X-Equals – Click. Download. Smile.

Shoot for Success – Expose for Lightroom

Lightroom and Photoshop, along with the myriad of other photo editing tools at a photographer’s disposal, are all amazing tools. They allow us to manipulate our images in ways never before imaginable or extremely time consuming to perform. These applications allow us to take a good photo and create amazing art from it. However, these [...]

continue reading ...}

XeL – Reimagine Lightroom Presets

A while back, we presented a concept of using presets as a creative platform, a series of tools that can be used together to increase productivity and creativity. Since that time, all of our presets have been developed with the platform paradigm in mind. This has inevitably led us to the next evolution in X-Equals [...]

continue reading ...}

In Memoriam – Kodachrome (1935 – 2010)

In the final week of 2010, the photography world lost something very important … Kodachrome. To many, this seems like a minor loss, many of us only shoot digital, while many of us still using film have moved on to more modern and readily available film stocks. Kodachrome was a pain to shoot of late, [...]

continue reading ...}

iPhone Photography and Lightroom

It has been said that the best camera you have is the one you have with you. There is some truth to that statement, but I have never felt it 100%. Until recently, that is. Just over a month ago I finally took the plunge and picked up an iPhone 4. I spent quite a [...]

continue reading ...}

Lightroom 3 Publish Services – Demystified

Of all the new features that were introduced with  Lightroom 3, Publish Services may be the most overlooked. With social media and photo sharing being an important part of a photographer’s toolbox these days, taking the time to become familiar with Publish Services is well worth it. At it’s simplest, Publish Services provides you with [...]

continue reading ...}

Digital Test Prints with Lightroom – quick, easy, and virtual

It’s easy to make a print from a digital image using Lightroom’s Print module. It’s not so easy to make a decent print. Any competent darkroom worker appreciates the need to make test prints to get the best from the negative; workers in the Lightroom can take a leaf out of the same book. First, [...]

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 ...}

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 ...}