November 2, 2008

banner3 Power Worklfow Lightroom Presets Finally Here

10/31/08 Seim Effects Photo Tools. Power Workflow 2 now available.

Our sister site, Seim Effects has just announced Power Workflow2

“The Power Workflow Lightroom preset collection was launched in 2007, and proceeded to be one of the most effective and popular Ligtroom preset collections available. Power Workflow2 goes to the next level by adding new effects, better auto corrections, and Enhanced support for Lightroom2, utilizing tools such a post crop vignette”.

This is a pretty exciting realese over at SE. I know many PPS readers are users of the SE Workflow. There’s an introductory price for the new set, and exsisting owners have been sent discount upgrade coupons. Go check it out folks and don’t forget you can use promo code PPS to save 10%

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October 30, 2008

CPPOTW = The Digital Grey Kard

It seems someone is always selling a gadget to get your white balance right. It can indeed be useful to have a grey reading to get your white balance spot on out of the gate. This CPPOTW is the Digital Grey Card.

WB targets work quite simply. Their an 18% gray. You shoot a frame with the gray card in the scene, then later in post production you click it with the WB eye dropper using, Lightroom, Aperture, Camera Raw or whatever you use. The system reads, what you say is 18% gray and balances the rest of the scene accordingly.

I‘ve tried a few targets, and aside from being overpriced many of them are cumbersome, which means I tend not to use them. This set however is like having three business cards on a lanyard. Throw it in your bag, or better yet around your neck and wherever you are you can toss the card in for a WB target shot. It also includes white and black level target.

Nothing big, strange, or expensive. At around seventeen bucks, it may seem like a lot for three plastic cards, but these targets are cheaper than most and do just what they need to. Something every photographer should have in their kit. I’ve linked to Amazon. I’m sure you can find it all over, but the price is right.

Gavin Seim

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October 23, 2008

“Don’t allow them to charge you 5.00 folks. Let’s at least attempt to keep them honest”

I know this is a photography site, but most photographers have cellular phones, so this is relivent for us too. Oddly I’m not seeing much reporting on this. I guess I’m just a cranky geek.

If you call AT&T Wireless to pay your bill with a real person they’ll charge you a five dollar fee to give them money. I’m not kidding here. They’ll tell you that if you go online, or use the automated system there will be no fee, but if you pay them it will cost you five US dollars. I’m not really interested in them forcing their system on me. I didn’t agree to pay a fee, I agreed to pay my bill.

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October 20, 2008

By Gavin Seim: Today I want to share a tip that some of you may already be using, but many others have not delved into. It’s called Auto Sync.

Within Lightroom’s Develop Module (D) you can select multiple images in the filmstrip and you’ll see the sync button appear on the bottom of the right panel. You can select the images you wish to sync, and click Sync. It will ask what settings you want to apply, then apply those settings to the selected images. OK so most of us know this already, and while it can be a big time saver there’s still more.

Auto Sync is slightly more hidden, but very useful. With your images selected, hold CNTRL (Win) CMD (Mac) and the Sync button now turns into the Auto Sync button. Click on the Auto Sync button to activate it. It now stays active until you click again to turn it off.

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October 19, 2008

As promised I recently wrote an article over on SeimEffects about how I manage image libraries and Lightroom catalogs, as well as my general photo management ideas. My plan may not work for everyone, but I think you’ll find good ideas for keeping YOU in control of your images. Check it out. Gavin

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