Camera and printer technology has changed in remarkable ways with digital compacts and DSLRs carrying previously unheard of resolution levels and picture taking abilities that demand far superior printing qualities.

Much of this book is, of course, very pro-Epson but as Sheppard says it is principally “about the enjoyment of creating great prints.”

Beginning at the end, the book starts by analyzing the ingredients that constitute a great print and poses the question: should the monitor display match the print?

Sheppard’s answer is that the monitor should be taken only as a guide; more critically, the technical issues must not be allowed to overwhelm the aesthetic purposes.

Many examples are given if what Sheppard considers to be bad prints … garish and ‘off’ colour, lack of highlights and shadow depth, poor cropping and incorrect printer settings. The lessons apply not only to the use of Epson printers but to the whole field.

A good print starts where you take a picture, so the book’s 14 pages on ‘camera essentials’ will not go astray.

Other topics include the printer workflow, selections of papers, pigment versus dye inksets, appropriate software and how to use it, creating printer profiles and much more.

IMHO and regardless of Epson’s involvement, this is one of the best books on printing.

• Author: R Sheppard.
• Publisher: Lark.
• Distributor: Capricorn Link.
• ISBN: 13 978 1 60059 263 8.
• Length: 192 pages.
• Buy: New Epson Complete Guide to Digital Printing at Amazon.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

New Epson Complete Guide to Digital Printing [BOOK REVIEW]

Copyright w?odi

One of the best things about digital photography is the ability to easily share photos with friends, family and strangers alike.  There are a lot of options on the Internet for photo sharing including social networks that are more than just photo sites.

In this post I’d like to highlight a few of the more popular photo sharing sites along side the more popular photo editing tools.  Some tools are ready to use with their default photo sharing sites (think Picasa and Windows Live Photo), but for most of the tools a plugin is required to easily upload photos.

I use a number of tools and plugins and thought it’d be helpful to bring them all together in one helpful grid.  All of these plugins are free to use although some require registration.  I hope you can find something useful to make photo sharing a little bit easier for you!

Photo editing software is listed down the left side of the table and photo sharing sites are listed along the top.  Match the resources you are looking for and then click on the link in the grid.  If you see a missing plugin, please feel free to leave a comment below and I’ll do my best to add it.  All the links below are not hosted by Digital Photography School and are subject to change.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Plugins For Online Photo Sharing

If you’re a Photoshop and Lightroom user you may, like me, love the Clarity adjustment in Lightroom and wish it were available in Photoshop too. The Clarity slider lets you adjust the contrast in the midtones of an image which gives an over all sharpening and color boost to the image midtones.

As yet, there is no Clarity tool in Photoshop (although there is one in Camera RAW). There is, however, a technique which has been popularized by Mac Holbert which does a similar thing. While the Photoshop technique is more cumbersome than using the Clarity slider in Lightroom it does work very well and gives very similar results.

Once you’ve performed the fix a couple of times you may want to create this as an Action so that you can run it on your images at any time you need to do boost the midtones.

Step 1

For an already flattened image, duplicate the background layer by right clicking it and choose Duplicate Layer.

For an image that already has multiple layers, click the topmost layer and press Ctrl + Alt + Shift + E to create a merged layer to work on.

Step 2

In the layers palette set the Blend Mode of this new top layer to Overlay and set its Opacity to somewhere around 20 to 25 percent.

Step 3

Select the Add a Layer Style button at the foot of the Layers palette and choose Blending Options.

In the Blend If section of the dialog, locate the This Layer slider. Drag the indicators under the slider in to approximately one-third of the width of this slider so you’re dividing it into thirds.

Hold the Alt key (Option on the Mac) to divide each slider into two pieces and position the outside halves at approximately the 1/6th mark, use the image as a guide.

The positioning of the sliders does not have to be exact. All you’re doing here is removing the very lightest pixels and the very darkest pixels on this top layer from this fix, so it remains applied to the midtones only.

By splitting the sliders, you’re ensuring that there is a gradual change from where the effect is applied and not applied.

Step 4

If you’re using Photoshop CS3 or CS4, you can convert the topmost layer to a Smart Object before continuing. To do this, right click the top layer and choose Convert to Smart Object.

Step 5

Choose Filter > Other > High Pass and set the Radius to approximately 50 pixels. Click Ok.

The High Pass filter sharpens the image and the Overlay fix applies a contrast and saturation boost. The Blend If sliders ensure that the fix is applied only to the image midtones.

Step 6

Any of these adjustments can be changed. You can adjust the Radius of the High Pass filter to a larger or smaller value and, if desired, increase or decrease the layer Opacity to apply more or less of a contrast boost.

You can also adjust the Blend If sliders to apply the fix to a larger or smaller range of the image tones.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Enhancing Midtones in Photoshop

Image by Paul Mayne

What camera gear would you buy if you were given $1000?

Time for a little hypothetical question - imagine you were walking by a camera shop and running out the doors came the owner of the shop. He races up to you and says - ‘it’s your lucky day - I’m going to give you anything in my shop up to the value of $1000′!

You’ve got an hour to choose what you want, it has to be a camera, lens, flash unit or some other kind of photography gear that you’d find in any normal photography shop - what would you get?

You can get as many products as you like as long as they total $1000 or less.

Lets use the prices at Amazon’s photography shop as a guide (they have most things) but don’t get too caught up in the details - really I’m asking what gear you’re currently eyeing off!

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

What Camera Gear would you Buy if you were Given $1000 to Spend?

DPS is owes a lot to our readership and community - you make this site what it is so it’s important to me to keep you up to date, share the highs and lows of keeping this site going and give you opportunity to give us feedback.

Milestones

• Our photography forum has just passed signing up 50,000 members in the last week.
• The forum has also recently had some record days of traffic. We recently broke our record of most users online at once (around 850) - thanks everyone for the time and effort you invest there.
• Our subscriber numbers (the total of those who subscribe via RSS or via our daily and weekly email newsletter) is fast approaching 300,000 - it looks like we’ll hit that magical number in the next couple of weeks..
• Twitter follower numbers are up over 13,000.
• Monthly traffic to DPS continues to be solid. This month we’re on track to hit 2.5 million visitors with over 5 million pages of the site viewed.

Opportunities

• We’re looking for sponsors - as you can see above DPS continues to grow and as a result we think it is a logical place for companies with photographic products to have a presence. We’d love to chat with you about how we can make this happen. More details on sponsorship opportunities here.
• New Authors - We’ve added a couple of new semi-regular authors to our writing team. You should see a few new faces with some new topics emerging. Of late we’ve particularly made an effort to expand our post processing posts to cover not just Photoshop but also Lightroom, Elements, Aperture and GIMP (something many of you have requested).
• We’re Looking for Guest Writers - We’re always on the look out for more guest writers. If you have a tip or tutorial to share on any area of photography please check out our Write for DPS page. It’s particularly a great opportunity for professional photographers (or those who are aspiring to go Pro) looking to increase their profile as we link to everyone who writes for us which can be great for your exposure.

Important Notes

• Forum Login Problems - One of the most common emails I get is from people trying to login to our forum who think that they’re a member there because they subscribe to our emails. Unfortunately this requires two separate memberships. To be a forum member simply sign up here.
• Thanks to…. - A special thanks to our writing team and forum moderators - you all continue to put a lot of time and energy into DPS and I want to acknowledge your work and investment into our community.
• Server Issues - Last month we had quite a few hiccups in our forums with our server. Most of these bugs are now fixed and the forum is working a lot faster and with less errors than previously. Thanks for your patience in dealing with those issues.

Help Us Get Better

By no means is DPS perfect. We are run by a small team and know there are many ways that we can improve. We’re tackling issues as they arise and are working hard to keep DPS as useful as possible. However we continue to rely upon your support in some of the following ways:

• Feedback - If you have any constructive feedback or suggestions for DPS please do feel free to contact me through our contact form. I can’t respond to everyone individually but do read and consider all feedback carefully.
• Spread the Word - please do consider sharing DPS and our tutorials with your network of family, friends and those you connect with on social media sites.
• Help us Find Strategic Partners - as I mentioned above we are looking for sponsor partners at present. Running a site this size takes a lot of effort and rising costs. We’d love to cover these and be able to invest in new features - if you have contacts in companies that you think would like to get their message out to our kinds of readers please let them know of the opportunity.
• Participate - ultimately the best way you can help us get better is to get involved. Join our forum, sign up for our newsletter, submit a guest post, leave comments and interact with your fellow readers. All of this helps improve what we do and make the site more useful to you and your fellow readers.

Thanks everyone - I appreciate you and can’t wait to see what the next few months have in store for DPS.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

DPS Town Hall Meeting - What’s Going on At DPS

Copyright moonsheep

Being one of the most unpredictable forces of nature, lightning storms present a unique challenge for most photographers.  We’ve all seen powerful photos of lightning in action and you may be wondering how you can capture the majesty of a storm the next time you’re fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to witness one.  While a lot matters on what Mother Nature decides to do with all that electricity, the tips below should help in capturing a great shot of lightning.

1. Use a steady surface - While a tripod typically works best, in reality any steady surface will work.  Some people use a beanbag or other malleable item, like a pillow.  This will be import as #2 is….
2. Long Shutter Times - While lightning is unpredictable, it’s extremely hard to make a decent capture by tripping the shutter when you see a flash.  There are some fancy remote controls that have the ability to trip when the flash is sensed, but I’m guessing you don’t want to invest in these types of gadgets.  Depending on your cameras ability to manage noise on slow shutter speeds, using a timing of 30 seconds can work well. The bulb setting can also be handy if you have a way to keep the shutter open.
   

   Copyright Elsie esq.

3. Horizon Up - It’s safe to say most of the lightning action you will see will in the sky.  I know it’s obvious, but it needs to be stated that your field of view will be skewed toward the sky then.  Depending on how close the lightning is, you’ll be including more blank looking sky than normal.  But fear not; that sky becomes far more exciting when the lightning starts
4. But Include Something Interesting - While the action will be in the sky, don’t forget to keep something in the frame to give relevance and perspective to the shot.  Buildings are a favorite, but really, anything that can give an idea of the size of the storm works well.
5. Manual Focus - It’s best to use manual focus when shooting in lightning situations.  Mainly because the view will probably be at night (but not always) with a fair amount of darkness.  Rather than allow your camera to hunt around for something to focus on with each new shot, get a good manual focus on the sky and leave it there.
6. Manual Shutter/Aperture Too - As mentioned in #2, if your camera has the ability to set the shutter speed, pick a long shutter time and a fairly wide aperture.  The action will be far from you so a wide aperture and shallow depth of field won’t be a problem (unless you have some very near objects you’d like to include).
   

   Copyright akeg

7. Stack ‘em - If you can keep your camera in a steady spot, shot after shot, you can use stacking software to combine multiple strikes into one image. You’ll often have many unexciting shots with maybe just a single strike or faint action between clouds.  These can all be combined to make a spectacular image.
8. Be Patient - This is a big one and a key to success.  Get familiar with your gear and settings so when there is a lightning storm you can set up the camera and then let it do its thing while you enjoy the show.  You’re going to have a number of times when you miss “the shot” for one reason or another.  Don’t sweat it.

Shooting lightning storms can be a very enjoyable experience but it takes a little practice to get it just right.  Follow the steps above and you’ll be well on your way to creating electrifying photos (sorry, couldn’t resist the pun!).

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

How To Photograph Lightning

Today Mark Jaquith shares some tips on developing a workflow in Aperture.

Aperture, Apple’s excellent image processing and organizational tool, can really help take your workflow to the next level. I’ve been using it for over two years (to the tune of over 10,000 images), and I couldn’t imagine going back. That said, it is a complicated application with a fairly steep learning curve. And even if you learn all the screens and all the keyboard shortcuts, Aperture doesn’t hold your hand. It is a tool, not a workflow. It is up to you to craft a workflow that fits your needs. In the many months I’ve been using Aperture, I’ve tweaked and refined my workflow. What follows is the system I use.

Step 1: Importing

My number one rule for using Aperture and not losing your sanity is to never ever babysit an import. Don’t try to sort your photos. Don’t try to view your photos. Start the import and walk away. I put Aperture on a dedicated “space” in OS X Leopard to reduce the temptation. Aperture does a lot of hard work when importing, and performance is unbearably slow. Don’t torture yourself.

Because importing is such a bear, I recommend you do it all at once. Even if a card has photos from more than one project, import them into one project and sort them out later.

Speaking of projects, it might be a good time to settle on a method of sorting your photographs. I use a project for each distinct “event,” and store them in folders by year. I have smart folders for each month of the year. Remember that smart folders give you a lot of flexibility, so don’t make your organizational structure more complex than it needs to be.

I have a “To be processed” folder which is where new projects go on import. My projects stay there until I’m completely done processing them.

Step 2: Prepare for sorting and processing

Before sorting, you should turn on Preview Mode. It makes sorting a lot faster. Next, reduce the size of your thumbnails so that you can see more at a time.

Step 3: Auto-stack

If you shoot in burst mode, you likely have a lot of near-duplicate photos that you just took to eliminate blinking or to shift camera shake odds in your favor. This is what stacks are for.

Reduce the size of your thumbnails to give yourself a bird’s eye view of the project, and then click Stacks » Auto-Stack. Slowly move the slider to the right (be patient, it lags a bit). You’ll see your bursts start to merge together as stacks with a grey background. The goal here is to correctly group 80% of your bursts. Don’t spend a lot of time agonizing over getting the groups perfect, just get yourself most of the way there.

Step 4: Tweak your stacks

Now, go the final 20% of the way with your stacks. You’re going to have some photos that don’t belong in a stack, photos that do belong in a stack, and stacks that need to be split or merged. Remember that stacks are for near-duplicate photos. If you are shooting an extreme action sequence, it’s likely that the shots aren’t really duplicates. You could have someone running, jumping, and then splashing in a pool. Those are distinct shots, so split them out.

Keyboard shortcuts will be your savior here. Use the arrow keys to select images. Use shift and the arrow keys to select a range of images. To create a new stack or add an image to a stack, select the images and press Cmd-K. If you want to add an image to an existing stack, you just have to select the new image and one of the existing images—no need to select them all. When I’m done with a stack, I like to close it with Shift-K (repeat to open) to mark it as “stacked.” At any time you can press Alt-; to close all stacks or Alt-' to open all stacks. To split a stack, or pop an item off of the front or back of a stack, select the item to the right of the split point, and press Alt-K.

Step 5: Make your picks

A pick is the image from a stack that is the best shot. It is the one that appears as the representative image for the stack when the stack is collapsed. More importantly, you can exclude the non-picks from searches and smart folders, which allows you to forget about all those duplicate images (unless you want to revisit your pick!)

Start by expanding all your stacks with Alt-'. Then go through your stacks and pick the best of the bunch. If you select multiple photos, you can compare them head to head (depending on your Aperture screen setup). I like to use the loupe tool (keyboard shortcut: `) to examine the focus point and then flip between two images for quick A-B tests. Use Cmd-[ to move an image up in the stack, Cmd-] to move it down. Use Cmd-\ to promote an image to the top of the stack. Again, I like to collapse stack as I complete them during this step.

Step 6: Keywording

Keywording may play an important role in your Aperture library, or it may play a minor role. It completely depends on you. I photograph a lot of people—candid shots of friends and family, so I keyword people by name (in an “individuals” folder).

The way I do it is to start at the first photo, identify one of the people in the photo, and then scroll through the rest of the project looking for that person, and Cmd-clicking to highlight those photos. Then I use the Keyword bar to enter that person’s name. Then I pick the next person in the photo and repeat (or move to the next photo). This is much faster than keywording photo-by-photo.

Don’t forget to expand your stacks before keywording. If you keyword the pick of a collapsed stack, the non-picks won’t get the keyword.

Step 7: Rate picks

Collapse your stacks, and rate all the picks and standalone images. My scale is:

One-star: Keep

These images aren’t very good, but aren’t accidental photos of my shoes, so they stick around, but are usually excluded from normal viewing.

Two-stars: Show

These are for decent photos that I either have no inclination to share, or it would be redundant to share.

Three-stars: Share

These are for good photos that I want to share.

Four-stars: Boast

These are the ones (along with the fives) that I’d show people as representative.

Five-stars: Call National Geographic

It’s good to have goals. Not many photos get this rating!

Step 8: Back up

You do have a good file backup regime in place, right? Kick it off. I don’t delete photos from my memory cards until they’ve completely entered into my backup system.

Mark Jaquith is one of the lead developers of WordPress and an amateur photography enthusiast. He enjoys low-light candid portraits and is therefore loathe to remove his 50mm f/1.4 lens. You can see his photographs on Flickr.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

8 Steps to Developing a Better Workflow in Aperture

Photo: Rainer Ebert - CC license

The following post is from Australian photographer Neil Creek who will soon be teaching a class in portrait photography in Melbourne Australia, and is developing his blog as a resource for the passionate photographer.

Welcome to the seventh lesson in Photography 101 - A Basic Course on the Camera. In this series, we cover all the basics of camera design and use. We talk about the ‘exposure triangle’: shutter speed, aperture and ISO. We talk about focus, depth of field and sharpness, as well as how lenses work, what focal lengths mean and how they put light on the sensor. We also look at the camera itself, how it works, what all the options mean and how they affect your photos.

This week’s lesson is The Light Meter.

Here’s What We’ve Covered Previously in this Series:

Lesson 1: Light and the Pinhole Camera
Lesson 2: Lenses and Focus
Lesson 3: Lenses, Light and Magnification
Lesson 4: Exposure and Stops
Lesson 5: Aperture
Lesson 6: Shutter
Lesson 7: ISO

In previous lessons we have talked about the basic theory of how a camera works, including some basic optics, and introduced the idea of exposure and how we control it with the exposure triangle. Now that we have covered each of the points of the exposure triangle, it’s time to bring them all together with the tool at the core, the light meter.

What is the Light Meter?

A challenging scene to meter

For as long as people have been taking photos, there has been a need to determine how bright a scene is. Any method of recording light can only work in a relatively narrow band without over or under exposing the image. To find the correct exposure that will record the image without over or under exposing it too much, photographers need to know how bright the scene is. An extremely talented photographer may be able to guess a near-enough exposure, but a light meter is a far more accurate and convenient way to do it.

Light meters in cameras react to how intense the light is as seen from the camera. SLRs measure the light (called metering) through the lens - TTL. They collect light that has actually passed through the camera’s lens and measure its intensity. There are problems when the scene has parts that are much brighter or darker than others, for example shadows on a sunny day. This can trick the light meter into measuring the intensity of the light incorrectly, depending on which part of the scene was illuminating the sensor.

Modern SLR cameras use multi-point light meters, meaning that several light meters are actually scattered around the projected scene, each measuring the light intensity at that point. Very sophistocated cameras may have dozens of metering points. How much the measured intensity of the light at each point influences the final meter reading depends on the metering mode selected by the photographer.

For a more detailed look at metering modes, you can read: Introduction to metering modes.

How to Use the Light Meter

As we now know, the correct exposure is created by juggling the three points of the exposure triangle: aperture, shutter and ISO. The light meter is the tool that puts us in the right neighbourhood for how these should be set. If you are shooting on full auto, then when you meter the scene - usually done at the same time as focusing, by half pressing the shutter - the light meter gives its best guess for each of these variables.

If you want to take creative control of the photo, you can manually set each of the three variables yourself. Typically ISO is left at the default, or previous setting, and you take control by choosing aperture priority or shutter priority. On most DSLRs that’s done by turning the exposure mode dial. If you set the dial to Av - aperture priority, the photographer chooses what the aperture will be, and the light meter adjusts the shutter speed to mantain the correct exposure. The reverse is true for Tv - shutter priority.

When using these modes, it’s useful to refer to the exposure meter display on the camera. The exposure meter (display) shows the result of the measurement taken by the light meter (sensor). It will typically look something like this:

Exposure meter display on LCD

Exposure meter display in viewfinder

Each number represents a stop change in the light, as indicated, with the central mark being the “correct” exposure, as determined by the light meter. Each pip between the numbers represents one third of a stop. The arrow underneath indicates how close the current settings are to the correct exposure. Usually in priority modes, the arrow will stay in the middle as the light meter will be able to set the exposure correctly. However, if for example you set your aperture to 1/400sec in Tv (shutter priority mode) and the light meter indicated that you needed an aperture of f4, but your lens was only capable of f5.8, then the exposure meter will display one stop of underexposure. You will need to compensate for this by setting a longer shutter time, or increasing the ISO.

The juggling act becomes more complicated, and the light meter’s assistance more valuable, when you go to full manual control of the exposure. Here the exposure meter simply displays whether the current settings will under or over expose the image, according to the light meter. The photographer can freely change any of the values on the exposure triangle, and see the change to the predicted versus recommended exposure.

Exposure compensation

Even though the light meter in your camera is pretty sophistocated, sometimes it can get it wrong, especially with harsh contrasts, or highly reflective surfaces. Changing metering modes may help this, but a more controlled approach is to use exposure compensation. Imagine you are photographing a person against a large bright sky. The light meter thinks the sky is the most important part, and exposes correctly for that, leaving the person a dark silhouette. By using exposure compensation, you can tell the camera to take the metered exposure and make it brighter by a chosen amount. This will then allow the photographer to correctly expose the person. I’ll look at exposure compensation in more detail in a future post.

Examples

To show you how the different exposure modes might work in real world situations, here are some scenarios. The settings given below are what they happened to be for the examples shown. Settings for your own photo will be different.

Scanario 1 - Sports

• High speed is needed to freeze action
• Use Shutter Priority
• Set shutter speed to 1/800sec
• The light meter sets the aperture to f10
• If under exposed, change ISO to compensate - ISO400

Scanario 2 - Portrait

• An artistic narrow depth of field is desired
• Use Aperture Priority
• Set aperture to f5.6
• The light meter sets the shutter to 1/160sec
• If under exposed, change ISO to compensate - ISO100

Scenario 3 - Night scenery

• Ambient light is too low to accurately meter
• Use full Manual
• Set aperture to suit scene, erring to wider - f11
• Set a long shutter speed to light meter’s best guess - 20sec
• Set ISO to lowest possible for correct exposure - ISO100
• Take a test shot and adjust settings if the light meter got it wrong

Scenario 4 - Off-camera manual flash

• On auto, meter the scene and note settings
• Set camera to one or two stops under exposed
• Set up flashes and tweak power to expose correctly
• Tweak the flashes exposure by adjusting aperture
• Tweak the ambient light by adjusting shutter speed
• Settings for example shot: 1/160sec f8 ISO125, click image for flash details.

Homework

• Put the camera in auto mode and half press the shutter. While looking through the viewfinder, pan around a scene and see how the automatically selected camera settings - f ratio and shutter speed - change. This preview will disappear after a few seconds, so half press the shutter again for another look.
• Set the camera in shutter priority mode and choose a shutter speed for effect, eg: short for sports, long for motion blur. Shoot different scenes and note how the camera adjusts the aperture to balance the exposure.
• Do the same as above for aperture - wide for shallow depth of field, narrow for focus detail at all distances.
• Get adventurous and put the camera on full manual. Adjust the camera settings yourself, and watch the arrow below the exposure meter. Tweak the settings to get the arrow in the middle of the meter - half press the shutter while looking at your scene to take a meter reading.
• Try to apply what you have learned to make creative photos that take advantage of the different exposure modes.

Resources

• Light meter - at Wikipedia
• Understanding Camera Metering and Exposure - At Cambridge in Colour
• Ultimate Exposure Computer - At fredparker.com
• Aperture and Shutter Priority Modes - at Digital Photography School

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

Photography 101.8 - The Light Meter

Check out 20 incredible Photo Manipulation examples below for inspiration in your own work. All images can be found at Imagekind.com.

Desperation by Josh Sommers

No One Wanted To Be Sued by M Fortune

Dizzy crowd by Martine Roch

Limits by Stephanie Bennett

Corsairs from Sirocco by Bartlomiej Jurkowski

Anatomy by Lisa KC

Hope Springs Eternal by PhotoDream .

Everything inside never comes out right. by Karen Biggs

Untitled by Sarolta Bán

The Whisper by Neil Carey

squid,seashell and crab by Pawel Wewiorski

One With the Earth by Day Seriani

DREAMING AGAIN by METROFADER

Storm by Lydia Marano

the loss of innocence by Ana Fagarazzi

My dream is to fly by Amalia Iuliana

The Last Angel by WanderingSoul

Day 144 - Little darling, it feels like years since by Miriness Photography

I am not a perfect man by O O

Little Fae by Tara Naomi Boliek

See more Photo Manipulation artwork at Imagekind.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

20 Incredible Photo Manipulation Examples

1. Navigator

In the top left corner of the Library and Develop modules you’ll see the Navigator. Beside it are the Fit, Fill, 1:1 and 3:1 options. Click these to resize the image in the current window to various sizes including fitting in the space, filling it and 1:1 and 3:1 resizing options. Other sizing ratios are available from the dropdown list.

The 1:1 ratio is particularly useful when you’re sharpening an image. You may already know that, when you hold the Alt key as you drag on the sharpening sliders the small preview image turns to a grayscale mask showing you the impact of the slider on the image.

If you are in 1:1 preview, the entire image acts as the preview, allowing you to focus in on a much larger area of the image and see the sharpening effect. 3:1 and other larger sizes also work but 1:1 is the minimum size

2. Switches

Switches in Lightroom appear in areas such as the Develop module where they can be used to enable or disable a setting such as the Tone Curve. Switch the switch to the up position to turn it on and to the down position to turn it off.

When using the Adjustments Brush the switch works from left to right to select to work with one fix at a time (Effect Buttons) or to work with multiple adjustments at once (Effect Sliders).

3. Arrows

In the Library > Keyword list panel, you can click the arrow to the right of a keyword to view images that have that keyword associated with them.

These arrows only appear when you are hovering over a keyword in the list.

4. Expand/Collapse Triangles

Throughout the Develop panel, for example, are small triangles beside the various options that you can click on to display or hide that option. For example, when Detail is not visible click its triangle and the detail panel will display.

There is another triangle directly below the Detail triangle which appears only when it is expanded. Click this to display and hide the sharpening preview dialog.

Watch out for these triangles - sometimes they aren’t light gray and are, instead, almost black and difficult to see.

5. Area Picker

Also in the Detail area of the Develop module is a small square icon with lines radiating from it that you can click on and then click on an area of the image to determine what shows in the preview panel for the sharpening process. This icon has a visible tooltip which helps identify what it does - most do not.

6. Eyedropper

In the Develop panel’s Basic module is a white balance selector icon. Click it and click on an area of the image which should be white.

This adjusts the white balance of the image based on that selection. It also displays a small 25 x 25 pixel grid showing the pixels in the general area so that you can be more accurate in your selection.

7. Adjustment Markers

When you use the Adjustment Brush or the Graduated Filter, you will see a marker on the image which, when you click on it turns into a black circle surrounded by a lighter circle.

This marks the adjustment or the filter and you need to click this to select it before you can make alterations to the adjustment or to the filter.

8. Invisible clickable rotation options

In the Print module, watch out for items that don’t even look like they are selectable.

For example, in the Overlays > Identity Plate area when you have the identity plate enabled there is a small indicator to the right of it showing the current rotation in degrees.

If you click it you will see a popup menu offering other rotation options.

9. Way big buttons

Watch out for panels at the top of dialogs which can contain selectable options. For example, a dialog that has a large area like that shown in this image is often selectable offering different options but because it doesn’t look like a typical selectable option, it’s easy to overlook.

10. Direct Adjustment tool

In some areas such as the Tone Curve and Hue/Saturation Lightness in the Develop module you’ll see a small adjustment indicator in the top left of the panel area.

Click it and then drag on the image to change the image at that point.

While in Photoshop CS3 you would drag left to right to alter the sliders, in Lightroom you’ll typically drag up and down with this tool.

While these aren’t all the unusual buttons that you’ll find in Lightroom, it should help you understand that a lot of the features in Lightroom are hidden behind icons and buttons for which even a program like Photoshop is no adequate preparation for locating, understanding and using.

Post from: Digital Photography School - Photography Tips.

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