Lightroom 2 Develop article

I see the SWPP have put my Professional Imagemaker Develop article online in HTML form.
You can read it here.

Book Fest

It's a bit of a book festival in the last few days at my house. While I'm finishing my 2nd pass layouts today, my editor Louise Campagnone is leaving GMC. It's a bit sad, as I'd have love to have my book 'Photoshop Lightroom Made Easy' finished with her. We're so close, but not close enough so I guess I start with a new editor next week. We're nearly done on the project, with a bit of editing and layout rearranging to be done, so it won't be long. Thanks for all your work Louise. I'll be glad to be done as I feel like 'Paddy Last'.

My editing was interrupted by the postman showing up the other day with 'Inside Lightroom 2' by Richard Earney. Richard is a friend and compadre from as far back as the original Lightoom Beta program, so I was delighted to see this come in the door. It looks great. I've only had a quick perusal, but enough to see my name mentioned a few times. Thanks Richard!

This morning another book arrived in the door: Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2: A digital photographers guide by Dave Huss and David Plotkin. Dave had been popping back and forth with questions, and was kind enough to give me a mention in the Acknowledgements. Thanks Dave!

BTW folks, those are straight links, no commission on them.

LRB Portfolio updated to 1.1

LRB Portfolio, the website in a gallery plugin for Lightroom has been updated to version 1.1. New features include an error page for galleries lacking enough images, body font settings and background image control. Bug fixes include an issue with mail.php generation in 1.03. Current users can get the update through the download email they received with product purchase. If you have mislaid this, it went to your paypal email address. If you've used up all the downloads, reply with the download email and I'll reset it.

LRB Grads updated to version 2

My Graduated Filter Presets have been updated to version 2. Version 2 of the LRB Grads contains an extra folder of Sunset filters, along with a middle filter for each of the types and strengths.

There are 2 zips in the archive: One with the original Colour Strength Position naming, and one with the new form Position Colour Strength.

The new version makes for quicker previewing in the Navigator.

To install the new filters right click on a preset and click Show in Finder/Explorer. If you are updating and want to use the new names, delete the older presets first. Delete the LRB Grads folders (there are 6 in V1).

Unzip the file gradsV2newnames.zip file in this folder for the new names, or gradsV2original.zip for the original naming scheme. Restart Lightroom.

Your original download link will still work for these. I'll be updating the original page shortly, along with the new product page, based on that page. If you have used all the downloads: tough.. Nah, I'm kidding, reply to the original downlaod post including the contents of the post and I'll reactivate your download.

Product Page: http://lightroom-blog.com/lrbgrad

The Rename

I'm in the middle of the tedious process of renaming the Grad presets. So how am I naming them? I've gone with:

Position Colour Strength.

But I will place the original named presets in the pack too, so you can choose between them. I'll announce them here when done.
They will replace the current download then, so you can just use the download link to get the new versions. Please note that these use the same internal names, so if you do choose the new names, you will have to delete the old ones!

So how do you want the Grad Filter presets named?

I've expanded the range of the current LRB Grad Filter presets. When I upload them after a little voting here, there'll be an additional Middle to go with each Top third and Bottom third, and 9 new Sunset Presets.
Current they are named by:
Colour Strength Position Hardness Orientation e.g. Blue 0.3 Top Hard Landscape (or an abbrev, thereof)

Matt K argues that 0.3, 0.6 and 0.9 should be replaced with -1, -2, and -3. While it is indeed accurate, my naming is based on conventional Resin filters, which carry the notation 0.3, 0.6, 0.9. In fact Cokin calls them ND2, ND4, ND8 instead.

Which is the more critical for you the user?
And which order?

Strength Position Colour
Strength Colour Position
Colour Strength Position
Colour Position Strength
Position Strength Colour
Position Colour Strength

(The hardness and Orientation are the filter folders anyway, but are needed for Lightroom to distinguish them)

Each has advantages.
The last option for instance groups the Tops together, then individual colour, then strength of that colour. Or is Strength more important here than colour?