Software How To

Early last week we posted an overview of what one image-editing expert considers three standout features in the recent update to Lightroom, one of which is the new Blur tool. Today were taking a deep dive into that powerful feature, courtesy of the experts at the Park Cameras YouTube channel.

Pro photographer Mark Denney is an expert at uncovering all the best secret tricks in Lightroom and in his latest video he says he’s found the program’s “most hidden editing secret” yet. Best of all, this overlooked tool in Lightroom is incredibly useful.

This quick tutorial from instructor Mark Denney begins with a question nobody wants to hear: "Is your camera secretly dying?" This disturbing concern has to do with the fact that every camera has a finite life span, and if you don't check the shutter count regulalrly you may be in for a rude awakening.

Macro season is in full swing, with colorful flowers, interesting insects, and other creepy-crawlies just about everywhere you look, so if you still haven’t dusted off your trusty close-up lens, now is the time.

Creating a web page for your images these days is fairly easy, and there are numerous web apps available that offer a wide variety of colors and backgrounds. But organizing your images before you even consider the template (or “skin” as it is called in the trade) is perhaps the biggest challenge, given the proliferation of images we all have made with various cameras and mobile devices stored on flash drives, hard drives, and even memory cards.

Photographers, especially those dealing with large numbers of images, are always looking for ways to speed up the workflow and spend less time in front of a computer and more time behind a camera. Applications like Lightroom have improved the process tremendously, making cataloging and image adjustments easier and faster than before. If you have adjustments that you apply frequently, you can use presets to make it a single-click process, applying a number of adjustments in one operation.

Kevin Kubota has been providing presets and tools for both Photoshop and Lightroom users for quite a while now, and one of his products is a combination of a package of presets for Lightroom and a mini keyboard from RPG Keys that looks much like a numeric keypad on your keyboard. Available as a bundle for $349, or as a rental for $19.95 per month after a $49 setup fee, you get over 100 presets that do everything from black-and-white conversions to skin tone enhancements (and a number of interesting edge effects).