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Becoming a Post-Production Rockstar [IP107]

Jim & Darin tune into questions about Lightroom, Photoshop, & post-production from Facebook fans of Improve Photography.  The dynamic duo discuss the second half of the fun that comes with being a photographer.

What's in this episode

  • Darin's thoughts on how a graphics tablet can save time & make photo editing more interesting.
  • Remembering to shoot like a painter so you can put together a really cool shot in Photoshop.
  • Is it better to have one or multiple Lightroom Catalogs?
  • How to avoid duplicates in Lightroom when shooting RAW+JPEG
  • What are the best programs for handling HDR?
  • When will see Lightroom 6?
  • Sources of noise and best ways to manage it in post-production.
  • Using color managed screens to rule out issues with your print lab of choice.
  • The best methods for transferring images from your camera to your computer. – Getting the most out of your memory card.
  • Selectively importing images into Lightroom or other post-processing software.
  • Transferring from your internal hard drive to an external hard drive.
  • When is it best to use or not use an import preset in Lightroom?
  • External hard drives are great, but do not put all of your eggs in one basket.  Listen to see why!
  • Finding ‘lost' folders in Lightroom.

 

Resources mentioned

6 thoughts on “Becoming a Post-Production Rockstar [IP107]”

  1. Great podcast as usual guys! You always get me thinking and wishing I could just talk back to you. Had a couple of thoughts on two topics as I listened while driving into work this morning:

    1) On the listener’s question about shooting with low ISO settings and still getting noise: I wonder if it is possible that they are using the low ISO values without compensating the other components of the exposure triangle, leading to underxposed images that they are trying to fix in post by raising the exposure. If this is the case, even though shooting at ISO 50 or 100 you would still get a ton of noise in the photo as you raise up the exposure slider and/or the shadows slider.

    2) I would move images between hard drives a bit differently than you recommended. As of Lightroom 4 I would move them using Lightroom, then you don’t have to go back in and tell Lightroom where they ended up. This is a very frequent part of my workflow. I import the images initially to an SSD so that I can cull and edit them as fast as possible, then when I am finished, I use Lightroom to move them from the SSD to a spinning magnetic disk for long-term storage (and syncing to the cloud). Adobe links to a video here on the topic: https://helpx.adobe.com/lightroom/how-to/lightroom-move-folder-files.html.

    Keep up the great work guys!

    Jeff Harmon
    Hobbyist Editor
    improvephotography.com

  2. So much has changed in 2015…. new website layout, no more dodads of the week, no more Tuesday behind the photos…. The website looks great, very nice work! Please bring back the dodads of the week and the behind the photos!
    Thank you so much for all that you do, I love your podcast and website. I’m addicted and love going back and re-listening to old podcasts. As I continue to grow as a photographer, I find that I come away with something different when I listen the second time around!

  3. keith R. Starkey

    Say, about using HDR software…

    I’ve never done so, and I’m wondering exactly what would be the difference between an HDR compilation verse a composite from a set of bracketed exposures. What is the HDR doing that is different from the composite?

    1. @Keith,

      You are right, HDR software is doing the same thing as you could do manually to composite multiple bracketed images together into a single shot in Photoshop. In fact, Photoshop has a feature to try and give you a start on compositing the shots together for you that you could then tweak yourself. In my view the difference with a program like Photomatix Pro is the focus the software takes on HDR. Kind of like the difference between a medical specialist and a general practitioner. It isn’t designed to do anything else, so it is providing one of the best “automated” ways to get amazing results very quickly.

  4. About forgetting SD cards in your camera: this never happens to me, even if I have a pretty short attention span 🙂

    when I remove my cards, I leave my camera on my desk with the latch open. This way, if I forget to put my cards in, when I grab my camera, the open latch is a reminder that the cards are out.

  5. I have tried to use several different Wacom tablets but just can’t get the hang of them. I use a Magic Mouse and love it.

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