Lightroom Guy | Expert Support for Digital Photography

1-2-3 Lightroom Develop Strategy

April 23, 2019 by Lightroom Guy Leave a Comment

Our 1-2-3 Lightroom develop strategy is an easy and fast approach to great results for raw captures (JPEGs, too). Beginners and even experienced Lightroom users can benefit from utilizing Adobe Sensei’s ever improving machine learning. These features are incorporated into the Develop module of both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC. Using the 1-2-3 Lightroom develop strategy takes less time and is far more productive than poking around with sliders, especially if you’re unsure of what the sliders do.

Taking advantage of Adobe Sensei means clicking on those AUTO buttons and options. It’s not always perfect, but awfully close most of the time. And, since Lightroom is non-destructive, go ahead, click away!

The 1-2-3 Lightroom Develop Strategy

Click the AUTO button in the Basic Panel’s Tone section (that should be cool enough, but there’s more!)
Above the Tone section is the WB (White Balance) section. Select the pulldown menu where it says, AS SHOT and select AUTO. If AUTO doesn’t do it for you, return the setting to AS SHOT.
Next is the Profiles panel. You might have missed this new feature, which has been available since Lightroom Classic 7.3. I usually go to the Modern Profiles – Modern 3 or 4 are my go-to’s. You might want to explore the Profiles to see what you like best.

Done. That’s the 1-2-3 Lightroom Develop Strategy. Watch the one-minute video to see this process in action.

There is a number 4 in the 1-2-3 Lightroom develop strategy. It’s adding radial filter (a digital version of burning and dodging for you former darkroom users), to open shadows on faces or scene details. I’ve written about this before with in-depth how-to video. You may want to watch it for the specifics of using the Radial Filter. One of my clients describes it as an “instant spotlight,” adding a light to fill in unwanted shadows.

Now, I’m not allowed to discuss specific upcoming Lightroom features due to our NDA with Adobe. However, you can expect more updated develop module improvements in future versions of Lightroom Classic very soon, making this 1-2-3 Lightroom develop strategy even more effective.

Post Directly to Instagram from Lightroom Classic

April 18, 2019 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

Use the LR/Instagram plugin to post images directly to Instagram from within Lightroom Classic

We’ve blogged previously on how to export images for posting to Instagram from Lightroom Classic. And, we’ve written about how to post directly to Instagram from your desktop computer.

One thing we have yet to cover is the Lightroom Classic plugin, from Capture Monkey, called: LR/Instagram. This plugin allows you to post directly to Instagram from Lightroom Classic (on both Mac & PC). Thus removing the need to either trick Instagram or shuffle your photos to your mobile device.

LR/Instagram Features & Limitations

Before we get into the weeds of how to install and use LR/Instagram, you will want to consider if this plugin is right for you. Only the mobile version of Instagram has access to all of Instagram’s filters and features. Any other trick or method to post directly to Instagram will have limitations.

With LR/Instagram, you will not be able to:

Use Instagram filters;
Re-crop images;
Load multiple images to the same post;
Include in-photo tags; and,
Identify hashtag usage or frequency.

However, you will be able to:

Log into multiple accounts simultaneously;
Upload multiple images (each as their own post);
Update metadata and captions/hashtags and re-post; and,
Use a dedicated caption and hashtag entry panel.

Another important note is that LR/Instagram won’t access or manage any of your previously posted photos! You will only be able to work with the images that you post directly to Instagram from within Lightroom Classic.

Post to Instagram Directly Using Lightroom Mobile

Plugin support is not available for desktop users of the newer, cloud based version of Lightroom. However, you can upload directly from your mobile device assuming you have installed the iOS or Android version on your phone.

Find the photo you want to post, click the share icon and then pass the photo to Instagram. (Note for iOS users, you will get better results by using the “Copy to …” option. This will open up Instagram so you can access additional posting features.)

Install LR/Instagram

Again, this plugin works for either PC or Mac. Head over to the LR/Instagram web site and download the current version.
Next, unzip the file and save the folder wherever you like to store your Lightroom plugins. We generally recommend creating a “Lightroom Plugins” folder in the Pictures folder on the hard drive of your computer.

Next, unzip the file and save the folder wherever you like to store your Lightroom plugins. We generally recommend creating a “Lightroom Plugins” folder in the Pictures folder (Mac and PC) on the hard drive of your computer.

Plugins Folder Post directly to Instagram from Lightroom Classic

Now, open the File > Plugin Manager menu and find the “LRInstagram.lrplugin” in your plugins folder. This will load the plugin into Lightroom and it will now be available for use from the Publish Services panel on the Left side of the Library module.

Using LR/Instagram

To post a photo directly to Instagram, simply drag a photo from any Folder or Collection onto the “Instagram photos” listing in the LR/Instagram left side panel.

The photos will show up in a grid view depending on their various status. Before posting, I recommend using the special panel to update captions and hashtags. This panel is located under the Metadata panel on the right side of the Library module (see below).

Lr/Instagram Post directly to Instagram from Lightroom Classic

Once you are ready post or sync your changes, look for the “Publish” button in the upper right corner of the main viewing window.

A couple of other tips I would recommend are …

Use color labels to remind yourself which photos you’ve posted (personally I use blue)
Add “instagram” to the keywords for images as another way to find posted photos
Make a separate collection of your instagram posts so that if you ever have trouble with the plugin, you can easily keep track of any previously posted photos

Lightroom Workshops Doha 2019

April 10, 2019 by Lightroom Guy 2 Comments

D.A.Wagner with Khalifa Ahmad Al-Obaidly - Lightroom Workshops — D.A.Wagner with Khalifa Ahmad Al-Obaidly
©2019 Mashael Rashid

Last October, while in Doha, Qatar, I met with Khalifa Ahmad Al-Obaidly, curator and director of artists in residence at the Fire Station arts center. Khalifa is an accomplished photographer who loves experimenting with both digital and film.

He was kind enough to get me permission for an early morning shoot at the Al Shahaniya camel racetrack. And although, at race time, the camels are ridden by small robots, they are warmed up in the mornings with human riders. The photos I captured were wonderful.

Camel races at Al Shahaniya, Lightroom Workshops Doha 2019 — Robot Jockey Racing at Al Shahaniya Racetrack ©2019 D.A.Wagner

Qatar is Unique

When it comes to the middle east, Qatar is one of the safest and most welcoming countries an American can visit. And, although this country is small, about the size of Connecticut, it’s quite large when it comes to heart and art. It is home to incredible sculptures by Richard Serra, Damien Hirst and Tom Otterness along with impressive architecture by I.M.Pei, Rem Koohass and Jean Nouvel to name just a few. A recent New York Times 52 Places Traveler story describes Doha as, “an outdoor architecture museum.” I’d have to agree. But the exhibitions and interiors are as compelling as the exteriors.

Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qata, Lightroom Workshops — Museum of Islamic Art, Doha, Qatar. Architect, I.M. Pei ©2019 D.A.Wagner

National Museum of Qatar (under construction in 2017, now open)
Architect Jean Nouvel ©2017 D.A.Wagner

Upon my return to the states, Khalifa and I continued our conversations, planning on a series of Lightroom workshops scheduled after my scouting trip to Thailand. And so, after Bangkok, I was off to Doha, Qatar to present a series of Lightroom Workshops that David Mark Erickson and I created. This was my fourth time in Qatar. On this trip however, I had little time for sightseeing. I was there to teach.

Lightroom Workshops

Starting out was a 7am walking tour of Souk Waqif, a traditional Qatari style marketplace that was renovated in 2006 to conserve its traditional architectural style. You can find everything here: restaurants, bakeries, hardware, pets, falcons, jewelry, souvenirs, clothing, tailors and more. It comes alive late in the day. But, except for the bird auctions, early morning here on Fridays is very quiet. Perfect for photography.

After a quick lesson on shooting hand-held panoramas – to be stitched later in the develop like a pro class – we broke up into groups.

Many of us headed for the Souk’s Bird Market, a sprawling, squawking array of the exotic and familiar. Lots of photo ops and the action of the bird auction.

Bird Auctions at the Souk Waqif, Lightroom Workshops — Exotic Birds Up for Auction, Souk Waqif. ©2019 D.A.Wagner

We all connected a little later for breakfast and a chance to get acquainted. This group was diverse as any I’ve worked with: college students, realtors, graphic artists, engineers and animators.

Then, the Lightroom workshops series began with Develop Like a Pro. And, over the next three days, we covered everything from developing, asset management, backup strategies and bookmaking. Working at the Fire Station has been one of my most satisfying teaching experiences.

Lightroom Workshops Class ©2019 D.A.Wagner

It’s the combination of people, art, culture, and landscapes that make Qatar so fascinating. It’s a country where one can travel freely, no matter where you go. I think I’ll be putting together another Doha photo tour with Lightroom workshops very, very soon. Stay tuned.

Instagram Workaround: Post Direct from Your Computer!

April 4, 2019 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

How to trick Instagram into thinking you’re logging in from a mobile device to post your edited photos direct from Lightroom.

We are often asked the best workaround for posting photos to Instagram from DSLR or mirrorless cameras. Instagram is an important marketing tool. Our best photos are often taken with those cameras and getting them onto Instagram can be a chore.

We’ve posted about how to export from Lightroom Classic for Instagram. You can read that post here: How to Export Photos for Instagram from Lightroom Classic CC (2018). But, we haven’t covered how to upload from Classic or Lightroom CC before.

The standard workaround is to develop photos on your computer and then transfer those files to a smartphone. Apple users can use AirDrop but, a fool proof method is to email yourself the files. You can save them to your smartphone and upload them to Instagram. A bit cumbersome but it works.

LR/Instagram

Lightroom users can also use the LR/Instagram plugin to post photos on Instagram directly from their Lightroom Library. This is an “unofficial” tool and works well. However, we recognize that not everyone uses Lightroom.

How to Instagram post without using a mobile device.

For non Lightroom users who want to post photos on Instagram directly from their desktop or laptop computers, we found this blog post with workaround just the other day: How to post to Instagram from a Mac

We’ve tested the method to make sure it’s up to date and does, indeed, work. If you are a Windows user, you should be able to download Safari and follow the same basic instructions. Windows users can find more info about running Safari here: Running Safari for Windows

Note: some features or abilities may not work the same way as you expect from your Instagram phone app.

How to Post Using Safari

Open Safari and go to the Preferences > Advanced menu
Turn on the check mark, “Show Develop menu in menu bar”
Log into Instagram in Safari
Look for the new “Develop” menu in the menu bar and choose Develop > User Agent > Safari iOS — 12.1.3 — iPhone
Refresh your Instagram page, if it does not do it automatically
You now have access to your Instagram page as if you were browsing on your phone
When you are done, either close the window or go back to Develop > User Agent and select Default at the top of the list

Apple has made Safari friendly to web developers who need to test their layouts and code from a desktop browser, for easy and efficiency. Since Safari on a desktop and on an iPhone are similar in nature, this workaround tricks Instagram into thinking you are logged in from a phone.

Thailand Photo Tour Scouting

March 19, 2019 by Lightroom Guy Leave a Comment

This is a break from our usual blog posts about tech and Lightroom, as I’m currently in Thailand photo tour scouting. I will be traveling through Thailand and then in Qatar during March working on multiple projects. I’m helping my wife, who is working on a children’s book about elephant sanctuaries; I was asked by a client to put together a bespoke tour of Thailand and I have an upcoming series of Lightroom workshops and talks scheduled in Doha for the end of March and beginning of April. I wanted to share some of my photos. This trip is too much fun to keep to myself.

Thailand Photo Tour

The first part of this trip is in Chiang Mai, Thailand photo tour scouting for a client. This northern Thai city still retains ruins of ancient walls and moats and has hundreds of elaborate Buddhist temples. The sheer number of temples is overwhelming and, at times they can be both magical and bizarre. For example, the Suttichit Buddha Place Park, south of Chiang Mai. It’s a temple complex with curious array of hundreds of odd sculptures along with traditional ones. There’s a massive mountainside reclining Buddha and statues of Godzilla, a pterodactyl, three-headed elephants along with Buddha sculptures in a dragon’s mouth Buddhist and Disney characters. It’s quite challenging to shoot this place, as everything gets in the way of everything else. I guess that’s why I enjoyed trying to convey the oddness. I definitely have to include this place in my Thailand tour.

Thailand Photo Tour. Giant Reclining Buddha with two Buddhas — Giant reclining Buddha feet with two buddhas
Suttichit Buddha Place Park

Then there’s the Silver Temple in Chiang Mai’s old city. In contrast to the Suttichit Buddha Place Park, it’s hard to take a bad photo here. There are beautiful interior and exterior juxtapositions of light and dark of this nearly all silver temple.

With contrasts of gold, this is a stunning location. And yet there’s an undertone of wackiness here as well, with Marvel characters and UFOs. Another definite location for the tour.

And let’s not forget the monks.

Thailand Photo Tour — Merit monk statues at Wat Chedi Luang

Chiang Mai is an amazing city for any photographer. First, you can’t throw a rock here without hitting a temple.

Second, every temple is uniquely different and there are thousands of them, so it’s hard to run out of places and things to shoot.

And third, the people. Thailand is a country of kind and generous people. You’ll never get tired of that.

My next stops are Bangkok on March 24th and Doha, Qatar on March 28th. I’ll make sure you see more photos on upcoming posts.

RAID is Not Backup!

March 6, 2019 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

At our new, quarterly “Tech Talk” event, co-sponsored by APA-NY and hosted at the NYC Hasselblad offices, one of the topics we covered in an in depth presentation was about RAID and backup systems. During the discussion we highlighted the very critical point that, RAID is NOT Backup. This caused some degree of confusion. We thought we’d use this blog post to dig in a little deeper and provide some more clarity.

Preparing for the Worst

As photographers in the digital age, most of us are storing our photos on some sort of hard drive system. And, as we all know, hard drives can fail. They can develop mechanical failures. Or, something can go wrong with the electronics that causes data to be lost or corrupted. Even worse, the drives themselves could be lost, stolen or destroyed.

To account for the possibility of data loss, we develop backup systems and workflow routines. In computer terms, a backup is an exact copy of digital data stored in a different location. This backed up data can be retrieved in case the working copy is damaged or lost. Usually this means corrupted data or hard drive failure.

There are many ways to achieve duplicating files and storing them securely. We’ve posted many times about the 3-2-1 strategy. As well as using Backblaze as a cloud based solution for keeping offsite copies of your images.

So here is where we draw the line between a RAID system and keeping a set of backup files.

What is a RAID?

A RAID (Redundant Array of Individual Disks) is where a bunch of hard drives can be cobbled together to form a single system. The features and capabilities of any give RAID system depend on the manufacturer and software involved. Suffice to say that, a RAID creates a system that is greater than the sum of its parts.

By way of example, let’s assume that we have so many photographs that we have to store everything on five different, individual hard drives. In this example we have no redundancy or fault tolerance. That is to say that, if anything happens to any one of those drives the data on that individual drive would be lost. We also would have to contend with having a data cable and/or power cord to connected to each individual drive. This could lead to a problematic situation itself: we might not be able to access all of the data at the same time since we cannot connect all the drives at once to one computer.

This is where a RAID comes in. In this case, a RAID 5* cobbles together all five of our example drives into a single system contained within a specialized enclosure. In other words, they work as if they were one hard drive. It has one data connection and one power cord. The RAID system then sprinkles little bits of data across all five drives. That is, every photo is divided into smaller chunks and distributed across all of the drives. The power of the RAID is its massive capacity and if (when) one of the five individual drives fails.

Here's an example of how a RAID system works. — *RAID 5 distributes data across all drives with fault tolerance

Because data is distributed across five drives, only part of the data would be lost if one of the drives developed a fault. Using something called parity (think of parity like a mathematical map of any given file), the system is able to rebuild a file using the other four parts and the parity information.

What is a RAID Good For?

A question you might ask then, is: why use a RAID at all? Why can’t I just use a bunch of hard drives and keep them all backed up? The simple answer is, you could do that but it would be an awful lot of work!

The large storage capacity created by a RAID is not available as a single hard drive. RAID provides redundancy, that is the ability to recover from any given drive failing. One additional consideration I would add is, RAID systems are best used when your total storage needs exceed roughly 20TB of data.

The current size and price of hard disk drives today is such that it is inexpensive enough to purchase and manage a single large capacity hard drive (8-12TB). However, the advantage of a RAID comes in when you need two to three (or more) times as much storage capacity.

Why RAID is Not Backup

Let’s take the above example of five hard drives in a RAID. We have redundancy (the ability to recover from failure) but we do not have backup (a separate, wholly independent copy of the data). The RAID system does not make an additional copy of the data to another device. The RAID simply distributes little bits of data across all of the drives in the RAID system to account for the possibility of part of the system failing. Therefore, we can see that RAID is indeed NOT backup.

How do you Backup a RAID?

There are two basic strategies for backing up a RAID system. The simple option is to use a cloud based backup system like Backblaze. There are many volume storage services in the market, such as Amazon, iDrive, and Crashplan. We’re biased towards Backblaze for a number of reasons. However, the key issues are pricing and having a fast, stable internet connection. Using a cloud based service does double duty in keeping a second copy of your data “off site” in case of catastrophe.

The other option would be to copy all the data from the RAID to another RAID, of equal or greater size. Or, to copy all of the data to a number of non-RAID hard drives. The former would be much simpler to manage but, would have cost implications as RAID systems can get expensive very quickly. The latter option would entail a lot more work, both in terms of time and hands on management.

Conclusion

Purchasing and setting up a RAID system is something that needs to be carefully considered. Given the cost and technical details, it may not be the best solution for most people without some guidance. RAIDs are good for storing and accessing large volumes of data but are not backup systems themselves.

If you have any questions about this or would like help in choosing or setting up a RAID, please do contact us as this is part of our normal business offerings.

Technical Note
Just a quick note here to say that there are many deeper technical issues regarding RAID that I did not address in this post! RAID can be a complex subject and there are many ways to achieve solutions for creating redundancy and backup. The purpose of this post was to write a non-technical explanation of why RAID isn’t a backup solution. So, I intentionally left out a number of issues so as to stay focused on this one point.

When Dragging Lightroom Sliders Just Won’t Do

February 28, 2019 by Lightroom Guy Leave a Comment

Hovering over a slider highlights the number field allowing incremental changes with the up/down arrow keys.

Sometimes dragging Lightroom sliders make adjustments that are too big, too small or not at all. That’s why I like to hover my cursor over sliders until they highlight. Because when I leave the cursor in place instead of dragging, tapping the up/down arrow keys will make incremental slider adjustments. You can change the increment size with a couple modifier keys. Using the up/down arrow keys in this manner works on all the panel sliders in Lightroom Classic.

Adjusting Increment Amount

Holding down the Shift key during up/down arrow key tapping adds/decreases increment amount. And, holding down the Option key (Alt on PC) decreases the increment amount. Remember, your cursor needs to be hovering over the Lightroom slider.

As simple as this sounds, dragging Lightroom sliders vs. using the up/down arrow keys alone or adding the Shift and Option keys can change the way you work by giving you more control over your slider adjustments.

To get you started, we’ve made a chart for the Lightroom Classic Basic panel that shows what incremental changes happen with which modifier keys. Click here to download the PDF and stop dragging Lightroom Sliders!

February Lightroom Updates

February 20, 2019 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

Last week, Adobe released updates for both Lightroom Classic (version 8.2) and Lightroom CC (version 2.2 – the cloud-based version). Along with the usual bug fixes and new camera and lens support, the big highlight for Classic is the new Enhance Details tool. And, for CC, Adobe has added a number of very useful developing tools.

Click through these links for details on the updates for camera and lens support. There are more details than we are going to cover in this post. Read about everything on the February Lightroom Releases post over at the Adobe Blog.

Enhance Details for Classic

The Enhance Details tool is yet another development that engages Adobe’s machine learning algorithms, called Sensei. Below, we’ve made a short demonstration video showing how Enhance Details works. In short, this is a tool that we recommend people use very sparingly. It creates huge files and can take a lot of processor time for not a lot of easily viewable results.

This tool is for anyone who makes very large prints of their work OR for people who care a lot about the fine details of their photos. Even in both of those cases, we suggest the tool be used sparingly given the relative size of the files that get created.

For more info, check the Adobe Help website pages regarding Enhance Details.

New Develop Tools for CC

Adobe has added five new developing tools in the update for Lightroom CC version 2.2. These are important updates that users have been asking for that demonstrate Adobe’s ongoing commitment to keep similar functionality between the two Lightroom versions.

The updates include:

HDR merge
Pano merge
HDR Pano merge
Target Adjustment Tool, and
Histogram clipping indicators.

The Adobe Blog post for February Lightroom Releases has more details on all of these tools.

More! Search in Lightroom Classic

February 13, 2019 by Lightroom Guy Leave a Comment

Using Metadata Search in Lightroom Revisited

Whatever you need to search in Lightroom, the Lightroom Classic Metadata filter panel should be the first place you go. It really does keep on amazing me. Recently I discovered that I can search in Lightroom by photo orientation. We know that you can search in Lightroom for more than filenames and keywords, but when a client asked if she could search just for verticals, I wasn’t sure. So, I immediately went to the Metadata filter. And, Aspect Ratio was on the list!

Oddly enough (for me anyway), Adobe doesn’t seem to know what to call the Metadata filter panel. Adobe calls it the Library Filter Bar in the Lightroom Classic online manual. But really, we’re filtering by metadata.

But then what is the filter bar at the bottom of the Lightroom Classic preview window? Lightroom just calls them “filters.” I’ve always called them the ratings filter bar. Makes more sense to me. It filters photos by the various flags, colors, stars and a few other features related to ratings.

My personal rant aside, I love the Metadata filter panel for all it can do. In the Lr:Short video below, you will learn how to open the metadata panel, create a new metadata column and select a search value.

USB-C and Thunderbolt 3 – What You Need to Know

February 6, 2019 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

You may have heard or already encountered the new USB plug, called USB-C. At the same time, you may be less familiar with the Thunderbolt 3 (T3), a plug that looks exactly the same. Here we will outline the differences between them.

What’s the Situation?

Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a standard introduced 20 years ago intended to simplify and improve the connections between computers and accessories. USB-C is the new standard for USB, and more and more devices will feature it. All of Apple’s desktops feature USB-C and the new laptops only have USB-C type connecters. It is currently not as prevalent on PC desktops, but Windows laptops are featuring it more and more.

Three identical cable connectors.
Which one is the real Thunderbolt 3?
(Answer: the middle cable)

At the same time, these new devices may not be Thunderbolt 3 enabled. T3 and USB-C share the same physical connector, so it is easy to be confused. Just because the physical connection looks the same does not mean it will work in the same way; it depends on the device and the data controller at the point of connection. You may get a “device not supported” error message when you plug a T3 into a USB-C. Some manufacturers are good about identifying the connection type, and others not so much.

USB-C vs. Thunderbolt 3

The differences between them are important. Generally speaking, the T3 does everything the USB-C does and more. Specifically, the USB-C connection type can support a number of different features, including:

Alternate modes for sending and receiving data, including running video signal;
Up to 100 watts of power (that’s up from 2.5 watts on older USB connectors); and,
It has a symmetrical connection, so it doesn’t matter which way the plug is facing when you insert it.

Meanwhile, the Thunderbolt 3 uses offers these same features plus a few additional ones:

A faster connection, up to 40 Gbs;
Support for bi-directional data transfer (rather than alternate modes for sending and receiving data); and
This allows you to daisy-chain up to six devices.

What You Need to Know

From the perspective of the casual end-user, there are a few key things you need to know. Going forward, you should pay attention to the whether the devices you purchase have USB-C or T3 connectors and be aware of these features and differences. For your existing devices, the good news is that USB-C is backwards compatible, so, as long as you have an adapter for your device, the data connection will be seamless and you will connect error-message free. There is no harm to your computer or accessories if you plug a T3 into a USB-C, as the smart data controller will make sure nothing bad happens. Hopefully, the new USB-C style connector will help reduce the number of different cables you need to keep on hand.

Additional Information

For additional information, we recommend the following sites: