As promised from last weeks post on Youtube, I promised to share the “how to” on the creation of the little teaser video for transitioning from a black and white photo to color. For those that don’t remember, the video is here: Continue reading “Creating the color video”
Tag: workshop
A visit from Andie Smith!
Friend of the blog, Andie Smith has generously donated her time again here to share some insider tricks and tips to get the most out of Lightroom 3 – she shows her work flow, what the effect of various presets are in LR, and how to effectively use them. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you…Andie Smith
It is no secret I love Adobe Lightroom… the rumors are true, I refuse to edit without it. As I’ve created my own presets I realized if they are created correctly you can “stack them”. What is stacking? It is similar to using more than one action in Photoshop. I assume you want samples.
RAW image:
1. image with Work It-Awesome Portraits and some local adjustments (cleaned up skin and Work It- Pretty Eyes.)
2. image with Work It-Awesome Portraits +Work It-Meadow. Medow is in the Tints and Tones and just adds some more blues and greens to the image.
3. The way the presets are created, you can use the Tints and Tones on color or Black and White images. Here is the same image with Work It- B&W Contrast Dark and then Work It- B&W Contrast Dark +Bobby
4. But wait there is more! (I hope you read that in your best “info-mmercial” voice) you can use a vintage preset. I used Work It-Vintage
5. Then add a tint and tone on top of the vintage preset. here is Work It-Vintage + Work it- Little Red School House
There isn’t an image that leaves Andie Smith Photography or Eight18 Photography that hasn’t had one of the Work It presets used on it. It is my work flow. No matter the presets you are using don’t forget to customize them to make them work for you… “some assembly is required” as the saying goes.
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Editor Note: Thanks again to Andie for stopping in and sharing her workflow. If you like the styles, you can purchase the entire preset package from her website for only $89 here: Andie Smith Photography
She has also generously donated a full copy of her presets to the Lightroom Workshop, so if you happen to be attending, you will get the set there too. Not attending, sign up and get the whole rest of the day for only $10 more! Hope to see you there!
Raquette Lake Rendezvous
Every year, the men in the family (cue Tim Allen-esque Home Improvement style grunts) depart from their women and the rigmarole of daily lives to embark on a quest to re-connect with nature. We build fire, we eat man food, we emit bodily sounds not allowed in most social circles, tell jokes that are decidedly not PC or appropriate for most audiences and all sorts of other debauchery.
This year I had the chance to attend (I missed a few years due to work), and with a new generation of men-in-training to initiate, it was quite the sojurn! We also dealt with survival skills in the wild – land navigation/compass courses, intentionally over-turning canoes and kayaks to recover, and all sorts of hair-raising experiences for the single-digit aged crowd. They learned quite a bit!
In all the ruckus, I did manage to sneak my SLR into the forest for what I anticipated to be some possible chances at some nice scenery. I was not disappointed…here’s a few sample shots from said trip:
In addition to spending some good quality time with family, some “man-bonding” and such, a few decent shots came out of the trip too! Plus, with my packing list, and preparations for keeping everything dry, as well as some other trip-specific details, a few posts worth of content will likely be coming down the road later this week too!
In the meantime, don’t forget to set your alerts for the first free webinar that Kerry Garrison and I are hosting tomorrow night from our joint venture with Lightroom Dudes. That starts tomorrow at 6:30pm Pacific, 7:30pm Mountain, and 9:30pm Eastern(More are coming after that for only $20 a session…) The Denver workshop is also fast approaching , and there are still seats available. You can register for only $79 here: 
Hope you enjoy the pics, and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!
Friday Round-Up
A bunch of news for today – as most of you know, our inaugural workshop was this last weekend in Anaheim, and boy was it rockin’! Great participation, great input, and super feedback from everyone. On the anonymous feedback forms, every ranking was either a 9 or a ten (and there were more of the latter than the former)! Such a rush to see so much appreciation, and Denver is sure to draw an even bigger crowd. There’s only a few early bird seats left (3 I think), so if you haven’t registered yet – better sign up while the getting is good!
- Saturday Aug 28th – Denver, CO
- Workshop will be held at:
- Arvada Center for Arts & Humanities
- 6901 Wadsworth Blvd Arvada, CO 80003
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On the free front – the August contest is underway on Flickr and the prize this month is a 50 sheet pack of Polar Metallic Paper from the folks at Red River Paper. You all likely know how much I love this paper and this company – here’s your chance to find out why with your own pack of paper to push out some super prints for clients, family, friends, or even your own walls! Submit your own image to the Flickr thread (the theme is Metal).
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Last but not least, the eBook has been flying off the virtual shelf, and the response there has been overwhelming too. Read the reviews, and get your own copy from the eBooks page here! It’s still a super deal at only $4.99 for the digital download – it includes 49 Photo Tips, explained in detail and with accompanying images to demonstrate the effect when appropriate! Add this one to your virtual library today! (An iPad version is due out shortly – working on the ISBN now…)
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That’s it for Friday! Have a great weekend, and we’ll see you here on Monday with the Super Exciting News that I can’t share yet! Are you ready for some excitement though? Stop back in to find out!
Fly, Teach, Fly!
The adrenaline has worn off, and the inaugural workshop for Learning Lightroom 3 came to an end in Anaheim yesterday! It was a great workshop, and the feedback we got was just off the hook – 9’s and 10’s across the board. What was everyone’s favorite part? Naturally the prizes took the top notch, but a surprising second was our tips and tricks for how to get the most out of Lightroom 3. People really seemed to feed off the suggestions we made for everything from backup recommendations to advanced retouching techniques, and catalog maintenance and image management.
It’s events like these that remind me of my previous career in teaching. It’s so much fun to get out there and share tips and tricks with people – having them see the work flow advantages and the light bulb come on in a big way about what Lightroom 3 has going for it! The adrenaline rush has worn off though, so after nearly 48 hours of high energy, I am about ready to crash…we’ll be back tomorrow with more photo goodness and the next in the podcast series – episode #49! Lots of good stuff there, so be sure to stop in for the show notes and all that has to offer.
Last but not least, there’s still time to register for the remaining workshops in Denver and Seattle, so don’t delay – register today! These two still have the early bird discount of 20% off too, so it’s a super good deal! Over $200 in retail merchandise that everyone gets just for attending, the instruction, the work books, and over $1000 in door prizes including a copy of Adobe Lightroom 3! With this kind of return on investment, it’d be a shame to miss it. Grab seats while you still can!
Denver:
Seattle:
Happy shooting and we’ll see you here tomorrow!
The Workshop Tour Takes Off!
After extensive preparations, logistical planning and coordination, it is very exciting to finally announce the often teased and hinted at Learning Lightroom 3 Workshop Tour! Kerry Garrison and I have pooled our collective resources and we’ll both be at all the classes! We’ve got an initial launch in our own residence cities, with dates and locales already in place at:
Sunday Aug 1st – Anaheim, Ca [Completed]
Saturday Aug 28th – Denver, Co [Completed]
Seats are expected to go fast as this is a full day workshop aimed at getting you up to speed with Lightroom 3 whether you are new to the game, or ready to jump in for the first time! With lots of content, including “bags-o-schwag”, door prizes, and resource DVD’s, the dirt cheap Early Bird Price of $79 for the first 15 to sign up, we’re sure to hit capacity quickly! After that, the regular price of $99 per person kicks in. Special thanks to our sponsors: Adobe, Thinktank Photo, Nations Lab, and many more for their generous contributions to help get this off the ground. We’ve also got lots of local vendors who will be showcasing some super cool products at super cool discounts, and we’ll have gift certificates to give away too! So, come on out and check things out – it’s a steal at these prices!
Also, if you don’t live near any of the initial launch cities, make sure to submit a request for your own city (and get your friends to do the same!). Fifteen requests for another city brings us to you! There’s also an email subscription link on our launch page, (and here on the blog) so be sure to stop in and visit us at: