Finding Photo Flow

Project Life / Project 365 Flow

2012-01-09T23:14:02Z

If you read my blog on Digiscrap101 you will know that I’m doing Project Life/Project 365 for 2012. A big part of actually being able to do it for me is going to be the Flow I use in Lightroom to do it. Today I thought it would be fun to take peek behind the scenes in Lightroom…

The first thing I am doing starts with my iPhone and Notica and that is saving the full size card to the camera roll.

Next click Save To Camera Roll

Next I import everything from my iPhone into my Lightroom Library main folder just like usual. In Lightroom I’ve created a Collection Set called Project Life 2012. Inside that set I have collections for each month along with the completed layouts and supplies I will be using for the project.

When I decide the photos I will be using for a particular day I just click and drag them to January 2012 Collection:

After looking at the photos I will be working with, I then choose my template and supplies. I choose them from the collections of supplies where I have dragged in the templates, cards, and elements. Once I find something I want to use, I CMD/CTRL Click the items to select them and then right click and choose Edit In Photoshop > Original Image to open them in Photoshop:

As I finish the layout spreads I save them to My Digital Layouts folder and then click and drag them into the completed layouts collection. This makes for one easy place to see all my Project Life / Project 365 layouts at a glance.

One last trick I want to share and that is how to resize the Notica cards in Photoshop as they are not very large coming into the layout. You can open all the photos for the week in Photoshop using the same trick for supplies above and then click and drag the first photo to the template. Then:
- Press CTRL/CMD+T to transform and then click and drag until it is the right size. Click Enter to commit.

- Press CTRL + G to clip to the photo layer. (You may need to click and drag your photo layer to the layer directly above the particular photo card template you want to clip to).

- Select the next photo card layer you want to clip your photo to on the layers palette. Click and drag the Notica photo for that day into your layout document.

- Select Edit > Transform > Again or CMD/CTRL SHIFT T and voila Photoshop automatically sizes the photo exactly the same size as your first photo. Then you can clip to the card template.

One item that is worth noting – when you size your photo card the first time, you will need to accomplish the perfect sizing in one transform If you tranform the photo size and then do it again to fine tune it, this little trick won’t work.

So that’s it – photo flow makes Project 365 much easier to do than I had imagined. What’s your photo flow for 365? Please share!

ReOrg – It’s That Time of Year Again

2012-02-06T17:19:50Z

It’s that time of year again – the month that brings the irresistible urge to de-clutter and reorganize. It’s serious for me. I can barely keep my tree up until January first every year – I love the creative energy that clearing things out brings.

For me it usually starts in the kitchen with each cabinet, drawer and then the pantry. This year I also added the second hand hutch I picked up a year or so ago on Craigs List. From there I progress to the great room, taking the tree down and packing all the decorations away, deep cleaning and dusting shelves, blinds and drawers. Then I get to my office.

As you can imagine I spend a lot of time in my office at my computer answering emails and typing. I work on a MacBookPro with a second Dell monitor leftover from my PC days. While this is a great setup, I found myself a bit frustrated with two things: the height of my monitor and the lack of USB ports on my Mac for various EHDs.

So what’s a girl to do? Save up and treat herself to two tools to make life easier. The first is a laptop stand to raise the height of her monitor to a more ergonomically correct position:

I can’t even begin to tell you the difference this makes – should have done it months ago!

The second is a USB hub that works. I’ve had 2-3 of these in the past. My issue is now my Time Machine EHD and storage EHD are both on portable EHDs that don’t have their own power supply. So if I plug in both with my printer and headset I end up without enough power to run everything. So I picked up this really cool USB hub with it’s own power source:

Can I just say I am one happy girl? Now don’t get me wrong, I’m still saving up to convert my MBP to a solid state hard drive with a second drive but all in good time. It is amazing to me how much a difference it had made to have my hard drives work correctly and have a monitor at a height that doesn’t give me neck pain!

I should probably mention that I also recently began using Apple’s wireless keyboard and Magic Trackpad – no more mice for this girl! I’ve been using that setup for about 90 days and really love not having to take up USB ports with those two peripherals.

Well that’s it for now. I know we focus a lot on computer photo clutter here so this post may be out of tradition. However, I truly believe that cleaning up and clearing out is a powerful process. Whether done in your computer or in the physical space you live/work in the benefits can be astounding. It is important to take stock of your workplace, eliminating things that don’t help you create and replacing them with things that do.

In fact I would encourage you to read this article if you want some encouragement. If you are de-cluttering I’d love to hear more about your projects in the comments – you know us de-clutterers always love company and encouragement!

Here’s to a cleared out, productive and prosperous 2012!

Peace

2011-12-02T07:29:08Z

Wishing you peace this holiday season…

How To Deselect Items In Lightroom

2011-12-02T21:59:37Z

It’s easy enough to select everything in a Lightroom folder by pressing CTRL/CMD+A, It’s even easier to deselect items in Lightroom. Press CMD/CTRL+D. You can also press / to deselect one item. :)

Christmas Gifts

2011-12-02T07:24:58Z

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Parting Shot

2011-12-02T20:55:08Z

Photo Flow starts before you ever pick up your camera – it is also something that happens while you’re capturing image. It’s that part of photo flow that I want to talk about today.

The above layout was created with a photo that almost didn’t happen. We had just finished a few shots when I happened to look over at Kate sitting down with her face resting in her hand – I instinctively shot this shot:

Which obviously caught her by surprise so I asked her to smile nicely for another portrait and got this:

The above is processed a bit differently from the layout photo which brings me another piece of Photo Flow and that is post-processing and editing. I recently created a tutorial for Wacom using Photoshop Elements, my Bamboo Create and this photo. It takes you step by step through the process of removing harsh skin tones and artistically applying filters in Photoshop Elements to enhance your photo. You can find it here. You can find more holiday Wacom goodness here.

Holiday Photography

2011-12-02T20:02:42Z

Wondering how to capture the beauty of the holidays through your lens? We’ve combed the web for our favorite holiday photography tips:

Last but definitely not least, checkout this holiday light group on Flickr for some creative inspiration.

Happy Holiday Photography!

The Power To Love

2011-12-02T07:18:40Z

Love changes things -

Organize Your Digital Photo Library for Less!

2011-12-02T09:27:04Z

We’re now in our fourth month of Finding Photo Flow. We’ve already helped several students organize their digital photos and we’re hoping that you’ll also choose to join us before 2012.

Finding Photo Flow is the only class we know of that has everything in one place:

How to organize photos
How to backup and protect digital photos
How to choose software to manage digital photos (picture software)
Includes tutorials that get you started organizing photos in Picasa, Lightroom, iPhoto, Aperture, Bridge and Photoshop Elements Organizer.
Includes a Lifetime Pass to the active community and all future updates and enhancements.

At just $49 Finding Photo Flow is an incredible value. Other classes that cover only one software program and not nearly the same amount of instructor involvement charge over $65 – they are a one time thing! No lifetime passes or ongoing support!

Our prices will increase in 2012. So if you have friends or family that need help getting their images organized, please pass the word! You can register here.

Photo Library Flow

2011-12-02T08:45:16Z

Finding Photo Flow in your photo library will take your creativity to an entirely new level. With your photos and digital scrapbooking supplies organized, you can pull creative combinations together in ways that weren’t possible before. It all starts with a photo:

When working in Lightroom and you see a photo you want to scrapbook, simply drag it to your Current Layouts Collection.

Then click on your scrapbooking supplies folder:

Use your keyword list to find a template that matches the number of photos you want in the layout – in this case it would be all the one-photo templates:

Once you find the template you want, click and drag it into the Current Layout Collection. Now you’re reasy to start tracking down supplies. In Lightroom this is as simple as clicking on your main digital scrapbooking supply folder and then pressing CTRL/CMD+F to bring up the filter bar. Then just type in the words for what you are looking for – in this case “green autumn paper:”

Continue this process for all your papers until you have what you need. Next find elements, i.e. “autumn flower:”

Now you’re ready to bring it all together:

Note: You will want to open your photos separately from supplies, choosing the option to open with Lightroom Adjustments (this includes your photo editing done in Lightroom). When opening papers, templates and elements choose “Edit Original.”

Once in your layout creation program (i.e. Photoshop/Photoshop Elements), the first thing you need to do is save the template you will be working on as a new layout with a different name in your My Digital Layouts folder. Then create your layout:

Layout done – we’re done right? Well not yet! Metadata is important to flow even after a layout is completed! Save the completed layout to your My Digital Layouts folder. Then come back to Lightroom and synchronize the folder (Right click on your MY Digital Layout folder and choose Synchronize Folder. This automatically imports the new layout).

Add a caption with a simple story of why you created the layout and also the product information. Lastly, remove the keywords left over from the template and change the date created.

When I started organizing things in Lightroom, I wanted the ability to pull things together like the amazing scrapbooking creatives I admire so much – they use papers from several different kits, designers and even years of product.

With everything organized in Lightroom it is so easy to do just that! This layout uses products from 10 different designers and 11 different kits. I would have never been able to create it without my photo library flow.

Organization truly inspires creativity!

How has Photo Flow inspired your creativity? Link us up to your projects in the comments!