X-Equals – Click. Download. Smile.

Time, Time, Time for some Action!

You know all of Robbie Maddison’s crazy jumps, the Extreme Sports Channel is what you chew on for breakfast and most of your Saturdays are spent on a skateboard. Truth be told, you’re a real action sportsaholic. Meanwhile the photographer inside of you has been screaming for days or months to come out and you’d [...]

continue reading ...}

Close to Home – Local Adjustments – Part 2 of 2

In Close to Home – Local Adjustments – Part 1, we discussed Local Adjustment presets and how to get the most out of their use. From that alone we can tell that Local Adjustment presets are a completely different beast than normal Develop Presets. They function differently, are created differently, edited differently and Lightroom handles [...]

continue reading ...}

Close to Home – Local Adjustments – Part 1 of 2

The original incarnation of Lightroom was an incredible boon to the photographic world, allowing for non-destructive editing of images. Lightroom 2 then expanded upon the idea and added Local Adjustments to the mix, allowing for simple, non-destructive editing of unique portions of a given image. Of course Lightroom 3 retains these tools, and they are [...]

continue reading ...}

Bringing it Home – The Lightroom 3 Import Module – Part 2 of 2

Last time we took a look at the new Lightroom 3 Import Module, we merely took a brief survey of the features present in the module. Today we are going to dig a bit deeper and really take a look at how the tools work – hopefully providing some insight into the module’s functions which allow you [...]

continue reading ...}

Get hired, and STAY hired – a common sense approach

I am an avid photo enthusiast who enjoys photography, but I have never been paid to take a photograph. However, I have hired and re-hired photographers for the last 8 years.  I work as a marketing executive on the Las Vegas Strip at a resort & casino. I (and my team) hire photographers for a [...]

continue reading ...}

Watermarking in Lightroom 3

We have covered watermarking techniques in the past utilizing Timothy Armes excellent LR2/Mogrify plugin. While the Mogrify plug-in is still the most powerful method of watermarking, Lightroom 3 now has a strong, native watermarking feature. Lightroom 3 gives you two watermarking options, text or graphical watermarks, or using the Lightroom Identity Plate as a graphical [...]

continue reading ...}

Bringing it Home – The Lightroom 3 Import Module – Part 1 of 2

Bringing photos into Lightroom has never been one of my favorite tasks. Lightroom 1 and 2 both had an import interface that seemed like it was thrown in as an after thought. Personally, I never used anything but the Import from Folder option in the prior versions of Lightroom. Never did I allow Lightroom to [...]

continue reading ...}

Presets as a Platform – Making it Happen

“Editing shouldn’t feel like work.” That is the byline that runs on our ads here at X-Equals for our preset collections we offer for sale. It is a creed that we take seriously here at X-Equals, one that the Lightroom team takes seriously and one you should take seriously as well. Lightroom makes getting the [...]

continue reading ...}

Hack No More! – The Lightroom 3 Tone Curve

When you launch Lightroom 3 and head over to the Develop Module, you may notice some minor differences from Lightroom 2. The point of interest today is located in the Tone Curve palette. At first glance you see the old, friendly Parametric Tone Curve tool Lightroom has had since day one. But look closer. At the bottom, [...]

continue reading ...}

High Pass Sharpening in Photoshop

In Lightroom, sharpening is a rather simple endeavor. While Lightroom’s built-in sharpening tool is excellent, it is a bit lacking when it comes to fine control of sharpening. Photoshop is a much better tool for doing fine sharpening, as it offers a myriad of sharpening option and the ability to use layers and masks to [...]

continue reading ...}