The Problem

When you have an identity plate with an image of any color, you have to PERFECTLY align the identity plate on the stage. Easier said than done. In most other Adobe products, you get an align tool or a feature that snaps things to grid when you get close. Not the case with this feature in Lightroom. I found it literally impossible to perfectly align it, always leaving small slivers of white. Click the image below for an example.

The Solution

The only way I was able to solve this problem was to save my fine art print setup as a Template and then edit the template file.

1. Create a fine art print setup by following the steps in my previous post.
2. Save it as a Template by clicking the + sign in the Template browser panel, giving it a name and clicking the Create button.
3. Now’s the semi-tricky part. You need to locate that template file on your computer. In Windows Vista your templates are located at the following directory by default: C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\ Lightroom\Print Templates. If you are on a Mac or Windows XP, you’ll need to consult Lightroom help for the proper location. Also, you may have saved your presets in a different folder (in the Catalog settings)- if so, look there instead.
4. Open the file of the appropriate preset name with a text editor. On Windows, you may need to right-click and choose Open With… and specify a program like Notepad.
5. Scroll through or use the search feature to find any line that shows identityPlatePosH or identityPlatePosV. You’ll want to set the number on the right side of the equal sign on that line to .5 for each. They are probably close to .5 already – but it needs to be exact. See the lines I highlighted in the screenshot below for an example. I changed the values here and in one other place in this file. This is actually easier than it sounds. Once the file is opened, the lines are pretty easy to scan through.

1. Save and close the file.
2. If Lightroom is still open, close and re-start it. If already closed, go ahead and start it up. When you go back to the Print module and click on your preset, you should see that the Identify Plate is perfectly lined up.
3. Repeat for any other fine art print templates you want to create. For example, I created one for portrait-oriented pictures and one for landscape-oriented pictures. The identifyPlatePosH and identityPlatePosV should be set to .5 in every case.

Why the Plugin Rocks

This plugin rocks because it makes exporting to Flickr as easy as exporting an image to your desktop. I really like the following features:

• Automatically uploads the photos to your account.
• It lets you place it into one of your existing sets.
• You can easily rename/resize.
• You can include Flickr tags.
• There are several nice features for overwriting existing images.

How to Use the Plugin

The following instructions are for use with Lightroom 2. Use with Lightroom 1 is very similar, though, and Jeffrey’s site has easy-to-follow information on its isntallation and use.

1. Download the plugin from Jeffrey’s page. He has a version for Lightroom 2 here and a version for Lightroom 1 here.

2. Unzip the plugin to a permanent place on your computer. I put mine in the same area as my Lightroom Catalog.

3. Open Lightroom and click File > Plug-in Manager…

4. Click the Add button.

5. Locate the folder that you unzipped – select the folder and click  Add Plug-in. Note that if you ever move/delete the folder, the plugin will no longer work – you will need to re-add it.

6. Moving forward, whenever you want to export a photo to Flickr, select the photo and click File > Export… (or if in the Library module you can click the Export… button in the bottom left corner).

7. Choose Flickr from the options menu at the top (see Figure 1).

8. You’ll need to tell the plugin which account to use – click the Authenticate to Flickr button. It will open a browser and ask you to confirm that you want to give access for Lightroom to talk directly to Flickr. Approve the questions.

9. When back in Lightroom, the Export dialog will still be open and several options will be available, including information from your Flickr account such as your available Sets. You can then choose your settings as appropriate, including size, Flickr set, etc. Click the Export button when done.

Figure 1 – Click to enlarge

Who Should Buy It?

Someone in need of a streamlined or more efficient/fun way to manage and edit pictures.

the Cost

$99 upgrade; $299 full license

the Good

Non-destructive local editing using a brush, dual monitor support, support for larger images.

the Bad

Speed when using certain settings, new features brings a new learning curve.

Adobe Lightroom is hands-down the most commonly used program on my computer when it comes to photography. So, it was an easy to decision to upgrade to version 2 when it came out earlier this week. I’ve had an opportunity to use it and have some initial feedback on what I like and what could have turned out better.

Also, check out the following links for more information on what’s new or for training resources.

Adobe Documentation

Training Support Center

My Favorite 6 New Features

The best news is that there are a TON of new, really great features. The core around many of these new features is reducing the need to go to Photoshop. 3 of my top 6 new favorite features eliminated the need to go to Photoshop – I can now do those things directly in Lightroom. That results in a big time saver.

1. Adjustment brush: The adjustment brush allows you to make non-destructive edits to just parts of your photo directly in Lightroom! Version 1 required that you make your adjustments to the whole picture – you needed to go to Photoshop to do anything to parts of the picture. This one feature nearly doubles my productivity. Also, Adobe did a good job implementing it (for the most part). The brush is natural and easy to use. It’s also very smart. When brushing the image, it can detect edges and only apply the adjustments to the areas it is supposed to. Very cool!
2. Open files in Photoshop without saving them: This is the #2 reason I upgraded. I do a fair amount of HDR and panorma shots – in the past when I needed to open several images to create one larger one, it saved each of the shots as a Photoshop file, even though I only needed one final pano. It resulted in tons of extra files (that were pretty large) filling up my hard drive. Well, no longer! No, you can open an image in Photoshop without having it automatically save it.
3. Larger file support (65,000 pixels): Previously, Lightroom would only store an image up to 10,000 pixels wide. That caused some major issues when stitching together multiple large images, which could result in at least 15,000-20,000 pixel widths. Now, Lightroom supports much larger file sizes – horray!
4. Print to JPEG: The Print area of Lightroom is so much fun to use. Printing is easy and highly configurable. One of the things I really liked in Lightroom 1 is creating fine art prints (prints that don’t fill the whole sheet and often have descriptive text or logos directly below them). Now, it’s even better. You can export those fine art prints, or anything else from the Print area to an image! That’ll make creating images for posting on this blog and in other areas much easier. I used to have to go to Photoshop to be able to do that.
5. Better sharpening: The sharpening section now includes all the same sliders as Photoshop, plus one or two extras. I used to pull almost every final image over to Photoshop for final sharpening. Not anymore! Lightroom can handle it all. It even applies some basic sharpening while exporting.
6. Dual monitor support: I can finally open up various parts of Lightroom on a second monitor, like the Grid view of all my pictures.

A few other nice things include: You can print picture packages, mixing multiple sizes of the same image onto a single page for printing; it upgrades well from Lightroom 1 – it pulled over all my pictures, settings, presets, etc.; you can save your print settings with your photos so that you can more quickly make reprints; better visual cues – for example, when you reject a photo, it now grays them out; vignettes that are based on the cropped part of the image (the old way would display the vignette on cropped out areas of the image, making it unusable in those cases); you can access collections (groups of photos) from the develop and output modules now, reducing the need to go back to the library just to choose a different set of photos to work on.

The Bad

The great new features definately make it worth the upgrade. There are, however, a few things that are causing me some heartache.

1. Adjustment brush speed: I usually like to check the setting that automatically writes any changes to the file directly into the file. In the past, that would slow things down a bit (it is faster for Lightroom to keep track of those changes instead of writing them into the file), but it was tolerable. With that setting checked the adjustment brush is almost unusable – it runs ridiculously slowly, forcing me to turn off that feature.
2. Sub collection creation : I use collections a ton – in fact, I create one collection with several sub collections on every one of my shoots. For some unexplainable reason, Lightroom made it a whole lot harder to create sub-collections.

The Final Word – Should You Buy It?

In some cases, product upgrades may not bring features that are applicable enough for everyone to warrant widespread upgrades. That is not the case for Lightroom 2, though. If you are a Lightroom 1 user (or just want to try it out), I would recommend purchasing Lightroom 2 without hesitation. The adjustment brush and better Photoshop support make this worth the upgrade all by themselves.

Stay tuned over the coming days and months for posts on how I use particular features.

Check out Photo Diagrams here for more. You can click and open the online version, or download and install it as a desktop application.

Photo Diagrams is a free, easy to use tool that creates professional looking photo and lighting diagrams. Once created, you can either print the diagram or export it as an image.

If you have any questions, feedback or comments about Photo Diagrams, please post them in the comments below. Or, e-mail me at breyman [at] professionalsnapshots dot com.

Photo Diagrams On the Web

Click here to use Photo Diagrams right now.

You’ll need the free Flash Player 9 or above installed to run it correctly, though! You can download it free from Adobe here.

Photo Diagrams Offline

Need to create diagrams but aren’t always connected to the Internet? Download and install the desktop version of Photo Diagrams below.

When you use the Offline version, though, you won’t be able to export images. That piece requires help from your web browser. You’re still able to print them, though! If you install a PDF creator, you’ll be able to print your diagram to that for future use.

Please upgrade your Flash Player at http://www.adobe.com/products/flashplayer. If that does not work, you can download the application at http://www.professionalsnapshots.com/PhotoDiagram/AIR/PhotoDiagrams.air

*Will work on Windows and Mac.

Feature List

Photo Diagrams allows you to create fast, professional looking diagrams. Some of its features include:

• Quickly drag a dozen different photography items onto the diagram. Position and rotate them to your heart’s desire.
• Add custom notes to the diagram that allow you to update the text.
• Change the color of the background. Add or remove grid lines.
• Print the diagram to any printer installed on your computer. If you have a PDF creator, you’ll be ale to print to that.
• Export the diagram to an image for easy posting on your web site or use in other documents.

Why purchase the suite? Price break. Each product can run around $700 and the suite comes in at a nice $1100 or so. So, if you purchase 2 of the programs, you’ve already paid for the suite. I know a lot of folks that end up getting the suite for that very reason – the value. They tell themselves that they’ll get around to learning the other progams (InDesign and Illustrator). But, in many cases learning another Adobe application becomes too burdensome.

Make the Suite Worth It

That’s where the InDesign user group comes in. I haven’t mentioned it much in the past, but I’m the co-chair for the Adobe sponsored Denver InDesign user group. I’m not an Adobe employee – just a loyal customer. I volunteer my time to plan and often present at these meetings. In fact, I just finished up our most recent chapter meeting. They are an excellent place to network and more importantly, learn InDesign. Topics range from beginner to more advanced features and can really provide insight into InDesign and all its great page layout capabilities.

Don’t let the Suite go to waste – learn InDesign today. There are local chapters all over the world, with many in the U.S. Check out the InDesign User Group web site today for more information!

Adobe is one of the premiere creators of creative applications, creating everything from Flash to Photoshop to Dreamweaver. The good news? Adobe just released the beta versions of several of their products for testing on their web sites. One of the things I found most interesting was to see the slightly updated user interface. They seem to be sticking with the panel idea (which I really like), but have made it shine a little more.

You can download Dreamweaver CS4 (to create web sites), Fireworks CS4 (to create web graphics) or SoundBooth CS4 (editing sound files) from the Adobe web site here. The downloads will work on a trial basis (2 days), or you can input your CS3 licenses to unlock them for a longer period of time.

Also, John Nack posted an inquiry for anyone that would be intersted in trying the new version of Bridge. Check it out here.

And, last but definately not least, if you haven’t already downloaded it, you should check out the beta version of Lightroom 2. Lightroom is a great tool for managing, editing and outputting large numbers of digital photos. You can download a 30 day trial here. Or, if a friend who owns Lightroom 1 sends you an invitation, you can install a trial that runs through August. If you don’t know anyone that has Lightroom 1, drop a comment in and introduce yourself. We can become fast friends via e-mail and I’ll send you an invite!

I listed the three best approaches I found and brief instruction on how to do each. I preferred OnOne’s Photoshop plugin, Genuine Fractals, but any of these options will provide usable results when followed correctly.

Where to Start

It’s important to always start with as high quality image as you can. Ideally, you can use a RAW file or JPEG right out of your 6 or 7+ megapixel digital camera. You don’t want to grab a 800 pixel wide, been compressed multiple times image off of Google. The old addage is true here: Garbage in > Garbage out.

Also, when doing this, keep in mind that most folks are going to view a large print or poster from at least 3 or 4 feet away. As a result, they won’t need to be quite as sharp as an 8×10″ print.

The Options I Tried

I did some research and tried three different options. #1 and #2 were done directly in Photoshop. #3 was done with a Photoshop plugin.  Here’s how they work. Note that each one will make the file substantially larger (several hundred MB in some cases, so make sure your hard drive is ready to handle that). Also, in many cases I would apply a bit of sharpening to the photo after enlargement to crisp things up a bit (more on sharpening in a future post).

#1: Increasing 10% at a Time with Bicubic Smoother

Open the image in Photoshop and choose Image>Image Size. Uncheck the Resample Image checkbox and change the resolution to 200 and click OK.

Go to Image>Image Size again and re-check the Resample Image checkbox and change the option to Bicubic Smoother. Choose Percentage from one of the document size drop-downs and change the percentage to 110. Click okay.

The image will now grow by 10%. Repeat the Image>Image Size, percentage, 110 steps until your image is at the desired size.

#2: Increase all at Once with Bicubic Sharper

This tip is directly from Scott Kelby’s best selling book The Adobe Photoshop CS3 Book for Digital Photographers. He mentions in the book (and I’ll second it here) that this seems like the most non-traditional of the options. But, it seems to do the trick! The one downside to this option is that it produced the largest file size, which can get tricky when you start to consider Photoshop’s 2 GB file size limit.

Open the image in Photoshop and choose Image>Image Size. Change the settings in the box as shown below and click okay. It’ll process things for a while.

#3: Increase with OnOne’s Genuine Fractals Plugin

This is the only option of the 3 that requires an additional dip into the bank account (past the already pricey Photoshop). Make sure OnOne’s Genuine Fractals plugin for Photoshop is installed (it retails for around $160, unless you need to resize CMYK images and can be found here).

Open the image in Photoshop. Click onOne>Genuine Fractals>Scale Current Image…. The image will open in a new window, with new options. Set the desired resolution (around 200) and size and click okay. One benefit to Genuine Fractals is that it provides advanced previewing and sharpening options while in its resizing dialog box.

The Results

As I mentioned before, the results were all fairly decent, although they varied a bit. Of all, I preferred Genuine Fractals – it provided slightly sharper lines and less noise. I also listed the final file size for each.

Original File: 53 MB

#1: 10% at a Time: 934 MB

#2: Bicubic Sharper: 1530 MB

#3: Genuine Fractals: 928 MB

I’m scheduled to take the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom ACE exam in just a few days. I’ve taken and passed the ACE exam for Adobe InDesign (Adobe’s page layout program), but I’m still nervous about this one.

If you aren’t sure what Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is, you can check it out here. It is a program that allows you to more easily manage, print, share and do basic editing on massive amounts of photos.

If you aren’t sure what an ACE is… well, that is what this post is all about.

What Is It?

To start, ACE stands for Adobe Certifed Expert – you can become an ACE in various Adobe products (Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, Lightroom, etc.) by taking an exam.

Some additional exam details:

• Most cost $150
• Taken in a testing center on a computer – all are multiple choice.
• 40-100 questions/test, depending on the program.

For more information on the ACE, visit Adobe’s ACE page here.

Why Take It?

The reasons I’ve chosen to take the exam are:

• Professional recognition: After passing the exam, you receive a logo you can display and certificates, etc. Some argue that it doesn’t always mean much. While various companies/clients would view it differently, I’m of the opinion that the more little things I can do, the more employable (either by a company or a client) that I am.
• Product expertise: While I typically only take exams on products I already know pretty well, preparation for the exam often teaches me small, yet useful things I didn’t previously know.

To be fair, some have been a little critical of the exams, feeling that they could be better written. Adobe has responded well to the feedback, posting new exams, but some still feel they aren’t worth it. Generally, I guess it’s up to each person as to their value.

What’s the Best Way to Prepare?

I suppose this varies by person. If I pass on Thursday, though, I’ll share a few of my practices in my Friday post (if I don’t pass, I wouldn’t suppose that the study practices I used would be very useful).

A 2-monitor setup among photographers is becoming more and more common, especially with the dropping price of supporting hardware and the influx of LCD monitors. I have a 2 monitor setup at work and at home and they are an important part of my setup and workflow.

Being a photographer, I often like to use my own work as wallpaper. One thing I’ve had problems with, though, is when I set a wallpaper with dual monitors it repeats the same wallpaper on both screens. It would be nice if I could set separate wallpaper for each or even better, span a long pano-type image across both monitors.

I’d been struggling with this problem for a while – at least until I found a great, free tool, Display Fusion. The one downside is that it is for PC users only (it works on XP and Vista) – if you are on a Mac, feel free to post other solutions in the comments section of the post.

Display Fusion, which can be downloaded here, solves wallpaper problems with dual monitors and more. After installing, you can pull up the properties of Display Fusion to configure its two primary purposes – wallpaper display and shortcut keys.

Before I decided to keep and recommend the program, though, I wanted to make sure it wasn’t a computer resource hog. I have enough background processes as it is and needed this to be small. After running, I pulled up the Task Manager and reviewed its usage under various circumstances. On Windows Vista, it idles at around 800 KB of memory and spikes up to around 1.5 or 2 MB of memory. That’s lower than most other processes, even light ones, so running Display Fusion won’t tax your system!

Based on its robust, yet simple features, small impact on system resources and great price, I highly recommend Display Fusion.

Wallpaper Display

The tool provides several options for displaying different images on each monitor or to span one image across monitors. It adds a few nice features like stretch/ centering, shifting the background up/down and left/right to get it right where you want it and to access photos directly from Flickr.  The Flickr feature lets you search Flickr groups/people/text fields and easily display rotating images from the search results.

The interface is very straightforward – I tried several images with it and it worked flawlessly. Keep in mind that if you want to span a picture across both monitors you’ll need to find/adjust one to be more panoramic than usual. It will adjust it for you if needed, but if it isn’t meant to be very wide, it could end up distorting it.

Shortcut Keys

Display Fusion is worth downloading/installing based on its wallpaper features alone, so its added support for Shortcut Keys is a real treat.

The settings display about a dozen common actions you would want to perform with program windows between the two monitors, such as moving a window from one to the other, spanning a window across both, etc. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to the various actions. They worked very smoothly with very little, if any lag, between using the shortcut and seeing the windows move as requested. I don’t move things around a lot but this is definately a timesaver.