Lightroom-Photoshop Transition

This video is a quick tutorial on how to transition an image from Lightroom to Photoshop and back again.

Workflow

This is a quick Lightroom 3 tutorial on may basic workflow.  Specifically, how I import my files.  Understand that this is MY workflow so take any nuggets you get from this and leave the rest.  Your workflow has to work best for you.  I hope this gets you started.  Thanks again for watching.

Lightroom 3 Brush Tutorial

Here is a quick Lightroom 3 Tutorial on how to use the brush tool.  This will get you in the right direction as far as using the brush.  I certainly would encourage you to play around with this feature until you are very familiar with the tool.  If you have any questions ask away!!

HDR is not Just for Color

HDR photography has been around for some time now. If you are a photographer chances are you fall in one of three places.

1. You hate it in all of its forms

2. You are okay with the HDR that is close to “natural” looking (this is where I fall)

3. You love it in all of its forms

This is not an HDR hate/like post and you can check out a detailed post I did on HDR here. This is about another aspect you may not have thought about. Sometimes the issues I have with HDR is the amount of color saturation you get when you merge all the images. I generally pull the saturation and vibrancy back in my HDR images to “tone it down”. This time around however I took it all the way down. HDR is not just for color images. Pulling out the dynamic range for images and then converting them to black and white can have a very dramatic effect, especially on any large “puffy” clouds. The next time you are processing some HDR images consider them for black and white just to see what you can come up with.

Working a Subject

Often times when I go out for a fun day with my camera I find a single subject that catches my attention.  Ages ago I would set up a shot that I thought was good and take a couple of exposures.  Then, I would pick up and move along.  Now days though I tend to want to work the one subject just to see the different looks I can produce.  That extends to post processing as well.  I create several "virtual copies" in Lightroom and try different settings to see what happens.  I might even move it over to Photoshop and try working with some layers.  Sometimes all of this works and sometimes it doesn't.  I recently went to South Beach for some sunrise fun.  I wasn't overly excited about the photos I was getting in the beginning and so I became interested in the lifeguard stand that was next to me.  I worked it from many angles and took multiple exposures so that I could do some HDR work on them in post.  Take a look and let me know what you think.  Remember, don't just run up, take a shot, and run away.  There are many ways to explore a single subject.  

Lightroom 3 Keyboard Shortcuts

Lightroom 3 Keyboard Shortcuts

I have been using Lightroom for a good bit of time now and I have learned some very useful shortcuts.  These may not seem like they save that much time but when you spend hours editing it can really add up.  There are hundreds shortcuts in Light room but I want to show you the ones that I find most useful.  Since I am now a Mac guy that used to be a PC guy I will also list the shortcuts for both Mac and Windows.  Reminder:  This is not a complete list.  You can find all of the short cuts straight from the Adobe website here.

Action	Mac OS	Windows
Show/hide side panels	Tab	Tab
Hide all Panels	Shift + Tab	Shift + Tab
Enter Library/Develop Grid view	G	G
Open selected photo in the develop module	D	D
Cycle forward/backward through Lights Out modes	L / Shift + L	L / Shift + L
Cycle Screen Modes	F	F
Zoom	Z	Z
Increase/decrease Grid thumbnail size	=/-	=/-
Scroll up/down Grid thumbnails	Page Up/Page Down	Page Up/Page Down
Cycle Grid Views	J	J
Group into stack	Command + G	Ctrl + G
Unstack	Command + Shift + G	Ctrl + Shift + G
Flag Photo as Pick	P	P
Flag Photo as a reject	X	X
Unflag Photo	U	U
Star Rating	1 – 5	1 – 5
Show/hide Library Filter bar	\	\
Edit in Photoshop	Command + E	Ctrl + E
Develop Shortcuts
Sync settings	Command + Shift + S	Ctrl + Shift + S
Select Spot Removal Tool	Q	Q
Select Crop Tool	R	R
Constrain Aspect Ratio	A	A
Select Adjustment Brush	K	K
Increase/Decrease Brush Size	[ / ]	[ / ]
View before and after	\	\