Shepherdpics: June 2007

Thursday, 28 June 2007

Controlled Vocabulary for Adobe Lightroom 1.1 released!

No sooner had I blogged that the new version of Lightroom works with the Controlled Vocabulary Catalogue then David Riecks of ControlledVocabulary.com has produced a new version for Lightroom and documented it too!

CVKC for Lightroom

CVKC for Lightroom help

Wednesday, 27 June 2007

Controlled Vocabulary and Adobe Lightroom 1.1

Well Adobe Lightroom 1.1 as just been released and in amongst a whole host of improvements the Lightroom team have improved the performance of the database and keywords.

I have just tested using The Controlled Vocabulary Keyword Catalogue in Lightroom and the performance has really improved beyond all recognition. So it now seems to be a workable option for those of us who really want to control their keywording.

Update:
About the same time as I was testing, Mr Controlled Vocabulary himself David Riecks (that's "i" before "e", but the "e" is silent) was testing 1.1 and the CVKC and here are his observations:

Well, I have to give Kudos to the Lightroom engineers. I imported the PhotoMechanic version of the CVKC in less than 9 seconds (I used a stopwatch). This was on a new MacBook Pro, so it's a different machine than before. I did have to change the file from the ".utf8" extension to a text file. Just to be safe I opened the file in TextWrangler and resaved as with Mac line breaks, and unicode UTF-8
no BOM encoding first.

I imported a 4 gig card with about 2.29 gigs of images (from my recent trip to Italy) and it took about 5:46 minutes to import.
The new Lightroom is able to distinguish between regular keywords, (solid white triangle to left if there are subcategories), excluded category headers (triangle to left is a series of dots, ie not solid), and synonyms.
It took virtually no time at all to actually assign the keywords, even within the 11,000 terms in the current CVKC. However, I'm either confusing LightRoom with another application, or they have changed how you locate the keywords within the tags. The only way I could find within the left side Keywords tag panel was to reveal the lower levels by clicking on the arrow to the left of the term.

I thought there used to be a search function at the top, but if so it's now gone.

There is a new tool (or at least I think it's new) called the "spraycan" which can be used to apply keywords. When you choose this tool, there is a pull down that allows you to select keywords (or labels, flags, ratings, rotations, or other forms of metadata... none of which I tested at this time). If you choose Keywords, then you CAN type in a word here and it seems to find it within the hierarchy.

I found this much easier than having to remember which region Rome is located within (it's Lazio BTW), or where another keyword is located within the hierarchy.

I'll make the converted file part of a new Lightroom download and get that up on the download page in the next day, after I write up instructions for how to install and apply keywords.

I've not had time to test any of the other improvements, and/or possible addition of DAM features, so that will have to wait for a more thorough review. However, the Adobe Lightroom engineers do seem to have listened and made some remarkable improvements in a very short time.

So it really looks like it will works...hurrah!

Tuesday, 26 June 2007

Black and White in Capture 1

As I detailed in my blogs on workflow I use Capture 1 (C1) for my raw processing. I am still waiting for the next release of C1 to compare it against Lightroom 1.1 to decide which one I will use in future but at the moment C1 produces the results I need with the minimum of fuss so I am sticking with that.

Being a fan of doing the development in the raw converter rather than Photoshop I was glad when I came across a technique the other day which details a great way to create black and white images from C1.

It's quite simple really:

Download the file, unzip the fie and double click on the profile file to install it.
Start Capture 1 and change the camera profile to the new one.
Process your images as per normal to produce B&W how you like.

Cool! Here is one I processed earlier:

Moonlight Rush
(Click to view large)

Saturday, 23 June 2007

Only 186 Shopping days to Christmas

Now that we are past the summer solstice and the nights have started drawing in thoughts inevitably turn to what to buy our loved ones for Christmas. Well why not go for the very personal and desirable gift of a watercolour painting of a loved one.

My wife, Maria, is a rather talented water-colour artist who paints water-colour images from a photo. She will produce an individual A4 size painting from a photograph for £75, but be warned she gets very booked up near to Christmas so now is a good time to order.

Below are some examples of her work. If you are interested then please use the Contact Form and she will be in touch to discuss your requirements.

Original

Watercolour

Original

Watercolour

Friday, 22 June 2007

Lightroom Paypal Galleries

Darryn Mckay of mckayphotography.com.au has taken the Lightroom Paypal Web Gallery template I produced and made it into some really good looking and effective Wedding galleries.

It's great to see people taking my experiment and producing something really useful.

I'd love to see any more galleries people have made with the template, why not add a comment linking to your site that uses lightroom and paypal below.

Wham bam thank you mam

Ok so there you are quietly photographing a solitary swallow when suddenly from nowhere another appears. I'll let the pictures tell their own story - but I thought he could have at least bought her a drink first.

Slipping the Eel

Tuesday, 12 June 2007

Ohh It's moved..

I went away on holiday and expected to come back to a stack of posts to read from one of the best photo blogs out there The Online Photographer. But there was nothing at all for me to read.

It turns out that Mike Johnston, the author of TOP, had real trouble with anti-spam bots whilst I was away. So he has had to move the site to http://theonlinephotographer.com/.

If you are not already a reader of http://theonlinephotographer.com/ then get over there and give yourself a treat.

Friday, 1 June 2007

Kate Barclay is Photographer of the Month for June

Kate Barclay is an extremely talented photographer who's images of here native Norfolk coast and further afield are highly recommended viewing. She has a real mastery of what makes a good photograph. A visit to her website is highly recommended.

If you are visiting Norfolk and get a chance to visit one of her exhibitions you won't be disappointed.

3 in a row
(Kate Barclay)