Whether tacit or not, Adobe seems to have listened to the concerns voiced by many in the creative community over their impending pricing and licensing policy changes.  As you may recall, I ran three posts late last year, first calling attention to the new policy.  Secondly, as discussed on Scott Kelby’s video podcast “The Grid“, called “Why Scott Kelby and Crew are Wrong“  Finally, I started running a poll to tally people’s thoughts on the policy shift.  Scott himself ran an entire post as an Open Letter to Adobe shortly thereafter, both addressing the issue squarely, as well as offering an alternative.  Apparently, Adobe was listening!

A news post came to my attention a few weeks ago, and while in the midst of the holiday fracas, I did not want to minimize both the significance and importance of this change. So, with the holidays behind us and a new year ahead, I’d like to give some kudos to Adobe for recognizing the painful effect their new policy would have on legacy customers.  They’ve made a change to their plans, allowing CS3 and Cs4 customers to upgrade at a reduced pricing schedule (very much in keeping with what Scott Kelby suggested), thus easing the cost of upgrading for them.  The full release is here:

Adobe Special Upgrade Announcement

For those not wishing to follow in-post links, here’s the full text of that announcement:

 With these great new releases coming in the first half of 2012, we want to make sure our customers have plenty of time to determine which offering is best for them. Therefore, we’re pleased to announce that we will offer special introductory upgrade pricing on Creative Suite 6 to customers who own CS3 or CS4. This offer will be available from the time CS6 is released until December 31, 2012. More details on this offer, as well as any introductory offers for existing customers to move to Creative Cloud membership, will be announced when CS6 and Creative Cloud are released later this year.

The only caveat here is that we still do not know when the CS6 suite will be released (well, some of us do…but as they say, those that don’t know guess, and those that do know – can’t say a word!).  All we can ascertain from this is that CS6 is coming in the first half of the year.  No surprise there, but if it is released closer to June, then that shortens the window for Cs3 and CS4 customers to take advantage of the reduced cost upgrade that Adobe is offering.  Still, better to not look a gift horse in the mouth.  Adobe has heard our concerns, and responded in what I think will be an appropriate manner.  While we don’t know the specifics of the pricing offer, we do know that they have heard us and are giving customers an opportunity to upgrade for a limited time.  So, start saving pennies now to make your eventual upgrade that much easier to swallow!

Of course, Cs5 or Cs5.5 customers will be able to upgrade at normal rates, so this announcement doesn’t really affect you – but it’s a welcome sign that companies and and do listen to their customer base!  So, thanks Adobe for listening!

• Maps Module *yawn* Other software does this already
• Books Module *yawn* Should have been there in a 3.x update imho
• Shadow/Highlights tools to add fake dynamic range for the HDR crowd (surprise surprise) – nice enough, but not enough to entice to buy
• Video file support *shrug* How much would one use LR for video anyway?
• Soft proofing *meh* I don’t print out of LR much anymore as my vendor takes care of prints for me….
• Adjustment brush additions *meh* While the additions are welcome, again, hardly incentive to pony up for this…
• Email photos direct from Lightroom *Huh?*  I know, this is surprising that it took this long to incorporate something this simple into the 4th generation of a product line

Will I buy the update?  Probably yes, because I am already “current”, and the price of not updating is more expensive long term ($99 versus $300)…  Also, in the interest of keeping current tutorials and such here on the blog for the readership is also present, so, that kind of colors my decision-making process.  For what they are releasing though – and the plethora of already existing outlets to do these additional tasks, I am not sure the regular photographer types will be justified in the upgrade pricing of $99-$120 (especially considering the economy right now…)

What about everyone else?  Worth the upgrade or not?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Fair warning – this is a long post….much longer than what I normally post – but it’s that important!  Please take the time to read this whole thing because you will have a complete and clear understanding of these odd terms like Subscription Service, In Perpetuity,  and Creative Cloud.  You’ll understand the differences, and see why the new pricing scheme is not a good decision for anyone – personal or professional businesses!

So, in the interests of getting it right, I went back and listened to it several times, finally writing a transcript of it (which you can read here.  Here’s the nuts and bolts though of what they had to say…

[Scott] And that’s my guess.  I haven’t talked to Adobe on this.  Nobody in Adobe’s pricing dept. said this.  I can imagine the reason why Adobe did this is a couple of things:

1. I…and this is where all the controversy is, I don’t think it’s the pricing so much, I haven’t heard anybody gripe about the price it’s like $50 a month and you get everything they do. You get everything, right? You get like the whole Master Collection.  Again, I didn’t look at all the numbers, so I don’t …I could be a little off.

[Matt]  It’s ballpark and if you add up what it would cost you to buy the Master Collection, it actually in some ways can save you money.

They are looking at the Creative Cloud service, not the subscription pricing.  Let me state that again, unequivocally:

They are confusing the subscription model with the Creative Cloud stuff.

These are two different things, so let’s get that on the table right away.  The subscription service is not $50 a month!  What’s the difference?  It’s easy! A subscription service is something you pay a small amount for every month (or week, or year…whatever, you are a subscriber.  How is that different from the current licensing?  The current licensing (whether by download or media – it doesn’t matter)…means you own that license forever.  In legal terms, it’s called an in perpetuity license.  You’ve bought that license and are entitled to use it forever!  Renting a house (or apartment) is far more expensive than buying one.  Renting (or leasing) a car – the same.  Would you rent a camera?  For one time uses, sure…but who wants to use that model if you plan on doing anything regularly?  The answer:  no one!  From Adobe’s perspective (or any provider for that matter), it’s a great business model because it makes the renter more money.  The same holds true here for Adobe!  Don’t believe me?  Take a look…

We are assuming that we are starting from an upgrade perspective – people that already own a CS5 license.  The following chart is based on the cost to upgrade an in perpetuity license (assuming that doesn’t change…) and shows what that same cost would be under the subscription model based on a 24 month cycle:

An important qualifier here – Adobe is also moving to an alternating schedule whereby dot releases are put out in alternating years to full version releases:

This is why you are renting on a 24 month schedule.  It’s also why there is no way that renting anything would cost you less.  They said they hadn’t had the time to look into it.  Several others have.  In their defense, the 5 minute bit was full of qualifications – Adobe didn’t tell us, we don’t know, we can only guess…all that sorta stuff, which is fine in and of itself.  But how can someone say with a straight face that renting costs less than owning?  Seriously.  Take any basic business course or economics course.  The pricing factor aside (which is already been demonstrated as exorbitant…) at the end of renting – you own nothing!

How is the subscription model a better model for anyone besides Adobe?  Scott and crew answered with the following:

“[Matt] The biggest problem I see, there’s gonna be a barrier to entry for someone who is on Cs3 or CS4.

[Scott] Especially hobbyists

[Matt] That’s who I’m really talking about.  For a company I think…it’s not just better for Adobe…to put in a subscription model because now they know how much they are gonna take in every year…but now a company knows exactly how much money you’re gonna spend each month on software.  So it’s easier for a company.

Hobbyists though, ya know, it’s hard to swallow six or seven hundred dollars…

[Scott] A year…

[Matt]  And then go into the subscription model too…

[Scott]  Oh no no…you’ve gotta upgrade…it depends on what you have…if you have the Suite..I don’t know…

[Matt]  It does get, it can get hairy…”

As you can see – it’s not that hairy – it doesn’t matter what you own: CS2-Cs5 will cost more to go to a subscription model than it would to stay on an in perpetuity license.  One more time for clarity, here’s where Scott Kelby and Crew got it wrong:

They are confusing the subscription model with the Creative Cloud.

Not only is it not that complicated – even for businesses, it’s very easy to extrapolate out the Total Cost of Ownership over time and see how this is not a good economic move for anyone (unless you are Adobe).  With all due respect to Scott and crew – I would ask them if they will switch to the subscription model?  My guess is no.  They also provided, in my estimation, a pretty lame explanation for why Adobe is changing their policy.  Here’s what they said:

“[Scott]I’ve been getting so many people asking about Adobe’s new pricing and all that stuff.

Adobe does not call us and ask what we think about pricing.  We learned when everyone else did.  I haven’t had any time to really look into it.  I think there are some good things about it.  I think the subscription model is really great, and by the way, you might as well get used to the subscription model, because it’s the wave of the future. You’re going to be subscribing to everyone’s software.  Especially when the big people like Adobe start moving into that thing.  I think the days of you going to the store and buying off the shelf – it’s either going to be direct download or it’s going to be subscription based.  And everyone wants the subscription model because it gives you revenue all year long ya know

[Matt]   Well,  it’s predictable they know Jan through December what they are going to get.”

Huh?  So they can get revenue year round?  They do already!  Different folks buy at different times…it’s called effective management of resources.  This isn’t about regular revenue – it’s about more revenue!  And we all know Adobe isn’t hurting.

That isn’t on the NAPP gang though – that’s just Adobe greed.  But I do think where Scott and crew are misunderstanding the outcry is that they think we are upset over the subscription offering.  It’s not that we are against the subscription offering per se.  It’s the exclusive and disingenuous way that people are being set up into that option.  Let me state more unequivocally what I think is wrong:

1.  The sudden elimination of 3-versions back upgrade options.  The solution to this is rather than just cutting it off immediately, to phase it out.  (This was posted in the comments from last week here.)

Since there was no major outcry when Adobe said that only 3 versions back could upgrade you would think that if they wanted to do this to go 2 versions back for CS6. Then they could offer a graduated sliding scale something like this:

Upgrade 2 versions back. Upgrade price $189.
CS3 and CS2 Upgrade at $249.00
Older Versions Upgrade at $329.00

Every Quarter or so offer older versions a 20% discount if purchased directly from Adobe.com

2.  For those that want the subscription program, fine, but I am here to tell you from a financial perspective:  It is a horrible idea for anyone…personal or professional!  The TCO is 4x what it would be for an in perpetuity license, and if you ever end the subscription program for yourself or your company – you have nothing left to work off of. It’s like renting.  For most outfits, that makes no sense for any software (or hardware) used on a regular basis.  Now if I had a one time need for In Design or something, that’s another story – but we are talking regular use here.  Heck, I’ll rent glass I can’t afford, but I also am not using that glass every day!  Only for 2 or 3 days.

3.  The last part I have a beef with is whether this will ripple over to other products.  We don’t know yet, but I can only assume that Lightroom and Acrobat are soon to follow if this subscription service takes off.  The installation base for Acrobat is far more extensive – going into regular businesses, not just creative businesses, and the impact there could be dire.  I suspect Adobe is merely giving an indication of what’s to come by testing their leading products in this model.  Unless we want to see everyone adopt this method of sucking that much more from our own wallets – we need to tell them to stop now!

So, chime in now, and share on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus – as well as to Adobe.  I gave out links on how to do this here.  Here’s the on-going poll too if you don’t want to comment.  Speak up now and let Adobe know how you feel.  We still have a chance to change their minds.

EDITOR NOTE:  This post was written and published before I had a chance to read Scott’s Open Letter to Adobe on his blog today.  That letter pretty much takes Scott and Crew off the hook – they are advocating on our behalf and I’ve already given my accolades to Scott over there.  Please read that post as well!

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

*****

Be forewarned and be smart – Adobe has announced a change in their pricing model which will have serious implications for the enthusiast/hobbyist photographers!  I picked this up from the NAPP community, which took me eventually to this link on the Adobe site:

“For customers who prefer to remain on the current licensing model, we will continue to offer our individual point products and Adobe Creative Suite editions as perpetual licenses. With regards to upgrades, we are changing our policy for perpetual license customers. In order to qualify for upgrade pricing when CS6 releases, customers will need to be on the latest version of our software (either CS5 or CS5.5 editions). If our customers are not yet on those versions, we’re offering a 20% discount through December 31, 2011 which will qualify them for upgrade pricing when we release CS6.”

In other words – if you don’t want to rent it, they are forcing you to now upgrade every single time a new full release comes out!  I have to go on record here as saying that while this certainly makes good business sense for them – this is going to be a very expensive change for the enthusiast and hobbyist photographers out there.  The dialog on the NAPP forums has been quite passionate already, and I am sure the larger photography community will react similarly.  ETA: The comments have (not surprisingly) been closed but there are other outlets available – see below…

Before it’s too late, be sure to share your thoughts with Adobe on this policy change that will have a serious impact on many of us!  Think of it – paying $50 a month over a 12 month period is paying roughly $600 – for something you won’t own in the end!  Think of the new pricing model as the equivalent of leasing a car, renting an apartment, or any other situation where you end up with nothing but money out of pocket and nothing to show for it in the end.  These models always benefit the company and never really benefiting the purchaser (or should I say renter?)!

It’s not often I get on a soap box and encourage people to take an active stance against something, but this is just a bad move on the part of Adobe.  There are a couple ways you can reach out to Adobe and let them know your thoughts.  One NAPP member has started a thread in the Adobe community forums (and from what I gather, they do listen there…), and when one of the senior VP’s at Adobe (Bryan O’Neal Hughes) wrote a guest post on Scott Kelby’s blog, he shared his email address: bhughes@adobe.com.  I would encourage you all to use both methods to communicate with Adobe how much you oppose this policy change.  Other outlets that will get attention include:

John Nack: http://blogs.adobe.com/jnack/  and his email is jnack@adobe.com
Lightroom Journal: http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/
Terry White: http://terrywhite.com/techblog/and his email is twhite@adobe.com
Julianne Kost: http://jkost.com/and her email is jkost@adobe.com

While I grant you that Adobe has built some amazing software, and is definitely the standard by which all others are measured, there are alternatives out there that are cheaper (Elements sells for $90), or even free (have you heard of GIMP?).  In my humble opinion, there are many much more feasible options going forward if Adobe insists on what I would call nothing more than price gouging in the absence of healthy competition.  Sound off now or you may lose the ability to even get them to listen ever again!  If you want to write, but don’t know what to say, get a text document here to copy/paste into your email program.

For those that wish to just post their thoughts here – I will be compiling an email to Adobe and send it off to Bryan and the rest at the end of the month to let them know just how vocal the photography community is and why this policy is a bad idea, so if nothing else, at least share your thoughts and concerns here – you will have a voice to the extent that I am able!

*****

Keep in mind, I am not being critical of their product line at all – I love my Adobe products!  Lightroom and CS5 have made my work flow so streamlined and efficient where I would otherwise be flailing in the breeze.  It also bears mentioning that Adobe has sponsored giveaways in the past (although after this post I am not sure that will happen again).  I also understand that Adobe has to make money and that they spend a lot of time on R&D and they should be compensated for that.  But there are better ways to do business than this….

1.  Pay for the cost of entry

2.  Pay for the cost of travel

3.  Pay for hotel accommodations

4.  Pay for the cost of food

It’s an expensive proposition, which I conservatively estimate at nearly $1000.  This does not mean it isn’t worth the money, because it most likely is, even if for networking purposes only (and I am sure there are educational opportunities galore)!  Let’s face it – if you want to be a “player” in the photography world, there is usually justification to attend PSw either in Orlando (Spring) or Las Vegas (Fall).

My problem is that I am something of a one-man-show.  And photography is very much a secondary stream of income, when it even does present opportunities.  My primary job has always been in IT.  I suspect it always will be.  So, to find the time off for a traditional working stiff is tough – I am often needed, and earn precious little vacation time every year.  So, unless a company that values both my IT and photography skills hires me (Adobe, are you listening? ), I will likely not be in a position to attend this event.

As is often the case, I know I am not alone.  So, here’s your chance to let your non-PSW light shine!  What are you doing this week?  For me, I am taking a little time off between jobs actually.  After accepting an offer at a new company (I am not holding my breath for Adobe), I have a week or so to spare from my calendar (but not my budget) to travel a little, and am visiting family in both AZ and NY.  Let’s face it, family should always come first, and here is no exception.  This last weekend I spent in AZ, and coming up later this week is a trip to NY.  Maybe I’ll get in a little fall foliage out east, but not sure as the fall seems to be late arriving all over this year.

So, there’s my plans, and why I won’t be there!  What’s your excuse?  Why are you not at PSW?  Sound off in the comments!  See ya back here tomorrow, and keep on shootin’!  I’ll be back again with the August contest winner and a new contest for September that will knock your socks off!

Most of the time, it involves answers that include explanations of pixel based editing versus parametric editing, and lots of other technical reasons as to why certain things can’t happen in LR.  But sometimes (and this is the best part), I find out they are adding to their work flow because it can be done in Lightroom!  One of the most common ones is masking effects.  When I show people this, I almost always get a “Holy Cow!” or some other variation on the “cow” part.

So, today I thought I’d share a quick tutorial on how to implement masking edits in Lightroom.  Let’s take a look at the base image I am using here – a boat dock on Raquette Lake in the Adirondacks of upstate NY:

So, the dock here is a significant portion of the subject, but it’s way darker than the rest of the image, and really could be increased by a stop or two relative to the sky.  So, rather than round trip to PS, let’s see what we can do here.  I’ll start off with making a general masking selection of the entire area.  So I check the Adjustment Brush (near the top of the Develop Module on the far right hand side), and then at the bottom of the image (over on the left), there’s a box that says “Show Selected Mask Overly”.  I check that box.  Then I just start painting!

It’s a prety broad brush I’ve used, so we need to clean it up, as some of the water got caught and that will leave an ugly halo effect if I don’t take care of it.  So, to get more detailed selections completed, I zoom in, and then switch to erase mode while still showing the mask.  This is in the lower options of the Adjustment Brush, on the right hand panel – see where it has “A”, “B”, and “Erase”?  Click the erase and start painting again to undo the mask:

You, of course, will have to adjust the size, feathering and opacity of your brush to taste, and to accommodate your brushing technique as needed (hint:  Wacom tablets work better than regular mice or trackballs).  Once you’re finished with your refining of the mask, go ahead and uncheck the option to display the mask and see your results.

At this point you can actually do something else kind of cool – hover your mouse over the dot that is on display and then slide it to the left or right as you see the exposure increase and decrease for the selected area!  Pretty cool, eh?  This same technique works with other features in the adjustment brush, whether you are working on eyes, teeth, dodging, burning, or even skin softening.  The scrubby slider is a nice feature in here.  Then, finally, one thing I’ll do is make a side-by-side comparison of the image in a before and after mode to make sure my changes aren’t too garish or over the top (you can do a side-by-side comparison, top and bottom comparison and even split the screen between the two for a more detailed look):

Looks pretty good for this quick tutorial…and here’s the final image after our masking edits are done:

Now I grant you that this is probably not a portfolio image, but it hopefully was helpful in illustrating how you can mask and edit your photos inside of Lightroom without having to do the round trip as often to Photoshop!

Like this tip/trick?  Got any other comments, questions, or curiosities of how to leverage Lightroom more in your own work flow?  Sound off in the comments!  Have a great weekend and we’ll see you here back on Monday!  Happy shooting!

*****

P.S.  This is the final weekend before the contest wraps up, so if you’d like a chance to win a copy of Photo Rescue and a cool Canon coffee mug (courtesy of the folks at Photojojo), then don’t forget to get your image in soon!  Tick tock, tick tock!  Clock is ticking! Submit your images here!

The back story behind this most comes from one of the more common questions I get these days about Lightroom.  It comes in the Develop Module and confusion about the difference between the Exposure slider, the Fill Light slider, and the Brightness slider.

It’s easy to see how there could be confusion when you start pushing sliders to their extremes, because at the higher levels, the impact does seem the same.  However, when kept within their intended parameters, these adjustment sliders all impact different areas.  Specifically:

• The Exposure Slider adjusts the brighter tonal portions of an image
• The Fill Light Slider adjusts the shadows or darker tones in an image
• The Brightness adjusts the mid-tones of the image.

To better illustrate, take a look at the images below.  First up is the default in camera settings:

See how the shadow detail is completely lost?  Having exposed for the sky, the camera was unable to capture the shadow detail sufficiently to reveal anything.  When you see this, often the natural inclination is to increase the exposure to try and bring back the detail in the shadows.  So, let’s see what happens…

See how the only area really affected is the part by the setting sun?  I’ve increased the exposure by one half stop.  Since that’s not much of an adjustment let’s take a look when we dial things up a bit more.  Here’s the next image, with the exposure increased by a full stop:

Now it’s just starting to look a little garish, and the appeal of the image is nowhere near even what the defaults were.  I could further prove the point by showing another half stop increase in exposure, but I think you probably get the gist.  So, let’s take a look at the Fill Light slider and how adjustments there affect the image.

Here I’ve increased the Fill Light to +25.  See how the area around the setting sun hasn’t been affected?  We don’t see much of a change yet, but watch what happens when we increase the slider some more.  Here’s the same image at +50.

If you look at the mountain, see how we’re starting to see some separation from the lower one in front and the one behind it?  You can see the tree line now!  This actually (I think) adds some depth to the image that wasn’t there in the original.  This is a great example of how the Fill Light slider is bringing back shadow detail in the image.

So, now that we see difference in the shadow detail, let’s take a look at what the Brightness Slider does.  As I said above, it doesn’t address the lightest tones or the darkest tones in the image, but rather tries to pull out detail from the middle tonal parts of the image.  Let’s take a quick look at that too, just to illustrate the differences here.

It’s worth noting here that by default, Lightroom puts an image at +50 on the Brightness slider, so an increase to 75 here isn’t that much of a change, but we are still seeing some subtle changes in the cloudy part of the sky.  That makes sense as this is where the mid tones are for this image.  It’s even more evident though when we adjust the brightness up another notch to +100.

That sky is starting to look just about perfect for my tastes.  I could take it a notch further but again, hopefully by now you get the gist.  What’s important here to note though, is that there is no single slider adjustment for any given photo that will make it “perfect”.  Instead, it’s almost always a combination of post processing adjustments in not only the exposure, fill light, brightness, and even others that will take your snapshots and make them great shots.  For me, the end result here, is a combination of all three of these sliders, and a dash of some other adjustments to make it what you see below:

Here, I’ve done some adjustments to various sliders.  Can you tell which ones I’ve used and to what degree?  Hopefully after today’s post, it’ll be easier to tell in the final image – and in your own images!  Take some time and play with your own images inside of Lightroom and see what it can do for you!  Have a great weekend, happy shooting, and we’ll see you back here on Monday!

That software is a plugin that Jeffrey Friedl makes called Metadata EXIF Viewer, which you can download for free from his website at the link provided.  It’s based on an EXIF tool Perl script from Phil Harvey, which he links to here.  It’s just like any other Lightroom plugin as far as installation goes – download the compressed file,decompress, and then copy the folder to where ever you save plugins for Lightroom and you’re set.

Then, after installation, highlight the image you want to get extended info for, and click on File, Plugin Manager Extras, and select the plugin:

Once a short CGI script runs (that’s the Perl program for you programming types), you’ll be presented with a laundry list of more info than you likely ever wanted to know about your photos.  All this, just from the header info!  Check it out:

Like I said, a veritable fountain of info…and this is just from one photo!  The question of course becomes one of “What do I do with all of this?”  Excellent question!  In the interests of full disclosure, more data isn’t always a good thing, and for many of the fields, there’s often no data reported.  Nevertheless, there are times (albeit not everyday occurences), where being able to access everything can be helpful.

Tune in tomorrow for a more detailed explanation as to just one of many possible uses!  Until then…take a minute to stop over at Jeffrey’s website and try the plugin.  (If you want to register it, you do need to make a donation of at least one penny, otherwise it’s free to use for 30 days.  I gave $2.00)

Got your own neat little add-ons, plugins, or tools that you use in your workflow too?  Feel free to sound off with your input in the comment section!  Until tomorrow, happy shooting!

After I do this, I simply look up at the top of Lightroom while in Library mode to filter my collection for either picks or rejects. From my approach, I do the rejects first, then CMD/CTRL A to select all and delete! Then from the picks, I’ll go through and make whatever edits I need, even including round trips to Photoshop, Photomatix, or whatever 3^rd party software I happen to need or be using at the time.  This is always so much easier with Auto Advance enabled. I can fly through a shoot of 500+ images in about 20 minutes both to clean up the catalog, and make the picks of what will likely be in the final published album. Give it a whirl and see if it improves your work flow!

Got your own tips or tricks for Lightroom, Photoshop, or simple camera techniques? Share the love and sound off in the comments! Either that or share your own thoughts on what you think of the techniques I share here. Regardless, tips tricks and techniques like these are always designed to help you get through post production and do what we all love to do – get out and shoot some more! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here next time!

Over the weekend I had the distinct pleasure of joining my colleague and good friend Kerry Garrison (who you probably know from Camera Dojo) out “in the wild” as we traveled to the Breezy Point Resort north of Brainerd MN (about three hours west and north if the twin cities) and spoke at their Northern Lights conference.  Through the coordination of our sponsor, Nations Photo Lab, and the conference hosts, MNNPA, we had a wonderful time.  Not only did the coordinators treat us like Rock Stars (we did give some autographs though), the attendees were quite engaging too.

The pre-conference sessions were set to start at 12, and our gig started at 5.  After a few of the logistical things were addressed that always come up with hosting conferences (they even had a live wedding going on one room next to us – what a great opportunity for a bride to get a wide range of photographers applying their trade), we got rolling.  A mere five minutes into our introduction, we paused to add even more tables and chairs to the room as more and more people started filing in.  For a regional conference to have a crowd this big during a pre-conference tech talk was quite surprising, but also very enjoyable.  So, what did we talk about?

The topic was none other than Lightroom 3!  We talked about how to navigate around, some of the benefits and tips and tricks of LR to soon realize that we are very fortunate to be in the position that we are.  It was humbling to realize that we really are on the cutting edge as so many people are using Lightroom 1, LR 2, or even earlier generations of Photoshop for their workflow.  Our discussion quickly was adapted to both demonstrate why and answer questions on what makes Lightroom 3 such a useful tool for both established and emerging photographers.

The questions raised were just wonderful ranging from very broad-ranging ones like “Why should wedding and portrait photographers care about upgrading their work flow?” to ones as detailed as “Can Lightroom manage PSD files?” and “How can I keyword photos during import?”  By the time our two hour segment was up we had barely covered the import process, a little bit on the adjustment brush, and the nuts and bolts of things like cropping, selective color, and black and white conversions.

Ours was the last segment for the day and we were then invited to the after party over in one of the adjoining houses.  Food snacks, drinks and such were all available and in abundance.  With the abundance of spirits, everyone was in great spirits themselves as we laughed and talked further with lots of people about photography stuff until the wee hours of the morning.  By 1am we were done though and needed to head back to our respective cities (myself to Denver and Kerry to Anaheim, CA).  So, during our road trip back to Minneapolis for the return flight, we decided to record this show for you.  Answers to all the questions above and more are here, as well as a few photo opp stops!  Thanks for taking the time to listen, hope you enjoy it and we’ll be back again soon with more photo goodness!

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It is no secret I love Adobe Lightroom… the rumors are true, I refuse to edit without it.  As I’ve created my own presets I realized if they are created correctly you can “stack them”.  What is stacking? It is similar to using more than one action in Photoshop. I assume you want samples.

RAW image:

This is the original raw file

1. image with Work It-Awesome Portraits and some local adjustments (cleaned up skin and Work It- Pretty Eyes.)

2.   image with Work It-Awesome Portraits +Work It-Meadow. Medow is in the Tints and Tones and just adds some more blues and greens to the image.

3.   The way the presets are created, you can use the Tints and Tones on color or Black and White images.  Here is the same image with Work It- B&W Contrast Dark and then Work It- B&W Contrast Dark +Bobby

4.  But wait there is more! (I hope you read that in your best “info-mmercial” voice) you can use a vintage preset. I used Work It-Vintage

5. Then add a tint and tone on top of the vintage preset. here is Work It-Vintage + Work it- Little Red School House

There isn’t an image that leaves Andie Smith Photography or Eight18 Photography that hasn’t had one of the Work It presets used on it.  It is my work flow.  No matter the presets you are using don’t forget to customize them to make them work for you… “some assembly is required” as the saying goes.

***

Editor Note:  Thanks again to Andie for stopping in and sharing her workflow.  If you like the styles, you can purchase the entire preset package from her website for only $89 here:  Andie Smith Photography

She has also generously donated a full copy of her presets to the Lightroom Workshop, so if you happen to be attending, you will get the set there too.  Not attending, sign up and get the whole rest of the day for only $10 more!  Hope to see you there!

1.  In packing for your recent trip to China, what gear choices did you make for such an excursion?

I took two rigs:

(1) One for when I felt like just walking around with one camera, one lens, and no camera bag. That was a Nikon D300s (which is NOT a full frame camera), with an 18-200mm lens. That way I could go wide to tele without ever changing lenses. It’s really my all around favorite travel lens, but not quite as sharp as some of my other lenses. It’s a DX lens, so it doesn’t work with full frame cameras.

(2) In case I went someplace important (Forbidden City, great wall, temple of heaven, etc.), I took my D3 with my 70-200mm f/2.8 VR lens, and a 14-24mm f/2.8 lens. I had to carry a camera bag along with me (and I’d SO rather not). I’d rather focus on the photos, and not the gear, but sometimes you just have to lug the stuff. I also took a Gitzo tripod and ballhead.

2.  The latest season of D-town looks to have expanded coverage to pretty much all of photography, so it’s not just Nikon anymore is it?

When Nikon was the main sponsor, we only covered Nikon gear, and the whole show was very gear specific (this button does this—this dial does that), but in our second season we switched to be more a generally focused show, and more about taking great photos, and less on the switches and dials. We also do more lighting and on location stuff now, so for Matt and I, it’s really a lot of fun, and the viewership has literally gone through the roof, now surpassing Photoshop User TV.

3.  How do you get those cool highlights over camera button features in the D-Town videos?

That comes from Daniel in our video department. D-Town is not an easy show to edit, but I think he really does a kick-butt job with it, and he creates the graphics for everything we do, which is not an easy job. He’s a great editor, and a really great person as well. He’s made two trips to Haiti so far, delivering clothes, shoes, and toys for the children there.

4.  Other than Photoshop, what program in the Creative Suite is the most useful for your own creative endeavors?

To me it’s InDesign. I use it everyday (I’ve already used it today, and it’s just 9:10 am in the morning). I do a lot of my layout stuff there, and I’m in and out of it all the time, so I’ve actually gotten pretty decent at it (in fact, I co-authored an “InDesign Killer Tips” book a few years back, with Adobe’s own Terry White as my co-author. Of course, I did all the easy chapters.

Thanks so much to Dave, Matt, and of course, Scott for taking the time out from their busy schedules to sit down for a little Q&A with us here on the blog.  In case you don’t know the resources already, here are the various outlets for Scott and his work online:

• Photoshop Insider
• NAPP
• D-Town TV

That’s a wrap on the Q&A with the Photoshop Guys!  Tune in tomorrow for the latest LDP podcast – we hit the half century mark and talk about all the latest in photography news and tidbits, including listener Q&A, so be sure to stop in for that!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

1.  I’ve often heard that in LR post production the top-down and left-to-right approach is good, but also that setting camera profiles is a good first step, which is on the bottom right.  What’s your approach?

Once Adobe added the camera profiles, it messed up my whole top-down approach. So now I have to go all the way to the bottom to set the camera profile, then back up to the top to start developing a photo   One work around I have for it is to create a preset of the camera profiles and apply it during import. So it’s already set by the time I get to working on a photo. I have a few favorites and I usually know which ones will work (Landscape for landscapes, Portrait for portraits, etc…).

2.  Since PSU TV is more Photoshop, can viewers expect to see any Lightroom tips coming into D-Town (esp since it seems like software that is geared toward photographers)?

Actually there will probably be more Lightroom in PSU TV. Lightroom is technically “Photoshop Lightroom” and from our research most PSU TV viewers are into photography so it makes sense to cover it there. I touch on post-processing once in a while on DTown TV when I see an opening but we’re pretty packed with camera-related stuff there.

3.  Since you are asking others about keywording all the time (you can find his LR PRo questions over at www.lightroomkillertips.com ), let’s do a 180 – how often do you keyword?

Very rarely. If some generic keywords happen to work during import I’ll apply them there but if they don’t it’s rare that I come back and actually keyword after that. That said, my main areas of photography are landscapes and portraits so I don’t miss them much there. If I want a photo from Moab, I just click my Moab collection and they’re there. Same with the portraits. I very rarely have an editor call me and say “Can I get a photo of a waterfall, with a woman wearing red standing near it, during the summer, on a Thursday?”. I always teach people that if you constantly find yourself looking through for your photos based on some collection of descriptive wording then by all means they should keyword. I fully believe in it for some photographers – just not me

4.  Other than Photoshop, what program in the Creative Suite is the most useful for your own creative endeavors?

I’ve always loved Illustrator. From an artistic standpoint, Illustration is probably one of my favorites. I just really dig crisp clean vector illustrations so Illustrator is probably top on the list for me.

Special thanks to Matt for taking the time to stop in and share his thoughts and insights with the LDP crowd.  You can find Matt in several places online:

• Lightroom Killer Tips
• Photoshop User TV
• Dtown TV
• Twitter

Don’t forget, tomorrow is the grand finale – when Scott Kelby comes in for a few of his own questions with the LDP crowd!  We’ll see you then!

1.  I’ve not seen much of you on D-Town, but you’ve got your own new podcast, “Ask Dave” up and running.  Can you tell the readers a little more about it?

It’s a pretty simple concept: I encourage people to send in Photoshop questions via Twitter or the Kelby TV web site and I try to answer as many as I can, one a week. Typically the questions are in the form of “how do I…” and “what’s the quickest way to…”

2.  As the “token” Bridge fan of the PS Guys, what is your favorite new feature of Bridge and why?

I like the fact that I can quickly and easily choose images and apply batch actions, create a web site (with the Bridge Output option) and apply Camera Raw settings to multiple images. And in Photoshop CS5 I LOVE the fact that Bridge can be accessed directly inside Photoshop using Mini Bridge.

3.  With the Canadian background, I’ve always wanted to know:  What are your thoughts on Colorado stealing the Quebec Nordiques?  *Editor Note* This move happened quite a while ago, so it’s not “new” news, but given the opportunity to ask, I had to throw it in there…

At the time I was a Montreal Canadiens fan, so the move to Colorado took away one of the hottest rivalries in all of sport. The passion in those Nordiques vs Habs games was unbelievable. Having said that, Montreal fans got a good laugh when the Avalanche went on to win the Stanley Cup, much to the dismay of Quebec fans.

4.  Other than Photoshop, what program in the Creative Suite is the most useful for your own creative endeavors?

I use Illustrator quite a bit for logo creation and things like that and I really like the integration between Illustrator and Photoshop. I also spend a lot of time in InDesign, laying out workbooks and personal projects and really like the way I can import native layered Photoshop documents (with Layer Comps) into InDesign.

Thanks so much to Dave for taking the time out to tackle a few of the burning questions we’ve had! It wasn’t all Photoshop or photography, but it sure was fun!  You can find Dave on the web at:

• Photoshop User TV
• Dave Cross Online
• D-town TV

Be sure to tune in tomorrow for the next in the Photoshop Guys Series – Matt Kloskowski!

This image has the perfect amount of abstraction, yet also technically is very well thought-out, and the symbolism/timeliness of it to topical events of late is pretty amazing.  Congratulations to Stephen!  If you could get in touch with me via email (jason <AT> canonblogger <DOT> com) I’ll coordinate to have the folks at Adobe set up fulfillment on your very own copy of Lightroom 3!

Special thanks and acknowledgments also to Adobe for their generosity and continued support of the blog, podcast and concert series – you are a big part of why people come every day to read the material, to learn and share knowledge with one another.  Thanks Adobe!

So, with the July contest series wrapped up, it’s time to announce the August contest.  Another sponsor of the blog in a big way is Red River Paper, as they are providing discount codes and promotional offers to all readers of the blog (CB18 for  $5 off any order and CBShip for free shipping of a promo pack of papers.).  They are also contest sponsors and this month they have generously contributed a pack of 8×10 Pearl Pro Metallic paper for some lucky participant.  And without further ado – the theme for August is:

METAL

A Flickr thread will be posted on Saturday, and entries will start being accepted at midnight.  Thanks to Red River Paper for their sponsorship as well for not only the giveaway, but for their support of the blog and podcast!

In keeping with just going to take it all in, I left all my camera gear at home, save my Motorola Droid, which I wasn’t really counting because that is my phone, and it’s serving multiple purposes.  Yet, (surprise surprise), I found myself compelled to take photos of some of my discoveries from the excursion, so, restricted to my camera phone, I was very much “shooting from the hip”.  While the images are certainly never going to make it into the Smithsonian, some were quite compelling for their historical reference (and to its credit, I was quite happy with the Droid performance given the range of conditions I put it through).

Here is a sampling of some of the more interesting shots of the day, including an old time Apothecary pill manufacturing device:

A milker for the Bessies on the farm:

A broom maker:

A loom:

and a boat:

I’ve already put a few of these on Flickr, so for those of you seeing duplicates, my apologies…

Anyway, fun stuff, and always good (in my opinion) to take some time off to re-set.  You can still take photos even if they’re not works of art, and just knowing your purpose can always help to get the creative juices flowing again.

So, what helps you re-set?  Is it a break from routine?  Taking a trip?  Putting photography out of your mind?  Powering through it with a point and shoot?  Sound of with your strategies in the comments!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here soon with the announcement of the winner for the Lightroom 3 Giveaway!

To start, I took an image and pulled it into Photoshop.  Realizing that I would need to do some virtually identical steps across several images, on the first one, I started the process of creating an action.  The action in essence, creates a duplicate layer of the image, converts it to black and white, then repeats the duplication for another 9 black and white layer copies.  So, ultimately your Layer panel has 11 layers to it – 10 black and white layers and one color layer (at the bottom).

Next, I went to each layer and adjusted the opacity down by 10%.  So, the top layer was at 100% opacity, then 90%, then 80%, etc, etc, all the way down to 10%.  At this point I stopped recording the action.  Now, it was a simple matter of saving each of the 11 total images to a folder.  I started with the full layer set visible and saved to web (Control+ALT=Shift+S).  I saved to a specific folder so that each subsequent image could easily be numbered sequentially for easier management later.  In the end, I had 11 images, numbered 1-11.

For the final step, I opened my video editor (Camtasia) and imported the media.  Here it now may take some trial and error to determine image length, transition length, and if you want titles included.  Next, I picked some audio from the native library and added to the time line.  After clipping and taking the last few seconds for a fade out, the slide show was done. All I had to do now was export and share.

In Camtasia, there are many options to choose from for sharing your work online, from Screencast.net (their host) to YouTube, exporting as Flash, .mov files, .avi files, and many other options.  Here you should choose the one that works best for you and your needs.

Last but not least, it’s just a matter of either exporting the video you created and uploading either to your own host through FTP, or using the native interface to export to any one of a number of video hosting services as mentioned above.

For those interested in giving it a whirl, here’s the action I put together in 10% increments.  Feel free to experiment and try your own settings and percentages to style and taste as needed.

Black and White Layers

Got your own ideas for how to create new effects and appearances with stills in videos?  What are your thoughts on this technique?  Share your thoughts, comments, and feedback below or with me via email.

As a final reminder for the week, there’s limited time left on a couple of fronts:

1. The contest for July is about wrapped up – you still have a chance to enter to win a copy of Lightroom 3 from the folks over at Adobe, so don’t forget to sign up today!  Just submit your photo in the Flickr thread.
2. The Lightroom Workshop Series kicks off in a little over a week in Anaheim CA, with Denver following shortly thereafter.  We’ve also added some webinars for those who can’t attend an entire day, and more info coming on that.  We’d love to see you in on a workshop day though, so sign up soon as time and space are limited!  Signups are being handled over at Lightroom Dudes
3. Last but not least, the eBook is out of the gates and initial response has been overwhelming!  Thanks to everyone who has shared their thoughts and feedback on the sequel for 49 Photo Tips.   The 20% savings window is almost over too, so be sure to get your digital download before the end of the month.  After that, it’s regular price of $4.99

Purists may scorn such activities, and while there are some situations where editing a photo significantly can have moral, ethical, and professional consequences (such as photo journalism), I can’t help but wonder how Photoshop came to have such a bad association.  Clearly, there are differences of opinion across the spectrum on what lines shouldn’t be crossed (or “photoshopped”).  Overall though, I would say that Photoshop is not innately a bad thing (whether you think of it as a software application or a verb).

I said just a moment ago that I always try to get the picture right when in camera.  It’s not that I am opposed to pixel editing, but I’d rather avoid it if I can.  There are times (for me) though when some things cannot be avoided.  Take for instance a ballgame we went to just last weekend.  The Milwaukee Brewers were in town and it made for a great birthday present and combination Father’s day gift for Tracy and the visiting in-laws.

Being one to always take a camera in tow, I did.  A beautiful sunset ensued at the game and of course, I had to take a few shots.  When I got to skim through things the other day, noticed something in the scene that I wished wasn’t there – power lines! So, the decision had to be made – will it significantly help the composition to remove those lines?  For me, the answer was yes.  So, into Photoshop I went, and after a few minutes of editing, produced the results (click on the picture for a larger view).

Before Photoshop:

And after:

It may not seem like much to others, but to me, the shot looks a lot better without the power line.  So, what’s your take on this?  Is Photoshop a bad word?  Does the picture look better, the same or worse?  Sound off in the comments!  Keep on shooting too and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

I took these questions with me to a conversation with Senior Product Manager Tom Hogarty last week, and got a lot of insights and answers, with both a technical perspective and that of long-term development.  I give you this week’s podcast:

A Conversation with Tom Hogarty

Show Notes:

1. News
   1. Flickr and Getty Licensing Expanded – http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20008129-264.html
   2. Editing history or is it just a cigar? – http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1286620/Churchill-non-smoker-How-todays-PC-censors-airbrushed-cigar.html
   3. Longmont Loves Google -http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1286620/Churchill-non-smoker-How-todays-PC-censors-airbrushed-cigar.html
2. Tom Hogarty
3. Listener Q&A
   1. Optical Image versus Sensor Image Stabilization – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image_stabilization
   2. What is Skunk Lighting?
   3. Pen Tablet Stopped Working – What to do?
      1. Swap ports
      2. Hardware/software changes
      3. OS Feature Changes

Enjoy the show and find out whether the next contest features some software from our favorite folks over at Adobe!   Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

ETA:  If the video player doesn’t load (and it looks like the plugin broke in the upgrade to 3.o, so it won’t) – here’s a temporary download location for the show in m4a format with chapters and photos for the visual crowd.  Otherwise, the mp3 is still being fed through PLM until they update their feed (which should be soon).  Anyway, here it is:

Episode 47

Photo News

1. 3rd Annual Worldwide Photo Walk has been announced by Scott Kelby, and details are here.
2. Lightroom 3 was announced last week Monday – and is available to purchase and download…you can also download a 30 day trial for free from Adobe here (or buy via the sponsored link in the sidebar!)
3. New Plugins available for LR – Pro Show Gold, a popular slideshow and movie creation software set.  Info here

Martin Bailey

1. Photography and Culture in Japan: Laws or hassles shooting in public?
2. Workshops and your development in photography

• Workshops
• Development/Inspiration

3. X-Rite Colorati
4. Martin on the web

Links: http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/
Blog: http://blog.martinbaileyphotography.com/
Podcast: http://www.martinbaileyphotography.com/podcasts.php
Workshops: http://www.mbpworkshops.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MartinBailey
Folio: Martin Baily Photography

Q&A

• Professional Critique
• Cost of Printing
• Starting Camera Suggestions

Martin was also kind enough to share a sample selection of his portfolio with us here on the show.  These are the low res versions, to see things super nice, head on over to his folio link provided above.  In the meantime, enjoy the photos, the show, and we’ll see you back here tomorrow for the latest in photography reviews!

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 Frequently Asked Questions

1.  I tried the tethered capture, but Lightroom does not appear to let me adjust shutter speed, aperture or ISO with my (fill in your camera body type).  Is this model not supported?

Answer:  The tethered capture is only intended as a capture function.  The display shows you the shutter, aperture and ISO, but you cannot make those adjustments on the computer – that must be done at camera.

2.  Will Lightroom 3 upgrade both my catalogs from LR2 and the beta?

Answer: My understanding is that Lightroom 3 will automatically upgrade your LR2 catalog for you.  Once that operation is done, you can then import the catalog from the beta edition to your new catalog in LR3 to bring everything in together.

3.  What if I don’t want Lightroom 3 to upgrade my catalog?  Can I stop it from doing that?

Yes, on first launch you will be prompted to either upgrade your LR2 catalog or to start a new one.

4.  Should I get Lightroom 3 or Cs5 – I can’t afford both.

Answer:  If you are just diving in now, I would recommend starting with Lightroom 3.  It has so many features and the strength and robustness of it really has diminished the need for round trips to Photoshop when you are talking about photography.  Of course if you have serious restoration work, clone work, or need to use features like layers, then Photoshop is a requirement, but I would classify people in this group as graphic artists, not photographers.  If you’re upgrading, both do not have to be done simultaneously.  Go with one (Lightroom) and the other a few months down the road (Cs5).  Or, use the sidebar here to get 30% off the combo pack!

5.  Will there be any contests here on your Flickr Monthly Giveaway Series so I can participate for a copy of Lightroom 3?

No comment!   In all seriousness, I’d love to, but cannot speak for Adobe – we’ll see what happens in the coming weeks.  Don’t be expecting it, but don’t write it off either!

Got any of your own questions about Lightroom 3 not covered above?  Feel free to sound off in the comments! Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

With that in mind, I’m bringing back a popular concept of “Top Tips”.  Today, I give you…(drum roll please):

“Five Tips to Better Photos”

1. Be Ware of Exposure Values – No matter how good your camera is, if you under or over expose too much, you’ll be losing detail which either takes too long to recover in post production or is unrecoverable.  Check your histogram for “blinkies” (meaning stay away from the edges), and you’re in a much better zone to start!
2. In keeping with watching exposure values, don’t rely on new-fangled features lie “content aware fill” or “clone tools” to fix things afterward.  If it takes ten more seconds to get it right in camera, do it, because it means you are still shooting and not stuck behind a monitor at 2am fixing stuff for tomorrow’s delivery deadline!
3. Avoid increasing Noise.  It’s like a broken record at this point, but would you rather keep noise down in camera or address it because you were shooting at ISO 64000 in camera?  Yeah, the reduction features are amazing, but it’s even better if you don’t even have to touch that slider.  Swap lenses, check settings, and heck, maybe even add a fill flash.  It helps to keep noise down, which ultimately means your shots are cleaner.
4. Look for the Light – the direction of the light, the intensity of light, and the shape of the light all can impact your photos.  As a general rule, keep the light to your side and behind you, and try to keep the intensity down as you don’t want to over-expose your subject (see Tip #1).  Don’t forget, you can shape and modify even ambient light with diffusers, reflectors,  and umbrellas.  It’s all part of the larger principle that photography is about “writing with light”.
5. Shy away from shadows – Just as the quality of light can make or break a photo, so too can shadows.  Watch for overhead lights as this can have nasty effects on things like portraiture (shadows under eyes).  Coming at your subject from the wrong angle can also lead to nasty and unwanted shadows of yourself in the picture.  For instance, if you are shooting a building at sunset with the sun directly behind you, your own shadow can creep into the scene, making for some not-so-fun post production work in Photoshop.

There you have it – 5 easy tips to better photos!  Lightroom?  We don’t need no stinkin’ Lightroom!  (Well, we do, but it made for a good quote! )

What sorts of tips have you come up with to make and take better photos in camera?  Share your own in the comments!  Happy shooting and we’ll see you back here again tomorrow!

P.S.  Remember, there are two contests going on right now – if you stop over to the podcast day (Monday) where I talked with Rob Sylvan and share a comment you are entered to win a free copy of his upcoming “Taking Stock” book – courtesy of Peachpit Press.  Also, the monthly giveaway for 2 4GB Lexar Pro 300x CF cards is rolling and you can submit your photos to the Flickr thread here!  Enjoy and good luck to all!

Here’s the show notes:

News

• 3rd Annual Worldwide Photowalk
• Getting sued for your own Images
• Lexar 16Gb and 32 GB cards now shipping
  

Interview – Rob Sylvan

• NAPP Helpdesk Work
• Lightroomers
• Books
  • Lightroom 2 For Dummies
  • Taking Stock (forthcoming)
• Perfect Picture School
• Adobe Lightroom Support Center
  • George Jardine Podcast #18
• Rob on Twitter

Q&A

1. Porting Libraries/Catalogs from Lightroom 2 to Lightroom 3 (Beta)
2. Adding monitors for more real estate
3. Work flow for scanning your photos

Contest News

Thanks to Scott from Peachpit Press, there is a special contest associated with this podcast and blog post!  If you listened to the podcast, you know what’s at stake, so feel free to chime in on the comments – something fun to win for 3 random people!  This post will take comments through July 7th and then three people at random will be selected for the prize!

That’s it for today – lost of fun stuff coming up tomorrow too, so make sure you stop in for the latest news – will be talking software AND hardware tomorrow…as well as announcing something else near and dear to me here on the blog, so be sure to stop back in then for more.  Happy shooting and we’ll see you then!