Why do you need this update? If you have used the latest Lightroom 4 Develop controls on an image and then open it in Photoshop Elements, it is likely Photoshop Elements won’t show all of the Develop edits made in Lightroom. Update Camera Raw and this problem should go away. It also adds new camera support and other improvements.

TPG-Elemental Lightroom plugin users: you need this update to take full advantage of the plugin when using these product versions.

Currently these Camera Raw 6.7 download links aren’t showing on the main Photoshop Elements update pages (Macintosh and Windows so users might not be aware of the release. Hence the PSA.

Unfortunately users of Photoshop Elements 9 and older are out of luck as the latest Camera Raw version only supports the latest Photoshop Elements version.

This work by The Photo Geek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License

Public Service Announcement for users of Lightroom 4 and Photoshop Elements 10

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It immediately shows the impact of code changes as you make them.  This might not sound like a big deal at first, but when hunting tenacious bugs the repeated interruption of reloading a plugin and restarting its test scenario is disruptive.  You can now test code by making a change in your favourite text editor, saving the file, and hitting the Run button.  Contrast that with the additional steps of opening the Plugin Manager, reloading your plugin, closing the Plugin Manager, and invoking the plugin to start the test again and you will get a sense of how much simpler your coding sessions can become.

The Test Harness provides a framework for managing and running individual LUA scripts.  This makes it possible to write small, single purpose scripts to focus in on a new feature you are experimenting with or a bug you are trying to squash.  Without the Test Harness you either need to experiment directly within the plugin under development, trying not to get distracted by or trip over code extraneous to the task at hand, or write your own test plugin to host the code  Either way you end up losing time that would be better spent adding features to your latest masterpiece.

Need help with a particularly thorny coding issue?  One click and the Test Harness will turn your script into a plugin you can zip up and post to one of the online communities for developers.  This makes it easier to give Lightroom SDK forum members, Lightroom Forums Plugin Discussion members, or even Adobe’s supporter staff a simple and self-contained demonstration of the issue you are working on.  When asking someone to lend you a hand make it easy for them to give you what you want.

Those are just some of the reasons I invested the time to write the Test Harness plugin.  It has already paid me back for the development time I’ve put into it, and with a new version of Lightroom (and an updated SDK) just around the corner I’m confident it will end up paying for itself many times over.  I’m sharing it with other Lightroom developers in the hope it will help you spend less time fighting bugs and more time extending the functionality of a great product!

This work by The Photo Geek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License

Spend More Time Writing and Less Time Debugging Lightroom Plugins

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A recent tweet pointed me to the latest in a series of great Digital Photography School tutorials on photographing babies.  They cover the full gamut from preparing for the arrival, to maternity shots of the expectant mum, the birth itself, then the ongoing opportunities presented as the little one grows up.  Reading though them proved to be just the refresher I needed to prepare myself and remind me of the possibilities.  Below are brief introductions to each of the articles to help you decide which ones you might be interested in.

Personally I found the posts from Darren Rowse (the editor of Digital Photography School), Natalie Norton and Candace Lindemann most useful.  I enjoyed their differing perspectives and amateurs and professionals alike should find these enlightening.

Preparing for a Baby Photographically

Darren Rowse talks briefly about mentally preparing for your baby’s arrival, and capturing images of clothing and other accessories prior to your baby’s arrival.

Tummy Time – 7 Tips for Taking Great Maternity Shots

Natalie Norton’s tips on taking maternity shots of the expectant mother.  Includes some great examples of her work.

5 Keys to Taking Beautiful Maternity Portraits

Annie Tao’s also provides tips on photographing the expectant mother.  While there is overlap with the advice from Natalie it is still useful in its own right..

Photographing Birth Scenes

Darren Rowse talks about the practicalities of taking photos during the birth and the post-processing they may require.  Not a topic I have seen discussed elsewhere.

3 Quick Newborn Photography Tips

Loraine McCall provides advice on how to prepare for photographing newborns, including posing and the practicalities of dealing with babies.  While geared towards professionals it provides a few tidbits for amateurs as well.

Baby Time: Photographing Babies Without Losing your Mind

Natalie Horton’s tips on photographing a newborn.  Her advice is applicable to amateurs and professionals alike and include some tips (bring a hat!) that I haven’t seen before and are great suggestions for common issues.

Baby Photography 101

Chas Elliott’s post is geared towards professional photographers but has some interesting tips on timing and use of props that amateurs will find helpful as well.  He previously posted an article on taking photos of expectant mums which I haven’t included in this list because it was for professionals only.

10 Tips for Photographing Babies

Darren Rowse shares tips from his experience as a new dad.  The practical experience is evident and this is a great read for anyone who will be spending a lot of time around a newborn.

5 Tips for Gorgeous Infant Photographs

Christina Dickson’s tips are a quick summary of the fundamentals to keep in mind when photographing babies.

More Baby Photography Tips

Candace Lindemann shares a great article using her experience as a photographer mum.  She discusses working with older babies and channeling that boundless energy they seem to have!

This work by The Photo Geek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License

Refresher on Photographing Babies and their Journey into the World

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Unless you are a full time photographer the answer is likely no.  I’m an amateur photographer and find that Photoshop’s cutdown version – Photoshop Elements – meets all of my needs and there is no compelling reason to move to the full version.  But there is one compelling reason to choose Photoshop Elements over Photoshop.  The price.

Its large enough in the US, but internationally the price difference between Photoshop Elements and Photoshop is remarkable. At the Adobe Store Photoshop CS4 costs* $699 USD or $1415 AUD ($1180 USD) and Photoshop CS4 Extended $999 USD or $2019 AUD ($1690 USD). Photoshop Elements costs $99.99 USD or $165 AUD ($140 USD).  This means Photoshop Elements costs Australian consumers a little more than 1/10th of the price of the most basic Photoshop CS4 version. Its no wondering the Photoshop Elements community is growing so quickly outside of the US!

Photoshop vs Photoshop Elements

A recent post at Lightroom Secrets compared the features of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements to help users understand the incremental benefit of buying the full version.  The essence of that comparison (and my own research) is Photoshop provides:

• Customisation – Photoshop allows customisation of the UI via keyboard shortcuts, menus, workspaces, presets, actions, and (official) support for scripting
• Enhanced 16-bit – Additional Photoshop fliters supports 16-bit images
• Enhanced Colour – Photoshop supports CMYK and Lab colour modes, and custom curves
• Enhanced Layers – Photoshop includes layer masks, additional adjustment layers, and full support for smart objects
• Enhanced Selection – Photoshop includes paths, pen tools and quick masks
• Additional Tools – Photoshop includes additional features such as HDR and content aware scaling
• Enhanced Tools – Photoshop includes more advanced versions of some tools such as Camera Raw and Camera Distortion

The importance of many of these features diminishes when you are using Lightroom as your primary editor and only dipping into Photoshop every now and then.  Other features (e.g. Content Aware Scaling) would be nice to have, but as an amateur photographer I don’t think they are worth the additional $1250 AUD I’d have to spend to “upsize” from Photoshop Elements 7 to Photoshop CS4.

Bottom line?  Most photographers using Lightroom won’t miss the features they lose by choosing Photoshop Elements over Photoshop.  But the money they save could go a long way towards a new lens or flash that could make a significant difference to their photography.

Improved Photoshop Elements Integration With Lightroom

Another benefit of Photoshop is the level of integration it enjoys with Lightroom.  Photoshop Elements is added as an external editor, while Photoshop has a number of menu items dedicated to improving workflow when it is combined with Lightroom.  To close this functionality gap I’ve created an Elemental plugin for Lightroom which provides Photoshop Elements users roughly the same level of integration Photoshop users get "out of the box".

The Elemental plugin adds 5 new menu items to the File –> Plug-in Extras and Library –> Plug-In Extras menus, emulating the integration available to Photoshop users.  This includes letting the user select photos and launch them directly into the Photomerge dialog, or open them as Smart Objects (a feature Adobe doesn’t advertise as available in Photoshop Elements).  It even adds some new options for good measure, namely Remove Lens Distortion and the ability to directly Open in PSE.  And it does this all while avoiding the Camera Raw dialog which should be redundant as Lightroom’s Develop module contains a superset of the options available in PSE’s version of Camera Raw.  The only feature that can’t be reproduced is Merge to HDR in Photoshop because Photoshop Elements does not include this feature.  As many Photoshop users utilise an external HDR tool rather than the one supplied with Photoshop this hopefully won’t prove too much of an issue.

Where Do I Sign?

If you are ready to take the plunge and add Photoshop Elements to your workflow, Adobe sells the products online and may have specials running so please try the Special Offers page before using one of the direct purchase links has a number of specials running at any given time that can (North America only) specials running till August 10.  Links are included below for your convenience and by purchasing through these you will be helping support the ongoing development of my Elemental plugin.

Find all current special offers on Adobe products.
Photoshop Elements 7. Extraordinary photos. Amazing stories.
Photoshop Elements 7 + Premiere Elements 7 – Complete photo and video editing made easy.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Macs

UK readers can use the following links to support my plugin development while purchasing the products but unfortunately no discounts or coupons are currently available: Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 & Adobe Premiere Elements 7 – Full, Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 – Full and Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 for Macintosh – Full.

If you aren’t quite convinced why not download a trial copy of either the Windows or Mac version and find out firsthand whether it suits your workflow?  I’m sure you’ll find, like me, that Photoshop Elements covers all of your main “pixel pushing” requirements without doing too much damage to your bank account!

* Note: All prices were converted using Google’s current exchange rates on August 3, 2009.

This work by The Photo Geek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License

Why Lightroom Users Should Seriously Consider Adding Photoshop Elements To Their Workflow

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Accelerator Usage

If you look closely at the screenshot above you will notice an underlined character in each menu item.  Specifically the s character in Plug-in Extras, the B character in Customisable Configuration Backups, and the 1 character in 1-Click Configuration Backup.  These are known as accelerators and are a standard Windows feature to allow the use of your keyboard to navigate menus.  For Mac users I’ve been receiving mixed messages as to whether this feature can be directly applied on your platform.  An alternate approach compatible with your operating system is listed at the end of the post.

To use the accelerators provided above you would press:

1. Alt + F to open the File menu
2. S to open the Plug-in Extras sub menu
3. 1 to execute the 1-Click Configuration Backup

And so on. This might seem convoluted but your average keyboard shortcut junkie can slam those keypresses into the machine pretty quickly  If the menu item is something you need to call pretty regularly (say a Photomatix HDR menu item) this time can start to add up.

Setting Up Accelerators

Adding the accelerators to Lightroom takes advantage of Lightroom’s existing localisation capabilities. 

1) Locate your resources directory

You will need to create or update your TranslatedStrings.txt configuration file.  This is found in the resources directory found at the following location:

<Program Installation Directory>\Resources\<language code>

For example on my English localised Windows XP system this translates to:

C:\Program Files\Adobe\Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2\Resources\en

Other language codes are fr and de for French and German respectively.

2) Create or update your TranslatedStrings.txt file

If you are using the English version of Lightroom your resources directory is unlikely to contain a TranslatedStrings.txt file.  In this case you can simply copy this file into the directory. 

If your directory does contain a TranslatedStrings.txt file:

1. Open TranslatedStrings.txt in a text file editor
2. Search for the string “AgSdkMenus/Menu/PluginExtras”
3. If the string does exist, add an ampersand (&) into the text following the equals (=) sign.  This should be placed immediately before the character you want to be the accelerator.  e.g.
   "$$$/AgSdkMenus/Menu/PluginExtras=Plug-in Extras" would become "$$$/AgSdkMenus/Menu/PluginExtras=Plug-in Extra&s" to make s the accelerator character
4. If the string does not exist, add the following line to the file:
   "$$$/AgSdkMenus/Menu/PluginExtras=Plug-in Extra&s" 

French and German speakers should translate the value after the equals (=) sign so it makes sense to you. Just be sure to include an ampersand (&) to mark the character to become the accelerator key.

3) Accelerator enable the plugin

Plugin developers can accelerator enable their menu items using code similar to the following in their Info.lua file:

LrExportMenuItems = {
    {
        title = "Customisable Configuration &Backups",
        file = "ManageBackup.lua",
    },

Please note the only difference between this and your average menu item definition is the single ampersand character. 

If you are trying to accelerator enable a third party plugin things get a little trickier.  If the plugin is open sourced you can directly modify the Info.lua file in the manner mentioned above.  Reload the plugin after the change and the accelerator will be enabled.  If the plugin is compiled you can’t modify the file directly.  If the plugin is localised (i.e. you will see $$$ strings in the Info.lua file after opening it in a text editor) then you can add a new line to the TranslatedStrings.txt file to override that value and add the accelerator.  Unfortunately the Photomatix Pro plugin is not localised otherwise I would add that as an example here.

Mac OS X Alternative

Mac OS X includes a facility to create keyboard shortcuts for any menu item in any program.  Details are available here.  Once you enable the keyboard shortcut capabilities you can try using Ctrl-F2 (Focus on Menu Bar), arrow keys and the accelerator keys above to access your plugin menu items. 

If you still can’t take advantage of the accelerators then consider adding a shortcut directly to the feature in question. 

1. As mentioned in the article above you control these settings in System Preferences -> Keyboard & Mouse -> Keyboard Shortcuts. 
2. Once there press the "+" button to add a new keyboard shortcut. 
3. Choose which application it applies to (Lightroom) then enter the exact name of the menu item. 
4. Enter the keyboard shortcut you want to use and you should now have direct keyboard access to the menu item!

Closing Remarks

I hope you find this useful and please leave a comment if you wish to share your experiences.  I’m particularly interested to hear if any Mac users can access the accelerators via the Ctrl-F2 key combination, and if any other developers choose to accelerator enable their plugins.

This work by The Photo Geek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License

Accelerate Access to Lightroom Plugin Extras

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If you are:

• Sean “I want a restart shortcut key” McCormack, or any other Web Gallery developer for that matter
• Scott Photoshop In”sight"er Kelby [via Amanda Kern’s “Lightroom 2 Tour” sketch notes):

When something doesn’t work – QUIT! … fixes 99% of problems on Mac

• someone who finds that Lightroom 2’s performance or behavior slowly deteriorates during a work session

then you already know that Lightroom needs a “power nap” every now and then to get back into  perfect form.   Restarting the application is a simple, effective, and potentially time saving way to get LR2 back on track so you can process your photos at optimum speed.

Back when Lightroom 2.2 was released the performance degradation issues became frequent enough I wrote a script to speed up the restart process.  While Lightroom 2.3 has resolved the most significant of these issues, I’m still finding I need to restart regularly enough that others might find the script useful too.  When Lightroom really starts to grind it can take minutes to shutdown, and the script allows you to wander off to grab a coffee rather than babysit the restart process.  This should be especially useful for Web Gallery developers who by all reports need to restart way, way too often.

Installation

1. Download the script: LRRelaunch-20090324_001.zip
2. Open Lightroom 2.
3. Select Edit > Preferences > Presets (Windows) or Lightroom > Preferences > Presets (Mac).
4. Select Show Lightroom Presets Folder.
5. Open the Lightroom folder. If it doesn’t already exist, create a new folder named Scripts inside the Lightroom folder.
6. Unzip LRRelaunch-20090324_001.zip and drag or copy the LRRelaunch.lua file into the Scripts folder.
7. Close the Windows Explorer, or Finder window, to return to Lightroom 2.
8. Exit then reopen Lightroom 2.

Usage

When you open Lightroom 2 you should now see a new Scripts menu to the right of the existing Help menu. 

You can now open the Scripts menu and select the LRRelaunch menu option to restart Lightroom 2.

I hope you find this script useful and feel free to share your experiences or suggestions in the comments section below.

This work by The Photo Geek is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Australia License

Even Lightroom Needs a Power Nap Every Now and Then

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