Odds and Ends

What, you didn't put up a picture - why is that?
Several reasons; First, I want to call attention to an error in the blog a few days ago. I got one of the Internet hooks wrong about videos on Lightroom 2. Here's the correction

Click on Julieanne Kost's What's New in Lightroom?
Pt 1 - Library Module
Pt 2 - Develop Module
Pt 3 - Exporting, Photoshop, and Output
Each video is 20-30 minutes long - she is a terrific LR2 teacher.

Second, each of us was fascinated with the historical moments created by Michael Phelps at the Beijing Olympics. I, for one, immensely enjoyed Vincent Laforet’s New York Times blog reporting as a professional photographer. In my blogroll about photographers, Vincent posted a change of blog address; when I read through the new blog, I discovered an article about how many gigabytes and images his Beijing photography consumed.
Would you believe 6 cameras, over 28,000 images, and  480 Gigabytes of space?
He used Aperture to process images, I use Lightroom 2. Both reduce the workload significantly.
You can read all about it here.

Third, and today is a day to go shoot near where the longest dinosaur was ever found on our planet ~ Sam the Seismosaurus. Really, we're actually planning to go shoot Ojito hoodoos. Now, how do you pronounce Ojito?

Is Lightroom 2 an iPhone on Steroids?

Sound like an Apple/Adobe commercial?
... not really. It's the simple, truth about amazing versatility of Lightroom 2...

It's a series of comments as part of training videos from National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP), Scott Kelby and Matt Kloskowski. Between Kelby's new Lightroom 2 book and Kloskowski's new Lightroom 2 In-Depth DVD, these guys are teaching Lightroom to photographers. That particular video is their last item titled Lightroom versus Photoshop discussion on NAPP’s new Lightroom 2 Learning Center.
But they make another huge point... a comparison between Bridge and Lightroom 2. At time spent on a personal workflow level, you might use Bridge, because it came with Photoshop CS3, after you come back from an on location shoot. On the other hand, you use Lightroom to manage years of portfolio images for quick access.
While professional photographers may shoot several hundred images a day, some photographers have thousands of images without metadata, copyright, or keyword search parameters which need proper organization. These K guys are constantly shooting and constantly teaching. Takes a lot of time to put forth a tutorial about any element of Adobe’s Digital photography package. They've a startling consensus; with Lightroom 2 as the principal all-around image processing vehicle, 75% of their shooting/teaching workflow time is now spent in Lightroom.
Once a week, NAPP produces videos for Photoshop User Magazine; several recent videos have tutored about Lightroom. You can download each video between Tuesday and Monday weekly here.
With only a month since Lightroom 2's release, NAPP and Adobe are producing both in-depth and free videos. I enjoyed Julieanne Kost, Adobe Digital Imaging Evangelist, explaining details of workflow processing in her tutorials and Adobe videos. Every once in a while, I'd stop her video just to see if I could do that particularly intricate workflow sequence in Lightroom. As you might expect, free videos (Adobe, NAPP) are teasers whereas in-depth videos sometimes require copious funds.

Update: My apologies - I got the Adobe Videos hook wrong. Here's the correction:

Click on Julieanne Kost's What's New in Lightroom? And Choose...
Pt 1 - Library Module
Pt 2 - Develop Module
Pt 3 - Exporting, Photoshop, and Output
Each video is 20-30 minutes long - she is a terrific LR2 teacher.
Do You have Comcast?


If you can save significant time, process all your new shoots, and make sure your entire portfolio is easily searchable, then perhaps you might want to upgrade to Lightroom 2... it's spectacular new gradient and adjustment tools will have a fantastic effect on your most dramatic images.

Lightroom 2 - Adobe's new USS Enterprise

Its been 42 years since Star Trek briefly blazoned across our Universe... DSLR cameras didn't even exist... Darth Vader has come and gone!
The latest buzz began a month ago; Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 was unveiled. The digital photographer's blogosphere went ballistic...
My first exposure to Lightroom 2 was a couple of videos showing new Adjustment and Graduated Filter tools - I watched in amazement as the new adjustment brush delicately enhanced body, wings, and tail of two completely different airplane images - all without requiring that exhausting quick selection/quick mask Photoshop solution to masking.
I sensed, "A Revolution in Our Midst... !" Did some Adobe wag deliberately choose a warped space-time continuum as an icon for the box cover?
Maybe not; but I think Lightroom 2 will warp how we do digital photography to a completely new way of faster, more sophisticated workflow.

It's possible to have LR2 in hand before you have a book or video to learn from. The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) is already producing video tutorials. Amazon will have Scott Kelby's book available September 21. Matt Kloskowski has in-depth videos on DVD through NAPP. Adobe TV shows a teaser LR2 series from Kloskowski; 8 to 10 minute overviews. Michael Clark, of Santa Fe New Mexico, has written an e-book explaining his use of LR2; it's been picked up as a source by Adobe. And each blogosphere rant gives us various other glimpses as this is written.
So what can I say that's new about LR2?
About a year ago, with my head pressed firmly into the wall of an ancient, remote Anasazi ruin, I did a handheld row-and-column multi-shot panorama. I came back to the mothership, tried to stitch it in CS2, and the stitching was a real mess. The next morning Jack Houser tried to stitch it in CS3 - it worked. Acting on gut instinct, I downloaded CS3. It's stitching was perfect - the image would later get Honorable Mention at the State Fair.
In the interim, CS3's Quick Selection tool and Quick Mask has slowly helped create several masked alpha channel versions of composite images which have recently won local awards and made it just below the final awards cut at the latest state fair. Privately, I was told by a highly decorated award-winning photographer who watched that judging ~ "You were robbed...!"

Conceptually, with what little I presently know about LR2, again my gut anticipates it will significantly enhance many aspects of professional photography digital workflow. If my new mothership tool can make archaic or even eliminate quick selection, quick masking, dodge and burn - just that response alone will clearly give me more time to shoot instead of compute. And, as my experience has gone with Photoshop, there will be amazing new little tips and tricks trickle out of LR2 for some time to come.

While Star Trek only lasted three years, The Next Generation has been with us for some time. May LR2 ~ Live Long and Prosper!