Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Killer Tips

I have the honor of being a guest blogger today on Scott Kelby’s blog so make sure you check it out and leave a comment for me. (let ‘em all know you’re a Lightroom Killer Tips visitor!) Yep, he asked me a few weeks ago and I’ve since been laboring over what I was going to write. Then, about a week ago it came to me, and about 2 days ago I began writing it. I have to say it took WAY longer then I thought it would (I’m afraid to even tell you as my boss my be reading this) but I had such a good time with it. Basically, I’ve taken a concept that we talk about in the office every once in a while and made it into a post. See, we always toss around ideas about small design changes we’d make to dialogs, palettes or the Photoshop interface. Sometimes we even come up with our own new ideas for dialogs. Well, I decided to actually create them. If you’ve never designed a dialog before, let me tell ya… it ain’t easy. I have a totally new respect for those folks because all I had to do was make mine in Photoshop and it took forever - I don’t even have to make them work Anyway, head on over to Scott’s blog to check my post out and leave a comment for me as well. It’s even got some homework for you where you can download a PSD file and make your own. Regular blogging will resume here for the rest of the week. Thanks!

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Happy Friday. This week I’ve got a video for you that answers the never ending question of how to move between a laptop and desktop with Lightroom. I’ve been asked this just about every time I teach Lightroom and it occurred to me that I haven’t really done a video to cover it. Fortunately it’s a lot simpler then it may seem and Adobe has given us an easy way to save out specific images or folders to move from one catalog to another (which by the way is really what is happening when you move from one computer to another). If you’ve had any experiences that are similar to what I show then let us know in the comments and if you’ve found any hiccups along the way, by all means let us know as well. So, watch the video. Enjoy it. Feel the thrill of moving freely between computers with no chains to hold you back Oh yeah, and enjoy your weekend.

Click here to watch the video. (22MB)

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I’ve been a long time fan of the Adobe Exchange. I mention that site as a huge resource in just about every one of my Photoshop classes. Especially since I’m an actions nut and they’ve got the best resource out there for actions. But it’s not just actions - they’ve got everything when it comes to presets and cool downloadable “stuff” (free and not free) for every Adobe program out there. How does this relate to Lightroom though? Well, the folks over at the Adobe Exchange have finally included Lightroom in the mix. Now you can download Develop presets, export plug-ins, web galleries and who knows what else. Most of it is free but there is some paid stuff too. Plus, developers can place their downloads on the site which means I’ll probably be adding my presets soon. So… the moral of today’s post: Check out the Adobe exchange. Obviously for Lightroom stuff but also for lots of little gems that work with the other Adobe programs you use.

Here’s the link to the Adobe Exchange home page.

Here’s the link to the Lightroom section.

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Summer is in full swing, SPF 45 and lemonade are flowing, and that inspired my latest preset. Actually, summer has been in full swing here in Tampa, FL for about 6 weeks but hey, I love the heat so it’s all good for me. This week’s preset is named Summer Haze. I was working on some photos and I was trying to get across that summery, warm, hazy feeling and this is what came out of it. The preset adjusts the white balance, Vibrance, Saturation, and Split Toning sliders. I even tossed in a bit of a Tone Curve adjustment on it in the Shadows since the other settings seemed to muddy the photo up a bit, and I thought it needed some more blacks to bring back the contrast. It works great on fun-styled photos outdoors and even makes a pretty nifty wedding effect.

I hope you enjoy. Speaking of summer, I’m bailing out of work a couple hours early today to head to Busch Gardens. They have this “Summer Nights” things going on and it’s a lot more bearable later in the day. Hmmmmm… Summer Nights. Sounds like a good name for a preset Enjoy!

Click here to see a sample of the preset.
Click here to download Matt’s Summer Haze Preset
Click here to see a video on how to install presets.

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Happy Friday again. Everyone seems to be enjoying the HDR video so I thought I’d include a whole post about HDR stuff. First off, let’s start with some software:

Software
There’s a few programs you can use for HDR.
1) Photoshop - I’m not a huge fan of Photoshop’s Merge to HDR
2) Photomatix - definitely my favorite. Oh yeah, NAPP members get a 20% discount. Here’s the link to the NAPP member website to get the code.
3) FDR Tools - Cool enough. I’ve tried it but I like Photomatix more. It just seems more intuitive to me personally.
4) Dynamic Photo HDR - This program looks like the best of all of them to me. The interface looks awesome. However, it’s PC only so I haven’t been able to try it out yet.

Learning
• I did a 2 part NAPP tutorial on the NAPP members website. One on Merge to HDR in Photoshop and another one on using Photomatix.
• I think HDR really shines for real estate and landscapes. Here’s a neat article on using HDR for real estate photography.
• Stuck in Customs has a cool tutorial
• Ben Willmore is teaching a class on it at the upcoming Photoshop World in Las Vegas
• Another HDR tutorial I found on Flickr

Inspiration
Finally, here’s some inspirational links to some great HDR photography.
• The mother lode of all HDR inspiration over at Flickr’s HDR group.
• Photomatix’s website has some really great examples of HDR. Check out Maciek Duczynski’s portfolio there for some amazing stuff.

As always, if you’ve got some related news, links, websites or tutorials let us know in the comments area. Have a great weekend!

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