Category Archives: Lightroom and Photoshop integration

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

 I’m often asked which books I recommend for Lightroom and Photoshop. On the face of it it’s a fairly reasonable question but one that I struggle to answer without showing my bias.  How come?

Well,  since Lightroom 1.0 I have assisted Martin Evening with his Lightroom Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers. My input has been fairly limited in so far as I act as his technical editor. Nevertheless, having read pretty much every Lightroom book available in the english language I can say that Martin’s is by far the most comprehensive. I wont pretend that it’s a book for beginners or even an easy read. No, this book is written with the intention of providing the reader with comprehensive information and tips on all aspects of Lightroom.

Lightroom was designed from the ground up with digital photographers in mind, offering powerful editing features in a streamlined interface that lets photographers import, sort, and organise their images. In this completely updated version Martin describes features in Lightroom 5 in detail from a photographer’s perspective.  He has been working with Lightroom from the beginning, monitoring the product’s development and providing valued feedback to Adobe. As a result, Martin knows the software inside and out, from image selection to image editing through image management to the final print. In this book he’ll teach you how to:

  • Work efficiently with images shot in raw or JPEG formats
  • Import photographs with ease and sort them according to your workflow
  • Create and manage a personal image and video library
  • Quickly apply tonal adjustments to multiple images
  • Integrate Lightroom with Adobe Photoshop
  • Export images for print or Web as digital contact sheets or personal portfolios
  • Make the most of new features in Lightroom 5, such as extended spot
  • removal, Upright™ corrections, and Smart Previews

The book can be obtained from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk

U.S. Route 66 – Update

photoventuresI’ve just arrived back in the UK after a pretty hectic 19 day trip along US Route 66. My initial plans were to post a small selection of images each day along with a short description of events and places I had visited. Alas, access to this Blog page was blocked due to issues with WordPress.

Cadillac Ranch, Amarillo, Texas

As explained in my earlier posting, the trip began in Chicago, Illinois and took us through Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona before ending at Santa Monica Pier in Los Angeles, California. We endeavoured to follow the old road as best as possible making stops to photograph many of the historic landmarks and people we met along the way. The trip was organised by my good friend Roger Reynolds at Photoventures (photoventures.net)

All images were edited in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 (Public Beta) and Photoshop where additional work was required. I also used Lightroom 5 to catalog all files, which included applying IPTC metadata, keywords and GPS tagging.

Click here to access the HTML photo gallery created in Lightroom 5

Adobe Lightroom 3.5 and Camera Raw 6.5 Release Candidates

Adobe have announced Lightroom 3.5 and Camera Raw 6.5 Release Candidates on Adobe Labs. As in the past, the “release candidate” label is used to indicate that these updates have undergone internal testing but would benefit from additional user testing.

These updates include support for the following recently recent cameras:Olympus E-P3

  • Olympus E-P3
  • Olympus E-PL3
  • Olympus E-PM1
  • Panasonic G3
  • Panasonic GF3
  • Phase One P40+
  • Phase One P65+
  • Sony NEX-C3
  • Sony SLT-A35

Newly ssupported lens include:

  • Canon EF 14mm f/2.8 L USM
  • Nikon AF‐S NIKKOR 50mm f/1.8G
  • Nikon AF Zoom‐Nikkor 80‐200mm f/2.8D ED
  • Nikon AF‐S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED
  • Nikon AF‐S NIKKOR 35mm f/1.4G ED
  • SIGMA APO 120‐300mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM
  • SIGMA APO 120‐300mm F2.8 EX DG OS HSM
  • SIGMA 85mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM
  • SIGMA 85mm f/1.4 EX DG HSM
  • TAMRON SP 70‐300mm F/4‐5.6 Di USD A005S
  • TAMRON 18‐270mm F/3.5‐6.3DiII PZD B008S
  • Hasselblad HC 2.2/100
  • Hasselblad HC 2.8/80
  • Hasselblad HC 3.2/150
  • Hasselblad HC 3.2/150N
  • Hasselblad HC 3.5/35
  • Hasselblad HC 3.5/50‐II
  • Hasselblad HC 3.5/50
  • Hasselblad HC 3.5‐4.5/50‐110
  • Hasselblad HC 4/210
  • Hasselblad HC 4.5/300
  • Hasselblad HC Macro 4/120‐II
  • Hasselblad HC Macro 4/120
  • Hasselblad HCD 4/28
  • Hasselblad HCD 4‐5.6/35‐90

There a good number of bugs, including some crashers, fixed in Lightroom. They include the folowing:

  • Using the arrow keys to modify image adjustment settings lacked responsiveness
  • A Publish Collection targeting a hard drive on Windows would not behave properly if the designated folder was deleted from hard drive
  • After editing the capture time in Lightroom, “Date Time Digitized” was incorrectly changed. (Only “Date Time Original” should be modified)
  • On Windows computers, Lightroom would interpret the wrong time zone
  • Changing Lightroom’s date created field to a date prior to 1933 resulted in unexpected values
  • Lightroom 3.2 introduced preview cache inefficiencies
  • GPS Altitude metadata was incorrectly excluded from files converted to DNG or exported as DNG files from Lightroom 3.4.1
  • For non-English language operating systems, folder names in the import dialog may not have been translating properly
  • When exporting images with the “Write Keywords as Lightroom Hierarchy” enabled, keywords with “Include on Export” deselected would still have been included on export
  • Saving metadata to a JPEG file in Lightroom 3.4 could have caused Lightroom to quit unexpectedly
  • A Publish Collection in Lightroom 3.4 set to publish original files would fail to include XMP files for proprietary raw formats.
  • RECONYX images did not open properly in Lightroom 3.4
  • When applying automatic lens profile correction, Lightroom 3.4 did not automatically recognize the following lens:  “Nikon AF-S NIKKOR 24mm f/1.4G ED”
  • Using the plus or minus key to increment Develop Module parameters did not work properly on the Mac
  • The Limit File Size export option was incorrectly including EXIF metadata on export when the Minimize Embedded Metadata option was selected
  • On Mac OS X 10.7, the Lightroom import dialog did not properly display network volumes
  • On Windows computers, using Shift + Scroll wheel to adjust the Adjustment Brush feather size, the expected result of the scroll wheel movement was reversed
  • Lightroom would not provide the correct error message when attempting to delete photos published to Facebook
  • Lightroom would experience tether capture failures on computers utilizing OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7
  • Develop load time performance was inconsistent
  • Keywords panel draws erratically when expanding/collapsing keyword hierarchy on 10.7
  • Scroll bars jump upward when dragging them on 10.7

 

The list of major bugs fixed in Camera Raw is as follows:

  • GPS Altitude metadata was incorrectly excluded from files converted to DNG or exported as DNG files from Lightroom 3.4.1
  • When utilizing the Canon sRaw setting in a 5D Mk II camera with the white balance set to daylight a magenta cast could have appeared on the image
  • RECONYX images did not open properly in Camera Raw 6.4
  • When Camera Raw 6.4 or the DNG Converter 6.4 converted a raw file with a sidecar that includes GPS in the EXIF namespace (but no real GPS EXIF in the raw file) to DNG or another format (ex: JPEG), the Date Component of the GPS TimeStamp was lost
  • The DNG Converter 6.5 no longer supports PowerPC-based Mac computers