Thanks for having me on the show Jason!

First, here is Dave Cross’ updated planner for Orlando. Second, there is an iPhone app for that too!

There is also a Flickr group for sharing PSW photos. If you are free on Tuesday the 23rd, come by the Rosen Centre Poolside lounge around 7:30 for the official PSW tweetup as I hear @Lightroom will be sharing something. I’ll be there!

Here’s an extra tip I find really useful, when I am first using the Adjustment Brush to apply any setting I prefer to start with all sliders zeroed out and the mask overlay visible. This way I can just focus on applying the brush strokes to the right part of the image. Once the brush strokes have been applied I’ll hide the overlay and work on tweaking the settings as needed. The non-destructive editing capability of the Adjustment Brush is one of its most useful features, so don’t be afraid to experiment. You don’t need to get it right the first time!

If you are using the Lightroom 3 Beta you can simply hold the Alt/Option key and the Effect label changes to Reset. Click Reset and you are all zeroed out. The preset works equally well in the beta too, so if you prefer that option you can still use it.

To install this preset:

1. Download and unzip the .lrtemplate file.
2. In Lightroom, go to Preferences > Presets and click the Show Lightroom Presets Folder button.
3. When your file browser opens, navigate inside the Lightroom folder and copy the zeroed.lrtemplate file into the Local Adjustment Presets folder.
4. Restart Lightroom and look for the “Zeroed” preset in the Effect drop-down menu in either the Adjustment Brush or the Graduated Filter.

I spent some time walking around the expo floor at ImagingUSA this morning. Wow! It was huge. Way bigger than Photoplus and Photoshop World. It just went on forever. One of the coolest things I found was called “the Polester”, no, not a portable pole dancing kit, but rather a telescoping pole with a mount for your camera at the top.

The inventor and mastermind behind the Polester, Jim, was kind enough to let me test drive it with my LX3. Jim did say he has a DSLR model, but the original inspiration was for use with a compact digital when you need to get a shot that might otherwise be too dangerous or difficult to capture any other way. In just a couple of minutes he had my LX3 mounted on the pole and he handed it over.

You fire the shutter by pulling a string that activates a lever that pushes the button. Simple. I suppose it could work if you were able to remotely fire your camera wirelessly. I took a few shots of the expo hall in an attempt to make a polester-pano. Results below (click for larger). No, you can’t frame the shot, but I could see that it fired each time and then just slightly rotated the pole for the next.

You can check out a video of the Polester in action over at longshotcamerasystems.com and even see Jim (who, as an aside, bears a striking resemblance to my Photoshop hero Pete Bauer). Priced at $199 it may not be for everyone, but what a blast it would be to walk around taking shots from 20 feet off the ground!

Camera: DMC-LX3
Shutter Speed: 1/30
Aperture: f/2
Processed in Lightroom and stitched in Photoshop CS4.

From the course description …

“Are you a new to intermediate Lightroom user who is looking to take your Lightroom experience to the next level? Do you have the basics down, but still want to know more? Does Lightroom drive you crazy sometimes? Would you like to learn how to better integrate Lightroom into other aspects of your digital life? Would you like to avoid common problems and learn from the mistakes of others? Well then this is the course designed for you. After answering questions from thousands of Lightroom users over the last 3 years I created a course that covers the most common things people have been struggling to understand while integrating Lightroom into their photography workflow.”

Continue reading about Lightroomers Guide to Lightroom class over at ppsop.net. The part of this class I am most jazzed about is that it allows for a level of interaction between me and the students you won’t find in most online learning experiences. This class includes lessons, assignments, video tips and lots of Q&A interaction via the classroom message board. You’ll be able to reach me via email, my blog, and twitter too, so it is the next best thing to having me at your side for 4 weeks while you take your Lightroom skills to the next level!

PPSOP was founded by one of my long time photography heroes, Bryan Peterson, who authored (among many others) my all time favorite book on understanding exposure, perfectly named, Understanding Exposure. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to wrap your head around exposure once and for all.

Bryan produced a great video explaining how PPSOP courses work. My class will continue to run throughout the year so if the January 8 start date doesn’t work for you keep checking back for the next session. I look forward working closely with you over those 4 weeks!

If you are brand new to Lightroom and you are looking for a great place to get started then I suggest taking Jon Canfield’s Lightroom From Import to Output first and then take my class next. I’ve designed my class to build on the materials in Jon’s class so your learning continues to the next level!

When anyone asks me where they can find great Lightroom tutorials, tips and tricks I simply point them to Lightroom.Alltop.com and feel good about sending them to a content rich resource that should cover just about anything you want to know about Lightroom.

As a bonus I thought it would be helpful to consolidate a link to all the twitter accounts (that I know of) of every blogger listed on the Lightroom Alltop page, so here you go:

twitter.com/Mattkloskowski (lightroomKilerTips.com)

twitter.com/lightroomblog (lightroom-news.com and lightroomblog.com)

twitter.com/LRSecrets (LightroomSecrets.com)

twitter.com/xequals (x-equals.com/blog/)

twitter.com/insidelightroom (InsideLightroom.com)

twitter.com/thelightroomlab (thelightroomlab.com)

twitter.com/laurashoe (digitaldailydose.wordpress.com)

twitter.com/ScottKelby (scottkelby.com/blog/)

twitter.com/lightroomers (woot!)

Let me know if you know of twitter accounts for other Lightroom bloggers on Lightroom.Alltop. I tried to find everyone I could.

If you want a one-stop-shop twitter feed for all of the above listed folks plus a bunch of my favorite Lightroom twitter folks then check out my Lightroomers twitter list.

In the Lightroom section you’ll find my Under the Loupe column where I cover the import backup function and give a shout out to ImageIngester as an interesting front-end to Lightroom. The reason I like ImageIngester is that it copies the video files from my card, has a function to embed GPS data from a tracklog while copying photos from my card and allows you to setup the structure of your backups to mirror your working file structure. Worth test driving the free trial if any of those things sound interesting to you.

The Creative Effects in Lightroom by Sean Duggan is the Lightroom feature this month and is both filled with practical tips and a creative kick in the pants. Matt Kloskowski covers some cool ways to use the Graduated Filter in his Under the Hood column. Chris Orwig covers the Tips & Tricks while RC covers the Q&A. Did you know that you can be considered for the Feature Photographer in an upcoming magazine issue? You can! This month features the awesome work of Jennifer Raudebaugh. Shoot an email to lightroom at photoshopuser dot com if you are interested.

While you can buy Photoshop User at most book store magazine racks for ten bucks a pop you’d be far happier (and smarter) to invest in a membersip with NAPP, which includes a subscription to all 8 issues of the magazine plus acesss to all the tips, tricks an tutorials on the NAPP member website and you can easily get back your $99 membership fee by taking advantage of the deals and discounts available to NAPP members (like free shipping from B&H and Adorama).

Keep your eye out for the January/Februrary issue for my feature article called Making Money with Lightroom, part 1: SEO for Lightroom Web Galleries, which has some cool (I think) tips for making your Lightroom web galleries more search engine friendly (and findable).

Adobe has just released Lightroom 3 Beta! Now before you rush out and start downloading I’d like to give you my take on this beta release to help you get off on the right foot.

This is a Beta version, which means it is not the finished product. Beta software is usually stable, but not necessarily bug free. Before you import, please start out by creating a copy of a few folders of photos (already safely backed up) and treat these copies as expendable test files. I don’t expect anything bad to happen to them, but with Beta software there is no reason to take any chances. Think of the Beta release as a way to get a taste for what Adobe has in mind for Lightroom 3, give it a test drive and see what you think. They really want your feedback to incorporate into the final release.

What I’m Most Excited About So Far

1. Improved rendering. The engineer-elves have added some new magic into LR3 to improve the rendering of our raw photos in regards to noise reduction and capture sharpening. Not finished yet (no Luminance noise reduction right now), but any effort to develop better looking photos gets my vote.
2. Improved watermarking. OK this may seem like a small thing, but it has been on my list for a very long time. I’m working on a LR3 Beta Watermarking tutorial that should be posted this week. Stay tuned! I’m not quite ready to give up LRMogrify yet though!
3. Custom Print Packages! Gone will be the days when I have to explain to people why they can’t print 3 different 4×6 photos on an 8.5×11 sheet of paper. Woot!

There is a lot more to love and a lot more to learn! I’ve got several LR3 Beta tutorials in the pipeline so stay tuned, but let me leave you with some valuable resources:

1. Go to Lightroom Journal and read all about the Lightroom 3 Beta.
2. Head over to Scott Kelby’s Blog and see what his top 10 list is all about.
3. Visit the NAPP Lightroom 3 Beta Learning Center to dive into some tutorials.
4. Check in with Lightroom plugin developer Jeffrey Friedl about using plugins with LR3 Beta.

OK, you are probably really itching to download the Beta … but please please please take a few minutes to read the Release Notes before you do. No, seriously, just give them a go over for known issues. I’m only trying to help!

OK, this Beta is free to everyone for the length of the Beta program so head over to Adobe Labs and take it for a spin. Check back here for more tutorials and resources in the coming days!

New! Updated tutorials for Lightroom 3 Beta:

• Boosting Lightroom Performance
• Replacing the Lightroom Preference File
• Back Up Your Lightroom Catalog