Lightroom Killer Tips

Customizing Your Presets

Aaron Westgate — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 15:52:37 +0000

This week’s Lightroom video, once again, comes directly from questions I get from all of you blog readers. One I’ve been getting a lot lately is how to customize presets. Some one asked if I could remove the Vignette setting from one of my presets, and send them a new version. I wish I had the time to customize them for everyone, but unfortunately I don’t. But the cool thing about presets is that you can do it really easily yourself. You’ve got a couple different options for creating your own custom version, or modifying mine. And I cover both of them in the video below. Enjoy!

Calibration Profiles and Presets

Aaron Westgate — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 13:55:37 +0000

I posted some of my Lightroom presets for the camera profiles that you find in the Camera Calibration panel in Lightroom. After I started reading through the questions and comments I realized that a lot of people didn't know one of the huge benefits of using presets for the camera profiles. See, the presets I gave out, were simply just shortcuts to the settings in the Calibration panel, rather than my own recipe of settings put together (which is what the presets I usually give away are). So I figured I'd do a quick video to show you a couple of ways that having presets for these profiles helps out. I hope this helps. Enjoy!

A New HDR Feature in Lightroom 4.1

Aaron Westgate — Thu, 21 Jun 2012 15:38:25 +0000

There's a little feature in Lightroom 4.1 (the latest update to Lightroom 4) that lets you take a full 32-bit image (basically, an image with crazy amounts of tonal range in it) right into Lightroom. So instead of tonemapping your HDR image in Photoshop, you can use the controls you're already used to in Lightroom to do it. It's pretty amazing when you see it in action and just how far you can push the image to get the most range and depth from it. Plus, it's kinda cool to think where the technology can go from here. Enjoy!

Upgrading Lightroom 3 Presets to Lightroom 4

Aaron Westgate — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:18:16 +0000

I've heard a lot of talk about what happens to presets that were created in Lightroom 3 (or LR2) and now used in Lightroom 4. I know a lot of people have presets that they absolutely loved in Lightroom 3 and they simply don't seem to look the same in Lightroom 4. That's because of the differences in sliders in the Basic panel. Sliders that were in Lightroom 3 simply don't exist in Lightroom 4. So Lightroom does it's best to "guess" what the should look like but you'll see it's not always right on the money. So today's video goes over a few options you have if you had a preset in Lightroom 3 that you want to use in Lightroom 4. As always, leave your thoughts below. I'd be interested to hear if you're having any "they don't look the same" issues with your older presets and if you find yourself converting them over to Lightroom 4, or just tweaking the preset each time you apply it. Thanks!

A Quick Make-Your-Photo-Better Setting in Lightroom

Aaron Westgate — Thu, 10 May 2012 19:36:58 +0000

After the last few stops in my Lightroom 4 Live Tour I realize there was a lot of questions on the Camera Calibration settings that basically, let you make your photo better with just one click. So I thought I'd take a minute to, not only go over the settings but also show you a couple of ways that you can have Lightroom automatically apply those settings to your photos so that you're not left doing it manually each time. Also, here's the link to the Lightroom seminar page that I mentioned in the beginning of the video. If you're in Washington DC, Lansing, Richmond or San Francisco, I'd love to see you out at one of the seminars next month. Thanks!

Soft Proofing and Print Brightness in Lightroom 4

Aaron Westgate — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:35:05 +0000

Soft proofing has been a feature request that I've heard quite a bit over the years so you'll be happy to know it's included in Lightroom 4. This week we'll take a quick look at the Soft Proof feature, as well as one of my favorite new features for printing that solves the print is too dark problem that I (and plenty of other people I know) have.

Lightroom and Photoshop Before/After

Aaron Westgate — Wed, 04 Apr 2012 18:31:06 +0000

Ever since I first started using the new sliders in the Basic panel in Lightroom 4, I was hooked. So I started out to record a video on how I use them but realized I use them in different ways for different photos. Then I realized, there were more things I wanted to do to this photo. Before I knew it, I had a full before and after video using Photoshop and all. You gotta love it when your video starts taking over right? :) Anyway, my main goal here is to show you the Basic panel sliders in Lightroom 4 and just how powerful moving 4-5 sliders can be for your photo. In fact, you'll see that most of the work is done before we ever leave Lightroom to Photoshop. I hope you enjoy!

Making Selective White Balance Changes

Aaron Westgate — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 19:49:54 +0000

I always like it when new features come out in Photoshop or Lightroom and I end up using them in ways that I didn't originally think I would. Take for example the addition of Temperature and Tint to the Adjustment Brush and Graduated Filter in Lightroom 4 Beta. When I heard about this feature, I thought of specific examples where I'd use it. But none of those examples actually fit what I just noticed this past weekend on a recent trip. I realized I'm going to use them for a problem that I've usually gone to Photoshop to fix. But now since those adjustments are in Lightroom I can just do them there. Gotta love it when that happens right? :) Enjoy!

Before/After Video – Eiffel Tower and Plug-ins

Aaron Westgate — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 19:16:19 +0000

I haven't done one of those Before/After videos in a while so I thought it was time for another. The photo I'm using here was a photo I took in Paris last year. It was a rainy day which I actually find can help sometimes. I'd always seen a lot of the same photos of the Eiffel Tower, so I went looking for a different view. I remember seeing the movie, Inception, and noticed this really cool bridge (You know, the one that twisted on top of itself in the movie). It was the Pont de Bir-Hakeim, a bridge that crosses the Seine River in Paris. So I kinda set my sites on that being a good location to shoot from. The original photo itself definitely needed some work, as you'll see in the video. The Lightroom part of it was pretty easy actually and since Lightroom 4 Beta has been out, I find myself re-editing a lot of my photos using the new Develop module controls. There's a little Photoshop touchup work and lots of plug-in work that I used too. Enjoy!

Dynamic Watermarks

Aaron Westgate — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 16:16:17 +0000

I always like to do videos that answer questions I get, rather than just doing a video that I "think" everyone wants to know about. Well, this weeks video comes from a question that I've gotten in several forms over the last couple years. Recently, some one asked if they could add a watermark to their photos with the current year on them. So basically, Lightroom would have to figure out the year from the metadata (probably not hard) and dynamically add it to the photos when you export them into JPEGS (not so easy). So, there's really no way to do this, but there is an pretty decent workaround using the Filter Bar which is an area I think a lot of people miss out on. Enjoy!