Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

Happy Friday everyone! Yep, I know it’s not Friday for most of you but it is for me so I’m posting some extra stuff today since I’ll be off tomorrow.

First off, Jeff Revell of the Photo Walk Pro blog did a review of my Layers book. Make sure you poke around the site for a while when you stop by - lots of good stuff (I mean in addition to the review ). Oh yeah, don’t forget I’m still signing copies for anyone who orders the book from Kelby Training’s website. So go ahead and participate in the “Make Matt’s Hand Hurt” campaign. (fyi… I’ve gotten lots of comments here on the blog from people who’ve already gotten the book but please keep ‘em coming. I love that stuff!).

Next up, I want to let you know about a really cool discount. I know a lot of people that visit this site are NAPP members (and some of you are probably thinking about becoming one). Here’s a discount, that pertains to all photographers, that I just found out about but you’re going to have to act quickly. You may have heard about Nik Software’s Viveza, a new Photoshop plug-in. It’s really hard to explain what it does but it uses this “thing” called U Point Technology. Before you fall asleep from technical terms like that, you’ve got to see it in action. They’ve got a really quick 2 minute video that explains what this stuff is and I’ve got to say it’s really sweet. That’s not the news though. The news is that NAPP members (for 2 weeks only) are going to be able to save $50 off of the software. So if you’re a NAPP member you’ll have paid for half your membership right there. If you’re going to join, again, that takes care of half your membership right off the bat. Finally, this news is actually so new that the web pages aren’t set up yet. They will be early next week and I’ll make sure to post the link as soon as it happens. I wanted to let you know about it right away though, so you don’t go out and buy it this weekend if you were thinking about it.

Next up is some web gallery goodness.
- Sean McCormack has some new free galleries for Lightroom and you can find them here.
- The Turning Gate has a really cool Client Response web gallery. It let’s clients rate images with comments. Neat stuff! Here’s the link.

Finally, I’ll leave you with some inspirational photography. Take a look at Gregory Heisler’s portfolio. He concentrates on portraits and photographs mainly celebrities (the Quiet section was my favorite). However, knowing that neither you or I will likely be photographing the people he does, I always approach viewing galleries like this from another point - style, setting, expression, lighting and other factors aside from the celebrity. That way, I can start to get some ideas for my own work.

Well friends, that brings the week to a close for me. I’m taking Friday off from everything related to work (at least that’s the plan) and relaxing a bit. Of course the mayhem of little league/soccer games and kids birthday parties starts up on Saturday (you know, the usual weekend stuff) so it will be short lived. I wouldn’t trade it for the world though Have a great weekend!
(photo credit: Gregory Heisler)

I’ve been giving away free presets on this site for nearly 6 months and it just occurred to me today (after reading some of the reader comments of course, because I’m actually not that sharp ) that I’ve never shown how to save your presets. By now, you probably know how to load them but what happens if you get a new computer or want to move your presets from a laptop to a desktop. So that’s what this week’s video is all about. Saving presets. Not just mine but any of the presets you’ve made too. Have a great Wednesday! It’s actually Thursday for me because I’m off on Friday so tomorrow will be Friday (even though it’s really Thursday) which makes today really Wednesday but Thursday for some. I’ll stop now before this gets out of hand

Click here to watch the video. (10Mb)

Hey everyone. I’m back this week with another new preset. First I’ve got to thank everyone who has ordered the Layers book so far. If you want to see a funny photo, my friend RC took this photo of me signing books. I was literally buried. When I came up with the idea to sign a copy for anyone who ordered from Kelby Training’s website I had no idea I’d get this many. I was totally shocked but totally honored at the same time. So my writing hand is hurting a bit but it’s all good. I’m very grateful for all of your support. Ok, on to the preset… This week I’m taking a really different direction with a preset geared specifically for night-time city skylines and lights. I pretty much stumbled on this one as I was adjusting a few photos I took at night the other week. I found that a few key adjustments really helped bring out the lights and the color we see at night. You’ll see there’s 3 versions and they basically range from a light version to a darker version so it’ll dramatically change your photo depending on how light or dark it started out. I hope you enjoy ‘em!

Click here to see a before/after sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s City Nights Preset

Once again, I’ve been shown a tip by one of my readers. That’s one of the reasons why I’m really happy that I turned comments on way back. Okay, here’s the tip. I’ve written about the fact that you can hold down Alt/Option and drag on the Exposure and Blacks slider to get a temporary clipping preview. But I never knew you could do the same with the Recovery slider. It sounds silly but it’s kind of cool because I’m not really one to turn on my clipping warnings all the time since it shows big red blotches on my photo. But I use Recovery all the time and this trick is a good way to get a preview of what the slider is doing. So I’d like to say thanks to Jason for showing me this one.

OK, a couple more things. First, Marc Rochkind has been doing some cool stuff with his LRViewer software. Sounds like a neat idea and you can read more here.

Finally, some weekend reading. Jon Tehero has an interesting article on Aperture vs. Lightroom when it comes to presets. Hey, I know this is a Lightroom site but it’s always good to see what other software can/can’t do. Click here to read the comparison.

Well campers, that’s it for the week. I called you “campers” but I’m actually the one going camping this weekend. My son is in cub scouts and we’ll both be braving the wild this weekend. Luckily it’s only about 10 minutes from the house so if he gets scared (read: I can’t figure out how to put the tent up), we’re really close to home. Wish me luck!

I’ve gotten a lot of requests to delve into the print settings in Lightroom and take a closer look at how to get that great print. So this week’s video is going to do just that. Think of it at Printing 101. The cool thing about it is that I don’t think there’s going to be a printing 102 video. There’s a few print settings in Lightroom and once you’ve seen them there’s not much more to it. While I’m at it, I’ll head off a question that usually follows whenever I teach this and that is a) Do I do all of my printing myself and, b) If not, what lab do I use? Yes I do some of my printing myself. I’ve got an Epson R2400 that does an amazing job. Lately though, time constraints and ink/paper costs have lead me to look more into sending my printing work out and I have to say that Mpix.com is making it harder for me to print myself. They do one heck-of-a job and their quality/turn around time is amazing. Will I still continue to print myself - you betcha. But I’m liking the idea of a lab more and more these days. I’d be interested in hearing your thoughts so feel free to leave ‘em here as a comment. See ya tomorrow!

Click here to watch the video. (14Mb)