+LAZY MAN’S AUTO-SYNC

May 8th, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Lightroom | No Comments »

While processing another massive batch of images, I boasted with pride to my team how Auto Sync is streamlining my workflow. All the while, I flicked my Alt, Ctrl, and Command keys like Beethoven as I waxed prophetic on my mastery of all things quick and tricky.

Then I noticed her. She had been my mistress of the night - always there but never given proper attention: the Previous button.

Previous is more like a poor man’s Auto Sync in that it works by applying the previous images develop settings to a newly selected image, thus ‘carrying over’ your adjustments. It still requires you to work image by image, and is a bit slower than Auto Sync - but has probably been staring you in the face for quite some time.

I can safely say my arsenal is complete when it comes to quickly making adjustments in succesion:

• Auto Sync will allow me to update a series of images all at once.
• The Alt key will toggle in and out additional Quick Develop controls.
• Previous will allow me to work image by image and ‘carry over’ my work as I fine tune my adjustments.

As I process volumess and volumes of images, the nuances of Lightroom and it’s flexibility continue to amaze me. I expect nothing less of v2.

Until next time, here’s to your Symphony No. 9

|Brandon Oelling
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+SUMMA’ SUMMA’ SUMMA’TIME

May 5th, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Zoe Rae | No Comments »

Ok well not quite, but one thing is for sure … Chicago has had some GREAT weather lately.

Sure … it could go from 75 to -4 overnight and snow 8 feet, but for now we’re out with our chalk drawing up a storm!

Best Wishes,

|Brandon Oelling
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+MAD MAX - TMax 3200 PRESET

May 2nd, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Lightroom, Presets | No Comments »

I have a Nikon D80 I use as my everyday camera, and at anything over ISO400 it gets quite noisy. Rather than throw Noise Ninja at it, I decided to embrace the noise - and build a preset to mimick one of my favorite types of film - Kodak Tmax 3200.

One thing to keep in mind …

This preset leans pretty heavy on the sharpening settings to accentuate the noise. Use the sharpening sliders to get the desired ‘grain’ on your image.

{download the preset here}

Looking for more presets … get ‘em here

Please share your work using the comments below!

Best Wishes,

|Brandon Oelling
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+ALT-ERED STATES

May 1st, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Lightroom | No Comments »

Continuing on with my exploration of time-saving keyboard tricks, I have become a huge fan of using the {Alt} key (mac or PC) to quickly access two functions I use daily: Tone Control and Export as Catalog.

During my first pass on a large job in the Library module, I not only rate images and select rejects, I also use the Tone Control sliders in the Quick Develop panel to adjust exposure. With a quick flick of the {Alt} key I can also slap the saturation around and if necessary, sharpen up any obvious soft images. It’s a quick way to reach controls normally relegated to the Develop module.

Once a job is completed, I often spend a few minutes overlooking all my work in grid view within the Library Module. When I am happy with what I see, I again tap the {Alt} key and select Export as Catalog and send the job on its way.

I really like how this quick shortcut saves me from having to bounce in and out of the Develop Module or application menu(s).

Are there any other special key combinations that you use to sped up your workflow?

Best Wishes,

|Brandon Oelling
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+WORDPRESS TO IMPRESS

May 1st, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Blogging, The Business, Web Technoogy | 1 Comment »

Any photographer with a website should also have a blog.

If you don’t, it’s like playing the PGA Tour without a putter - no serious competitor would ever do so.

We’re devout Wordpress users, and their newest interface and system upgrades are SPECTACULAR

Now … hit the links!

Best Wishes,

|Brandon Oelling
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+THE WONDERFUL WORLD OF DISNEY and ONE SPRINKLER

May 1st, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Zoe Rae | No Comments »

Let’s see …

1. $200 in tickets to Disney world
2. $100 Million in rides all around us
3. Mickey, Minnie, Goofy, Donald, and a hundred other characters to be seen

… and the most excitement we got out of her all day was when she saw the sprinklers.

Thanks for the laughs Zoe!

Love,

Daddy

+TWITTER ME CRITTER

April 30th, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Social | No Comments »

Ok yes … we are on Twitter as well. We’re using a very cool service aptly named Twitterfeed to auto-post our blog entries to Twitter … very cool stuff.

Best Wishes,

|Brandon Oelling
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+SYNC OR BE SYNC’D

April 29th, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Lightroom | No Comments »

Auto Sync has changed my life.

I have easily squeezed an hour out of my workflow by making Auto Sync a primary tool in my arsenal.

I won’t go so far as to say Auto Sync is a ‘hidden’ control, rather it’s just a bit out of the way in the interface - accessible via the {Ctrl} key on PC or {Command} key on Mac. Let’s look at a sample workflow.

Here we have a series of 3 images that I want to correct:

First, I’ll select all the images I wish to correct, then hold down the {Ctrl} key on PC or {Command} key on Mac and select Auto Sync:

Before I make any adjustments I also increase the size of the thumbnails to get a feel for the adjustment(s) as they propagate across my selection:

Once all my adjustments are complete, I hold down the {Ctrl} key on PC or {Command} key on Mac and select to set things back to the plain old Sync mode we see as the Lightroom default.

The possibilities are endless with this tool. You can auto sync not only develop panel adjustment … but also croppings, even spot removal!

This is one of those techniques that allows us all to work SMARTER and not HARDER … which is always a step in the right direction in my book.

Until next time … happy sync’ing!

|Brandon Oelling
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+HAVE XMP, WILL TRAVEL

April 18th, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Lightroom, Storage | No Comments »

Our team process a lot of photos, i mean A LOT of photos.

10 Terabytes (TB) worth of images have been know to fly through our studio on a weekly basis as we process and deliver a myriad of jobs for our customers. The bulk of these images are received, archived, and delivered either online or through our intranet. Even with smaller archives of 1TB, the challenge inherent in assets of this size is moving them around an internal network or (gulp) online.

When a client provides us with original with RAW files and/or DNG’s, the last thing we want to do is have to deliver the original files back when the only post-processed assets created are XMP or DNG updates via Lightroom. To enable a quick download and archive for the client (or yourslf), we have been shipping XMP files or DNG updates exclusively.

A couple of quick setup items in Lightroom ensure all our work is tucked nicely into the XMP or DNG:

• Set all catalogs to automatically write changes into XMP

- or -

• Manually select ’save metadata to file’ when all your Lightroom updates are complete

Whichever method you choose, the goal is to make sure your updates are written to file. Lightroom will place the XMP sidecar file next to the RAW file they are based on, and DNG files will be updated directly into the file that was originally imported.

Here’s a quick look at our workflow …

The original files in Lightroom (pre-adjustment) :

All photos provided courtesy of Cindy Fandl Photography

The same files viewable on disk:

After our adjustments in Lightroom:

The resulting XMP sidecar files:

As you can see, the resulting sidecar files and their size are trivial relative to the size of the original RAW files. We deliver these XMP files to the customer, or import them into the location of the archival images.

It is truly this easy? … indeed it is. Although, a couple issues to be aware of:

• Commit your virtual copies if you wish to archive those changes outside of your catalog
• To avoid copying the entire file, as all updates are written directly into the DNG format, use a sync utility like rsync to manage updates back to disk.

Until next time … happy shooting!

|Brandon Oelling
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+COLORS AND BOOKS

April 15th, 2008 by brandon | Posted in Zoe Rae | No Comments »

Zoe has a MASSIVE, and I mean MASSIVE collection of books. Every Sunday we spend time basking in the morning light reading her books while she asks me over and over “what color is this?”

I just love these times.

{processed using our new x=smooth+as+velvia preset}

Best Wishes,

|Brandon Oelling
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