Shot info: Canon G9 at 27 mm, ISO 80, f8, 1/1000/sec

• Chase Jarvis, one of the best supporters of other new and upcoming photographers, posts several great videos – 1 on his project workflow and another on a Seattle shoot/training. You can check them out here and here.
• If you’ve never visited the LifeHacker blog, you’re missing out. It is a great source for tips and tricks for your computer and life. Need to find the best backup software or desktop search? Need to know how to determine the solar potential of your roof? Check out LifeHacker – the variety and quality is amazing. Visit LifeHacker here.
• Generally, I’m a Canon shooter and as I reported previously, I love my G9. But, not to be outdone, Nikon has released its high-end point and shoot, the Coolpix P-6000. Generally, it looks to have similar features to the G9 – with one really notable feature that I wish the G9 had – a built in GPS. I enjoy GeoTagging my photos so that is a feature near and dear to my heart – if it works well. You can read more about the P-6000 here.
• Interested in Architectural Photography? If so, check out the intro tutorial over at Digital Photography School here. Or, you can check out the Photography for Real Estate blog here, which has some great information and shots.

The Problem

When you have an identity plate with an image of any color, you have to PERFECTLY align the identity plate on the stage. Easier said than done. In most other Adobe products, you get an align tool or a feature that snaps things to grid when you get close. Not the case with this feature in Lightroom. I found it literally impossible to perfectly align it, always leaving small slivers of white. Click the image below for an example.

The Solution

The only way I was able to solve this problem was to save my fine art print setup as a Template and then edit the template file.

1. Create a fine art print setup by following the steps in my previous post.
2. Save it as a Template by clicking the + sign in the Template browser panel, giving it a name and clicking the Create button.
3. Now’s the semi-tricky part. You need to locate that template file on your computer. In Windows Vista your templates are located at the following directory by default: C:\Users\YourUsername\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\ Lightroom\Print Templates. If you are on a Mac or Windows XP, you’ll need to consult Lightroom help for the proper location. Also, you may have saved your presets in a different folder (in the Catalog settings)- if so, look there instead.
4. Open the file of the appropriate preset name with a text editor. On Windows, you may need to right-click and choose Open With… and specify a program like Notepad.
5. Scroll through or use the search feature to find any line that shows identityPlatePosH or identityPlatePosV. You’ll want to set the number on the right side of the equal sign on that line to .5 for each. They are probably close to .5 already – but it needs to be exact. See the lines I highlighted in the screenshot below for an example. I changed the values here and in one other place in this file. This is actually easier than it sounds. Once the file is opened, the lines are pretty easy to scan through.

1. Save and close the file.
2. If Lightroom is still open, close and re-start it. If already closed, go ahead and start it up. When you go back to the Print module and click on your preset, you should see that the Identify Plate is perfectly lined up.
3. Repeat for any other fine art print templates you want to create. For example, I created one for portrait-oriented pictures and one for landscape-oriented pictures. The identifyPlatePosH and identityPlatePosV should be set to .5 in every case.

Click on either picture for a larger version.

I put the G9 on my trusty GorillaPod (more about it, here).

I then turned on time lapse and the camera spit out this fun movie. I didn’t add any music to it or any other effects, but you can definately get an idea for how this fun feature works.

I’ll be attending the Denver walk led by Timothy Tonge. If you live in the Denver area and would like to make sure we meet at the walk, drop me an e-mail or a comment. If you aren’t in the Denver area, check out the site and register for one of the other 200+ walks around the world!

Lightroom’s printing capabilities are amazing. Its ease of use and variety of features blow me away! One of the things I like about it is the ability to create a fine art print, like the one shown above.

Outputting Your Fine Art Print to an Image – Finally!

Version 1 allowed you to send a fine art print to the printer, but if you wanted it in an electronic copy for e-mailing, sending to an online printer, or for posting on the web, you had to use another method, like Photoshop. Lightroom 2 changes all that. It now allows you to export the fine art prints you set up in the Print module directly to a JPEG.

Changing the Background Color of Your Fine Art Print

One thing that Lightroom 2 doesn’t allow you to do directly, though, is change the background color of the fine art print. It is always set to white. If you use the right steps, though, you’ll be able to create something with any background color you’d like. The rest of this post provides steps on how to change the background color of your fine art prints directly in Lightroom 2 and then export them to a JPEG (the color changing techniques will still work in Lightroom 1, you just won’t be able to export it to a JPEG).

How to Do It

We have 2 things going on here. First, we need to change the color of the background of the fine art print. Second, we need to output it as an image. Several steps require that you create an image outside Lightroom. I use Photoshop in the examples, but you could use any similar image editing program.

How to Change the Color

1. Determine the size you want your final fine art print to be. I find that an 8×10″ provides a nice size, especially when posting on the web or e-mailing. Any size could be used, though. You’ll also want to decide about how much area will be taken up by the photo and how much will be color and/or your logo or descriptive text. I choose to set my fine art prints to have more space around the image than others do.
2. Open Photoshop and create a blank document at the size you chose in step 1. If the fine art print will be used for the web/email/etc., set the resolution to 72. If you’ll be printing it, I recommend setting it to 300. Click OK.

1. Fill the document with the color that you’d like the background of your fine art print to be. Also, place any logos or other text in the document. Make sure to place them in areas that won’t be covered by a picture in the final fine art print. Most people place the logo/text directly below the image area.

1. Save the document as a .jpeg or .tiff file.
2. Open Lightroom and go to the Print module.
3. In the Layout section, set your margins and cell size as needed to have your image fill the fine art print as much/little as you’d like. I also typically check the Zoom to Fill option in the Settings panel. It makes sure that the image fills the entire available area. You can click/drag the image to position it as needed in its assigned space.

1. The key to changing the background color is to change the overlay. In many cases, this is used to simply place a logo or other text on the image. Go ahead and check the Identity Plate option and click the down arrow just below that setting and choose Edit. Click the Locate File… button and choose the file that you saved back in step 4. Once chosen, click the OK button.
2. Make sure that the Opacity and Scale sliders are both set to 100%.
3. At this point, your image may be hidden by your new frame. To move it behind the image, click the Render Behind Image option. You can click/drag on the background to position it correctly. [Update - positioning it exactly can be very difficult. Read this recent post on how to get it exact.]

1. Your fine art print is now ready to export as an image.

Output the Fine Art Print as an Image

Now that your fine art print is built, you can export it as an image.

1. Go to the Print Job panel. Select JPEG File from the Print to: drop-down.
2. Set the File Resolution to 72.
3. Set the appropriate JPEG Quality – I find that 80 is a good balance between quality and file size.
4. Set the Custom File Dimensions to the size of your document. Mine are set to 8×10″.
5. Set the Profile to sRGB, which is the preferred color profile when viewing your image on a monitor.
6. Once done, click the Print to File… button. Give your image a name and save it to a location on your computer.

That should do it. Hopefully you now have an image of your fine art print, with a different background color. I would recommend saving this as a print preset, which allows you to easily re-use it in the future.

A reminder of the final image…

• Scott Kelby and NAPP (National Association of Photoshop Professionals) is putting together a worldwide photowalk. Nearly 200 cities around the world are participating. Check out more here.
• Jason over at CanonBlogger recently moved to the greatest state in the country, IMO, Colorado! Welcome Jason. Also, if you haven’t checked out his blog yet, you can find it here. He has a great mix of posts, videocasts, contests and more.
• Digital Photography School always has quality, instructive posts. Check out this one on explanation of one of the most valuable, but potentially confusing options on your camera, EV Compensation. Click here for more.
• I really enjoy graphic design and typography and ran across about the best video on type I’ve ever seen. It is brief and extremely funny. Well worth a watch. You can view it here.
  

Click the image for a larger view.