It’s sometimes easy to underestimate the importance of a good tag and filtering process. If done right this can be a huge time saver. It’s also handy for archiving; when you return to these photos after weeks, months or years have passed you are immediately able to see the original tags you applied.

1. Loupe View
The first thing you’ll want to do is make sure you’re in Loupe view of your photos. This allows you to easily view each individual photo as you scroll them. To do this, simply hit the E key on your keyboard, or go to View > Loupe. Now, starting with the first photo in your series, you can simply use the left and right arrow keys to scroll through the Filmstrip (the scrolling list of photos at the bottom of the screen).

2. Flags, Stars and Colors
Lightroom offers you several options to tag and filter your photos. One thing to keep in mind when sorting through these filtering options is whether or not the tag is global. If it is global, it will be recognized by Lightroom regardless of what folder, collection or catalog the photo resides in. If it’s not global, the tag you apply will only be visible within the folder or collection that you are viewing at the time.

• Flags – Quick and easy way to indicate whether a photo is to be kept or deleted. Not global.
  • Flagged (Hit P key) – Marks photo as a keeper
  • Unflagged (Hit U key) – Removes any previously applied tag.
  • Rejected (Hit X key) – Marks photo as rejected
• Stars (Hit 1-5 on keyboard, or 0 to remove stars) – Fairly straightforward way to indicate whether a photo is “meh” or if it’s “AWESOME”! Stars are globally recognized.
• Colors (Hit 6-9 on keyboard) – Nifty way to assign a group to a set of photos. For example, all Green photos need to be cropped, all Red photos need to be changed to black and white, etc. Colors are globally recognized as well.

One thing to keep in mind is that Photoshop can also recognize global tags. So, if you have just flagged a photo in Lightroom and opened in Photoshop for editing, when you save the photo it is automatically added to your Lightroom catalog but it will not retain the Flag that you had previously applied. Photoshop does retain all Star ratings and Color labels that you have applied, but not Flags.

3. Filtering Fun!
Now that all the “hard work” is done (bless your soul), it’s easy to use the filter options in the toolbar to display only certain sets of photos. Simply click on the filtering method of your choice to display only the photos with those tags.

Tagging and filtering has become the very first thing I do with my photos after they are imported. It’s especially useful if you are importing a large amount of photos at one time as it helps you narrow down the best photos to a manageable list.

Other articles in this series

• Adobe Lightroom Workflow – Part 1 – Importing Photos

Many people deal with white balance by simply setting their digital camera to Auto White Balance (AWB). While cameras do fairly well at achieving good white balance automatically, there are a few steps you can take to insure more accurate depiction of colors.

The absolute easiest way to get accurate white balance is incorporating a gray card into your workflow. With a gray card, you simply take a photo of the gray card in the lighting scenario you’re working with; you then have a solid reference point for middle gray, usually defined as 18% gray (though some claim that camera and light meters see closer to a 12% gray).

Get a Gray Card
My favorite gray cards are the WhiBal range of cards from RawWorkflow.com. When I first started practicing photography with a gray card, I got a 4×5″ card that didn’t fit in my camera bag so I always forgot to take it on location sessions. To remedy this, I picked up a card that I keep on my keychain for $18. Now I’ve got a handy gray card with me wherever I go. I simply setup the scene and then snap a photo of my subject/model holding up the keychain-sized gray card.

Balance It Out
After you’ve captured a gray card in your photo, it’s incredibly easy to set the white balance inside Photoshop. The easiest way is to open the photo inside Camera Raw.

Simply choose the White Balance Tool in Camera Raw (the eyedropper icon toward the top left corner of the window) and click on an area of the gray card.

As an experiment, I purposely messed up the white balance so that the gray was wasn’t anywhere near actual gray:

One click on the WhiBal gray card instantly corrects the color of the image:

This illustrates the effectiveness of the gray card and shows that it works even if your camera’s white balance setting was inaccurate.

This method works great with both RAW and JPEG images, so regardless of your shooting preference you can be sure to end up with accurate color through custom white balance with a gray card.

This isn’t a problem when it comes to printing your photos. In fact, the more pixels you have the better your printed photos will look. The problem arises when we just want to share these pictures on the web or email a few of them to a friend or relative. You see, the more pixels an image uses, the larger its file size will be. Large file sizes mean longer downloads for your friends and family, and can also be the reason why your emails won’t go through (many email servers won’t accept messages larger than 10mb).

So, we are often left with the task of resizing these images so that they are “web ready.” That is, reduced in dimension (how large they appear on screen) and in file size (how much room they take up on your hard drive). Resizing images is a simple task, but it can quickly become a boring and tedious task if you have more than just a few images to resize.

There are a couple of little known features in Photoshop, called Batches and Droplets, that allows us to perform an Action (or a series of Actions) on many photos at once. If you often edit hundreds of photos in a given month, this feature will save you hours of time.

Before we get into the details about automating Photoshop with Batches and Droplets, we need to take a quick look at Photoshop Actions. Actions are used to record anything you may do to an image, such as applying a favorite filter or resizing, and assigning it to a keyboard shortcut. For example, if you find yourself resizing your images to 800px wide and then applying the Unsharp Mask filter, you can create an Action to do these processes, and then execute them by simply pressing a key on your keyboard. You can record just one edit/process, or record many edits within a single Action.

Create a New Action in Photoshop

To create a new Action, click the New Action button within the Action window. If the Action window isn’t on your screen, click Window > Action from the main menu or press Alt + F9 (Windows) on your keyboard.

When you create a new Action, a dialog box will appear. You can choose where to save your action, what to name it (use a descriptive name) and what key or key combination to assign to the Action. Click Record when you’re ready to begin recording your new Action.

At this point, apply the edits that you routinely do to your image: resizing, applying filters, save to web, etc. Don’t worry about trying to do things quickly. Photoshop is only recording what you click, not how quickly you click around the screen. When you’re done, click the Stop Playing/Recording button in the Action window. Note: you’ll want to include saving the file as part of your Action if you intend to use the Action in a Batch or Droplet.

Now, anytime you want to apply that action to an image you’ve loaded into Photoshop, either highlight your Action and click the Play button, or simply press the key you assigned to the Action. Your edits will be made in the blink of an eye!

Edit Multiple Pictures with a Photoshop Batch

Now that you’ve seen how handy Actions can be, lets see how we can apply them on a large scale. You can apply any Action you’ve created to a Batch of photos, which can save you lots of tedious work.

To apply your Action to a Batch, click File > Automate > Batch from the main menu.

A new window will appear that shows all of the Batch settings you’ll configure. The most important settings are which Action to apply, where the images you want to edit are stored, and where to save the edited images. Note that you must apply a Batch to all photos within a folder. You cannot selectively apply the batch to particular images (but you can with a Droplet, which I’ll discuss in a moment).

Once you’ve configured your Batch, click OK at the top and sit back to watch the magic. Photoshop will apply your Action to every photo in the chosen folder and save them to the folder you indicated in the Batch settings.

Using a Photoshop Droplet to edit Multiple Pictures

A Droplet is simply a Batch that you’ve saved to your computer. When you set up a Droplet, you’re actually setting up a Batch job and then saving it. This creates a special Droplet icon that you can drag and drop a folder or selected image files onto. So, the next time you have lots of photos to edit, you can just drag and drop to the Droplet Icon and your job is done.

Creating a Droplet is very similar to creating a Batch job. Click File > Automate > Create Droplet from the menu.

From there, configure the droplet settings, which you’ll notice are nearly identical to the Batch setting you saw a few moments ago. The most obvious difference is that you must designate a place to save the Droplet icon, and that you won’t choose a folder that contains images you wish to edit (because you’re going to drag and drop the photos you wish to edit onto the Droplet icon).

When you’re done setting up the Droplet, click the OK button at the top of the window. You’ll find that a Droplet icon has been saved to where you’ve indicated. Now, any time you want to apply your common edits to one or several photos, just drag and drop them onto the Droplet icon. You don’t even need to have Photoshop open, it will open for you automatically.

Something you should realize about Droplets is that every time you use them, your edited images will be sent to the same place. It’s best to set up a temporary folder for the droplet to send your edited photos to and then move them to a more permanent place afterwards.

One more thing to remember is that you can have lots of Droplets! Set up a Droplet for each of your common edits and let Photoshop do all the work!

Related Products:

The thing about black and white conversion is that one process doesn’t always work the best for every photo. There are several different methods because sometimes certain methods work better than others for the picture in question.

What we’ll cover here is a quick way to to create an Action that will automatically add the most popular black and white conversion techniques to your photo. We’ll combine this action with Layer Comps to give you an easy way to run through each of the conversion options to get a glimpse of what works best with your photo. I tend to lovingly refer to this technique as, Not Yo Mama’s Black and White Conversion.

1. Document Setup
The first thing to do is open your photo inside Photoshop and then go to the Actions panel (Window > Action). If you haven’t played around with actions before, you may only see the Default Actions set inside this panel. Click on the little folder icon in the bottom right corner of the panel to create a new set and give the set a name. I named mine “Bo’s Actions”.

2. Create Your Action
Click on the little paper icon to the right of the folder icon to create a new action. This will bring up a dialog box where you can name your action, designate which set you’d like to store the action in (make sure the set you created in step 1 is selected) and assign a keyboard shortcut and color to the action if you wish. These last settings are optional, so once you are ready to continue hit the Record button.

It’s worth noting that Actions are not time-based recordings; the action will only record changes you make to your document. So, no need to rush through this. Take your time and focus on getting the steps setup correctly.

3. Hue/Saturation Adjustment Layer
We’ll be adding on a series of adjustment layers. First up is a Hue/Saturation layer. In the Layers panel, click the icon at the bottom of the panel to create a new adjustment layer and choose Hue/Saturation from the list.

In the settings for your Hue/Saturation layer, simply drag the Saturation slider all the way to the left (-100) to completely desaturate the image. That’s all that is needed for this adjustment layer, so return to your Layers panel and click on the eye icon next to the Hue/Saturation layer to hide it.

4. Gradient Map
Still in the Layers panel, click the create adjustment layer icon again and choose Gradient Map from the options. Simply make sure that the gradient is the black to white gradient which is the default. Now like you did before, return to the Layers panel and hide the Gradient Map layer.

5. Black & White Adjustment Layer
In the Layers panel, click the icon to add a Black & White adjustment layer. There’s no need to change any of the settings or options for this layer as it does a pretty decent job on its own. Simply return to the Layers panel and hide the Black & White adjustment layer.

6. Channel Mixer Layers
Back in the Layers panel, click to add a new Channel Mixer adjustment layer. From the main drop-down menu you’ll see an few preset options. For this first layer, select the Black & White Infrared option. Then return to your Layers panel and hide the layer.

Repeat this process for each of the Channel Mixer presets:

• Black & White with Blue Filter
• Black & White with Green Filter
• Black & White with Orange Filter
• Black & White with Red Filter
• Black & White with Yellow Filter

This may seem a little tedious right now, but keep in mind that you’re only going to have to do this once and your action will do all the heavy lifting from here on out. Simply make sure that after you create each new adjustment layer and select a preset that you return to the Layers panel and hide that layer. When you are done, your Layers panel should look like the illustration to the right.

7. Layer Comps
At this point, we’ve got all of our adjustment layers added to our document. However, it would be tedious to have to flip through each of the layers one at a time to see the effects of the adjustments; this is where Layer Comps come in.

While your action is still recording, go back to the first Hue/Saturation adjustment layer you created in the Layers panel and click on the eye icon to show that layer–your photo and the Hue/Saturation layer are the only two layers that should be visible at this poing. Bring up the Layer Comps panel (Window > Layer Comps) and click the little page icon in the bottom right corner of the panel to add a new layer comp. Type in “Hue/Saturation” as the name of the comp and hit OK.

Now go back to your Layers panel, hide the Hue/Saturation layer and then click on the eye icon for the Gradient Map layer so that your photo and the Gradient Map are the only two visible layers. Return to your Layer Comps panel and add a new comp called “Gradient Map”. Return to the Layers panel and hide the Gradient Map again, then repeat the process for the rest of the layers. By the end of the process, your Layer Comps panel should look like the illustration to the right.

8. Top It Off With Curves
Just one last adjustment layer to add for a bit of flare. In the Layers panel, click to add a new Curves adjustment layer and choose Medium Contrast from the presets drop-down. Now return to the Layers panel and hide this layer.

9. Stop and Play!
At this point, you can stop your action from recording by returning to the Actions panel (Window > Actions) and clicking on the stop icon at the bottom of the panel.

Now you can review the benefit of your hard work by pulling up the Layer Comps panel and clicking on the little box to the left of your comps to make that comp visible. You can easily scroll through each of the comps to see which black and white adjustment looks best for the particular photo you’re working on at the time.

10. Fine Tune with Curves
If one of the adjustments gets close but not quite there, there’s some fine tuning we can do. You can now make your Curves layer visible at any time. Since we added the Medium Contrast preset, it will intensify the shadows and highlights in your black and white layer. If it’s too much contrast, simply lower the opacity of the Curves layer. Still not satisfied? Pull up the Curves adjustment panel and choose another preset or manipulate the curve on your own.

However, remote access for my Mac has been a different story. I recently began using the free version of LogMeIn.com with much success. So seeing LogMeIn.com at the top of Lifehackers “Hive Five” list validates the opinions of the readers.

The benefits of LogMeIn.com is that it is cross-platform and allows you Internet browser-based access, so you don’t have to install any software on the client machine; only a small application is require to be installed on the target machine. Also, it’s free!

Setup
First, I walked through their painless registration process to create my account. Then, on the Mac I wanted to connect to I installed the required application and set an access password. That’s it. No ports to forward or firewall settings to battle with.

Connect
From any Windows or Mac machine, I simply login to my LogMeIn.com account, type in the access code for the Mac I want to connect to, and I’m in! A little notification window appears to let anyone who may be sitting in front of the computer I’m remotely controlling that it is being accessed via LogMeIn.com.

The user who is currently logged in to the target computer is not logged out, so LogMeIn.com would be an excellent option for remotely assisting a friend, family member, or client. So long as they don’t mind taking a few moments to install the required application to admit remote access.

If you’re looking to make some photos that are more natural and pleasing, check out the following tips. If you’re just now starting out, check out our 10 tips to get started in photography.

1. Get to know the sun
The best natural lighting will occur the hour or so before the sun sets and after the sun rises. To get exact times for both sunrise and sunset, check out the USNO Sun and Moon Data site.

2. Look for shade
If you’ve got to shoot a portrait when the sun is out, look for some shade. The shade will soften the light and make it easier for your subject not to squint. There’s bound to be a tree or building nearby that you can use to escape direct sunlight.

3. Watch where you meter
When you take a meter reading of the scene, typically your camera will adjust the exposure so that the brightest areas (areas in direct sunlight) are well exposed. This will sometimes underexpose the shady areas and can be very challenging when shooting an outdoor portrait.

Try focusing on a shaded area (a shadow on the ground, or have your subject turn their back to the sun and focus in tight on their face) and take a meter reading. Now take the photo; you might blow some highlights in the bright areas, but this will keep your subject well exposed and will create a bright, dynamic surrounding for them.

If you’re wanting to create a silhouette, reverse this technique. Focus in on a very bright area (a big white cloud or the sun itself) and take your meter reading. Take the photo and the bright sun or clouds will be well exposed, but your subject will be thrown in the dark creating a nice, crisp silhouette.

4. White balance
Your best bet here is to use a gray card. However, if you don’t have one (or forgot yours at home), then your best bet would be to put your White Balance setting on Cloudy, even for direct sunlight or shaded areas. The Cloudy WB setting makes things a little warmer and gives you some nice, pleasing tones.

If all else fails, you can correct your White Balance settings afterwards using Camera Raw. I mean, you are shooting in raw, right? Right?!?

5. Use a reflector
A reflector can help bounce and direct light into areas where it might not normally go. You can use a wide range of objects such as a white bed sheet, a white shirt, a white wall, or you can opt for a good collapsible reflector.

If using a translucent material, the reflector can also double as a diffuser. If you’re in an open area without any shade, you can use the material to shade your subject from direct sunlight.

6. Be aware of your surroundings
When photographing outdoors, you have limitless possibilities of interesting elements that can benefit your photos. There are also a large number of elements that can be distracting.

Watch out for parking lots, traffic, street signs, power lines, etc. Depending on the type of photos you’re taking, these things can be distracting.

7. Freeze the action
Being outside in the daylight can allow for faster shutter speeds, which makes it easier to “freeze” motion. If shooting sports or action, use a shutter speed for at least 1/250 second to stop the action.

8. Sunny Day 16 Rule
For quick reference to exposure, remember the Sunny Day 16 rule. On a sunny day, set your aperture at f/16. Now your ISO speed will be relative to your shutter speed. For example, setting your ISO at 200 will mean that setting your shutter speed at 1/200 or 1/250 will result in an accurate exposure.

If shooting in the shade, simply change your aperture to f/8 and the rule still applies!

9. Narrow your depth of field
When shooting portraits, try opening up your aperture to f/2.8 or f/4. This not only helps to separate your subject from the background, but can also make something as drab as a line of trees into an interesting and beautiful backdrop.

10. Don’t forget the water!
One of my first outdoor shoots was during the middle of summer. The session was meant to last 30 minutes but ended up going an hour longer. I was hot and sweaty and extremely thirsty, but we were nowhere near a water fountain or gas station, so I just had to deal with it. Ever since then, I’ve made sure that there was a water bottle packed in my bag.