Next Month, I’m Speaking in the UK at “The Photography Show”

It’s the biggest and the best, and I’m super psyched to be speaking there once again. It’s just six weeks away. I have a 20% off discount ticket code you can use (it’s SPKTPS24), but if you’re a working pro, you might be able to get in free (they have some stipulations, but if you meet the requirements, you’re in free). Here’s the link for more details. Hope I see you there!

The iPhone Photography Conference 2024 is Almost Here.

We’re thrilled to bring you a fresh lineup of brand-new sessions for this year, along with cutting-edge iPhone photography techniques and tips that will elevate your iPhone photography experience. It’s a two-day, two-track

Join us for this 2-day extravaganza and capture the extraordinary—same passion, new techniques, and a whole lot of fun! Register early and save $150! More details and tickets (get yours today), at kelbyonelive.com

OK, no football this weekend, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be football food, so…well..there’s that. At least my team is guaranteed not to lose this weekend. Have a great weekend!

-Scott

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[Editor’s note: It seemed fitting that my last blog post of the year should be my last column in Photoshop User magazine, which ceased publication with the December issue. I’m incredibly grateful for the opportunity to have written my Under the Loupe column for so many years. – Rob]

When you first expand the panel, you’ll see everything is grayed out until you check the box next to Apply, which brings it to life and applies the settings to the selected photo.

By default, it uses AI to create a depth map of the photo and applies the default blur amount of 50. Having a photo with a clearly distinguishable subject will improve the quality of the depth map it creates. With this photo, I was impressed with how well it detected the subjects and even the default settings helped to separate them from the background. This tool is no replacement for in-camera depth of field blur and won’t replace any of my fast lenses, but in this case the photo was shot with the Canon RF600mm f/11 lens, so I couldn’t open the aperture any wider. My goal is to use Lens Blur to help the owl and squirrel stand out more from the busy background, without it looking too fake (obviously in the eye of the beholder).

Let’s get oriented to the panel. The Blur Amount slider does exactly what it says, and if you take it to 100, you’ll see we’re heading into fake looking blur territory. Below that slider are five different bokeh options, and hovering your cursor over each will reveal a pop-up with its name and description. The first is the most normal looking, but definitely worth clicking each one and exploring how each affects the photo. A photo with out of focus light sources will really show the differences between each option. If your photo does contain out of focus light sources (imagine a string of holiday lights in the background), then the Boost slider can be used to adjust the brightness of those light sources (the effect is very subtle on a photo like this).

For some photos, simply adjusting the desired Blur Amount and Bokeh option may be all you need to get the desired effect. If you want to fine tune things further or if the AI generated depth map doesn’t quite work for your photo, you can manually select what is in focus using the Focal Range controls. At the top of the Focal Range pane are icons for the AI generated depth map and a crosshair icon that allows you to click (or click-drag) over the region of the photo you want to be in focus. I think the AI did a good job of finding the desired subject, but there are some areas I want to refine, so I’ll leave the AI depth map and explore how I can modify what is in focus and what is blurred.

To really see how the depth map is working you’ll want to check the Visualize Depth box, which displays a color-coded depth map overlay on the photo. The warmer the color the nearer to the camera while the cooler the color the further away. You can see these are the colors displayed in the Focal Range pane as well. To visualize what exactly is in focus, keep the checkbox checked, then click on the handle within Focal Range. Dragging left or right will change what is in focus and you’ll see the in-focus area of the photo displayed in white. You can also reduce or increase the size of the rectangle to further refine what is in focus and what is blurred.

For this photo, I tried to reduce the size of the in-focus area as much as possible to ensure the owl and squirrel were in focus along with the branch they are on, but there were still some areas of the owl that remain slightly out of focus, and this is where the Focus and Blur brushes at the bottom of the panel come into play. The Focus brush allows for painting in areas that we want to be in focus, while the Blur brush allows for painting in areas that we want more blurred. The Size, Feather, and Flow sliders work just the same as they do for the brush in the Masking panel. There is even an Auto Mask checkbox that works great when brushing over an object with clear edges between it and the adjacent area. In this case, I’ll select the Focus brush, reduce its size (the left and right bracket keys also adjust brush size here) to fit within the area of the owl not fully in focus, and paint over its back and tail to include those areas in focus.

You can paint with the overlay on or off as desired. Use the Amount slider to blend your adjusted area in with the rest of the photo. Zooming into 100% shows some areas along in focus objects that need help along the edges, such as the branch coming up in front of the owl. Switching to the Blur brush, I can fine tune those edges to clean that up and match the blur along the edge to the background’s level of blur. Just as when brushing in Masking, hold the spacebar and click on the image to zoom in/out, or to click and pan around.

When done brushing with either tool, use the Amount slider to fine tune the look to all the areas you brushed and blend with the rest of the photo. If you want to make a new brush adjustment, click the + sign next to the brushes to begin a new adjustment with a different amount setting. In this case I wanted to ease the transition of blur on the bottom branch as it heads into the background below the animals. Now, I know this is not the same as true lens blur done in-camera, but I do like having the ability to make the subjects stand out of a busy background in a subtle way with quite a bit of control. Be sure to use the eye icon on the Lens Blur panel as you go to see the photo without Lens Blur for comparison.

For a more exaggerated example, I’ll take a photo with a very wide depth of field and give it a strong blur effect to simulate a shallow depth of field. After letting Lightroom create its AI depth map I’ll grab the Point/Area Focus tool to manually click on the car to tighten the area of focus even more.

I’ll turn on Visualize Depth, and further refine the area I want to be in focus around the car.

I’ve got the area dialed in, but due to the car windows we can see into the background, but those areas are still in focus. Grabbing the Blur brush, I can brush over the areas within the windows to match the blur with the background.

With a new Blur brush, using a lower Flow setting to slowly build up the effect, I can paint on the hill behind the car to separate it from the car with a more subtle blur. If you accidentally paint over the wrong area, you can hold the Option (PC: Alt) key to flip the brush to an eraser to erase any errant strokes. By using a lower flow and multiple brush instances, you can build up layers of blur. In an otherworldly image like this, I think the added blur can enhance its look (again, subject to taste), and the Lens Blur tool provides a pretty high degree of control even in its Early Access state. I look forward to seeing how this tool evolves and how it can help us achieve a final look beyond what our cameras and lenses can do alone.

As a final note I’d like to thank Scott Kelby, Chris Main, Kim Doty, Barbara Thompson, Jessica Maldonado, Margie Rosenstien, and Angela Naymick, along with all the rest of the behind-the-scenes team that have made Photoshop User magazine so wonderful for so many years. I’m sorry to see this is the final issue, but it has been an honor and a privilege to have been able to write for it since Lightroom first came on the scene. Thank you to all who have read these issues, and I hope to see you still in the KelbyOne community and LightroomKillerTips.com. – Rob

The post Exploring the New Lens Blur Panel appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Solo Mode is one of the biggest time-savers and frustration avoiders in all of Lightroom, and it has the power to speed your entire workflow — all you have to do is turn it on. See how it works in this installment of “Lightroom in 60-seconds.” Check it out:

P.S. I’m taking next week off, so the blog is taking the week off, too. Have a safe and happy Holiday!

The post Work Smarter and Faster Using Lightroom’s ‘Solo Mode’ appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Configure your default catalog

One of the most important ways of ensuring you’re opening the correct catalog each time you launch Lightroom Classic is to configure a specific catalog as the Default Catalog. Go to Lightroom Classic > Preferences > General (PC: Edit > Preferences > General) and click the Default Catalog drop-down menu to choose the catalog file that is currently open and set that as the default. From that point forward you can rest assured that each time you launch Lightroom Classic that catalog will open regardless of what catalog you previously had open.

Create an import preset

A huge time saver and important method for keeping your import process consistent and efficient is to save all the common settings of the Import dialog as a preset. On your next typical import, configure all general settings as desired (excluding any settings that are too specific, like keywords or collection membership), and then click the Import Preset drop-down menu and choose Save Current Settings as New Preset. Give the preset a meaningful name when prompted and click Create. The next time you import a new batch of photos just confirm your preset is selected (or select it yourself) and know all your core settings are ready to go.

Master zooming in Library and Develop

Some time ago Lightroom Classic got an update that changed some of the zoom functionality for the better. The first thing to note is that it replaced the old zoom ratios (1:1) with zoom percentages that I think are easier for people to understand. Additionally, it added a 100% button above the Navigator panel to make it easy to quickly jump to that zoom level as needed. You can still access a range of zoom levels, from 6% to 1600% from the drop-down menu at the top of the Navigator. We also gained two new ways to zoom; Box Zoom and Scrubby Zoom. Box Zoom works in both the Library (Loupe view) and Develop modules by holding the CMD key (PC: Ctrl) while dragging a rectangle (box) the size you want to zoom into. Scrubby Zoom only works in Develop (with GPU acceleration enabled), and involves holding the Shift key while dragging left to zoom out or right to zoom in. Give them a try!

Mark folders and collections as favorite sources

If you have folders that you want to access quickly from anywhere in Lightroom Classic, you can mark them as a favorite. Simply right click any folder in the Folders panel and choose Mark Favorite from the contextual menu that appears. This adds a star icon to that folder and adds the folder to the Favorite Sources list accessible from the Filmstrip panel in any module. You can add a collection or even collection set to the Favorite Sources list by first selecting it in the Collections panel, then click the breadcrumbs menu in the Filmstrip and choose Add to Favorites at the bottom of the list (you can remove sources from the list the same way).

Mark most used presets and profiles as favorites

A quick way to gather your most used Develop presets into one group is to mark them as a favorite. Simply right click a preset and choose Add to Favorites from the contextual menu. That preset will be added to a special Favorites group at the top of the Preset panel.

Similarly, you can open the Profile Browser in the Basic panel, scroll through profile groups, and click the star icon that appears in the upper-right corner of each profile to mark it as a favorite. Favorite profiles will conveniently appear in the Profile drop-down menu in the Basic panel for easy access.

Manage the Presets panel

Lightroom Classic comes pre-installed with many Develop presets, in various groups, within the Preset panel. Some are good, some are not, but once you’ve explored them and possibly marked some as favorites (see previous tip) you can hide any preset groups in the panel you no longer need to see (presets marked as favorites will still be visible in the Favorites group even if you hide its parent preset group). Click the + sign at the top of the Presets panel and choose Manage Presets to open the Manage Presets dialog box. From there, simply uncheck any preset groups you no longer want to see in the Presets panel and click Save. You can always go back to this dialog box and restore any hidden groups.

Sync LrC catalog to Lr

To expand your Lightroom Classic catalog to your mobile devices it all starts with syncing your catalog. Click the cloud icon in the upper-right corner of the interface and click Start to begin the process. I’ve got an entire article if you want to learn more.

Explore Auto Adding photos in Lightroom for mobile

I like to use the Lightroom app on my iPhone to transfer photos taken on that device to my Lightroom Classic library. I have the Photography plan with 1TB of storage, so I don’t worry about filling up the cloud storage, and I like that this can be automated. If you only have the 20GB storage plan, use this tip with caution (or not at all). To set up Auto Add, tap the 3-dot menu next to the album you want to add the photos to automatically and toggle the Auto add from device photos to the on position. From that point on any newly add photos to your device’s camera roll will automatically import into Lr. You can disable by toggling that same switch to the off position. This will not automatically add photos previously sitting on your camera roll.

Access the Lightroom camera faster

I love the camera module within the Lr app on my phone and shoot with it a lot. On iOS (version 9 or later) you can jump right to the camera by doing a long press on the Lr icon to access a contextual menu containing an option for Take Photo or Take Selfie to choose the back or front facing camera respectively. On Android (version 7.1.1 or later) the process is similar. Locate the Lr icon on your home screen and give it a long press to access the Lightroom Camera app shortcut.

Set a Target Collection or Album

A fast way to add photos to a collection in Lightroom Classic or album in Lightroom is to designate a collection or album as the Target. In Lightroom Classic, right-click any regular collection and choose Set as Target Collection from the contextual menu. From that point on, you can select any photo (or group of photos in Grid view) and press the B key to add the selection to the Target Collection. In the Lightroom for desktop app, right-click the desired album and choose Set “[album name]” as the Target Album from the contextual menu. In this app, the T key is the shortcut to add selected photos to that album.

The post 10 Lightroom Classic and Lightroom Tips appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

I told ya it was going to be good!

Insane Deal on my new “How Do I Do That in Photoshop?” Book

Last night, for the launch of my new book, to celebrate we did an online author “Book Chat” where I share a bunch of Photoshop Tips from the book, and we gave away some goodies, and just had a fun Photoshop time. However, when we do these (I do these book chats for all my new book launches), my book publisher, RockyNook, gives a screaming deal to the folks watching. A crazy doesn’t even make sense deal, and they are offering it through the end of the day today.

It retails for $34.95. Amazon discounts it down to $33.37.

RockyNook is offering it direct for $15 until tonight. The print edition. Seriously.

Just $10 for the eBook version, and (get this) only $20 for BOTH! It would make a perfect gift, too!

Here’s the link to get the deal (only good through today, as best as I can tell).

Have a great weekend everybody! #GoBucs (we’re leading our division, which is a miracle unto itself, but we go to GreenBay this Sunday – an incredibly hard place for anyone to win, much less the Bucs, so let’s hope the Falcons and Saints both lose, too).

-Scott

The post Busting Common Myths About Lightroom appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

In short, it allows you to look at images and edit them in Lightroom ‘cloud’ without ever having to import them or upload them to the cloud. That’s a totally new concept for ‘cloud’, which always made you import them before you could work on them. They synced to the cloud as soon as you connected to the internet. So, this local storage feature operates kind of like Adobe’s Bridge application (if you’re familiar with it. If not, just forget I mentioned it).

A lot of folks either (a) didn’t realize this feature was even available, (b) if they did hear something about it, they didn’t quite understand what it does, or (c) both. So, today, we’ll quickly look at why it’s a really handy new feature (one I’d like to see added to Lightroom Classic) and what it won’t do.

Here’s a Typical Workflow Example

OK, you came back from a shoot; you copied your images onto your computer (or, if you’re like me, your external hard drive), and you want to find five or six images from this shoot. You don’t want to import all your images in Lightroom ‘cloud’; you don’t want to sync any images to the cloud; you just want to look through your images, find those five or six, and move on.

To do this, launch LR ‘cloud’ and click on the “Local” tab (shown circled here in red), and use the list below it in the left column to navigate to the images you want to look through. Again, these are NOT images you’ve already imported into Lightroom – these are the images you copied to your computer (or external hard drive), and when you click on the folder, you’ll see the images inside it (and the thumbnails appear super fast). Now, find the images you want to edit and just start editing them.

When you’re done editing, to save a copy of the file with your edits; go to Export (under the File menu) as shown here. Now, you can save it as a JPEG or whatever. If you export as a RAW image, your edits are saved in a .xmp sidecar file alongside your Raw file. If you save as a JPEG, your edits are embedded into the JPEG file itself.

If, instead, after editing some images, you want to import them into Lightroom and sync them to the Cloud, then press “g” to return to the Grid view; select the photos you want to sync to the cloud, and then click the “Copy Photos to Cloud” (shown circled above in red).

Even if you choose to copy these 3 photos to the cloud (In this case, it’s 3 anyway), there will still be a copy on your computer (or external hard drive).

What it won’t do:

As I just mentioned, if you edit the local copy, you have the option to copy that edited version to the cloud. However, once imported and synced to the cloud, if you edit the cloud copy, you DON’T have the option to copy those edits to the local copy.

I hope that helps make this new Local feature more clear; what it does, and what it won’t do.

Now, how ’bout those Bama boys! #RollTide! And, how ’bout them Bucs? Ugh. Oh well, there’s always next season.

-Scott

The post What Does The New “Local” Storage Feature in Lightroom ‘Cloud’ Actually Do? appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Thanks, Terry!

On Monday; My list of what it would take to move me off Classic and onto LR ‘cloud’

Wow – so many great responses to this question on last Monday. Some listed things that actually are already in the cloud version (more on that later), but lots of super legit reasons, and I’ll share mine on Monday, so we’ll see you then. Have a great weekend. #GoBucs #Rolltide!

-Scott

The post How To Install The Lightroom App On Your Apple TV appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

A friend asked me this question recently, and it really made me stop and think.

I don’t want to share my answers yet because I don’t want it to influence your answers (or to put something in your head that wasn’t already there), but I’d love to hear them. Are we at the point (now that you can store your images locally in Lr ‘cloud’ without even syncing your images to the cloud at all) that it finally makes sense for Lr Classic users to move over, or are we still a long way away?

Leave your thoughts/comments below.

Have a great Monday, everybody.

-Scott

The post Question: What would Adobe need to add to Lr ‘Cloud’ for you to switch from Lr Classic? appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Thanks, Terry – Great stuff as always.

How To Back Up and Organize Your Images When Travelling

I did a course on how I backup and organize my images in Lightroom when I travel, and it’s gotten a really great response. Check out the short trailer below:

Have a great weekend, everybody. Go Bucs and #rolltide!

-Scott

The post Great Video On All The New Stuff in Lightroom Classic and “Cloud” appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

To get there, just point your browser of choice to lightroom.adobe.com and sign in with the same Adobe ID and password you use for your Creative Cloud subscription. If you’ve already synced photos from Lightroom Classic or imported directly into one of the Lightroom apps, you’ll see those photos are already here. From the Home screen you can easily access recently added and edited photos, add new photos through your browser (full resolution photos that will be uploaded to the cloud, synced across Lightroom apps, and count against storage), access folders and albums, explore the Learn and Discover features, and quite a bit more. Along the top of the interface are icons for viewing notifications, checking cloud storage quota, downloading the desktop and mobile apps, accessing help and support, and accessing your account info and Technology Previews.

Technology Previews are a sneak peek into new features that aren’t fully formed but are functional enough for customers to test drive and give feedback to the Lightroom team. At the time of writing this there are two available, Collaborative Proofing and Clean Up. Collaborative Proofing has been around for a few years now as a tech preview. Clean Up is relatively new, and once enabled you’ll find a Clean Up menu item under the All Photos grouping on the left panel. Adobe doesn’t provide any glimpse into what’s under Clean Up’s hood, and simply states that it identifies photos you may want to remove to save space. Looking at the photos it suggested for me I can see it doesn’t like photos that are blurry or poorly exposed, such as these shots from my trail camera.

You can go through the photos it gathers arranged in added date and select photos that can either be flagged as rejected or just outright deleted. You can use CMD+A (PC: Ctrl+A) to select all and mark them all at once, but I wouldn’t recommend that without going through them all first, as it doesn’t like intentional blurring such as panning or slow shutter shots and really hates screen captures. Housekeeping is important, and tools like this can be helpful, but you still want to be in the driver’s seat. If you use it, be sure to click the Feedback button and let Adobe know what you think.

Grouped along with Clean Up you’ll find access to your Deleted photos (you’ve got 60 days to restore before they are automatically removed for good), Sync Issues (which groups photos having any sync related issues, which can help you identify where a problem may exist, such as in my case I had shut down Lightroom on my laptop before syncing had completed), Gallery (learn how to set up a Gallery), and Connections (these are also found in the Mac/Win version of Lightroom and allow you to send photos to online print services).

When working with your photos, you can add and remove them from albums, create new albums and folders, add and remove photos from storage, share them with others, and most amazingly edit them with much of the same functionality we have in the other Lightroom apps. To see your options, select an album, then select a few photos within it to activate the blue bar above the thumbnails. Here you’ll find the options for setting the cover photo, removing photos from the album, deleting them from the cloud, adding to another album, moving to another album, adding them to a connection, sharing them with others, downloading them, or applying keywords. In this case, I’m going to click Remove to remove these duplicates from the album.

Clicking on a single photo will switch to showing that one photo in a loupe view, where you can apply flags, ratings, keywords, title, and caption (click the i icon to access title and caption fields as well as see more information about the photo). From this view you can also access the suite of editing tools along the right panel and download and share icons along the top. Clicking the X button returns you to the Grid view. The editing tools available here are limited compared to the full apps, but still plenty powerful for something you access in a web browser.

The icon at the top will take you into all the presets that ship with Lightroom, your own custom presets, as well as presets recommended by Lightroom’s AI from the larger community. These can be a great way to explore looks and start from a different place.

Whether you apply a preset or not, the next icon down will take you into the editing suite where you can customize things to your taste. You’ll find the Light, Color, Detail, Effects, Optics, and Geometry panels waiting for you to adjust and get real-time updates as you go. These edits are then synced across all other Lightroom apps. If cropping is desired, click the Crop tool icon and fine tune your composition. When finished, click the X at the top to keep your edits and return to Grid view.

The Masking tools have been updated here as well, though not as full featured as you may be used to in other Lightroom apps. With a photo in Loupe view, click the Masking icon to edit existing masks or create new ones. The mask types are currently limited to Subject, Sky, Background, Radial Gradient, and Linear Gradient, though Adobe says more options will be coming in the future. When adjusting a mask’s settings, we’re limited to Light, Color, Effects, and Detail.

If you’re wanting to experiment with different looks and styles you can even take advantage of the Versions feature here on the web. Versions are like snapshots in Lightroom Classic in that they are only visible when you are in the Versions screen, where you can add, delete, and rename versions as desired. To create a new look while saving the original, go into the Named tab and click Create Version, where you’ll be prompted to give it a meaningful name and click Create. This saves the current look as a version. Now you’re ready to experiment. Click the Edit icon and make your changes for the new look. Go back into Versions, click Create Version, and give this new look a name. The thumbnail of the photo will reflect the currently selected version. To switch to a different version, you’ll need to select that photo, go back into Versions, and then select the thumbnail representing the desired look you want to see.

There’s a lot of cool features hidden away in Lightroom web, and the best part of it is that allows you to access your cloud-based library (which includes smart previews synced from Lightroom Classic) from anywhere you have Internet and a web browser. Give it a try and spend a few minutes exploring the Learn and Discover sections to further improve your experience with Lightroom.

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