Creative Christmas Books

Best of Show
As of now, my daughter and granddaughter, heads lovingly together, are the best of some 1400 images. Their beauty is apparent; they are deeply linked by heart and heritage. They make me very proud…

Times are tight, money’s slow; what can you create for grandkids or kids or a loved one for Christmas?

I’ve got a Family Collection Set in Lightroom!
I went back to my first digital images, began collecting by year, then by event ~ pretty soon, I had over 1400 images. Then Scott Kelby published a blog on his travel workflow. Bottom line ~ he created 2 Collection Sets with Picks for books – 1 Pick for family Vacation, another for Fine Art. Bingo ~ new idea. Thanks, Scott...
For me, this meant creating two unique Christmas books; one for each grand girl. I didn't really want a collection of both; I'd rather have each girl get her own book to create her own memories.
Enter Lightroom's Picks; I simply go through and flag images of both girls, then separate them into individual Collection Sets in the main Lightroom catalog. When I had individual sets ready, I'd export them to main desktop catalog, move that to the laptop, then work up the book on the laptop using Blurb BookSmart. When done, I'd Export the modified desktop catalogs to the studio laptop, then Import them to the main Lightroom catalog. As my last step, I'd move any auxiliary BookSmartData files from Blurb over under Projects folder on my studio computer’s external hard drive.

Standard Lightroom Pick Workflow
There's real power in Lightroom's Pick flag. If you see a photo you like, simply press P and Lightroom sets a flag on that image. Then create a picks collection set with Best, Both, Grandpa, Kylie, and Maddy. Since I'm collecting images per girl for the last four years, I've got to go through several individual Collection Sets from 2004-2008 to compile one set just for that girl. It's just a matter of being patient; 1444 originals boiled down to 67 starters. That will become 40 finalists when the girl’s books are done.
Drudgery is over...




Creative Blurb Workflow
Now the fun begins!
Photomatix has a plug-in for Lightroom; it allows me to preload Lightroom images to make an HDR image. Plug-ins really simplify set up steps I am about to describe. But, when I checked HDRsoft, Blurb had no mention of any plug-ins for Lightroom (too bad!).
So it was time to wing it and create my own workflow. I chose a standard 10x8 20 page softcover book from Blurb. I then chose a picture layout with one column for text and a title.
With both Lightroom and BookSmart open, I created one page at a time in BookSmart. If I had an image in Lightroom, I'd look at it, decide if it was how I wanted presented in the book, make changes with the Develop module if necessary, then click the Export button and save that image as a full JPEG in a folder for one girl.
Using Get Photos from BookSmart, I'd go get that photo and import it to BookSmart. I'd then drag and drop that photo onto the gray image area on each page. Then, I begin to write a description of memories that particular image evoked. Pretty soon, I'd have all 20 pages done.
Before I forget, my first two steps were to choose memorable images which I thought were Best of Kid then put them on front and back covers of each book.

I had the idea about noon one day; by noon the next day, the first book was ready to print for proofing. Yes, I did some back-and-forth as I decided how I wanted that book to look. But I knew once I had that book’s format, I had the second book nearly done!
After the proof step (or steps - I nag at words as I edit), I simply upload the book, purchase a copy, it comes by mail, I wrap it, and a girls heartfelt Christmas present is ready... with lots of deep love from grandpa and true delight on Christmas Day!

BTW, there's another aspect to this work. If I'm skillful in my writing, I'll be able to remind my granddaughters of an early history both through gorgeous pictures and clearly expressed love and feelings! Now, I consider that a low dollar creative family Christmas history...

Bosque’s Memorable Brilliance

©Joe Bridwell
A cold but still morning found Bosque birds on the move. As the sun burned underbellies of capping clouds and began lightening distant hills, hunger called birds aloft.
A relatively short handheld lens ranged behind this flock; yet, image clarity balances an off-axis presence of the uppermost bird, where all are capped by morning’s glory.
Although these birds are normally white-gray, morning’s gentle, forgiving light, filtered through distant atmosphere lying east, shows such a wonderful concordance of soft, pastel color between sharp, in-focus birds and slightly out-of-focus hills as backdrop.
Nikon D300, 70-300mm, 155mm, 1/500, f4.5, iso 200, 0700 112308

Laptop Workflow
These days, my blog or workshop is written on a laptop. I put an image in Word, I pick up a microphone, and I begin to talk around the image. Pretty soon, a well edited piece, often containing multiple images, is the result.
That morning, I filled two 4 GB cards. With other commitments, it took a day before I actually uploaded the cards; I put images on the studio's external hard drive.

But Lightroom 2 contains a lot of the 'grease' to simplify this process. Indeed, this image took a few minor nondestructive changes and it was ready to publish. To start the blog, I needed to do several things:
1. Go through initial images, throwing away out-of-focus or badly composed images. Voilà... essentially, shooting rapid fire, many shots produced only a few usable images.
2. To make that decision, I uploaded all cards, imported images with metadata, then went through using flags to Pick (P) or Reject (X).
3. With a 4 a.m. Bosque departure, when those cards were uploaded, I was still tired. So I exported images converted on the studio to make flag choices on laptop, then re-imported to begin development.
4. Bosque’s Memorable Brilliance used Lightroom's Develop module to perform the following steps:
a. Create a Virtual Copy of original DNG image.
b. Tweak Exposure, Clarity, Vibrance, Strong Tone Contrast, TAT (Lighten Clouds), Gradient Filter, and Landscape Sharpen Preset. I do this color work on studio computer with a calibrated monitor.
c. Save as a full-size JPEG.
d. Downsize JPEG using CS3 and return image to catalog.
5. Export appropriate images to laptop to write this blog.
6. When I'm done, it'll end up on an external hard drive on the studio computer with main catalog up to date from this new effort.

Checkout Scott Kelby’s Laptop Workflow In today's Photoshop Insider blog, Scott Kelby talked about a recent vacation where he used Lightgroom’s Collections, flags, and labels to quickly create Picks and Selects for a Travel Slideshow and a Fine Art Book.
For this Bosque trip, I shot two classes of images; birds in flight and five shot HDR still images. I found Collecting five HDR images in a unique collection let me quickly use the Photomatix plug-in to decide if HDR shots were any good.

Blog Rolls

Last summer, my digital horizons began expanding.  Quickly, I became aware there are good blogs, better blogs, and consistently top blogs.  Before I began blogging, I was using browser favorites to keep up with what was new.  It might take an hour per morning to browse, download the PDF, and read at some other time.  I didn't want to sign up for e-mail or RSS; it seemed better to download if I needed it rather than to have it crud up an already beleaguered hard drive.
Then I began constructing my own blog.  Some of its benefits included Blog Rolls (Blog List from Google gadgets), an automatic feature under Layouts.  One can create a series of blog rolls on the right-hand side of the blog.  So I began to include blogs; rather than calling them a dull thing like Blog Rolls, I could create my own names (Big Guy’s (Gal's) Blogs).

New Way Home...
I really enjoy Blog Rolls now; there's provider's name, title, and how long ago the provider put that blog on the net.  Now, it's like a dynamic Table of Contents – latest first.  If I like the title, I click on it - just that blog comes on my screen, then I save it to a PDF.  If one of the blogs runs a regular progression on a certain weekday, and it is a very long download, I click on the provider's name, go down to the blog, and make a PDF.

Now, each time I read a new blogger, I'll look through their blog rolls and add anyone of new interest to my list.  Pretty quickly, I find out if they are active bloggers - top bloggers (content and timeliness) sort to the top each day.
When I found Lightroom Forums, I subscribed to several threads.  Now, at a glance, I can see where the latest newbie is confused, then read a moderator's clearly explained fix.
Or, in several Lightroom specific blogs, I might find a tutorial example which clearly shows a complicated workflow like merging catalogs using snapshots of different panels.

Try it; you might really like Blog Rolls for your blog...
Or, simply use mine!