I've recently fielded some questions about XMP sidecar files in Adobe Lightroom and felt that would be a good topic for this weeks blog post. Before we get into XMP sidecar files and Lightroom, let's first explain why they are...

This post was supposed to be all about how I am finally getting into making HDR (High Dynamic Range) images and how easy it is to do with Lightroom. Well I have plenty of RAW image files and I downloaded...

The other day I was going over the galleys for my Lightroom book, and I came to a comment by Doug Nelson, my technical editor. He highlighted a step in a step-by-step procedure created by the photographer Maggie Hallahan. In...

In many programs, keyword structure can be a flat, one dimensional list of words that are hard to manage as their numbers grow. In the program that I used previously, I had a keyword list of around 300, and that...

In my recent private workshops and tutorials with fellow photographers, I have noticed that organization is a key issue. This not only relates to Lightroom but also to an overall Digital Asset Management system that you should institute right away...

The Split Toning tool in the Develop pallet of Adobe Lightroom 1.0 allows you to set separate Hue and Saturation values for Highlights and Shadows in a digital image. I will use a closeup of the Quoddy West Lighthouse (the...

Black and White photography has become popular all over again. In my opinion, that's happening for two reasons: (1) Digital photography has made color the de-facto standard, so we're now seeing more color images than black and white. (2) That...

Maybe you noticed that regardless of what digital camera you use, as long as you shot RAW, the number 25 always appears by default in Lightroom 1.0's Develop Module's Detail pane Sharpening slider. I'm aware that the topic of image...

Last week I mentioned different ways in Lightroom to tag pictures. On of these methods is "Keyword sets," and I'm going to talk about that feature in more detail right now. Keyword sets are basically a grouping of keyboard shortcuts...

A recent trend in photography is the de-saturated image. You see them everywhere now. With the acceptance of digital photography there seems to be a backlash against the saturated film colors of Velvia - instead of super saturated colors you...

I like to browse a number of different photography forums on the internet to see what kind of real world problems photographers are having, learning how to use and adjusting to the Lightroom workflow. A few days ago I saw...

One of the most fun chapters to write for my Lightroom Adventure book is titled, "Develop Recipes from Iceland". The chapter includes step-by-step procedures that anyone can apply to their own images. "Chefs" include Michael Reichmann, Maggie Hallahan, Martin Sundberg,...

When you want a really clean, smooth, commercially professional-looking slideshow, Lightroom is a good place to turn. Unfortunately, narration, jazzy transitions, and Ken Burns zoom and pan effects aren't in the plan. Not that you want to do all those...

As keywords are a very important feature to manage pictures in Lightroom, it is essential to come up with a workflow one is comfortable with to register keywords for images. It takes time and effort to record keywords for all...

Editing my images, especially sports images, has always been a time consuming task with my prior workflows. When I photograph rock climbers, mountain bikers or kayakers for example I am always shooting at high framing rates - at 5 frames...

I had seen these Lightroom Develop Presets by Jack Davis earlier last month but only got around to installing them today and I have to say, wow why did I wait so long? It isn't that these presets can do...

There will be times when you want to browse through multiple libraries in order to find a certain category of photos to be used for a specific purpose. For instance, I often place on-line ads for some of my photographic...

Canyon de Chelly: It's spring break for my two daughters, Ana (6) and Miranda (10) and I'm blogging from a 23-foot rented RV parked in a campground near Canyon de Chelly. This is not an Iceland-style adventure, but it's shedding...

It is very easy these days to find information on the net with search engines such as Google. Useful data can be retrieved by searching for a word or phrase, given by the user, in a database that includes almost...

Adventure could be Mikkel Aaland's middle name. In 1982, the O'Reilly author and organizer of the Lightroom Iceland Adventure talked to David Letterman about his adventures taking portraits of folks visiting county fairs. The portraits were snapped in a portable...

Downloading and importing images is one of the major bottlenecks in any digital workflow. Luckily, Lightroom has a few options that can help speed up and simplify the downloading, importing and backing up process. Lightroom can automatically download images from...