I use this one nearly every time I’m in Lightroom and it’s become so ingrained in my head that I forget about it sometimes. Often you’ll be working with either a) a zoomed in view of a photo b) a photo in the Devlop module c) a slide or d) something in the Print module. Well if you want a quick way to get back to your Library module in grid view just press the G key. I’m tellin ya’ - it’ll become second nature in no time and you’ll use it constantly.
Okay, I know this is a Lightroom website and podcast but I just can’t resist. At 4:30 EST on December 14 Adobe has announced the public beta preview of Photoshop CS3. This is huge! They’ve never publicly released a beta of Photoshop before so as you can imagine I’m very excited (which is why I felt the need to make this post on a Lightroom website). Anyway, the beta is being released primarily because of Adobe’s commitment to the Mac Intel platform you can find out all the details you need to know right at NAPP’s own Photoshop CS3 Learning Center. There’s a ton of free videos, details, FAQs, links to other resources, and links to forums where you can discuss the CS3 beta. Check out the official NAPP Photoshop CS3 Beta Learning Center here.
This week I’m not just going to point you to one of the best photographers you’ll find out there but also one of the flat-out nicest people you’ll ever meet - Bill Fortney. Bill works for Nikon Professional Services and I’ve had the opportunity to go shooting with him a few times. Let me tell ya… this guy sees the world in an entirely different (and beautiful) way then anyone I’ve met. Bill actually runs the Great American Photography Workshops and I’d suggest taking one if you ever get the chance. I’ll actually be teaching at a few next year so take a look. Click here to see Bill’s portfolio.
While it’s great to crop the photo when you compose the shot, sometimes it just doesn’t work out that way. Many times, after the fact, we realize that we should have framed the photo differently when we took it. Well, as you’d expect, Lightroom has a cropping feature that works great. One of my favorite things about it though is that it automatically puts a “Rule of Thirds” grid over your photo so you can really compose the crop area right - the first time. Check it out in this week’s video.
If you find yourself working with the Split Toning panel often you’ll love this one. When moving either Hue slider under Highlights or Shadows try holding down the Alt key (Option on Mac) when dragging the slider. This will cause Lightroom to show you a preview at 100% saturation of whatever color you’re dragging over. That way you can get a quick preview of the tinting color without adjusting two sliders instead of one. Then, when you’ve settled on a color let go of the Alt key and adjust the Saturation slider to bring in the specific amount of that color’s tint.
Get your weekly video dose of the coolest Adobe® Lightroom tutorials, tips, timesaving shortcuts, photographic inspiration, and undocumented tricks with Matt Kloskowski, one of "The Photoshop Guys" from PhotoshopUser TV. New videos are posted each Monday as well as other news during the week.
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