Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

I know… the unexpected Saturday post has reared its head again. Better yet, it’s the unexpected Saturday Blog Post Video tip! You just can’t beat that can you Anyway, this week I’ve got a 1 minute video tip for you on some very cool brushing options in LR 2 beta. I know it’s just in beta and version 2 isn’t out yet, but this is one of my favorite tips in version 2 and I’ve been dying to show it. Enjoy and have an awesome weekend.

Click here to watch the video. (10Mb)

This one kind of snuck past a lot of people but it’s starting to surface now because it’s been over 30 day’s since LR 2 beta was announced. Here’s the deal. If you own Lightroom 1 then you can download and use the LR 2 beta until it expires in August. However, if you don’t already own LR 1 and you install the LR 2 beta on a machine that doesn’t have LR 1 on it, LR 2 will expire in 30 days from the day of install. Now this is where it gets tricky. You can have a friend (who owns LR 1) invite you to the full duration of the beta program. You can invite up to 5 people at a time. Here’s the link. What if you don’t have any friends? Well, my friend (see, there… I’m your friend) then you’ll have to resort to begging other people to invite you. The best place to do this would be to contribute to the discussions and make some friends over at the LR 2 Beta forums on Adobe’s website. Also, if you’re a NAPP member there’s a dedicated Lightroom forum on the NAPP member website.

To recap:
• To invite a friend click here
• To visit Adobe’s LR 2 beta forum click here
• To visit NAPP’s members only Lightroom forum click here
• To make friends, click here.

It’s another gorgeous 80 degree day here in Tampa, FL and it reminds just why I love to live in Florida. Anyway, here’s a quick roundup of some Lightroom stuff I’ve found recently.

• I found an interesting read about utilizing Facebook when it comes to our photography. While Lightroom doesn’t really have hooks directly to it, Photoshop Express does. Either way, it’s kind of neat to see where things may be heading.

• Chris Orwig has a sweet article on some workflow features for Lightroom over at Layers Magazine’s website. While you’re there make sure you check out RC’s daily blog. Lots of great things for photographers and designers alike.

• Lightroom Galleries has an update to their wide range of galleries with the Lightroom Contact Form gallery. You can find it here.

• At Photoshop World in Orlando last month, my publisher (Peachpit press) asked us to film some videos based around Joe McNally’s book, The Moment it Clicks. They asked us to share a “click” moment with the audience. Here’s a link to mine as well as a few others who participated.

• (Blatant self-promotion alert!!!) The Digital Photography School created a list of 9 Hot Photoshop Books. I’m extremely proud to say that 2 of my books (Layers and the Photoshop Elements 6 Book for Digital Photographers I co-authored with Scott) made the list. (FYI… I’m still signing books if you order from Kelby Training)

• In other book news, Scott Kelby is currently entrenched in his Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers. I’ve seen a glimpse of some stuff he’s putting in there and let me tell ya’, no one is out there teaching Lightroom like this. I’ll put it to you this way. There’s not another author/trainer in the world that has personally come across as many Lightroom users as Scott has. So he knows first hand exactly what everyone wants to know. Obviously, the book is available for pre-order so if you want to be the first to get the book when Lightroom 2 ships (beta expires in August so you be the judge) you can pre-order here.

That’s it for today folks. If you’ve got any cool links or Lightroom/Digital Photography/Workflow related links please post ‘em in the comments area. Thanks and I hope you have a great Wednesday.
(photo credit: Chris Orwig)

Happy preset day everyone. I’m going back to basics this week with a set of Develop presets that mimic an adjustment I use all the time in Photoshop - Photo filters. In particular, this week’s download is a set of warming filters that give a, well, warm or morning-ish, or sunrise-ish kind of feel to your photos. (No, that doesn’t mean you can sleep in and shoot at high-noon ) While there are some filters that you still need in your camera bag (polarizer, neutral density filters), a warming filter is something I simply don’t carry anymore. There’s really no reason, as Lightroom and Photoshop can recreate these effects easily. The presets that you can download below have 3 levels of warming. Level 1 is the weakest warming effect (closest to traditional 81a) and Level 3 is the strongest. I know I could have added lots of levels in between but, for me personally, when faced with too many choices I usually wind up making no choice so I wanted to keep it simple. That said, I’m working on some presets that warm portraits a little differently then they warm landscapes so we’ll see what I come up with. But for now, enjoy!

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s Warming Filters Presets
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

While I was teaching this week I realized a tip that I had forgotten about. Backing up your catalog automatically but doing it to another drive. Oddly enough, the backup location is not specified in Lightroom’s preferences (where of course, you choose your backup frequency). It’s in the actual dialog that pops up when you choose to backup. If you’re like me, for a long time you just left it as it’s default but you can indeed change it. I’ll explain more about why you want to change it and how in the quick video so click below to watch it.

Well that wraps up another week. I hope you have a great Mother’s Day weekend. Me and my kids are making Mother’s Day morning breakfast for my wife so if you smell smoke, don’t worry (or maybe worry just a little) See ya!

Click here to watch the video. (10Mb)