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!

How Do I Do That In Lightroom? - Book Review

Adobe Lightroom actually started out in Beta in January of 2006 and was officially released in February of 2007. 

These days every pro or semi-pro photographer knows the power of Lightroom and it has become their # 1 go-to tool because it is capable of doing so many things. That’s probably true, but just because it has so much power and depth, sometimes the things I need are not really that obvious. I’ll be honest, in the past I didn't use Lightroom as much as I could just because it was pretty confusing to me.
 
 

I don’t know if this happens to you, but a lot of times I’ll need to do something to an image in Lightroom but I don’t have a clue where Adobe hid that feature.  If I don’t do something all the time, sometimes I have a tendency to forget how I did that the last time. Does this sound familiar? This book was written just for that purpose. The book is called "How do I do that in Lightroom" and was written by Scott Kelby. Scott has  has written over 50 books on photography and has an easy to understand style that cuts through all the mumbo-jumbo and gets straight to the point.

If this sounds like you, then this book was designed for us. I think just about every question you may have about Lightroom and the “how to's” are answered in this book. When you're stuck and need to know just one particular thing to do to an image, all you do turn to the chapter on that topic and see how it's done. Simple huh?  

Maybe you just want to add a Watermark, or build a Slide Show or you’re working on an image that is an irregular size and you want to get a Custom Paper Size, then this book is for you.  Jump over to that page and it will tell you which buttons to click, which settings you should use and exactly how and when to use them. 

The chapters are basically self-explanatory (Print, Slideshow, Organizing, Importing, etc.)  so you can quickly find the technique you’re looking for. I keep my book close to my computer always. Maybe this book would help you out too?  Click on this link, How do I do that in Lightroom, and you'll get a few to choose from. I like the Book Depository and have ordered from them several times. Chances are you can order a copy and get it delivered for under $20! I’ve been using them for years and have never had any problems. 

I hope this post helps you out. Remember, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!

Tethered Shooting in Lightroom CC

These days, more and more people are shooting tethered. Maybe you’re asking yourself, what is tethered shooting and when or why would I want to shoot tethered?

For myself, I shoot tethered for a few different reasons, but mostly because I want to view my images on my monitor instead of the little LCD on the back of my camera. Plus, I set it up so I can also have my images loaded directly into a folder on the computer instead of filling up a memory card.

Image 1

This can be especially nice if your shooting portraits, because you can view your photos on the large monitor instantly and make sure you’ve got the shot correct immediately and share it with your subject or client right on the spot. A lot of times, the person your shooting will loosen up a little bit if they see what you’re doing and how the shots look.  This could also come in handy if you were working with an art director because they wouldn’t have to stop your session to view images on the cameras LCD screen.  

Sometimes I’ll shoot tethered when I’m home doing some Macro work. I’m a Canon shooter so most of the time when I’m doing Macro I prefer to use Live View with the Canon software because I can make finer adjustments like focusing, on the spot and see them on my laptop screen.

Some of you are already familiar with shooting tethered, and if you’ve done this in previous versions of Lightroom you’ll notice nothing has really changed, sorry.

For this tutorial I’m using my laptop connected to one of my cameras, in this case it’s a Canon Mk II, with a with a 15 foot USB cable. You might also want to secure your cord when tethering with a device called a Jerkstopper, but if you’re careful you shouldn’t have any problems. 

Image 2

To start a shooting tethered, go up under File scroll down to Tethered Capture and select Start Tethered Capture.    (see image 1)

When the Tethered Capture Settings dialog box opens you can customize this (pink boxes) and specify the name of the session, what template to use for incoming file names, where to store them and what metadata and keywords to use. In mine, I called my Session – New Blog Post, in the naming section I used Custom Name – Sequence and Custom Text called Fender Guitar and started numbering them from # 1.  Below that you’ll see I have a folder on my desktop called Tethered shooting as my Destination and I chose not to add any Metadata but put Samples for new Blog Post in the Keywords box.  Easy right?    ( see Image 2 )

When your  settings are all set, click OK to proceed.

This should put you in LR in the Library module and you’ll see the heads up display (HUD) for your tethered session. You’ll notice your camera model up in the top left corner, mine is a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a big gray button on the other end.   

 ( Image 3 )

Image 3

Note:  If everything is connected but you get an error message “No Camera Detected”, you might need to adjust a settings on your camera. Check out your camera manual if you run into this problem.

On the HUD, you can set default develop setting to apply to your incoming images. Between the Tethered Settings dialog and this option on the HUD, you’ll get many of the same options that you would when importing them from your memory card. (see Image 3)

Now when you shoot you can use the shutter button on your camera (I prefer a cable release) or you can hit the big gray button on the HUD. Sometimes if my camera is on a tripod I’ll just use the gray button.

Now when you shoot, the images get loaded into the folder you chose and instead of previewing the image on the back of your camera, your laptop monitor becomes your LCD.

When you’re all done with your session, go up to File, Tethered Capture, Stop Tethered Capture. You can also just click the little X on the top right of the HUD if you want. You can see that Lightroom created a folder named after our session name called New Blog Post.  ( Image 4)

Basically that’s all there is to it. Your images are now sored in their own folder in your library and all ready for you to work on. I hope some of find this helpful.  Nice huh?­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

Rememer, as always, keep shooting and have some fun!