Category: Computing

Since the last major update to Adobe Creative Cloud, when I launched Photoshop it warned me I only had a month left of use and could not contact the licensing server. It recommended I check my account details.

I logged into the Adobe website and checked my detail and everything looked fine, but each day I launched Photoshop I was faced with this message and a countdown telling me when Adobe Photoshop would shop working at the end of the month.

The fix turned out to be extremely easy. Log completely out if Creative Cloud then log back in. Now it works fine with no messages saying it’s about to run out.

I love command line shortcuts and most apps have keyboard shortcuts to speed up your work flow.

Most people know that Command-S ( Ctrl-S for Windows) saves a document and is much faster then taking your hands off the keyboard to reach for the mouse/trackpad.

Here are a few common ones I use when editing documents in Photoshop.

New…Command-N (for Command use Ctrl for Windows users)

Open…Command-O

Save…Command-S

Undo…Command-Z

Step Back…Shift-Command-Z

Copy…Command-C

Free Transform…Command-T

New Layer…Shift-Command-N

Layer via Copy…Command-J (feels like my most often used command)

Merge Visible to new Layer…Shift-Option-Commamd-E (Option is Alt in Windows)

Lasso Tool…L

Spot Healing Brush…J (Toggle to different heal brushes Shift-J)

Brush…B

 

Some of these options are also programmed into my Wacom Tablet and Pen to speed up my work flow.  The key is to just find a few things you do a lot and then learn the shortcut for them, its amazing how much time you can fine yourself saving.

With the recent Adobe updates, I find I now have three copies of Photoshop on my laptop, which with its limited disk space, is an issue. You think you would get option to replace or keep both in case you have lots of plugins.

With Adobe CC we were promised regular updates instead of the traditional release cycle of eighteen to twenty four months, instead we seem to have had this big new version dumped on our machines.

A lot bloggers are commenting on this, some of the best comments I saw was from Scott Kelby on his blog.  It turns out we have had a lot of updates but there has not been much of a song and a dance about them.

Lightroom – So what did we get in Lightroom V5?

Heres the gist straight from Adobe’s release notes:

Release Notes

New Camera Support in Lightroom 5.5

• Canon PowerShot G1 X Mark II
• Fujifilm FinePix S1
• Nikon 1 J4
• Nikon 1 S2
• Nikon 1 V3
• Olympus OM-D E-M10
• Panasonic DMC-GH4
• Pentax 645Z
• Samsung NX3000
• Sony DSC-RX100 III
• Sony A7S (ILCE-7S)
• Sony Alpha SLT-A77 II (ILCA-77M2)

New Lens Profile Support in Lightroom 5.5

Mount	Name
Canon	Sigma 50m F1.4 DG HSM A014
Canon	Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC MACRO OS HSM C014
Canon	Tamron 16-300mm F3.5-6.3 Dill VC PZD MACRO B0163
Fujifilm	Fujifilm Tele Conversion Lens TCL-X100
Nikon	Nikon 1 NIKKOR VR 10-30mm f3.5-5.6 PD-ZOOM
Nikon	Nikon AF-S DX NIKKOR 18-300mm f/3.5-6.3G ED VR
Nikon	Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM A014
Nikon	Sigma 18-200 F3.5-6.3 DC MACRO OS HSM C014
Nikon	Tamron 16-300mm F3.5-6.3 Dill VC PZD MACRO B016N
Nikon	Tamron SP 150-600mm F5-6.3 Di VC USD A011N
Pentax	Sigma 30mm F.14 DC HSM A013
Sigma	Sigma 50mm F1.4 DG HSM A014
Sigma	Sigma 18-200mm F3.5-6.3 DC MACRO OS HSM C014
Sony Alpha	Sigma 30mm F1.4 DC HSM A013
Sony Alpha	Sony Alpha 28-75mm F2.8 SAM

Bugs Corrected in Lightroom5.5

• Improved responsiveness in Develop module while Lightroom mobile sync is occurring.
• Custom Develop module default settings were not syncing correctly to Lightroom mobile.
• Initial rendition in Develop would sometimes appear posterized.
• Undo function failed and applied a preset instead.
• Scaling looked inaccurate when scaling to 200% in Windows.
• Manual slideshows sometimes did not advance to the next slide as expected.
• Aspect ratio changed when modifying the crop rectangle and when rotating the crop
• Image flips between portrait and landscape after switching orientation while shooting tethered with Leica S cameras.
• Fixed issue with Fujifilm X-T1 raw images appearing too bright at high ISO settings when using Dynamic Range 200% and 400%. Unfortunately, this fix may affect the appearance of existing images captured with this combination of settings. It is recommended that you (1) purge the Camera Raw cache via the Preferences dialog, and (2) review images shot at ISO settings higher than 1600 for unexpected brightness changes.
• Fixed image quality issue (noisy result) when applying spot healing to floating-point (HDR) images.
• Fixed issue with reading lossless compressed Nikon raw files (NEF files) from the camera models listed below. Previously, some images could be read but would appear as random noise, whereas attempting to open others would result in an error dialog. You will need to purge your Camera Raw cache via the Preferences dialog.
  • Nikon D1
  • Nikon D1H
  • Nikon D1X
  • Nikon D2H
  • Nikon D2Hs
  • Nikon D2X
  • Nikon D2Xs
  • Nikon D100
  • Nikon D200

Last week we had lots of Adobe updates and along with the updates CC2014 was announced, so I promptly downloaded the new Photoshop and gave it a quick test from a studio shoot I did a couple of weeks ago.

I only used the features I am used to so did not notice any major changes yet but i’ll be giving it a better test later.

We also had Adobe Lightroom V5.5 and updates to Lightroom Mobile with is now being available for iPhone users.

The version of Adobe Camera RAW is 8.4, that is also what is in the current Adobe Lightroom V5.4.

The release candidate for Camera RAW 8.5 has bean announced and one thing that did catch my eye was a comment about the Fuji X-T1.

Fixed issue with Fujifilm X-T1 raw images appearing too bright at high ISO settings when using Dynamic Range 200% and 400%. Unfortunately, this fix may affect the appearance of existing images captured with this combination of settings. It is recommended that you (1) purge the Camera Raw cache via the Camera Raw Preferences dialog, and (2) review images shot at ISO settings higher than 1600 for unexpected brightness changes.

So when it’s released watch out if you have any images shot at high ISO and are using the Dynamic Range Options.

So you want to start key wording but the thought of sitting down and creating your own list fills you with dread, what can you do.

Well there are projects on the internet where people are building very extensive keyword lists.  The site lightroom-keyword-list-project.blogspot.co.uk is a good place to start.

If your into bird photography they check out the bird list.

This is just a very small sample:

bird 2.0-ioc-REPLACE OLD BIRD LIST
[ACCIPITRIFORMES]
[Kites- Hawks and Eagles]
{Accipitridae}
African Cuckoo-Hawk
{Aviceda cuculoides}
African Fish Eagle
{Haliaeetus vocifer}
African Goshawk
{Accipiter tachiro}
African Harrier-Hawk
{Polyboroides typus}

As you can see very extensive.

So here is a collection of Coot photographs.  I have imported the Birds list then picked it up and dropped it under the Animals keyword folder.  As you can see the original birds keyword folder is still there and these pictures of Coots are still referencing the old keywords and note the new so unfortunately you will need to go through and re-keyword but there are ways to speed things up.

In this example we are changing my Coot keyword to the new keyword Eurasian Coot in the new bird keyword list I have downloaded and imported.

So first in the keyword list find your old keyword and click on the arrow that appears on the far right of the keyword, this will filter your photographs by that keyword, you can then select all your coot photographs with a simple Command-A (Ctrl-A in Windows), then find the new keyword, click on the far right of it so the tick appears like in the above screen print.  All your filtered keywords now have the old and the new keyword.  You can then safely delete the old keyword.

Adobe Lightroom is now a many faceted program, as well as a RAW processor one of its strengths is that of a DAM package, that is Digital Asset Management.

Adding metadata and keywords greatly easies your life as a photographer and being able to find a photo months and years later for a client is important.

Every so often I find I have gotten behind in my metadata and key wording, so I create a collection, sync it over to PhotoSmith on the iPad then in my breaks I keyword and add the metadata that may be missing. Then when back at home with my master Lightroom catalogue its a quick sync to update.

One of the issues I have is that my Keywords often get into a mess and you need to have a cull and sort out.  Creating a keyword list ideally needs planning.

First of all its a good idea to see what you already have, you can export your keywords using the Metadata menu and selecting Export Keywords.

I had been adding keywords to the birds round Brayford Pool but my bird list had really gotten out of shape.

Here is an extract:

[Birds]
<InsertTAB>Black-headed Gull
<InsertTAB>Canadian Geese
<InsertTAB>Carrion Crow
<InsertTAB>Chicken
<InsertTAB>Common Tern
<InsertTAB>Cormorant
<InsertTAB>[Duck]
<InsertTAB>Eider Duck
<InsertTAB>Flamingos

As you can see while there is an attempt at structure as you can see by the folder keyword Duck, but then I went and put Eider Duck at the same level and not under it.  It really needs a major sort out.

Now you can buy keyword lists some of which are very good and if your a stock photographer shooting a lot of stock images each month they buying a keyword list can make a lot of sense, for a few hundred pounds you get a very comprehensive keyword list.

You can make your own just open a text editor and create your keywords.

Master folder keys have the keywords in square brackets, and you nest them using tabs.  The best way to start is to export your current list then open it up in a text editor, it will soon make sense.

eg:
[People]
<InsertTAB>[Models]
<InsertTAB><InsertTAB>[Male]
<InsertTAB><InsertTAB><InsertTAB>John
<InsertTAB><InsertTAB><InsertTAB>Peter
<InsertTAB><InsertTAB>[Female]
<InsertTAB><InsertTAB><InsertTAB>Jane
<InsertTAB><InsertTAB><InsertTAB><InsertTAB>{Art Nude}
<InsertTAB><InsertTAB><InsertTAB>Kate
<InsertTAB><InsertTAB><InsertTAB><InsertTAB>{Fashion}

The key to remember is that it is a TAB delimited format so above where you see <InsertTAB> you want an actual TAB but make sure you use an editor that supports plain text correctly so if your a Windows user not Notepad, try the Notepad+ available for download or even a spreadsheet.  Many spreadsheets allow you to export files TAB delimited.

To make keywords more meaningful you can also add notes to keywords.  Create yourself a new keyword structure then I suggest you create a new blank catalogue rather then break you master.

With the test catalogue import your new list and see how it looks.  Have a good play before you amend you master catalogue.  Unfortunately once you have imported it merges with your current keywords so you will then have a major organisational task ahead but at least you have the keyword structure you want.

Adobe have fixed there issues and we are back in business.

Cloud services make a lot of promises and now many services have a cloud offering.  By cloud of course we just mean a service from the internet, its another buzzword that has become popular over the last few years.

The concept is not without risk, if your documents or application is really in the cloud then when the service is down or your internet access is down your stuck.

Yesterday I had the double whammy of a power cut at home cutting off my internet access (no mobile phone signal at home) then while I was updating my Adobe Creative Cloud Membership the Adobe CC went down and is still down while I type this.

Luckily Photoshop and Lightroom are still locally based applications and work without internet access but the cloud based data is all currently unavailable.

Adobe are not alone, all the major players including Microsoft and Amazon have all had major outages over the past year.

I keep some documents local and some cached between my local hard disk and the internet (sorry should have said cloud!) and a few completely in the cloud.  It really makes you think what you should store, and where and what applications and services you need locally and what can be in the cloud.