All Entries in the "Getting Started" Category
Getting Started Right: Building Better File Names with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3
My digital camera takes great pictures but it gives them lousy filenames. This is a big problem because the file’s name is a really important detail for a professional photographer. Unique filenames make it easy to communicate with clients and they prevent confusion. Sadly, most digital cameras cannot create unique filenames.
Since I cannot teach my camera to name my file’s the right way I must solve this problem when I add files into my Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 index. Lightroom makes generating unique filenames easy once you understand how to create a File Naming Template.
Getting Started Right: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3′s Critical Preference Menus
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 is finally here and it is a great to get started the right way with this powerful software! Lightroom is not a hard program to figure out on your own, but there are some critical switches buried deep inside its preference menus. Preference menus are dull material in any program, but a wise man looks the under the hood before buying a used car.
Upgrading from Lightroom 2 to Lightroom 3
So, you’ve heard that Lightroom 3 is out. You’ve read about some of the new features for professional photographers. You’re sold. Now it’s time to upgrade.
Advice on Buying Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3
Life is all about choices and software purchasing is no different. To get your copy of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, you could buy the product directly from Adobe, you could purchase the software from an online retailer, or you could pick up a copy at your local computer box store. So does your choice make any difference?
Getting Started Right: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Setup and Catalog Creation
Now Lightroom is a very straightforward program but to use it properly you must rethink your entire workflow from initial capture all the way to final output. To really get your money’s worth, you need to rethink every step in your photographic routine and look for inefficiencies. We want to think everything through and setup ourselves up for long-term success from day one with Lightroom.
Getting Started: The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 View Options Menu and Library View Toolbar Customization
I released a whole bunch of tutorials recently on crucial parts of the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 setup process. The videos in this post are not nearly as important as the ones on building your catalog on an external hard drive or the ones on the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Preferences Menus. Still, setting the View Options Menu up right and customizing the Library Module’s Tool Bar is a big help when you are new to the program.
What Software Should I Add to A New Mac For Photography
We photographers need to buy some additional software to get a brand new Mac up and running. This article is about the software that I think a new Apple computer needs for professional-grade digital imaging, word-processing, and everyday use. Click here to read more….
Backing Up a Mac with Carbon Copy Cloner
I am fond of a backup utility called Carbon Copy Cloner on my Mac. This wonderful little program has saved me from total disaster when one of my hard drives dies. Click here to learn more and to see my video tutorial on how I use this software to protect an entire hard drive full of photographs.
Backing Up Windows Computers Using Acronis True Image– Updated
Maintaining an up-to-date backup is painless if you choose the right software. For Windows (PC) users my favorite backup software is a product called Acronis True Image Home 2010. Click here to read more about backups and to see video tutorials on how to use this excellent backup utility.
Lightroom vs. Photoshop
Do I need to buy both Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop CS4? Digital photographers ask me this question all the time. It’s a good question and one that deserves more than just a simple yes or no answer. Each program has it’s own strengths, and although the two programs share some common features, they are not competitors.
John Beardsworth on “10 Things I Wish I Could Tell a Slightly Less Novice Lightroom User”
Today, I came across a post from Lightroom expert John Beardsworth entitled “10 Things I Wish I Could Tell a Slightly Less New Lightroom User.” I believe that this article is worth your time. I am especially pleased with Mr. Beardsworth second point: “Unless you really know what you’re doing, never use Explorer or Finder for moving or renaming files that are catalogued in Lightroom” since I recorded a tutorial on this very topic just a few months ago. For more information read on…
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Beta Help Now Online
Adobe posted a new website today to support the Lightroom 3 beta release. Scott and I are already signed up as moderators for the new site and are looking forward to helping folks learn Lightroom v3. Here’s a link to the new Adobe Lightroom 3 beta help site.
Scott Kelby’s “10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users”
Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals, posted an article recently that might help Lightroom beginners. If you are new to Lightroom, I encourage you to read his “10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users” in addition to browsing all of the articles in our Getting Started Tutorials section.
I don’t agree with all ten, though. Read on to find out where I disagree.
Optimizing Lightroom for Best Performance: Top Ten Lightroom Speed Tips
It’s hard to argue that using Lightroom to manage and edit large collections of images is much faster than “the old way,” but we’re always looking for that way to squeeze out just a little more speed.
Here are my top ten tips for optimizing Lightroom for speed.
Proper Exposure With a Digital Camera
The digital camera’s sensor does not see the world the way our eyes do. With our eyes, brightness and tonal variation are linear, but for the camera this scale is logarithmic. Basically, this means that the camera can record lots of tonal variation at the brightest end of the spectrum but it captures very little tonal variation at the darker end.
Shameless Self-Promotion: My Ski Photography
I just put this video slideshow of my ski photography up on the web. You can watch it here in HD, or you can download the full-size mp4 from Vimeo.com. If you like it, please feel free to share it with your friends. Hope you enjoy it!
Digital Camera File Formats: Raw and Jpeg–Updated
Most digital SLR cameras can record images using either a Raw or a Jpeg file format. Both formats have their own advantages and disadvantages. It is up to you to decide which option is the most appropriate for the way that you work and for the equipment that you have at your disposal. Of the two formats, Raw is both the most straightforward and, ironically, the most complex.
Using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to Copy New Images in from a Memory Card
I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to copy new photographs from my digital camera memory cards into my computer. This is a critical step, and it is one of the first tasks that you will do with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Once you get everything setup, Lightroom makes transfering files from my memory card to the computer easy. Read on for a basic description of how I use Lightroom to empty my memory cards.
The Mega-Important Automatically Write Changes into XMP Switch
Today’s article is all about the “Automatically write changes into XMP” switch which lives inside of the Metadata tab. When I teach classes, I call this the “happiness vs. unhappiness switch” and from the factory it is set to unhappiness! The good folks at Adobe make fantastic software, but they don’t always pick the best words for their buttons and knobs. “Automatically write changes into XMP” should have been labeled “Auto-Save.”
Setting Preferences in Lightroom 2– Updated Now with Video!
Lightroom has the power to be the photographic computer program that you spend the vast majority of your time in. Because of this, you want to make sure that you’ve tweaked it to perform just the way you want it to.
Check out this article for descriptions of each of the preference settings, as well as my recommendations for each.
How to get your Lightroom Catalog onto an External Hard Drive
Today’s tutorial is on how to get your Lightroom Catalog files onto an external hard drive. This process of moving an existing Catalog, or creating a brand new Catalog, on an external drive is one of the very first things that we do in my Lightroom workshops. I know that this process is not one of the most interesting part of digital photography, but I truly believe that the long-term benefits are worth the extra hassle. Please read this tutorial and watch the video to find out how I move my Catalog files from drive to drive.
My Photo Storage System: Two External Hard Drives
As a professional digital photographer, I work with Adobe Photoshop and with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom every day. After eight years in the business of digital photography, I have shot about 30,000 images. I need a cost-effective, and scalable way, to store all of these images, but I also need a way to access any of these files from either my laptop or from my desktop.
Recommended External Hard Drives– Updated
Update: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom and external hard drives are a perfect match for the serious digital photographer. Thanks to the low price of high-quality external hard disks, we now have an inexpensive way to store thousands of digital images and to make redundant backup copies of our precious work. I’ve completely re-written this post on which external hard disks I trust for both my main photo storage drive and for my backup drive. Check out the new recommendations….
Archives and Backup Copies
Most digital photographers are not taking the time to properly protect their precious digital images. As a professional photographer, the idea of losing a single important image scares me, but losing everything that I have ever shot because my computer crashes horrifies me. Ask yourself, “What would I lose if my computer died right now?”
Let me say this to you in bold for maximum impact: If you have neglected to prepare for total system failure, then you should expect to lose everything when disaster inevitably strikes.
How to Format an External Hard Drive – Updated
Regardless of brand or model, the very first thing that you must do when you buy a brand new external hard drive is to format it properly for your system. Format your new disk immediately, before you start using it for backup or for additional file storage. It is essential that you do this right away, before you start using the drive, because the formatting process erases everything on the external disk.
Read on for more information about properly formatting an external hard drive.
Calibrating a Monitor using the X-Rite EyeOne Display2 System
Monitor calibration is an essential first step in digital photography. For this post, I made two tutorial movies which demonstrate how I use my X-Rite EyeOne Display 2 monitor calibration system.
Reader Question: Catalogs vs. Libraries vs. Folders in Lightroom
Reader Jeff asks on Twitter, “Would love to better understand the relationship between the terms catalogue, library, and folders as applied to Lightroom.”
Read on for the answer.
Understanding Lightroom’s Nondestructive Image Enhancement System
After teaching Lightroom for almost two years, I have noticed some places where new users get confused. One of the main problem areas involves Lightroom’s nondestructive image enhancement system.
Check out this post for some vital information about how Lightroom alters (and doesn’t alter) your files.
Working with Metadata Presets in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom–Now with Lightroom 3 Video
Metadata is the key to organization in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
Check out this article for step-by-step instructions for creating, editing, and deleting metadata presets to save you lots of time and keystrokes in Lightroom.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Introduction
Here’s a wonderful presentation that introduces you to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom by David Marx, our newest contributor.
