Currently viewing the tag: "post processing tips"
Today’s post is all about removing spots on our photos cause by the annoying dust that sticks into our camera’s sensor. Thank’s to Adobe Lightroom for having the Spot Removal feature, now cleaning marks and spots is as easy as eating a pie, maybe easier.
We will use Lightroom’s Sport Removal tool. This tool work almost like the clone tool in adobe photoshop, it will let us fix the affected area by using a sample from another area, the good news here is, it’s done automatically and lightroom will do it for us. All we have to do is tell lightroom which area to fix. Here how:
- Make sure you are in the Develop Module
- Select the Spot Removal tool in the tool strip.
- In the tool drawer there are two options :
- Clone
- Applies the sampled area of the photo to the selected area.
- Matches the texture, lighting, and shading of the sampled area to the selected area.
Heal
- Use the Heal feature
- (Optional) In the Spot Removal tool drawer, drag the Size slider to increase or decrease the size of the area that the Spot Removal tool affects. Drag the Opacity slider to the left to add some transparency to the selected area.
- Move the Spot Removal tool into the photo and click the part of the photo you want to retouch.Lightroom clones a nearby sample area to the spot that you clicked. An arrow points from the sample circle to the spot circle, which indicates the selected area that is being cloned or healed.
- To refine the spot-removal operation, do any of the following:
- To change the sampled area, drag the sample circle.
- To adjust the size of the circles, move the pointer over the edge of the spot circle until it changes to a double-pointing arrow. Then, drag to make both circles larger or smaller.
- To change the area being cloned or healed, drag inside the spot circle.
- To hide the circles, move the mouse pointer out of the content area. You can also press the H key to hide and show circles. Hold down H for a few seconds to hide the circles until you release the key.
- To delete a spot, select one of the circles and press Backspace or Delete.
- To cancel the operation, click the Reset button in the Spot Removal options panel. Clicking Reset also removes all previously created spot circles.
Below is the before and after results.
As you can see, it’s as easy as eating a pie, the spot removal feature of lightroom is not just handy but a powerful one. It’s even faster to use it that the one in photoshop and best of all with lightroom it’s easy to batch process multiple photos. This feature is really great but if there are too much dust in the sensor this may not fix the problem at all or it may take you longer to repair a photo. It is always a good idea to clean your camera’s sensor when needed.
If you have any questions, inquiries, suggestions or corrections, I would love to hear them. You can send me an email or just feel free to post a comment below.
Adobe Lightroom Reference Books :
Since I started using Lightroom 3, I began to appreciate the power of collections and collection sets. I’m starting to use them more and more and it helps me organize my catalog and greatly improved my workflow. When I was using LR2 I used to have separate Catalogs for each type of photos that I make, leaving me with dozens or more of Catalogs to maintain. I use to have one catalog for wildlife, one for nature, one for each events and birthday engagements that I shoot. It was ok, provided I can keep track of all those catalogs that I have created, which I find hard as the number of catalogs increases. The reason why I created several catalogs is mainly because of LR2′s performance. I noticed that as a catalog becomes bigger and because I have all my photos resides on a Windows 2003 networked server, the more it becomes a problem. With photos on several catalogs, the performance is not all that bad because I only have a hand full of photos and only the ones I need on each catalog.
When LR3 came out, all that has changed, I noticed a great performance increase and I started to use one catalog and just organized my shoots using Collections and Collection Sets. I still have the same hardware setup, accessing my photos over a network server. Now what are these Collections and Collections sets in Lightroom, Collection is a container of photos I selected that I wanted to organized and group together, were as Collection Sets is a container that includes one or more collections. A collection set does not contain photos, it contains collections.
Why use a collection?
We use collection mainly to make our lightroom exprience easier. I use collections to group together all of my favorite photos, I also use collections to separate each or group together all of my shoots, or I can create a collection for all the photos taken with a specific lens like for example all taken with a EF-s 10-22 or a EF 70-200mm and not only that, you can create a collection for all the photos you have rated and much more.
Below is simple step by step instruction on how to create a collection. In the example below, I created a collection for one of my shoot .
Photo 1. Goto Folder in Library
To initially create a collection for a set of photos, first, I needed to be sure I am in the correct folder, right click on one of the photos and I goto folder in the library
Photo 2. Create Collection
Inside the folder, I select the photos I want to put in my collection, so I press Ctrl A to select all the photos. Then in the Collection group on the Left Panel –> Create Collection.
Photo 3. Include your Collection in a Set
Here I have the option of making this new collection a part of an existing collection set, which in this case I did include it under the collection set Shoots. Otherwise, choose none.
Photo 4. Name your collection
Name your collection and press Create.
Photo 5. Processing
You should see the status on the upper left corner of your screen.
And there it is, my photos are now in a collection and the new collection is now part of the Set Shoots.
If you have any questions, inquiries, suggestions or corrections, I would love to hear them. You can send me an email or just feel free to post a comment below.
Adobe Lightroom Reference Books :
I know that most people are already familiar with how lightroom import works. Here’s how I do my imports. First, I use a external card reader or my computers built-in card reader to do my imports. I don’t import directly from my camera using the usb cable that came with my camera, simply because it’s so darn slow. A card reader is the way to go. Even the cheapest card reader is still faster compare to importing it directly from the camera via the usb cable. Now going back to my import process :
Photo 1.
Assuming lightroom is already running, click on file then choose Import Photos or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Shrft+I(photo 1 above). This will bring up the Import Panel shown below (Photo 2)
Photo 2.
Now, this is where it all starts to get your photos into your lightroom library. As you can see in the sample photo above, there are 3 columns in the new lightroom 3 dialogue, first is the Source on the left, on the center you can see all the photos inside the selected drive source, which in this case is my SD Memory card in drive F:/, and the rightmost column is where we set the options for importing our photos.
When I import my photos I prefer to import them directly from my SD or CF cards and let lightroom do the work for me. Some likes to copy their files from their memory cards to the hard drive and do the imports from there, but I prefer to do the import directly from my memory card. Now going back to the import process, here are some of the options I’d like to set :
- Render Previews – I set this to 1:1, I suggest you do it every time you import photos to your catalog. Your import may take longer than usual, but by doing so, you are saving yourself a lot of time when working on your photos at a later time.
- I make sure that the Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates is checked.
- File Renaming – This is one of my favorite features, here you can create and use a Filename Template or Preset, which is handy if naming your shoot.
- Develop Settings – Often times I use this to apply a Lens Correction Profile Preset that I’ve created for each of my Lenses, provided that all the photos on the batch that I’m importing was taken using only one lens. This feature is handy when you want to apply a specific preset for your photos.
- Keywording – I also urge you to give your photos keyword at this time if possible. (Photo 3 below)
Photo 3.
Photo 4.
Once I’m done setting all the options I need, I just click on the import button and let lightroom do it’s magic.
If you have any questions, inquiries, suggestions or corrections, I would love to hear them. You can send me an email or just feel free to post a comment below.
Adobe Lightroom Reference Books :
Photo 1.
Today, I’m really excited to share to you one of lightroom 3′s awesome feature, it’s Lightroom’s Superior Noise Reduction capability. If you’ve used Lightroom 2′s noise reduction feature, I know you will agree with me when I say that it really sucks. But with the release of Lightroom 3, all of that has changed. As an example, take a look at Photo 1(above) and Photo 2 (below). This photo was taken indoor at ISO 400 which naturally will have some noise, now take a close look at photo 2 and examine the before and after. You can see that the noise was dramatically reduced or gone.
Photo 2.
To reduce the noise in your image, all you have to do is go to the Develop module and scroll down to the Detail Section and then under that you should see Noise Reduction right after Sharpening, as shown in Photo 2. Now Zoom in on a section of your photo(optional) to at least 1:1 for better visibility of the noise and effects of your changes. In the Noise Reduction section adjust the sliders to your liking. The first thing I do is to adjust the Luminance initially to 30 which for me does the work most the time, and sometimes in 50 like the sample photo I used in this post. Just remember that the first three sliders affect Luminance noise and the last two sliders affect color noise.
Luminance Reduces luminance noise.
Detail Controls the luminance noise threshold. Useful for very noisy photos. Higher values preserve more detail but may produce noisier results. Lower values produce cleaner results but may also remove some detail.
Contrast Controls luminance contrast. Useful for very noisy photos. Higher values preserve contrast but may produce noisy blotches or mottling. Lower values produce smoother results but may also have less contrast.
Color Reduces color noise.
Detail Controls the color noise threshold. Higher values protect thin, detailed color edges but may result in color speckling. Lower values remove color speckles but may result in color bleeding.
Adobe Lightroom Reference Books :
Photo 1. Backup Options The other day, it was early morning around 7 am, after opening lightroom and loading my catalog, the not so reliable Windows 7 crash. I wasn’t surprised or anything, because you know Windows there are those times that he just want’s to crash whenever it wants to. Anyway, it’s done it before while I while working in lightroom, and the next time I load my Catalog, everything is fine, but this time, it’s different and it’s also the first time to see the message below (Err Mess. 1):
It didn’t bother me at first, I figured, I’ll just click on Repair Catalog and everything will be fine. Then after a minute of waiting the second message (Err Mess. 2) popped up. Now this is serious, I tried to repair it again, twice, but it didn’t work. The catalog was totally corrupted and unusable. Good thing I have a backup of my Catalog, which only this year did I religiously made a point of doing a backup every time I exit Lightroom. Making a backup of our Lightroom Catalog file is a must not just our photos because if a catalog is corrupted like what happen to me, all the work, enhancements that we’ve done to our photos are gone. The Catalog is a database that contains all those and must be safeguard.
Making a regular Catalog is easy and can be automated. Here is a step by step guide on how to create a backup of a Lightroom Catalog, from the Adobe.Com website:
Backing up your catalog is an important safety precaution in case of corruption. Lightroom automates the process by allowing you to schedule regular catalog backups when you start the software.
Performing frequent, regular catalog backups is only part of what should be a more comprehensive backup strategy. Lightroom allows you to make a one-time backup of your original photos when you import them, but thereafter you must manually back up your edited photos, previews, and sidecar files in addition to your catalog. When formulating a backup strategy:
- Remember that the more frequently you back up your catalog and photos, the less data you stand to lose when a crash or corruption occurs.
- If possible, store the backup copies of your photos and catalog on a separate hard disk from your working files.
- Consider using dedicated backup software to automate the process and synchronize changes between your working and backup files.
- If you’re worried that your backup files might be accidentally erased, create redundant backups on additional disks, or on read-only media such as DVDs.
- For greater security, store your backup disk in a separate location from your working disk, preferably off site or in a fire-proof safe.
Important: The interaction between Mac OS X Time Machine™ and Lightroom catalog files is unknown. Running Time Machine backup or restore operations while Lightroom is in use is not recommended.
Specify catalog backup frequency
- Choose Edit > Catalog Settings (Windows) or Lightroom > Catalog Settings (Mac OS).
- In the Backup area of the General panel, choose an option from the Back Up Catalog pop-up menu: (Refer to the first Photo Above)
- Next Time Lightroom Starts Only
- Backs up the catalog the next time you start Lightroom, and then the Back Up Catalog option switches to Never.
- Backs up the catalog every time you start Lightroom, so changes from every working session are always backed up.
- Backs up the catalog the first time you start Lightroom each day. If you start Lightroom more than once a day, additional changes are not backed up until the next day.
- Backs up the catalog once a week. If you start Lightroom more frequently, additional changes are not backed up until the next week.
- Backs up the catalog once a month. If you start Lightroom more frequently, additional changes are not backed up until the next month.
- No backups are performed. (Not recommended.)
Every Time Lightroom Starts
Once A Day, Upon Starting Lightroom
Once A Week, Upon Starting Lightroom
Once A Month, Upon Starting Lightroom
Never
Choose the catalog backup location
By default, catalog backup files are stored in the Backups folder in the Lightroom data folder. Backup files are in a folder named by the date and time the backup was performed:
- Mac OS: /User home/Pictures/Lightroom/Backups/YYYY-MM-DD HRMN/
- Windows: C:\Documents and Settings\username\My Documents\My Pictures\Lightroom\Backups\YYYY-MM-DD HRMN\
Note: The time is represented by a 24-hour clock without a colon between hours and minutes.
You can change the location of the backup files, however.
- Start Lightroom when a catalog backup is scheduled.
- In the Back Up Catalog dialog box, click Choose next to the Backup Directory path, and then navigate to the new location.(See Photo 2 below.)
Lightroom writes a new catalog every time it creates a backup. To save space on your hard disk, you may want to delete or compress old backup files.
Photo 2. Choosing Backup Location
Check catalog integrity
Lightroom lets you check for catalog corruption when you open or back up a catalog. Checking catalog integrity increases the time it takes to open or back up a catalog, but reduces the risk of data loss.
To check for catalog corruption, do one of the following:
- Start Lightroom when a catalog backup is scheduled. In the Back Up Catalog dialog box, select Test Integrity Of This Catalog, and then click Backup.
- In the General panel of the Preferences dialog box, select When Starting Up Use This Catalog > Prompt Me When Starting Lightroom. Start Lightroom. In the Select Catalog dialog box, select Test Integrity Of This Catalog, and then click Continue.
Perform a catalog backup
- Start Lightroom when a catalog backup is scheduled.
- In the Back Up Catalog dialog box, choose one of the following:
- Backup
- Back up the current catalog.
- Postpone the backup until the next time you start Lightroom.
- When you’ve opted to back up your catalog once a day, you can choose to postpone the operation for a day.
- When you’ve opted to back up your catalog once a week, you can choose to postpone the operation for a week.
- Backup In One Month
- When you’ve opted to back up your catalog once a month, you can choose to postpone the operation for a month.
Skip Now
Backup Tomorrow
Backup In One Week
Restore a backup catalog
- Choose File > Open Catalog.
- Navigate to the location of your backed up catalog file.
- Select the backed up .lrcat file and click Open.
- (Optional) Copy the backed up catalog to the location of the original catalog to replace it.
Adobe Lightroom Reference Books :
Lens Correction, this is one of the new features of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3.0 that I really, really like . It gives photographers the ability to quickly and easily perfect images by automatically reducing lens defects like geometric distortion, chromatic aberration, and vignetting with single-click profiles. Even images from the best lenses will be improved.
The Profile options in the Lens Corrections panel of the Develop module correct distortions in common camera lenses. The profiles are based on Exif metadata that identifies the camera and lens that captured the photo, and the profiles compensate accordingly.
Lens profiles are saved in the following locations:
- Mac OS
- /Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw/LensProfiles/1.0/
- C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\Adobe\CameraRaw\LensProfiles\1.0\
- C:\ProgramData\Adobe\CameraRaw\LensProfiles\1.0\
Windows XP
Windows Vista or Windows 7
Important: The lens profiles that are available in the Lens Corrections panel depend on whether you’re adjusting a raw or a non-raw file. For more information and a list of supported lenses, see the Adobe Support article Lens profile support | Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Camera Raw 6 (cpsid_84666).
- In the Lens Corrections panel of the Develop module, click Profile and select Enable Profile Corrections.
- To change the profile, select a different Make, Model, or Profile.
Note: Some cameras have only one lens, and some lenses have only one profile.
- Customize the correction by adjusting the Amount sliders:
- Distortion
- The default value 100 applies 100% of the distortion correction in the profile. Values over 100 apply greater correction to the distortion; values under 100 apply less correction to the distortion.
- C. Aberration
- (Chromatic Aberration) The default value 100 applies 100% of the chromatic aberration correction in the profile. Values over 100 apply greater correction to color fringing; values under 100 apply less correction to color fringing.
- Vignetting
- The default value 100 applies 100% of the vignetting correction in the profile. Values over 100 apply greater correction to vignetting; values under 100 apply less correction to vignetting.
- (Optional) To apply your changes to the default profile, click Setup and choose Save New Lens Profile Defaults.
To learn more about making lens corrections in Lightroom, see these tutorials:
Lens profile support | Lightroom 3, Photoshop CS5, Camera Raw 6
(Source : Adobe.Com)
Every time we view a photo in Lightroom the image must first be loaded into Camera Raw. That’s where Camera Raw cache comes into play. It caches recently opened images so that it’s faster the next time we opened them. Caching this data significantly shortens the loading time when we return to a previously viewed photo.
By the default the Camera Raw Cache is set to 1.0 GB. It is highly recommended to increase the size of the cache to at least 40gb. I have mine set at 50gb and if you have plenty of drive space increasing it can greatly improve performance.
To change or increase the size of your Camera Raw Cache, just click on Edit –> Preference and your all set.
Adobe Lightroom Reference Books :
Photo 1. Render 1:1 Preview Before, I don’t pay much attention to the previews in lightroom, after importing my photos, I’m done and I will just deal with it later. But as my Lightroom Catalog grows, I noticed that when I click on a thumbnail, the preview takes time to load. I’ve learned that by calling up a pre-created preview will save me a good amount of time.
It’s easy to create or render a 1:1 Preview of each of your photos and I suggest you do it every time you import photos to your catalog. Your import may take longer than usual, but believe me, you are saving yourself a lot of time, once your previews are rendered after the import, you will notice a performance improvement in your workflow.
Here’s how to render a 1:1 preview on import:
- On the upper right hand side of your Lightroom 3 Import Dialog Box, you’ll see the section File Handling and directly under it is the Render Previews (see Photo 1 above).
- This section will tell lightroom how it will handle previews right after the import process.
- Choose 1:1(see Photo 1 above), and start to import your photos.
- You should see a progress bar on the upper left corner of your screen and right after the copy and import, you should see the Rendering Preview progress bar like in the photo below (Photo 2).
Adobe Lightroom Reference Books :
Photo 1. Lightroom 3 Optimize Catalog. For the first time this year, I optimized my 2011 Lightroom Catalog. Do we really need to do this optimization? Yes, once in a while our lightroom catalog needs to be optimize. This catalog is our database which contains all the records of our photos. It contains dta such as previews, file locations, exif informations, metadata and a lot more. Like any other database, it needs to be optimize once in a while to achieve better performance.
Photo 2. Lightroom 3 Optimize Catalog Window.
Optimizing a lightroom catalog is fairly easy. Here’s how:
- Before you do this, I just need to tell you have a large catalog and this is the first time you’ll be doing this, the process could take a while.
- In lightroom ver. 3 all you have to do is click on File –> Optimize Catalog, then if you have optimize your catalog before, you’ll see a small window telling you when the catalog was last optimize, just click on optimize and you’re all done See Photo 2).
- In the older lightroom ver 2, it’s a little different, you’ll have to click on Edit –> Catalog Settings –> General Tab, on the bottom you’ll see the button Relaunch and Optimize. Click that and lightroom will close and restart automatically to optimize the catalog.
- Once the process is done, you’ll a window informing you that Your Catalog has been optimized. (Photo 3 below.)
Photo 3. Lightroom 3 Optimize Catalog Window. Adobe Lightroom Reference Books :
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