[Photography] Loupedeck CT Review – Could This Be The Best Editing Tool?

The post Loupedeck CT Review – Could This Be The Best Editing Tool? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.

If you’ve read my previous review of the Loupedeck+, you’ll know I am a massive fan and it is now a firm part of my editing routine. As I said in that review, it was something that I was honestly wary of before trying it, but something I do edit without now. So when I got the chance to do the new Loupedeck CT review, I jumped at it. 

The Loupedeck CT is a completely new editing station. Loupedeck has marked this as their professional tool, designed to deliver a premium editing experience. Along with the dials and buttons familiar to those who have used the Loupedeck+, the Loupedeck CT features a touchscreen interface system of virtual buttons, that you can fully customize to your editing needs.

Compatibility

The CT is compatible with a wide range of software right out of the box. And it has the ability to add even more software via an ever-growing library of custom profiles.

Here is a list of compatible software out of the box (takes deep breath):

• Abelton live
• After Effects
• Audition
• Capture One
• Final Cut Pro
• Adobe Illustrator
• Adobe Lightroom Classic
• Adobe Photoshop
• Premiere Pro
• System (Windows & Mac)

Profiles exist for many more programs, including Davinci Resolve, Photomechanic, and Logic Pro X, amongst others. This is a serious list of professional software, and the ability to customize the Loupedeck CT means that there is an almost limitless opportunity to create your very own tailored workspace.

Design and build quality

The Loupedeck CT is very different from the Loupdeck+. It is much more compact in its footprint. The size is about the same as two mobile phones placed side by side. This smaller footprint not only makes having the CT on a smaller desk much easier, but it also means it is simple to add to your bag when editing on the road or on location. 

The packaging looks and feels premium. It reminded me of an Apple device in the way that the quality oozes out before you even see the product.

Jet black packaging with an embossed and foiled logo on the side really does make this product feel luxurious. It may sound silly, but when packaging is this good, I feel that it shows the importance of attention to detail to the company.

Once the Loupedeck CT is removed from the packaging and those, oh so satisfying, clear plastic covers get removed, the quality of the Loupedeck CT shines through.

The build quality on this device is excellent, with the device itself comprised of an aluminum top plate (save the virtual buttons workspace) with a solid plastic underside. All buttons and dials are all reassuringly firm, with the dials having a tactile click when turning, whilst the virtual buttons have haptic feedback, which you turn on or off.

The center dial is used as a touch screen interface for some adjustments, and again, it works perfectly. It is responsive and has worked flawlessly during my time with the unit.

This is a very well-made piece of equipment that is another step forward in quality from the already well-made Loupedeck+.

The Loupedeck CT also has a Bluetooth chip, which will eventually, via an update, make the unit connect wirelessly.

It also comes with 8GB of storage, which mounts as an external drive when you connect the Loupedeck CT. This storage allows you to save all settings and preferences within the device. So, when you transport the product, all your settings travel with you. This is great for those that travel regularly or use different computers for different projects.

Ergonomically, the unit is made for one-handed operation. This is not to underestimate the amount of editing this thing can do on its own. Whilst the Loupedeck+ feels like something that is aimed to replace your keyboard, the CT feels like an addition to your keyboard and mouse. It is an incredibly powerful enhancement to your workflow.

Buttons on the Loupedeck CT are backlit in a way that aids your use of the device. The buttons’ color shows how it is mapped at a glance. The three colors are green, purple, and blue.

Green buttons are assigned to workspaces (of which you can have multiple per application). The purple buttons are assigned to actions (such as applying a preset or creating a copy of the image, etc.). Finally, the blue buttons are there to take you into page-based layouts. This allows you to create sub-menus within a workspace, such as a page dedicated to your image presets, without the need to change the entire workspace.

Installing the Loupedeck CT

Installing the Loupedeck CT is a simple affair. You just download and install the software from the Loupedeck website, then connect the Loupedeck.

The Loupedeck itself is USB-C, which helps future-proof the product. However, it comes packaged with a USB-C to USB-A braided cable, which will be welcomed by a lot of people. The cable itself is of high quality, reinforcing the attention to detail that Loupedeck has put into this product. 

The installation and setup is easy. But you will need to spend some time with the software to set the Loupedeck CT to your preferences.

Learning curve

The learning curve is the part of Loupedeck CT that is the thing that you will find hardest. It’s not that the CT is hard to use, in fact, it is the total opposite of that. It is more about remembering which button is where, how you have your dials set, and moving your hands away from existing workflows.

With the Loupedeck+ everything is set and you quickly become accustomed to where everything is. However, whilst the flexibility of the Loupedeck CT is its strongest feature, it does mean you have a larger learning curve. As an example, when moving from Lightroom to Photoshop, the button layout changes, so it takes more time to become a power user across multiple software. 

The initial setting up of custom workspaces will take time and effort from the user. However, this is the step that is essential for those looking to get the most out of this device.

The software makes it simple to set up, but you need to customize the layout of the deck for your specific editing style. You will then need to do this on a software-by-software basis. This process may take a few hours, but it is so worth it. The profiles supplied by Loupedeck are great and get you started instantly, but every editing workflow is different and the Loupedeck profiles are unlikely to match your specific workflow.

As with the Loupdeck+, the CT makes using software easier. It does have a learning curve though, one for each software you use it with.

The Loupdeck CT in use

The first thing I noticed about the Loupedeck CT was its software awareness. Switching over to Photoshop from Lightroom, the Loupedeck instantly changed to its Photoshop workspace. There was no lag or waiting. It was ready to go. This smoothness is the same for every software. You can even set it up to control your Spotify, so you can keep your hands on the Loupedeck whilst you decide what music you want to  listen to whilst you edit. 

This key feature makes the Loupedeck CT amazing for those who work in several different pieces of software. It really does make this device a huge step up from the Loupedeck+.

I know when I reviewed the Loupedeck+, I said that video editing wasn’t great. With the CT, it really performs.

Moving to Premiere Pro, you get the tools you use the most right at your fingertips. As someone who isn’t a huge video editor, it makes editing easier for me. I have also been experimenting with Final Cut Pro, and again, the Loupedeck saves me having to search through menus when I am looking for a tool.

I am sure that in the hands of a more capable editor, this tool will be huge in speeding up workflow. For an amateur like me, it makes things easier and encourages me to dig deeper.

This is also true of Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Audition, which I profess to be completely lacking in in-depth knowledge. However, I can see how this, in the right hands, will be incredibly useful.

The centre wheel is one of the highlights of the CT. Being able to use it for things such as colour grading is so intuitive.

Moving on to photography (the reason I am sure most of you are reading this), to sum it up, it is amazing. If the Loupedeck+ is a high-quality, off-the-peg suit, the CT is a custom-tailored suit from Saville Row; every button and dial customized to fit your editing needs. 

In Lightroom Classic, it performs beautifully. Editing is effortless and the Loupedeck makes the whole process quicker, easier, and more tactile. The ability to customize a setup to be exactly how you want is something that gives this an advantage over the Loupedeck+ for those who use more advanced features regularly. This is shown in the ease of adding your own presets to buttons. Simply create the preset, then ask Lightroom Classic to update, and instantly, it is available to add to your layout. 

It is when you move to Photoshop that the Loupedeck CT really shines. The ability to customize your button layout combined with size means using this with a mouse or graphics tablet is a joy. Also, the ability to use the touchscreen center button makes working in color an amazing experience. The Loupedeck CT is a much more enhanced experience than the Loupdeck+ when it comes to Photoshop.

The integration with Adobe products is still deeper than with other software, though. Switching to Capture One Pro, the experience is simply not quite as fluid. Capture One is in Beta mode even though it comes pre-installed. In use, it lacks the level of integration found in Lightroom and can’t offer the same functionality. 

This is due to Loupedeck relying on keyboard shortcuts rather than the software API. Loupedeck has released an enhanced plugin profile, which allows greater integration for Capture One users. This does help, but it relies on you having to set your keyboard to the US setting, which as a UK user, is an annoyance.

I know discussions have taken place with Phase One on fully integrating the Loupedeck CT, and for many professionals who use Capture One, this would be a game-changer. Until that happens, the best way to describe the Capture One experience is good, but not as good as Lightroom.

What I love

There is a lot to love about this product. The main things for me are:

• Size
• Look and build quality
• Unlimited customization options
• Multi-software usage 

What could be better 

• Integration with non-Adobe products
• No wireless option (although this may be coming)

Is it worth it?

This is the big question. This Loupedeck CT is not cheap. It currently retails at £469.

It warrants that money to those who spend a lot of time editing and those who use a variety of software daily. It is much more suitable for a wider variety of programs than the Loupedeck+. If you use Adobe products, it is pretty much flawless.

However, if you mainly edit in Lightroom, you will possibly be better served with the Loupedeck+. It has all the features you need and comes at a lesser cost. 

The other question is whether it is better to invest in the Loupedeck CT or a graphics tablet. Again, this depends on your usage and editing style. Personally, I would make more use of the Loupedeck CT. However, you may not. 

The Loupedeck CT is aimed at a certain group of people. To those that will get the most out of this product, the £469 price tag is easily justified in the time saving and workflow enhancements the CT will give them. The Loupedeck CT is no mere editing gadget – it is a tool that takes your editing workflow to another level.

I really suggest you try a Loupedeck before dismissing it out of hand. Be warned though, you will probably fall in love.

The post Loupedeck CT Review – Could This Be The Best Editing Tool? appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Carl Spring.

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[Photography] The New Corona Photography Workflow- Shoot Privately but Share and Participate Publicly

The post The New Corona Photography Workflow- Shoot Privately but Share and Participate Publicly appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Herb Paynter.

The bad medical virus

While the planet seeks a solution to the pandemic problem, may I suggest we use this opportunity to participate in an innovative photographic exercise? This might be just the spherical ray of light (corona) we photographers need in the midst of a dark and scary time. Fortunately, photography is a very personal process. We all use digital devices to capture interesting subjects and express emotions, but none of those devices are multi-person in function. So why not step up your personal photography and share your projects more openly online with a Corona photography workflow.

There are two obvious opportunities available to everybody that are both extremely safe while being very public. Why not join both the Facebook groups of your local photo club as well as the DPS Facebook group and (safely) start sharing more openly with thousands of your closest friends?

I’m appealing to the leadership of every photo and camera club to provide online assignments and challenges based on the subject of light. Publish each submission publicly and give recognition to all entries.

The assignments and challenges can be announced on club Facebook pages and posted (in larger sizes) on club websites. This will not only promote activity within the clubs but will share those talents with the rest of the world’s photo enthusiasts. This kind of effort will show the heart of the digital photo community and will widen the family circle and lift the spirits of millions.

Digital photography is a very dynamic and growing lifestyle, especially with the increased photographic capabilities of today’s camera phones. Photo clubs are comprised of all echelons of experience and all levels of equipment and now includes a growing number of phone photographers.

We’ve all seen some pretty amazing examples of great pictures captured by camera phones, with several clubs even featuring dedicated internal groups. The software features within these phones are both mind-boggling and beyond the capabilities of many very expensive dedicated digital cameras.

Add to this the ability of camera phones to immediately (and extensively) edit and post images to all forms of social media.

The good digital viral process

Lifestyle photography is widely accepted, and the sharing of images is commonplace in our world culture. Since we all travel with these mini-marvels, virtually everybody can participate in this Corona photography workflow project, and with little effort, it will go viral quickly. This kind of virus is good. This way, personal creativity can be unleashed and shared almost without limits in either subject matter or interpretation.

If well-coordinated, it can unite the minds and emotions of people and redirect emotions to a positive place while the medical world works diligently on an effective solution to the medical problem.

Social community should be a goal that is openly promoted and encouraged by local photo clubs sponsoring “socially distanced” group activities and photo opportunities. Photo challenges can be organized online through a number of social media. During a time of world crisis like we are currently facing, the nervous human psyche can either suffer fear-overload or be creatively redirected. This is one avenue that we can all travel safely.

Shared activities need not stop; they simply need to be redefined as virtual group activities. This new sharing can become interpersonal and actually create stronger bonds between individuals who otherwise might not participate in typical meetings.

Social media has proven to provide a community sharing process that is even more inclusive than literal clubhouse meetings. This digital extension of the photo community clubhouse has a very real chance to involve persons from all aspects of society and age groups.

Keeping your distance

Digital cameras offer the ability to capture images from a distance and thus maintain and observe the six-foot protection rule. Even if you don’t have a telephoto or zoom lens, the higher resolution of cameras and phones allows image enlargement to reveal distant detail – especially since Internet images are usually restricted to around 1500 pixels (long dimension). No longer are photographers restricted to close proximity to the subject to capture significant detail.

This resolution restriction can actually work to your advantage in this respect: you can enlarge images to a greater magnification with no noticeable loss of detail.

Keeping your distance also allows you to capture images more candidly and thus more naturally. This is how you turn a limitation into an advantage.

While the normal reticence of sharing in public is a barrier that holds back some from participating in public meetings, with this online Corona photography workflow, sharing ideas and experiences might just break that barrier for some and provide them a fresh opportunity to participate. Now they can share a voice and increase personal involvement in a (socially and medically) safe environment.

In social media, everybody is on level ground and has an equal chance to “speak up” and participate. Sharing is a vital part of the human experience, and this unique opportunity could provide that social spark that we need to get through this situation and be better for it.

The Internet provides both good and not-so-good subject material and expression, but within the individual online club environment, this behavior can be more carefully monitored and even protected.

The challenge

Here’s what I propose that we adopt and promote without hesitation…

Individuals:

If you are not currently a photo club member (either local or online), join (at least) one right now; I am a member of several.

Each local club has a website and a Facebook page. Even if you only read DPS articles and rarely comment, this will give you a chance to speak out (in a silent way) and let us hear from you!

Search your favorite social media for online groups and clubs. There are dozens available, and many are geared to unique kinds of photography. There is rarely a fee involved, and your involvement is welcomed.

I just started an online Facebook group called “Corona Camera Club” just to push back on the negative connotation and put a new twist to the term. This will be a group based on light, not darkness. The basic “focus” of the group will be on the lighter side of photography. I invite everyone to join in and start sharing photos and posting positive experiences. There’s enough negative energy in the world right now, let’s turn up the light and keep it positive.

Club and group leaders

Post challenges to your members based on weekly (or monthly) themes. Keep these themes upbeat and creative. Provide online access to articles and presentations that would normally be presented in your local club meetings.

Contact all your members individually and encourage them to enlist one friend every week to join the group. This Corona photography workflow effort is like an old fashioned block party where all neighbors gather and share food and activities. Okay, we can’t eat online, but we can interact more frequently.

Don’t hesitate to research group sharing opportunities available to businesses and online schools to conduct interactive meetings and turn them into online clubhouses. I certainly invite your current members to join our CCC Facebook group too. Let’s make this a universal family project.

Get creative

Take this opportunity to show your creative imagination. Share images that are upbeat, positive, and inspiring. We all need to be realistic about the problems and risks and our physical activities are restricted, but our minds can run wild. Use this time to brighten eyes and uplift spirits. I’m using this post to try out a personal interpretation of some of my nature shots.

Finally, make your contributions and comments often and regular. Since this Corona medical crisis has limited our physical gatherings, let’s just gather online and channel our energies in a more positive collective enthusiasm. Use your computer, your tablet, and your phone to connect with friends and loved ones using all the services that are available. Love and camaraderie are contagious too, and this kind of infection is all good.

Let’s determine to find the lighter side of this dark cloud and turn the threatening negative into a big positive. When this scary time is over, the new friendships and associations will be all the deeper, and we can resume our lives on a higher level.

Remember, the word corona only recently has been defined by a virus. One of the dictionary definitions of corona describes the super bright crown of light that surrounds the Sun. It’s time to get out of the darkness and dive into the light.

Let’s participate in this Corona photography workflow and give this word a new meaning as we lighten up.

The post The New Corona Photography Workflow- Shoot Privately but Share and Participate Publicly appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Herb Paynter.

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[Photography] Ways to Use Lightroom to Find Photos Worth Revisiting

The post Ways to Use Lightroom to Find Photos Worth Revisiting appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

I don’t have to tell you these are abnormal times. Like many others in every profession, photographers are experiencing a huge decrease in business due to stay-at-home and social distancing restrictions. While we hobbyist photographers may not rely on photography for our income, we just aren’t getting out as much to take pictures. So, maybe this is the time to go “back to the mine” (your photo archives), to see if you’ve overlooked some diamonds in the rough worth revisiting. Let’s take a look at how to use Adobe Lightroom to find photos you might have passed over. Also, how to use it to do some cleanup you just never got around to before.

I’d passed this shot by after an edit session I did years ago following a trip to Trillium Lake in Oregon. Now, using Lightroom to find photos I’d passed over, I found it was a diamond in the rough, simply needing some polishing.

See if this describes you

You’re a photographer and make photos pretty routinely on trips, photoshoots, studio sessions, weddings, portrait work, or whatever genre of photography you do.

You make dozens, if not hundreds of images, during just a single shoot.

Then, you want to quickly edit and get the best shots to your client, perhaps print some, or post the best to social media. When done, you’ve cherry-picked the best shots, edited them, wrapped up and moved on.

Left behind on your drive are perhaps the other 95-percent of shots that didn’t jump out at the time. There are quite possibly some good images still there that might only take a little extra editing to polish up, diamonds in the rough as it were.

Perhaps the shots were taken years ago, maybe even with lesser cameras, but now with more editing experience, you have skills to bring them to life.

There are also photos you’ll never use. Trash that just never got taken out. Images just taking up room on your hard drive.

Let’s cover how to use Lightroom to find photos, flag them for a second look or clean them out.

Get a DAM

Lightroom is a very capable photo editor, but there’s little dispute that Photoshop is the more powerful program for really serious photo editing.

Other programs have also risen to the forefront; Skylum Luminar, Phase One Capture One Pro, Corel Paintshop Pro, DXO Photolab, and ACDSee Ultimate. The list is growing and joined by many free and quite capable photo editing programs.

Using the Flags, Star-Ratings, and Color Codes in Lightroom is a great way to better manage your photo library.

One of the greatest strengths of Adobe Lightroom, however, is as a Digital Asset Management (DAM) tool.

In layman’s terms, that means it does a great job of organizing your photos, helping you search for images using keywords, ratings, color-codes, flags, collections, filters, and other means of organizing, sorting, and searching. At its core, Lightroom is a database program.

Many photographers who have spent years learning Photoshop still use that tool for most of their editing but are now looking to Lightroom as a partner program for organizing their photo libraries. What they had previously done with Adobe Camera Raw and Bridge can be done with Lightroom, which if desired, can simply send images out to Photoshop for editing or be used as an editor and more.

A jealous secretary

A concept many new Lightroom users find hard to grasp is that the photos you work with while using it are not “in” Lightroom. Lightroom is strictly a note-taker, a “secretary” to use that term, that records everything about an image; where it is, the metadata, how you’ve rated, flagged, color-coded, keyworded, and otherwise tagged it.

When you edit a photo in Lightroom, each and every step of that edit, text data, is stored in what is called the “catalog.” Your images are never altered, Lightroom just appends “notes” to them.

I tell you that to tell you this – Lightroom is a “jealous secretary.” She will keep meticulous notes about everything you do with your images, so long as you use “her” to do the work.

If you work with your images outside of Lightroom, say using the File Explorer in Windows or the Finder on a Mac, you are essentially working “behind Lightroom’s back.” She will let you know it too, losing track of where your images are and what you’ve done to them.

Ever see a “?” mark on your Lightroom photo or folder? That’s your secretary scolding you. There are ways to recover from this, but my recommendation is if you are going to use Lightroom as your DAM program, keep your jealous secretary happy and do all your image management with her exclusively.

Question marks on folders of photos in Lightroom means the program can’t locate the item. This will happen when you use tools outside of Lightroom to move or change your image.

A culling session

If culling is not a term familiar to you, here’s a dictionary definition: “A selection of things you intend to reject.”

In Lightroom, one of the first things you need to do to work with images is to “import” them. This is sometimes where people become confused. An “import” in Lightroom is simply a means of telling the program where your images are.

Let’s use two examples of how this might work.

1. Returning from a shoot, I have my images on my camera card. I pull the card from the camera, put it in a card reader, open Lightroom and using the Import process. Here, I copy the files from the card to a location on a computer hard drive, be it an internal or external drive. Lightroom copies the images to that location, builds thumbnails for them, and stores the information in its catalog.
2. I already have the photos somewhere on one of my computer drives. I use the Import function of Lightroom to Add the photos to the LR catalog. Lightroom does not move or copy anything, it simply now has information about those images and where they are.

If you are importing images from a camera card into Lightroom and want it to copy them to a location on your hard drive, the “Copy” method is what you want.

In both scenarios, the photo files are not “in” Lightroom, and not in a subfolder of that program. They are wherever you chose to store them. However, now your “LR secretary” is keeping track of them.

If your images are already on one of your computer drives and you simply want to be able to work with them in Lightroom use the Import “Add” function, not the “Copy” function.

Once visible in Lightroom, the temptation is to look through them and start editing the ones that jump out at you. I’ve done that many times, in a hurry to get to the obvious “nuggets” and start editing them.

Instead, I’d like to introduce you to a way to more formally, and with greater organization, go through a folder of images.

The proper way to do this is when you first start working with that new folder of images. But, if you are like me, you might not have known to, were lazy and impatient, or for whatever reason just didn’t do this. No worries, it’s not too late for a proper culling session.

Here are the steps:

• Go to the folder where you have the images. You should be in the Library module of Lightroom and in the grid view (Hit “G” on your keyboard) so you can see all of your images.
• Do some folder-level keywording. If all of the images in the folder were, for example, taken at the beach, you might want all of them to have that keyword to aid in searching later. Hit Ctrl (Cmd on Mac) A to select all of the images. Then click in the Keywords section at the right and type in the keywords you want. If you want more than one to apply to just certain selected images, pick those first and then use a comma between them. i.e., Fireworks, Still-Life, Sparklers.

This entire folder of images were shots of fireworks, so I selected all images in the folder and added the keyword “Fireworks.”

Selecting several images within the folder, I added additional keywords – Still-Life, and Sparklers. You can have multiple keywords for an image if you separate them with a comma.

• Time to quickly go through your images one-by-one. To move faster through the images, first, turn on Auto-Advance. You can either turn this on by going to Photo in the top pulldown menu and selecting Auto Advance or simply by holding down the Shift key while you work. Now bring up just the first image in Loupe View (Hit the Enter key).
• For this first pass, you want to flag the images you want to keep and cull out the ones you know you’ll never use. Viewing each image, hit either the “P” key to flag the image as a Pick or “X” key to reject it.
• If you just can’t decide, the right arrow key “>” to move on.

To quickly cull your images in Lightroom, turn on Auto Advance and then use the “P” key to flag an image as a Pick, the “X” key to mark it as a Reject, or just use the Right Arrow Key to move to the next image with no flagging. Note the white flags are picks, the black flags with an X are rejects.

Try to be selective here. This does not immediately throw out any images and you can change your mind later. However, your objective ought to be to do some serious housekeeping, X-ing out the images you are unlikely to ever use, and Picking the ones you will probably want to edit later.

Everyone is different. Some people are tidy and have no problem tossing things out they don’t expect to use. Then there are folks like me, packrats for whom this is a tougher task.

Time to be brave. You can check to see which images you flagged with an “X” as rejects if you like. Hit “G” to go back to the Grid view. Now using the Library Filter (top of the grid), click the word “Attribute” and then click the Black flag. This will show the images you flagged as Rejects with the “X.” You can take another look at these if you have to and if you decide it is not one you want to be rejected, hit the “P” key to change it back to a Pick.

Taking out the trash

So let’s get rid of the rejects. To see what you flagged with an “X” as a reject, hit Ctrl- Backspace (Cmd on Mac). You will see two options:

• Delete from Disk – This will permanently delete the images from your hard drive. You might still find them in your recycle bin if you accidentally pick this, but consider this the trash for the most part.
• Remove from Lightroom – The files will remain on your drive, but you will no longer see them in Lightroom. This is the safer option if you are unsure, but it’s also like just putting your garbage in the hall closet. If you plan to clean the house, do it and don’t look back.

Decision time. After you’ve using the culling step to flag your Picks and Reject images, hit Ctrl-Backspace. This question will appear. You can delete your rejected images entirely or, simply remove them from showing up in Lightroom but retain them on your drive. Choose wisely.

Colors and flags and stars, oh my!

If you were disciplined, using the Pick and Reject options helped you separate the wheat from the chaff, getting rid of things you’ll never use and perhaps freeing up all kinds of space on your hard drives. So now let’s use some tools to go a little deeper, helping you to organize and find images warranting further work.

Lightroom lets you tag photos with several different things to add in organizing, sorting, filtering, and finding them. Let’s look at the options.

• Sorting – There are many different ways to sort your images in the Library view of Lightroom. This doesn’t change anything but simply allows you to see them in whatever sort order you like. Some are obvious, like sorting by Capture time so you can see the images in the order you took them. Others, like sorting by aspect ratio, are less obvious but sometimes very useful. Say you need an image for a magazine cover and want a portrait-orientation image. Sorting by aspect ratio is the ticket. Explore what this very simple option can do for you.

Using the Sort by Aspect Ratio option can be handy if you want to group your portrait and landscape orientation images together.

• Color – You can flag your photos with any of five different colors (Red, Yellow, Green, Blue or Purple). What each color signifies is strictly up to you. Maybe you want to flag all of your very best images with Red, your Landscapes with Green, your images you want to edit with Yellow – whatever you like. To flag an image, click on the image(s) you want that color applied to, then click on the color patch you want to apply that color tag to. You can also use the keyboard shortcuts – 6-Red, 7-Yellow, 8-Green, 9-Blue. There is no number shortcut for Purple.

If you’ve used color codes to identify different photo types, sorting by color can be useful.

• Star Rating – How to apply a star rating is easy. When on an image, just click the number key for the rating you want to assign or use the star symbol on the toolbar at the bottom. What a certain rating means…that’s your call. Is a 5-star image your best ever? Is a 1-star image one that barely escaped deletion? What does a 3-Star rating mean? Whatever you come up with, be consistent and the rating system will be more useful.

Come up with your own scheme of using the star-rating in Lightroom and then sort by rating.

• Flags – We already discussed flags earlier. Basically, they are a way to mark an image as a pick or a reject. Use several or none. You can use these tagging tools singularly or in combination, depending on how you choose to mark up your images. For example, a really great landscape photo might be a green, 4-star, flagged as a Pick image. The power comes in how once marked up, you can filter and sort your images.

Finding, filtering, and sorting

So you’ve cleaned up your folders, eliminated the rejects, and flagged your images with color codes, star ratings, and perhaps added some keywords. (We didn’t get into keywording much as that can be an art unto itself. I refer you to this article to learn more about the power of this tool).

Now we want to use this organization to help us find all our best lighthouse images taken in the past three years, for example. If we were good about marking up our images, we might have put the keyword “lighthouse” on them, flagged them with red (which we decided were our best photos), or maybe just made our top images 5-star.

How do we use the markups to find what we seek?

Creative use of the Library filter in Lightroom can bring up just the image you’re looking for if you’ve properly labeled your images with star ratings, pick flags, color codes and keywords. Here, I was looking for all my photos that had the keyword Lighthouse, were 4-star images, and color-coded red.

The better you are at marking-up your images, the greater the degree of precision you will have in finding that needle in a haystack when it comes time for that. I personally have over 100,000 images in my Lightroom catalog. (That’s a big haystack!) So, to use Lightroom to find photos requires some creativity with the Library filtering tool.

You will be able to search through basic things you may have added; keywords, file names, folder names or anyplace else where text might be. You can search your Attributes, the star ratings, color codes, flags.

Another very powerful Attribute is being able to search for unedited photos. Note the filter selection in the image below. Using that icon, I can have Lightroom show all photos for which Lightroom has no edit history.

If I bring up a folder with images that were edited elsewhere before coming into Lightroom, they will also show up as unedited. But, assuming this is a folder with images that have been brought in directly off your camera card and never been touched with anything other than Lightroom, this is a fantastic way to show those “passed over nuggets” we might want to revisit.

Using the Library filter, I’m able to see all the images for a particular year shot with my Canon 6D that are unedited by Lightroom. Creative use of the Text, Attribute, and Metadata filter in the Library Filter function of Lightroom can tell you much about your images and help you find that missing needle in the haystack.

Searching through metadata can also be a powerful way to find photos. Without you even having to enter any information, your camera captures a wealth of data about each image it takes. (Have a look at my article on Irfanview which gets into metadata.)

So, say you’re still looking for those lighthouse photos, but you never put keywords on them. Searching for “lighthouse” isn’t going to help. But say you do know you took the photos on a trip in September of 2017 and shot them with your Canon 6D. Putting just that information into the search filter in the Library module should greatly reduce the size of the “haystack.”

The more precise you can be with your search parameters, the more precise your search will be. Explore all the search options in the Text, Attribute, and Metadata areas and how using them in combination can greatly help you find what you seek.

Become a Collector

Using the Library filter is a great way to search through your photos when you’re looking for something, particularly an ad hoc search for something you don’t need to find often. When you really want to tap the power of the database that is Lightroom, Smart Collections are really cool. First, let’s describe what a Lightroom collection is.

Say you like to take pictures of flowers. Even when you’re out on some other kind of shoot, when you see a nice flower, you take a shot. Thus, you have flower pictures scattered throughout your folders. Now, how would it be to see all of those in one place, without having to move, copy, or duplicate anything? That’s what a Lightroom collection can be, a “pointer” to images that groups them all into one “folder” without moving anything.

There are two kinds of collections in Lightroom.

The first is a regular collection. You can add the photos manually. You can drag them from their folder location to a collection you have set up. Alternatively, if you designate a collection as the “Target collection,” while viewing that image in the Library module, you can just hit the “B” key on your keyboard to add the image to the target collection. You can also select multiple images in the Library module, hit the “B” key to add them all to the target collection.

Remember that nothing really moves, no duplicates get made, no additional drive space is needed. Collections are virtual – only pointers to the original files.

Collections can be very handy. When I’m gathering photos for an article, I will often create a Lightroom collection with the title of the article, make it the target collection, and then as I prowl through my library looking for photos I might want to use, I hit the “B” key on the keyboard and they are added to the collection. Fantastic!

Be a Smarter Collector

Collections are a great tool, but we can go a step further.

Let’s go back to our flower photos example. If I took some flower shots every time I did a shoot, I want them to automatically show up in my Best Flowers collection without any additional work on my part? A smart collection uses filters and conditions like the Library filter but runs continuously in the background.

To set up a new Smart Collection, go to the Collections tab in the panel on the left side of Lightroom. Click the + symbol. Select Create a Smart Collection. Then use the controls in that menu to set up the parameters defining what will be selected.

So, if I set up a smart collection, name it “Best Flowers” and use the parameters where, for example, keywords contained “flowers” and the rating was 3-stars or above, any photo added meeting those conditions automatically appear in that smart collection without any additional work by me. Once built, your smart collections just work silently in the background of Lightroom. (I would just have to remember to be diligent about rating and keywording my flower photos each time I had some new ones brought in.)

Once you set up the parameters for a Smart Filter in Lightroom, it will watch for any images that meet those qualifications and add them to the collection. Here, I have a filter that looks for photos with the keyword “Flowers” that are rated 4-stars or higher. Now, if I’m good about rating and keywording my flowers photos as I take them and import them into Lightroom, they will automatically be added to this collection

Another great use for a smart collection – make one to show all your unedited photos, wherever they might be in your library.

Set your smart collection parameters to something like my example below. It has the Has edits set to False, the camera as the one I’m interested in, my Canon EOS 6D, the File Type Raw, and the Pick Flag is on.

Now, unedited images I’ve flagged as Picks will immediately show up here as soon as I imported them in Lightroom. As I edit them, they will fall off this list. Think of this kind of Smart collection as your “In Box” of photos for editing.

I can also use the other tools and filters we’ve discussed to determine if I will keep them at all. I can do additional culling here if I decide I won’t edit them and perhaps delete them.

Use a Lightroom Smart Collection to act as your “In Box” telling you which photos need editing. I’ve set this Smart filter to add photos that are not edited (Has Edits is False), where the file type is Raw, I’ve flagged the photo as a Pick, and the photos were taken with my Canon 6D. Smart Collections can be very powerful and the beauty is, as collections are strictly virtual, there’s no need for additional copies, folders, or duplicates that would take up more drive space.

Also, remember images in a collection are just pointers to the original files. So if you click on an image in a collection and open it in the Edit module to make changes, you are also editing the photo in the folder where it really lives.

Polishing up the diamonds

When you can’t be out taking more photos, a good use of your time might be to use Lightroom to find photos worth revisiting.

I’m betting that you’ve passed over many diamonds in the rough, and a trip back through the mine that is your photo library will yield some yet undiscovered treasures. Happy prospecting. For now, stay home, be well, and “Live long and prosper.”

The post Ways to Use Lightroom to Find Photos Worth Revisiting appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Rick Ohnsman.

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[Photography] Tips for Finding Beautiful Portrait Light at Home

The post Tips for Finding Beautiful Portrait Light at Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.

It can be tempting to think that you need lots of money, space, and equipment to shoot great portraits. But using just your camera and a reflector, you can find beautiful portrait light at home to shoot in.

Almost everyone will have at least one room in their home with natural light from a window that could make a great portrait. It’s just a case of figuring out where the best light in your home is. Sometimes this takes a little trial and error, but as long as you get a good grasp of the basics, you should be able to shoot some great portraits at home!

Open up your aperture

Shooting indoors often means less light than if you were shooting outside or with studio strobes. To get some more light into your camera, try opening up your aperture and setting it to the lowest number possible.

Opening your aperture up to let more light into your camera also has the effect of creating a shallow depth of field. A shallow depth of field has real advantages when you’re shooting at home – it can blur out the background and any unwanted clutter.

ISO200, 35mm (50mm equiv.), f1.4, 1/320th sec

Alternatively, if you need to place your subject right next to a wall that isn’t as great a background as you hoped for (like above), try hanging a large sheet of paper behind them. The result would be like going to a studio with a paper backdrop. Or if you fancy something completely different, try creating a more creative backdrop!

Get your subject to turn their face towards the light to make it fall in a very flattering way that illuminates their features. If you turn their face slightly back towards you then you can create the classic “Rembrandt light” that fine art photographers love so much (just turn their face towards you enough to create a “triangle” of light on the side of their face away from the window).

By just changing the way your subject faces, you should be able to experiment with broad and short lighting with just a single window. If you have a patient subject, then a single window and a model can be a great way to learn about new kinds of lighting while finding lovely portrait light at home.

Shoot in the bathroom

I’m not even messing about. Bathrooms often have incredible light because of all the white, reflective surfaces. Even a bathroom with a small window can have lots of light bouncing about just waiting for you to photograph it.

ISO800, 35mm (50mm equiv.), f1.4, 1/1100th sec

If you want to fill in some shadows, or even add a bit more directional light, you can experiment with using a reflector. You can use the silver side to add a bright, directional light in a room like this by bouncing light into the brighter side of the face. Alternatively, you could use the white side of a reflector to just gently lift any shadows that you get, to make the light more even.

ISO1600, 35mm (50mm equiv.), f1.4, 1/3000th sec

Don’t be afraid to push up your ISO either if you want to capture a fast-moving or unpredictable subject like a pet. Most modern digital cameras can now go quite high with the ISO without seeing any problems in the images.

I shot the images above at ISO 1600, with an extremely fast shutter speed as my cat zipped around the house from dark to light spots. I had the camera set to Aperture Priority mode, so the camera chose its shutter speeds. Aperture Priority mode is a great choice for shooting portraits indoors because it lets you make creative choices about aperture and depth of field without having to worry about shutter speed.

Experiment with the time of day

As the sun moves, the light will change in different parts of your house. Make it your mission to observe and try out the light as it changes throughout the day if you want to find the good spots for beautiful portrait light at home.

Left: ISO400, 35mm (50mm equiv.), f1.4, 1/280th sec
Right: ISO200, 35mm (50mm equiv.), f2.8, 1/2000th sec

I took both of the above shots in the same room, sitting in almost exactly the same place. The difference was the time of day. The shot on the right with the hard light was taken in the bright morning light. In comparison, I took the image on the left in the afternoon when the sun had stopped shining directly into the room.

Patches of light and shadow can make for really interesting photographs as you let them play across the face or body of your subject. Be sure to experiment with how they create different effects both in the photographs themselves and when you post-process them afterward (increasing the contrast can work really well for light like this).

Use what you have

When I first moved into my home with its large room designated as my studio, I shot almost exclusively with strobes. I would shut out all of the natural light so that I could concentrate on just using my studio lights. I hadn’t even considered that I might have beautiful portrait light at home.

ISO200, 35mm (50mm equiv.), f1.4, 1/240th sec

One day, though, I just wanted to grab a quick self-portrait. So I opened the curtains and photographed myself in the morning light.

On inspecting the files later, I discovered that this light was unexpectedly beautiful. Now I shoot regularly sat face-on to this big window in my studio with no additional lighting or reflectors because I discovered it was simply wonderful light.

Learn from my mistake – test out every window in your house for portraits, at different times of the day.

When you move into a new home, make it one of the first things that you do. Don’t wait several years to realize that you already have wonderful natural portrait light at home!

I’d love to see your portraits using the natural light in your home. Please share them with us in the comments section!

The post Tips for Finding Beautiful Portrait Light at Home appeared first on Digital Photography School. It was authored by Charlie Moss.

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