Photoshop & Lightroom for $9.99 a month

[paulsaz]

Web size I do 1200 pixels on longest edge, full resolution I churn out at full resolution regardless of the crop. If some come out a bit smaller than others so be it. I explain why that is. JPG quality is set to 75%, no discernible loss in quality but much smaller file sizes.

I normally crop to 1 x 1.62, it subliminally makes people like the image more and they don't know why.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_ratio

But 3x2 or 1x1 are probably the most common.

If I think it should be B&W that's what they get. If they ask I might do a colour edit.

Yes, as part of the export files get renamed to include my initials, a subject and a sequence number.

[driver8]

Thanks for your detailed reply, Paul.

Just to pick up on one point - yes, I'm aware of the golden ration in terms of composition, but hadn't thought of it for actual crop ratios. Here's a good discussion - What is the 'Golden Ratio' and why is it better than the 'Rule of Thirds?'

Personally I've really liked 16x9 for quite a few years, probably since widescreen monitors (and TVs) took over from 4x3.

EDIT

Just came across this excellent article and a video lecture - The Myth of the Rule of Thirds
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[Dave B]

Giving Lightroom a try again.

The way I work in Aperture is -

Copy from card to HD (Desktop)
Import into Aperture
Rules are setup so they will go into "Not Edited" smart folder
Edit them and tag them Yellow (this moves them to Edited smart folder)
Export them and mark them Blue (this moves them to Exported Folder)
Once accepted by agency, go back Aperture and mark them Green (this then moves them to Completed smart folder)
Then I move the RAW files onto my external drive (in Aperture, so it knows)

This has served me for years as I can quickly see what needs editing, exporting and waiting to be accepted.

Can I do simular in LR ?

Dave

[AndyWilson]

I'm pretty sure you can do all of that with Smart Collections

e.g.

Not Edited = no colour tags
Edited = tagged yellow
Exported = tagged blue
Completed = tagged green

[Dave B]

Yep, think thats sorted it.

Can't see a way of ignoring certain folders, so for now "not edited" is Purple. So when I import and want them in this workflow, will just select all and make Purple. Smart Collections seems to look at all your images so the Purple thing will keep them separate.

Reason for above is that is my workflow for Stock but sometimes I will shoot images for someone and don't want them mixed in. In Aperture I had projects setup and when I imported I choose the project to use. So if they where stock images they got imported into the Stock project and the rules where automatically applied.

EDIT: Just imported some and seems to work fine and as the Purple looks terrible, it will encourage me to edit them quicker :-)

Dave

[AndyWilson]

I never use purple as there isn't a shortcut key for it.

(hoping someone's going to say "yes there is - it's...")

[Dave B]

Good point, changed that to Red :-)

Also got rid of the Accepted (Green) colour as in LR I can just drag them to the completed folder.

So far loving it, imported my Aperture and it seem to go fine apart from the fact I forgot all my iOS images are in Aperture and LR stuck them into folders by date! Didn't take long to get rid of them. Think am going to keep Aperture for iOS images or might try the new photos app.

Not tried PS yet, am still using CS4.

EDIT: Well I have signed on the dotted line today, went for Photography package as don't need anything else :-)

Dave

[driver8]

This is an interesting & quick tut -

How To Recover Your Photos From LED Lighting Artifacts

[driver8]

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[driver8]

Sweet ...

The Ultimate PC Build for Photography Needs – Skylake Edition

Anyone built or bought a pc/laptop, mainly for LR ? What did you buy ?

[Matholwch]

My company recently moved all our staff to Laptops, so all the old dev PCs were being given away. So I took the opportunity to upgrade my first gen i7 2.8 GHz Vostro 430 to a 2nd gen i7 3.4GHz (still pretty old, but better than my first, and its a frebbie!).
Upped my RAM from 12Gb to 24Gb (the rig was meant to be a max of 16Gb, but may well up that to 32Gb in the future). Had to buy a USB3 PCIe card.

Bought a new GFX card, the old was was tempremental, but went for a more entry/mid level Gefore 750 Ti - not convinced GFX cards help that much, so I'd ignore their recommendations on that link to buy a uber expensive card.
OS is on SSD, but I store images on a USB drive (backed up onto a NAS).

I'm happy enough, but may want to buy another larger monitor when funds allow - 1 24" IPS, and a 17" LCD monitors (the 17" was another workplace freebie).

[Woz]

Originally Posted by driver8

Anyone built or bought a pc/laptop, mainly for LR ? What did you buy ?

I bought a 27" iMac Retina.
The hardware is lovely, the screen astonishing...but I HATE the Mac OS.
I know people love it, but I'm used to Windows and the MacOS seems to treat me like a ******* idiot all the time.
It's great while I'm in lightroom, but when I try and move files about outside I rapidly lose the plot.

[Matholwch]

Originally Posted by Woz

I bought a 27" iMac Retina.
The hardware is lovely, the screen astonishing...but I HATE the Mac OS.
I know people love it, but I'm used to Windows and the MacOS seems to treat me like a ******* idiot all the time.
It's great while I'm in lightroom, but when I try and move files about outside I rapidly lose the plot.

Played on a retired colleague's iMac retina 5k, and the picture quality is stunning , shame he needs to sit in a corner, less the reflection on the screen.

[driver8]

It's that time of year again -

Save 20% on the Adobe CC Photography Plan, Worldwide

For a limited time you can get an annual membership to the CC Photography plan – which includes the latest-and-greatest releases of both Photoshop CC and Lightroom CC – for 20% off the regular price worldwide.

That works out to just US$7.99, £5.71, €7.99, or A$7.99 per month (plus applicable taxes or VAT) in several major currencies.

To take advantage of this savings, you must sign up with this special link.
It is an introductory offer good for your first year, after which the price shifts to the regular ongoing rate (currently US$9.99 a month).
The 12-month discount offer ends November 28, 2015

[Arthur Fowler]

I've just been using my version of PSE which is V8 and hence rather out of date. I've only ever used Elements. I'm doing more photography than I used to.
I'm using ViewNX (free) for RAW changes (not that I do many) and I store all photos locally.

Is there anything for me to watch out for subscribing to PS and LR or is it a no-brainer?

[driver8]

Watch out for, like how, Arthur ? I seem to remember the payup/signin process being somewhat clunky, and when installed there's a whole load of extra processes running all the time.

Also, LR can be quite slow depending on your system, even with jpgs: 8+gb RAM and an ssd are essential imo.

[Arthur Fowler]

Originally Posted by driver8

Watch out for, like how, Arthur ? I seem to remember the payup/signin process being somewhat clunky, and when installed there's a whole load of extra processes running all the time.

Also, LR can be quite slow depending on your system, even with jpgs: 8+gb RAM and an ssd are essential imo.

Is PS much different/more difficult to use than PSE for an occasional user?

Would being on a slowish internet connection (2 meg) be an issue? For example is there any mandatory use of cloud storage?

Thanks

[driver8]

aah, OK. Well I'm a LR guy - never used PSE (I came from Picasa) and only use PS when absolutely essential (hardly ever).

I guess your transition from PSE to PS will be fairly straightforward irrespective of your usage and ability, although longer term you could start dabbling with LR (which will be a steep learning curve initially but probably worthwhile).

Nope - your slow internet won't be a problem (other than the initial program downloads), and I only use the CC part to actually sign in (and don't upload or sync anything).

Everything is available as a trial, so nothing lost if you don't like CC.

[Arthur Fowler]

Thanks!

[driver8]

My CC is up for annual renewal (I managed to get a year from B&H for $99).

Anyone spotted any coupons or deals recently ?