Outdoor Images

Lightroom Seminar on Web Site Development

2009-06-03T09:29:00.003-04:00

Based on the questions I received from a presentation I did last night for the Charlotte Photography Meetup Group in North Carolina, I have decided to put together a few seminars that build on the concepts that I showed were possible with Lightroom.

My thoughts right now are to do a basic seminar that uses the Lightroom Web Galleries that came with the product and maybe a few other third party plug ins that are relatively simple. I might include some information on various web hosting services that work well with lightroom and how to set that up as well. I thought we might then do a second, more advanced seminar on setting up an E-Commerce site to sell photography. My intention would be the basic seminar would be for 'newbies' to using the web module and the advanced would build on those concepts.

I will put together a summary of the topics we could cover and then get that over to the guys at the Charlotte Photography Meetup Group to see if there is enough interest.

My thinking now is that we could plan this for the late summer to give me enough time to prepare material and a workbook that provides both reference and exercises to make sure we learn the material.

Comment here if you are interested in having me do this!

Charlotte, NC Photography Meetup Group

2009-06-03T09:21:00.004-04:00

I was honored to be asked to speak to a great group of people at the Charlotte Photography Meetup Group last night for their June meeting. Let me tell you that this group, 900+ strong, has a fantastic network for budding photographers and semi-pros alike. Let me tell you a little about them.

The group was founded on the principle of sharing photography and technique. Today the group has a growing library that members have access to, photo trips, opportunities for learning seminars, monthly photo contests centered around a theme and just plain fun. Dues are more than reasonable and help pay for meeting space, etc. See more about them here.

I would strongly recommend that you check this group out and consider joining even if you don't live in Charlotte. You can still be active with some of the out of town events and the calendar on the web site is well formatted and easy to use.

Great group of great people!

LRG Complete 4.1

2009-04-16T23:20:00.003-04:00

Anyone that is visiting here and has not seen the terrific work that Joe is doing over at Lightroom Galleries is missing out! At the beginning of this month, Joe released version 4.1 of LRG Complete which fixes some of the bugs in this new, heavily updated version of the best Lightroom Galleries Gallery around. If you need a web site creator that allows you to sell photography using Googlecheckout, PayPal and / or Email, then this is for you.

Joe's template allows custom fonts, unlimited galleries and additional pages, custom menuing, contact pages and so many choices to customize the look and feel, we had to write 2 books - one for a manual and one for advanced work!

See LRG Complete at Lightroom Galleries and download this free addon to Lightroom.

A Cat's Best Friend

2009-03-25T22:13:00.010-04:00

Bailey was MY cat ... I guess you could really say, I was Bailey's human. Bailey was patient with me. He always waited for me to sit down and get comfortable. Then he'd look and take a moment to survey my seat. Finally, he would hop on up and nestle himself down beside me with his paws on my leg. If I was in the way, he would wiggle back and forth until I moved over. That was his polite way of saying, "this is my seat, but I'll share it with you."

Bailey was known as the purrr-meister. His voice box could rival the loudest Harley on a Sunday afternoon. Bailey would begin to purr at the sight of me - or at least that's what I'm sure he wanted me to think. Bailey might have been purring at the sight of the cat food can I had in my hand. I may never know, but I know I felt him purring from the next room.

Bailey had me trained well. He would herd me over to the kitchen cabinets beside the sink and then tell me what he wanted. "Mow ... Mow ... Mow, Mow" I finally decided it was morse code for "Treat Now ... Treat Now" He would get more intense and the pauses between meows would diminish as I took the bag of treats off their shelf and opened the ziplock bag. As I placed my hand inside to grab a few, I would be met with his paws at the top cabinet drawer. He seemed to tell me, "Good human, now hand them over, quick, I'm starving." I would throw a few on the floor, or at least I think they made it to the floor. Bailey would sweep them up like a vacuum and then ask for more. "Sucker," I would mutter to myself as I took out another handful.

Everyone loved Bailey. That includes our four other cats. They all loved Bailey even if they occasionally fought among themselves. As I was Bailey's human, the other cats were his children - even if just figuratively. Jack, Lizzy, Sandi or Henri would all seek out Bailey's approval when coming inside the house. They would rub their scent all up and down Bailey and wait while he sniffed his approval. Only then could they continue to the food bowl for a snack.

At night, Bailey would allow one of his children to curl up next to him. Especially in the winter when it is colder, Bailey wanted warmth. Sometimes everyone would fight for the right to sleep next to Bailey. Sometimes Bailey gave in and two or three would curl up with him. Everyone loved Bailey.

Bailey had no need to go outside. Bailey had four other cats to go do his bidding out of doors. All Bailey needed was the door to be opened so he could sniff the air. Bailey could tell another cat coming from two doors down or smell a squirrel before the squirrel even decided to make a trek into our yard. Bailey had a keen sense of smell. He just didn't want to go outside. So he didn't. But, Bailey would sit in the doorway sniffing for half a day if you would let him.

As I sit back tonight and reflect on the joy and the happiness that Bailey has brought to my life and my family's life for the last 13+ years, there is no doubt in my mind that I was Bailey's human. I am grateful he picked me and I will miss him.

Bailey, 1/1996 to 3/25/2009.
Leica M8, 1/90, f/2 50mm ISO 320

SUSE Linux: Dell GX520 SATA Drive Install

2009-03-23T11:45:00.000-04:00

Using SUSE Linux is wonderful for secure and stable web platforms. Recently I was installing SUSE Linux on a Dell Optiplex GX520 and I kept getting a really odd error:

isolinux: Disk Error 01, AX=0201, Drive 80

As it turns out, this is due to the SATA drive which is the primary drive in a Dell GX520. Here is the workaround to let the installation continue.

First, enter the bios or setup when the computer boots. On a GX520, this means pressing the F2 key when the boot screen appears. Go down to the Drives section of the bios and select the SATA drive. Then set this drive to the compatibility mode. Exit while saving the changes and that's all there is! This allows the SUSE installation to find the SATA drive and allow the installation to continue.

Next you probably will want to see the article I wrote on the Installation of SUSE Linux on a GX520 with a USB Keyboard as your troubles are not yet over. Luckily that article gives you a solution!

SUSE Linux: Install on Dell GX520 with USB Keyboard

2009-03-23T11:19:00.004-04:00

Installing Linux can take longer than windows, no doubt, but once finished, linux provides a very sound platform for web servers. I use linux for some of my work and I also use Dell computers. Recently I was installing SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2 and I ran into a problem. On a Dell Optiplex GX520 using bios version A11 the USB keyboard does not work on the install. This causes obvious problems! Here is the solution.

Very simply, the booting install is a graphical version which will not recognize the USB connections for the keybaord. This is not a universal problem, but is specific to the Dell Optiplex GX520 running bios version A11. If your machine is different, but exhibiting the same problem, you can try this solution to see if it helps.

After the Dell bios booting screen appears, press the F12 key to enter the boot selection mode. Here is where you choose to boot from the CD Rom. Immediately after choosing the CD Rom and pressing the ENTER key, press and hold the two SHIFT keys on the keyboard. This will cause the linux setup to enter the text mode. Fortunately, this mode recognizes the USB Keyboard and you can continue.

Don't worry, the text version will begin to use the mouse after a few questions. The text version of the install isn't bad at all and it works!

Old Buildings In Fresh Snow

2009-03-04T00:54:00.003-05:00

Where we live, getting snow in March that actually causes school to be cancelled is a rare occurrence. More interesting is the high temperature five days later will be 70 degrees farenheit. Weather!

Here is an image of a location I have been watching during my daily commute that past 14 years waiting for the right moment. Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter grey - nothing brought me to a halt to say 'that needs to be on film.' Well, this winter storm came and I decided to seek out this spot.

What I liked most about this picture is the old white siding now weathered grey really stands out in the snow. The Earnheart's sign is the center draw to my eye and the subtle green on the pine mixed with the rust beside the broken window add just enough color. This snow scene almost lends itself to black and white but the splash of color.

The time was as the sun had just come up, about 7:30 am. This gives the snow the bluish tint. I used a 35mm at f4 and 1/125 of a second. As always, I used the M8's slowest ISO at 160.

I metered using and incident meter, but having a little sun backlighting the scene, I decided I wouldn't trust it. The weathered grey came out to 1/125 of a second using the spot meter, so I went with it.

One of the most satisfying photos for me is having a result that takes little to no manipulation after exposure. This scene has had sharpening applied, but no modification of any other kind. That is rare for me, but I am happy.

Enjoy!

Lightroom 2.3 Update

2009-03-04T00:02:00.003-05:00

Adobe has released update version 2.3 for Lightroom. You can download the versions using the links on the sidebar. It appears the majority of the fixes for this update are related to memory leaks and other items within Windows.

Of real importance is the fix for the artifacts that appeared in version 2.2 when using a Cannon EOS 5D Mk II sRAW file. This should make many of those users happy. Since I use strictly Leica equipment I cannot test this update for the EOS, but leave a comment if you use this model.

Poor Economy and Free Time

2009-01-29T19:57:00.004-05:00

Ok, so this doesn't sound like something from a photography blog. I can guarantee that it is relevant, though. The poor economy took my day job in September so I have been working hard to establish a form of income. This means that my free time for photography had to be reallocated to starting up a business. See, Poor Economy = Less Free Time.

Now for some good news on the Lightroom front. I have been reviewing a pre-beta version of LRG Complete (dubbed version 4) and I can tell you - it really rocks! My favorite new feature is the addition of a group of new fonts available to choose from. Now each site can have a whole new look and the LRGC weg sites will no longer take on the form of the old row houses.

Not only can you continue to customize your look and feel with colors and different background images and identity plates. Now you can also use a variety of fonts to give viewers a sense of who you are and what you are about.

As always, Joe has fixed a few things that were broken and taken many suggestions to hear adding them into this next major rewrite. For example, Joe has done some more work to the back stage part of the contact page and it now operates more like a standard page instead of the red-headed step child. Also, Joe fixed the site title text to appear on the top of the identity plate if you use an image. Prior to this version it was behind the image.

Since I illuded to a new career at the top of this post, I might as well tell you that I started a CPA firm. You can guess what I used to create my web site. Correct! While it will always be a work in progress, Financial Resources and Consulting Group has taken a great photography tool and turned it into a simple business web site.

If you visit, you'll see how I used a logo for the photography and included mounds of text about the various services I offer. I have plans to put some CPA type photography on the pages as well, but that takes time. My current focus is finding clients!

Thank you to everyone who continues to support our development efforts. As this new version gets ready for release, we will be working on updates to the basic and advanced user's guides.

I will continue to post here, but the frequency will slow somewhat. Thanks for staying with me and keep watching for the newest version in this one-of-a-kind photography plug in for Adobe Lightroom!

Lightroom 2.2 Released!

2008-12-16T07:04:00.003-05:00

Adobe Lightroom 2.2 has been released! You can reach the Download Page Here. The ReadMe File tells us that some fixes have been introduced in the SlideShow module and several bug fixes for the brush and mask development settings. I am downloading the updates and will let you know if I find any issues.

I am curious if this release works better with the current Adobe Flash releases in the Web Gallery module.

Windows Fix for Script Errors in Lightroom

2008-12-10T00:49:00.003-05:00

Matt at the Turning Gate found a good fix for windows user's that run into script errors when using Lightroom. Joe at the Lightroom Gallery posted it for us. See the Fix Article Here. Thanks guys!

Lunar Conjunction with Venus and Jupiter

2008-12-02T08:15:00.003-05:00

Last night we had a rare lunar conjunction with both Venus and Jupiter. As astronomy goes, light from the object you are viewing is the most important next to clear skies. Venus happens to be the brightest object in the sky next to the sun and then the moon. Jupiter is a close second. Thus, last nights lunar conjunction showed essentially the three brightest nighttime objects visible from earth. Here's a photo of this event.

The moon is obvious in the upper left hand corner. Venus is the bright object in the lower middle and Jupiter is the object in the upper middle right. This image was taken with a Leica M-8 using a 90mm Elmarit at f/4.0 and a shutter speed of 1/60 second and ISO 160. This conjunction was visible from North Carolina a 7:11pm.

I understand that in parts of Europe, there was also a lunar occultation, where the Moon eclipsed Venus for some time. Most astrophotography is better done with a telescope and a CCD imaging camera, but the spread of this particular conjunction made it work well with a camera and a long lens. Enjoy!

Smart Collection Workflow - 1 Metadata

2008-11-20T04:00:00.000-05:00

This article covers the Metadata section of the Smart Collections Workflow and is part of the complete Smart Collection Workflow for Lightroom.

The Metadata is the heart of the information about an image. Metadata is useful to pull later when printing, using a slideshow or publishing to the web. More importantly, Metadata is how you record your copyright. This section of the Smart Collection Workflow deals with making sure the most important Metadata is input into each image in the Current Work.

Each item in the Metadata workflow is covered under a separate heading. Changes to this portion of the workflow will appear as edits. The first rule of each portion of the workflow is that the collection name contains 'Current Work.' This is done to ensure we are looking at only the images we are working on.

No Copyright

This item shows the images with no copyright message. The rule is that the copyright status is not copyrighted. During the import, I use a standard addition of the copyright information into the images. For my workflow, this item should start out with zero images added.

No Creator

In addition to the copyright, I want to know if the creator has not been filled in as it is also an automatic addition. Unfortunately, Lightroom does not yet have the best consistency between checking fields in smart collections. As such, the creator Metadata does not have a choice for 'isEmpty.' Thus, the rule is creator is where is a blank item, no text or spaces input. This shows all images with no creator input in the Metadata.

No Location

Location is another Metadata item without perfect rules created. More importantly, the rule for the Creator doesn't work for the Location. Thus, we had to resort to workaround type two: check to see that the item doesn't contain any vowels. The rule is location doesn't contain a e i o u. I suppose we could try adding each letter of the alphabet as well, but I did not take the time to input that string.

No Label

Label may not be important for your uses, but when publishing images to the Web, Label, Title and Caption can be more important. To check for the Label, the rule is label text contains .

No Title

Similar to the Label, the rule for checking the Title is title contains .

No Caption

The caption is a Metadata item with more standard rules. Thus, the rule for checking the caption is caption is empty.

No Keywords

The more images you add to the library, the more important keyword assignment is. This rule checks to be sure at least one keyword is assigned to each image. The rule is keywords are empty.

Conclusion

There are other Metadata fields that are important to my workflow, especially when using sophisticated web publishing galleries like Lightroom Galleries LRG Complete. However, Lightroom under its current version does not allow a smart collection for every Metadata item. The best solution to this problem is to continue to ask Adobe to add these additional Metdata items, even if they only have simple 'contains' and 'does not contain' rules.

Adding additional rules can be easy by simply creating another smart collection and putting the appropriate numbers in front of the description to sort it.

VMWare: Running in a Window

2008-11-19T06:24:00.002-05:00

The advantages of using virtual workstations on a computer outweigh many of the disadvantages. I have been running Lightroom 2.1 now in a virtual machine for over a month with no adverse effect. The virtual machine, however, uses both processors and 2Gb of the 4Gb of machine memory. There is one trick to help keep the speed of the interface up.

The viewing mode of the virtual machine is important. We easily get used to windows around our desktop and the ability to switch between them easily. When using a virtual machine, a window is a resource hog. The machine should be running and the windows should be within the virtual machine.

The best response in the virtual machine is had when the view is set to Full Screen. This is found on the View, Full Screen menu. Using Full Screen there is no part of the host machine visible. This means the computer will not have to spend as much time keeping up with the host and can focus on your virtual machine.

The next tip I will publish is regarding the screen size in a virtual machine. When using VMWare on a laptop, sometimes the docking monitor is square and the laptop screen is wide. I have an easy method to switch between the two resolutions in Windows.

LRG Advanced User's Guide Updated

2008-11-08T08:04:00.004-05:00

This is the first official update to the LRG Complete Advanced User's Guide. Several new items have been added including a chapter on using Digital Image Downloading.

Highlights include:

A Chapter on using and testing Digital Image Downloading
Using Google GMail directly with SMTP Email
Updates and New Worksheets in the Appendix
A Color Chart to use with Selecting Colors
A modified version of the DID File to allow for the use of PHP Mailer Includes
Other maintenance items

Here is the original article on the LRG Complete Advanced User's Guide.

Remember that if you have already purchased one, your link will download this update for free.

VMWare: Synch with Blackberry at Last!

2008-11-07T06:50:00.004-05:00

In my searching the past week I found many articles about how using VMWare and trying to synch a Blackberry using the Blackberry Desktop Manager failed. Many of these articles were 2006 and before - nothing more current. Well, I found the solution and present it here for others that are looking.

The best I can tell is that using any VMWare Workstation before version 6.5.x uses a very different method of attaching USB devices which is not direct. The Blackberry Desktop Manager uses a direct connection for security and other measures.

The good news is that I was successful 'out of the box' with Blackberry Desktop Manager 4.6 (current as of this writing) and VMWare Workstation 6.5.0 Build 118166.

I use Windows XP SP2 to run VMWare Workstation and I am running Windows 2000 with SP4 to run the Blackberry Desktop Manager.

Have at it!

New Frost for Winter

2008-11-01T08:35:00.003-04:00

In the southeast we have mild winters compared to the north and cold winters compared to the deep south. The advantage is we get a little bit of both weather patterns. Yesterday we had high humidity at night with temperatures right at the freezing mark. The result was a fantastic opportunity for frost photographs like the one below.

I shot this with my Leica M8 and a 90mm f/2.8 lens on f/4 at 1/90 second, handheld, at the closest focus. The beauty of a rangefinder is the ability to do this. Had I thought in advance, my tripod would have been with me. However, I was bringing our children to school and the tripod was not on my mind.

I took this shot and several dozen more at about 8:30am EST. I found a small water collection basin on a large piece of commercial property nestled in the trees. The sun was warming the air around the water, but not directly as the trees were blocking the sun's direct rays. The combination gave me a fog across the pond and shelter to keep the frost intact.

While you cannot tell here, the frost crystals on all of these shots are intricate and very detailed. The best part of this type of photography is the contrast and grading tones throughout the image. The frost highlights the shape of the leaves and provides extreme detail in an otherwise smooth medium.

Don't miss a chance this winter to get out and find some unique opportunities. Remember that weather can turn an ordinary dull subject into something unique and spectacular. Weather is never the same twice.

Several things I learned here: a) keep the tripod in the trunk, no matter what!, b) I really need that macro lens!

Enjoy!

LR2 Bug: Collection Sets and Rejects

2008-11-01T08:03:00.004-04:00

In my continuing efforts to create an easily customizable Smart Collection Workflow, I come across some inconsistencies in Lightroom 2 (and 2.1) with what one would expect to happen. I am calling these inconsistencies 'Bugs,' but since extensive documentation on the functionality of Regular and Smart Collections does not exist, I will use inconsistencies for the moment.

This report discusses issues with Collection Sets, Collections and Rejected images. The bottom line is that the rejects marked in a Collection do not move up to the Collection Set level. More importantly, they do not appear to be recorded in such a manner that Smart Collections can pick them up either.

Here is what I did to test it:

1. Create a Collection Set to hold multiple collections: say 'Test Set'
2. Create a Collection within the Collection Set: say 'Test Collection'
3. This is important, put a group of images into the 'Test Collection', but make sure they are the original images, not virtual copies.
4. Mark a few random images as flagged and a few random images as rejected.
5. Mark a few random images with a star rating, the number of stars is irrelevant.

Now, go back and view the parent Collection Set. You will notice that none of the images show a pick flag or a reject flag. However, the star ratings do appear.

EDITED, 11/4/2008:
Now, go back to the Catalog, All Photographs. Notice that the images there also do not show a pick flag or a reject flag. However, the star ratings also appear here. This is by design as Adobe has indicated that flags are specific to a collection. So, the Test Collection flags set will not show up in the Catalog, All Photographs. Nor should any flags set in Catalog, All Photographs show up in the Test Collection.

Now, pick one of the images in the 'Test Collection' and view the metadata. The Copy Name is blank indicating it is the original image file. The rating shows.

Why would this happen? More importantly, this would be counter-intuitive to what I would expect, especially if the star ratings are captured. EDITED 11/4/2008: I would expect all the pick flag information to transfer to the Library and to the Collection Set at the parent level - No, this is by design. I would also expect Smart Collections to be able to pick up on the data.

The result of this bug is that it is difficult to use Smart Collections to analyze a collection of images.

New Links

2008-11-01T07:57:00.003-04:00

I have been terribly remiss in some of my maintenance here, so please forgive me! I have added two new links to the sidebar under Images & Adobe Lightroom. You may have the links, but I wanted everyone to have quick access to using them when the thought strikes. Here they are.

First, the Lightroom Forums housed at http://www.lightroomforums.net is an outstanding group and if you haven't had a chance to participate, I urge you to take a look.

Second, even with all the tremendous amount of work and efforts put into Adobe Lightroom, bugs still creep in. That is a price we pay for all the functionality of this great program. So, I have also attached a link to the official Adobe Bug Report and Feature (Wish) Request form. This is on Adobe's web site and as far as I know, is the only official reporting location, unless you happen to be on the software development team.

Smart Collection Workflow - 0 Overview

2008-10-29T22:11:00.007-04:00

This article covers the Overview section of the Smart Collections Workflow and is part of the complete Smart Collection Workflow for Lightroom.

The Overview section of the Smart Collection Workflow is labeled at placeholder zero (0) so that it will appear first in the list. The overview contains, as you might expect, collections that give you an overview of your work. More important is the first collection of the group.

Current Work

This first collection is called the Current Work collection and is a normal collection, not a smart collection. The heart of the entire Smart Collection Workflow is with the Current Work collection. Just about every Smart Collection in the Workflow uses the images in the Current Work collection. Thus, a filter in the smart collection is as follows:

Collection contains 'Current Workflow'

To use the Smart Collection Workflow, the Current Work collection must contain images. Once it is populated with images, the remainder of the work flow will populate with results. Don't worry about particulars yet, this is a summary of the Overview section of the work flow. We will discuss how to use the Smart Collection Workflow after we go through each section.

Components of the Overview

The first item to notice is how the numbering system works. The base collection set is labeled: 0 Workflow. Notice how each collection name begins with a number. The reason this occurs is to properly sort the items. With no number at the front, the collections would be sorted alphabetically and not in the correct order.

The next level of Collection Sets starts with 0 and moves forward in 0.1 increments. These are as follows:

0 Current Work
0.1 Edited - All Library
0.2 Flagged - Current
0.3 File Conversions
0.4 Images Taken - All Library
0.5 Current Work Composition

So the next item to notice after the numbering is the description. If the description includes 'All Library' then the entire image library is the scope of the Smart Collection. Thus, the 0.1 Edited collection includes images that have been edited recently through the current week. These are without regard to the Current Work collection and are based on the entire library.

If the collection includes the tag 'Current' then it only applies to the Current Work collection. Thus, the 0.2 Flagged collection shows images in the Current Work collection split by type of flag the image has. If the image is deleted (rejected) or contains no flag and is a member of the Current Work collection, then the image would appear here.

Collection Descriptions

We will discuss each section of collections and a description of the type of information gleaned by the collections. Not all of the Smart Collections are important to the actual work at hand in the Current Work collection. Some are just to give you a feel for how much (or little) work you have accomplished and what the makeup of your library is. The remaining workflow steps after the Overview are more focussed to the work.

0.1 Edited - All Library

As we alluded to above, the edited list of Smart Collections tells us the volume of work that has been done at various time intervals. These intervals are one hour, this day, yesterday and this week. Since the Smart Collection filters the entire image library, you can see how much work you have accomplished over the week.

I also added a new item - Deleted - All Library. The purpose of this collection is to indicate which images in the entire library are marked as rejects and ready for deleting. I use the reject flag to determine which images need to be deleted. Then I use the Lightroom command to delete the rejected images from the disk. This collection prevents me from accidentally deleting other images. I check this collection before I start a workflow session and it should be empty. If not, I verify those images still want to be deleted.

0.2 Flagged - Current

This group of collections lets you see at a glance the status of your images - but only as they relate to the Current Work. Images outside of the Current Work collection are not reviewed.

Thus, as rejects are flagged during the early processing of the working collection, they are segregated here. Any images that are Flagged are shown here as well as images that have no flag (Unflagged). The confusing collection is the one I added - A No Rating collection. The difference between an Unflagged collection and a No Rating collection is the difference between a flag and a star rating. Unflagged collections have no flag and no reject flag assigned. A No Rating collection is one that has no stars for a rating and is not selected as a reject. Thus, even though an image might be flagged, until it receives at least a one star rating it will show up in this collection.

EDIT 11/19/2008:

I have found with the help of some of the folks very close to Lightroom, that flags are specific to a collection and the library. Thus a single image can have different flag status: picked, not flagged and rejected. This is possible when an image is a member of different collections. More importantly, even using two rules in a smart collection: a) collection name contains 'Current Work' and b) pick flag isPicked, the pick flag rule only looks at the library, not the collection returned from the first rule. Thus, for now, 0.2 Flagged - Current does not work.

0.3 File Conversions

This collection shows the group of images that are being worked on and their current file type. If the image is a RAW image it is collected in the first group. A DNG file is recorded in the second type and any files converted to Adobe Photoshop files are listed in the last group - PSD Files. Since I shoot with a Leica M8 that saves images in an Adobe native DNG format, I shouldn't see any RAW files. If I do, I can look to see where they came from. I can also see quickly if I converted any files to Photoshop files. If you use JPEGs or TIFFs, then you can add those smart collections as well.

0.4 Images Taken

Images Shot just sounds poor in writing even though we might say it that way. Images Taken represent the entire library and when the images were taken. Using these smart collections you can get a quick grasp on how many images you have been taking over time. You can add other time frames if your goals are broken down differently.

0.5 Current Work Composition

The composition group indicates the makeup of the Current Work collection. How many are actually virtual images? How many images are the real thing - the original master copy? Finally, how many are black and white (Bnw) virtuals and master copies. In my workflow, I want to know how many have been converted to black and white, or greyscale, and how many actually started that way. You could add two more to show color virtuals and color masters if you wanted to.

Conclusion

The numbering for the Overview is done with sections less than 1.0. At the same time, section numbers within each type are listed as 10, 20, 30 so that they could be moved around without having to be renumbered.

Also, the key collection is the Current Work collection. The Current Work collection drives the remainder of the workflow. We see how the Overview section tells us some information about the group of images we are working on as well as the status of the library as a whole.

Next we will discuss the Metadata section to see what data hasn't been input properly. Stay tuned!

Smart Collection Workflow - Contents

2008-10-27T22:41:00.004-04:00

Simply presenting a file for downloading with a smart collection workflow will not help anyone actually use it. Because smart collections are customizable, I want you to understand each section and how it works. Then you can further customize it for your specific workflow. Here is a list of each section with a link to the corresponding article describing it. Thus, you can use this as instructions for using the Smart Collection Workflow.

NOTE: The download will be added last after all the other articles are written.

NOTE2: This workflow concept was adapted and improved from John Beardsworth's Smart Collection Workflow.

Table of Contents

Overview of Smart Collections and Workflow
0 - Overview
1 - Metadata Entry
2 - Edited List
3 - Adjustments
4 - Style
6 - Color Labels
7 - Final Review

This represents a start to the Smart Collection Workflow. As Adobe allows a more fully accessed use of the Metadata in Lightroom with Smart Collections, we can add to this workflow.

Smart Collection Workflow

2008-10-24T06:30:00.011-04:00

This is an introduction to Smart Collections and is part of the complete Smart Collection Workflow for Lightroom.

With the advent of Smart Collections in Lightroom 2, the web is abound with uses for them. Many of the uses presented are fancy filtering concepts. I ran across a great adaptation of Smart Collections to assist in the everyday workflow in August. Unfortunately, it's taken me until now to modify everything to fit my workflow. Here we discuss the concept of Smart Collections and our adaptation into the Digital Image Workflow.

First, credit goes where credit is due. John Beardsworth posted the original idea for Smart Collection Workflows on his blog in August 2008. This was my starting point. Thanks, John!

Smart Collection Concepts

We won't cover all the details of Smart Collections here, although that is the subject of a future planned post which I'll link here as it gets done. We will cover the concept and a few pitfalls in the most current release of Lightroom.

Smart Collections were designed to provide a group of images based on some predefined forumula or formulas. These forumulas can be based on much, but not all, of the metadata in the images. They can also be based on attributes of the images such as flags, assigned colors, some development characteristics and others.

NOTE: Adobe is hearing from many of us that we would like ALL of the metadata to be searchable for a Smart Collection. As of release 2.1, this is not the case, but we are getting closer, I am sure.

Because several statements can be used to filter out which images belong in a Smart Collection, the ability to create complex formulas exists. In fact, Smart Collections can be created to search within an existing collection or the entire library.

Smart Collections in the Image Workflow

As a result of these complex queries, Smart Collections are a logical choice to use for creating the ultimate Image Workflow. John Beardsworth created the framework for one such Image Workflow. I have adapted that workflow to my needs, adding some additional steps along the way. Further, I adapted his numbering system to be more flexible for others to add steps in their workflow.

The image to the left shows you a sample of the changes I have made. By using 10, 20 , 30 as indexes within each step, you can customize the workflow by inserting your own step or renumbering the parent step without having to change each step it contains. I added dashes in between the number and the step to make them more readable.

I also used the rating system customized to my own taste. For example, if I have an image rated as a 5 star image, then it is one of the 'absolute best' as are other ratings. Using the color labels I also customized the text to the meaning for my color labels. You can change any of these rules to suite your taste.

Finally, I expanded the ISO range. I use a Leica M8 and the ISO ratings are different. I wanted to know which images really need noise reduction and which one's are fine as shot. I can also more quickly tell which images are lower ISO and good quality for enlargements.

Conclusion

Smart Collections add value to your workflow. Keep an eye out here and I'll make the workflow availablle for download.

VMWare: Booting From a CD or DVD

2008-10-23T06:47:00.004-04:00

There are many cases when you need to boot from a CD or DVD with VMWare Workstation machine. Booting is easy when you have a brand new machine with no operating system. However, when you have a live operating system, how do you keep the machine from booting the OS and skipping the CD Rom? Forcing the CD Rom boot in that case isn't so easy! Here's the trick.

First Things First

Before I tell you the secret, I need to give you a quick blurb on using CD's and DVD's in VMWare Workstation. While it isn't difficult to use an actual CD or DVD by placing it in your CD Rom Drive, there are better ways to use CD's and DVD's with Workstation.

If you are using an Operating System CD or DVD, then my recommendation is to burn an ISO to disk first. An ISO file is simply an image of the CD or DVD. This means you cannot use it on your computer with normal software, but you can use it in place of a CD or DVD drive. Roxio and Sonic both have software packages that burn CD's and make ISO's. I use WinImage which has the added benefit of making images of floppy disks (those really outdated tiny square things you used to put into a disk drive, and yes the really old ones were floppy and not stiff like the more recent ones). There is a trial version available, but I recommend supporting the developer and purchasing one.

Why go to this trouble? Because, you will most likely never get it the way you want the first time around. It's kind of like the old video games. If you loose all your players, you just restart the game - it's too easy. Well, with VMWare Workstation, creating a machine is so easy you can make them until you get one you like. I use a 4gb USB drive to store disk ISO's for Windows and Linux as well as storing my program setup files.

Booting Within a VMWare Machine

Ok, now to the good part. When the bios screen starts on VMWare Workstation, you have to move fast. If you have a slow computer and you can read the bios screen, your PC is too slow to use virtual machines! To select a boot mode, press the ESCAPE key when the bios screen is showing.

However, the first part is to make sure that the window is accepting your key presses! Be sure to click the window or set your machine to accept mouse and key presses when using the keyboard.

Sometimes it takes me two or three attempts to get the key press accepted, so keep trying. Yes, that means you may have to use CTRL-ALT-DEL some more, but be sure you are rebooting your virtual machine and not your PC!

Hope this helps. I have a whole group of articles planned, time is the constraint!

Lightroom 2.1 Is Ready!

2008-10-23T06:29:00.003-04:00

I have been using the beta version of Lightroom 2.1 for the last month or so with great success. Well, now Lightroom 2.1 is ready for release! You can get the downloads for Windows here and for Macintosh here.

The readme file can be Downloaded here. A few things to note are below.

Formats Not Supported

Formats that are not supported with this update are CMYK Files, Photoshop files WITHOUT the Maximize Compatibility setting (no composite image), REALLY large image files and video files (get video editing software if this one is a problem).

New Feature Highlights

Some memory leaks and folder synching issues have been resolved. The downloadable fix for upgrading keywords in a LR 1.4 Catalog to a LR 2.1 Catalog is included in this release. Some Photoshop integration issues were fixed.

All in all not a huge update, but several important Metadata fixes are included. The beta for Lightroom 2.1 has been stable for me, so I would recommend upgrading when you can.

Virtual Machine List

2008-10-22T13:16:00.002-04:00

After getting a few tests and trials to run with VMWare Workstation and ending up with acceptable execution speed, I began to plan the types of machines I needed. This is how my list ended up:

Operating System Machines - Base Class

Win2k Base - Windows 2000 with Firefox, Thunderbird, Acrobat, Flash and Spybot
Win2k Plus - Win2k Base with Open Office
Win2k Enterprise - Win2k Base with SQL and IIS
WinXP Base - Windows XP with Firefox, Thunderbird, Acrobat, Flash and Spybot
WinXP Plus - WinXP Base with Open Office (or MS Office)
Suse Linux Base - Base Suse Linux Install
Suse Linux LAMP - Base Suse Linux with Apache, MySQL and PHP

Machines

Win2k Plus - Finance Programs
WinXP Base - Lightroom and Photography
Win2k Plus - Writing
Win2k Plus - Hobbies
Win2k Plus - Visual Studio Programming
Suse Linux LAMP - Test Web Site for Publishing

These machines all have varying disk sizes, memory requirements and settings to allow for fast execution. I will address each of these items and the workarounds I discovered in future posts.

VMWare Workstation

2008-10-22T12:58:00.003-04:00

I have been working on ways to create separate machines on my pc using VMWare Workstation. The concept is to create the minimum operating system necessary to run a group of programs related to a specific area or task.

Benefits?

What are the benefits? I see several benefits. First, Microsoft Windows is known for getting corrupted over time with extra items in a registry, failed installs left over, incompatibilities with hardware and other programs as well as an inability to perform testing of new programs without mucking up the existing install. Thus, a separate machine for separate tasks can potentially leave the operating system working quickly and efficiently over a longer period of time.

Second, what about those legacy programs you have, but cannot afford to update or no longer carry updates. I have several financial programs I use that work well in windows 2000 and have not been updated for 32 bit operating systems. I also have some old DOS games (who doesn't?) that I can easily pull up and play for stress release. Finally, I keep visual studio separate from everything else because there are way too many programs loading at startup.

Finally, how about portability? Hardware seems to last less than software. THe proof is here: how many of you are still using some DOS, Windows 98, Windows 2000 or Windows XP programs (Windows Vista is the current operating system)? I know I am. However, I am not using the same laptop I was two years ago, nor the same desktop. It will be nice with the next hardware change to move some of these virtual machines to a new computer and keep working.

Pitfalls

How about the pitfalls? There are many, I won't lie to you. First, the operating system can be slower. You have to have good strong processors and as much memory as your system can take. Second, with Windows XP forward, you have to reauthorize your computer if you move a virtual machine around because of the change in hardware. Prior versions of windows do not require this. That said, it is your responsibility to comply with the licensing agreement and only use operating systems you have valid licenses for.

Also, disk space needs increase with the use of Virtual Machines. You have repetitive updates and installs to keep up with. This takes time.

Conclusion

My personal feeling is that taking the time to setup an operating system, be it Windows 2000, Windows 98 or Windows XP, with all the specific tweaks I like, and then cloning that machine for different tasks takes less time than worrying about having to reinstall with the next hardware change.

I believe backing up individual machines and knowing that it will work on any hardware platform that I can get VMWare Workstation on, is a lower risk than keeping cd's made from a backup software that becomes obsolete.

Going Foward

I will be posting a series of articles on using VMWare Workstation for this type of individual application. The focus of these articles will all be on creating separate machines on one pc for performing various related tasks. To find these articles, use the VMWARE tag on the list to the right.

Feel free to leave comments!

Excellent Backup Questions for Lightroom

2008-10-13T09:42:00.006-04:00

Backups continue to be a widely written about topic. One of the issues with this is that all backups are treated the same. In fact, some backups are important and some may not be so important. Here we discuss these finer points and try to apply the old 80/20 rule.

Foray from Film into Digital

As I continue to get pushed along the sweeping current into digital and out of film, new issues emerge that I haven't had to deal with. Backups are the main issue.

With film, I scan the negatives, and then import into Lightroom. I discard any of the rejects or images that I don't assign a single star. I don't worry about backing the digital files files up of the rejects, because I have negatives that can always be re-scanned. I do backup the 'good' images that are left, but only to easily recover them without having to re-scan. The thinking here is that if I reject it, I probably won't need it, but if I decide I do, then I'll scan it again. In all likelihood, even after re-scanning a reject negative I'll still decide not to use it.

Digital Only - Applying a Film Technique

Several sites have posted recent articles on determining whether some backups are worth keeping. I stumbled across one at Inside Lightroom which talks about Why Do We Backup So Much? and it talks about backing up rejects - why or why not.

One of the 'Eurekas' that I had while reading this post was to apply my film technique to digital imaging backups with respect to rejected images. As I said above, I use the negatives as a backup for rejects because I can always rescan them and the life of a properly developed negative is substantial. As a footnote, I have negatives that are 30 years old that look the same as the day I developed them.

Application for Digital Images

So how does this apply to digital rejected images? I'll give you an overview and then list the steps I perform. First, remember that DVD's and CD's don't really have a long lifespan. They are prone to scratches, defects in the surface and degrading over time. However, they can still read even after being exposed to a magnetic field and they are cheap storage. Thus, I backup rejects on DVD as they are identified from importing into Lightroom.

That's not the entire process, however. I use two storage drawers for DVD's. The first is where I place the newly copied rejected images - Reject Backups. Then, I wait. Yes, you read the idea correctly, I wait. Should I ever need one of those rejected images, I go back to the DVD. If it is still readable, then I import the image back into Lightroom and move the DVD to the second drawer - Acessed Rejects. If the DVD doesn't read, I discard it. This gives me a simple backup which, like the negative, will degrade over time and eventually be useless. But, chances are I'll never need it anyway.

Using this technique still has one more problem - storage space. Eventually, the first drawer - Reject Backups - will get full. When that happens, I will discard the oldest DVD in the drawer. This limits my space requirements to one drawer of DVD's. Also, discarding the oldest DVD shouldn't be a problem, because I haven't ever used it or it would have been placed in drawer two.

If ever drawer two - Accessed Rejects - were to fill up, then I would again discard the oldest one. The image that was accessed is now in the main catalog and should be part of the regular backup process.

Sound Familiar?

Does all this sound familiar? If you were like my family growing up and had at least one parent that was a 'pack-rat', then you would most likely have followed this same procedure with boxed up stuff stored in a closet. Our family regularly found boxes that hadn't been opened since the last time we moved. That made it time to discard the box!

Reject Workflow Steps

This is part of my Image Rating and Selection Workflow.

Import images into Lightroom
Identify rejects
Identify all images greater than or equal to one star
Filter for the last download all images that are a) rejects or b) no star rating
Copy these images to CD / DVD
Delete images from Lightroom Catalog and Hard Drive
Follow remaining main catalog backup steps

Conclusion

It always seems to boil down to time, cost and benefit. There is little chance that you will need a rejected image ever in the future. To protect that little chance you don't want to spend a lot of money and time, but maybe a little money and time is ok. This workflow for rejected images takes little time to make a single CD or DVD and those medium are still relatively cheap. The lifespan of the backup is limited, but should protect you for long enough to determine whether you will ever really use the image. The workflow is safe because you do have a chance to get the rejected image back and use it again. Finally, the workflow takes up limited space through a routine to get rid of the oldest rejected images - again a low cost use. The space needs vary by how many images you file as rejects and how often you shoot. You can set a drawer size customized to your usage levels.

Enjoy!

I had been giving it more thought and the Inside Lightroom article seemed to help me get an answer.

Translations for LRG Complete Basic User's Guide

2008-10-09T20:15:00.002-04:00

We have a good group of international folks using Lightroom Galleries LRG Complete for Adobe Lightroom. If anyone would like to volunteer to translate the Basic User's Guide that comes with the Web Gallery then read on.

I would be happy to work with anyone wanting to translate the Basic User's Guide to another language for LRG Complete. I use a program called Help & Manual by EC Software. It allows me to produce high quality PDF files as well as help files and web sites, all from one document.

The good news about Help & Manual is not only the publishing flexibility, but they also designed a superior translation method. I can send a simple file with the English text to someone. They can edit it in Help & Manual and translate the English to another language. Then they can return that file to me and I can publish it with pictures, table of contents and all! As more changes are made, new sections are synchronized to the foreign language file and then the translation for the new sections can be added. It's extremely easy to keep all the changes properly synched.

Now for the bad news. The best way to be sure everything is kept intact and synched is to use Help & Manual, which costs some money.

If you are interested, take a look at Help & Manual and see if you are still interested. You can contact me from my web page at Outdoor Images Fine Art. Be sure to leave me a valid email address!

Thanks for considering contributing to the work.

LRG Complete Advanced User's Guide is Here!

2008-10-04T16:51:00.005-04:00

Thank you to everyone who has been patient while we write the Advanced User's Guide for the LRG Complete Web Gallery that plugs into Adobe Lightroom. This Advanced Guide has been in the making for over four months during the development of LRG Complete and the writing of the Basic User's Guide. With over 300 pages, this Advanced Guide covers a lot of material.

First, I want you to know that we have made a decision that LRG Complete and the accompanying Basic User's Guide have been and will remain free. That has been the concept from the start.

Below is a list of the contents in the Advanced User's Guide. With all of the additional time and experimenting to develop these techniques and How To's we have set a price for the Advanced User's Guide of $24.99. This gives you a lifetime download link so that you get every new edition for free, for life. In addition, we use Vibralogix LinkLokIPN for PayPal to provide you with this Advanced User's Guide. Know that 1/2 of the proceeds will go to Lightroom Galleries to support Joe's work on LRG Complete.

To purchase this guide, use the Buy Now button on the side bar. You will be taken to PayPal where you will receive an instant email containing a download link. Let me know if you have any problems.

The Advanced User's Guide is in the same type of PDF format that the Basic User's Guide is. The PDF can be printed and is formatted for 8 1/2 x 11 paper. The index has been totally redone to allow for main and subtopics. This makes finding information in the index MUCH easier!

Now for a partial list of what's included. The table of contents is 6 pages long, so this is only some of what is included.

The same Installation and Setup information to help you get ready
Information on how to setup a test web site before you go live
How to determine if PHP is properly installed on your web site, including a test page you can create and upload to your web site
Best Practices Workflows to keep your use of LRG Complete efficient
Other items like conventions, definitions, etc.

Advanced Shell Features

a discussion on search engine optimization and integration of SEO with LRG Complete
how to use and setup site traffic tools like Google Analytics and StatCounter
Setting up CoolIris
Exhaustive use of the MP3 player
Various ways to use the Adobe Identity Plate
Over half a dozen ways to setup the Heading of your web site with examples
Hiding the Site Name and Description the proper way
HTML in the Shell
Creative modes of Navigation
Many, many ways of using the Side Menu including adding pages, sorting properly to leave room for later expansion and pages to use for E-Commerce

Advance Page Features

Hyperlinks, Underlines, Blockquotes, Paragraphs: all in the Body Text
A new way to use the Adobe Watermark
Adding multiple lines and special HTML in Image Captions and Titles
Slideshows and Image Positioning
Sorting Image Order for Pages
Creative Pages
Advanced password usage

Advanced Gallery Features

Many of the same HTML tags that are used in Pages work in Galleries
The best methods of using galleries for additional navigation: Image Links
E-Commerce galleries that show customers your Order Process: an Example
Linking Images to Pages: over 10 pages on Image Links for Pages and Galleries
Creative use of Image Frames
Using Free Downloads to your advantage

NOTE: Digital Image Downloading will be in the next version of the Advanced User's Guide, which you will receive a link to if you purchase this version. We are using the setup of our web site to create a hands on guide for using Digital Image Downloading. Already we have had to insert some custom code for SMTP emailing with DID, but the update will show you how.

Advanced Contact Pages

The importance of Emails
How to setup professional email messages and their content
How to use SMTP email with LRG Complete

Example Web Sites

many non-photography examples of E-Commerce web sites

A whole new troubleshooting section sorted by Web Gallery type was included in this Guide. All of the known issues and troubleshooting items we have uncovered over time are added here with solutions should the be available.

An appendix with over 20 worksheets and planning tools to help you create a cohesive web site for use with LRG Complete. See all the settings necessary as you plan each page and keep an overview of how your site will work. These worksheets and planning tools include items like:

Site Information Worksheet
Base Site Structure Worksheet
Gallery Structure Worksheet
Store Structure Worksheet
Web Site Category Planning Tool
Contact Email Planning Tool
About Me Planning Tool
About My Product Planning Tool
Blank Page Planning Tool
Blank Gallery Planning Tool
Gallery With Page Links Planning Tool
Text Identity Worksheet
Web Site Color Planning Tool
Mail.php Settings Worksheet
Google Checkout Shipping Worksheet
PayPal Shipping Worksheet
Google Checkout Tax Worksheet
PayPal Tax Worksheet

Note that the Shipping and Tax worksheets include both US and International rates.

This guide is not only how to use LRG Complete, but how to setup a sucessful web site using LRG Complete and Adobe Lightroom.

Thank you again for all your support of our efforts! We will be working to continue to develop high quality user's guides and web galleries for use with Lightroom!

LRG Complete Advanced User's Guide on the Way!

2008-10-01T06:49:00.002-04:00

I am making the final edits to the Advanced User's Guide for LRG Complete and trying to reduce the 20 megabyte file size. This Advanced Guide contains many examples and screen shots, so the filesize is large.

I promised to have it by September 30th and it looks like it will be out this week, so I'm sorry for a few days delay.

As a sneak preview, you already saw the chapter on setting up CoolIris to work with LRG Complete. Some other topics include tips on setting up test site, seven different ways to setup the Site Name and Description, several step by step examples on using Image Links in your Galleries and five different ways to setup your Image Titles and Captions. There is also 11+ pages on setting up emails and an effective email system.

A new feature I added to the Advanced User's Guide was an appendix that contains over 20 worksheets and planning aids to help you design an effective web site with LRG Complete. Using this Advanced Guide along with the Basic User's Guide and the LRG Complete Web Gallery, you will be able to create a custom web site that can be easily maintained through Adobe Lightroom.

Keep watching for the first edition this week!

EYE7: Frame Recap

2008-09-25T05:00:00.003-04:00

This article is part of my series on the study of 'The Photographer's Eye' by Micheal Freeman.

This concludes the Frames section of our study on Visualization. We will complete another exercise to pull all of these concepts together and then beginning with the next article move into Design Basics. This will include topics such as Contrast, Balance, Dynamic Tension, Rhythm, Patterns, Textures, Perspective and Visual Weight.

Wrap Up Exercises

We have discussed the different sizes of the Frame and how that impacts what can be shown in an image. We also discussed the beginnings of placing a subject within that Frame before we moved on to three ways to divide the Frame. The first was Linear Division which kept things balanced and simple, but gave us a method for beginning to move the subject around the Frame.

Then we moved on to the Golden Ratio which artists have used for centuries to create paintings which are hanging in world wide art galleries. Finally, we took the concept of the Golden Ratio and further divided the Frame using a mathematical series. Each of these methods provides a way to proportionalize the subject matter into a fixed Frame size.

As a wrap-up exercise for dividing the Frame, try out your newly developed instincts. Find three subjects that remain fairly still. People can be used, but try people sitting, standing or lying down. Moving people will add a new level of challenge to this exercise and if you are up to that challenge, give it a second go around. For now, try fairly stationary subjects.

For each subject, bring a countdown timer with an alarm. Get your photography gear ready with film or digital cards. Take light meter readings and set your exposure values. For this exercise we will use only one lens, unless you are using a zoom lens in which case you can zoom throughout the work.

When you are ready, start your timer with a two minute countdown. Take two minutes without taking a single shot. Study the subject from various angles. Notice the background, the lighting and the other objects. When the two minutes are completed, set the timer for one more minute. Take photographs for a minute. Take as many as you can, but try to take between 15 and 20 images. Don't think, just shoot. Do this for all three subjects and then study your images, but not until all three subjects have been completed.

Study images for use of the Linear division, Golden Ratio and Fibonacci divisions. Print out one or two from each division type for each image. Overlay the division on the image using a colored pen or pencil and a ruler. Make notes and file in your scrapbook.

If you don't have any that follow the divisions, repeat the process and spend your two minutes studying the image with the three divisions in mind. Use your tranparencies as a visual que for your brain, but avoid holding them up to use to frame the subjects.

The key for this exercise is beginning to shoot these divisions without using a visual aid. Try to shoot by instinctive measures rather than using a cropping tool. Let your brain crop the image.

As we go through the remaining articles, build upon what you are learning and see if your divisions become more instinctive. The only way this will happen is to practice shooing spontaneously and then studying the results to see of you got the divisions worked out. Simply shooting more volume without critical review will not help.

Other People's Opinions

Now is also the time to begin soliciting opinions of others. Family and friends are ok, but only if they flat out tell you they don't like some of your images. Family and friend tendencies are to be much nicer to your images than you deserve. Try using some collegues and other photographers or members of your local photography club.

You can post comments here with links to your images and invite others to review them as well.

Happy shooting! We will begin the next series in a week or so.

EYE6: Geometric Series and Framing

2008-09-24T08:10:00.007-04:00

This article is part of my series on the study of 'The Photographer's Eye' by Micheal Freeman.

In the last article we discussed the Golden Rule and it's application in dividing a Frame. We found that such a division gave us both a point to place smaller objects on a large background and a four panel division to place larger objects. The whole point of the Golden Rule was an aide in placing the subject.

Definitions

Another such division aide is the Geometric Series. A Geometric Series is a list of numbers in which each number in the series has the same ratio from the previous number to the next number. For example, start with the number 1 and add 3 each time. Our series is 1, 4, 7, 10, 13 ... If you were to graph this series of numbers, you would end up with a curve, not a straight line. Hence, this is where the name Geometric Series comes from.

The most common form of a Geometric Series is the Fibonacci Series. Instead of picking a constant number, the series adds the previous two numbers together and that result becomes the next number in the series. I.e., 1, (1 + 0 = 1) 1, (1 + 1 = 2) 2, (1 + 2 = 3) 3, (2 + 3 = 5) 5, (3 + 5 = 8) 8 ... The progression is much faster than the previous example. Also notice that the first two numbers are the same: 1. This is because of the value zero.

Using to Divide a Frame

Now that we see a formula that is used for calculating a Geometric Series, how do we use that to divide a frame? Obviously, this is arbitrary, so we need to define a measurement to apply to the numbers in the series. Let's start simple and get more complicated. Take 1 unit as 1/10th of the size of the frame, square. Thus 1 = 1/10th x 1/10th of the frame.

Then, after having a unit established, we add the first couple of numbers in the series: 1, 1, 2.

Finally, after filling the frame through the sixth number in the series, we get a division like the following:

If you look at the final division of the Frame, you can begin to see the seashell spiral that is commonly associated with the Fibonacci Series. This is also known as the Golden Spiral.

Application

Certainly, one would not have the time to create such a division and frame a photograph when working in photojournalism and street photography. But the speed which one shoots an image does not determine whether this type of Frame division is applicable. The more global point is the concept of a smaller portion of the subject offset near the same point as the Golden Rule creates. This would be in the area of the two number 1 boxes or divisions. Then as the subject and background blend together, try to create a uniform feeling of moving down, out and around. Leave the larger portions of the subject or the background to fill the second half of the Frame, or block 8.

Practicing with still life gives you the opportunity to train your eye to use this complex, mathematical formula in your frame. This is the most challenging portion our series on Visualization and if you don't quite understand the math, that is ok. The feeling of the division, the flowing movement that the Geometric Series gives when applied to the Frame is what we are after, not the calculation of a Fibonacci Series.

Exercises

As we did in the last article, take a clear overhead sheet or a page protector and draw out the proportions of your camera Frame. Divide the Frame into a Fibonacci series by starting in the reverse, with number 8 as half the image. Then move backwards through to the two number 1 blocks.

Drawing this on a clear sheet will not only give you an overlay to view with your Eyes, but also an easy method of flipping the division and using the mirrored image with the number 8 block on the right instead of the left.

Using this tool, find four subjects and take at least three photographs of each one. In the photographs try to implement the Divisions you created. Use people, buildings, clouds, trees, objects of any kind to fill in your Frame divisions.

Print the images and make notes of how successful you were. Take a ruler and a colored pen or pencil and draw the Fibonacci Series directly on the photograph. When finished, place these in your scrapbook with the others.

Repeating this exercise over and over with the Golden Ratio exercise and the Linear Divisions exercise will train your eye to begin seeing in this manner.

Blackberry 8830 Shortcuts

2008-09-23T09:29:00.002-04:00

Ok, so this doesn't have much to do with photography, but since I rely so much on my cell phone, I wanted to be sure that I kept this information should I need it again. Here, then, are a few shortcuts that I have found on the web for the Blackberry 8830.

Rebooting

Pressing the ALT + RIGHT SHIFT + DELETE keys simultaneously will peform a reboot. Even though you shouldn't need this very often, it does help if you are having connection or application problems. I have to confess, compared to my former Palm Pilot (which I used from the very first model through the Palm 700) had to be rebooted at least once a week. The 8830 I have been using for three months has only needed rebooted twice. I think this is why I forget the shortcut! (see this post).

Viewing the Log

Pressing the ALT + L + G + L + G keys will show the application / device log. This is helpful to see any errors that might be cropping up. While the information isn't as detailed as you might think, it gives the application and the date which can help you get to a solution. (see this post).

Other Shortcuts

I will update this section with more shortcuts as I find them useful. For now, here is a post that lists more shortcuts for the Blackberry devices.

Memory

Since memory leaks are the primary items that cause a need for a reboot, I'll share with you a program that I have found useful. Memory Up is not only a memory report tool that shows you used and available memory, but it also can do a memory defrag. A defrag can get back some of that lost memory. The trial works great and gives you a chance to see the full version. I found the price reasonable for getting such a handy program.

Lightroom 2.0 Keyword Upgrade Issue

2008-09-22T15:48:00.002-04:00

It just goes to show how busy we sometimes become that we can miss important news about our favorite software - Adobe Lightroom 2.0. I spent such a large amount of time working on the Beta Test that when 2.0 came out I purchased, installed and went on.

Well, there's a knowledgebase article about some problems updating from Lightroom 1.x to 2.0 regarding keywords. The issue is below, taken directly from Adobe's web site:

When you update your catalog to Photoshop Lightroom 2, the Include On Export keyword tag option is not selected, so if you export your photos from Photoshop Lightroom 2, your keywords are not exported with your photos.

They have a fix that isn't hard to install and use and the fix is a one time application. Take a look at their knowledge base article number kb405074 for a complete description.

First Impressions: Leica M8 and Adobe Lightroom

2008-09-18T15:13:00.017-04:00

I have been a film photographer for over 20 years, shooting with Leicas the last two years. Because really good lenses (the foundation of a great image) are so expensive, then the natural progression for me from film into digital was with a Leica M8. I still love film and will use it equally as much as digital depending on the shooting conditions.

However, I have taken some of my first images with an M8 and imported them into Lightroom 2.0. Here I'll share with you some initial thoughts and few interesting tidbits I discovered on the web.

First, I'll tell you that I am NOT comparing the M8 to any of the Cannon and Nikon DSLR's. My presumption here is that you are interested in the M8. This is not a review, but more of a hands on experience. However, I am comparing this to using images from Leica DLUX3 which is one of only a couple of pocket cameras that produce a RAW image file. Remember, we're talking file size, not quality of lens or components.

Yes, if any of you are familiar with the DLux3, the save speed on the camera is slow. The other issue I have noticed is a slight red shift in certain landscape photography, most noticeably high contrast images such as snow. However, shooting landscapes I typically have a moment longer to wait and Lightroom does a great job of shifting the red back into alignment. I use the DLux3 to see what the resulting images look like before committing some to film. The point is the resulting RAW file sizes and the transfer speed to my Lightroom catalog.

Native DNG

The first thing I noticed about the M8 was that it saves images in a native DNG format. I understand that Adobe initially created two methods of creating a DNG and Leica being one of the first, picked up a slightly different method than is used more commonly today. In fact, for the really scientific minded, there is a great article posted on The Riddle of the M8 DNG File. But be warned it is technical!

Here's the key. The M8 is saving the images directly as a DNG file whereas the DLux3 was saving as a RAW file. The result is the M8 immediately has smaller filesizes. If you can convert these in Lightroom, what is the big deal? ANSWER: the speed of SD cards and USB connections is realtively slow compared to memory and CPU speeds. So, if we start with a smaller file size, uploading into a Lightroom catalog is exponentially faster. In the case of the DLux3, RAW images were about 30mb (10 mega pixel camera x 3 channels, R, G, B). The M8 produces the same 10 mega pixel image, but by saving the image as a DNG file, the size is only 10mb. Thus, the upload speed to Lightroom from an M8 card is 1/3 that of the DLux3 card.

Even Smaller Filesize

Previously, with the DLux3, I would import into Lightroom and convert the RAW image to a DNG format to save filespace. I was already waiting awhile to import the 30mb image files, so a little longer to convert the file was fine with me and the smaller file size in the catalog made reading the file in Lightroom faster too. So what about the M8?

As it turns out, the main difference in the M8 DNG format and the Lightroom DNG format (remember, Adobe created two methods for the DNG early on), is that the M8 stores a lookup table in the DNG file. See the Riddle article above for more on the lookup table. The result is that the M8 DNG file can be FURTHER compressed while it's being imported.

Using the Lightroom import, convert the DNG files from the SD Card to, yes it's redundant sounding, a DNG file. The resulting new DNG files in the Lightroom catalog can vary in size from 3.5mb to 5mb depending on the range of tones and colors in the image. In fact, I took a photo of the moon with a 90mm Elmarit at f/4.0 and 1/1000 of second.

Because of all the black around the image, this DNG converted to 3.2mb. Astounding considering the beginning RAW data was over 30mb!

There are a few considerations, however. In terms of Lightroom and Photoshop CS3, no problems. I am sure there are other imaging software packages that also have no problem. After all, the resulting DNG file is an Adobe DNG image file. However, the Capture One LE software that came with the M8 will no longer read the DNG file. It was designed to read the M8 DNG file with the added lookup table. Since I don't use that software, I don't mind.

If you use Capture One (or C1 as it can be called), there are reports that using the software key that came with the M8 will also allow registration of Capture One 4, which is said to read the converted DNG file from the M8. I haven't tried this, so I don't know.

Importing Workflow Tip

I have long read posts about how slow some digital cameras are at importing images into Lightroom. The DLux3 is certainly one of those cameras. However, since the beginning of my digital photography work, I have always taken the memory card out of the camera and performed my imports through a card reader. Why? Because technology consistently changes and typically it becomes faster. SD cards become faster (100mhz vs 133mhz). USB ports become faster (1.1 vs 2.0). All the while, our digital camera guts remain the same. So by removing the card from the camera and using the latest card readers, the fastest file transfer times can take place. You will not have to rely on the interface built into the camera by the manufacturer, which, by the way, may be an older technology for compatibility purposes.

Conclusion

My digital Lightroom work is not only faster now with the M8, but also takes less disk space. Remember that my film work is all scanned with a Nikon negative scanner. This results in 40mb TIFF files which can be slow to work with. The next tests I'll run will deal with the noise in the M8 images under the new 2.0 firmware. I'll compare mostly night shots with bright contrasting lights to look for dark shadows containing little noise. I'll also develop some noise files for the M8 that can be used with NeatImage which is the noise reduction software I have used.

Leica Releases M8 Firmware 2.0

2008-09-18T15:13:00.012-04:00

Today, Leica released a new firmware version 2.0 for the M8 digital body. This new firmware release provides support for larger size SDHC cards, up to 32Gb. Leica still recommends Extreme III and Professional versions made by Lexar and SanDisk as being the most compatible. Whichever cards you use, it is nice to break the 2mb barrier!

Leica also says that an addition is made for an AUTO-ISO setting allowing for options with maximum ISO values and minimum shutter speeds.

Finally, Leica makes it clear that after updating to firmware version 2.0, you CANNOT go backwards to a previous version!

I have downloaded the firmware and I will test it over the next few days to let you know if I find anything of concern. You can get the firmware from the Leica web site or Visit the Download Center for the M8 here.

EDITED: changed 32mb to 32Gb.

LRGC User's Guide - Minor Updates

2008-09-16T07:23:00.004-04:00

The Lightroom Galleries Complete User's Guide has some minor updates as a result of emails from you! Take a look at the links to the right or the link above and you can download another copy.

Notice that the revision numbers correspond to the LRG Complete Web Gallery version number and a letter. The higher the letter, the more recent the revision.

The Advanced User's Guide is still on pace for release the end of September! Thanks for the emails and thank you for the suggestions and corrections!

Lightroom Galleries Announces Changeable Fonts

2008-09-09T06:59:00.003-04:00

If you haven't been keeping up with Joe at Lightroom Galleries, you need to take a look. Joe has created a phenomenal Adobe Lightroom Web Gallery that has revolutionized the ability for someone to create a photography presence on the internet - and offer their images for sale using PayPal or Google Checkout. Now, Lightroom Galleries has a new announcement about LRG Complete and one that I have been waiting for.

Lightroom Galleries has announced Changable Fonts will be added to LRG Complete. Up until now only one font was available for use with LRG Complete. Truthfully, there are so many different items that can be customized with this Web Gallery that you can overlook the inclusion of only having one font choice. In fact, by the time you sit down and really plan a web site, you realize you can create a unique look and feel with everything that is already included.

Changeable Fonts will only add to the arsenal of individualizing your own web site. Joe indicated that he is on track with keeping file sizes down so that load times of the Web Gallery remain tolerable. With the amount of time and effort put into this Web Gallery, please consider making a donation through the PayPal button on Joe's web site.

Thank you, Joe!

Windows XP: Hibernating Taking a Long Time

2008-09-06T09:56:00.003-04:00

On my laptop I have been running Microsoft Windows XP, or sometimes known as WinXP. I use Service Pack 2 and havent' had any show stopping problems. However, at one point my laptop would hibernate in about 20 seconds or less. To determine if that is fast, you have know my equipment: a dual core 2.2mhz pentium and 4gb of ram. The problem is that somewhere along the way hibernation began to take 5 to 10 minutes (yes, minutes). I never really bothered to time it in full because it took so awfully long. After about 2 years of on and off searching, I found the soloution! First, I'll tell you what I tried.

Network Maps

I looked at the network maps I had setup for access to network disk drives. I had not only a Buffalo TeraStation Pro which I had mapped various drives, but also a SonicWall TZ170 firewall and router. Since I used the router's VPN service to connect to work, I thought maybe the mapped drives to the servers at work, through the VPN caused a slow hibernate.

Why would I think that network connections would slow down hibernating? Well, I know that networking can cause delays. Anyone that has tried to browse the network places through Windows experiences delays in refreshing available computers and connections. I figured maybe through the hibernate process went to check each drive and had to page through a network service to get there.

My logic was flawwed in that removing all VPN and networked drives did not speed up the hibernation process. Failure number one and one step closing to the solution.

Bluetooth

I understand that bluetooth incorporated into some motherboards or through other hardware modules can cause delays when periodically looking for devices. I don't use bluetooth very often with my laptop. I occasionally would synch my palm pilot or blackberry through bluetooth if I didn't have my cord with me, but not often.

Another failure as disabling bluetooth in the bios had no effect in the length of time to hibernate.

SQL Services and Pervasive SQL

Now I thought I was being brilliant again by looking at SQL services and similar database drivers. SQL is a very robust service and I had the full development edition on my laptop because I was doing Visual Studio programming at the time. I figured an enterprise level of SQL may have fairly intense routines going on behind the scenes to be sure that database integrity was kept during a shutdown or hibernation.

I even went so far as to remove SQL from my computer. The same was true for Pervasive SQL which I used to operate the Timberline Accounting System.

Once again, I failed and the hibernation process took an extremely long time.

Power Program Updates

Having a laptop and having a Dell Lattitude laptop which was a business class, gave me access to a download area where I could keep my operating system drivers for the laptop up to date. Using the Dell web sites I downloaded and ran patches on the Power system and other operating system items.

Guess what? Correct! No effect on the hibernation speed.

Solution

I can now say, similar to Thomas Edison, I now know many ways NOT to speed up Windows XP hibernation, but I did find one way that works!

Through an accidental re-post in a very obscure forum, I found an answer. Keep in mind that I had googled all sorts of phrases related to long hibernation times and never had I realy gotten an answer. In this case I did get an answer.

The post mentioned that removing the ability in Windows XP to provide write-caching to the hard drive in your computer can cause extremely long hibernate times. The testing for this solution was to enable write-caching for the disk drive on my laptop. As the post suggested, after I rebotted from making the adjusstment, the laptop hibernated in 15 to 20 seconds.

How incredibly strange! I know that I was writing 4gb of memory to the hard drive and that takes a minute, but how can it go from SOOOO slow to SOOOO fast? Even with caching, the full amount of data must be written. I can only assume that Microsoft performs hibernating at some base hardware level with no caching of any kind. Write, fetch, write, fetch and that this process is very slow.

Write Caching Dangers

Without trying to go into all the details, write-caching can be dangerous. Sudden power outages can cause a few operating system files to be left open potentially rendering your computer un-bootable. That is the very reason I disabled the Write Caching to begin with.

I have decided, since most of my photoraphy data is on outside disk drives and I back up my data and catalog regularly, that I am willing to take the chance on write-caching for my laptop. On my desktop, there is no reason. I can shutdown and bootup easily as there is not battery and it has a much faster processor (dual core 3.4mhz pentiums).

Just so you know, I purposely did not show you how to enable the Write-Caching on your Windows XP operating system. I still think it is a dangerous feature and wouldn't recommend using it. I would hope Microsoft will fix this issue and take advantage of caching for purposes of hibernation regardless of the operating system's settings. However, I don't want responsibility for your data and there is plenty of information on the internet to allow you to enable write caching.

Conclusion

For my work, hibernation can be important for the portability of my laptop. Thus, I am taking the risk of using write caching to enable quick hibernation. The choice is completely yours. At least now you know why it is taking so long to hibernate and you can make an informed decision.

Good luck!

Lightroom Tip#19: Precise Control Over Vignettes

2008-09-04T00:35:00.014-04:00

Vignettes are not new to Lightroom as a lens correction. However, as a post-crop item meant to actually add a Vignette, the feature is new in Lightroom 2. While it takes some getting used to, the Vignette can produce some outstanding results. There have been several posts and a variety of presets available on the web to accomplish this. So how do you easily create the Vignette you want? Let's take a look.

First, you have to know that the default settings are all in the middle. This means, no Vignette is present in an image being developed in Lightroom. The Vignette panel is at the bottom of the Develop module and has settings such as: Amount, Midpoint, Roundness and Feather.

Take a look at an example image we will work with. It's not an oustanding image for Vignettes. However, it is a good image to work with because the contrast, brightness and texture are all consistent throughout the image, as a brick wall on a fort should be! This image has no Vignette applied.

Now for the first step in this Vignette workflow we need to setup the ability to easily see the Vignette. Determining exactly where the Vignette will stop is difficult at best because it fades into the rest of the picture. Sure, the edges are darker, but where does the Vignette really end?

To figure out the boundaries of a fading Vignette, first move the Feather slider all the way to the left. This turns off all the feathering. Then move the Amount slider all the way to the left (for dark Vignettes) or the right (for light Vignettes). The image below has a dark Vignette started, so the Amount slider was moved all the way to the left.

Notice how easy it is already to see where the Vignette will be applied. The Vignette will be faded from the edges of the image to the edge of the black section. The remainder of the image, the part you can see clearly now, will remain untouched. Now we have a chance to adjust the Vignette pattern before we apply it. Move the Midpoint slider and the Roundness sliders until you achieve the pattern you want to use.

The Midpoint was increased to move the Vignette in some more towards the middle. The Roundness was increased to large number in order to change the shape of the Vignette into a circle. These settings are purely the preference of the artist.

When you have the Vignette pattern established according to your vision, turn the feathering back on. Slowly move the slider up until you acheive the level of Vignetting you desired. Notice how the effect works in the final image below.

Also notice how the shape of the Vignette resembles the pattern we created. However, it remains difficult to see exactly where the Vignette ends. We can tell that there is no Vignetting in the center, but where does it really stop?

The final settings are shown to the right. Turning the Feathering adjustment all the way off makes viewing the Vignette pattern so much easier and the effect can be easily fine tuned. To edit a Vignette, simply turn off the Feathering (after you see what value you used) and adjust the other settings. For example, you could change the amount some or the shape and size. Then increase the Feathering again until you reach your previous value or find another value you prefer.

It really is that easy to get some great Vignettes!

LRGC 3.0 - Sample Chapter - CoolIris (PicLens)

2008-09-01T00:01:00.001-04:00

In an effort to show everyone the amount of work and attention to detail that I am putting into the Advanced User's Guide for LRG Complete 3.0, released by Lightroom Galleries, I have uploaded a sample section of the chapter entitled Advanced Shell Features. This section details how to use CoolIris in conjunction with your Web Galleries. Get the Sample Section on CoolIris here.

Adobe Lightroom continues to make advances and so does Lightroom Galleries. The now released LRG Complete 3.0 provides a tool with Lightroom that can help you produce an extremely customized web site either for viewing or selling photography. The Advanced User's Guide will delve into many choices and options that may not be readily apparent or are complex to setup.

Keep an eye out as I will release another section the middle of September in anticipation of being finished by month end!

LRGC 3.0 Advanced User's Guide Update

2008-08-31T08:49:00.003-04:00

I am working hard on the Advanced User's Guide. Right now with work so busy and school starting for the kids, I had to slow just a little bit. However, here are some of the topics that will be covered.

There is a full section on some more advanced features such as the MP3 player. However, this guide is more than just a list of settings. The Advanced Guide will consist mostly of examples showing many different ways to setup LRG Complete. For example, did you know there are many, many ways you can setup the heading in the Shell? Did you know that you can customize almost anything presented on your web site? I don't want to give away the secrets just yet, but there is much that you can do under the hood of this incredible web site generation tool.

The Advanced User's Guide will also include tips for planning the creation of your web site and many planning aids and forms to get you started on your own web site or modify one already created.

The plan is still to have it finished by the end of September. Keep watching!

EYE5: The Golden Ratio

2008-08-31T07:11:00.012-04:00

This article is part of my series on the study of 'The Photographer's Eye' by Micheal Freeman.

What is the Golden Ratio? The answer is 1.618... No, this is not the answer to the question 'What is the meaning of Life, the Universe and Everything?' which is 42. If you haven't read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams, then don't worry, read on.

History of The Golden Rule

The golden ratio appears frequently in the study of mathematics and more specifically, geometry. The ancient Greeks began studying this ratio because of it's tie to mathematics. The Greeks have given the credit for the discovery to Pythagoras who is most frequently known for developing the Pythagorean Theorem, or a^2 + b^2 = c^2.

Euclid was the first to record the Golden Rule. Euclid said, in his series of books called the 'Elements',

A straight line is said to have been cut in extreme and mean ratio when, as the whole line is to the greater segment, so is the greater to the less.

Definition

What Euclid is saying is that when the ratio of the total length of any line to a certain portion of that line is the same as the ratio of the two segments of the line to each other, then you have a division equal to the Golden Rule. In mathematical formula terms, if you have a line divided into a and b like the following from the Wikpedia Article on the Golden Rule,

then, (a + b)/a is the same as a/b. If you solve this equation, you end up with a number that is approximately 1.618.

Application

The application of this 'magical' number can be used by first understanding the ratio in terms of frame size. Recall we said that a 24mm x 36mm film negative is in the ratio of 1.5 to 1.0, or close to The Golden Rule. If we have a negative that is 20mm high, then the application of the golden rule would say we want a width of 20mm x 1.618, or 32.4mm. This would provide an image Frame that applies the Golden Rule.

Unfortunately, the size of most films and digital imagers does not follow the Golden Rule. How do we use the Golden Rule in photography? We divide the frame.

Dividing the frame into sections was the topic we began in the last essay and is the topic we continue here. First, we will round the Golden Rule to 1.6 for the remainder of our work, because we can more easily estimate sizes.

By taking a Frame size and dividing the width and height into the Golden Rule, you can find four points, one in each quadrant of the frame, that translates to these locations.

Does this mean the Subject of an image should reside at that point? It can, especially if the subject is very small in relation to the remainder of the image. For example, a small desert plant could be placed in one of the four locations with sand encompassing the rest of the image.

What if the Subject is large? Then we have another choice. Instead of placing the Subject at one of the four points, use the point to create a rectangle within the Frame.

Then, place a larger subject within the smaller Frame. Obviously, since there are four points within a Frame that correspond to the Golden Rule, there are four rectangles within the Frame that also correspond to the Golden Rule. An example of using this concept would include an image of a dock at the beach in the evening. The dock could be placed in one of the two bottom divisions with the ocean and sky filling the remaining areas.

Multiple Divisions

A concept that we will further explore as we move on is multiple divisions. Frequently our images do not have such simple subjects and backgrounds and they may include multiple subjects. A more advanced method of applying the Golden Rule is to take a divided Frame, like in the example shown above, and further divide the remaining areas into new Golden Rule areas. This can be done several times, although the more divisions, the more complex the image and the more time involved in placing the camera to record the image.

Multiple divisions are increasingly more complex and really only lend themselves to still images where the proper time can be taken divide the image on the Frame. In addition, practicing a simple Golden Rule division for awhile will help make multiple divisions easier. I.e., practice makes perfect.

Exercises

For this essay, take four sheets of paper and draw a Frame size that fits your photography equipment. If you have multiple Frame sizes available, pick one and stick with it. If you have access to transparency sheets, they will work better as you can view a subject through your sheet.

After creating the Frame, divide each Frame into the Golden Rule and, using a different color than the Frame color, draw the two intersecting lines. Use a ruler and be as precise as you can. Using the same different color, mark the point of intersection with a round dot you can see at arms length. You should end up with a Frame marked similar to the images above.

Take these four sheets and find at least four different subjects, preferably two small and two larger subjects. For each subject, hold up each frame in turn to the subject. Place the smaller subjects at the points of intersection and the larger subjects in the largest division. Study these through the drawn frames.

Then, shoot each subject in the four locations through your camera, placing them in the proper location as best as you can. Print each of the sixteen images and study and make notes about the different placements. Divide each image on paper, using a ruler and a marker, into the Golden Rule. Alternatively, you can take more transparency material and scale down a frame size to the printed size. Then you can overlay the Golden Rule on each image while taking notes.

Added Challenge

As and added challenge, repeat the exercise using the same subjects as the previous exercise. Compare the locations of these subjects between simple linear divisions and the Golden Rule. Which ones seem to represent the subject the best? the most pleasing?

Also, if you wish, try making Frames on transparencies with multiple levels of division. Shoot several complex images trying to place multiple subjects in these divisions.

Conclusion

Using these sheets as a guide, your eye will become accustomed to where the points lie in the Frame. This takes time to develop but will be well worth your time, especially if you shoot candid street shots. Fast paced photography does not give you the luxury of measuring and setting up a photo opportunity. They are there and then gone.

Take these transparencies with you and use them with still images before lifting your camera. See where the placement would be. When finished, print out the image and see how well you cropped the subject within the division.

Viewing, shooting the image, printing and reviewing after the fact will train your eye to reach the Golden Rule without thinking. Good luck!

LRG Complete Version 3.0 Finished!

2008-08-30T17:55:00.003-04:00

Lightroom Galleries has published the completion of LRG Complete 3.0, the first public release! Now the User's Guide is also finished! You can download the User's Guide using the links to the right, or by following this link: LRG Complete User's Guide. Go visit Lightroom Galleries and download the template now!

LRB Portfolio - An Easy Lightroom Web Site!

2008-08-29T11:15:00.003-04:00

Sean McCormack over at Lightroom Blog has created a new Adobe Lightroom Web Gallery that produces an entire web site with up to 6 galleries for show.

First, I'll tell you there are several things I really like about this new web gallery. The appearance of this web gallery is very neat and clean. It is beauty in its simplicity. Even as Sean says, there are those out there that either already have a web site or want more customization. However, this web gallery provides a very neat and simple way to show a group of galleries and provide email contact about them. It's cohesive and doesn't require any html programming mutliple page uploads.

I like Sean's use of the php mail forms to keep the email addresses private - a concept becoming increasingly more popular and is certainly more protective. I also like the ability to disable the right-clicking of the mouse and hence, easy downloads of your important images! Again, this is also more popular and important. Finally, something missing from many web galleries is an easy to use installation guide that explains the various settings of the web gallery.

All-in-all, this is a high quality Web Gallery for Lightroom 2 (2 Only, not Lightroom 1.x). Go on over to Lightroom Blog and check it out.

For those that already have a web site, I see another use for LRB Portfolio. It would be extremely easy to create sub web sites with this product just to show a specific event or portfolio. If you already have a web site at www.mydomain.com, then create one for www.mydomain.com/event1 and link it to your main site. You can later remove it if needed. The ability to generate a web site so quickly means you can add and subtract events all day long!

Great stuff, Sean!

Lightroom Tip#18: The White Balance Selector

2008-08-25T17:01:00.007-04:00

I was working on a group of images this weekend when I realized I had forgotten about the White Balance Selector in Lightroom 2. Sure, you can spend time sliding the temperature slider around until you get what you want, but that doesn't give you an efficient starting point. More importantly, all digital cameras can have different temperatures for a series of images, even if they are effectively the same image. In this tip, I will show you how to easily use the White Balance Selector and get a great starting point for adjusting your images

First, let's take a look at where this tool is. True to Adobe and Lightroom, we have a dropper. Side Note: I dont' know the history of the dropper, only that CS3 and other programs use it and I really like the metaphor.

The Basic panel is the first panel underneath the histogram in the Develop module. The dropper to the left of the temperature and tint sliders is called the White Balance Selector. Clicking on this dropper will activate the tool and change the cursor to a dropper. Moving the mouse over the image will provide a display similar to the one below.

Notice the enlarged grid below the dropper. This grid shows pixels surrounding the dropper on the image. It also gives percentages of the component Red, Green and Blue hues that make up that pixel. Try to find a slightly lighter than Middle Grey grey. This would be represented as a color close to 50%, 50% and 50% of Red, Green and Blue. After finding one and hovering over the pixel with the dropper, click with the mouse to set the White Balance. See how the temperature slider changes to a new value and the WB: selector is set to 'custom.'

This results in the white balance adjustment you see below. The image on the right has been adjusted and the image on the left was 'as shot.' Notice the blue tint on the door in the original white balance. Notice how the temperature increases removing the bluish tint.

This is only one example. There are many times when shooting images of snow, or shade that the temperature is much further away from a desired level. The key to this tip is quickly getting to a starting point and adjusting from there.

Once you find a white balance for an image in a sequence, you can copy the white balance setting among the whole group of images so that they are the same temperature.

One final note. This isn't the only eye-dropper in the Develop module of Lightroom 2! We will create some more tips for how to use the other shortcuts away from the sliders. Enjoy!

Essay: Thinking in Themes

2008-08-20T10:13:00.002-04:00

In keeping with the work we are doing on the Photographer's Eye, I wanted everyone to see this essay from the Luminous Landscape contributed by William Neill on Thinking in Themes. William's 25 year experience is captured in his esssay as he tries to bring focus to the photographer. This focus, William says, will help produce a series of meaningful images that go together. Take a moment and review this essay and his portfolio links at the end.

Lightroom Galleries

2008-08-15T08:37:00.004-04:00

You have been seeing articles about the LRG Complete Web Gallery for Adobe Lightroom. Hopefully you have been able to keep up with the development going on. Joe over at Lightroom Galleries has been hard at work putting this new package together.

The really neat part about LRG Complete is that the web site design is completely independent from the Web Gallery. Each person can design the total number of pages and galleries they wish to use and upload them separately. You have complete control over the structure of your web site. This is unique in Lightroom Web Gallery design.

Another unique feature is the ability to have not one, not two, but three separate ways to sell your images online. LRG Complete has the ability to use PayPal, Google Checkout or just Email to order and pay for images online. This is also unique in Lightroom Web Gallery Design.

There are many, many more unique features in LRG Complete, so take a visit over to Lightroom Galleries. You can get there through the links in this article or the navigation menu on the side of my blog. Keep an eye out for the first public release of version 3.0!

EYE 4: Dividing the Frame

2008-08-14T08:35:00.001-04:00

This article is part of my series on the study of 'The Photographer's Eye' by Micheal Freeman. Note that we skipped EYE 3 and will return to it at a later date.

With this essay we begin discussing the division of the Frame. The subject of the image divides the Frame. The background divides the Frame. All of the elements in the image divide the Frame. So how do we determine where to place objects in the image to divide the Frame in the most pleasing way?

Since the topic of this essay is 'Dividing the Frame', then it is only appropriate to answer this question with: divide the Frame, then place the subject in one of those divisions. Sound complicated? There's more good news - since there are many pleasing ways to divide a Frame, there are multiple 'right' answers about placing the subject!

We are going to discuss a number of ways to divide the Frame and place a subject over the next few essays. Each essay will concentrate on one method and then provide some exercises to help us practice that method. The most important guideline to remember here is that the number of ways to perfect this technique are infinite - so be creative, but also be critical of your work. Look for new ways to represent a subject. After all, the point of learning to see with a photographic eye is to learn about being creative.

Ratios

There are two very common series or progressions in mathematics - Arithmetic and Geometric. In this essay we will discuss the first progression and move to the second one in the next essay.

An Arithmetic progression is linear. This means that each number in the series, when plotted with the difference between each number, forms a straight line. Linear, meaning straight line.

In terms of a Ratio, Arithmetic progressions are a ratio of 1:1. Squares and rectangles of the same size represent linear progressions. In terms of the Frame, dividing a Frame into four equal parts is linear. Dividing a frame into thirds is linear. In fact, dividing a Frame into any number of spaces, each with the same size or area is a linear division.

While simple, there are many more various of division for a Frame than linear divisions. It is these variations that begin to provide a unique way of organizing the placement of a subject within a Frame. Thus, the linear division of a Frame is the simplest to learn and we will start with the linear division. However, division of a Frame only gets more exciting from here.

Exercises

This exercise is lengthy in order to get your creativity sparked for the next several essays. We will design a few linear divisions and then shoot a variety of subjects within those divisions for later comparison.

Take three sheets of paper (more if you have the time). On each sheet of paper, draw a Frame that is roughly the proportion of your camera medium. For 35mm film users, the ratio is 24mm x 36mm or approximately 1:1.5 (this is where the 3:2 ratio comes from). For digital users, you may typically have available a 3:2 or 4:3 ratio. For this exercise, do not use the wide angle ratio.

After creating the Frame on your sheets of paper, divide each sheet into different linear divisions. Try a variety of the same sized squares or rectangles. After completing these, put them in page protectors or a small notebook to carry with you while you shoot some images.

Find a subject that is simple, without a complicated background. For example, a window on a wall, a birdhouse in a field, a lone tree, the hole in a putting green or some other simple subject.

Next, take a series of images with your camera for each sheet, placing the subject in each of the divisions. For example, if your subject is a hole in a putting green and your first sheet is divided into four squares, then your series of images would be as follows: (1) the hole in the upper left quadrant, (2) the hole in the lower left quadrant, (3) the hole in the upper right quadrant and (4) the hole in the lower right quadrant. Use a single subject for each of your three sheets.

Repeat the process for at least two additional subjects (three in total). Print these images for comparison and make notes on each image about how the placement of the subject affects how you view the image as a whole. For example, how would a birdhouse look in the bottom right corner with sky in the other three quadrants? Contrast that with the birdhouse in the upper left corner and a field in the other three quadrants? Which image would leave you looking for something missing in the image and which one would leave you feeling complete? Does one image make you feel short or tall? Does one image leave you viewing the subject and one image leave you looking around the rest of the Frame?

See if there is a commonality between different subjects of certain areas of your three Frame divisions. If you tend to like one or two positions in that Frame division, color those in with a highlighter or colored pencil.

Place your notes and your images in your notebook with the results from the other exercises. Be sure to view images around you in light of what you discovered from this exercise. When you see billboards, magazine advertisements, shop windows, web pages - everywhere you look, analyze the Frame and where the subject is.

Next we will talk about a special linear ratio called the Golden Ratio.

Printing Tip

Printing this many images for comparison can get expensive with ink and paper. If you are on budgetary constraints, try printing four images on a page leaving borders for your notes. Anything more than four images per 8.5 x 11 inch page would be too small to really analyze. You can also use a magnifying glass when viewing these images to help make them larger.

Nikon Coolscan - ICE or No ICE?

2008-08-12T06:05:00.004-04:00

I wrote an article about Post Processing Errors with a Nikon Coolscan 5000. This update gives us a the results of two different options that can be used to scan color negatives or slide film with the Coolscan. One option is clearly superior to the other.

NOTE: The images are just under 1mb and may load slowly. This is to provide an adequate comparison.

Scanning with No ICE

The first option is to scan with no ICE used. Remember that ICE is what removes spots and blemishes from the negative using the infared scanning capabilities of the Coolscan. Also remember that with color negatives or slides, the GEM and ROC settings, even with the ICE turned off, give the post processing error.

Scanning with ICE Enabled

The second option is to use the ICE option. This should help remove dust spots although it will not help with grain management. The ICE function does not work with greyscale images because of the way it works. However, ICE works wonders with color images.

Comparison of ICE and no ICE

Below is a comparison of two images, the first using ICE and the second with ICE turned off. Notice the dust in the right hand image, or the one without ICE.

Notice in the second example the level of detail. Again the image on the left was scanned using ICE and the one on the right with ICE turned off. The detail level is the same in this 1:1 or pixel level view. However, the contrast is a bit higher with the ICE turned on.

Next I will look at the actual negative through a loupe to see which one of these images best represents the contrast of the negative. For now, the ICE scan provides significant dust removal and would be the scan I will use.

LRG Complete Advanced User's Guide Almost Ready

2008-08-06T07:03:00.004-04:00

I have been working on an Advanced User's Guide for LRG Complete. In this User's Guide I discuss in much more detail the Paypal and Google Checkout options including how to set up taxes and shipping at both online merchant services. I've included extensive detail on Google Analytics as well as a detailed tutorial on the MP3 player and updating song lists.

I have put together numerous examples of headings and menu systems for the Shell Web Gallery and created worksheets to help you plan your color schemes and your website layout. I also discuss using the email ordering system with customized settings to allow SMTP emails.

There are many more topics discussed in this Advanced User's Guide. If you have a specific topic you would like covered, leave me a comment here so I can consider including it! My goal is to have this finished in time for the release of LRG Complete 3.0 with an early release out for you to review.

Let me know what you would like to see!

Post Processing Error with Nikon Coolscan 5000

2008-08-05T07:22:00.006-04:00

Ok, so I have been using a Nikon Super Coolscan 5000 for well over a year with no problems. Most of my scans are black and white film, saved as TIFF's using the greyscale scanning. I have also used the slide feeder and the long film strip scanner with no problems.

However, last night began a string of errors centered around a message:
There was an error in performing post processing.

I was scanning a 36 image strip of slide film and it always gave me the error after scanning the second frame and while processing. The strip being slide film and color, I had the ICE settings on to remove any latent scratches or dust, as well as the ROC (set to 0) and the GEM (set to 1) for removing some of the grain in the negative After researching on the web and spending all night tweaking one setting at a time and then rebooting in between, I believe I found the answer.

It seems that using ICE, ROC and GEM together in a scan cause this error every time, and always on the second frame. This appears to be true even if the ROC is set to zero, so it would effectively be turned off. This is confirmed in this post from photo.net even though the post is from 2004.

More important are two additional points: 1) Nikon is obviously aware of the problem at least as of 2004 and no fixes are evident even in Nikon Scan 4.02. 2) Each time Nikon Scan bombs, you MUST reboot your entire computer after shutting off the power.

Apparently, the problem persists in memory although I haven't tested thoroughly to determine if it is the scanner memory or computer memory or both. My procedure when I get this error is to shut everything down and reboot from scratch. Then at least I know where I'm starting.

Because I have been scanning black and white, I cannot use ICE which only works for color scans. (Technical note: it has to do with using the infared scan and comparing to each color scan for dust and scratches - greyscale is single pass, no color). Additionally, I just didn't use the ICE feature when I was scanning stacks of slides.

So the choice time now comes: which item is most important? In this particular case, I was scanning FUJI Velvia 100, so the grain should be fairly small and I believe I can fix that easily in Photoshop. So, in this case, I am choosing ICE to continue as scratch removal (which I hope is unnecessary!) and dust removal are much more painful.

Hopefully Nikon will also review this post. They have created a great scanner, but the software bells and whistles should be removed if they won't work as advertised.

UPDATE 8/6/2008:

The ICE setting worked well in that the scanning completed. However, after inspecting the images in Lightroom, they appeared 'fuzzy'. I have worked enough now with black & white film shot through my Leica M-4 and M-6 that the negatives should be sharper than these scans show. I am now scanning the same images with no ICE settings and no GEM or ROC settings applied. I will create another post showing the difference at 1:1 in the detail areas.

Note that using only the ROC and GEM settings with no ICE settings gave me the same errors reported above. Even with ROC set to zero and GEM set to one. It appears that the Nikon scanner has issues when scanning positives (slides). I have not had trouble with greyscale scanning (black and white). Stay tuned.

Update 8/12/2008:

See an update article on using ICE or no ICE when scanning color negatives or slides.

Lightroom Plugins Discussion

2008-08-02T06:55:00.003-04:00

The Lightroom Journal posted an article on Adobe's current feelings about Plugins and External Editors. During the beta testing of Adobe's Lightroom 2.0, there were many posts about the ability for Lightroom to perform certain tasks. This was especially true regarding functions available in Adobe Bridge, Adobe Photoshop and other programs. This article has a great insight into the purpose of non-destructive editing, which is new in the Adobe lineup with the creation of Lightroom 1.0.

While leaps were made in external editing - smart objects, multiple external editor links - the population of true Plugins for Lightroom will be up to the programmers of the world to create non-destructive products.

Mt Rainier Crossing the Nisqually Glacier

2008-07-31T23:53:00.007-04:00

There is a new album on my website as I begin to publish some of my time in the Northwest this summer. The first gallery is of Mt Rainier and Crossing the Nisqually Glacier. We started early in the morning, even for Seattleites and arrived at the Paradise Visitor's Center about 8:30am. Paradise is named such because of the many fields of flowers visible in the July / August months and the colorful beauty that abounds. Getting to the parking lot early is the best way to have a place to park. When we finished our trek about 1:00pm, the parking lot was full.

The challenge right off the bat was finding the best trail to take to Panorama Point which sits about 7,000 feet halfway up the 14,000 foot peak. There are about four different well marked trails climbing in and around the Nisqually Galcier to get to Panorama Point. The problem we had was that they were all still under five feet of snow at the visitor's center. Apparently there was heavy snow in May that hadn't melted yet this year.

After a little time looking at the map and getting our 'snow' legs on, we pushed off. It was quickly apparent that we would be hiking up towards the center of the peak and we would eventually find ourselves on the Glacier, but it was also evident that the trail was well below our feet. The drifts of snow were anywhere from six to twelve feet when you looked down at the trunks of the evergreens lining the base of the Paradise area.

Cresting the last of the heavy forest mounds, we found ourselves staring at the glacier and watching the peak get ever closer. Because of the angle going up the side, it didn't look far in front of us and sure didn't look so high. After another hour of climbing up and not seeing any change in the top, we knew it was every bit of 14,000+ feet.

I was extremely proud of my nine year old son, Ben, who climbed the 2,000 feet with me and my brother-in-law. He plugged along and was equally as excited as I was to see this massive mound of snow and rock.

There were certainly photographic challenges. One of the first is that the sun is well up on the horizon even at 5am during this time of year. Shooting images quickly at the 8:30am to 9:30am timeframe was critical before the sun was overhead. Metering was tricky, but not impossible. I used an incident reading for just about every shot. I checked every now and then by pointing the meter in my Leica perpendicular to the ground and the sun so that I measured a dark patch of blue in the sky. The meter readings were almost always within a 1/4 f/stop of the incident reading. As you can see, I captured some detail in the glacier snow and the detail in the ice near the top was phenominal.

Lightroom helped considerably for this shoot with the ability to synch the settings. I imported these and started development before 2.0 was released, so I am anxious to play with a few of these using the new brushes and graduated filters. The most common adjustment I made was the white balance and the saturation.

It was also a challenge to be sure that the detail in the clouds above the peak came out with some detail. This was a swirling cloud that rotated the entire day around the top of the peak. Mt. Rainier has it's own weather patterns and today was cloudy and windy with little visibility. The different shapes the cloud made were very interesting and the best shots I got were in the form of a hat crowning the peak.

It was hard leaving the mountain. Everytime I turned around, it was getting smaller. Later in the week we returned for another look. It was amazing that in five days somewhere between two and three feet of snow melted. In fact, Reflection Lake no longer had any snow on the water. I think part of good photography is luck in the weather conditions, and this was one of those times.

Enjoy!

Lightroom Tip#17: Speeding Up LR 2.0 Catalogs

2008-07-31T07:16:00.015-04:00

So you have updated to Adobe Lightroom 2.0? Oh, but you don't have the money to update your computer? Here's a quick overview of the Lightroom 2.0 Catalog settings, which aren't remarkably different from Lightroom 1.4.1. However, with a few tweaks, even your older processor can run Lightroom catalogs a little faster. The really good news? These tweaks will work with Lightroom 1.4.1 as well! First, let's look at where the settings moved to.

In Lightroom 1.4.1, the Catalog Settings were under the File menu. In Lightroom 2.0, Adobe moved them to the Edit menu with the other Preferences.

Optimization

After you access these settings, the first tab is the General settings tab. Notice the bottom section on Optimizing. This is where you can have Lightroom reorganize your catalog data file. It doesn't do anything special that you can see, but it does rearrange how the data is stored to make it more efficient to access. Think of it as a routine like disk defragmenting. Do it every so often to keep things running smoothly. You can even see the last date your catalog was optimized in the top section of the General tab. It depends on the size of your catalog, but the larger the catalog and the more often you make changes to data, the more often you might want to optimize your catalog.

Oh yeah, don't forget one of the cardinal rules: BACKUP THE CATALOG BEFORE YOU OPTIMIZE IT! You never know about the power company or some other gremlin. This is good practice anyway.

Preview Size and Quality

The second tab in the Catalog Settings is the File Handling tab. Here we determine what size and quality our 1:1 previews are rendered as. Do you have an old or slow video card? Does it take longer than it should to show the 1:1 previews? If it does, then change the size and type of the preview. The image below shows the options for the preview size in pixels. The highlighted choice is the default. You can see that you can lower the size a little. Of course the converse is also true, blazing video graphics? Enlarge the preview!

Next, take a look at your quality setting. I know, I want the highest quality too. But, if you want to speed up what you are doing, set the quality to a lower value. Again, the image below shows the default item selected.

Metadata Suggestions

One of the neat featurs in Lightroom is the ability to help you remember what you typed in the Metadata blanks. However, this feature can slow down your computer with a large database. The program has to search for ocurrences of that data field with typing similar to what you have already input. Sometimes this causes a delay in your typing and you have to wait while the computer catches up. Personally, I don't find this feature necessary for me in the Metadata fields, so I turn it off. Go to the last tab in the Catalog settings, aptly called Metadata. Uncheck the box as shown below.

Don't Forget to Restart!

As with any major setting changes, after you are finished, close down Lightroom and restart the program. This should reload all these catalog settings.

One more point, changing the 1:1 preview settings won't help you until you have new previews. When you have some time, like right before you go to sleep early one morning (all nighter, huh?), use the Library -> Previews -> Discard 1:1 Previews menu item. Then use the Render 1:1 Previews menu item in the same place. This should re-create your previews with the new settings.

Remember that these settings are for EACH catalog and not global. You will have to do this for all your catalogs to make a difference.

My Settings

I have a dual core 3.2mhz pentium with 4gb of memory for my main computer and a laptop with a dual core 2.0mhz pentium and 2gb of memory. I use the standard settings on my desktop and everything is reasonable, but on the laptop I find that rendering takes a little longer. While I am out of town shooting images, I use the smaller previews on the laptop and then when I move the catalog to my desktop, I increase the previews to a higher quality. This seems to work well for me. Leave me a comment and let me know what you find.

8/1/2008 EDIT:

Also remember that hardware is important and if you decide not to upgrade hardware, you should still remember to defragment your hard disk. For those that don't know much about this, your hard disk gets pieces of files out of order over time. Like a file cabinet that is no longer in alphabetical order, it's takes longer to find stuff. Putting the file cabinet back in order (defragmenting your hard drive) makes it quick to locate things again. Typically, a defrag program comes with your system tools on your operating system. I use Diskeeper 2008 because it does a great job of defraging my computer while it's not doing anything else.

Multiple Computers and Adobe Lightroom 2.0

2008-07-31T07:00:00.003-04:00

I have seen several questions about how many computers Adobe Lightroom can be installed on for use with a single license. Below is a copy of the LR 2.0 License agreement and it appears that home users can use two copies - one desktop and one laptop. You can see this here: Lightroom 2.0 License Agreement. If I find out any different, I'll post an update here.

Excerpt From Section 2 of the Lightroom 2.0 License

2.1 General Use. You may install and use one copy of the Software on up to the Permitted Number of your compatible Computers; or

2.2 Server Deployment. You may install the Permitted Number of copies of the Software on the Permitted Number of Computer file server(s) within your Internal Network for the purpose of downloading and installing the Software on up to the Permitted Number of Computers within the same Internal Network; or

2.3 Server Use. You may install the Permitted Number of copies of the Software on the Permitted Number of Computer file server(s) within your Internal Network only for use of the Software initiated by an individual through commands, data or instructions (e.g., scripts) from a Computer within the same Internal Network. The total number of users (not the concurrent number of users) permitted to use the Software on such Computer file server(s) may not exceed the Permitted Number. No other network installation or access (either directly or through commands, data or instructions) is permitted, including, but not limited to: (i) from or to a Computer not part of your Internal Network, (ii) for enabling web hosted workgroups or services available to the public, (iii) by any individual or entity to use, download, copy or otherwise benefit from the funtionality of the Software unless licensed to do so by Adobe, (iv) as a component of a system, workflow or service accessible by more than the Permitted Number of users, or (v) for operations not initiated by an individual user (e.g., high-volume automated server processing of wire feed content); and

2.4 Portable or Home Computer Use. Subject to the important restrictions set forth in Section 2.5 below, the primary user of the Computer on which the Software is installed (“Primary User”) may install a second copy of the Software for his or her exclusive use on either a portable Computer or a Computer located at his or her home, provided that the Software on the portable or home Computer is not used at the same time as the Software on the primary Computer. You may be required to contact Adobe in order to make a second copy.

EYE 2: Placement of the Subject

2008-07-30T11:44:00.004-04:00

This article is part of my series on the study of 'The Photographer's Eye' by Micheal Freeman.

Our second essay will begin discussing the placement of the subject within the Frame. We will begin with a rather broad overview and then several essays on subjects with fairly plain backgrounds and different ways to divide the frame. Rather than post one large essay, these mini-essays will be cohesive and develop the whole concept of subject placement within an image.

Centering a Subject

Centering is one of the most common placements for a subject within an image. I believe centering occurs for two reasons. The first reason is a learned behavior and the second is the physical makeup of a camera.

Centering as a Behavior

First, centering is automated behavior or a 'habbit'. Most beginning photographers are looking through a camera viewfinder and tend to center the subject they are looking at. When we look at someone, we center our view on their face. When we look at a building, we center our view on the building and then begin looking up and down at the building. By our very nature, we square ourselves up in front of things that we look at. We don't stand sideways, turn our head and have a conversation with someone. This behavior needs modified in order to create an image with the subject located away from the center of the photograph.

Centering Because of Equipment

Second, equipment and technology has directed many photographers to use centering through design. This cause of centering is physical rather than behavioral and comes from two different eras of technology. The first era is the creation of glass lenses used in cameras. Early lenses were made without the mechanical precision used today and each lens was slightly different even though the maker tried to keep them exactly the same. Early lenses were made first and a camera was built around the lens. Today, lenses are made with such exacting specifications that the lens is made to fit the camera.

The result of early lenses was that the center of the lens typically had a very sharp focus while the edges of the lenses were rough and out of focus. Even today, cheaper photographic lenses have less resolution and contrast at the edges when compared to the center. While lens errors are well beyond the scope of these essays, the point is that early lenses and even less expensive lenses today force the photographer to center an image so it will remain sharp.

The second era in technology that pushes centering of images is the digital camera. Digital cameras typically focus by default in the center of the viewfinder. Some digital cameras allow for off centered focusing, but the technique is to focus in the center, recompose and shoot the image. Many beginning photographers do not recompose, they simply focus in the center and shoot.

Results of Centered Subjects

While there are arguably cases for an exact centering of a subject in an image, the vast majority of cases call for a subject out of center. If a subject is only slightly off center, the image can look like an error or extreme lack of experience.

In addition, as we will be discussing throughout the remainder of these essays, art is viewed not as a whole, but in pieces as the viewer's eyes wander the image. A subject contained in the center of an image causes the viewer's eyes to typically remain in the center, static, without movement. This is boring and dull.

However, placing a subject off center to the image as a whole allows for the subject to have space with which to move. The empty space causes questions about what the subject will or has done. The empty space causes speculation from the viewer. These questions and speculations are the cause of tension and eye movement, which is part of the essence of great art, and hence photography.

Conclusion and Exercises

The question now remains - where and how do we offset a subject within the image to best cause tension and eye movements throughout the image? This will be the topic of the next few essays.

For now, as an exercise, choose three fairly stationary subjects and shoot at least six or more images of each. For each subject, shoot one image with the subject as exactly in the center of the image as you can. Then shoot one just barely off center. Shoot the remaining four or more images with any type of offset that you care to use. Compare each of these groups of images making notes about how the centered subject strikes you compared to the offset images.

As a second exercise, go through a few of your favorite magazines. Look at the images in the advertisements as well as the articles. See if you can find any images that have centered subjects and try to determine if this was done intentionally. Record your impressions of the centered and off centered images clipping out the pages to put with your notes if possible.

Go back through the results of these exercises as we continue moving forward to see if they strike you differently.

The Photographer's Eye Essays and Study

2008-07-30T11:30:00.010-04:00

The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman is a superb text on learning to visualize an image with a camera and create art. In my introductory post I gave you an overview of the book and told you I would be creating a group of essays on the text, each with an exercise to practice the theories presented in the book. This post will be organization of these essays and allow you to keep up with me on the study. Bookmark this article so you can visit or reference our work.

For notational purposes, I am using EYE and a number to denote these essays. Also, in order to keep the copyrights properly noted, all references to 'The Photographer's Eye' and the terms 'Frame Shape' or 'Frame' as used here are copyrighted by Michael Freeman. The essays are my reflections on the chapter's of his book, The Photographer's Eye, and unless noted otherwise, the exercises are created solely by me to further the study of Michael Freeman's concepts.

Introduction and Summary of the Essays
EYE 1: The Frame Shape
EYE 2: Placement of the Subject
EYE 3: Objects in a Plain Background
EYE 4: Dividing the Frame: Linear Divisions
EYE 5: The Golden Rule
EYE 6: Geometric Series and Framing
EYE 7: Frame Recap and Summary Exercises

Enjoy!

LRG Complete to Get Digital Download!

2008-07-29T22:50:00.004-04:00

Joe at Lightroom Galleries has been hard at work the past six months putting together a unique Adobe Lightroom Web Gallery that enables users to create galleries online and sell their images with Paypal, Google Checkout and plain ole' emails.

Joe has now announced that he has figured out a method to add electronic downloadable images for sale as well. Termed 'Digital Downloads', this enhancement will mean you can not only place your prints for sale on the web, but soon you will be able to offer downloadable image files as well. Think about the possibilities!

Read the full post on Digital Delivery at Lightroom Galleries. The really neat concept here is that Joe is leveraging the work already done by a third party service to keep your digital images protected from hacking downloaders. The service he has incorporated into this Digital Download is LinkLok by Vibra Logix.

The LRG Complete web galleries are really shaping up to be not only unique, but a very high quality E-Commerce solution that is available to Adobe Lightroom users. Thanks, Joe for using your mental energies to create such a fantastic product!

Keep watching as the first official release is on the way.

Lightroom 2 is now Released!

2008-07-29T11:29:00.003-04:00

Lightroom 2 is now here! Thank you to all the Adobe folks who have listened to so much bantering from the Beta version. There are many new improvements that were only hinted on in the Forums, so if you've been working with the Beta 2 version, you'll still have some new surprises in store!

You can go to the purchase page at Adobe or get a 30 day trial version.

Also, be sure to lookup some of the new feature videos from the Adobe Photogshop Lightroom 2 Learning Center.

Gotta go, time to buy my copy!

LRG Complete 2.5.7 User's Guide Finished

2008-07-28T06:53:00.003-04:00

The user's guide for LRG Complete 2.5.7 is finished and can be downloaded on the link in the sidebar. Joe has outdone himself again as he continues to make so many user requested changes. See the Lightroom Galleries blog for more updates and the new features Joe is adding. Keep an eye out there for the long awaited Digital Downloading option! Please consider a donation if you find this template useful as Joe has spent a large amount of time developing it, and this Web Gallery is unique for Lightroom. There is no other Web Gallery like this today!

Note that the User's Guide now has a completely rewritten QuickStart section that is up to date with the 2.5.7 release candidate. The E-Commerce QuickStarts are in process, but the reference section on the E-Commerce is extremely detailed, so read this carefully in lieu of a QuickStart for now.

Other changes were made, so give the User's Guide a quick glance if you have used it before.

Photo Shoot Results

2008-07-27T05:00:00.001-04:00

The photo shoot I went on the middle of July was fantastic! I have over 400 digital images to go through and almost 200 film images (which are in the process of being developed, some slides and some black & white).

As soon as I have gotten through this (backup takes a great amount of time, but is too important to skip), I will let you know how Lightroom helped me.

10,000 Thank Yous!

2008-07-26T08:11:00.003-04:00

Today we have had 10,000 unique visitors here at the Outdoor Images Fine Art Blog. Thank you to all of you who have taken the time to visit! I hope you find useful information here for your photography. Please leave me comments as you browse to help me determine what you find the most valuable.

THANKS AGAIN!!

Eye 1: The Frame Shape

2008-07-26T07:26:00.005-04:00

This article is part of my series on the study of 'The Photographer's Eye' by Micheal Freeman.

Michael Freeman starts out his book, The Photographer's Eye, by defining the shape of the image we will spend the rest of our study discussing. We call this, the Frame Shape. When we refer to the Frame, we are referring to the area of the image or the dimensional space that the image will occupy. It does not matter what the image is shown on - a camera lcd screen, a monitor, paper, film, etc. The Frame, or Frame Shape, represents the same area.

So what shape is the Frame? There are at least four common shapes. Three of these shapes are rectangular and one is square. The most common of these shapes is the 35mm format from shooting images on film. Digital cameras offer multiple format sizes, though, so whether 35mm remains to be the most common only time will tell.

35mm Frame Size

A 35mm negative has a size ratio of 3:2. This means that for every 3 measurement units across that the negative has, there are 2 of the same measurement units going down. In actuality, a 35mm negative is 36mm x 24mm, but it is referred to as 3:2. Wikpedia has a very good article on 135mm film, more commonly called 35mm film. Note that while 35mm film was introduced in 1934 for still images, it was actually introduced in 1892 by William Dickson and Thomas Edison, according to an article on 35mm film for cinema. In any case, the 35mm format was created to balance the cost of making the film with the quality of the image obtained. This balance was struck well enough that the 35mm format has maintained it's presence for over 100 years.

However, the balance of cost vs quality of image does not necessarily provide an optimal ART format. Creating an image that has meaning and impact may not work as well with a 3:2 format as some other size. For example, many framed images, many art paintings, many magazine and book covers are all some other size ratio than 3:2. So if an image was created in 35mm, it had to be cropped for these uses.

There are images that favor a 35mm format, or a 3:2 Frame. Tall images, like images of the Redwood Forest, favor a 3:2 format because of the long, narrow subject. Buildings, tall waterfalls, long horizons and other length oriented subjects favor the 3:2 Frame.

4:3 Frame Size

It is no accident that many digital cameras now include a 4:3 aspect ratio. As Michael informs us, this ratio or Frame Size "accurately reflects the real world sizes." The 4:3 Frame is much closer to representing the types of images noted above. In fact, the large format camera uses negative sizes that are 4x5. While this isn't an exact representation of the 4:3 Frame Size, it represents an area just a little larger. Thus, cropping to a 4:3 ratio from a 4x5 negative doesn't remove much of the image. This is no accident.

The ratio of 4:3 represents a decimal of 1.3333. That of the 4x5 (which is 5 divided by 4) represents a decimal of 1.25 and 35mm formats (3:2) represents a decimal of 1.5. These decimals can be equated to percentages and represent the increase of the longer side of the image from the shorter side. Since the shorter side of the image must be used to maximize the negative used when cropping, this method of comparison is valid.

Thus, if the best presentation ratio is 4:3, or 133%, then the 4x5 negative at 125% is only 8% less whereas a 35mm negative is 150% or 17% more. The only point here is that to go to a 4:3 Frame Size, a 35mm negative will have more of the image cropped out than a 4x5 camera. Unfortunately, the cost of 4x5 photography is generally far greater than 35mm photography. That is, until the use of digital photography came about providing multiple ratios available with the same equipment.

Wide Image Format

The wide image format, normally using a 16:9 ratio, has also become a common option on digital cameras. This format is increasingly more popular for landscape and panoramic type photography where wide area coverage is desired. Without the ability to stitch multiple images together or capture an image with a wide digital sensor (CCD), the ability to create quality images of this type is limited and potentially much more difficult. Due to the limited application of this Frame Size, we will not discuss it further. However, for specific applications, this format can produce stunning results.

Square Formats

Square formats are not very common because not many images capture a subject which is square in nature. As we will learn going forward, having too much extra space around a subject may detract from the subject itself and not provide a very pleasing image. That being said, there are certainly applications for square images or a square Frame. Circular subjects, square subjects, diamond shaped subjects and subjects grouped in these shapes all lend themselves to a square format. Film and digital formats do not include square negatives, however, and to produce a square Frame, cropping will need to be performed.

Conclusion and Exercises

For an affordable film format, 35mm is the most common. When using a digital camera, frequently the 3:2, 4:3 and 16:9 formats are available giving the photographer a choice of Frame Size to use. Whatever medium a photographer chooses, there will inevitably be cropping involved. Remember to first shoot the image for the composition and crop later. It is better to crop an image than never have captured it to begin with.

For a first exercise, take a group of images shot with any format. Arrange three views of each image cropped to the following ratios: 3:2, 4:3 and square. Print these out in three separate prints or all on one piece of paper. Make notes on them about which Frame you like the best. Note the problems, if any, with the other Frame sizes in presenting the overall image. Use this group of images to create your portfolio for this study of The Photographer's Eye so that you can go back through it as a refresher from time to time. If you are using an electronic program like Adobe Lightroom, you can start a group of Collections and make this the first collection.

I hope you find this study valuable to you and keep watching for the next essay!

The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman

2008-07-23T06:37:00.008-04:00

This article is part of my series on the study of 'The Photographer's Eye' by Micheal Freeman.

On my recent trip to the west coast, I read a book I found in Barnes & Noble. The title caught my eye, but the content as I flipped it made me purchase the book. The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman is a special photography book.

The topic of the book is how to visualize and create art through the medium of photography. The organization of the book is far better than many as each topic is on average a two-page spread. There are a few that are longer, but most are self-contained and can be read when you have time. Furthermore, the organization of the topics is sequential to learning the craft of visualization.

Before I go any further, let me tell you that I will begin writing articles here on various topics covered in Michael's book using an essay form. The point of these articles will be to analyze some of what Michael says, but then to provide an exercise that you can perform to further your ability in this area. Think of these as the supplement to the course. The Photographer's Eye will be your lectures, and I will provide the homework! I plan to post examples of some of the exercises as I also use them.

Now, a few more items about this book. Michael's organization of the topics starts with a definition of the basic framework we will deal with in the remainder of the text. That framework revolves around, well, the frame. Using a term from film photography, Michael uses the concept of the boundary of an image and it's various sizes and orientations to begin. He moves to some basic design concepts like contrasts and textures. Then he moves to elements in the image like broad brushstrokes in a watercolor painting. He finishes with some sections on composition, intent of the image and process.

I don't want to cover the entire text here but rather through the essays. Of course while it won't be necessary to buy the book, I do recommend it for anyone interested in photography be it taking the images or viewing other's images. It's amazing to begin to SEE photographically. I think great photographer's have an eye to compose images naturally and over the years I have acquired an eye for certain subjects in nature. However, after reading this text I am discovering new ways to view subjects.

I'm sure this newfound enlightenment has also been a product of visiting the Seattle Art Museum last week where they had a special impressionism exhibit. Even so, whatever the medium for art, and I have chosen film and photography, art must be furthered by new views. The same old picture of the same old subject is not art, it is practice by copying others.

Copying is good and in fact, that is how the impressionists created their genre. They copied the master's of their day, which were mainly the Renaissance 'realists'. Then as they perfected making copies of previous great works, they started introducing their own concept of light. Their paintings became brighter and a little less detailed. They were fresh and new. I was amazed at the progression of impressionism to the art form it ultimately ended up as. Photography is very similar. In my case, for nature photography, Ansel Adams is my master to copy. Over time I have to introduce my own style and capture of light. There is no doubt that a thorough study of Michael Freeman's book will enhance my ability to accomplish this.

Stay tuned. I will use the category Visualization to tag these essays and put a link on the side bar for you.

Online Backups

2008-07-21T08:00:00.003-04:00

Backing up image files in Adobe Lightroom continues to be a hot topic. It is the most laborious and tedious part of my Lightroom workflow, but also the most necessary. Anyone that has lost an image because of poor backups, and I am one of those, will agree.

I found an interesting web site that reviews online backup sources. Many IT sources now look to online backups and online outsourcing as a way to get commercial quality hardware at a fraction of the price. Raid servers, offsite backups, redundant hardware - all terms that come up frequently for enterprise level backup routines.

Take a look at Online Backup Reviews and see if there is a source that is right for you.

From Adobe's standpoint, it would be a nice feature to add the ability to backup a catalog and image library to an online source. For now, they may have to be done manually, but I suspect it will be added in the future as online abilities are required to stay competitive.

Who knows, we may even begin to see our working library as an online solution, available where ever we are in the world? I'm sure it will take higher bandwidth speeds as many have indicated the network speeds are not sufficient for transferring information, but then again, don't you remember when a 56k modem was fast?

Backup, Import, Backup

2008-07-09T20:55:00.006-04:00

There are so many details to think about when deciding how to store images, how to label image files, how to backup images and which images should be imported into a library program. This article discusses an overview for the method of getting images from a camera (or scanner) into a Adobe Lightroom while maintaining an appropriate level of backups. This article will not discuss the pros and cons of different media, but overview the need for using multiple medias as backups.

The title of this article is really the summary of the entire workflow. Backup, Import, and Backup again. The order is also important, but mostly because of a limitation of many digital camera interfaces today. This article was also developed based on some of the other detailed work done in importing images into Lightroom and to give a further framework in the Image Conversion Workflow.

The speed of many digital cameras is very slow when uploading images. Only a negative scanner seems slower. Be that as it may, Adobe Lightroom seems to magnify the slowdown when importing directly from a camera. Thus, the first step: Backup.

Backup

The first step in our workflow is to backup the images from the digital card. If you use a negative scanner, then the first step is to scan the image to a backup medium. In my case, the backup is a USB mirrored hard drive attached to my workstation.

I use a Leica DLux3 which is a remarkable pocket camera that takes RAW images. I use the SD card reader in my computer, insert the SD card and copy the images to my external hard drive. See the article I wrote on naming directories for digital negatives and slides to determine how you will organize the image files. This is the fastest method for copying images from a camera - no additional processing in between. Next, we import.

10/13/2008 EDIT: Also see the article that discusses Backing Up Rejects.

Import

The importing function in Adobe Lightroom is a powerful tool. With a little practice and some digging, many options are available through the import dialog. If you copied your images to a backup in the first step, then the import step should use the 'copy the files to a new location' option.

If the files are RAW then you can also check the option to convert the files to DNG. Adobe's Digital Negative format continues to undergo improvements. The two primary reasons to consider using DNG formats are a) Adobe has made the format open source and it should be around for a long time to come and b) DNG formats are smaller than RAW formats because of some lossless compression routines. For TIFF files, JPEG formats and others, the DNG format doesn't offer much, but for RAW files, DNG is worth a look.

At this point you can also choose a MetaData preset or create one on the fly. Thus, we can be importing images from a soccer game shoot and automatically set the photographer's information as well as the soccer match information in the MetaData. Presets for MetaData are like bulk copies. They instantly make an array of changes to a group of files while they are importing. This saves mutliple selections and later typing.Also, keywords can also be added at the import stage. Similar to the MetaData presets, images can have basic tags created to get started.

This is not to say that further refining will not be necessary. In fact, changes should be necessary. There should be some title and description information put in the MetaData for each image. There should also be some keywords that will apply to some images and other keywords for other informations. The point is that much of the repetitive information can be input easily for all the images. This is the whole idea of an efficient workflow.

Backup

The last section almost could have been labeled Import-Backup. The importing dialog is the perfect time to make a copy of the images for our last backup. Simply setting the end of the dialog to copy the files to a CD when finished will add some time to the process, but will provide us with a moveable copy that could even be stored off site.

The copy to CD routine in Lightroom 1.4.1 seems to copy the images to a temporary directory and then burn them to a CD. However, the temporary files are not removed from the disk directory. Yet, when you export a new set of images to burn to a CD, Lightroom removes those old files first.

Exporting to CD can be done at a later time, but backups tend to get delayed if they are not completed when the images are added to the library. Then you find yourself getting busy and wanting to review the images. Who needs another backup? Well, the first backup is on a hard drive and the working copy is on another hard drive. Hard drives are prone to eventual failure, or in my case, prone to electrical failure from lighting strikes. So, to truly protect your images, using a backup that can be separated and that is not prone to descrtuction like the others.

Conclusion

The whole point of this article is to let us sit back and evaluate our current import strategy. Using the concepts above we have several advantages. First, we make a quick copy of our images and secure the location they are stored. Then we import them using presets to save lots of typing and reviewing. Finally, we make another backup to a CD or DVD as the import is taking place.

Next, we will delve into the details and choices available in the exporting dialog. Stay tuned!!

Photo Shoot - LRG Complete 2.5.6

2008-07-09T17:16:00.003-04:00

I will be on a photo shoot for a week or so and will not be keeping posts up to date for that time. As soon as I get through, I'll let you know how it went and how I used lightroom to help.

In the meantime, keep watching Lightroom Galleries as Joe is making more improvements every day to his LRG Complete web gallery for Lightroom. I have released the User's Guide for version 2.5.6 which you can download on the sidebar here or at Lightroom Galleries.

Also, thanks for the continued comments. I appreciate everyone that is visiting and contributing. Hope your summer is going well!

Update: Custom Sorting in Lightroom 2.0 Beta

2008-07-02T23:35:00.002-04:00

There is a work-around to the lack of custom sorting found in the Adobe Lightroom 2.0 Beta version. See the updated article Lightroom Tip#16 - Ordering Images in Lightroom where we give you this work-around.

LRG Complete 2.5.6

2008-06-30T23:53:00.001-04:00

Another maintenance release that adds more functionality, Lightroom Galleries is continuing to provide features asked for in the forum. Get involved. Download a copy today and post some feedback.

This new version has expanded international language support and adds more settings for the placement of images on a page.

LRG Complete provides a total solution for using E-Commerce to sell your images online integrating with PayPal, Google Checkout and simple Email Orders. Your choice!

You can get a copy of the Web Gallery at Lightroom Galleries.

Film Grain and GEM

2008-06-30T22:43:00.017-04:00

This is part of my Scanning Images Workflow and the settings used on my negative to digital image scanner.

Film Grain and GEM

Film grain is similar to noise present in a digital image from a CCD. Film grain isn't as noticeable in slower speed films and small print sizes. However, any sizable print or high speed film has a tendency to show the sand like grain of the film. While many noise reduction programs work well, GEM is most commonly found in negative and slide scanners, so we will discuss the use of GEM in our film to digital workflow.

GEM or Digital GEM, was developed by Kodak for use with Adobe Photoshop and a variety of film scanners. The Nikon CoolScan Scanners carry GEM as part of their included scanning software. The concept is to view the grain through each of the three color layers and then remove that grain information from the digital image while keeping the detail. Kodak indicates that removing the grain effect while keeping the color shades and details will help 35mm film rival the larger format cameras. While larger format negatives have details surpassing 35mm, the GEM product has the ability to assist in grain removal that does enhance any size enlargement of a 35mm image.

Specifically, the GEM algorithums work well with scans of color negatives and slides. However, our focus is on the black and white negative. All of our comparison scans originate from Ilford HP5 black and white film exposed at 400 ASA and developed with Ilford Ilfotec DD-X fine grain developer. The scans were made with a Nikon CoolScan 5000 using the negative attachment. Scans were made at 4000 dpi and 16bit greyscale TIFF images were saved resulting in 40mb files. These image files were imported into Adobe Lightroom and compared side by side. The results are below.

GEM Zero - No GEM

The image below shows a native scan with GEM turned off or set to zero.

Notice how spotted the image is. This view is from Adobe Lightroom at a ration of 1:1 and encompasses the rock outcropping that is part of a waterfall. Let's see what some added GEM processing will accomplish.

Gem 4 - All the Way

Rather than stepping through the settings on the Nikon CoolScan 5000, let's see the most processing that can be enabled. The image below represents GEM processing at level 4 or the most available through the Nikon CoolScan.

Notice how the image looks a little less crisp, but much less spotty. This is the maximum grain removal for black and white films. The comparison is in the fine details to see if a little sharpening can bring them back out.

Compare GEM 0 to GEM 4

Let's compare the native scan with a GEM 4 scan side by side to see what differences are apparent. The following image was made through Adobe Lightroom while comparing the two images above.

Notice how the contrast between the grain is lowered to match the surrounding pixels. This comparison was done at a ratio of 3:1, or three pixels on the screen to match one image pixel. The results are much more dramatic at this magnification.

Here is the same image, at the same 3:1 magnification, but the viewing area is of a hiking boot. Notice how the highlights of the boot laces are muted in the GEM 4 processing image. Thus, the loss of contrast in the grain is apparent and will help some images improve immensely while some details will begin to fade away as well. Sharpening my not be enough to bring those details back.

Gem 0 versus Gem 2 - A Little Processing

See the image below where the same boot area is compared, but using Gem 0 versus Gem 2, or about 1/2 processing.

Notice here how the contrast is lightened somewhat compared to the native scan, but that the boot lace detail is still visible and has plenty of contrast. In these extreme detailed settings, a higher GEM setting can actually hurt more than help.

Sharpening Workflow

While there are no examples here of the effects of sharpening after using the GEM processing, the level of contrasting details will have a noticeable effect on the sharpening outcome. The larger the output, the heavier the sharpening may be. Careful integration of this grain management must be used with your current sharpening techniques. The best text, by far, I have ever encountered on Sharpening is Image Sharpening for Adobe Photoshop by Bruce Fraser.

Conclusion

GEM is a tremendous tool to reduce the effect of noticeable grain. If used carefully, a mix of lower contrast between grain particles, but no noticable lack of detail can be achieved. However, full blown GEM 4 settings can result in some lost detail if not careful.

For most images I use a GEM setting of either 1 or 2 depending on the scene. The Nikon CoolScan settings are saved so that I can pull them up quickly and use the same settings over and over. For images that are extremely important, a quick test of the GEM setting for that image may be necessary.

There have been very few cases in my black and white scanning where I found GEM 3 or GEM 4 produces pleasing results. I have not done extensive tests in RAW files, so I do not know if the color layers behave differently. Using a light GEM setting is better than no GEM setting at all. The best solution for grain management is the best exposure coupled with meticulous development techniques. Thus, GEM is not a cure for poor photography, but GEM will assist in converting negatives to digital images.

NOTES:

The GEM settings discussed here are based on the 0-1-2-3-4 settings of the Nikon CoolScan scanning software that accompanies the scanner. Other software may have different levels of GEM processing that do not coincide with these settings.

Summer Camp

2008-06-25T06:47:00.004-04:00

Summer time calls and so do my two boys - eight and ten! I have been on staff at summer camp this week and trying to keep up with my day job, so my posts have slowed, but only for another week or so.

I am also working on two large projects which I will keep you updated on here.

First, you have seen the many recent posts on Lightroom Galleries LRG Complete Web Gallery for Adobe Photoshop. I have been trying to keep up with Joe as he programms this spectacular web gallery. I am making modifications to the User's Guide with each of his new releases. For those of you that haven't tried it, LRG Complete is a unique web gallery and very complete. See the side links to download.

As part of this work I am also writing two books. One is an advanced user's guide for LRG Complete. With so many variations available to present your work using LRG Complete, I wanted to create a guide that will enable you to get the absolute maximum out of the web gallery. Also, with the User's Guide approaching the 5 megabyte size, I wanted to keep it within downloadable parameters. Keep watching as this will be released with the first final version of LRG Complete.

The other book will be a surprise. I am working with several publishers to obtain some interest. I will post information here as soon as it makes sense to do so.

Thanks for visiting and I hope your summer is going well!

Version RC2.5.5 of LRG Complete Released

2008-06-13T17:47:00.002-04:00

Joe of Lightroom Galleries has released another candidate for LRG Complete, the PayPal, Google Checkout Web Gallery for Adobe Lightroom.

This release has some support for international characters as well as superb tie in to the shipping functions within PayPal and Google Checkout. Not to leave anyone out, Joe has also allowed and Email Order system for those that don't use either of the web based systems.

Check it out here: LRG Complete RC2.5.5.

Lightroom 2: Cropping and Pixel Size

2008-06-13T16:51:00.009-04:00

Cropping while maintaining a specific pixel size has been a continued hot topic on the Lightroom 2.0 Beta forums. After some exploration based on a post from Jao van de Lagemaat on the Lightroom Forum for the 2.0 Beta version, I found a way to show the pixel sizes directly on the screen while cropping. Here is an article to show you how to get that pixel size on your development module window setup.
http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif
Add Image
First, bring an image up in the development module window. Then go to the View and View Options menu. See the example below:

After clicking on this menu item, you will get the following dialog:

Be sure to check the Show Info Overlay box at the top of the dialog. Otherwise, your changes will not show up. Second, go to the Image Info 2 section and change the bottom two items. Use the drop down box and select Cropped Dimensions and Megapixels.

There is no OK button, so just close the window.

Presto! You now see the size of the image in pixels and the combined size in Megapixels. Furthermore, when you crop an image, you can see the resulting crop in pixels without having to switch back to the Library module. See the example of an image crop in the Development window below:

While this isn't a fix for those that want to input an image density setting for cropping, it will allow you to get reasonably close with a little math, all on one screen.

Enjoy!

DPI and PPI: Which is What?

2008-06-13T16:43:00.002-04:00

I come across questions and forums where people use DPI and PPI interchangably. Unfortunately, I am also guilty. I have found what I thought was a great explanation of the difference. I have copied the article here and provided a link to the original.

DPI and PPI Explained

There seems to be a great deal of confusion among many people regarding the use of some terms in digital imaging. The main problem with this is that DPI (dots per inch) is an old term that has been applied to everything relating to resolution and the size of a digital image. This is very confusing because different situations work with resolution in very different ways, and having a single term for all of them just makes things more confusing. More recently, the term PPI (pixels per inch) has appeared in common usage and is far more specific for what the term entails. DPI is still used in some documents and software when PPI is really what they mean, but this is changing. This article is an attempt to explain what the 2 terms mean and how they should be used.

As usual, this article originally saw light in a Usenet group. In this case, rec.photo.digital. The article is a combination of 2 seperate posts I made regarding the difference between DPI and PPI, with some additional editing.

PPI

Okay, let's start with PPI, it's easy to understand. This is the number of pixels per inch in your image. This will affect the print size of your photo and will affect the quality of the output. The way that it will affect the quality of the output is that if there are too few pixels per inch, then the pixels will be very large and you will get a very pixelated image (jagged edges, you will actually see individual pixels, not good). You'll hear various different numbers thrown around as to what an acceptable PPI for a print-out is. A lot of this will depend on the size of the print. This is because you look at large prints from a further distance than a small print, so you can get away with a lower PPI and still have the image look fine.

Anyways, all that PPI does is affect the print size of the image. There are 2 ways that you can change the print size, by resampling or by not resampling. Not resampling is what you normally want to do, this will only change the size of the print out. Using resampling will actually change the number of pixels (and thus the file size) in order to match the print size. So for instance, if you don't resample, changing the PPI setting will increase or decrease the print size (it will increase if you drop the PPI, it will decrease if you increase the PPI). With resampling, if you change the PPI, you will loose pixels (if you set the PPI to a lower value) or you will have pixels created (if you increase the PPI). Creating pixels is a bad idea, they get generated by the computer and the results aren't usually that good. Throwing away pixels is fine as long as you won't need the bigger size later (that's why it's usually a good idea to save the original large file).
An Example

Suppose you have a 100 x 100 pixel image could be printed at many different sizes. If you set the image to print at 10 PPI, then you'd have a 10" x 10" image. If you set the image to print at 100 PPI, you'd have a 1" x 1" image. Note that adjusting this value doesn't effect the number of pixels in the image at all, it just changes how big the print will be.

Take our 100 x 100 pixel image again. Suppose it's set at 100 PPI (producing the same 1" x 1" printed image). With re-sampling off, when you adjust the PPI the dimensions adjust as well, this is how things worked in the example above. With re-sampling on, the dimensions won't change. So, if you changed the PPI to 10 with re-sampling on, you would still keep a 1" x 1" image and the computer would throw out pixels to make the image stay that size. So in this case, you'd end up with a 10 x 10 pixel image in the end. If you went the other way, and changed the PPI to 300, then the computer would generate pixels to make a 300 x 300 pixel image that's still 1" x 1" when printed.

Usually, the only reason you want to use re-sampling is for reducing the size of your image. For example, my scanner produces 3888 x 2592 images. These images are too big to use online (both for display and because of filesize). By using re-sampling, I can adjust the size of the images to something more appropriate for online use.

DPI

Now let's talk about DPI. DPI only refers to the printer. Every pixel output is made up of different coloured inks (usually 4 or 6 colours, depending on your printer). Because of the small number of colours, the printer needs to be able to mix these inks to make up all the colours of the image. So each pixel of the image is created by a series of tiny dots (you could think of them as sub-pixels). Generally, the higher the DPI, the better the tonality of the image, colours should look better and blends between colours should be smoother. You'll also use more ink and the print job will be slower. You might want to try setting your printer to a lower DPI to save ink and speed up the job, see if you notice any difference in quality. The lowest setting where you don't see any loss in quality should be the best one to use.

So a 1200 dpi printer uses 1200 dots of ink in every inch to make up the colours. If you were printing a 300 PPI image, then every pixel would be made up of 16 smaller ink dots (1200 DPI x 1200 DPI / 300 PPI x 300 PPI). A lower DPI would have fewer ink dots making up each pixel, which would make the colour look worse. A higher DPI would have more ink dots for each pixel and should give more accurate colour (especially under close examination).

Copyright

SEO Guidelines

2008-06-11T19:26:00.003-04:00

You ask, we are photographers, what does SEO have to do with us? My answer is simple: If you want anyone to find your photography, which is assumedly why you posted it on the web, then SEO is important to you. If you don't know, SEO stands for Search Engine Optimization and has long been the challenge of web developers to find an easy way for the creation of web site that everyone will see.

I stumbled across an article on 10 SEO Rules for Designers. There are many good ideas for us photographers as we create our own sites.

I hope this helps you get noticed on the web!

New Lightroom Exchange on Adobe!

2008-06-11T19:06:00.002-04:00

Sean McCormack posted an article on Lightroom News about a new Adobe exchange area for Lightroom. We have long awaited such a site where developers can post Develop Presets, Export Plugins and Web Galleries to share with the Lightroom Community.

This is a must visit site and be sure to bookmark it and visit back often as I am sure it will take hold over time. Adobe Photoshop and the other creative products by Adobe have had such exchange sites. They have been sucessful and there is no reason not to believe this one won't be sucessful as well.

Enjoy!

Lightroom Galleries LRG Complete User's Guide for RC2.5.4

2008-06-05T18:41:00.003-04:00

The user's guide for Lightroom Galleries LRG Complete RC2.5.4 is now released. You can download it from the side bar here.

Please note that we are releasing the User's Guide at least as often as new release candidates come out. The frequency is high to keep up with the enormous number of changes that Joe at Lightroom Galleries has been pumping out. Thank you, Joe!

We have also included a What's New section in the introduction of the User's Guide so that you can see some of the major changes in the User's Guide. The version information for LRG Complete is near the end of the Guide.

Thanks for continuing to support my blog and keep checking back for new information on this great new Web Gallery.

Lightroom Tip#16 - Ordering Images in Lightroom Web Galleries

2008-06-05T11:44:00.005-04:00

Often the order we would like to showcase our images is not the same order we shot the images with our camera. However, we frequently view our images in the Library in this order. How then, can we re-arrange our images to show up in a custom order when making a Slideshow or Web Gallery page? Here we show you how.

The key is setting the sort in the Library Module while you have the images showing that you wish to set as a custom sort. See the example below where we set the sort order to a user defined type.

After setting this sort order, use the mouse to drag images around on the screen. Notice after moving an image, the numbering of the images resets (if you have the numbering visible in your images).

That's all there is to it! After re-sorting your images, proceed to make a Slideshow or Web Gallery and the new order will be preserved.

Note if the sort order is set to something else, like capture time, re-ordering your images will have no effect as Lightroom will send them back to capture time order before exporting a Slideshow or Web Gallery.

UPDATE FOR LIGHTROOM 2 BETA

Lightroom 2.0 Beta does not allow for custom sorting as Lightroom 1.4.1 does. The menu items don't exist. Because we are in the Beta stage, it doesn't mean the functionality will not be available in version 2.0 when released. However, we need to find a work-around in case it remains as it is in the Beta.

Kelvin Brown found such a work-around and posted an answer to my question in the forum. Kelvin found that you can create a collection of images and sort them in any order you wish by dragging and dropping the images to new locations. I confirmed that this works. After further testing, I also found that the custom sorting does NOT work in Quick Collections. Apparently this feature is only available in standard collections.

Although, better some than none!

Web Galleries and Templates - Confusing Terms

2008-06-04T07:10:00.004-04:00

Adobe Lightroom has specific terms when it comes to web galleries, templates, saved settings and presets. When you use a word processor, you refer to a template as a base for filling in the blanks and creating a new document. In Lightroom, this type of template is referred to as a WEB GALLERY. Also, in many software realms, you refer to a collection of stored items that get applied to a template as presets. In Lightroom, these presets are called TEMPLATES.

While this can be confusing to the beginner, this Lightroom convention is used throughout the community. I am in the process of reviewing my articles here to be sure I use that convention - Please bear with me while I make the change!

Selecting Images with Multiple Keywords in LR 2

2008-06-03T12:16:00.007-04:00

Adobe Lightroom 2 Beta has changed significantly the way we filter the catalog or library of images to find what we're looking for. In the process, the method of selecting images with multiple keywords has changed. Here I will show you two methods to get this done in Lightroom 2 Beta.

First, here are the assumptions in the Library:

1. There are four images with the keyword: farm
2. There is one image with the keyword: old farm
3. There are other images with neither keyword.

So the goal is to have the library only show images with the key words: farm and old farm.

Here's how we do it.

Using the Text Filter

First open the filter at the top of the library and click on the Text type. This is as opposed to Refine and Metadata. For the Text Type, choose Keywords and then choose Contains All. In the search box type 'farm' or whatever you are searching for. See the image below and you will notice that five images are shown - four with the keyword 'farm' and one with the keyword 'old farm'.

Note that if you are searching images containing multiple keywords that are different then separate them with spaces like the following:

If you are searching for images containing either of multiple keywords, change the type from Contains All to Contains like the following:

The Contains All and Contains logical types help control the use of the filter words. There are other filter types that can be used as well.

Using the Metadata Keyword Approach

Using the same filter in the Library as we did above, change the filter type to Metadata. Then in the left-hand column, choose the data type Keyword. When it opens, the 'All Keywords' item at the top will be highlighted. Go down and select two keywords by clicking on one with the mouse and another by holding the control (CTRL) key down and clicking with the mouse. See the example results below that match the same images using the Text filter previously:

Note that you can use the shift (SHFT) key and select a whole range of keywords consecutively, but I doubt that this would be used very often.

Conclusion

There are significantly more options available to search and filter a library. When thousands of images are included, this feature is very welcomed. The interface has changed significantly, but once you are used to the changes, is much more effective than in Lightroom 1.x.

New LRG Complete User's Guide - Smaller Download Size

2008-05-31T20:19:00.004-04:00

I have update the User's Guide to LRG Complete by Lightroom Galleries and reduced the filesize by 40% to make download times less.

You can download the Updated User's Guide Here from my ftp site. Keep watching Lightroom Galleries as the Release Candidates are still coming with great improvements. The forum for LRG Complete is found here.

Lightroom Tip#15 - Web Gallery Templates No Longer Work

2008-05-30T07:35:00.008-04:00

Isn't it great that many developers on the web are constantly refining their web galleries and releasing new versions? One of the problems that creates is Web Templates for the Web Galleries that no longer work. If you try and load a template and get the following error, then follow these easy steps to re-connect your saved template to the new Web Gallery.

The solution involves two steps:

editing the new web gallery to see what the name of the new version is
editing your template to put that new name in.

Do the following:

1) Find the new web gallery, located where you installed it. Open the galleryMaker.xml file in a text editor and look for the following line near the top:

'com.adobe.wpg.Developer.WebGalleryVersion2.1'

The name of the Web Gallery is contained between the 'identifier' tages.

If your Web Gallery does not have this file, look for the galleryInfo.lrweb file and open it with a text editor looking for the following line near the top:

'id = "com.adobe.wpg.Developer.WebGalleryVersion2.1",'

The name of the Web Gallery is contained between the quotes.

Copy the name of the Web Gallery.

2) Go to the same root directory that your Web Galleries directory is located, find the Web Templates directory and the subdirectory your templates are stored in. This subdirectory is the same as your groups within Lightroom. The file might be something like this:

myWebPage.lrtemplate

Open the file in a text editor and find the following line near the top:

templateId = "com.adobe.wpg.Developer.WebGalleryVersion1.0",

This Web Gallery name should be the same as the one listed in the error dialog above.

Replace the name of the Web Gallery contained between the quotes with the new Web Gallery name you copied in step 1.

Save the file and restart Lightroom.

That's it! Your template should now load using the new Web Gallery. If the new Web Gallery has so many changes that your old templates cause it to fail loading (I have never had this happen), then it is probably easier to start over anyway. You can still open your template file and copy down any of the colors you used so that you can choose them again.

Lightroom Tip#14 - Really Quick Pick and Reject

2008-05-29T08:13:00.003-04:00

How many times have you finished a shoot, uploaded your many images and then sighed because you knew it was time to go through and pick the images to keep and the ones to reject. Let's get on with it already! I want to start using my images, fix them up and get them published in a gallery!

Michael Clark posted this tip a few days ago and it is steller in the arena of picking and rejecting your images.

Using the CAPS LOCK key in conjunction with the P and X keys to pick and reject photos will automatically take you to the next image in the group. This can be accomplished by holding the SHIFT key, but that requires two hands to operate. Using the CAPS LOCK key brings us back to using one hand.

Thanks Michael for the tip!

LRG Complete RC2.5 User's Guide

2008-05-28T15:11:00.004-04:00

The user's guide for Lightroom Galleries newest E-Commerce web templates is available for download. Download the template package from the site as well. See the Lightroom Galleries web site for more information on this spectacular and professionally featured Lightoom template.

The full article for the user's guide can be viewed here.

Some people have told me that they are having trouble with the link above, which connects directly to the file. If you are having trouble, then try this link from my ftp site or see this article on Lightroom Galleries blog. You can download the documentation from that post as well.

Lightroom Galleries Continues with RC2.5

2008-05-28T14:09:00.002-04:00

Joe has been hard at work and burning the midnight oil to provide yet another great release of LRG Complete. As of this morning the template was updated for a few bugs so see the LRG Complete RC2.5 Download on his site.

The functionality is superb and the look and feel can be customized so that not all sites look the same, but unique. Joe says another round or so for release candidates before the final version, but this RC2.5 is very stable and you should be able to begin building a site.

Please be sure to support Joe's work with a donation if you use the LRG Complete templates - it will continue to help in development!

Lightroom Tip#13 - Backing Up Lightroom Templates

2008-05-24T07:55:00.004-04:00

I wrote a workflow article on backing up Lightroom templates and I felt it was so important, I wanted to create a tip here as well. Do not forget to make this most important backup. See the full article here: Backing Up Lightroom.

Backing Up Your Lightroom Templates

2008-05-24T07:48:00.005-04:00

Adobe has created such wonderful efficiencies in templates that it is almost a crime not to use them. Considering the amount of time in creating and perfecting them, especially when it comes to Printing templates, backing up the templates is not only a MUST, it is the top item on your regular daily routine before morning coffee and breakfast. Failing to backup your Lightroom templates will only cause enormous pain one day when they are corrupt or deleted. The only item more important would be backing up images and catalogs.

To backup your Lightroom templates, find your template directory and copy the contents to another hard drive or a usb drive. Using the same location you backup your catalog and images is a good idea as well.

The template directories are typically found as listed below:

Windows XP
C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Adobe\Lightroom\

Windows Vista
C:\Users\username\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\

Macintosh
Users/username/Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/

NOTE: In Windows XP, the Application Data directory is usually hidden. You must enable “show hidden folders” in the folder options of the windows explorer before you can browse to that directory.

Backing up this entire base directory will get all of your Develop templates, Custom Text templates, Printing templates and all the other templates you have created. It will also backup your Web Galleries that you have downloaded and installed and the Web Gallery templates you have created to give your web site it's look and feel.

This is extremely important, do not forget to do it regularly!

Lightroom Presets Available - Black & White Filters

2008-05-22T16:40:00.003-04:00

I specialize in black and white photography and the corresponding workflow in Adobe Lightroom and other products. However, color digital photography may eventually takeover film, so I have created a set of Lightroom Development Presets that emulate existing popular black and white filters.

You can download the presets in this post. I also explain how we created them.First, you can dowload the Black & White Filter Develop Presets here. If you'd like to see the basis for them, read on.

Chris Brandon, a member of the Lightroom Forums, created a post on Lightroom Spectral Values. He estimated the wavelength of each of the color sliders in the Lightroom Development module. Here is the list he came up with.

Red - 700
Orange - 590
Yellow - 578
Green - 560
Aqua - 500
Blue - 480

While we will not go into the physics of light for this post and while these are estimates, we use this information to help us determine what sliders to change and by how much to create a preset the is similar to a black and white filter.

Molecular Expressions wrote an article on Koak Wratten Filters for Black & White Photomicrography. It turns out that these filters use the same numbers and have the same wavelength transmissions whether it is for photomicrography or traditional photography. Light characteristics and film characteristics remain the same.

We used the information in their article, coupled with Chris' work to create the presets you can download above. We made some assumptions to help us estimate the amount of slider to adjust for light transmission.

We assumed that the peak wavelength transmission for a filter was around +75 on the slider. We further assumed that the transmission of a filter was a curve, albeit a steep curve and used values around +20 to +40 at the edges of the transmission range. Finally, we took wavelengths that were furthest from the transmission range and reduced the amount of development in the -20 to -40 range. For some filters, most notably the 'Deep' color filters, we used reductions in light transmission as high as -70.

While this isn't scientifically accurate, it is certainly aesthetically accurate. We tested the filters on a variety of color images and the ranges and changes appear to be inline with our black and white film experience.

Just as some filters are very strong in contrast and light transmission which produces an undesirable negative, there will be some of the stronger filters which are not meant for most Lightroom situations. However, we included them to be complete.

I hope you enjoy these presets!

Lightroom Galleries Releases LRG Complete RC2 with Google Checkout

2008-05-20T08:30:00.002-04:00

Lightroom Galleries has been busy working on the LRG Complete Web Templates for Adobe Lightroom. Release Candidate 2 is now out with some new features including Google Checkout in addition to PayPal and many site usability improvements.

The template can be downloaded at LRG Complete RC2 Released, and the forum has an area dedicated to this release that can be found here.

Be sure to check this out!

Web Workflow

2008-05-19T12:26:00.003-04:00

This Web Workflow involves creating a web page to publish or distribute on CD. Similar to the Slideshow Workflow, this workflow is Lightroom specific. This workflow discusses various methods to use Lightroom Web Templates to maintain web pages and web sites. For very specific template information, we will refer you to additional resources.

Creating and Maintaining Web Galleries

Managing Lightroom Galleries on the Web

2008-05-19T09:56:00.017-04:00

This is part of my Web Workflow using Adobe Lightroom.

Adobe Lightroom is such an efficient tool, I developed a method for managing the web sites I create so that updates are available with minimum fuss and little manual work. The hard part is creating the first page or gallery. After that, maintenance is easy!

Using Collections in the Library Module and Templates in the Web Module are the keys to managing your web sites through Lightroom. We will discuss the creation of a gallery and then the maintenance plan showing each step along the way.

Creating the Collection For the Gallery

By now you have probably already created a gallery and tested it so that you have something to look at. Bear with me and follow these steps to create a new gallery so that it will be easy to update.

First, use the Library Module and select a group of images that should be shown in a single gallery for your web site. Use the SHIFT key to select multiple images in a row and the CRTL key to select images that are not immediately next to each other. With these images selected, go to the left panel and expand the Collections Pane. Be sure not to click on any of the collections.

As an alternative method, and one I prefer, clear the Quick Collection by pressing and holding the SHIFT and ALT keys and then pressing the B key. Then, click on each photo to add to the gallery and press the B key. Do this for each individual or group selection of images. You can find photos, scroll around and not worry about de-selecting some of the images. When you are done, click on the Quick Collection under the Library Panel and select all the photos before proceeding to the next step. This time you can click the first photo and SHIFT click the last photo or use the Edit, Select All menu item (CTRL-A is the shortcut for that menu item).

You can either click on the plus sign contained in the Collections Panel header, or

right-click on any of the existing collections and choose either a) create collection or b) create collection in xxxx. The first item will create a new collection at the base level and the second menu item will create a collection contained within an existing folder. When you choose one of these options, or press the plus sign as shown above, you get the following dialog box:

Note that there are three check box choices after inputting a collection name. They are:

put inside xxxx
include selected photos
make new virtual copies

Check the first item to include it under the already highlighted folder or the folder you right-clicked on. Check the second item to include the photos we selected in the first step. Check the final item to make virtual copies of the images before adding them to the collection.

My preference is to use virtual copies in a collection so that I can change the development look, the cropping, the description and any of the other meta data for the purposes of the gallery. Also, virtual copies take up very little room on the hard drive.

Using this method you can organize your collections under folders. For example, you can create a "collection" titled, 'My Web Site.' To do this, open the Create Collection dialog box and de-select the checkbox to include the selected images. This will create a collection with no images in it which is the same as a folder. Then, right-click on the newly created collection, 'My Web Site' in this example, and create a collection underneath it. For example, create the collection, 'My First Gallery.'

Setting Up the Web Web Gallery

After creating the collection of images, go to the Web Panel and select a web gallery to create a web page with. Change all the settings and colors until achieving the look for this gallery. The images should be previewed on the screen.

If you haven't created a template shortcut under the Template Browser Panel then go ahead and do so. This is done by clicking the ADD button at the bottom of the left hand pane or by right-clicking in the Template Browser Panel just like we did working with Collections. For example, you could name this one 'My First Web Gallery.'

After adding the new Web Template and storing the settings, perform the upload to your web site.

Now you have a published Web Gallery that can be viewed and used. So what do we do when we want to change the images?

Maintaining the Web Gallery

To maintain the Gallery we only need to perform the following steps:

Select additional images
Add them to the Collection
Remove any images desired from the Collection
Call up the Web Template saved
Upload the changes

So, first go to the Library Module and select the collection we used to create the web gallery. In our example, we called it 'My Web Site'. Review the images to see what might need added. Then find those images in the Library and drag the image to the collection on the Collections Panel. If there are many images, you can use the Quick Collection as shown above. Just add the new images and drag them all to the 'My Web Site' collection.

Now review the total collection again and remove any of the images you no longer want in the gallery. There are two ways to accomplish this. First, you can right-click on an image in the Collection and choose the 'Remove from collection' menu item as shown here. If you added virtual images to the collection as I prefer to do, then you can delete the image because it is not an original image and it shouldn't be used anywhere else. This is done by clicking on the image and hitting the DEL key.

Once this is done, move to the Web Module and click on the Template Browser panel. Click on the template saved for the web gallery. In our example this was 'My First Web Gallery.' All of the preset choices should be loaded.

If you make any changes to the layout or colors, be sure to save them with the template. Do this by right-clicking on the template name and choosing the update menu item shown below.

This saves all the current settings and updates the template for the next time.

Before uploading the site, check the FTP settings. If you created presets for the FTP Uploads then select that item. I prefer to create an FTP preset for each base web directory and each gallery subdirectory. This prevents me from having to remember each and every individual web directory.

After uploading your site, view it in your internet browser to see the changes.

Conclusion

This is all it takes! Carefully setting up the collections and web gallery templates the first time makes maintenance a breeze. Even if you totally switch out the portfolio for different images, all the settings are there ready to go. Quick Collections are a must for anything more than a few pictures to add or create a collection with.

NOTES

If your web site has various subdirectories that get regularly updated, consider creating additional FTP presets. For example, if all your photo galleries are in a sub directory called 'photos' then create a second FTP Preset called 'My Web Site Photos' and set the directory to 'ftp://www.mydomain.com/photos'. This will allow you to easily add content without having to remember the subdirectory.

New Logo, Same Site!

2008-05-16T16:05:00.002-04:00

I changed my logo today to something I keep using in Lightroom. Nothing else has changed, we still work on digital and film photography workflows with Adobe Lightroom and other tools. We also still review new tools and discuss various other photograhy related subjects. Thanks for visiting and keeping up with what we are working on!

LRG Complete Release Candidate 1 is Ready

2008-05-16T07:34:00.005-04:00

Joe at Lightroom Galleries has provided a Release Candidate 1 for download of his LRG Complete web site templates for Adobe Lightroom. There has been a large amount of feedback and Joe is very responsive. The result is shaping up to be a very strong Lightroom template for the show and sale of photography.

RC1 now includes a fully functional contact page. Although it's up to the user to setup the email functionality on their site server, the contact form is necessary for any site that sells something. The paypal integration is improving.

One of the best features of any of the templates I have created or seen is the quick upload times. Joe has optimized the templates to perform individual functions and as a result, the upload times are extremely quick. Joe also setup the base of the web site as a flash presentation and the results are much better than plain ole' HTML. Finally, the menu and styling is basically set at the site level so that the infinite number of galleries and extra pages that can be added all carry the same header.

Some improvements I'd still like to see include a customizable footer with links, a customizable font to use site wide, and some choices to move the menu and gallery bar on the left or right side of the site. I'd also like to see a custom html title that is different from the site name. Finally, I'd like to see an image available to show on the contact page (after all, it's a photography site!). There are also a few improvements that can be made in order to add pages to the site.

All in all, this template is going to be a leader in the Adobe Lightroom arena. Keep watching here as we will be releasing more news and some help aids towards getting started and a sample site to view.

Scanning Negatives - Hardware Considerations - Part II

2008-05-13T22:46:00.003-04:00

In our Part I Post on Scanning Negatives - Hardware Considerations we discussed the properties of light, film and glass (lenses) in making the perfect photograph. We then showed that these same properties are used to scan the negatives or slides when turning them into digital images.

Here we discuss the aspects of light, glass and CCD's in negative and slide scanners. We also compare this to a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED to see if it fits the bill to create the perfect digital image.

Light

We have the perfect negative so what light do we send through it to make a digital image. CCD's are especially senstive to Red, Green and Blue light, hence the RGB designation in computer lingo. In order to scan a color image, slide or negative, the scanner should produce a red image, green image and blue image of the negative or slide. These three images can be combined as if they were created from a digital camera.

Dust and Scratches

Realistically, even a perfect negative or slide will contain dust and/or scratches. Digital images from CCD's in a digital camera are better protected although the newer cameras have modes to remove dust from the sensors. So how do we limit the scanning problems with scratches and dust on a negative or slide?

The answer is infared. Infared light can highlight scratches and dust. By creating a fourth layer used as a mask, signficant amounts of scratches and dust can be electronically removed from a scanned image.

Glass

The glass that the red, green, blue and infared light pass through to get to the CCD and result in a digital image, must be special photographic glass. In fact, the scanner should use the highest quality glass used in camera lenses. After all, focusing on a negative to create an image is nothing more than taking a phtograph of a photograph.

There are a variety of mineral glasses and low dispersion glasses available to create a proper scanning lens.

Film - CCD Sensor

The CCD sensor is the film for the scanner. The size of the CCD chip and the density of the pixels determine the quality of the resulting image. Larger size and higher density is similar to low speed film and should result in a higher quality image.

Because computer chips have occasional power spikes and other electronic interference, a simple one pass scan is insufficient for a perfect image. Using a single scan will produce errors in the scan with zero chance of help removing the imperfections. I.e., a second scan of the image will help the processor determine if any pixels are not properly rendered from the first scan.

Density of the scan is determined by dpi or dots per inch. The more dots that get scanned in a single inch of negative or slide, the more detail from the film will show through. In some cases, a scanner could even scan the grain of the film if it were dense enough in the CCD.

A film scanner should have the ability to scan negatives with a final optical output somewhere in the 3,500 dpi to 4,000 dpi and above.

Finally, what level of colors and/or gray need to be recoded? How many colors should be kept? The same problem occurs in photography prints. Photographic paper has a smaller range to record black and white images than the film contains.

Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED

How does the Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED scanner stack up against our requirements? First, the case is very sturdy, well put together and protective of the computer inards.

Let's discuss the Light component: This Nikon scanner uses all three R,G and B lights by using LED's and contains a fourth - the infared LED to help with scratch and dust removal. The LED lights use less power and also last longer and cost less.

The glass used in a Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED is the same extra-low dispersion glass found in Nikkor lenses. This limits the abberations that could be found in the resulting digital image.

The CCD is also strong in the Nikon Coolscan containing two lines to scan at a time and scans using optical resolutions of up to 4000 dpi. The scanner also contains a 16 bit converter so that the scanned images contain 16 bit color.

Conclusion

There are many other feature in the Nikon Coolscan that make it appealing, like the built in Digital ICE, USB 2.0, slide feeders, negative feeders, TIFF formats in greyscale and color and more. However, all those features aside, the physics behind the Nikon Coolscan make it a worthwhile investment to capture negatives and slides and turn them into digital images.

The Nikon Coolscan 5000 ED is my scanner of choice and we will provide some test results to see which settings are best to use when scanning media into digital images.

Scanning Negatives - Hardware Considerations - Part I

2008-05-13T22:10:00.004-04:00

Let's start with a little theory. I propose that the same considerations taken into account in creating a perfect photograph also need taken into account when determining a scanner to convert film to digital negatives. To prove this, let's start with a brief discussion on the photography.

A great photograph, aesthetics aside, is the result of the proper film being exposed to light through a high quality glass lens for a proper amount of time. Light, glass, film - all three make the perfect photo.

Light

Light is always perfect. There can be varying amounts of light and the light might not be covering the subject in the desired manner. However, the light is there nonetheless and correct measurements must be made of the light to provide a proper exposure.

Film

This light then hits the emulsion of some film and records the patterns creating a negative (or positive in the case of reversal film). Different films have different sensitivities to the light. This means some film records more detail (high speed film) in a given amount of light and some less detail (low speed film). Knowing what size the ultimate photograph will be printed in along side the subjec matter an anticipated available light, determine which film to use.

For small 4x6 prints, just about any speed film will provide a good print. For a 13x19 print or 24x48 print, a slower speed film is typically used. The slower the film, the more light needed to expose the image, but the less grain is also present.

Lenses and Glass

Leica engineers have long studied and perfected the art of removing abberations caused by light moving through glass. Erwin Puts has written volumes about lenses including a 2002 Compendium on Leica Lenses their Souls and their Secrets.

Light bends through glass and comes out the other side. In the course of bending various abberations show up: flares, comas, loss of contrast and other problems that impede the recording of an image on the film. Different physical types of glass in different configurations help adjust the bending of the light to come out the other side and expose the film where we want it to.

This means the best glass in the best configuration has the best chance of producing the perfect photograph.

Conclusion

Light through glass onto film produces the photograph. To take a negative or slide and create a digital image, we pass light through the film through glass in a scanner to an electronic CCD to record the result. Thus, Light, glass and film qualities must be taken into account a second time to take the perfect photograph and convert it to the perfect digital image.

See Part II of Scanning Negatives - Hardware Considerations for the discussion on scanner hardware that this applies to.

DNG - Digital Negatives - Updated Specs

2008-05-13T07:33:00.002-04:00

The DNG specifications have been updated. See this article in Lightroom Journal.

Scanning Film Images to the Hard Drive

2008-05-13T07:10:00.009-04:00

This is part of my Image Conversion Workflow.

This is the point in our workflow where we convert from film or slide to digital. For any photographers, myself included, that still enjoy the quality of a good negative and the absolute perfection of pressing a shutter and immediately getting the picture taken, this workflow will help you go from Negative to Digital. After conversion, the process is the same whether you start with a RAW file from a digital camera or a TIFF from your negative.

We will break down this Negative to Digital Workflow here.

Develop film or negatives
Determine file number for scanning
Scanning the slides or negatives to the hard drive

There are many considerations when scanning negatives and slides. Here we discuss many of the important aspects to consider before beginning the process. We will discuss each item in detail and some of the settings we will experiment with various choices to ultimately determine which setting is the best to use.

Hardware considerations
GEM settings
ICE settings
ROC settings
Sampling settings
Bit deapth settings
Unsharpening and sharpening settings
Curve settings
Other processing settings

As we continue to develop our workflow, we will also discuss applying efficiencies to our scanning workflow to automate as many settings as possible.

Adding a Topic: Film to Digital Workflow

2008-05-13T06:59:00.003-04:00

There are still many film photographers, myself included. Film continues to have an edge over digital in quality of image, especially as it relates to cost. More importantly, the response time of a film camera is instant whereas we still have some delays in digital cameras. Even as they decrease, film is not dead yet, so we are continuing our Digital Workflow by interjecting a section on converting our negatives and slides to the digital medium.

Here is the beginning of our framework. Stay tuned as we discuss not only procedure, but the various settings available and how they work.

Lightroom Tip#12-Turning Off Unused Panels

2008-05-08T14:28:00.003-04:00

Because Adobe Lightroom works so well on laptops for field or trip work, keeping a tight reign on screen space is important. Even with larger laptop screens, the develop tools and other areas in Lightroom can take up a lot of space needed for image work. Here is a tip that will remove some of the clutter and make working in Lightroom easier and customizable for you.

Some of the many panels in Lightroom are not necessary for every user. Some may find the folders panel in the Library module not useful to them. Some may find the camera calibration panel in the Develop module is not necessary. Personally, I don't use either the camera calibration panel or the lens correction panel.

So why not hide those panels? Hidden panels do not take up more screen space and do not clutter the work area and cause a user to mover around in them needlessly.

To remove a panel from view, simply right-click on any panel name on the side that contains panels to hide. Then choose the name of the panel to hide. It should have a check mark beside it indicating it is in view. After clicking on the panel name, the check mark and the panel disappear. See the image to the right where the camera calibration and the lens correction panels are hidden in the Develop module.

To show the panel again, simply right-click again on any panel and select the panel to show. It will not contain a check if it is already hidden. After selecting it again the menu for that panel will be checked and the panel will be shown.

Notice that the menu also has collapse all and expand all menu items. This will expand or collapse all panels to use or store information.