The ultimate battle ensues for the top drawer in my toolbox: presets versus actions. What’s the difference and what are the pros and cons according to Elizabeth?

First the basics: Presets are Lightroom’s way of applying many changes to a photo in one click. They can be made by you for a way in which you commonly treat a photo and would like to apply your own recipe in one click. Alternatively, they can be the recipes of other photographers which you purchase from them as .lrtemplate files to import into your lightroom catalogue of presets. Even better, some photographers give their presets away for free! Keep reading for those.

Photoshop’s one-click version are called actions and they work in the same way. Scroll through the effect names, choose one and click. You then see your photograph go through a makeover in a split-second. Again, you can record your own action sequences or buy them as .atn files from other photographers.

I prefer LR presets. I’m a control freak (big time) and I want to have complete, effortless control over every last pixel of my work. I appreciate the foundation that presets can lay in my editing process, but I never click once and move on. I always then play with the sliders to make every last element of my photo exactly what I want it to be. With actions, I feel that I lose control and unless the one click produces exactly what I had in mind (it never does), I don’t prefer to use them. The few times I’ve used actions, they always end up being from Florabella because she makes them work with a variety of layers which you can then tweak. But still, I don’t feel that I have enough control.

So what actions/presets do I love? My first love came from the ‘Lightroom Killer Tips’ website. Matt gives utterly amazing LR tutorials and gives his presets away for free. He even invented a preset extractor program which extracts LR setting from photos on Flickr and that is free as well. Genius! For actions, I use Florabella. She is the love of my textures life and also makes smashing actions. Another place for free actions and presets is CoffeeShop. For presets, my loves are Rebecca Lily and One Willow’s ‘Retro Candy’ presets with delicious names like ‘cotton candy’.

You may have noticed that we’ve shifted things around over in the forum this week. We’ve split up the Share Your Shots section into categories, much like those in Critique. So if you haven’t had a chance, come check out the new sections and share some of your shots.

Weekly Assignment

This week’s assignment was Streets. For the assignment we wanted you to show us a street. Whether it was rural or urban, busy or desolate. Something that shows us a road or street we would want to travel. Our winner this week was mseigafuse’s “Where the rubber meets the sky”. We really liked the overall shot. From the dramatic clouds to the pleasing colours, the shot was just really nicely done. It’s a road I think many of us would like to be driving down with our cameras. Our first runner up was another open road shot, Steph’s “Figueroa Mountains”. Again, the colours were very pleasing in this shot and it was nicely composed. The mountains are just gorgeous. You can imagine taking a road trip up to them. And last, but not least was a more urban street shot, Arabic Collaboration’s “Walking Home”. The shot was nicely composed, the reflections were wonderful, and the black and white treatment really gives it a sense of loneliness. Well done everyone!

This week also marked the start of our assignment on Centered Composition. Often you’re told not to put the subject in the center of the frame, but sometimes putting the subject there can create a very arresting and interesting shot. The assignment this week is to show us a shot where the subject is used in the center with a dramatic effect. Make sure that you’re using this compositional technique to the greatest effect. As usual, a quick overview of the assignment rules. First, your photo needs to be taken between 20 January – 3 February 2010. Second, your post must include the words “Assignment: Centered Composition” and the date the photo was taken. And last, your EXIF should be intact and it’s useful if you can include some of the main points (e.g. shutter speed, aperture, camera, lens, ISO, etc). In February we’re starting a month of themed shots on Food Photography. So the first assignment is Desserts. Make sure you check out magazines and cookbooks for ideas.

Hot Threads

• DPS Forum Competition: Over the next 4 weeks, you can have a chance to win part of $2900 USD in prizes thanks to DigitalRev. The theme of the competition is Life. Life can have many different meanings, so it’s open to interpretation. For all the rules for the competition, see this thread. To submit your images for Week 1 head over to this thread.
• 365 and Breaking Patterns: As we come up on the end of January, many people are nearly a month into a 365 project. As part of a 365 project you may fall into certain patterns and habits with the types of photos you take. But how do you break out of these patterns? Or are you happy to simply stay in the pattern you establish? Come share your thoughts and advice on how to break out of these patterns when you’re involved in a photography project.
• Question About Old Barns / Houses: One of the questions that can come up as a photographer is whether or not you’re allowed to go certain places to take photographs. This week someone asked about old barns and houses. But it’s good to know what you can and can’t do, and what’s proper etiquette when you’re shooting away from home. Come read some advice in this thread.
• When was the Last Time You Hired a Photographer?: As photographers, we may know what other photographers’ prices are because we want to know our markets. But when was the last time you actually hired a photographer? Come join in the thread and share with us whether you’ve hired a photographer and maybe a little bit about why?
• How to get Listed on Google Image Search: Obviously getting your photographs out there is important. But how do you get your photos on Google Image Search, one of the places where people will come across them. What shows up on Google Image search? And how do you get your images found? Come share your hints, tips, tricks, and questions in this thread.
• What Would You Do: Every week we give you the opportunity to practice your post-processing skills on someone else’s photograph. Whether you’re just starting out or a pro, you’re welcome to show us what you would do with the photo.

Post from: Digital Photography School – Photography Tips.

This weekend your challenge is to take and share an image with the theme of ‘Blur’ (as suggested by one of our Twitter followers @nzphotodude).

Image by Jeff Kubina

Most of us are familiar with photos that are a little fuzzy, blurry or ‘unsharp’ – yet there are times when Blur can be good and this challenge is to attempt to take some shots that use blur for good rather than evil!

To help you get started – here are a few articles that might be useful to you that explore some ‘blurry’ techniques:

• How to Capture Motion Blur in Photography
• Mastering the Zoom Effect
• Move Your Camera to Create Motion Blur
• Masting Panning – Photographing Moving Subjects
• Taking Unfocused Photos
• Slow Sync Flash
• A Beginners Guide to Capturing Motion in Your Photography
• How to Shoot Light Trails
• 15 Stunning Images Using Blur to Portray Movement
• 13 Examples of Great Photos When Being Out of Focus Makes the Shot
• When Blur is Good in Photography

Image by Extra Medium

It’s up to you what type of blur you’re going to go for (and we’re pretty broad in our definition of blur) – whether it’s motion blur, blur from focus (or lack of it), camera shake blur…. feel free to take what ever approach you like – just have some fun with it!

We’d love your shot to be a new one – don’t just share old shots, this challenge is about inspiring you to grab your camera and use it!

Once you’ve taken your photos – choose your best 1-2, upload them to your favourite photo sharing site either share a link to them even better – embed them in the comments using the our new tool to do so.

The Canon post man arrived today with a little package just for me, it contained one of their shiny new Canon Ixus 200 IS compact cameras. The same camera is called the Powershot SD980 in other parts of the world, but for this review, I’m in the UK with the UK model.

Canon Ixus 200 IS / PowerShot SD980IS

Canon released the new 12mp Ixus 200 IS recently and followed it up, here in the UK at least, with a very vigorous ad campaign. I must admit it made me want to know what all the fuss was about! Well, I’ve got to say that after using the camera for a week or so that it’s compact, cute, solid and quite well priced, and I’d be quite happy to have one in my pocket 24/7!

I am a little wary of “touch screen” products and I think this is all because of the iPhone and how very good its touch screen capabilities are. On the iPhone, with a quick finger stroke you can be on another page or another track or another photo, well because of this thinking, the first thing I did when I powered up the little Canon was to take a couple of quick shots and try out the “flip through” of the image review, and I must say that the Canon Ixus 200 IS started out by disappointing me to be honest, because you can’t just lightly touch it to change things, you have to press a little harder to get the camera to realise what you’re after. I’ve since changed my mind on this! here’s why… Imagine if you’re half way through taking a photo and brush a fingertip against the screen and the camera changes its focus to be on a passing car or a running dog or even a flying pig! and you miss the shot you’re after – so, I understand the thinking behind the sensitivity level required by the touch screen, and with that little issue out of the way, let us move on!

The camera is small, but not silly small. It’s a good size to pop into a pocket in fact, I’d say that it’s even better to carry around than my Ixus 960IS which is a little thicker and slightly bulkier. The little Ixus is 99.9 x 53.4 x 22.9mm in physical size and weighs in at about 130g Which isn’t going to break your back. For such a small camera, the 3.0″ 16×9 (230,000 dots) screen is impressive and in various shooting modes holds some of the icons required for setting things like your flash settings in auto mode and exposure in program mode.

The Ixus 200 IS / Powershot SD980 has a 5x Optical zoom and an aperture of f/2.8 – f/5.9 and shift type image stabilisation as well which is all very lovely and seems to work well together. I won’t go into digital zoom because I firmly believe that it should always remain switched off – hey, that’s just me.

The advert on television shows a sprightly group of people running through the forest using the “Face Tracking” auto focus… It actually works quite well on something like a face, it’s a bit tricky on less contrasty scenes but still, works very well! With all of the gadgetry included (There are 20 different shooting modes to choose from, including Foliage!) you’re not going to be lost for things to try out and then switch off, I say this because I think the little camera does a very good job in standard P mode, or even auto mode for that matter, the image quality is great and with an image of 4000×3000 you could print yourself out a nice poster

Photoshop CS4 RAW: Using Adobe Camera Raw, Bridge, and Photoshop to Get the Most out of Your Digital Camera by Mikkel Aaland
| Number Of Pages: 224 |  PDF | 20 Mb
The RAW file format is the uncompressed data file captured by a digital camera’s electronic sensor. When your camera saves an image in RAW format, settings like white balance, sharpening, contrast and saturation are not applied to the image but are saved instead in a separate header. Because RAW files remain virtually untouched by in-camera processing, they are essentially the digital equivalent to exposed but undeveloped film.
This makes RAW an increasingly popular format with amateur and professional digital photographers, because it affords greater flexibility and control during the editing process-if you know how to work with RAW files.

Most digital camera manufacturers supply their own software for converting RAW data, as do some third party vendors. Increasingly, however, the RAW converter of choice is a plug-in included in the latest version of Adobe Photoshop, the most popular and widely-used digital image editing tool in the world. Adobe Photoshop CS4 is emerging as the best place to edit RAW images, and the best way to master this new format is with Photoshop CS4 RAW.

An important book dedicated to working with RAW in Photoshop, this comprehensive guide features a unique design that helps readers grasp the subject through visual instruction and prompts. The entire RAW process is explored, from shooting to using the Adobe plug-in converter and new Bridge navigation software. The primary focus of Photoshop RAW is, as the title suggests, Photoshop editing technique: automating RAW workflow, correcting exposures, extending exposure range, manipulating grayscale and working with the new DNG (Digital Negative) open standard that Adobe supports.

Presented by photographer Mikkel Aaland, a pioneer of digital photography and author of eight books, including O’Reilly’s Photoshop for the Web and the award-winning Shooting Digital, Photoshop CS4 RAW investigates and instructs in an accessible visual style. Required reading for professionals and dedicated photo hobbyists alike.
depositfiles.com
letitbit.net

photo credit: Travelin’ Librarian

I get a fair amount of questions on the post comments and direct contact. I should try to make a habit of highlighting some of those questions and responding to them because I’m sure others could benefit from that.

I dug back into the archives and pulled a few of the more general questions and answers. Hopefully these will help out some of you that may have the same questions. And if you have other questions, definitely ask in the post comments if it is specific to the article, or contact me directly if it’s something we haven’t covered yet. I’ll try to hang on to those from now on so I can share the answers with everybody.

So here we go, 10 Q&A bits from the archive.

Bill on “Quick Tip: Format Your Memory Card”

I have a memory card that we have already used. Now the computer is asking us to format the card. Is there a way to format the card without losing the photos on the card?

No, formatting clears all the data from the card. Try downloading the photos from the camera to the computer with a usb cable (most cameras have this). If that doesn’t work, try a card reader (if you have access to one). You might even bring the card to a local computer or camera shop to see if they can access the images with a different card reader/computer.

Julia on “How To Create Photoshop Actions”

I’ve done a couple actions, but how on earth do I share them with friends? Can’t find the files on my computer… Do I have to save in some special way?

You have to save them out — you should see an options for loading and saving selected actions in the pull-down menu of the actions panel. This will allow you to save out a .atn file. Just make sure you have the action or group of actions highlighted before you save.

Jim on “Flickr Etiquette Basic Guidelines”

One thing I have noticed is that there seem to be many people who have no photos of their own, in fact they do not even have a buddy icon, and of course no real name given. These people tend to have amassed hundreds or thousands of favourites of women, some scantily dressed, some not. Many seem to be cross-dressers, perhaps looking for fashions to favourite. Most of these people never leave comments. Should I be concerned if photos of my wife are made favourites by these people? [...]

I know the type you speak of. I’ll usually block them just because they’re not trying to be part of the community and it’s really creepy when you look at their faves. Obviously, you can do whatever you wish with these followers, but I’m typically not a fan of the “super-creeper” gathering photos of my Wife.

Sangeeta Das on “13 Alternative Flower Photography Tips”

[...] I want to know how is the dew drop trick done… is it just a macro shot or some post processing?

The only way I know to do those dew drops is to use a macro or super-macro setup (with reversal rings and whatnot). Otherwise, you just can’t get close enough to get high quality images. http://www.wonderfulphotos.com/articles/macro/dewdrops/

Jim on “7 Reasons To Love Prime Lenses”

Are prime lenses really that much cheaper than zoom lenses? when I looked at canon 50mm f/1.8, which was probably the cheapest lens ever, it cost about $99. And the next one 50mm f/1.4 would cost as much as my Rebel XSi body. And neither one is the L series.

For the same quality, they are far cheaper. But they can be expensive too, especially when you want larger maximum apertures. With 50mm lenses, once you go larger than f/1.8, the price goes up exponentially. While the f/1.8 costs $99, the f/1.4 costs $400, and the f/1.2L costs $1600.

But now look at zooms in the 50mm range and you’ll see that you can’t get anything below f/2.8 or f/3.5. That’s a full 2 stops slower than what you can get with a prime, and the price is way higher than $99.

Adam on “60 Second Post-Processing Technique”

[...] if this is the first round of processing, wouldn’t further detailed processing potentially be done in something like photoshop? [...]

Photoshop would be one option to finish it off. I typically go back into Adobe Camera Raw (or Lightroom) to finish images with additional tweaks and adjustments. I’ll go into Photoshop if I need to do something extreme, utilize the LAB color mode, clone something more difficult than dust spots, etc.

Jeff W on “Making Fine Art Prints: Signing”

[...] If it’s “acceptable” to sign in ink or paint right on the image I would much rather do that in the future. I did try that with a white paint pen I got at Michael’s but even after drying overnight it smudged. Some of these just don’t adhere to photographic paper. Does anyone have a specific brand or type of pen they can recommend?

I’ve used two different pens, they both work great and dry fast.
http://www.sakuraofamerica.com/Marker-metallic-paint
http://www.marvy.com/product_details.aspx?ProductID=39

kevin on “7 Reasons To Love Prime Lenses”

Nice article, but what is the focal length we usually need? And what do you suggest for canon when price is not a problem? Is 50mm f/1.8 sharp enough? Or we need 1.2?

The focal length you need will of course depend on what you plan to photograph. Landscape photographers may opt for wide angle, portrait photographers for mid-range, sports photographers for telephoto, etc. If you use a zoom, take a look at your photos and see what focal length you typically shoot at — this should give you a good starting point. I can’t really comment on what to buy for Canon if price is not a problem, but I think the “L Series” lenses are the top quality pieces. As for the 50mm, f/1.8 will be fine for most people, and plenty sharp if you stop down one or two stops (as is the case with most lenses). The f/1.2 will give you more light, but I can’t comment on the sharpness gains over a f/1.8 or f/1.4.

C B on “Cross Processing Tips and Suggestions”

[...] I have some Ektachrome that I plan to cross process. I was wondering if shooting it through a red filter would make it so the green wasn’t so extreme? [...]

I’m not sure what would happen if you shot with a color filter… it might work, but it might also take some experimentation to get the filter strength and color correct.

C B on “Cross Processing Tips and Suggestions”

[...] Will E-1 or E-2 film cross-process with C-41 chemistry? Or should I just sell it to someone who’s a collector and buy E-6? I don’t want to pay the big bucks to have it processed E-2.

I really don’t know about E-2 stuff. I did find a discussion about it at photo.net: http://photo.net/film-and-processing-forum/00DzKU

So next time you have a question on a given topic, feel free to ask in the comments. I usually try to answer right there within a day or two, but I might also bring it back up in another post like this in the future. And if anybody else out there has something to add to the questions above, chime in right here or on the original posts!