Lightroom 2.4 and Camera Raw 5.4 Updates Released

If you don’t get prompted to perform an automatic update, in Lightroom and in Bridge, go to Help>Check for Updates to update to the new releases.   Lightroom uses Camera Raw when you use the  Edit in Photoshop command on a raw image, so be sure to update both.    Adobe only provides these updates to Lightroom 2 and Photoshop CS4, so if you have an earlier version, you are out of luck until you purchase an upgrade.

Information from Adobe:

Lightroom 2 Bugs – Fixed

• Web galleries with a Collection Title of six characters would not export or upload
• The crop aspect ratio could revert to the last selected ratio even when reset to original
• The crop aspect ratio in Quick Develop could be lost after a crop adjustment The crop aspect ratio lock could be lost after an orientation switch
• Images could preview incorrectly when imported using the MTP/PTP USB protocol
• Sony .ARW files may not have been recognized by Lightroom’s import dialog
• The Japanese language configuration of Lightroom on Mac OS X 10.5 could fail to switch to the print module if the HP B9180 was set as the default printer
• Metadata options that are intended for use were dimmed incorrectly when exporting DNG files
• The Japanese language configuration of Lightroom on Mac OS X was missing a shortcut for “Zoom Out”
  Several translation and shortcut corrections were made for the eight additional languages introduced with Lightroom 2.3

New Supported Cameras:
Support for the following cameras has been added in this update.
Canon EOS 500D (Digital Rebel T1i/EOS Kiss X3 Digital)
Canon PowerShot SX1 IS
Epson R-D1x
Hasselblad CF-22
Hasselblad CF-22MS
Hasselblad CF-39
Hasselblad CF-39MS
Hasselblad CFH-22
Hasselblad CFH-39
Hasselblad CFV
Hasselblad 503CWD
Hasselblad H2D-22
Hasselblad H2D-39
Hasselblad H3D-22
Hasselblad H3D-31
Hasselblad H3D-39
Hasselblad H3DII-22
Hasselblad H3DII-31
Hasselblad H3DII-39
Hasselblad H3DII-39MS
Hasselblad H3DII-50
Kodak EasyShare Z980
Nikon D5000
Olympus E-450
Olympus E-620
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GH1
Pentax K-7
Sigma DP2
Sony A230
Sony A330
Sony A380

Understanding Resolution

Two factors determine how big your image will be when displayed — the size of your image in pixels, and how many pixels are displayed per inch, which is referred to as resolution.

Both of the example images below have 6 pixels (3×2):  the first is displayed at  1 pixel per inch, and the second is displayed at 2 pixels per inch.

3 pixels x 2 pixels at 1 pixel per inch

3 pixels by 2 pixels at 2 pixels per inch

When you prepare your images for print, you specify  what resolution your images will print at.   If you have a 6 megapixel camera (i.e. 6 million pixel camera), your image is approximately 3,000 pixels wide by 2,000 pixels high  (3,000 x 2,000 = 6 million).      If you print this image (with no upsizing or downsizing) at 300 pixels per inch, your image will be 3,000/300 = 10″ wide, and 2,000/300 = 6.6″ high.   If you print at 100 pixels per inch, your image will be 3,000/100 = 30″ wide, and 2,000/100=20″ high — much larger, but it will look less detailed because at this much lower resolution the individual square pixels are larger and more visible to the eye.

When you prepare images for display on a monitor (such as for the web or for sharing by email), what resolution you specify is not important, because the viewer’s monitor will control the resolution.  For example, if you view an image on a monitor that displays 90 ppi, that is exactly what you will see, regardless of whether you specified a resolution of 90 or 3000 when you sized the file in the LR Export dialog or the PS Image Size dialog.    All you need to worry about is the size of your image in pixels, and whether this will fit on your viewer’s screen without alot of scrolling.  Since you probably won’t know for sure what size monitor your image will be displayed on, I suggest sizing your images to fit on most monitors.  Most people today have monitors that display at least 1024×768 pixels.   I therefore size my images for email at 800×600, because I know then that they fit well on most monitors, with room around the image for menu bars, docks, etc…

Check Out the Lightroom Lab and Computers for Photographers

There is so much to learn about Lightroom and digital photography, that I highly recommend visiting many website and blogs regularly (including mine of course!).   One of my favorites is thelightroomlab.com.  Check it out for great tutorials, tips, videos, news, reviews, discussions and more.  It is run by a very smart colleague of mine, Scott Rouse, a self-described “geek extraordinaire”.

Scott is a photographer, graphic designer, web designer, instructor,  and IT professional. He specializes in web design for photographers and other artists.  More information his web- and graphic-design services can be found at scottrousedigital.com.  In addition to his freelance work, Scott teaches photography and Lightroom/Photoshop workshops worldwide for Photographers Alliance Workshops.

David Marx is also a regular contributor to The Lightroom Lab.   David is an amazing instructor and  sports photographer.   His blog is also an excellent one for you to visit regularly — computersforphotographers.com .  In addition to news and tutorials on Lightroom and other digital topics, David focuses on the hardware side of digital photography — where many of us definitely need some expert advice.    David can also help you design and purchase a computer system (Mac or PC) that meets your specific needs.

Synchronizing Your Folders in Lightroom

You have imported a folder of images into Lightroom.  Later you add more images to that folder.   Have Lightroom figure out which haven’t been imported into its catalog and import them for you:

• In the Library Folders panel,  right-click on your folder (ctl-click on a one button mouse) .
• Select Synchronize Folder.   Lightroom looks at the folder and determines how many of the images it does not yet have in the catalog.
• Check  Show Import Dialog if you want to be able to copy, move or rename the files, add copyright metadata, keywords, or apply develop presets as the images are imported.
• Scan for Metadata Updates will look to see if any of the images already imported have been updated more recently in Bridge or another program.  (It will read check the XMP file.)
• Hit Synchronize.
• If you checked Show Import Dialog, go through this dialog as you normally would.

There are many situations where you may add more images to a folder.   Here’s one example:  a client of mine has a folder of scanned images.  This folder of images has been imported into Lightroom.  When she scans new images and they are saved into the folder, she now synchronizes the folder to get the new scans into Lightroom.

Crop Tool Tip

You may have noticed that once you specify a crop in Lightroom and then try to move the crop frame, that it goes in the opposite direction from what you expect.  Instead of thinking of yourself clicking and dragging inside the crop frame  to move the crop frame, think of yourself as clicking and dragging inside the crop frame to move the photograph.   Once you adjust your thinking, you will find that it performs exactly as expected.

Define initial crop

Clicked and dragged to the right to move photograph

An Easier Way to Get Your Color in Lightroom

You are designing a slideshow, and you want the background color to be a particular color from one of your images.  Or, you are designing a web gallery, and you want the background color to be the color on your website, or some other cool color you have found.  The question is, how do you find out what that color is, and tell Lightroom to use it?   A while back I wrote a post on using Photoshop to identify the color, and then specifying this color in Lightroom.   It turns out though, that there is an easier way — you can do it all within Lightroom.  This is why I love Lightroom more every day — it just continues to surprise me!

I will show you how to set a LR slideshow background color, and then I’ll talk about how to set other colors.

• If you want a color from a web page or another document, size your Lightroom window and your web browser or document window so that both are visible on your monitor.  If instead you want a color from one of your images, have that image selected in the slideshow module.
• In the LR slideshow module, click on the color swatch next to Background Color in the Backdrop panel.

Slideshow Background Color Color Swatch

• This will open up the color palette.

Color Palette

• So here’s the secret:  click inside the main color square (where the eyedropper is in the illustration above), hold, and drag the eyedropper out of the color palette and over into your image that you want to take the color from or your web page or other document.  As you drag, you will see that the slideshow background color changes to reflect what you are dragging over.  Let go when you have selected the color you want.
• That’s it!  Notice that the color palette displays the Hex value of your color — if you want to use this exact color elsewhere, write down this hex value or copy it to the clipboard, and then type it in or paste it in elsewhere.

Of course this doesn’t just work for a slideshow background color, it works for any color setting in LR where you see a color swatch that opens up to a color palette — all the color settings in Web, Slideshow and Print, as well as the Color setting on the adjustment brush!

Now that is cool.   (Thanks to Matt K. at www.lightroomkillertips.com for pointing this out!)

Another Seattle Lightroom Demonstration

I’m back in town very briefly, so I thought I’d post information about my next free Lightroom Demonstration here in Seattle.  It is Saturday, May 16, from 10:30 am – 12:30 pm at the Capitol Hill Library.

For more information, click here.

Space is limited, so please RSVP to laura@laurashoe.com if you would like to attend.

Also, I have scheduled another round of Lightroom workshops:  Part One is June 13-14, and Part Two is June 27-28.  See my workshops page for more information.

Until May

I will be out of town and out of touch for most of the rest of April, and will not be able to post again until the first week of May.  In the meantime, check out the blog archives for lots of Lightroom tutorials and tips (and a few Photoshop ones as well.)

Happy Spring!

Laura

Seeing Your Folders in Lightroom

When you import a folder of images, the folder will show in the Folders panel, but you may not see the parent folder that it lives in.  For example, when I imported my first 2009 shoot folder, Lightroom did not show me that it lives inside my 2009 folder, which lives inside my Pictures folder.  That’s exactly where it still was, it was just that Lightroom by default considered this unnecessary information to display.  To show this hierarchical folder structure, I simply right-clicked (ctl-click on a Mac) on the shoot folder and selected Add Parent Folder.  This revealed the 2009 folder.  Then I right-clicked on the 2009 folder, and selected Add Parent Folder again, and this revealed the Pictures folder.

If you like to show the whole structure like I do, just be aware that if you have a parent folder selected, and therefore are showing all images that live in the parent folder and all of its subfolders, you cannot drag and rearrange your images.  To do this, you must be in the root folder where the images actually live.

Cropping Your Image for Print

Need to produce a print of a specific size, like 5″x7″?  These are most likely not the proportions of your original image, so somewhere in your workflow you will need to crop the image to these proportions.

You could use the crop overlay tool in the Develop module to get the proportions and then go to the Print module to print, but I like this alternative better:

In the Print module:

• Turn on Zoom to Fill and Rotate to Fit in Image Settings
• In Layout, set the Cell Size to 5″x7″.    If your image is of different proportions, part of the image now necessarily doesn’t show and won’t print.
• Click inside your image and drag to specify what part of your image you want to print.  (This is the part I love!)
• Now print as usual.