Today kicks off the iPhone Photography Conference (it’s day one of the two-day conference. yesterday was the orientation class and my pre-conference session on what makes a great iPhone photo). It’s not too late to join us – tickets are at kelbyonelive.com

Come with Erik Kuna and me to the beautiful island of Santorini, Greece, this May for an unforgettable travel photography workshop. Only three spots are left, and one of those could be yours. It’s going to be an extraordinary experience of learning, laughter, and fun, and you’re coming home with some spectacular images (and five extra pounds). Tickets and info at scottkelbyworkshops.com

Here’s wishing you an awesome Lightroom Tip Tuesday!

-Scott

The post Lightroom Tip Tuesday: How to Create Custom Photo Book Page Layouts appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Happy Friday, everybody! I’ve been getting this question a lot lately, so I thought I’d tackle it here on the blog:

“What do I need to do to prep a photo book I made in Lightroom for printing at Blurb? Do I convert the images to CYMK first? What resolution should they be, and do I need to change that in Photoshop?”

Here’s the good news:
There is no prepping for printing your photo books for Blurb. All the prep work is done for you behind-the-scenes, so you don’t have to worry about color modes, or color conversions or even changing resolution.

The only time resolution even comes into play is if you see a warning on a particular page of the book that an image doesn’t have enough resolution to print clearly at the size you currently have it. This sometimes happens if you’ve cropped an image really tight, and while originally it may be have an 18 or 20-megapixel image, after the cropping it’s down to five or six, and you’re trying to print a two-page spread with it. In those cases you’ll get a warning icon right on the page (and the fix is simply make the image smaller on the page until the warning goes away. Sometime it just needs to be a little smaller to have enough resolution for printing (the smaller you make it, the more the resolution increases), and sometimes it’ll take scaling the image down in size quite a bit, but at least you know what the fix it. Outside of that one instance, Lightroom takes care of the rest of the resolution and color issues for you.

So, here are your five steps for creating Photo Books:

1. Put all the final, sharpened, ready-to-go images into their own collection
2. Go to the book module and in the Page Settings panel choose the size of your book
3. While you’re in that panel, choose the paper quality, and cover choice (softcover, hard cover, or hard cover with dust jacket).
4. In the Auto Layout panel, hit the Auto Layout button as your starting place. Now choose templates from the pop-up menu in the corner of each page; drag and drop images where you want them; drag and drop pages in the order you want your book.
5. Click the button that says “Send to Blurb” at the bottom of the right side panels. Lightroom (and Blurb) do the rest.

That’s the basic steps right there.

Note: If you’re a KelbyOne member, I have an online class that takes you through the entire process from beginning to end. This would be a perfect weekend to check it out. If you’re not already a member, this would be a perfect weekend to become one.

Hope you found that helpful (and I hope it nudges you in the direction of making your first photo book, now that you know how easy it is).

All my best,

-Scott

P.S. Shout out to the awesome folks in San Antonio who came out to my seminar there yesterday. Really fun crowd, in a really great town. Next stop: Houston on Monday! 

The post How To Prep a Lightroom Photo Book for Printing appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

The process is very straightforward, although not necessarily intuitive at first glance. The key to understanding the technique is that the unique text for each slide in a slide show or page is stored in the metadata of each photo.

This seems to most commonly come up with slide shows. I’ve heard from many people who go to the Slideshow module, start creating a layout, and then when they want to add text to the slide, they click the ABC button in the Toolbar, which by default, makes a Custom Text field appear next to the ABC button. It’s easy to understand how a person would start to enter text in that field and think they were on the right track when that text appears on the slide. After having that text positioned where they want it, they advance to the next slide and are confused to see that same bit of text they just entered showing on the next slide as well. What’s going on here?

When you click the ABC button, you’re on the right track, but if you want unique text to appear on each slide, what you need to do next is click the drop-down menu that appears next to Custom Text and explore the other options.

Here you’ll find a set of pre-installed text templates (Caption, Custom Text, Date, Equipment, Exposure, Filename, Sequence, and Title) that can be used to display different types of data on a slide show, a book project, a web gallery, or along the bottom of a Single Image/Contact Sheet print in each of the respective modules. Note: If you don’t see those pre-installed templates, go to Lightroom (PC: Edit) Preferences, click on the Presets tab, and click the Restore Text Templates button. The Custom Text template is applied by default, but you can change it by selecting a more suitable template for your needs. The template you choose displays data based on the tokens it contains and the photo being shown.

Text templates are similar to filename templates in that they are comprised of one or more tokens that can pull information embedded in a file’s metadata. For example, the Caption text template contains a single token for pulling the information contained in the Caption field of a photo’s IPTC metadata. So the simple answer for having unique text appear on each slide in a slide show (or under the photo in a web gallery) is to first enter the unique text into the photo’s Caption field via the Metadata panel in the Library module, and second, to add the Caption text template to the slide show or web gallery.

You also have the option to create a custom text template. At the bottom of the list of text templates is the word Edit. Choose Edit to open the Text Template Editor.

The Text Template Editor allows you to mix and match various text tokens in any combination to fit your needs. You can even type text directly into the template if you wish to hard code in a bit of text into a template. After creating a custom template, click the Preset drop-down menu at the top of the editor and choose Save Current Settings as a New Preset to preserve that template for re-use. Any custom text templates, as well as the Template Editor itself, will be accessible from the ABC button of the Slideshow module, the Image Info panel of most web galleries, the Photo Text in the Text panel of the Book module, and the Photo Info menu of the Page panel in a Single Image/Contact Sheet print layout. Have fun creating different templates.

The post Custom Text Templates appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

This is another 5-photo layout (since Lightroom doesn’t have any 5-photo template), and I give you an alternate layout as well, and a free downloadable preset, too! Here’s how to make your own:

And without further ado, here’s the downloadable template I made for you:

Download

Hope you found that helpful.

Here’s wishing you a spendifilious Monday!

-Scott

P.S. Do you know a photographer in Chicago? Maybe one in Detroit? Can you let them know for me that I’m headed their way next month with my full-day Lightroom training seminar (Monday, April 10th in Chicago and the 11th in Detroit). Much appreciated.

The post Another Custom Lightroom Photo Album Layout Idea (and free downloadable template) appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

NOTE: if you’re not doing Wedding albums, watch till the end of the video where I use the exact same layout for a travel photo book. These layouts can be used for any topics.

Hope that helps.

If you’re in Boston or Philly…
I’m inviting you to come out and spend the day with me as I kick off my new Lightroom On Tour full-day seminar. It’s just $99 (including a detailed workbook), and it’s 100% guaranteed — if it’s not the best Lightroom seminar you’ve ever attended, at any price, we’ll refund your ticket right on the spot! I’m in Boston on Friday, March 10th, and Philly on Monday the 13th. Come on out – we’ll have a blast! Details and tickets are here.

Best,

-Scott

P.S. My next seminar stops after that are Chicago on April 10th and then the Detroit area on April 11th . If you’re up that way, I hope you’ll come join me. 

The post How to Get a Custom Print Layout Into Lightroom’s Book Module appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

So, here’s how you get a nice 5-photo layout by using the Custom Layout feature (and yes, there’s a free downloadable preset as well).

Hope you found that helpful.

Here’s a link to the template I created just for you guys.

Best,

-Scott

The post Another a Custom Print Wedding Book Layout (and free downloadable template) appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

See, I told ya that was good! Thanks, Julieanne!

If you’re looking for a Lightroom class to watch this weekend…
May I be so bold to suggest a class I did called “Designing Beautiful Wedding Albums in Lightroom.” This is a very different class than you might think — watch the short official trailer (below), and you’ll see that it’s really about the design of the album, and creating layouts that you probably didn’t think you could even do in Lightroom.

Hope you all have an awesome weekend!

-Scott

The post Creating Your Own Custom File Naming Templates appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

So, I asked our video crew to pull out an actual excerpt from the online course so you can see what I’m talking about, and once you watch it, it will be immediately clear. In this excerpt I did two layouts – in the class I do a whole bunch! (in fact, that’s most of the class — showing you how to create, and then save, these layouts as your own custom templates so they’re just one-click away in the future).

Anyway, the clip (below) is 5-1/2 minutes long, but even if you just watch the first couple of minutes, you’ll totally “get it.”

Here’s a link to the full class if you’re a KelbyOne member and you want to check it out (and if you’re not, you can join for $19.95 for a month and watch it to death (to death I tell ya!).

I’m in Houston, Texas today for my seminar – Hope I get to meet some of you here (make sure you come up and say hi).

Best,

-Scott

P.S. The next stop for my seminar is New York City on Thursday, March 3rd. If you’re up that way, I hope you’ll come and spend the day with me. 

The post Tutorial Clip on Designing Wedding Albums appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Hi Gang: Last Thursday on KelbyOne we released a brand-new class I did called “Creating Beautiful Wedding Albums in Lightroom CC” – and it’s different than my existing class on Creating Photo Books in Lightroom CC, in one big way:

It’s about the design and layout of the Wedding Album

While of course, it does teach you how to put together your album using Lightroom’s Book Module, the focus of this particular class is really on the actual design and layout techniques more than just using Lightroom (after all, my other class goes in to all the nuts and bolts stuff).

One of my favorites parts of the class is…
…where I share some of my own favorite layouts along with some bonus layouts I created in Lightroom just for this class. Plus, there’s all sorts of tips and design ideas that will really made a difference in the overall look and feel of your album.

The feedback on the class has just been fantastic, and if you shoot weddings, I encourage you to check it out. One of the first comments I saw about the class was from a photographer who couldn’t believe how simple it all was. That was my goal — to make it so simple anyone can do it, and make the book so beautiful the bride falls in love with you and leaves the groom for you (hey, it happens. Not often mind you, but sometimes. It’s rare though. But it happens. But I wouldn’t go into this counting on it, but if it happens it happens).

Here’s the link to the class.

If you follow that link, you can watch a short preview of the class, and if you’re already a KelbyOne member, I hope you’ll check it out. If you’re not a member, you can still sign up for our 10-day free trial and watch it that way. Either way, you can watch it today.

Hope you all have a fantastic Tuesday (the kind of Tuesday where a bride leaves her….aw, forget it…it’s never gonna happen).

Best,

-Scott

The post New Class: Creating Beautiful Wedding Albums in Lightroom CC appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

This tip is not just for the cover!
I always tell people in my Lightroom photo book-making classes that the “Single Page View” is really helpful for proofing text you’ve entered because when you hide the Filmstrip, it’s a much larger view so the text is much more legible, but that view doesn’t work well where you need it most — the front and back cover. That’s because it treats the entire cover —  front and back as one page (whereas the rest of the book you can see just the left or just the right, so the page is much larger on the screen).

So, here’s my tip (it’s not just for the cover). If you’re looking at a two-page spread (in Spread View) and press Command – + (Windows: Ctrl – +) It zooms to the single page view. Now press it again. BAM!!!!

Your page is now zoomed-in huge and you’ll even have to scroll around a bit just to get to where you text is to see it, but at that huge size you won’t miss anything. Again, this just isn’t for the cover — it works for inside pages (like the one shown here) and I’ve found it incredibly helpful when creating books, especially when working on my 15″ laptop.

By the way — You can use this same tip to zoom all the way out to the Grid View, you just press Command – – (the minus sign) or Ctrl- — on Windows instead.

Hope you find that little tidbit helpful. Hope you all have a great weekend! (Go Tampa Bay Lightning!) and we’ll see ya back here on Monday!

Best,

-Scott

P.S. If you feel like watching something really silly, check out this short video of my “Changing of the Guitar” ceremony (the folks on my Facebook page chose one guitar to leave the wall of my office and go home), so we did an official ceremony for the momentous occasion. Here’s the link. Be forewarned — this is seriously stupid stuff, but at the same time, it’s perfectly appropriate Friday viewing.

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