Before you go hiking up the trails or splashing in the water, it’s time to review our snow editing techniques! Lightroom is a great tool for taking relatively flat light shots (like those after a snowstorm) and improving contrast, color, removing vignettes and creating and well-styled Black & White photo. Also creating that snowy day preset will save a lot of time, as chances are good all your other shots from that day (or most of them) require very similar treatment.

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.

1. Press G to jump to Grid.
2. Select all the photos you want to have the same aspect ratio.
3. Expand the Quick Develop panel
4. Expand the Saved Preset section if you can’t see the Crop Ratio setting.
5. Click the Crop Ratio drop-down menu and select the aspect ratio or Enter Custom to create your own.

All the selected thumbnails will update to the new aspect ratio. Press R if you want to jump to the Crop tool and tweak the crop composition.

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!

Big thanks to Scott Bourne for providing the platform for my 10 Things I Wish I Could Tell Every New Lightroom  User blog post and big thanks to Scott Kelby for making it twice as good with his own 10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users list! I love it!

Well, not wanting this to just be a blog post about a blog post about a blog post here’s a few 5 new tips for you:

1. To quickly find where all your presets and templates are stored go to Lightroom > Preferences > Presets (Win: Edit > Preferences > Presets) and click the Show Lightroom Presets Folder button. They are all in there. Windows users will even find the Lightroom preference file in there.
2. If your presets should all vanish one day, check to make sure the Store Presets with Catalog box is unchecked.
3. If your photos appear to be getting overly brightened on import and you don’t know why, check to make sure Apply auto tone adjustments is not checked. The auto tone function is much improved in Lightroom 2, but I don’t think applying it to all imported photos is a good idea. Just use Auto Tone button in the Basic panel or the General – Auto Tone preset on a case-by-case basis.
4. While you have the Preferences dialog open click the File Handling tab and set your Camera Raw cache to 20GB and see if that gives you a speed boost in the Develop module (especially with the Adjustment Brush).
5. Now click on the Import tab and check the box next to Treat JPEG files next to raw files as separate photos so you will see both the raw and JPEG side by side in Lightroom after import.

Hope you find that helpful!

Late edit: I just saw that Matt Kloskowski did a blog post where he added 3 more Lightroom tips, so there’s at least 28 tips all bundled up for the taking.

You can still jump to the Crop Tool from anywhere in Lightroom by selecting a photo and pressing R.

Once you are in the Crop Tool you can choose between different crop overlays to help you find the strongest composition by pressing O to cycle through them, or look under the View > Crop Guide Overlay menu.

Read Advanced Cropping over at peachpit.com.

The Vignette panel in Lightroom 2 contains two sets of Vignette controls:

Lens Correction: This section works just like the controls in Lightroom 1, which are intended to correct an actual vignette problem. The effect is only applied to the outer edge of the original photo, but not the cropped version.

Post-Crop: This is a new set of controls that are strictly for creative purposes and will automatically be reapplied after any subsequent cropping is performed.

In this tutorial I’d like to specifically focus on the new set of sliders in the Post-Crop section.

Read  Working with the Vignette Panel over at peachpit.com.

The Graduated Filter tool allows you to make adjustments to exposure, brightness, contrast, saturation, clarity, sharpness and color. Not just individually either, you can apply any combination of adjustments with a single Graduated Filter. On top of that you can add multiple Graduated Filters to a single photo that function completely independently of each other. It is an incredibly versatile tool!

The Graduated Filter has two modes—Buttons and Sliders—that you can toggle between by clicking the Show Effect button. I usually prefer to work with the sliders because it just feels more intuitive to me.

Read Making Adjustments with the Graduated Filter Tool over at peachpit.com.

There is an aspect of the Lightroom crop tool that is not as intuitive as it could be (based on how often the question gets asked), and that is how to change the orientation of the crop rectangle.

Let’s say you have a photo with a landscape orientation, but you want to create a portrait orientation crop within it. Here’s what you need to do:

1. Select the photo and press R to jump to the Crop tool.
2. Choose the aspect ratio you want to be applied.
3. Close the lock icon to “lock in” that aspect ratio (press A to close/open the lock).
4. Grab a corner resize handle and drag to the opposite corner along the longest edge until the orientation of the crop rectangle flips.

Since the aspect ratio is locked in, as soon as you decrease the length of the long side to the point that it is no longer the longest side the orientation has to switch to maintain the aspect ratio. Once the orientation has changed you can re-position the photo for best composition. Believe me it is easier to do than explain! Give it a try.