Amidst all the attention over the new 1.3 update, we forgot to post a link to another new Lightroom video tutorial by George Jardine. This one offers some more great tips on working with the Library module and some of the less well-know aspects of photo synching behavior in Lightroom.

“A new tutorial that covers the Sync command, and a few ins-and-outs of working with Lightroom’s selection logic.”

Photograph © 2006 George A. Jardine

In this tutorial I outline the basics of Lightroom’s Synchronize command. You’ll learn how to apply Develop settings across multiple photos, in both the Library and the Develop modules. I also cover some of the new selection logic in Lightroom that is required to make working with large numbers of files, well…. logical!”

Duration: 11:56

Read full story and download the video tutorial…

Photographs can be quickly brought into Lightroom, bypassing the need for a camera card and having to configure the Import settings every time you import a batch of images.

This is also referred to as ‘tethered shooting’ and I say Lightroom has the potential to do this because Lightroom will need to rely on other software that can communicate with your camera and download capture files to a specified folder location.

With this in place, Lightroom can be configured to automatically import these images into the library.

Connecting the camera to the computer
To shoot in tethered mode you need the ability to connect your camera to the computer. Ideally, you want the fastest connection possible. Most professional digital SLRs will offer a Firewire (IEEE 1394) connection, which in practice will allow you to shoot and download at around the same speed as you can with a fast camera memory card. The only downside is that you have to have your camera connected to the computer via a Firewire cable and this can restrict the amount of freedom you have to move about without pulling the cable out, or worse still, pulling a laptop computer off the table! Another option is to shoot wirelessly.

At the time of writing there are wireless units available for some digital SLR cameras that will allow you to transmit images directly from the camera to a base station linked to the computer. Wireless shooting offers you the freedom, up to a certain distance, to move about without the restrictions of a tethered cable. But the current data transmission speeds with some cameras are a lot slower than those you can expect from a Firewire connection.

Rapid shooting via a wireless connection can work well if you are shooting in JPEG mode, but not if you intend shooting raw files only. But that may change in the future. On Nikon equipment, you can shoot wirelessly via ptp or ftp. It appears so far, that ptp is better, and should rival Firewire, since ptp should handle things much faster due to the compression built into the transmission.

Camera capture software
Lightroom is able to appropriate the tethered shooting component of the camera communication software and from there, directly take over the image processing and image management. Here’s how it works: the camera communication software can be instructed to download the files to a specific folder location and once the files appear in this ‘watched’ folder, Lightroom can be instructed to immediately copy the files into the Lightroom library. And because the files are simultaneously deleted from the watched folder, you effectively bypass the camera software and the images will appear directly in Lightroom.

At this point in time I can confirm that it is possible to use Lightroom in conjunction with the Canon Viewer software designed for the Canon EOS range of cameras. Below. I have outlined the steps that would be needed to setup a Canon EOS camera such as the EOS 1Ds MkII to auto-import the files directly into Lightroom.

Nikon users will find that Nikon Capture includes a Camera Control component that allows you to do the same thing as the Canon software and establishes a watched folder to download the images to. The latest version of Nikon Capture supports all the D Series cameras as well as the Nikon Coolpix 8700. Alternatively, you might want to consider buying Bibble Pro 4.7 software from Bibble Labs. Bibble Pro costs a lot less than Nikon Capture. It enables tethered shooting with a wide variety of digital cameras, and again, allows you to establish a watched folder for the downloaded images. As I say, I have not been able to test these other programs out yet, but you should be able to adapt the following steps to work with Lightroom.

The steps shown here demonstrate how to use the Auto Import feature using the Canon EOS Viewer utility program that is supplied free with the Canon EOS range of cameras. At the time of writing, these are the only cameras that I have been able to test shooting with in tethered mode. Although you won’t need to use the program to view and process the imported files, you need to leave EOS Utility running in the background because it is needed to interact with the connected camera.

Note: The EOS Viewer program described here is software that should have come with your Canon camera and can also be downloaded free from the Canon cameras website: www.canon.com (look for the download library section on the site). I have also tried using the self-contained Canon EOS utility program, but in my experience I have found that the combination of using EOS Viewer plus EOS Capture, has allowed me to work faster in tethered mode when shooting with the EOS 1 Ds MkII.

1. To begin with, launch EOS Viewer utility and click the Preferences button. Under Destination Folder, click Browse… to select a watched folder and click OK. Quit the program for now (you need to relaunch in order for the new folder location to be recognized).

2. Now go to Lightroom and open the preferences located in the Lightroom menu (or use Command+, (Mac) or Control+, (PC). Click on the Import tab, click to Enable Auto-Import and then click on the Choose… button to select the same watched folder as was selected in Step 1. But before leaving the Import preferences, click on the Auto Import Settings… button.

3. Here is the Auto Import Settings sub dialog, which will allow you to configure the Import settings for the auto imported files. These will be applied to all the images that are about to be captured and for the duration of the shoot (you will want to reconfigure these settings on a job by job basis). In the example shown here, I established a File Naming and renumbering scheme using the tokens available from the fly-out menu. You can select a bulk metadata template, select which custom Develop settings to use and, if you like, enter custom Keywords to apply to all the files as they are imported.

4. You are now almost ready to shoot. Make sure the camera is tethered to the computer and switched on. Launch EOS Viewer and click on the Connect to Camera button, which will launch EOS Capture. You can now use the camera as normal by pressing the shutter release, or use the EOS Capture utility to capture pictures remotely by clicking on the blue camera button in the dialog.

5. As you start shooting, the EOS Viewer utility will bring the camera files directly into the watched folder you selected in Step 1. From there, Lightroom will recognize that a new image has been added to the watched folder and import these captures as a new shoot using the Auto import settings. Once everything has been configured, you should be able to carry on taking pictures all day with the camera connected to the computer and all the images will be processed automatically using the settings entered in Step 3.

Caution! The Auto Import settings in Beta 4 do not allow you to save backup files to a secondary location, as you can with the normal Import dialog. Make sure you remember to periodically make manual copies of your auto imported files throughout the shoot.

Tips when using Lightroom in tethered mode
It should be possible to configure the Auto Import settings once at the beginning of a shoot and everything you photograph subsequently will be handled completely automatically. But of course, things can never be guranteed to run so smoothly. One thing to watch out for is if you update the Develop settings used in the Auto Import, you will need to reselect this again before you continue shooting. If the camera becomes disconnected, or the battery runs down, you may not always be able to plug it back in and carry on as before. In Beta 4 at least, you may sometimes need to create a fresh shoot via the Import preferences.

When you shoot using the tethered mode it is useful to see new images appear at the top of the content area as they are imported. To enable this, go to the View menu and choose Sort ➯ Descending. You may want to switch the sort order back to Ascending again for normal editing.

Further information about wireless shooting
Here is an interesting technology to look out for in the future: Eye-Fi are about to introduce a product called Eye-Film, which is a media card incorporating 802.11b/g Wi-Fi and 1 GB of Flash storage. Eye-Film will come in the form of an SD card (a Compact Flash Type-II adapter will allow digital SLR users to put these in cameras witout an SD slot). Once you start shooting the card will transfer photos from within your camera to any computer with Wi-Fi support. With Eye-Film, the originals remain on the card as well as transmitting to the computer. So far it is known that only JPEG files can be transmitted in this way. For more information, go to: www.eye.fi.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom book
Peachpit will be publishing The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book by Martin Evening. Martin has been working with Lightroom from the beginning, providing feedback to Lightroom’s development well before the public beta and monitoring the product’s development. The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book describes Lightroom’s features in detail and with photographers in mind. The book is aimed at photographers at all levels: amateurs as well as professionals and will offer a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about the program. Photographers who routinely work with raw images will find Lightroom–and The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book–an indispensable tool in their digital darkroom.

The book is also currently available as a Rough Cut version (updated for Beta 4)

ROUGH CUTS BOOK: The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Book
by Martin Evening
Publisher: Adobe Press
Pub Date: February 14th, 2007 (est.)
Print ISBN-10: 0-32-138543-8
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-321-38543-7
eText ISBN-10: 0-321-45003-5
eText ISBN-13: 978-0-321-45003-6
Pages: 352 (estimated)
List Price: USD $40.00 (when released)

Special Rough Cuts pricing on Safari:
Print Book and Online Access Bundle USD $54.00
Online Access Only USD $28.00
Print Book Only USD $28.00 (normally $40.00)

Peter Krogh, author of The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers has added a new video companion for the book on his DAM Useful website.

Complete RAW workflows for pro photographers
Peter Krogh provides an in-depth, 4-hour presentation of his proven workflow featured in The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers. This video training covers two end-to-end RAW photo workflows that include editing, file conversion, adding metadata, client feedback, backup, archiving and more.

These workflow videos feature the following software:
• Adobe Bridge
• Adobe Camera Raw
• Adobe DNG Converter
• iView MediaPro, iView Catalog Reader
• DAM Useful plug-ins: RapidFixer, Rank and File

Workflow tasks featured:
• Import from camera
• Batch rename
• Batch metadata
• Review a shoot and rank favorites
• Fast adjustments in Adobe Camera Raw
• DNG file conversion
• Create catalogs with iView MediaPro
• Organize photos in DAM catalogs
• Email photos
• Create slide shows
• Create Web galleries
• Share catalogs with your clients

The DAM Book Workflow Video are availalbe for $99.95 plus shipping.
• 2 CD-ROMs packaged in a standard DVD case
• Approx. Run Time: 275 minutes
• Requirements: QuickTime 6+ for movies
• Language: English

Video Table of Contents or Watch sample movies

About the author
Peter Krogh is a professional photographer and author of The DAM Book: Digital Asset Management for Photographers (O’Reilly Media, Nov. 2005) and co-creator of DAM Useful software. Peter is the former chairman of the American Society of Media Photographers’ Digital Photography Standards and Practices Project and regularly conducts seminars and workshops on digital asset management.

Adobe has released Adobe Lightroom Beta 4 for Macintosh and Windows now available for download at: Labs.Adobe.com. Windows users can now access more of the module features that were previously unavailable in the PC version of public Beta 3. But the main changes in Beta 4 have all taken place in the Library and Develop modules. In this second part review we are going to concentrate on what’s new in the Library module, such as the new interface changes to the grid layout, the ability to batch rename images, and convert to DNG and CD/DVD archiving. Read the rest of this story for an in-depth look at the Beta 4 Develop module.

The new Library panel interface
As was mentioned in the Beta 4 Develop module story, the Lightroom Beta 4 interface has a new darker gray look. Thumbnail images should load more quickly than before, although full optimization of the display code has not been worked on yet and won’t be until close to the time of version 1.0 shipping. After you initially install Beta 4, you will see a lot of empty gray thumbnail spaces at first. This is because Lightroom will only process library images to build the thumbnails and previews when you explicitly tell it to do so, or when you import new images. This allows you more control over the preview rendering process and will help speed up your work in Lightroom because the program won’t always be running the rendering processes in the background. So be warned. In the beginning you are going to see blank gray cells each time you visit a new shoot, but these disappear after you have visited a shoot the first time around. Note that in the Lightroom preferences there is an option to set how many days the 1:1 previews should be kept. The default option is set so that these will be discarded after 30 days and this will help keep your cache file size from bloating out of control as you add more images to the library.

You can manage the preview rendering by going to the Library menu and selecting one of the options at the bottom. If you have a large library of images to process, it is obviously going to take a while to rebuild all of the previews, so in these instances be prepared for a long wait. The other thing to bear in mind here is that the Lightroom Library management has changed quite substantially and you may want to think about re-importing everything from scratch for Beta 4. Now you don’t have to do this in order to get up and running with the new Beta, but it is never a bad idea to do so when working with a test product such as this. But for now let’s continue looking at the main interface.

Click to see larger image. Photographs: © George Jardine.

The Import and Export buttons have been brought back and the Toolbar menu at the bottom allows you to edit the Library images quickly (use ‘T’ to toggle hiding and showing the toolbar).

Of the two toolbars shown here, the upper screenshot shows the grid view toolbar, with the Sort by options, followed by the T-shirt size options for the grid cell size and the grid count plus how many images are selected. The screenshot below that is the version you will see when in the Loupe or Compare viewing modes. As you can see, image rating information is displayed, along with thumbnail rotation and navigation controls, a play button to launch an impromptu slide show, as well as displaying the filename of the most selected image.

The Navigator can now work as a temporary Loupe mode enabler whenever you are working in the Library module in Grid mode (as shown in the above screenshot). Mouse-down anywhere in the Navigator panel and a library grid image will be displayed in Loupe mode. Release the mouse and the Grid view will return. The trick here is to remember to ‘mouse-down’, as in click with the mouse and keep the mouse clicked down (a simple ‘mouse-click’ will take you directly to the Loupe mode).

The Filmstrip also has a new look, providing more feedback information, a Library image sort menu (bottom right) and view mode navigation buttons (bottom left). I also quite like the fact that you can now Option/Alt+double-click an image cell in the Grid to go directly to the Develop module and then Option/Alt+double-click again to return to the Library Grid mode (see the screen shot below of the image that was selected in the earlier library module, now displayed in the Develop module).

Click to see larger image. Photograph: © George Jardine.

Lightroom feedback status
The top left corner features a revised feedback status monitor. What you will often see normally is a progress bar like the one on the right, indicating that a task is being performed in the background, what that task is, and where applicable, tiny thumbnails showing you which images are currently being processed. If more than one operation is taking place at a time, you will see the grouped status indicator (like the one on the left). If you click on the arrow to the right, you can toggle the status indicator between each of the tasks that are in progress and the grouped indicator.

Grid Cell options
There are two modes for the Library grid cells. The Compact view that you had in Beta 3, or the new Expanded cells option that allows you to see more information about each cell image. In this expanded view you will notice the little icons in the bottom right corner of the thumbnail. If you double-click on the icon with the lines, this will automatically take you to the Applied Keywords panel in the Library module where you can readily start editing or adding to the keywords linked to that particular image. If you double-click the plus/minus icon, this will automatically take you to the Develop module.

To customize the Grid cell options, go to the View menu and choose View Options… Or use Command-J (Mac), Control-J (PC). The interface is shown below and, as you can see, there are lots of options that allow you to customize the grid cell appearance, including setting custom thumbnail sizes (so you aren’t just restricted to the T-Shirt size buttons!).

Library view options
The View Options also lets you customize what gets displayed when you switch to the Loupe mode view. In the example shown below, I customized the Loupe View options to overlay the Shoot name and Date time information to have this appear briefly when each image is first displayed in the Loupe view mode.

Click to see larger image. Photograph: © Martin Evening.

Note there are two Loupe Info settings available for you to configure in the Library View Options.

Renaming images and convert to DNG
A lot of testers have been asking on the public forums for a rename feature. In Beta 4, you can make a selection of images via the Grid or Filmstrip (but you must be in the Library module) and go to the Library menu and choose Rename Photos… (or use the F2 keyboard shortcut).

Another top request has been to add a convert to DNG function. You can convert other file formats such as JPEG to DNG, but for the most part, you will only want to convert actual raw files to DNG. So the Convert Raw files only option is best left selected. Lightroom will also let you convert your raw files and remove the original raw files, if you wish. I think busy photographers will like this feature because it allows you to import your raw files quickly just after shooting, without converting them to DNG. On a busy studio shoot this can easily save an hour or more of computer processing time. Then, when time allows, you can convert the raw files to DNG when it is more convenient to do so.

The Lightroom Library folder
When you launch Beta 4 for the first time, make sure that Lightroom is pointed to the right Library file (if the previous library was located on an external drive, you may need to hold down the Option key (Mac) / Control key (PC) on first launch and locate the old library file that way). Although Beta 4 will update smoothly from Beta 3, you are in all honesty better off starting from scratch and recreating a new library. It’s up to you.

Exporting shoots to a folder or a disk
This shoot export process is referred to as creating a photo binder. Go to the Library menu and choose Export Photos as Photo Binder…

Choose a name and a location to save the Photo Binder to and click Save. Lightroom will then generate a Photo Binder folder with the .lrbinder suffix. A Photo Binder is a folder that contains copies of all the original images placed in a subfolder hierarchy that matches that of the original shoot structure hierarchy used in Lightroom. The Lightroom Metadata.lrdata and Lightroom Previews.lrdata files are also stored separately in the .lrbinder folder.

The advantage of using the Export photos as Photo Binder option is that it allows you to create a folder package that contains both copies of all your original master files, but also contains the ‘lrdata’ files that can be used when importing photos from a Photo Binder to place those files in an exact matching shoot hierarchy in another computer running Lightroom and with all the metadata information intact and pre-generated previews all ready to load.

Exporting a shoot to another computer
Currently the only way to synchronize files with another computer running Lightroom is to export a photo binder from one computer, transfer the photo binder to another computer running Lightroom and use the Library > Import Photos from Photo Binder option. This procedure will make the transfer of library images smoother and quicker than before. It is not a complete solution and does not answer requests for library synchronization between computers, but what you see so far can be taken as a first step towards achieving that goal.

Exporting library images to a disc
There is also another related option that allows you to burn images to disk as a Photo Binder.


This may not be exactly what testers have been asking for. The Burn Disc as Photo Binder… does the same thing as the Photo Binder Export, but it creates a Photo Binder folder on a CD or DVD rather than a hard disk location. So, maybe it is not quite what we hoped for just yet. For now it does provide a useful mechanism to create archives of your shoots on DVD (just don’t exceed the 4.4 GB limit!)

Library image editing and sorting
Compare mode editing allows you to select two images and then use the keyboard arrow keys to change the view for the most selected image and thereby let you compare alternative shots more easily. Drag and drop is now working in the filmstrip and custom sort orders are memorized when you save images as a Collection.

Click to see larger image. Photograph: © Martin Evening.

The Filters panel has also changed slightly. As before, you can filter by text: this filters images according to any matching criteria in the Shoots, Collections Keywords panels or Captions. Instead of a ratings slider you click on the star ratings to filter images in the library. To turn the rating filtering off, just click on the stars. So, as in the example below, you can reset the rating filter to zero by clicking on the star; or, you can turn all Filters off by clicking the On switch at the top.

The Adobe Lightroom book
Peachpit will be publishing The Adobe Lightroom Book by Martin Evening. Martin has been working with Lightroom from the beginning, providing feedback to Lightroom’s development well before the public beta and monitoring the product’s development. The Adobe Lightroom Book describes Lightroom’s features in detail and with photographers in mind. The book is aimed at photographers at all levels: amateurs as well as professionals and will offer a comprehensive guide to everything you need to know about the program. Photographers who routinely work with raw images will find Lightroom, and The Adobe Lightroom Book, an indispensable tool in their digital darkroom.The book is also currently available as a Rough Cut version (Beta 3 only)

ROUGH CUTS BOOK: The Adobe Lightroom Book
by Martin Evening
Publisher: Adobe Press
Pub Date: December 29, 2006 (est.)
Print ISBN-10: 0-32-138543-8
Print ISBN-13: 978-0-321-38543-7
eText ISBN-10: 0-321-45003-5
eText ISBN-13: 978-0-321-45003-6
Pages: 320
List Price: USD $40.00 (when released)

Now available as a Universal Binary for compatibility with Intel-based Apple hardware
Crop and Straighten tools included in the Develop module
Ability to add music to slideshows
White balance support for the Nikon D2X, D2Hs and D50 cameras
Ability to create hierarchical keyword sets
XMP Import and Export capabilities. (Please consult Known Issues list for details)
Improved Edit in Photoshop capabilities
Improved metadata handling

Minimum Requirements
Mac OS X 10.4.0 (Tiger) or higher
G4 or G5 processor (Yes, we will work on a PowerBook)
768 MB RAM (preferably more)
1GB or more free hard drive space

The Adobe Lightroom Beta 2 is available from Adobe.Labs.com.
Additional information and direct feedback can be obtained at the Lightroom Forums;
Lightroom Beta General Discussion
Lightroom Beta Feature Requests
Lightroom Beta Bug Reports

Beta 2 report by Jeff Schewe-images ©2005 by Jeff Schewe.

Click on the image to see the full dialog in a new window.
Lightroom Beta 2 introduces a slew of new features-notably, the addition of a lot more metadata support.

Beta 2 support all of IPTC Core, the new IPTC for XMP scheme which is also supported by Photoshop CS2 and Adobe Bridge. The drop down menu allows you to select which metadata is visible in the panel.

You can now create metadata presets for easy application to mass images.

Click on the image to see the full dialog in a new window.
Clicking new opens a new dialog allowing you to specify which fields you wish to mass apply and save as a named preset.

After saving a new preset, it will show up as a new preset in the drop down menu.

The same presets will show up in Import so you can embed metadata upon import or you can create a new preset from within Import.

Click on the image to see the full dialog in a new window.
In Develop there is a new feature-Crop and Rotate-yes, the Lightroom engineers are listening…

Click on the image to see the full dialog in a new window.
You can crop directly on the image and have the ability to rotate the crop-but it’s different from Camera Raw’s crop function. It takes a bit of getting used to, but it’s a very natural method of setting the crop and rotate.

The crop options now show up in the main Develop control panel.

The drop down menu allows entering in specific crop ratios or a custom crop.

Click on the image to see the full dialog in a new window.
In Slideshow, you can now attach music from your iTunes music library.

Click on the image to see the full dialog in a new window.
In Print, Page Setup information is now saved with templates, including page size, orientation, and target printer.

UPDATE DETAILS
Intel Mac Support
Lightroom is now a Universal Binary, running natively on both PowerPC Macintosh systems (10.4 and up) and Intel Macintosh systems.

Crop and Straighten
Lightroom now supports cropping and straightening of photos.

Enhanced Metadata handling

•Metadata support has been added for many IPTC fields. The complete list is shown when “all” is selected from the metadata field list menu (Menu is available from the metadata panel header). When editing a field, press Enter to commit the field to the Lightroom database.

•Metadata can be exported to the file system using either of the following methods:
-Exporting or synchronizing the XMP sidecar
-Export from the File menu.

Metadata can be imported to Lightroom using any of the following methods -Importing or synchronizing the XMP sidecar (This will overwrite the existing Lightroom metadata) -Synchronizing the XMP sidecar file will allow Lightroom to add only the latest changes to the Lightroom database -Lightroom will ingest a file’s metadata during the initial import process.

When exporting an XMP sidecar, a new XMP sidecar file is written using the contents of the Lightroom database. In addition to the read-only Exif fields and IPTC fields Lightroom also writes out the collection, shoot, keywords, develop settings and ratings. Once exported, the fields can be seen in Adobe Bridge. In addition, a text editor can view the sidecar file where all of the described metadata is stored.

Note Regarding Lightroom and Adobe Bridge Metadata Interoperability: Bridge will occasionally not recognize changes to the sidecar file written by Lightroom. Try the following solutions: -In Bridge refresh the folder by selecting F5 -In Bridge Choose Tools -> Cache -> Purge Cache for this folder.

The “synchronize” feature attempts to automatically pick up changes from both the file system and the database and update both of them at once. For example, after changing the orientation of an image in Adobe Bridge and changing the rating of that image in Lightroom, synchronize will adopt the most recent changes from each source.

Synchronization can be set to run automatically in the preference panel. If synchronization fails because a single field was changed in both places, a question mark icon appears on the image. A manual import or export of the sidecar will fix this. Once the question mark icon appears, the file is not synchronized for any field.

On export, Lightroom not only writes XMP data but also duplicates some of the metadata into legacy file formats known as IPTC-IIM and Exif. This is not to be confused for the sets of fields that are also known as IPTC and Exif. The legacy formats are primarily for use with Non-Adobe applications.

Print
•Page Setup information is now saved with templates, including page size, orientation, and target printer Library

•Lightroom now supports hierarchical collections and keywords .

•The Compare mode in the Library has additional functionality for dragging ratings and comparing one image to many .

•Edit in Photoshop enhancements for layered TIFF files.

KNOWN ISSUES:
General
•When using 22 megapixel images, screen re-draw can get really slow.

•Photoshop files (PSD) open in Preview but not in Lightroom.

•Some undo functions show the wrong text when undoing.

Metadata
•There are some flaws with the current implementation of Lightroom -Adobe Bridge metadata interoperability. The Lightroom team is aware of certain issues with read-only files and some .CR2 raw files. Please report any issues you find to the bug forum on labs.adobe.com

•Lightroom does not currently read Adobe Camera Raw settings from Bridge or Photoshop.

•If the local iTunes version is not currently up to date, there may appear to be a hang when using the Playlist feature in Slideshow. This is due to the iTunes update dialog appearing behind the Lightroom application.

•Adobe Bridge does not read sidecar files or the associated metadata for CR2 or JPEG files. A current workaround is to apply the metadata in Photoshop.

•Open the file in Photoshop Select File • File Info dialog Select the “Advanced” entry from the list box Press “Replace…” then choose the sidecar file for the image Re-save the image file.

Import
•When importing images directly from a digital camera, if the camera is disconnected mid-stream, no error message is seen and the last image being imported fails.

•Import fails for some types of TIFF files.

•When trying to import images with a very long shoot name (>256 characters), import fails.

•Some Canon PowerShot S40 RAW files are not recognized and JPEg files are not seen by Lightroom.

•Renaming on import doesn’t always work.

•External HD with DCIM in root causes auto Import function that can not be stopped for a very, very long time on Powerbooks only.

•With some Canon Rebel XT cameras, you cannot directly import into Lightroom from the camera.

•8 Bit Grayscale files do not import correctly.

•When using Lightroom with hundreds of shoots, or multiple thousands of photos, the app can be sluggish.

Print
•If you bring many files into Print via the Filmstrip, Print will become sluggish.

•Custom profiles do not carry over with the upgrade to the Beta 2 database.

Slideshow
•Pdf files which are generated through Slideshow do not honor any of Slideshow settings such as Margins, Custom objects, Ratings etc.

Export
•LZW compression in TIFF export is not functioning.

About the Lightroom Beta, from Adobe labs: Note: This is a public beta, not a final release. Neither the quality nor the features are yet completed. We want to show you our direction and get your feedback so that we can incorporate it into future releases.

Press Release: ANAHEIM, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Nov. 14, 2005–Pound Hill Software, a leading developer of metadata software tools, today announced MetaGrove, the world’s first integrated suite of software tools for Adobe’s Extensible Metadata Platform (XMP). The comprehensive, robust toolkit consists of MetaGrove Developer, MetaGrove Plug-ins for Adobe’s Creative Suite, and MetaGrove XTension for QuarkXPress.

Available for Windows and Mac, MetaGrove provides for standardized cross-platform and cross-application metadata consistency, server-based support for controlled vocabularies, and the ability to automatically enforce corporate and departmental standards.

“MetaGrove lets organizations reap the full benefits of XMP metadata without the steep learning curve,” said Dennis Shepard, vice president of marketing. “The toolkit enhances the metadata capturing and storing capabilities of Adobe Creative Suite and QuarkXPress, allowing for the definition of custom schema and metadata properties, creation of custom user interfaces, and automated custom links to external media management systems.”

MetaGrove Developer provides an easy-to-use, drag-and-drop environment for initial setup by the organization’s data expert. It defines the metadata to be embedded in digital assets and the look and feel of the user dialogs used to collect the data. Powerful features such as auto-complete, tool tips, validation, thumbnail support, and dynamic server support ensure complete and accurate metadata tagging.

“For end users, the control and flexibility provided by our plug-ins greatly exceed Adobe’s built-in metadata capture mechanism for Acrobat, Illustrator, InDesign and Photoshop,” said Shepard. “With minimal impact on workflow, MetaGrove Plug-ins provide for intuitive, high-fidelity metadata capture directly from menu items within the Adobe applications. Our MetaGrove XTension provides the same capabilities for QuarkXPress.”

MetaGrove facilitates source file repurposing and extends the lifecycle of digital assets by encouraging widespread acceptance of metadata as part of the day-to-day workflow. “The net result is greater productivity and efficiency — and a reduction in costly errors,” added Shepard.

MetaGrove Features

* Custom Metadata Schema: Supports industry-standard or custom schema.

* Dynamic User Interface: Can be defined by static files or dynamically via digital asset management (DAM) system.

* Help Tags and Tips: Easily accessible explanation fields increase speed and accuracy of metadata capture.

* Internal Values: Supports thumbnails, dimensions, word count, fonts, colors, and more.

* Required Fields, Dependent Fields, and Auto-Complete: Ensures capture of essential metadata, automatically updates dependent fields, and completes common values after a few keystrokes.

* Vocabulary-on-Demand Topic Fields: Controlled vocabularies are right in the dialog where they are needed, including IPTC numeric subject codes.

* Dynamic Server Support: Plug-ins and XTensions will optionally query a server for the latest controlled vocabularies.

* Default Values: Static or dynamically defined via a server.

* Validation: Assures high-fidelity metadata capture.

Pricing and Availability

The MetaGrove suite will be available for delivery by the end of January 2006. Enterprise pricing is based on quantity, with typical pricing of $65 to $85 per Plug-in or XTension.

About Pound Hill Software

Established in 2001, Pound Hill Software Inc. provides development tools, plug-ins, XTensions, and services that help organizations harvest the full benefits of XMP. Originally a professional services firm, Pound Hill has evolved into a leading provider of both products and services that add a powerful new dimension to DAM systems and content management solutions. The company has headquarters at 4085 E. La Palma Ave., Suite L, Anaheim, CA 92807. For more information, call 86-METADATA or visit www.poundhill.com.

Pound Hill and MetaGrove are trademarks of Pound Hill Software. All other trademarks belong to their owners.

MediaPro 3 provides the following new features, improvements and enhancements:
 

Lightbox:
This digitized version of the photographer’s lightbox gives more powerful viewing options. In full screen mode, view up to four images side by side; compare and contrast; zoom and scroll to the same point on multiple images simultaneously; mark favorite selections; display histogram information for all images.

Streamlined Annotation Workflow:
Provides more consistent annotation throughout your entire workflow, from import to export, via a user-defined controlled vocabulary (such as keywords). Support for industry standards IPTC/XMP Core and UNICODE means that annotations assigned in MediaPro can be read in other applications such as Adobe Photoshop, and you can use any language character set in annotations (such as Japanese).

Dynamic File Import Control:
Create catalogs faster by batch renaming files, applying multiple annotations and copying media files to folders automatically on import. For example, images from a shoot can be stored into the right folder and batch renamed to fit a preferred filename format directly on import. You can also batch import files from the Web directly into catalogs using the cURL technology for transferring files online.

XML Import and Export:
Industry standard compliance helps protect your digital archive. MediaPro can now import XML and export catalogs to XML. For example, you can export a catalog and its metadata to XML formatted data and choose to change the XML structure, using XSLT (eXtensible Stylesheet Language Transformation). You can also export XML files from iView MediaPro to other applications and create HTML or text documents.

Enhanced Interface:
iView MediaPro has always excelled at responding to a user’s requirements. Now you can customize your interface to display only the metadata fields you need while you’re working and personalize IPTC terminology to fit your workflow. Also, you can save your catalog layout options as themes or use MediaPro’s predefined themes.

Advanced Web Gallery Options:
MediaPro catalog publishing options are expanded. You have more flexibility in making Web galleries and integrating them with your existing Web site.Web Galleries are no longer limited to HTML tables. For example, create unique Web pages using other technologies, including Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Also, you can now upload exported galleries directly to your Web server from MediaPro 3.0 via FTP.

Other new features and enhancements:

• New file format support includes: WMV and WMA on the Windows platforms; Microsoft Word and Rich Text Format (RTF) documents onw Windows and Mac platforms; and archived Web page files on the Mac.

• E-mail files directly from a MediaPro catalog

• Create and store Full Screen Preview images so that media can be viewed even when the original files are not available.

• New progress indicators and status reports on import and batch functions

• Improved image conversion, including watermarking and embedding metadata

• Improved contact sheets, including headers, footers and file format settings

• More powerful batch rename options, using metadata as variables in the naming process

• Enhanced printing options and additional Web themes

To learn more about these features, see What’s new in MediaPro 3.

Compatability: iView MediaPro 3.0 is compatible with Mac OS X 10.2.8 and higher, Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Download Version 3
See this page for upgrade pricing information on this new version.

Documentation: A manual and shortcut card for Version 3 is available in our Download section.

As always, MediaPro works best with if you have the latest version of QuickTime installed on your computer. Download and install the latest version for free on Apple’s web site. This is strongly recommended to both Windows and Macintosh users.

Every photographic trip is an education. One thing that I always learn is what equipment worked out, and what was either ineffective or redundant. Two weeks shooting several thousand frames in a foreign country under adverse conditions can tell me more about a given piece of gear than a year or more of occasional use at home.

Ideally I’d like to take my full equipment cupboard on every shoot, Working close to home and from my car I can almost do so, bringing a mixed bag, so to speak, with a variety of lenses and bodies so as to have whatever may be needed for a given situation. But the weight restrictions of flying, not to mention moving in and out of hotel rooms, planes, busses, boats and cars, means paring ones kit down to anticipated essentials.

Anticipated is the watchword. But when traveling to an unfamiliar location it can be hard to anticipate what may be needed, and invariably I bring more than I need.

Here then is what I used on my photographic expedition to China in late 2005; what worked, and what didn’t.

Read the entire article

Source: Publish
Written By Bill Dyszel

The conference begins Monday morning at the New York Hilton and features over 100 industry leaders, who will share best practices and lessons learned with those who are new to the field as well as more experienced hands.

Experts agree that the field is reaching critical mass. “It’s unusual to find any significant publishing operation or brand management operation that doesn’t at least have a tactical [digital] asset management solution,” said Kieron Osmotherly, managing director of the conference. “We’re seeing the evolution from tactical applications toward more strategically embedded applications.”

Spending on digital asset management is expected to explode in the next few years, growing at a rate of 42 percent annually through 2008, according to a recent study by analyst firm IDC.

Read entire article

RAW Developer 1.2.1 has been released. Support for Adobe DNG files was added in version 1.2.

We promised you it was a very high priority, support for the Canon Digital Rebel XT (350D/Kiss N) has now been added! Also includes some fixes for issues with the Minolta 7D and white balance improvements for the Epson R-D1, Pentax *ist D and Nikon E8400/E8700/E8800. A big thanks to everyone who sent in sample RAW files!

Preview rendering speed has been GREATLY improved. For example on a 1.3GHz G4 an 8 megapixel image preview update has dropped from nearly 3 seconds to less than 1 second. You’ll see identical performance (updates in less than 1 second) with images as large as 22 megapixels and at any preview size/scale. On G5 systems preview updates occur nearly instantly.

Image loading speed for many cameras has been improved as well. Depending on the camera model image loading time has been reduced by as much as 25%.

Improvements have been made to our demosaic algorithm to reduce moire and noise while still retaining outstanding fine detail performance.

Expanded EXIF meta data support and an all new information window for detailed display of image file and EXIF information.

Improved “As-Shot” white balance determination for several cameras including all recent Canon’s with CR2 format files and several Minolta models as well.

Improved support for auto rotation of images. Thumbnails as well as the main image are now automatically rotated for all cameras that provide orientation information.

Overall memory usage has been reduced.

Support for Adobe DNG files has been added as well as native support for many additional cameras including the Nikon D2X, Nikon E8400, Epson R-D1, Leaf Valeo (now all 11, 17 and 22 megapixel models), Leaf Volare, Imacon Ixpress (now both 16 and 22 megapixel models), Fuji S3Pro, Olympus C70Z/C7000Z, Minolta DiMAGE A200, Minolta DYNAX/MAXXUM 7D, Pentax Optio 33WR and Casio Exilim Pro 700.

About RAW Developer:
RAW Developer is a powerful RAW image conversion application designed specifically for Mac OS X. RAW Developer gives advanced photographers total control over every aspect of their digital camera’s output, yet still provides easy drag and drop conversion convenience and access to basic adjustments for the casual user. Thanks in large part to Dave Coffin’s work on the open source RAW decoding program dcraw, RAW developer is able to support files from over 100 digital camera models.

RAW Developer Feature Highlights:
Fast, High Quality Image Previews

RAW Developer 1.2 features greatly improved image preview speed and faster image loading as well. All image adjustment preview updates now occur in near real-time (less than 1 second on 1GHz G4 systems) regardless of native image resolution and image window preview size/scale.

High Quality, 16 bit per channel (48bit RGB) Image Processing

High quality image interpolation alogorithms give excellent image detail with minimal demosaicing artifacts. All image processing operations are performed at 16 bits per channel or greater. RAW Developer 1.2 features improved demosaic preformance with reduced moire and noise while retaining outstanding fine image detail.

Advanced Sharpening and Noise Reduction Algorithms
RAW Developer offers two sharpening methods, including unsharp mask, both operate exclusively on the lightness channel in Lab color space to avoid color artifacts. Powerful hot/dead pixel filters and noise reduction algorithms help eliminate noise, especially from images taken with long exposures or high ISO settings.

Image File and EXIF Information Window
RAW Developer 1.2 now offers a meta data information window which displays detailed image file and EXIF information.

Flexible Black And White Conversion Options
Flexible black and white conversion options including RGB channel mixer, Lab lightness, luma, desaturate, intensity and custom duotones.

Extensive Image Adjustment Options
You’re in total control of every step of the conversion process, multiple fully user editable tone curves, customizable color correction matrix, flexible ICC color matching options, exposure compensation, white balance, contrast, saturation and more.

ICC Color Management Support through ColorSync
Ability to specify camera or image specific input profiles, working space profiles for image adjustments and final image output profiles. At this time only RGB color spaces are supported.

Unlimited batch processing
You can continue making image adjustments while other images are converted in the background. Supports, easy drag and drop image conversion with flexible file naming options and support for multiple file formats including JPEG, TIFF, PNG, JPEG2000 and more.

What You See Is What You Get
RAW developer allows you to view and make all image adjustments while viewing a full resolution, fully color managed, 16 bit per channel preview.

Support for EXIF Meta Data

EXIF meta data is supported when exporting to JPEG or TIFF image formats. Supported fields depend on camera model, but generally include shutter speed, aperture, ISO speed, focal length, exposure mode, metering mode, flash information, camera make/model and date digitized.

Flexible Histogram View
Supports 256, 512 or an extra wide 1024 levels of detail. Viewing modes include RGB, individual R, G, B channels, all three colors at once, luminosity, hue and saturation.

Multithreaded and Velocity Engine (AltiVec) optimized
Takes full advantage of dual processor systems and the advanced capibilities of the PowerPC G4 and G5 processors. All image processing is handled by secondary threads so your work is never blocked waiting for processing to complete.

“Processing Disabled” Output Mode
Ability to bypass all image adjustments and all color matching operations for fast, high quality export of linear files intended for further processing with other image processing programs or RAW workflows. Also useful for creating non-color matched output for use in generating custom camera or scene profiles with ICC camera profiling software.

Check the Adobe Events web site for events or seminars involving Adobe Photoshop.

Welcome to YAAARF! (Yet Another Article About RAW Format).

My passion for shooting RAW format began several years ago with the introduction of the Canon D30 into my life. Much to my surprise there was no software available that would allow an active photographer to reap the benefits of shooting RAW, which were known by very few. This lead to my co-developing YarcPlus, and of Chris Breeze offering BreezeBrowser, to fill the software void. Michael Reichmann and others spoke the unspeakable, that in fact the D30 when shot in RAW mode, was equal to and better than shooting film when the output was 8×10 or smaller.

Every day, I communicate with both pros and amateurs who have embraced the digital world and shoot JPEGS as standard practice. While many are successful shooters and business people in their own right, it pains me to think how much easier they could achieve equal, and in my opinion, superior results with less effort, by shooting RAW. I believe that there is an information gap and a fear factor about RAW that creates this disconnect. It is no secret that in my opinion it is mandatory practice to shoot RAW. I hope in this series of articles I can explain some truths that support my passionate belief.

Read the entire article

Three Must-Have Photoshop Plug-ins
By Michael Reichmann

One of the questions that I’m asked most often, both at my seminars, and by e-mail, is – what software tools do I use; particularly for noise reduction and sharpening. And, how do I do my B&W conversions.

Over the past several years I have tried many of the programs and plug-ins to come to market, on both Mac and PC platforms. Below are brief looks at the ones that are my current preferred choices. The ones that I use every day, and that I count on when producing my commercial images and fine-art display prints.

Are these the best programs available of their type? Possibly. Clearly I can’t have tried everything, and even if I had, personal bias and needs play a role in making a statement like this. I should also note that I know personally most of the authors of these programs, though this played no role whatsoever in my selection or mention here.

Please note that these are not reviews; simply descriptions of what I find to be the current best-of-breed in each category. Also, in the case of two of the programs, new versions have just come out this week (early Feb, 2005). Each of these plug-ins are available for both Windows XP as well as Mac OSX.

Read the whole article

Michael is not shy–he says of his web site: “The Luminous Landscape, the web’s most comprehensive site devoted to the art of landscape, nature and documentary photography using digital as well as traditional image processing techniques.”

It’s hard to argue with that statement because there is a wealth of information on Luminous Landscape. One of the sections called THE UNDERSTANDING SERIES provides definitive information to some important fundamental digital imaging and photographic subjects. Written by Michael and select additional authors, this series of articles really helps provide valuable information while being written in an accessible and readable style.

THE UNDERSTANDING SERIES:
Printer Colour Management — the proper settings for using profiles
Raw Files — whether to choose to shoot in raw or JPG format, and why
Local Contrast Enhancement — a simple technique for improving print contrast
Contrast Masking — a simple Photoshop technique for opening shadow areas and reducing contrast
Digital USM — what is the Unsharp Mask and what does it do?
MTF Charts — what is MTF, and how to read lens charts?
Histograms — how to read the digital camera’s most useful exposure evaluation tool
Digital Sensor Cleaning — the why, how and tools required
Digital Workflow — suggested steps and settings to use when working with a digital SLR
Mirror Lock-Up — a technique for creating vibration-free sharp images
Medium Format — a primer on the jargon, and the equipment available
Depth of Field — a tutorial, including Hyperfocal Distance and the Circle of Confusion
Polarizers — a tutorial on how to use the most important filter for colour photography
Lens Contrast — an in-depth tutorial by Mike Johnston
Bokeh — an in depth technical explanation by Harold Merklinger
Bit Depth — a tutorial on hi-bit images and when and why to use them
Sharpness — a tutorial on resolution and acutance
Resolution — explores the basics of digital Input and Output
Camera Movements — the ins and outs of tilts and shifts
Colour Theory — academic colour theory applied to landscape photography
The DSLR Magnification Factor — removing the myths and misinformation
SLR Viewfinders — the variety and types of viewfinders found in various cameras
Exposure — the world’s 10 stop range. Why it’s so tough and how to handle it
Digital Blending — how to replace graduated ND filters and expand dynamic range
Panoramic Stitching — creating wide format panoramics using Photoshop

The magazine said: “A Photoshop plug-in that solves the perennial sharpening problem by doing it for you. A range of options allows you to choose the right sharpening effects for the type of image, and the final output. Indispensable.”

PixelGenius is a collaboration of industry leading experts:
Martin Evening, Bruce Fraser, Seth Resnick, Andrew Rodney, Jeff Schewe & Mike Skurski.

For more info, see the PixelGenius Web Site

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