In the following video, Kerry Garrison does a quick overview of some of the new features. Stay tuned for a complete Lightroom 4 Learning Center launching here on CameraDojo.com in the next few days.

To download a copy of the Lightroom 4 beta, please visit http://labs.adobe.com

Tune into the podcast on Tonight (Wednesday March 9th) at 6pm PST / 9pm EST

https://www.fuzemeeting.com/fuze/42b310f1/12177029

General

• On Mac, the ‘hit zone’ for the right scroll bar in the grid view has been expanded so that a closed right hand panel doesn’t automatically open too easily. The automatic panel opening experience has been modified so that it takes a longer amount of time for the panel to open in cases of overshooting the scrollbar. (Mouse towards the white triangle for instant opening) Please provide feedback on this new behavior so that it can be modified or added to the Windows version of Lightroom.
• Images can be sorted by aspect ratio
• The catalog selection dialog has been expanded and improved

Library

• You can backup your catalog when you quit Lightroom instead of on launch
• A volume can be ejected or un-mounted from your system directly from the volume browser in the Library module.
• Collections can be created directly within a collection set by right-clicking on the collection set
• Images can be sorted by aspect ratio
• The name of a collection is displayed when an image is added to a target collection
• Stack badges can now be toggled on or off independently in the filmstrip via an interface preference
• Erasing with the spray paint tool now requires the use of the Alt key
• Select a folder in the Library module and choose a new option “Import to here” to launch the import dialog with that folder preselected as the destination
• The import dialog provides source folder and destination volume capacity information
• The option to include items from subfolders has been included in the primary Folder panel drop down menu
• Choose Library -> Show Missing Images to locate offline or missing files
• A lock icon has been added to the metadata filter bar in the Library module to make filter selections “global” across folders or collections
• An icon has been added to grid thumbnails to indicate that an image is part of a collection. Click on that icon to view and/or visit the collection
• Favorite sources can be added to the filmstrip source pop-up menu for quick access to specific collections or folders
• Flash state is now included as part of the smart collection filter criteria
• When the ‘spray can’ is used to add an image to a collection, the collection name is now displayed upon application
• The optimize catalog feature is now available in the File menu
• Lightroom now imports CMYK files. Any output, with the exception of export original, or adjustments to these images will take place in an RGB color space
• Filters are now longer automatically “sticky” on folders or collections

Develop

• Hitting the X key in crop mode will rotate the aspect ratio
• Crop presets choices have been edited for clarity
• A checkbox has been added to the toolbar to turn on/off overlay visibility
• All adjustment brush and graduated filter sliders can be reset by holding down Option/Alt and clicking on Amount
• The color setting for the adjustment brush and graduated filter clearly display an ‘x’ overlay when no color is selected
• The Collections panel is now available in the Develop Module
• The targeted adjustment tool is deactivated when switching to a new Develop panel
• The local adjustment brush and graduated filter panel have been simplified to a single mode (Previously there was a button and slider ‘mode’)

Slideshow

• The music selection in the Slideshow module has been decoupled from iTunes on the Mac
• Click the track duration to sync the length of the slideshow to the length of the music track

Print

• Black or a custom color can be selected for a print layout background
• The Identity Plate can be moved in small increments by selecting it and using the arrow keys
• Match photo aspect ratio is now a persistent option in the Cell panel

Export

• The file extension case(UPPER/lower) can be selected in the export dialog

Be sure and check out out complete Lightroom 3 Learning Center for lots of other information about Lightroom 3.

To download the Lightroom 3 Shortcut keys file, follow this link:
http://blogs.adobe.com/edtechatadobe/lightroom_3_shortcuts.pdf

To Download a 30 Day trial version of Lightroom 3, please visit: http://www.adobe.com/downloads/

Be sure and check out our Learning Lightroom 3 Workshop coming to a city near you!

Lightroom 3 Quick Links Learning Lightroom Workshop Tour Lightroom 3 Shortcut Keys Podcast with Tom Hogarty, Lightroom 3 Product manager Tom Hogarty’s Lightroom Journal Lightroom 3′s Lesser Known New Features

Kerry Garrison Publisher – CameraDojo.com Welcome to the CameraDojo Lightroom 3.0 Learning Center. We have prepared some of our favorite videos here for you and will be adding more resources to this page as often as we can.

With Lightroom 3 beta 2, watermarking has finally grown up, pretty much copying feature for feature from LR2/Mogrify. LR2/Mogrify still wins if you need to add different borders around your image and even place watermarks in the logos, but most of us are going to be quite happy with the new built-in watermarking tool.

To use the new watermarking tool, simply go to the Export dialog box from clicking on the Export button in the Library module or go to the Edit menu and select “Edit Watermarks”.

The image above shows the watermark selection and editor from within the Export dialog box. Once you select the Edit Watermarks, you will be taken to the Watermark Editor.

The Watermark editor will let you create text or graphical watermarks. I think most people will probably stick with the graphic one since the text version only allows for a single font and style to be used so if you have a multi-line and/or multi font/style text logo, you will not be able to recreate it in the text mode.

For graphical watermarks, you can use either a JPG or a PNG file. I recommend using a PNG so you can use transparencies instead of being stuck with a box shape for your logo. You can also set the opacity level (transparency) and determine the size within the image. I like using a proportional size of about 30% myself with a 2×2 Inset just to bring it away from the edges a little. Finally, you can select where on the screen you would like it to go.

The following image is an example of the type of output you can get using the new Lightroom 3 beta 2 watermarking tool.

While this new watermarking tool will mean a lot of people don’t need to go to third-party tools, it could still use a little improvement. My suggestions would include the following:

• Allow for the use of Photoshop .PSD files
• Provide multiple effects settings based on image orientation
• Provide some basic border controls
• Allow for custom rotation angles
• Ability to use filenames as watermarks

Don’t get me wrong, I am thrilled to have this new ability and I personally won’t need another tool now. I suspect this is where the Lightroom watermarking will most likely end up and if you need more advanced watermarking, you can use LR2/Mogrify.  Check it out and have some fun with it, you now have no reason not to watermark your images.

The following image was taken with a Canon EOS 5D Mark II at ISO 25,600,  f/4.0, 1/250th with a Canon 50mm 1.8 lens. As you can see in the first image, there is simply too much noise.

Canon 5D Mk II ISO 25,600 No Noise Reduction

In the next image we have cranked up the color and luminance noise reduction which certainly softened the image somewhat and then we added back in some sharpness to help compensate as best we could. As you can see, this makes the image much more usable.

Canon 5D Mk II ISO 25,600 Lightroom 3 Noise Reduction

This represents a significant improvement over the previous noise reduction method and really makes the super ISO ranges a lot more usable. Stay tuned for more small snippets about more of the new features in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Beta 2.

Yes, sometimes it IS who you know

I had heard there was an easy way to organize images from multiple cameras but I had poked around trying to find it but I never really figured it out. Of course, the actual answer was far simpler than I had thought and had thus overlooked it several times. I was recently talking to my good friend Rick Miller who is a solution specialist for Adobe, and had mentioned I thought there should be an easier way to accomplish this. Rick, not wanting to be stumped by a Lightroom question helped me look for the answer and sure enough, there it was…sort of.

Metadata is your friend

This is going to be so simple you may wonder how come you didn’t accidentally run across it yourself. When you are in the Library module, make sure you are in Grid mode. At the top of the Grid you should see the Library Filter bar, if you don’t, just hit the \ key. Next, click on Metadata on the Library Filter bar. Right here you will see that the images are group by camera model. If the different cameras you are using are all separate models, then you are set, just select the Camera model to filter all of the images associated with that camera.

If you were using different cameras but they were the same camera model, fear not, we just have to go through one more small step. At the top right of any of the columns you see there is a small icon, click on that and add a new column, now click on the blank column title and select Camera Serial Number. Now you can filter by the individual camera.

Timing is Everything

Now that we know how to sort on the images, we now need to have a reference point so that we can adjust the time on what set of images to match the time on the rest of the images. Now if you haven’t done the shoot yet, the best thing to do is have everyone take a picture of something like their feet. Even if you are shooting alone, just take one shot with the first camera, then swap cameras and take a shot with the second camera, there is no need to try to do them at the same time.

If you are editing an existing shoot, you need to figure out the time difference. With multiple shooters there is almost always a shot from each camera at the beginning, if you didn’t pick up your second camera until the middle of the shoot, this can be a little more tricky. But play along and let’s see how to do it anyway.

Let’s say our sync shot was taken at 1pm, and the second camera is off by 20 minutes. All we have to do is filter by the second camera, go over to the Metadata block and select the edit icon next to Capture Time. At this point a dialog box will come up with several options for time adjustments.

The problem here isn’t that the functionality we want (to adjust by 20 minutes) isn’t here, the problem is the text for the option isn’t very clear. If you read the description at the top of the dialog box it actually tells you that it will adjust the time of the image that is displayed and all of the other images that are selected will be adjusted by the same amount of time. So if we are seeing the first image, and we set the time to 1pm, all of the rest of the images will be adjusted accordingly and all of the images from both cameras will now be in complete time sync.

Video Demo

In the following video, Kerry Garrison shows how to adjust the time of your images to all sync up together.

If you would like to see or hear more from Sara, be sure and check out her upcoming Aperture DVD that will be available for purchase from http://photographymentor.com.

Too see what Sara is up to, check out her websites at:

Sara’s Website

http://www.sarafrancephotography.com

Sara’s Blog

http://www.whereintheworldisfrance.com

Sara’s Store

http://shop.sarafrance.com

Go|Bee Bags
http://www.gobeebags.com

Show Hosts

Kerry Garrison (http://kerrygarrison.com)
David Esquire (http://esquirephotography.com)

This podcast is also available on iTunes.

Overview

I often see posts in different forums from people trying  to figure out how to provide remote power for on-location shooting. I have seen everything from picnic coolers full of electronics to generators with expensive inverters strapped on.  For the cost of building one of these picnic cooler power packs and your time to buy all the parts and assemble it, you are just as well off to spend the $349 for the Explorer XT and have a professionally built package that you know is going to work well.

Features

The Explorer XT is rated at 350 watts of  continuous power and 1200watts peak power. For studio strobes this can handle up to 2400ws. The Explorer XT is designed as a portable power source for most flash and power pack units to be used on location, away from available power.

The Explorer XT is equipped with two (2) 12V, 7Ah sealed lead acid batteries, with an auto volt-charging feature which accepts 100-240V. It also has a 14V car battery charging where an internal circuit converts the 12V/14V source to a 24V. It also has an auxiliary battery port, allowing the user to connect another battery in case you need extended battery life. Battery power level indicators with beeper and charging indicators allow you to monitor power consumption and charging status.

The Explorer XT comes with a handy carrying bag to make hauling it around easier. The bag opens on both ends to allow access to all of the ports without removing it from the bag.

Specifications:

• Power Output: 350 watts (continuous)/ 1200watts (peak)
• Number of output sockets: 2
• Battery: Two (2) 12Vdc, 7AH SLA provision for external battery pack
• Charging Voltage Input: 100V-240V / 14Vdc (car battery charger)
• Charger: Built-in
• Weight: 8.5 kg (18 lbs)
• Dimensions: 14.5″ x 5.5″ x 7″
• Available Models: 115V/60Hz (North American, Japan) 230V/50 Hz (EU, Asia-Pacific, Middle East
  230V/60Hz (Philippines)

Setup

What setup? You take it out of the shipping container and its ready to go.  The only thing you need to do is keep it charged up. According to the instructions, you should keep in plugged in even when not in use, this will keep the lead acid batteries in optimum condition as well as always being ready for use.  This was a concern of mine since a fan is running and even though the instructions say it will use a trickle charge, I wanted to know how much power draw it was really taking. Using a Kill-A-Watt to measure to power draw I found that while the system is charging (charge light is blinking) was 80 watts, wow, that would be pricey to have plugged in all the time. However, as soon as the system hit a full charge (charging light went solid) then the power draw dropped to only 6 watts, now that’s more like it as I have numerous electronics around the house that use more than 6 watts when in standby mode so keeping the Explorer XT plugged in all the time.

Usage

The Explorer XT is designed to be dead-simple to use. Just turn it on and plug in your devices and use them like normal.  The Explorer XT has two outlets on the front that output clean power from the Explorer XT’s internal pure sine wave inverter.  Having a top-notch pure sine wave inverter is important as it helps protect the devices that you have plugged into it. Besides just being a portable battery solution, it can also be used in between your equipment and a low-cost gas generator. At first that may not make sense, why would you need the Explorer XT if you have a generator? The issue is that low-end generators can’t handle the peak demands that studio strobe lights require and they don’t have pure sne wave inverters. By using both a generator and the Explorer XT the Explorer XT will handle the load of the strobes while the generator will work to keep the batteries charged up.

Results

The only way to really test out the Explorer XT was to hook up some strobed and start shooting. While the unit is rated for up to 2400ws, I don’t have anything near that power, nor do I need it in my home studio. I hooked up two PhotoBasics Strobelites (150ws each) and one PhotoBasics StrobeLite Plus (200ws) for a total of 500ws and started shooting away with all three lights on full power.  The Explorer XT has three charge level indicator lights, High, Mid, Low, at 225 shots the light flickered between Hi and Mid and finally went solid on Mid at 250 shots. The only difference from being plugged into the wall socket is that the recycle time dropped from four seconds to five seconds, and if I was shooting as fast as they could recycle would creep up to about six seconds. A short pause in the shooting and the recycle rate would speed up again. At 250 shots and only having drained about 1/3 of the battery charge I finally ended the test since I don’t like putting unneeded wear and tear on my lights or camera but it did show me that I can easily do most any typical shoot that I do and still have plenty of power left to also run other accessories like a blower or laptop.

I am very impressed by the performance considering the small size and relatively light weight of the unit.

My good friend Rick Miller, one of the Senior Solutions Engineers for Adobe has written up a document that will help you learn all of the shortcut keys and put you on the path to Lightroom Shortcut nirvana.

Special thanks to Rick for compiling this list and making it available to everyone!

Download Shortcut List PDF (click here)

• Camera Dojo
  We have free and paid sets of Lightroom Presets available Our most popular are our Camera Tools and Dojo Essentials.
• Adobe Exchange
  There are a growing number of presets available on the official Adobe Exchange website
• Lightroom Killer Tips
  About once a week Matt posts a new Lightroom preset for free. There are quite a few there now.
• Wonderland
  Over at Wonderland they have two really nice set of free Lightroom presets
• OnOne Software
  OneOne Software has 85 free Lightroom Presets designed by Jack Davis
• Presets Heaven
  Presets Heaven is trying to be the ultimate list of free Lightroom presets
• Inside Lightroom
  Inside Lightroom has a nice collection of free Lightroom presets organized into different categories
• Digital Freak
  The folks over at Digital Freak have a file with over 600 free Lightroom presets in it
• Gantico
  Very nice selection of free Lightroom presets that is added to on a regular basis
• Mathias Blix
  Mathias created some really creative Lightroom presets and now offers them up for free
• X-Equals
  Bandon Oelling has created some really nice presets that he has made available
• Laconic Stockpile
  Really nice sets of B&W and Vinage presets
• Gavin Seim
  Gavin sells several preset packs but has some free samplers that are really good as well.
• Lightroom Presetting Group
  This Flickr group has collected over 180 Free Lightroom Presets
• Life In Digital Film
  free film emulation presets

The plugin we will use is Timothy Armes’ LR2/Mogrify which uses ImageMajick to do things such as:

• Graphic watermarking
• Multiple text annotations
• Multiple borders
• Image resizing
• Adjust saturation and brightness
• Export against an ICC profile file

How much does this amazing plug-in cost? Well, it is free if you want to be limited to only exporting 10 images at a time. If you need to do more, than Timothy will accept any donation that you think is fair.

Installation
First off, we need to download LR2/Mogrify from Timothy Armes site at:

http://timothyarmes.com/lr2mogrify.php

Follow the installation instructions there for either Windows or Mac OSX. I won’t cover the installation since it is only a few simple steps.

Usage
Using LR2/Mogrify is as simple as using Lightroom’s existing Export function as the functions are added into the export utility. The easiest way to get things started is to create a new file in Photoshop with an empty (transparent) background and your logo on other layers. If you don’t have Photoshop, anything that can create a PNG or GIF with a transparent background will work.

From the Library module in Lightroom, select an image or images (up to 10 with the free version) and click on the Export button.

In the Post-Process actions enable the features you want like borders, or Graphical Watermark. In our case we will select the Graphic Watermark, select the file that we want to use, select the bottom left hand corner of the image, and resize the image if needed.

After you configure all the settings you want, click on the Export button to start the process. In a few seconds you have created your first watermarked images.

Here are a few images showing some different watermark styles as well as a multi-line border setup.

Who would have thought that doing advanced watermarking would be this easy? Please consider donating to Timothy for his hard work on bringing us a tool that provides the functionality that should have been included in Lightroom.

Below is a video showing exactly how this works:

Advanced watermarking with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Continue reading the article to view the video.

Lightroom 2.0 Library Module from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Continue reading the article in order to view this video.

If you are using the new adjustment tool in Lightroom 2.0, this is going to save you lots of time in getting your adjustments painted in properly. If you hit O (oh, not zero), while you are in the adjustment tool you can turn on the overlay and paint with it still turned on. Hit O again to turn it off. You can also use Shift-O to toggle the overlay colors. A second tip is to use the Alt key to “un-paint” an area. This video shows how these shortcuts work.

Before using this technique you will need to install the camera profiles that are available here:
http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/DNG_Profiles

Lightroom 2.0 Overview from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Correcting white balance with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Creating vignettes with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Continue reading to view the video:

Author: Kerry Garrison

Lightroom Digital Workflow from Kerry Garrison on Vimeo.

Continue reading to view the video:

Continue reading to view the video:

We started by taking a picture of my wife’s scrapbooking room as there is a lot of subtle colors and light and dark spots, at a high ISO setting, this is sure to create a lot of noise in the image. While high ISO settings can help take pictures in low light conditions, you do add more noise (distracting artifacts) into the image. While sometimes the noise is ok, other times it can render the photograph unusable.

For this example, we used a Canon EOS 20D on 3200 ISO and used a tripod to get a good shot. Click on the image to zoom in and see the noise that is in the image. This is most noticable on the plastic paper holders and in the gradient ares between the bookshelf and the basket. While there are good programs that will help remove noise, getting good noise reduction from Lightroom would save use a lot of extra time during the workflow process.

In the second example, we kicked up the noise reduction in Lightroom 1.2 to see how well it would work. Its almost impossible to see it in the thumbnail but when you zoom in, you can clearly see that the amount of noise is dramatically reduced. This is certainly a top-notch noise reduction system now.

If you aren’t using Lightroom as part of your workflow, you should check it out, its an awesome product that reduces the amount of time you need to spend in Photoshop as Lightroom is much faster for most of your processing needs.