Lightroom 2 Nested Folder Gotcha
Posted by latoga | Filed under Process, Reviews, Technology
Tonight I hit a really nasty gotcha with Lightroom 2. It has to do with nested folders that you load into your Lighroom catalog independent of each other.
In my organization system I organize my photos into projects with each project getting it’s own folder. Projects are numbered from 0001 sequentially, with each photo in the project being named from XXXX-0001 sequentially (where XXXX is the project number). The key aspect of this system is that the filename for a photo follows that photo where ever it goes and with just those 9 digits of the filename, I can locate any photo that I have ever created. (In case you were wondering, yes it did a lot of work re-organizing my photos when I settled on this system so that all my photos would follow this naming standard).
As part of my workflow, after copying my photos onto my computer, I create a new project folder for them and then rename all the photos. For a recent project, I had a subset of photos that I wanted to create into a time lapse movie so I created a subfolder within my main project folder just for those time lapse photos. I imported those photos and processed them in Lightroom (including renaming them). Tonight I then imported all the photos from the parent directory (making sure not to re-import the photos from the child) and processed them.
Here is where things go a bit sideways. After import, Lightroom automatically put the child directory underneath the parent (that’s fine by me). However, when you select the parent directory from the Folders panel, the photos for both the parent and child directories are displayed in the workspace. This is a problem becuase the first thing I do with my workflow is to sort by date, then select all and rename the photos. What happened to me tonight is that I renamed all the previously named photos in the subfolder.
How I would expect Lightroom to behave (Adobe: hint, hint) would be to show me just the photos for the folder that I selected; not to automatically include the photos from any subfolders.
So, if you do anything similar with your folder organization, keep this behavior in mind so it doesn’t destroy any work that you may have previously done.
Tags: Gotcha, Issue, Lightroom, Nested Folders
You Can Photoshop That
Posted by latoga | Filed under Musings
My biggest pet peeve when it comes to photography is the statement “you can Photoshop that [in/out]“. I have a friend who is getting into photography (he does have a background in technology, which relates to an old post of mine) and that is his favorite phrase to use. And it drives me crazy!
(I’ll give Bruce his due credit…he says it mostly now because he knows it drives me crazy.)
So I found it interesting today when I came across a number of threads online discussing the use of photoshop and if it has gone too far. Reed Hoffmann commented on his Photoshop Overdose. George Barr shared his Thoughts On Creating/Cheating/Modifying Images last month. In general, it’s an individuals choice on how much photoshoping to do to your images. Personally, I prefer to spend as little time on the computer with the images as possible just because I already spend most of my day on the computer working on other stuff. Photography is to get me away from the computer.
This is part of the reason why I love Lightroom. I do 90+ percent of my image processing in Lightroom simply because I usually don’t want or need to do anything more in Photoshop. I just need to add a little pop to my images. Only in those instances where I need to make the image match what was in my mind’s eye when I pressed the shutter button do I go into Photoshop anymore. Otherwise, I try to do as much “image processing” as possible by capturing the photo correctly at the time I press the shutter.
Tags: Lightroom, Manipulation, Photoshop, Processing
Quicker Lightroom Slideshow
Posted by latoga | Filed under Gear, Process
One of the things that I don’t like about Lightroom is the fact that there is no way to do a really quick slideshow of the photos that you currently are looking at (based upon your filter). Specifically, there are times I want to review a set of photos with a client but don’t want to go into an automated slideshow. I want to control, or let them control, the flow of the photos. I have always found that there are too many options in the slideshow feature of Lightroom to do this quickly.
But, here is a way to accomplish this…and without having to leave the Develop or Library mode! Use your “L” key to turn “Lights Out”. Under the Window menu there is a feature called Lights Out. I never noticed this feature until I stumbled across it accidently last year. It nicely dims everything but the photo you are look at, pressing it twice cyles through to dark, and a third time brings it back to normal.
You can use Lights Out by itself when to turn your current work screen into a slide show. Or, you can quickly minimize Header, Panels, and Filmstrip to enlarge the photo even more. Now you have a large photo and full slideshow controls using your arrow keys. I have included a full screen movie of this in action below (going retro…it’s a silent film…).
I find this a very useful way to run a quick manually controlled slideshow. Hope you find it useful too!
Tags: Lightroom, Tips and Tricks
Adobe Lightroom 1.1 Released
Posted by latoga | Filed under Uncategorized
Adobe released Lightroom 1.1 update today. The Readme Doc talks about the details, but the key items I see included in this update are:
- General improvements
- Eject after import option when importing from removable media (i.e., compact flash, SecureDigital)
- Improvements in Preferences organization
- Library module improvements
- Merging of catalog imports into an existing catalog (useful when working on laptop and desktop computers sharing a catalog)
- Synchronize folder option now finds new photos and update meta data from original file location.
- Metadata improvements
- Hierarchical keywords are now supported. This looks like the implementation of Dan Heller’s recommendation and should work with the CS3 Bridge’s implementation.
- improvements to the metadata presets.
- Develop module improvements
- Clarity option to control local contrast
- Additional controls for sharpening (I might actually start using sharpening in LR now…we’ll see)
I just installed (on Windows XP Pro) and haven’t had time to test out 1.1 yet, but my first impression is that I’m a bit disappointed that it installed itself as a separate install of LR. I now have 1.0 and 1.1 installed in different directories. This seems strange as it is different behavior than all other software upgrades. I would have expected the behavior to be the standard windows upgrade behavior. Not sure why this is, but I felt it was worth mentioning.
I’m looking forward to the Hierarchical keywords (listen to Jim Goldstein’s latest EXIF and Beyond podcast interview with Dan Heller for more on why this is important…I agree with the thinking behind it and support it whole heartedly!). Now for the online services and search indexes to start supporting it…
Tags: Lightroom
One-Click WOW Presets for Lightroom
Posted by latoga | Filed under Uncategorized
This past weekend, while at the Jeff Luhn’s Portrait and Lighting Workshop, we started talking about Adobe LightRoom. I had mentioned to the students about the One-Click WOW Presents that load into LightRoom and give you large variety of preset’s based upon just one parameter of the image. This allows you to work through the normal image adjusting workflow and make the decision on how to adjust each parameter. Even better, since these are presets, you can just slide your mouse over the list and see the effect immediately in the thumbnail. Great for figuring out quickly what gives the image the best effect! I use these presets daily now and highly recommend you check them out…especially considering they are free!
I am anxiously waiting for more vendors to start porting their plug-ins to Lightroom. I’m sure Adobe is not going to keep Lightroom a locked box. Personally I would love to see the DXO software converted to an Lightroom plugin…hint, hint.
Side Blur: Watch Your ‘L’ Key: I discovered a new shortcut in Lightroom tonight, in a rather shocking way. I was working on some images, entering in meta data when I hit the ‘L’ key and both my monitors went dim. Everything except the image thumbnails. At first I freak out (what the $%@* did I do?). Then I realized that my meta data field wasn’t selected, so rather than typing in that ‘L’, I toggled the “Lights Out Mode”. You can find this option under the Window menu, Lights Out option. It’s a really nice feature that dims all your monitors except the images you currently have selected (so if your in library mode, each selected thumbnail stays normal brightness; in develop, your main image). There are three modes: On, Dim, and Off. And hitting the ‘L’ key (alone) will toggle between them.
Hopefully this information will help you discover this now, before you stumble upon it during an processing session….late at night…in a dark room…and get freaked out like I did.
Tags: Lightroom, Lights Out, WOW Presets
