New Years Resolutions for Photographers

Happy New Year to all my photography friends !  Can you believe it is 2019 already? Time flies huh?  

Are you one of those people who makes resolutions every January and then fights to keep them?  Even though I have a hard time sticking to some of the resolutions I make, I still find that the practice of making resolutions helps me to get myself motivated. It is also a chance to look back at the year and to see what I have learned from my experiences and what I need to work on.  For myself I find it very useful to set some clear (obtainable) goals. 

Just about every photographer I know says they’re going to try to shoot more in the coming year. Practice makes perfect right?  How about raising the bar a little and start sharing more of your work online or on social media platforms? This can be a great way to build up your business and network more at the same time.

In the winter months I try to update my portfolio (s) and get my backups in order. Depending on how thorough you are throughout the year, this can be a simple project or a major one. Another good resolution can be to get your gear lust under control and try to maintain your current gear instead.  Here's a great tip; stop comparing yourself to other photographers. 

Here are a few ideas for resolutions you might try in the coming year

• If you have a website (or websites) you could try updating it or maybe giving it a fresh new look with a much needed overhaul?

• We all have books in our libraries we have never gotten around to finishing yet. Break out some of your photography books and read or re-read them.

• Improve your skill set by either taking a class at your local community college or online. Classes in retouching or post processing techniques are always helpful. Face it; unless you’re an Adobe Certified Expert we can always improve our Photoshop and/or Lightroom skills.

•  Teaching a photography or lighting workshop.  Maybe you have some experience editing or taking photos with your iPhone. These days everyone has a cell phone that takes photos and videos and a lot of them would like to improve their photography.

• Improve your own lighting skills with off-camera flash or with studio lighting. Photography is all about light and the better we get at it, the easier our jobs become right? 

• Maybe you could organize a photo trip with fellow photographers.  I find these not only fun, but very educational at the same time.  

• Print more photos. There is nothing better than a beautiful print right?

These are just a few suggestions but the list can go on and on. Stick to your guns and make 2019 your best year yet. As always, remember to keep shooting and have some fun!

Saving Time In Photoshop With Shortcut Keys

I’m just guessing this but if you’ve been using just about any Adobe product for a while, such as Photoshop or Lightroom, then you are probably using  (or at least know of) a few shortcut keys by now…. right? 

Shortcut keys are nice because they can save tons of time when you are working in the digital darkroom, but speed isn’t the only advantage. If you are making a selection and you use a shortcut, your pointer doesn’t move when you toggle between tools! Think about it, this alone could give you much more control when you’re working on your image.

Luckily, over 90% of these shortcuts haven’t changed in many years so we really don’t have to keep learning new ones over and over again.  Most Photoshop users know that if you float your mouse over any tool on the toolbar a pop-up box will tell you the tool’s name and the shortcut command, and if you pull down one of the drop-down menus, the ones that have shortcuts are listed there also. If you are a Cloud subscriber you’ve probably noticed that if you hover over a tool on the toolbar menu these days you not only get the shortcut key but you also get a little video of the tool in use in a pop-up box!  Nice huh?

I’ve been using Photoshop for over 18 years now so I’ve got most of my most frequently used shortcuts committed to memory, but I also have a list of other shortcuts I don’t use as frequently printed up and hanging up close to my PC so I can just glance at them when I need them. This is also the way I started learning shortcut keys, I printed up a list of the ones I used most and when I had them memorized I added new ones.  Easy right?

A lot of Photoshop users know that you are also able to reassign Shortcut keys if you’d like.  Just go up to Edit drop-down menu and scroll down to Keyboard Shortcuts or use the shortcut (Shift+ Alt+Cmd+K ).  Some of the Shortcut keys that Adobe assigns are for tools or menu items that most of us will never use, so if I want to add a shortcut that’s already pre-assigned to a tool or menu item, I can turn off that shortcut and use it for something else. If you use Photoshop quite a bit, shortcuts could save you a lot of time in your editing workflow.  I’ve included two links below where you can find more info on Shortcuts.  One is from Adobe and one is from Popular Photography magazine. I hope you find this article helpful.

  

As always, remember to keep shooting and have some fun!

Opening JPEGs Automatically in Camera Raw

Here’s a quick post that some of you might enjoy.  I know a lot of you are big fans of Adobe Lightroom for most of your file handling and we can open your images in Camera Raw easily. I use Lightroom for certain things and Photoshop for others. I’ve always been a big fan of Photoshops Bridge, so when I want to open a JPEG or TIFF file in Camera Raw, I’ll just hit the Camera Raw button on the top menu bar to open my images up. Easy right?  But, did you know you could open any JPEG or TIFF in Camera Raw for you automatically without going into Lightroom, Photoshop or the Bridge?

It’s actually pretty easy to set it up to do this for you. When you’re in Photoshop CC, go up to the Edit drop-down menu and scroll down to Preferences (all the way at the bottom) and choose Camera Raw. When the Camera Raw dialog box opens, you’ll notice down near the bottom a section called JPEG and TIFF handling. From the JPEG pop-up menu just choose “Automatically Open All Supported JPEGs” and then click OK. You can do the same for the TIFF files below that, or just leave that alone and go up to the top of that dialog box and choose OK.

Now, your JPEG images will open automatically in Camera Raw for personal processing before you ever open them in Lightroom or Photoshop.  Nice huh?

Getting better prints from your printer

Can you believe it, 2017 is already here?  I’m hoping everyone enjoyed the holidays and got some time to spend with family and loved ones. Maybe Santa brought you a few of those goodies you asked for like that printer you had your eye on?

These days the costs of printers have gone down drastically and the quality has actually gotten much better, which is a good thing right? Maybe you picked up a new printer recently but for some reason you’re not getting the quality you were expecting. A lot of times I’ll see someone with a nice printer but they just can’t seem to get their images quite right? Does this sound like you? I know that sometimes your monitor might need to be calibrated, but this is assuming that’s already done and you’re working in the right color space (sRGB, RGB, Pro RGB etc.)

One of the quickest and easiest ways to improve your images is by making sure you have the right ICC printer color profile for your printer.  I use a bunch of different papers for various projects, but I always make sure I’ve got the correct profile for my printer / paper combination.  Don’t get me wrong, sometimes the paper profiles that come with your printer are pretty good and I use them myself quite often for printing JPEGs or anything on plain paper. But when I’m using a quality paper, I always make sure I’ve downloaded the correct paper profile for my printer.

 
The first thing you want to do is go to the paper manufacturer’s website and download the correct profile. Search for color profiles and it’ll take you to a profile locator page with a list of available printer brands and models. Choose your printer brand and model from the pop-up menus and that will send you to a list of free color profiles for your paper type and printer. I download mine into a special folder with all my other color profiles, along with instructions.  They’ll all show you how to install them (sometimes with a video) basically because they want you to purchase more paper right?  Installing these is basically a no-brainer and very simple. 

Once you’ve installed your profile, it’s time to make your print. Just choose your ICC profile in Photoshops Print Settings dialog box (Command P or Ctrl+P on a PC)  Under Color Management, choose Photoshop Manages Colors from the Color Handling menu and then choose the correct profile from the profile menu below it. You’ll notice that I’ve selected the MOAB Lasal Luster profile. Right from the start your images will be a whole lot better because now the paper and printer match up perfectly.

Pretty Nice huh?  I hope this helps you and remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

How do I do that in Photoshop? – Book Review

Back in February of this year I wrote a quickie review on a book that I thought a lot of people could benefit from, it was called “How do I do that in Lightroom?” by Scott Kelby.

Chances are that if you’re into photography you’ll recognize that name. Scott’s written over 50 books on photography, Photoshop and Lightroom so he knows his stuff.  In fact he’s been the best-selling computer/ technology author in the world since 2005. I actually ordered a copy of that one as soon as it went on sale because I can always use more help with Lightroom. Personally, I find it very useful. If you want to read my post on that book, click on this link:  How do I do that in Lightroom?

Scott also has a very popular daily blog (The Photoshop Insider) that I try to read daily. I’ve really enjoyed it for many years. Each time he comes out with a new book he has a little contest where you get to post a comment on why you’d like to win the book and you get entered for a chance to win a copy, usually before they’re in the stores. 

Because his book on Lightroom tips was so successful, he wrote a follow up for Photoshop called “How do I do that in Photoshop”. These days more and more people are using Lightroom but sometimes you’ll find that some things you just can’t do in Lightroom or where Photoshop is just faster or easier to use. Unfortunately because of the power of Photoshop, sometimes the things you need are kind of hidden or hard to find. Most of us know that Photoshop can do just about everything but sometimes it seems like Adobe sort of hid the feature we’re looking for or made it not so obvious to find. Ever have that problem?

That’s what makes this book so handy. It was laid out in the same format as his previous book of tips on Lightroom, so I added my comment and actually won a copy of this new book myself. I’ve actually won two or three times myself and considering how many people follow his blog I think that’s pretty cool.   Truth is, I would’ve purchased the book even if I hadn’t won because I find his books extremely helpful. Even if I only picked up a tip or two, to me it would be worth it. I’ve been using Photoshop since version 6.0 so I know a thing or two about the program, but if you use Photoshop yourself you know there are usually several ways to accomplish the same thing right?  I’ve actually learnt quite a few time saving tips and work arounds from the book already. Each page has a single photo with a description of which button to click, which setting to use and exactly how and when to use it. 

Maybe you could use one of these books yourself? You can purchase either one of these books for under $20, which won't break the bank. If you're new to Photoshop or even if you've been using it for years, I’m sure you’ll pick up a tip or two yourself.  Click on these links to send you over to Amazon where you can purchase them from a name you can trust. How do I do that in Lightroom or How do I do that in Photoshop. 

I hope you enjoy my post and as always, remember to keep shooting and have some fun!