Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

Well folks, we’re a little off this week: the video is going up on Wednesday. The whole Lightroom Version 1 launch threw me off, but we’ll be back on schedule next week. Anyway, yep, you read the title correctly. Lightroom Version 1 has cloning and healing capabilities, and it does it all on the raw files non-destructively. Actually, there’s a little more to it and if you’re thinking that it’s just like Photoshop’s cloning and healing, well, it’s not. In this week’s video we’re going to take a look at how you can use the tool, but more importantly, where and why the tool should be used in Lightroom and when you’ll need to resort to Photoshop’s cloning and healing.

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Well, after one year in public beta, Adobe has announced the release of version 1 of Photoshop Lightroom. The last public beta release was beta 4 and I’ve got to say that version 1 has some excellent new features that make it worth every penny. According to Adobe, it will ship sometime in mid-February. However, if you can’t wait until then to find out what’s new and cool then you’ve got to see NAPP’s Lightroom Learning Center. As usual, NAPP is keeping everyone in the Photoshop industry on the cutting edge with the latest Lightroom Learning Center. Even if you’ve seen it before, make sure you take a look again. It’s been totally, 100% redone to include new tutorials, videos, articles and even exclusive interviews geared especially for version 1. Check it out here.

If you’ve got a photo that has keywords associated with it and you’d like to copy those keywords to other photos, try this. In Library grid view, highlight the photo that has the keywords attached to it. Then go to the Keywords panel. Highlight all of the keywords that you want to use there. Now press Ctrl + C (Mac: Cmd + C) to copy them. Go to the grid again and highlight all of the photos that you’d like to copy the keywords to. Finally, press Ctrl + V (Mac: Cmd + V) to paste the keywords in to those photos. Keep in mind that you can add keywords upon Import too, but if you don’t, at least you’ve got a way to do it after.

The other week I posted something about how I’ve been very interested in lighting lately. One of the regular visitors to this site, David Brenner, sent me a link to the Strobist blog. What a cool site! It’s got tips, technique, links and examples of just about everything concerning lighting. If you’ve never seen it yet make sure you visit the “First Time Here” links on the top right side of the home page. I just love the web
(Photo Credit: Cicobuff)

If you look in the top left corner of Lightroom you’ll see a small area showing Lightroom’s product identity. But picture this. What if you could change that to show the name of your studio, your logo, or even the client’s name? Well, that is precisely what the Identity Plate is for. It lets you customize that area in Lightroom to say whatever you want. You can fill that area with text or even graphics to give the appearance (when a client is looking over your shoulder) that the software was custom made for your studio. Check it out in this week’s video tip. (photo credit: Matt Kloskowski)

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