Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

After many weeks of rumors and innuendos, Adobe has officially released the 1.1 update to Photoshop Lightroom. I gotta tell you, even though this is a dot-1 update, it’s major. First off, it includes an update to Camera Raw so now Lightroom has all of the cool things in Camera Raw 4.1 - Clarity, Sharpening, improved Noise Reduction. It doesn’t stop there though. One of the single most popular questions I get about Lightroom is how to move your library from a laptop to a desktop and vice-versa. Well 1.1 has a new catalog export feature that allows you to do just that. Plus, it’s now got Windows Vista support too. Now do you want the really good news? It’s free (that is if you already own Lightroom). So go now (NOW!) to Adobe’s website to download the Lightroom 1.1 update.

More NewsYep, there’s more. My brand new online training course is now live at www.photoshoptraining.com. Actually, the DVD will be shipping in about a week or two as well so you can choose whichever method is best for you. I’ve gotten a ton of requests for this so I’m really excited about it. Here’s how it works. There are 21 video lessons (plus some bonus stuff). They’re all around 5 minutes each so you don’t have to sink a whole lot of time into learning Lightroom. In the video lessons I walk you through the major features in Lightroom in a workflow order - from Import straight thru to processing, then to Photoshop, and finally to the output features in Lightroom. NAPP members get it for $49.99 (the public price is $69.99). There’s nothing like it out there now so check it out. Visit www.photoshoptraining.com to find out more.

In this week’s video I’m tackling one of those questions I get just about everyday - archiving photos with Lightroom. It’s actually a great question and I know a lot of folks out there have the same issue. How do you archive your photos from Lightroom so you can free up hard drive space but still maintain and manage your photo shoots in Lightroom? I’ll warn you ahead of time, there is no “Archive” feature in Lightroom right now. However, in this video I’ll give you a strategy of how you can at least come close to archiving and still allow Lightroom to manage your photos.

Click here to watch the video. (10 Mb)

If you’re working in the Develop module chances are you’ll be working with the Tone and Color settings in the Basic panel. Well if you ever want to reset your Tone or Color settings without resetting the changes to your whole photo (Cropping, etc…) try this. Hold down the Option/Alt key. When you do that you’ll see the words Reset Tone and Reset Color appear instead of Tone and Color above the sliders. Just click to reset those settings but leave everything else as is. Well, that wraps up another week. Have a great weekend.

Well I’m back from my trip to Banff National Park and LA (talk about 2 totally different places to be in one week). Click here to see a photo taken of me by Bruce Johnson, one of the students in the workshop and one kick-butt photographer. I had an incredible time last week in Banff with the Great American Photography workshops and the folks that were in my class. The weather wasn’t perfect, but the group that was there totally made up for it. It was sunny at times, it rained at times, heck, it even snowed sometimes, but everyone was just psyched to be in such a beautiful place. We shot a lot and learned plenty about the Lightroom and Photoshop workflow. I just wanted to say thanks again to everyone that was there. If you’re thinking about attending a workshop, I’m teaching another one in October in Page, Arizona. We’ll be shooting the Antelope Slot Canyons as well as some other great stuff, so make sure you check it out - it’s filling up fast. Visit GAPhotoworks.com for more info.

Today, I’ll be teaching Lightroom and digital workflow in the Pro Photography track at the Adobe Creatively License Conference in LA. The conference isn’t just about Lightroom or Photoshop though. It’s got a print design track, video track, rich internet application track, web design, and design classes as well. So, if you’re in LA and thinking about attending the event, make sure you come by and say hi. Oh yeah… they’re taking the same conference to New York next week. I’ll be heading up the weekend before to visit family in New Jersey (exit 9 for all of you Jersey residents - you know what I mean) and then to New York on Monday the 25th. Hope to see you there.