Ask Dave, June 11th - Raw Conversion

Ask Dave, June 11th
I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and I might just answer them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.

Question:
From... Justin and Todd
How do you convert your RAW images?
What do you use to be sure your camera/monitor/printer all look the same?
What are your RAW conversion settings?

Answer:
Well first off I use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3, on Apple computers, with color calibrated monitors.
Now to what you want... my settings.
The easiest way is for me to just publish a version that folks can download and use at will (if you like it, remember where you got it). The file is .zip, so you will need to uncompress it and then import the file, "toShare.lrtemplate," into Lightroom. I did not include "White Balance" or "Calibration;" because they vary greatly depending on camera/ISO/the actual scene/etc.

Often I need to warm an image from what the camera gives me, and I also choose the appropriate calibration (weather that is eyeballing it or using a ColorChecker Passport).

Almost every image gets a few tweak from those basic settings, and at this point I can almost edit by numbers when I first look at a RAW image, and even in the field as I am shooting the shot. I have sharpening and noise reduction presets for different cameras/subjects/ISOs; but the included settings are good (ish) for something like a 7D @ISO400 for wildlife.

Occasionally I will adjust individual color saturation and luminance to mimic certain films; but that is not the "norm."

I have posted it on my LiveBooks Site FTP:
Please click on the link below to have it download through a web browser window.
(If clicking on it doesn't launch a browser window, then you must select the URL, copy and paste it into a web browser address bar, and tap the Enter or Return key on your keyboard. The file should then begin to load.)
http://www.daveshumway.com/toShare_lrtemplate.zip

Enjoy

Ask Dave, April 13th - Lightroom Key Commands

Ask Dave, April 13th
'Ask Dave' week nine… I get tons of questions each week, I respond as quickly as possible, and this is week number nine of answering them here too. If you have questions you can email me at Learn@DaveShumway.com.

Question:
From John...
What are the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 key commands, and what ones do you actually use?

Answer:
Every Lightroom 3 key command is availible online here.

What ones do I use... not as many as I should.
Remember the commands I list here are for Mac OS, if you use a Windows box (you should buy a Mac), or know that; "Command" is "Control" and "Option" is "Alt."
Here they are, in no particular order:

• Convert to grayscale - "V"


• Edit in Photoshop - "Command + E


• Paste settings from previous photo - "Command + Option + V"


• Reset a slider - "Double-click slider name"


• Toggle between Loupe and 1:1 Zoom preview - "Spacebar or Z"


• Undo - "Command + Z"


• Redo - "Command + Shift + Z"


• Convert to grayscale - "V"


• Increase/decrease brush size - "[ / ]"


• Increase/decrease brush feathering - "Shift + ] / Shift + ["


• Remove selected photo(s) from catalog - "Option + Delete"


• Go to next/previous photo in the Filmstrip - "Right Arrow/Left Arrow"


• Set star rating - "1 - 5" (Add "Shift" to go to next photo)


• Remove star rating - "0" (Add "Shift" to go to next photo)


• Assign a red label - "6" (Add "Shift" to go to next photo)


• Assign a yellow label - "7" (Add "Shift" to go to next photo)


• Assign a green label - "8" (Add "Shift" to go to next photo)


• Assign a blue label - "9" (Add "Shift" to go to next photo)


• Add keywords - "Command + K"


• Edit keywords - "Command + Shift + K"


• Check spelling - "Command + ;"

I am sure I use more than I put in this list; but these are the ones I can think of, and use on a regular basis...

Oh I love to hold "Option" while adjusting my sharpening (do it and you will know why).

This post has caused me to order a keyboard cover with all of the LR3 keyboard shortcuts/commands on it. (Thanks B&H)

New 17" MacBook Pro

My new 17" MacBook Pro is all set up, and I just had to run some test to compare it to my old 17" MacBook Pro.

Both machines have been updated, they have both had about 200GB freed from the HDD, they have both had their PRAM zapped, they both had 15RAW files (200MB total) placed on their desktop, both got two more restarts, both were only connected to power, etc (they were as equal as could be).

• From a dead start the NEW 17" was able to start 9 seconds faster.
• From a drag and drop of the files the NEW 17" was able to start Lightroom 3 and be ready to import 5 seconds faster.
• Now came the real test; the 15 files were set to be imported, keywords added, my oRAWLR3X preset applied (my normal preset), and 1:1 previews loaded. This is something I do many times each day, and often is the most time consuming part of my editing process, especially if I then make some editing changes and need to re render 1:1 previews (remember I deal with thousands of images each week of the year). The NEW 17" took a total of 34 seconds while the OLD 17" took 106 seconds that is a 311.8% speed boost. I was expecting between 2-4 Xs, so 3.118 Xs is right in line; but I still ran all of the tests twice to be sure, and the results were the same.
• Lastly I wanted to compare export times to 300dpi, AdobeRGB, full quality JPG files with my other "normal" settings applied. For those who are familiar with Lightroom 3 you know that the test times should be almost identical to the 1:1 preview times, and they were... IDENTICAL.

My NEW 17" MacBook Pro is the 2.3Ghz quad core i7, 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon HD 6750M GPU w/1GB of GDDR5 memory, 500GB @7200RPM HDD, and the 1920x1200 antiglare display. If I could afford the SDD drives it would be even faster.

My OLD 17" MacBook Pro is the 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo, 4GB RAM, GeForce 8600M GT GPU w/256MB of memory, 320GB @7200RPM HDD, and the 1680x1050 antiglare display.

As I spend most of my (non email/web editing) computer time using Lightroom to process, select, edit, organize, and export images these were the only tests I felt as though I should run. The results were over 3Xs faster at both ends of what I spend my time doing, and that gives me time to do other things. I have long said that time is one thing you can get more of, so...

Is a new machine that is over three times faster worth $3k? I think that depends on what your time is worth, and how often you use the machine at three times the speed. For me, I have no doubt that this was money well spent.

p.s. Remember that LR1/LR2/CS1/CS2/CS3/CS4 are not aware of quad core processors or more than 4GB of RAM, so using anything other than LR3/CS5 (or Aperture 3) will fail to yield equally impressive results.

Lightroom 3, Re-edit...

As I am finally getting some work done towards my new portfolio site I am finding myself continually amazed at the quality increase in the output file from LR3 as compared to LR2. I am changing very few settings, more often I am only changing my Sharpening and Noise Reduction settings (because LR3 handles those edits much better/differently). The only downside is that it becomes obvious that I need to re-edit all of my images with LR3 :)

If you have not made the upgrade to LR3 you really need to spend the money and upgrade ASAP.

Todays example comes from one of my most popular Great Grey Owl images to date.

LR3:

LARGER FILE IS HERE
Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS set in Manual exposure mode at f/4.0, ISO1000, and 1/800th of a second w/o supplementary flash.

LR2:

LARGER FILE IS HERE
Canon 7D and 500/4.0L IS set in Manual exposure mode at f/4.0, ISO1000, and 1/800th of a second w/o supplementary flash.