All Entries in the "Workflow" Category
Searching with Metadata in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
There have been lots of reader questions lately about how to search and organize a large image library using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Working with metadata tools like keywords, colored labels, and star ratings is the only way to really harness the full potential of Lightroom as an organizational tool!
Importing Images: Creating an Import Preset and Copying in Files from a Digital Camera Memory Card with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3
Ingesting new images from a digital camera memory card is a repetitive task that a professional photographer will repeat hundreds of times per year. This process just got a whole lot easier thanks to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3′s new Import Preset feature. In this article, and video tutorial, we explain how to simplify your life by building an Import Preset.
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.
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.
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.
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom vs. The Adobe Bridge
This article is a follow-up to a recent post on how Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom differ. This time, we will explore the differences between the Adobe Bridge and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
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.
Keyword Sets Make Repetitive Keywording Push Button Easy
Everybody loves what keywords do, but most folks dread the data-entry time required to add them into each and every image. I think that most Lightroom users dread the data-entry time required to keyword their images for two reasons; a, because they lack an efficient keywording strategy and b, because they are unaware of the huge speed boost that is hidden inside of the keyword sets feature. Ready to see what keyword sets do?
DpBestflow.org from the ASMP: Worth your Time
The American Society of Media Photographers (ASMP) just released a guidebook–actually it is a multimedia website–that covers the best practices in every aspect of digital imaging technology! I am confident that the time you spend on the dpBestflow.org site will be time well spen
Adding Metadata Adds Value to Your Photographs
Metadata is the new term for the descriptive information that accompanies any digital file. For photographers, metadata makes it easy to search through a huge library of images using tools like Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Searching for a picture based on its metadata terms is far more efficient than scrolling along and looking at each and every picture in your computer until you find the right one.
Keywording and Tagging in Lightroom
It’s not hard to get a lot of photos in Lightroom … and I do mean a LOT of photos. Ten-thousand, twenty-thousand, one hundred-thousand. I’ve seen some pretty big catalogs. What do you do when you need to find one of those images?
Converting Digital Camera Raw Files to the Dng Format using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
I am a big fan of the Dng raw file format. Dng files hold all of their metadata internally without the need for separate external .xmp sidecar files. I believe that is a huge advantage over the proprietary, camera-brand specific, raw files that my digital camera creates. In my workflow smarter files are worth the extra step that it takes to turn a camera brand specific raw file into a Dng raw file. Adobe Photoshop Lightroom makes this conversion, this re-wrapping of the raw sensor data, super easy.
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.
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.
Monitors and Calibration Systems for Photography
Digital photography is painful and messy without a trustworthy calibrated monitor. I urge you to spend the extra money and get yourself an accurate professional grade monitor right away. The money that you spend here will save you so much time and frustration in the long run.
Check out this article for some great suggestions and resources.
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.
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.
Reader Question: Moving Images From One Computer To Another
Martin asks, “How can I transfer the photos in Lightroom on my Apple laptop to Lightroom on my Apple tower?”
Read on for the answer.
