dSLR Dad

Martin Evening as posted a video over at Lightroom-News that explains how you can improve your Black & White /  Grayscale conversion inAdobe Photoshop Lightroom 2:

Shortly after the release of Lightroom 1.0, I made a video tutorial which showed how you could use the HSL panel controls to achieve improved, reduced noise Grayscale conversions in Lightroom. That particular problem was resolved with one of the later Lightroom 1.x updates and it is now fine to use the Grayscale panel controls to achieve optimum black and white conversions. In this movie I wanted to show how you can also fine-tune the Grayscale conversion setting by combining these with Camera Calibration panel adjustments.

You can watch the entire video at Lightroom-News.com.  To find out more information or to download a free trial, check out the dSLR Dad Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Resource Guide.

Martin Evening has also written The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers.

Moose Peterson, wildlife and landscape photographer extraordinaire, has produced a video on digital Black and White photography techniques.  In the video, he covers not only how he converts all of his images using NIK Software’s Silver Efex Pro, but also how he pre-visualizes the B&W effect while in the field.  You can watch this very informative video on his MooseNewsBlog.

This is the first preset package that I ever downloaded to work with Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.  It also happens to be the one that I go back to the most often. onOne Software has a package of 85 Lightroom presets designed by Photoshop Guru Jack Davis which include:

• 8 White Balance presets
• 11 Tone Curve presets
• 4 Vibrance presets
• 18 HSL presets
• 12 Black & White presets
• 5 Warm Tinting presets
• 5 Cool Tinting presets
• 8 Dark Vignette presets
• 8 Light Vignette presets

Oh, and did I mention that you can download the entire set for free.  This is a great way for a dSLR Dad new to Lightroom to get started in the Develop Module.  This, along with other resources, can be found in the dSLR Dad Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Guide.

Mikkel Aaland has a great video tutorial on how to use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2’s new Graduated Filter feature to create a Super Vignette effect.  A detailed explanation is available here.

Adobe has released Photoshop Lightroom version 2.  This latest iteration packs numerous feature and usability improvements to help any dSLR Dad quickly import, manage, process, and display your work.

Top new features

• Local adjustment brush — What Photoshop Guru Scott Kelby calls “painting with light”.  One of the most powerful new features I have used.
• Graduated Filter — Allows you to recreate the effect of a graduated neutral density filter.
• Enhanced organizational tools
• Volume management – Freely manage and organize your images across multiple drives, and continue to work with the high-resolution previews — even when your originals are offline.
• Extensible architecture — Allows you to take advantage of the wide range of plug-ins to help you quickly and easily transfer images to your favorite sharing sites and photo labs.
• Multiple monitor support
• Flexible print package functionality — You can now print multiple sizes on one or many pages.  Exporting your print as a JPEG to toss to an outside print service is also an option.
• Streamlined Photoshop CS3 integration — Enjoy tight integration with Adobe Photoshop software for streamlined use of Smart Objects, panorama stitching, high dynamic range (HDR) functionality, multiple layer workflow, and more.
• Enhanced output sharpening (meaning that it’s more than the on/off switch of Version 1)
• 64-bit support for Windows® and Mac OS — This is a great trend, allowing you to take advantage of more system memory (>3 GB) when working with larger files.  Photoshop CS4 will follow the same path (for Windows users at least).
• Adobe Camera RAW 4.5 is built in

You can buy new copies for $299 or upgrade for just$99 from Adobe.  You can also purchase the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 at Amazon.com, sometimes at a discount.

For those of you dSLR Dads who never used Lightroom before, you can still download a free 30-day trial and try it out.  I highly recommend this route, just be sure to give yourself a project to complete from import to print/post.  Read on to find out more information.

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