I know I haven’t posted in a while. I’ve been working on some new media projects, not the least of which is the redesign of the upcoming and much anticipated Faded & Blurred 2.0. It’s a pretty large project, my first using the Joomla CMS. So the last couple of months, much of my free time has been buried in learning how to work within the Joomla framework. We’re launching the site very soon, so please give me your feedback, when you’ve had a chance to check it out.
I did take some time out over Thanksgiving to get out of town and take some pictures. Nikki and I went up to San Francisco for a couple of days and photo walked the City. San Francisco is one of my favorite cities in the world, and it’s one that I would love to spend a great deal more time exploring. All in all, we shot somewhere in the neighborhood of 1500 photographs during our visit, some of which I present below.

You can see more of my photos on my flickr page and also on Nikki’s blog.

Yep, it was just another day…excpet that’s Frank and I with Joe McNally. We got to meet the Man himself at his lighting workshop in downtown L.A. As if that wasn’t cool enough, Frank got yanked up on stage and got himself photographed by Mr. McNally. You can read more about the day, which just happened to be Frank’s 40th birthday, on his blog.



As if the whole McNally thing wasn’t cool enough (or the French Dips and beer at Philippe’s afterwords) we wrapped up the night at the loft of Maria Carmel where we went up to the roof to shoot a few photos of the Los Angeles skyline. Yeah, it was a good day.

This week in my class, The World of Digital, I introduced several workflow concepts, as an overview of Lightroom presets. Lightroom is a fantastic application and, in my opinion, should be in every photographer’s software toolkit. Sure, Photoshop has Camera Raw, but the Lightroom interface is a far more elegant way to access the various raw editing tools, especially compared to Bridge. Also, Lightroom trounces Photoshop when it comes to file handling, not only large single files, but large numbers of files. Try handling thousands of photos with preview images in Bridge…you’ll end up wanting to put a screw driver in your forehead. Beyond the file handling, organization, and user interface, Lightroom has a stellar preset system. For those new to Lightroom, presets allow you to save (and subsequently apply) a unique combination of Lightroom’s image editing tools to create unique versions of your photos. Exposure, white balance, tone curves, even cropping are all parameters that may be saved to a preset. There are literally hundreds (if not thousands) of presets available for download from various sites on the Web. So whether you are looking for cross-processing, black and white conversion, graduated filters or just something to give your photos a little more punch, chances are there are a number of presets available to get you close to where you want to be. From there, you may make your own subtle tweaks to get your image just right. Presets are available on a number of sites, but the list below should get you started.

LIGHTROOM PRESETS
Pro Photoshow
Presets Heaven
Lightroom Presets
Lightroom Killer Tips

PRESET INSTALLATION
Okay, you’ve downloaded a bunch of presets, right? Now what? Well, the first thing you want to do is to unzip the downloads into a folder of your choosing (I have a folder on an external drive called “LR Presets”). Once you have unzipped them, go ahead and launch Lightroom. By the way, Adobe has released the public beta for Lightroom 3. The final version won’t be out until next year, but you can download the beta free from Adobe Labs and use it until the final is released. Okay, so once you launch lightroom, be sure you are in the Develop module (just click Develop in the toolbar. On the left side of the interface, you should see the presets currently installed on your system. You may create your own folders, but for now, right-click on the User Presets folder and select Import.



Navigate to where you unzipped the presets you downloaded in the step above. Select the presets you want and click Import. More than likely, when you import the presets, one will automatically be applied to your current image. Simply undo by pressing Cmd+Z (Ctrl+Z on PC) then select the preset of your choice. As you mouse over the various presets, you will notice the small preview image update with the currently highlighted preset.



There you have it. Now go download some presets of your own and just do the work!

Sorry about the lack of updates for last week’s classes. I’ve been swamped working on some new projects, including the very cool (and very big) update to Faded & Blurred. The 2.0 update is going to be very, very cool. No exact launch date yet, but Frank, Nikki, Paul and I are working hard to launch before the end of the year. Look for an announcement on the Faded & Blurred site soon.

Photo 55
World of Digital is still one of my favorite classes this semester. Week 7, we talked about exposure. Shutter Priority, Aperture Priority, and Manual. We also took a look at some processing techniques in Lightroom. Week 8 will be all about video, including creating “fusion” slide shows.

Photo 139
In the Art of Compositing, we started the “Singularity” movie poster. Have you worked on it? We also took a look at a great technique for building lightning strikes and energy bolts. If you missed it, or just want a refresher, take a look at my video tutorial.

Photo 77
The Web for Photographers is proving to be a tough one, but you guys are awesome for sticking it out. In week 7, we dove a little deeper into CSS. I can definitely see the lights coming on for you and I think several of you will be building your own sites before the end of the semester. Stick with it. HTML and CSS are a bitch to learn, but they are necessary if you intend to build your own site or do any customization to pre-built templates or themes. Several sites out there to help you including:

Web Appers
W3 Schools

Here’s a great list of sites to help you learn HTML and CSS: http://sixrevisions.com/css/20_websites_learn_master_css/

That’s it for the wrap up. Now, just do the work!