Best Methods for Cleaning Your Images


One of the most common gotchas we see in images and prints is the presence of spots. Regardless of the source such as dust on the sensor, every photographer should spot check their images before print, upload, email, delivery, etc. There are very few things that scream "lack of attention to detail" like spots in a finished image. At Light, we recommend spot checking every image at 100% or 1:1 view.

The best technique we have found to locate your spots is to use the Hand tool or a version of the Hand tool (other software) to slowly scroll through the image. Human eyes are very keen at detecting movement and this can help us find our spots. Many spots are very challenging to see on bright monitors when the photographer stares at the image. When you slowly scroll the image, dust spots appear to be moving against the background image.
 This technique works extremely well. If you want to confirm a dust spot, wiggle the image with the Hand tool and the dust spot will jump off the screen at you. There are many instructors and photographers who recommend jumping through the image via keyboard shortcut. This is not nearly as effective as the scroll/wiggle method. Once you find your spots let the retouching commence (in a non-destructive manner, of course.) A common error with this method is to lose track of where you are in the image as you scroll. Use the Navigator to keep your bearings and you will easily check the entire image.




 Fiat Lux!

New RRS Tripod and Ben Willmore/Light Review from Joe

Really Right Stuff recently released their new travel tripod.  The link will take you to their description and also to a great review.  Joe Jr. joined Light and Ben Willmore recently for a weeklong class and attached a review in the RRS newsletter.

RRS Newsletter

Cannot wait to get my hands (and camera) on this tripod.

Fiat Lux!

Non iTunes Interview Link

Here is the non-iTunes interview link from last week.

Fiat Lux!

Build a Better Photograph

On the "Radio" with Michael Stern

Had a great time with Michael Stern this morning on the Build a Better Photograph online radio/podcast show.  He also had a guest on who is an expert on search engine optimization (SEO) for photographers.  Definitely worth a quick listen.

The link below will take you to the podcast download.

Build a Better Photograph

Fiat Lux!

Lightroom 4 Beta Quick Look

Adobe released the Lightroom 4 Beta earlier today and this video is a quick first look at the major changes in the program that relate to still photos.  I used a fairly broad brush to cover the changes and will go more into detail as the Beta test progresses.

Unfortunately, not a single one of my main upgrade requests is included in version 4 of the program.  Regardless, there are some interesting and useful new features and functions. 

I think the new Book module will be very useful to many users.  Adobe partnered with Blurb and it is now very simple to layout a photo book design.  For those that do not use or have not used Blurb you can also export the book to PDF. 

There is also a Map module for use with geo locating or geo tagging your images. It's pretty cool.

Inside the Develop Module, the Basic tab changed (more detail in the video), there are more options for local adjustments, and CA removal has been simplified (although I have not found it to work all that well.) Soft proofing was also added to the Develop Module for use in prepping an output file.

There are some very large changes to video handling and optimization.  I did not have the time in this quick look to go through them.  But if you do video, you will like them.

I will discuss more regarding the Beta soon.

Fiat Lux!

Top 50 Images from Click

The Top 50 images from the 2011 California Photo Festival are up on the Festival SmugMug page.  Our next group of judges will select 10 of these images as the Top 10 and will also pick one Overall Winner.

Click 2 Top 50 Images

The photographer who shot the top image will receive a free pass to the 2012 California Photo Fest (Click 3) and a Smug Mug Pro account.

Other prizes are Lightroom books, Smug Mug Pro accounts, and Corel Painter!

Thanks again to Adobe, SmugMug, and Corel for the tremendous support of Light and the California Photo Fest.

The 2012 Fest is taking shape and registrations will start the day we announce our contest winner, 15 January.  We are adding more instructors and different events to make Click 3 even better.

Fiat Lux!

Happy New Year! (Time for a couple DAM changes)

Happy New Year from the crew at Light.  Here is a quick video discussing a few changes we should all make to keep our Digital Asset Management process working smoothly.

Fiat Lux!