print module you will notice a new item called Image Print Sizes in the Show Guides section at the bottom. When this is checked, Lightroom will display the dimensions of a photo above each cell using the ruler units selected at the top of the Layout panel. This is an overlay of course and won’t be seen in the final print.
Using the native pixel resolution for print
If you uncheck Print Resolution in the Print Job panel this will prevent Lightroom from resampling the image data for print and use the native image resolution instead, although the output resolution will have to fit within the range of 72–480 pixels per inch.
This will allow you to output an image at its native pixel resolution without resampling the image data to fit a set pixel resolution. This could be useful if you wanted to output a print file from Lightroom as a PDF without resampling the pixel data. Do this and you can save out a full pixel size master print file from Lightroom.
Web module
Web module and selections
As with the Slideshow module, the Web module also has the potential to respect an active selection of one or more images. It all depends on the Which Photos submenu that is shown in the Web menu above. If Use Selected Photos is checked, Lightroom will build a web gallery based on the selected photos only. If Use All Available Photos is checked, you will return to the original behavior in Lightroom where all the photos in the current Grid/Filmstrip will be used to generate a new Web gallery. In the screen shot below you can see an example of a Web gallery that has been generated from a selection of photos via the Filmstrip.
Web templates
The Web menu also includes an item called New Template and another called New Template Folder. A template is basically the same as a preset (which was the menu term used in version 1.0). As with the Develop module you can now place your templates in folder groupings.
New Web module panel layouts
The panels that run down the right hand side have either been renamed or reorganized slightly, so the remaining panel changes are mainly cosmetic. Most of the functionality remains the same though and since the Web module features are all described most thoroughly in the book, I have chosen not to go into too much detail about what all the controls do.
I should mention that the panels I have chosen to feature here are all associated with the HTML Gallery style (which is where you will see the most new changes). There have also been a few changes to the Flash Gallery style panels, but these are really not much different from the HTML gallery style.
Site Info panel
The Labels panel is now renamed the Site Info panel. You use this to enter the custom site information and you will notice that it now incorporates the Identity Plate section, which used to be located in the Appearance panel.
Appearance panel
The Appearance panel now includes a new option to Add Drop Shadows to Photos. And you can also uncheck the Section Borders option if you want to remove the dotted line that separates the site title and the Collection title at the top and bottom of the web gallery pages.
To show you how these will affect the web gallery pages, shown below is an example of a gallery page where Add Drop Shadow to Photos and Section Borders have both been checked.
If you click on the swatch color next to it you can choose a new color for the section divider lines.
The Image Pages section is brought over from the Output Settings panel. You used to be able to set the page image pixel dimensions in the Output Settings. But now you can do this via the Appearance panel instead. Plus you can switch the Photo Borders on or off and define the border color of your choice.
Image Info/Output Settings/Upload Settings
The Image Settings panel is now renamed the Image Info panel. The functionality remains exactly the same: you use these options to add metadata information such as the filename to the page views.
As I just mentioned, the Output Settings is still there, but minus the page size control (which has been moved to the Appearance panel). And there is now an option to include the Copyright Only information or include All the metadata information in the gallery JPEG images. Including all the metadata information will make sure that all the informational metadata such as the IPTC and keywords metadata is embedded in the web gallery JPEG images. Choose this option if you want to include such metadata, but be aware that this will increase the file size of the individual gallery images. If Copyright Only is selected, then that is all that will be embedded and you can keep the gallery JPEGs lightweight in size.
The Output panel has been renamed the Upload Settings panel. No changes here either, apart from the new name.
New Flash gallery templates from Airtight Interactive
The Lightroom team recently announced that Airtight Interactive have released three new Flash-based gallery templates for Lightroom. You can find out more about these new templates from the Adobe Lightroom Journal website.
Removing modules
Advanced Lightroom users will be aware that it is possible to hack into the program contents, remove modules from the Lightroom program and for the program to then launch and run as normal, minus the module you just removed. With version 1.0 there were some overlap issues that were not completely resolved by the effect this would have on other modules and the menu items in those modules.
For example, if you remove the Slideshow module from Lightroom 1.1, the Impromptu Slideshow menu will be disabled in the Window menu for the other Lightroom modules. And if you remove the Export module, the Export menu commands will be omitted from the File menu. For full instructions on how to remove the Lightroom modules, refer to pages 314–315 in the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 1.0 book.
________________________________
If you have found this extract useful and would like to read more then you will be pleased to know that Martin Evening, author of The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book, has also published a free Lightroom 1.1 PDF supplement update for readers of his book. The PDF is a compilation of all the Lightroom 1.1 update Lightroom-news stories, is 177 pages long and available for download via the Peachpit website (registration required). This is not a book revision, but a supplement to the original book in which Martin Evening desribes in detail all of the new features found in Lightroom 1.1. Martin writes: “I wanted to provide a free update for Lightroom 1.1 that would satisfy readers who had already bought the book as well as all those who hadn’t bought it yet but wanted to make sure they were up to speed on all the new program features”.
How to download the PDF supplement
The PDF update supplement is available free for everyone to download. All you have to do is visit the peachpit website at: www.peachpit.com/register. There you will need to create a new account by providing your email address, full name and a password to access the site. Once you have confirmed your account details proceed to the register page and enter the 10-digit ISBN number of the book. Please note that this PDF is not limited to those who are buying the book. Everyone is welcome to register and download the PDF. Just copy and paste the following ISBN number: 0321385438 as shown below.
You will now be ready to download the PDF supplement.
The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book by Martin Evening is available from Peachpit, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and all usual bookstore outlets.
Martin Evening has worked on the development of Adobe Photoshop as an alpha tester from the program’s earliest beginnings. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book describes all of Lightroom’s features in detail, with photographers in mind. Photographers who routinely work with raw (and even jpg & tiff) images will find Lightroom–and The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book–an indispensable tool in their digital darkroom.
Lightroom-news has a free PDF download of Chapter 1. (click here to download-4.6MB PDF).