The Contest is now OVER.  

The lucky winner of this incredible $1,299 Tamron lens is: #2367 – Mira Crisp.

Congratulations.  Make sure to check out the Tamron 24-70mm lens. This fall for another great lens contest – this time for a telephoto lens.  You never know when your number will be the lucky one.  The chances are a lot better than the Powerball

You have the chance to win a brand new Tamron 24-70mm lens {$1,299 estimated street price}

I love this lens for its flexibility, sharpness, and vibration compensation.  I used it in Australia, Alaska and in Michigan on images of people, landscapes, and product shots.  And I’ve used it while standing still, as well as on a moving boat,  in a float plane and even in a helicopter. Tamron is showcasing the work of a number of photographers using this lens, including mine in a gallery of images here.

So are you ready to try to win a Tamron Lens?

Start by doing one or more of the first three entries.  Once you do that, you can do as many bonus entries as you want of the remaining four. Remember to qualify, we do need to know that you did one of the first three though.

Shortcut links for Entries 4-7:

• LIKE the MCP Page
• SUBSCRIBE to Jodi on Facebook
• JOIN Our Facebook Community Group
  
• FOLLOW MCP on Pinterest

Details….details…

The Prizes:

Tamron 24-70mm VC Lens (for full frame and crop sensors too).  The winner picks their choice of a Canon, Nikon or Sony mount (Sony cameras have image stability so there is not vibration compensation built into that mount).

Contest Rules:

The contest ends Sunday, May 19th at 8pm eastern time and winner will be picked via random drawing, and announced on the top of this post on the MCP Blog. You can enter between 1-7 times based on how many entry items you participate in. Odds are winning are 1-7/# of entries.  Valid only where permitted by law.

Tamron USA Inc, the sponsor of this contest, is responsible for sales and marketing in the USA, therefore, they cannot ship outside of the USA. BUT if you reside outside the United States, the lens will ship to MCP Actions, and we will ship it to you. In this case, you will be responsible for the international shipping costs as well as any duties, taxes, or tariffs.

 

The post Enter to Win a Tamron Lens 24-70 2.8 VC for Canon, Nikon, or Sony appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.

Layering Lightroom presets – yep!

Have you every tried layering Lightroom presets?  It’s fun and can help you create nearly unlimited looks.  But here’s the catch, most companies don’t build stackable presets.

This is one of the many reasons I love using MCP’s Enlighten presets for Lightroom 4. The possibilities are endless and you can make some amazing, artistic edits without leaving Lightroom. One catch, you still cannot stack two items that use identical settings… well you can, but not without our secret trick.  In today’s tutorial, I am going to show you how to make the presets even a little more flexible using the IMPORT-EXPORT trick. Just wait… you’ll love it.

Here’s my Step-By-Step Blueprints:

We have all taken a photo, or two, where we have forgotten to change the camera settings. Here is one photo that I forgot to change the settings.  This was going to to in the trash bin, until I started playing with it.

This is the straight out of camera image:

I used the following presets from MCP Enlighten:

• open shade white balance
• adjusted the lighting by 1 2/3 stop lighten
• soft & bright B&W for the style
• overlay of ginger
• adjusted midtones
• shadows

You can always use brushes to bring out more details or make it softer. Crop the photo if needed, then export to “same folder as original photo.” Here is the first edit after the above steps.

The Import-Export Trick:

Next, since you can still only stack one overlay at a time from the set, I used the “export/import trick.”  To do this, you export the photo to the same photo as the original and then import the edited photo back into Lightroom. Next you can add one of the overlays. In this case “shadows: rose.”  Then I exported that photo to “same folder as original photo” just like before.

Once again, I imported that last photo back into Lightroom again and add another overlay such as lemon water. Export that photo just like before.

Once more import that last photo with the shadows: rose/lemon water over lays and add another overlay such as pomegranate.

Four different looks from one photo using different Enlighten overlays section.

You can always change the look any of these photos by using a new style or tweak the colors. Playing with the vibrance sliders will add more looks to your photo.  The Enlighten brushes will allow you to bring out more details or soften the look. The possibilities of overlaying like this are truly endless.

Sue Zellers a self taught amateur photographer who tries to capture the beauty and wonder of nature. She lives in beautiful farm countryside with her husband & 2 dogs, who are her other photo subjects.
See her work here: http://500px.com/sueze or Follow her on Facebook.

The post Lightroom Presets: Use The Secret Import-Export Trick appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.

Our Lightroom Adjustment Brush tutorial series started with an overview of the basics of using the adjustment brush in Lightroom.  Today, we’re going to wrap up the series and show you advanced features and tricks of using brushes.

Adjustment Brush Pins

The most important thing you can know about using this local adjustment tool is that Lightroom creates a separate pin for each individual edit you create on a photo.  If you’re softening skin in one place and sharpening eyes in another, each edit will be controlled by the pin Lightroom creates for it.  When you’ve completed one edit and are ready to move on to the next area, it’s very important to hit the New button at the top right of the Local Adjustment Panel in order to tell Lightroom to create a new pin.

If you forget, you might end up applying skin softening to eyes, or changing the softening you applied to sharpening instead.  Neither is good, right?

The photo above shows the 3 pins I used to create spot edits.  The one with the black dot in the center is active for editing.  I can change the settings or strength of any pin that is active for editing, I can add or remove painted areas, and I can delete the entire edit by hitting the delete or backspace button on my keyboard.

I’m going to say this again, because I forget all the time.  Each time you’ve completed editing one area and are ready to move on to the next, click the New button.  Change the sliders to suit the new location, and begin painting following the steps for the first tutorial in this series.

You can have many pins on any one image.  Are they getting in your way so that you can’t see to paint?  Type the letter H to hide the pins.  Type H again to turn them back on.

Toggle Adjustment Brush Edits Off and On

Want to see what your photo would look like without adjustment brushes?  Click on the “lightswitch” at the bottom of this panel to toggle all adjustment brush strokes off or on.  It’s not so easy to turn off one of many brushes, unfortunately – you’d have to delete it, then use the Undo History Panel to undelete it.

Change Multiple Sliders at One Time

If you changed several sliders with one adjustment pin, you can tweak them individually using the sliders, or you can reduce or increase their total strength with one slider.  To use this handy shortcut, collapse the arrow at the top right corner of the local adjustment panel.  You will now see one slider than controls everything you’ve already dialed in.  Click on that arrow again to expand all the sliders.  For example, rather than adjusting each of the 4 sliders that goes into this MCP Soften Skin preset from Enlighten for Lightroom 4, I can used this collapsed slider to adjust all for at the same time.

Memorize Brush Options

If you find that you use the same brush options over and over, you can memorize your favorite two sets.  For instance, do you like a brush with feathering of 63 and Flow of 72?  Click the A button and choose those settings.  Now click the B button to dial in the settings of your other favorite brush.  Click on A to revert to 63/72.  Click on B to go back to your other brush.  Those settings will remain until you change them.

Saving Presets

What about memorizing groups of sliders?  Your favorite edits for eyes, for example.  Dial in the settings you like.  For eyes, you might increase exposure a little, and increase contrast, clarity and sharpening.  Now, click on the drop down menu next to the word Effect.  Click on Save Current Settings as a New Preset, and name it.  Next time you want to edit eyes, click on this drop down menu and select your newly-saved preset.

Using Presets

What’s even better than saving your own presets?  Use MCP’s specialty adjustment brush presets that come with Enlighten for Lightroom 4.  We’ve programed them with our own secret forumlas to give you 30 photo perfecting effects, from skin softening to detail finding and color burning.  Using them is as simple as selecting one from the Effect menu and painting the edit where you need it.

Stack Brush Strokes

In this edit, I used the skin softening brush at full Flow, hit the new button, and painted over parts of the same area with the skin softening brush at 50% flow.  This gives me more than 100% skin softening in key areas.  It also creates a 4th pin, and beautifully soft skin.  No need to go into Photoshop at all!

Before & After Workflow

Let’s put this all together with the steps that I used to edit the Before and After image above.  Most of the edit was completed with just a few clicks of the Enlighten for Lightroom 4 presets.

• lighten 2/3 stop (Enlighten)
• soft & bright (Enlighten)
• blue: pop (Enlighten)
• blue: deepen (Enlighten)
• sharpen: slight (Enlighten)
• white balance tweak (my own)
• soften skin (Enlighten) – painted once at 100% flow and again at 50% flow over key areas
• crisp (Enlighten) – to bring out details of hair
• opened shadows in hair – my own settings.  See part 1 of this series for details.
• detail finder (Enlighten) – to sharpen and brighten eyes

What’s the last step in this process?  You need to put away your tool, of course.  Either click on the close button or click on the brush icon to turn it off and return to global editing.

The post How to Use the Local Adjustment Brush in Lightroom: Part 2 appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.

Lightroom’s Local Adjustment Brush is a powerful tool that creates the same spot editing power as layer masks – all without ever having to open Photoshop. 

How to use the local adjustment brush in Lightroom

With Lightroom 4, you can adjust a wide range of common photo problems, from white balance to blown highlights and noise caused by high ISO photography.  The adjustment brush in Lightroom 2 and 3 is powerful too.  However, it can’t solve as many problems as the brushes in Lightroom 4 (white balance and noise reductions, in particular).

This adjustment brush can perfect a small area of your image as simply as choosing an effect and painting it on.  This two-part tutorial will give you ALL the information you need to use this tool to its full potential. You can use the adjustment independently or in conjunction with the Enlighten Lightroom Preset Brushes.  This will even give you the power to adjust the results of our presets after applying them.

Step 1.  Click on the adjustment brush icon to turn it on.

The Basic Panel will slide down, and the Adjustments Panel will appear.  When the panel opens, you will find the following adjustments available in Lightroom 4:

 Here’s what each slider does:

• Temp & Tint – white balance adjustments.
• Exposure – increase to brighten, decrease to darken.
• Contrast – increase (move to right) to add contrast.  Decrease to reduce contrast.
• Highlights – move to right to brighten highlights, move to left to darken them (good for blown out areas).
• Shadows – move to right to brighten shadows, move to left to darken them.
• Clarity – increase (move to right) to add crispness, decrease to soften area.
• Saturation – increase by sliding to the right.  Desaturate by sliding to the left.
• Sharpness – paint on sharpness or blur.  Positive numbers increase sharpness.
• Noise – move to right to decrease noise in an area.  Move to left to reduce global noise reduction – in other words, protect an area from the noise reduction you applied to the entire image in the Detail Panel below.
• Moire – removes digital feedback created by small patterns.  Move slider to left to keep moire.
• Defringe – remove chromatic aberration by moving to right.  Protect from improper chromatic aberration removal by moving to the left.
• Color – apply a light color tint to an area.

Step 2.  Choose the settings that you would like to apply to a specific area.

Want to increase the exposure?  Move that slider to the right – it doesn’t matter how much, because you can adjust it after the fact.  Dial in as many adjustments as you’d like.  You can increase exposure and contrast at the same time, for example.

Step 3.  Configure your brush options.

• Select its size first.  Yes, you can dial in a size in pixels using the brush size slider.   It’s much easier, however, to hover the brush over the area that you want to paint and use the ] key to make your brush larger and [ to make it smaller.  You can also use the scroll wheel on your mouse to change the brush’s size, if you have one.

• Next, set the feathering amount.  Feathering controls how hard or soft the edges of your brush are.  A brush with 0 feathering is on the left side of this screen shot, and 100 feathering is on the right.  Softer feathers usually give more natural results.  When brushing with a feathered brush, your brush tip will have two circles – the space between the outer and inner circles is the area that will be feathered.
  

  

• Now set the Flow of your brush.  Use Flow to reduce how much paint comes out of your brush with one stroke.  If you’ve chosen to increase exposure by 1 stop, for example, setting the flow to 50 will increase your exposure by 1/2 stop with the first stroke.  The second stroke will bring your total exposure to 1 stop.

• AutoMask – turn on if you’d like the brush to read the edges of what you’re painting to prevent “painting outside the lines.”  This feature works very well – sometimes too well.  If you find that your coverage is spotty, like the photo below, you might need to turn off Auto Mask, especially if you aren’t near any important edges.
  

  

• Density controls the total strength of the brush on any area.  For instance, if you want to use the same brush to increase exposure on a face by 1 stop but make sure that the hair’s exposure doesn’t increase by more than a half stop, adjust the Density to 50 after painting the face, but before the hair.  (I don’t use this one much, honestly.)

Step 4.  Start brushing.  Click and drag over the areas of your photo that you want to adjust.  If your effect is subtle and you’re not sure whether you painted the right area, type O to display a red overlay over the areas you’ve painted.  After you finish laying the brush stroke, type O again to turn off the Red Overlay.  Need to erase something?  Click on the word erase, configure your settings just like you configured the brush, and erase the areas you shouldn’t have painted – your brush will have a “-” in the center to indicate that you are in erase mode.  Click on A to return to your paintbrush.

Step 5.  Adjust Your Edits.  Let’s say you increased both Exposure and Contrast with this brushstoke.  You can go back and tweak those two sliders.  Add even more exposure and reduce contrast.  Or, increase Clarity to add it to the adjustment.  You can use any available local sliders to adjust this brushstroke.

The screen shot below shows one step of my edit on the image from the before and after above.  My goal was to lighten and bring out detail from the shadows of her hair.  The red overlay shows you where I painted, my slider settings are on the right, and my brush options below that.  I used two brush strokes to build up coverage gradually.

I used:

• lighten 2/3 stop
• soft & bright
• blue: pop
• blue: deepen
• soften skin brush
• crisp brush

These are the basics of your first edit with Lightroom’s adjustment brush.  Come back for our next installment to learn about:

• Multiple brush edits on one photo
• Memorizing brush options
• Memorizing brush settings
• Using local adjustment presets (including those from MCP Enlighten!)

The post How to Use The Local Adjustment Brush In Lightroom: Part 1 appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.

Photographer decisions before the vacation:

1. What camera should you bring to capture family vacation photos? Do you go all out and bring your professional dSLR or do you opt for a smaller point and shoot or even something in between?
2. What lenses do you bring – and how many?  Do you bring your primes for portraits or more flexible zoom lenses so you have less to carry and can cover a wider range of focal lengths?
3. What camera bag will work best?
4. What additional photography items should you bring?

After deciding on these things, and packing the gear with extra batteries and memory cards, it’s off to vacation.  Every time I travel, I make these choices above.  I consider my goals.  Do I want primarily lifestyle snapshots vs portraits?  Will I be photographing my surroundings, unique buildings, wildlife, etc.  Who or what will my subjects be and what level of detail and skill do I want to exert on my time off?

The photography – my current choice:

For my most recent vacation, a 7-day Spring Break cruise on Celebrity Reflection, I was unplugged.  No internet or phone, which means no Facebook, no Twitter, no Pinterest, and no email.  I also wanted the photography to be truly snapshots of my time away.  I was not aiming for canvases of my kids.  I wanted to relax and capture what I wanted, when I wanted.  Additionally I wanted to be able to hand my camera to my husband or a stranger and get in a couple photos.  While I do not like being in photos, I know it is important. I wrote this article a while back and stressed the importance of getting in a few pictures now and then, especially ones with your family.

Late in 2012, I bought a camera that is the happy medium between my Canon 5D MKIII and a point and shoot – it is the Olympus OMD-EM5. It is a micro four-thirds camera – it is lighter, lacks a mirror (mirrorless) and is smaller than a dSLR.  It has a 2x crop factor, which means all lenses are 2x the focal length (a 20mm lens is actually 40mm in view).  I am loving it so far as I can switch lenses, shoot in manual or semi-auto modes like aperture priority – and have control over my images.  Sure, there is more noise than my Canon.  Sure, I don’t get quite the bokeh.  But it is very good and ideal for 80-90% of the time when I am photographing my family, especially on vacation.

So, for the cruise, I brought this camera and a few lenses: a Panasonic 12-35 2.8 plus a few primes.  But guess what stayed on my camera the whole time – the prime lens… It has the equivalent focal length of a 24-70.

No regrets leaving behind my SLR:

Looking back at the trip, I have no regrets about the camera I brought.  To me, it was somewhat lightweight (though not pocketable), and it helped me get the type of images I was aiming for.  Most importantly, it documented my trip.  I was able to take it zip lining and was able to have fun and not only be viewed as “the photographer.”

Editing images

After a trip, there’s so much to do, from unpacking and laundry, to checking thousands of emails.  Having a memory card full of pictures may be daunting.  I have a simple system worked out, and I fine-tune it every year…  Here’s how I culled and editing all 500 images from our vacation.

Step 1: Load them on the computer

While unpacking, I took the SD Card and popped it in.  By the time I unpacked and the laundry in, I was at my desk with all the files ready for viewing.

Step 2: Choose any I want to keep

I very quickly sort through the hundreds (or sometimes thousands) of images.  I spend no more than 3-5 seconds per photo on this process. For these images, it’s an extreme – I either will keep or delete.  I keep most, but delete any where I have multiple of the exact same thing, where eyes are closed, odd looks on the face, or where I am thinking “why did I take that?” I use the “P” and “X” method of culling in Lightroom.  I have my CAP LOCK on so after clicking P for Pick or X for reject, it auto advances to the next image.  Then I literally delete the rejected photos.  If you are not quite brave enough, you can always just remove them from Lightroom, but keep the raw files.

Step 3: Quick Edits in Lightroom

Remember, these are snapshots. I edited all the chosen images with one to three clicks at most using the Enlighten Lightroom Presets. Let’s say I have 15 photos by the pool in similar light, I edit one and then sync the rest in that setting. And move on to the next.  I go fast.  The edits are not perfect, like what you might do for a client.  Speed is the priority. I’d say the editing averages 10 seconds per photo since the synched ones bring the time down greatly. Then I export the photos to JPGs and if I want to share some on Facebook or elsewhere, I do a quick web resize with the FREE Facebook Fix for Photoshop.

If there are any photos I am in LOVE with, while going through the culling process, I might quickly hit the 5 key (for 5 star).  This means I may want to do a few extras with either the adjustment brush or in Photoshop. And as you see above, I often share the photos with family, friends and Facebook by popping them into collage templates.  See our Photoshop template actions for super quick collages. Or for Lightroom our Display It for Web or Present It for Print presets.

Past vacation and travel photography posts

Since what I bring and how I edit depends on the trip, here are a few past trips and vacation posts where you can read about the gear I chose or how I edited.

• 10 Things to Photograph on Every Vacation
• The Perfect Photographer Pack List
• How to Transform a Vacation Picture Into a Work of Art
• Vacation Photos: The Ins and Outs of Travel Photography
• How to Edit 500 Vacation Photos in 4 Hours in Photoshop and Lightroom
• The Photographer on Vacation
• 6 Reasons to Wake Up Early on Vacation
• How I Edit Vacation Photos

The post How To Photograph and Quickly Edit Your Family Vacation Photos appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.

Using Graduated Filters and Brushes in Lightroom for Beautiful Blue Skies

The Setting

You know when you have those days that come along so rarely that you simply must grab them by the horns and make the best of them???  That is how I felt about my opportunity to visit a local Longhorn Cattle Ranch. It was a bit of a gloomy day with overcast skies; making it easier to shoot the amazing beasts. Unfortunately the conditions lacked beautiful blue skies to coordinate with their delightful orange coats.

Here is my original shot from RAW cropped, color adjusted and sharpened.  As you can see the sky is dull and dreary.

How to Turn Overcast Skies Into Interesting Skies

Here’s how to do this using Lightroom 4:

Step 1 - Drop in a graduated filter.   Have I lost you already?  It isn’t hard, trust me on this. And if you feel completely lost, there’s always the MCP Online Lightroom Class… But here’s what we are going to do.

In the develop module, directly under the histogram, are a few awesome tools that you need to be familiar with and use.  All the way to the right is the brush (we will use that one in a bit); and the next one over is the graduated filter. Each time you click on these to use them it opens up a drop down box where you can adjust all the parts of the filter or brush.  This is especially cool in LR4 where even more options are available.

In the image below you will see that my drop down box for a filter is showing, in this case I have chosen to use MCP’s Enlighten Sky graduated filter, but have tweaked it a bit, moving the sliders to suit what I want for this image.  What you will also notice is the extra box of color showing.  This box is specifically related to the filter, and won’t affect any other part of your image.  Since my sky was so very bland, I wanted to really bump up the color, so I choose a very saturated strong blue.

Once I had all of my graduated filter decisions made, I went to the upper left corner with the cursor (which shows up as a plus sign), right clicked and held while dragging toward the center of my image.  The bulk of the effect will occur above your cursor, with only slight changes below.  As you can see on my image I chose to stop just above the cow horns. I know that is an awful lot to take in, but once you get it you get it!!

Step 2:

This effect was not strong enough for the look I wanted to achieve, so I clicked New, just below the filter button, chose the MCP sky filter again, set the color a blue just a bit less saturated and pulled down a second filter atop the one that was already there.  Yes, you can layer and layer them adjusting each one as it lays over the last.

If you’re frustrated and thinking “But what if I don’t have MCP’s graduated sky preset to choose from?” (you should get it, just saying!), take a deep breath and ask yourself, which effect you want   …Then adjust your sliders to accomplish that.  We want a deeper more saturated sky, right?  And we are basically just messing with light and color right? So how do you get deeper and more saturated??  Lower the exposure, and raise the saturation!

The great thing about using a filter or a brush is that you can slide those sliders ANYTIME it is ACTIVE and you will see the effect changing. If you lay down a filter and it isn’t quite doing what you thought it would, then just head over to the sliders and adjust.  Go ahead and try it, you will see and be amazed!  If on the off chance you are not amazed and only frustrated, well then just hit the delete button and your ACTIVE filter will hit the trash, and you can start fresh.  I promise, once you get a good feel for it you will wonder why you thought it was so hard to begin with.

Step 3:

Now we are going to delve into the brush tool! I could tell by looking at my image that there were some blues I wanted even deeper.  I didn’t want to take a chance on the filter being too much for the whole sky (and I wanted to work a brush lesson into this tutorial).
A brush is an AWESOME Lightroom Tool.  It is used to apply effects to very specific portions of your image. In this case I wanted more of the same…deeper blues and more saturation.  You know what that means right?  The adjustments within the brush will look almost exactly the same as when we were using the filter tool.  Check out my sliders in the image below, exposure down again and a beautiful blue color chosen.  If you don’t see the Select a Color palette like in my last two screen shots, this is how it looks with the choice already made and the pop out box closed.

I chose to use my brush to “paint” blue, lowered exposure light onto specific portions of the sky. If you wonder just where you have painted the subtle effect you can click the show overlay button which I pointed out at the bottom left of the screen.  It will give you a red overlay showing where you brushed.  This is cool to check accuracy, but not very cool when you are actually working.

More “local adjustment brush” tips:

There are several other things you MUST know about using a brush. If you’re already overwhelmed, come back later and read this spot when you have a better grasp on the whole brush concept.

• When you click the brush tool to open up a new brush, what drops down is the area where you “mix your paint.”  In essence you are mixing up a batch of “light paint” to apply to your image.  Maybe this seems like a strange analogy, but stay with me here.  You want to create just the right combination of light and color to effect your image in a specific way, and adjusting the sliders gives you seemingly unlimited combinations.  When your brush is active any changes you make to those sliders or color show up on your image so you can see the changes as you work.
• However, there is an exception to this.  Go back to that last shot above, and notice my large circle to the right with the words “So important” pointing to the bottom of the brush panel.  This is the area where you decide how big of a brush you are going to use, and how much “light paint” you are going to paint onto your image.  If you have a large area where you want to lay on big deep color then make that brush big and set the density and flow pretty high.  If you have a delicate area where you want to gently lay on pale strokes of color then move those sliders further to the left for a lighter touch.
• Also, SO IMPORTANT, is that this does NOT reset each time you create a new brush.  Yes, pay attention to that when you start brushing with a new brush, you may need those things set differently for the desired effect.

To finish this image….

I noticed that the blue filter color was a bit too strong for my taste on the branches of the trees.  In order to combat this, I zoomed in on the image to get a closer look at where I wanted to work. (Some people are super smooth and know all the keystroke shortcuts to zoom or make a new brush, or many other things, but I am still old school and just click on the screen where I want to go. I also still use a simple pencil in my calendar to keep track of my daily schedule…but that is a whole ‘nother thing).

Zoom is up near the left hand corner.  I clicked to create a new brush, decided on my settings then painted away just on those areas in the tree limbs where the blue was too strong.  A neat thing to remember when painting with light is that a color opposite on the color wheel will bring down the value and tone of the color you wish to tame.

In this case I wanted to combat blue, so I chose a pale orange.  I didn’t want to glob on the light paint, so I lowered my density and flow a bit and messed with the saturation until it suited my taste.  Then I created yet another brush to bring up the clarity and saturation in my cows, to really make them pop off of the now blue sky!

One more brush tip:
Sometimes when I am working with brushes, I can get a LOT of them going in the same image. I don’t necessarily want all of my brush pins showing, and taking up space in my editing.   If that is the case for you, then the best option is to choose “Selected” next to show edit pins in the bottom left corner.  If at some point you want to know where you started all your brush strokes just change that setting again like it is shown in my shot.  You can do that any time in your edit process.

And here’s the finished product… what a difference a bit of painted light can make.

Whew, are you exhausted yet?  I know it is a lot to take in, but soon you will be “light painting” like a pro!!

Jennifer Watrous of JD Waterhouse Photography is a Fine Artist turned photographer. With a background in watercolor, pen and ink, and pencil drawing…photography seemed the natural next step for this busy mom of three to be able to click, and create artwork in a fraction of the time. Her laid back style and joyful attitude make her a perfect fit for the genre of equine photography where patience, timing and the perfect pair of blue jeans are key.
You can find her on Facebook here.

The post Using Graduated Filters and Brushes in Lightroom for Bluer Skies appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.

How To Soft Proof in Lightroom for the Best Colors

When you edit in Lightroom, you are in a very large color space called ProPhoto RGB. In simple terms, you get a very large color space which gives you the most flexibility and colors to choose from while editing.  On the surface this sounds like a great option for photographers.  And it is for the most part…  But, if you print on certain papers, or at professional photo labs that only support a smaller color space, it can cause problems.  Additionally, when you export for the web, which is sRGB color space, you convert to a smaller color space.  This means certain colors will not display properly.

What You Can Do

When Lightroom 4 came out, Adobe introduced “Soft Proofing.”  When you soft proof a photo, it allows you to see the colors that will be out of gamut when you export for printing or the web.  You can choose a paper type or even sRGB. The out of gamut areas will glow red once you set this up properly.

Step 1:

Check off “Soft Proofing”

Step 2:

Pick your intended output – by paper type or color space, etc.

Step 3:

Click on either the mini computer icon (monitor gamut warning) and/or paper icon (output gamut warning). Usually you will want the paper icon. You will get a blue overlay for the monitor view and a red overlay for the output overlay.  This helps you see what “may” be a problem in your photo when exporting for a specific color space or print type.

One Way Adobe Recommends to Soft Proof

Julieanne Kost , an Adobe Evangelist and expert in all things Lightroom, has a detailed video on the topic. She describes how to set up and alter your image based on soft proofing results.  Overall this video is extremely helpful and a great educational tool.  She explains how to correct areas outside the color space using the HSL panel.  You can also use our Enlighten Lightroom Presets via the desaturate and exposure brushes or color tweaks section.

One word of caution: If you get rid of all out of gamut warnings using the methods in the video, you may be left with dull images. Try them and decide for yourself.

My Thoughts

To me, the video above is a great learning tool.  While it helps you understand what is out of gamut, I have found that if I export to sRGB, I rarely lose all the information shown on gamut warning. The gamut warnings Lightroom displays appear too strong. I tend to watch the histogram and make decisions based on that, when soft proofing, rather than actually using the warnings. For the most part, I am happy when I export, even if I was warned that some areas would be outside the acceptable range.  My advice to you is experiment with both methods.  If you have an opinion, we’d love to hear from you in the comments below.

The post How To Soft Proof in Lightroom for the Best Possible Colors appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.

Do you shoot raw or jpg?

Here’s a reason you might want to try shooting raw in the future if you don’t already…

Yes – you should aim for perfect exposure. Yes – you should try to get your white balance correct in camera if you have the time.  But, NO, even for the professionals, they sometimes get in tricky situations where a flash does not trigger or where they quickly clicked the shutter before adjusting all settings so they did not miss a shot.

Christine O’Connell, A Million Sighs Photography, shared this image below and explained, “First of all, this cake was amazing… like straight from a magazine! Second of all, if you’re on the fence about shooting in RAW, this is why you MUST! This venue had horrible fluorescent lighting and despite playing with my white balance, I could not get color I was happy with. Thanks to the RAW file, I was able to bring it back to life. Once in Photoshop, I edited with MCP Color Fusion Mix and Match: and set the following layers: Ellie’s Field of Dreams (11%), Creamsicle (9%), Rustic (16%), Sentimental (50%), and One Click Color (75%).”

Here’s Christine’s results after fixing the white balance in a raw editor and then running a Photoshop action.

Raw Editing Tips

To adjust exposure and white balance in Lightroom or Adobe Camera Raw, you will use the exposure, temperature, and/or tint sliders, the white balance selector tool, and/or your histogram. If you want your image to be cooler, move the temp slider to the left.  To warm your image, move it to the right. On the tint slider, if your image appears a tad too green, move the slider to the right.  If you see extra pinks and magentas, move it slightly to the left.

You can also select an area that should be neutral, something that was gray, black or white.  Touch that dropper tool to that spot. If you did take a picture of a grey card or white balance card, this is the spot you’d click.  Then use the sliders to tweak if necessary.

The histogram is a complex tool.  A little too complex to handle here.  But let us know if you would like a future tutorial on using it to better understand your images.

Additionally you can take photos while shooting in different scenes of a gray card/white balance card (such as theLastolite EZ Balance,Whi-bal and more…)

BONUS TIP: You can use Lightroom Presets, such as our Quick Clicks Collection or the Enlighten Lightroom presets, to hover over pre-determined exposure and white balance presets, to find the perfect one for your photo.

We hope these few quick tips helped.  We have many articles on our blog on white balance, exposure, and editing, so use the search bar and keep reading.

The post Raw Editing Tips: How to Get the Most From Your Photography appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.

As you may or may not know, we launched our NEW Lightroom Presets Wednesday.  And in case you missed it, we have a small sample pack for free too.

Every time we release a set, I have the privilege of editing some amazing images sent to me by testers and a few photographers I admire. One such photographer, whose work I love so much, just so happens to be one of my friends from early childhood.

Here’s the story about this photo.

While this is my professional blog, I have to tell you a short personal story… This goes back 35+ years to when I was 5 years old and just moved to Marietta, Georgia. I was in class and became friends with a girl named Kelly Harmon.  She was as sweet and cute as can be with a big dimple in her cheek as she smiled. She tells me that I was shy back then.  Can you believe that?  She said the class used to scream “shout it out Jodi; shout it out” when I would get up for show-n-tell.  Anyway, we were extremely close through Elementary School and part of Middle School.  And as often happens, we found other friends, and didn’t see each other as much. By the end of high school, we had lost touch…

Fast forward to adulthood.  I was reading posts on a popular photography forum many years ago and came across her name, or maybe she came across mine.  I think we both found each other. We private messaged each other and were so excited to learn that both of us found photography.  That girl with the big dimple who I called my best early childhood friend was a photographer too. For the past number of years, I get holiday cards from her, and her card is always the one I drool over most.  Her photography is stunning – it speaks to me.  And I hope it speaks to you.  I am so proud of her!

Introducing my friend: Kelly Roper - and her amazing photography…

To start with, Kelly photographs a lot of children for editorial shoots for magazines. These were for Babiekins Magazine Decemeber 2011 (page 81-90, if you want to check out more published images from this shoot).  I am hoping she will soon guest write to tell you more. Make sure to leave her a comment if you want her to write about editorial shoots.  Often the models are wearing incredible clothing and beautiful accessories, like the headband shown.  The only makeup the model has on is a touch of blush and chapstick – and some glitter I believe – on her shoulders.  She did not have any eye makeup on.  Her eyelashes are just that amazing.

Here is the original, straight out of camera image.  Shot with an 85mm lens, f3.5, 1/250, ISO400.

Here is the first edit.

Lightroom Presets from MCP Enlighten: Vibrant, Ginger, Lighten 1/3 Stop, See Clearly.  Then used the following Enlighten brushes: Soften Skin (on the skin) and Sharpen (on the eyes and the headband)

A More Artistic Edit for the second one.

Lightroom Presets from MCP Enlighten: Soft & Bright, Lemon Water, Cool Afternoon, Lighten 2/3 Stop, See Clearly, Midtone Contrast Medium.  Then used the following Enlighten brushes: Soften Skin (on the skin) and Sharpen (on the eyes and the headband)

Now for a black and white look.

Lightroom Presets from MCP Enlighten:  Splash B&W, Lighten 2/3 Stop.  Then used the following Enlighten brushes: Soften Skin (on the skin) and Sharpen (on the eyes and the headband)

The examples were made in Lightroom too, using our Display It for Web Lightroom Presets. This was one with just a branding bar.

So, which look fits your style best?  The clean, color popped image, the artistic toned image or the black and white??? Tell us in the comments below.

The post Enlighten Me: Three Looks One Image With Lightroom 4 Presets appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.

MCP Enlighten Lightroom Presets are now available! Reduce editing time with our Lightroom 4 Presets.

(If you only have Lightroom 3 or below, check out Quick Clicks instead or use this as your excuse to upgrade!)

Ready to rethink the way you use presets? MCP Enlighten Presets will help you define your style and speed up your workflow with a flexibility you’ve never experienced in Lightroom before.

What makes our Enlighten presets different?

• STACKABLE STYLES. Combine and layer effects to create the exact look you want — no need to leave Lightroom to apply those finishing touches!
• FLEXIBLE WORKFLOW. Each step contains a custom “reset” that allows you to change your mind and tweak any step at any time, without undoing all your hard work.
• ENDLESS OPTIONS. You’ll get more than 200 Lightroom presets, including 30 brush presets. Adjust exposure and apply your signature style by adding haze, matte, or fun overlays. Then use the brushes to soften skin, sharpen eyes, add sun flare, save a blown sky, and so much more.
• AMAZING COLOR IMAGES: So many choices to achieve clean, colorful images, rich tones, or even hazy and matte color.
• PERFECT B&Ws. We know how hard it is to find a black-and-white preset that suits your specific style. So MCP Enlighten contains a wide range of dreamy mattes, high-contrast styles, and clean conversions — so you can find the look that’s perfect for you.
• EASY ORGANIZATION. Our intuitive folder system lets you find and apply your favorite presets in a snap.
• ONE-CLICK CUSTOMIZATION. Save your favorite combinations using the five included “Save a Fave” presets. Then apply your signature look in a single click!

MCP Enlighten presets for Lightroom 4 are divided into four easy-to-use steps — prep it, style it, enhance it, and complete the look with an extensive selection of presets to help you achieve flawless lighting, perfect color balance, and a style all your own. Use Lightroom like you’ve never used it before!

Click here to learn more about MCP Enlighten presets and change the way Lightroom works for you. MCP Enlighten is available at a special introductory price of $124.99 through March 24th at midnight — This is a $25 savings so don’t miss out!

The post Reduce Editing Time with Our Presets for Lightroom 4 appeared first on MCP Photography Blog.