Fun with Photography Featuring Lightroom 2

October 8, 2009 by Dawn

Fun with Photography Featuring Lightroom 2: Adjustment Brushes and Basic Sliders

[Refer to this post for information about Adobe Lightroom 2 software and to apply for the academic discount you qualify for as a homeschooler.]

To download this article with step-by-step photo instructions, click here.

Are you having fun with Lightroom yet? This time weʼre going to talk about the adjustment brushes and Basic sliders, which can be found at the top right column when youʼre in the development Module (press D on your keyboard, and make sure the word “Develop” is highlighted on the bar showing the five modules.)

Before you do anything else, go straight to Matt Kloskowskiʼs Lightroom Killer Tips blog and download this set of adjustment brushes, which will give you four more brushes: brightening/whitening teeth, whiten eyes, red lips, and iris enhance. Follow his installation instructions carefully and be sure to restart Lightroom when youʼre finished.

Iʼm going to take a photo of my daughter and show how you can use those brushes and
sliders. First, weʼll start with the original.

It has potential, but can easily be improved with some minor tweaks. Remember, you must be in the Develop Module to edit the photo. Look at the panel on the right and access the adjustment brush by clicking on its icon (circled in white).

To download this article with further step-by-step photo instructions, click here.

First we’ll use the Brighten/Whiten Teeth brush. Click the arrows in the middle column, to the right of “Effect,” to open the drop-down menu. Make your brush the right size (big enough to cover the teeth, but not the lips) and start painting on this effect. You can change the size of your brush either via the brush size slider or by scrolling with the wheel on top of your mouse. You can move the Exposure or Brightness sliders to adjust the whiteness of the teeth, just be careful not to make it look fake. I used the skin softening brush over the bruise on her forehead and the scratch on her arm (kids always have some sort of bruise or scratch).

Next, I clicked “New” and then selected the Brighten Eyes brush to lighten the whites of her eyes. There will be little dots on the picture representing each brush; if you mouse over them, you’ll see where that brush was used (this shows the skin softening brush). If you decide to edit one of the brushes—say I want to make her teeth whiter—just click the dot for that brush and you can adjust the sliders on the right again.

We’ve edited the photo, but it still looks a little blah, so last, but not least, I’m going to make some tweaks to the Basic sliders. I think they’ll really make the picture pop. We want to make sure the adjustment brush dialogue is closed and that we’re editing the picture as a whole, and tweaking the sliders for one of the brushes. Click the adjustment brush icon to close it. You’ll know that it’s closed when it looks like this, with the Basic tab underneath (which may or may not be open, depending on whether the triangle next to it’s name has been clicked).

These next adjustments are very simple, but make a world of difference in our final image. To lighten and brighten the photo, I’ll drag the Exposure slider to the right until it reads +1.00 (default is 0.00). To keep from washing it out too much, we’ll drag the Blacks slider slightly to the right. I set it at +2.00. Then I nudged the Fill Light over to 18 to add some more light to her face and on her eyes. Really, you can just nudge those sliders around to your heart’s content until you get the effect you want.

Finally, we’ll “frame” the photo by adding vignetting around the edges. Go to the bottom of the Develop settings on the right until you get to the Vignettes. I drug the Amount slider to the left until it said -29.

Once you start playing with those brushes and sliders, you’ll become more familiar with what they do and see how easy it is to tweak your photos. Happy editing!

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Suggestions for future columns? Email me at dawn@heartofthemattermagazine.com

Recommended Resources:
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby
(http://www.kelbytraining.com/product/adobe-photoshop-lightroom-20-book-fordigital-
photographers.html)

dawn Dawn has been homeschooling her eight children–ages pre-K to college–since 1993. Her interests include photography, and both graphic and web design. She is the owner of Barefoot Blog Designs, and also blogs at My Home Sweet Home, her photoblog and The Homeschool Post.

Tags: Adjustment Brushes, Adobe Lightroom 2, Basic Sliders, Develop Module, Matt Kloskowskiʼs Lightroom Killer Tips, photo editing

Fun with Photography Featuring Lightroom 2: Salvaging Underexposed Photos

July 7, 2009 by Dawn

Fun with Photography Featuring Lightroom 2: Easy Editing with Presets

April 7, 2009 by Dawn

1 Comment

Okay, so how many of you read last issue’s column and either purchased Lightroom or downloaded a 30-day free trial? You can refer to that post for information about applying for the academic discount you qualify for as a homeschooler.

In the coming months we’ll cover many of the organizational and editing tools in Lightroom; however, this month I want to show you an easy way to get some amazing editing effects: Presets. The graphic above the title of this article is from the Lightroom interface and represents the five Lightroom modules. To edit your photos you will need to be in Develop (on my Mac, typing “D” takes me to the Develop module).

Creative:

Aged Photo
Antique Grayscale
Antique Light
B&W High Contrast
B&W Low Contrast
Cold Tone
Cyanotype
Direct Positive
Selenium Tone
Sepia

General:

Auto Tone
Grayscale
Punch
Zeroed

Sharpen:

Landscapes
Portraits

Tone Curve:

Flat
Strong Contrast

Don’t worry if you don’t understand all of these terms; just play with the Presets and see what you like.

One of the most important things to remember in Lightroom is that it provides a non-destructive workflow, meaning Lightroom doesn’t alter your original image. You can crop and edit to your heart’s content without worrying about overwriting your original.

Here’s an example of different effects created simply by using the Lightroom Presets. (I want to note here that when I use some of the Presets – Antique Photo, Antique Grayscale, Antique Light, B&W High Contrast, B&W Low Contrast, and Sepia – my photos are often overexposed, or too bright/light. I simply drag the Exposure slider on the right side of my screen to the left until the photo is properly exposed. It’s an easy fix.)

These effects are just a mouse-click away with Presets:
Original

original
Antique Light

antiquelight
Antique Grayscale

antiquegrayscale
B&W High Contrast

bwhighcontrast
Sepia

sepia

Beautiful and easy, aren’t they?

Although I love the built-in Lightroom Presets, most of my favorites are free downloads from Matt Kloskowski’s Lightroom Killer Tips blog (http://www.lightroomkillertips.com). Look in his sidebar under Browse Categories and just click the Presets tab to view his preset archives. You can view a sample of each Preset, and download it for free. Matt has even recorded a video on how to install Presets.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Suggestions for future columns? Email me at dawn@heartofthemattermagazine.com

Recommended Resources:

http://digital-photography-school.com/8-sites-for-free-presets (8 Sites for Free Adobe Lightroom Presets)
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby (http://www.kelbytraining.com/product/adobe-photoshop-lightroom-20-book-for-digital-photographers.html)

Check out my article on page 44 of the funky flipbook edition of Heart of the Matter Magazine.

Tags: Adobe, digital photography tips, editing, HSLDA, Lightroom 2, Organization, Photo Historian, photography

Homeschool Burnout – Rising from the Ashes

January 7, 2009 by Dawn

6 Comments

Burnout. The sound of the word itself reminds me of spent canons, smoking guns, or smoldering embers where once there was a passion and a fire. In the words of Sam Keen, “Burnout is nature’s way of telling you, you’ve been going through the motions. Your soul has departed; you’re a zombie, a member of the walking dead, a sleepwalker.” No wonder homeschool mothers dread it. Many a homeschool mom has succumbed to burnout and sadly mistaken it for a sign that she is incapable of teaching her children or that her kids would be better off in public school. That is why it is so important for us to take a spiritual and physical inventory on a regular basis as the providers of our children’s education. You can’t give anything that you yourself don’t have. We must first take care of the mama so mama can nurture and bless her babies.

Are You Burned Out?
How do you know if you are nearing a period of burnout or already in one? See if any of these symptoms describe how you feel:

Inability to cope
Feeling overwhelmed
Depression
Lack of patience
Lack of enthusiasm
Lack of motivation
Fatigue – mental or physical
Zoning out
“I don’t care” attitude
Hopelessness
Under or overeating
No sense of priority
Crying easily
Grumpiness
Inability to manage time well
Wanting to hide or get away without your family

Those types of feelings are typical to all of us at one time or another, and having a little of some may be healthy from time to time – because life is not always easy. However, if you find yourself struggling with these on a weekly or daily basis and become increasingly aware that they are not going away, maybe it is time to seek out some godly counsel. Talking with someone who is not biased towards the situation may bring new light on the roots of your problem – so you can see clearly to untangle yourself. Maybe you have a loving parent who has your best interest in mind and is not afraid to tell you when you need a change. Maybe you have a long-time homeschooling friend who has been a mentor to you in the past. In a time when you are depressed and overwhelmed, two heads are definitely better than one clouded mind.

Getting to the Root of the Problem
I’m sure you have heard that the first step to healing is admitting there’s a problem. The same rings true with homeschool burnout. We are creatures of habit. We are also prone to continue in those habits even if they are unproductive and damaging – leading us further and further away from our goals. It is amazing how one can be frustrated by what they do, and yet continue to do it. This is the human way. Creatures of flesh often need to be reminded that their way is NOT the best way. Sometimes God allows our ‘brick walls’ to bring us back to reality – that He is the Way and He requires our willingness to be teachable, to change, and to seek Him above all else.
Recognizing the cause of your burnout is the first step in breaking free and setting yourself back on a path of success. The obvious causes of burnout are the same as the obvious causes of depression: pregnancy, birth of a new child, illness, moving, job changes or loss, or death of a loved one. These are life changes that you can not escape.

Each of us faces these in our due time and thankfully, they are only temporary. Those that tend to be at the root of the problem more often, however, are the habits we neglect to change and the negative attitudes we allow to settle. Fears, unrealistic expectations (it isn’t realistic to expect success when we take on so many outside activities that our academics suffer), comparing ourselves to other homeschoolers, or not maintaining consistent discipline will all undermine your attempt to maintain order in the home. Prayerlessness can also be a cause of burnout. If we neglect to abide in the Giver of our strength, it is likely we won’t have any to stay the course. Homeschooling is not easy. But if you understand WHY you homeschool and have a firm resolve to finish the race, there is hope that you won’t be disappointed even when the road gets difficult.

First Step to Healing the Home-teacher’s Heart
Christian homeschoolers have a decided advantage when it comes to burnout. We have access to supernatural strength reserves. Even though burnout is inevitable, it will pass after it comes. Our job is to help it pass quickly and not allow it to settle in and stick around. Refuse to have a pity party or sulk by yourself. Refuse the temptation to take out your frustration on the ones you love the most. Instead, seek the Lord’s wisdom and refreshing – He gives generously to all who ask.

Proverbs 2:6 – For the LORD gives wisdom, and from his mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Prayer is the homeschool mom’s best defense against the onslaught of burnout. Prayer is an act of dedication. It is admitting your need for God. The bible says that we can do nothing without Him. Why, then, do we think we can homeschool affectively if we don’t abide in Him daily? You can know what burnout is, have all the how-to books on the market about beating it, understand ways to overcome it, and still be living in a state of defeat if you aren’t abiding in the Lord. With God’s indispensable help, you CAN get your joy back. Joy is absolutely essential in learning. Try teaching a child in tears and you will know exactly how important a cheerful disposition truly is. Learning is a natural drive that sparks the heart to find purpose. Homeschooling in a rut is no way to inspire the children to learn.

God speaks through our prayers to bring about a changed in attitude that is desperately needed. Prayer is our means of supplication (asking for what we need) – in fact, James 4:2 says “You have not because you ask not.” Not only can He provide the power we need, but He can right our mindset. Praying shows that we admit we are powerless and He is able. It gets us back on God’s program when we need divine intervention in our programming; and thus begin the praises, the thankfulness… which in turn softens our hearts and brings us back to our senses. Often times when we feel the least like praying is when we need to be doing it the most!

S.O.S. (Scheduling, Organization, Support)
Take proactive measures to help prevent burnout. Schedule your time realistically. If you are not an early riser by nature, don’t set your school day to begin at 6:30 a.m. It might work for a few days, but it probably won’t last and then you’ll end up feeling like you’ve failed. Outside activities are great, but you’ll quickly burnout if you’re constantly running from one place to another. Schedule your outside time wisely. It’s called homeschooling for a reason.

Organizing your homeschool is a both a timesaver and a stress buster. If you live in a state that requires you to submit monthly attendance, layout your yearly calendar and then fill out and print your monthly reports at the beginning of the school year. File them in stamped and addressed envelopes so they’re ready to mail at the beginning of each month. Extra desk-work in the beginning of the school year can keep you smooth sailing when the busy autumn and winter months are beating down your door.

Lost books can be a huge source of frustration. Inexpensive plastic baskets can be used to hold each child’s books, and these can be lined up on a bookshelf. Simplify your school space. Remove distractions and put things you need in the right areas so you don’t have to go find them. Create a daily lunch schedule and keep the necessary items on hand. If they’re old enough, train your kids to prepare their own lunch. Often homeschool moms forget to employ the free labor of a willing teacher’s pet! Your children will learn valuable organizational and life skills if you allow them to have some responsibilities.

Create a spreadsheet with subjects and curriculum for each child. Break down your lesson plan into segments: by year, semester, quarter, and week. Delegate authority – give your children responsibility for chores and school assignments. Create a school planner, even if it’s a simple store-bought weekly/monthly calendar. If you are able, use a digital system to keep your school records and cut your paper trail. Search features in software will save you a ton of searching time if you grade your children’s papers. You can also enlist your kids in helping to create their own portfolios – having them sort through each week’s papers to purge and keep their best work.

Join a support group or co-op to connect with other homeschooling moms. You and your children can both benefit from the support and socialization. Just be sure you don’t sign up for every activity available or you’ll eventually become overwhelmed. It can’t be said enough: sometimes it’s best to “just say NO” to outside activities, even if they’re good ones.

Other ways to prevent or deal with burnout include:

Find a “kids eat free” special at a local restaurant and give yourself a cooking-free night each week (or let your older kids cook a meal without your supervision one night a week).
Plan a mom’s night out with other homeschooling moms to discuss burnout and how to deal with it. You are not alone!
Take a trip by yourself to a book store, library, or favorite spot for quiet planning or “mama time.”
Break the routine and go on a field trip.
Join a co-op or find an outside class or tutor for subjects that you find difficult to teach.

Ask for your husband’s help and share your feelings with him – you need moral support! Sign him up for the Familyman Ministries newsletter by Todd Wilson (http://www.familymanweb.com), and buy him a copy of Todd’s book: Help! I’m Married to a Homeschooling Mom. For yourself, get a copy of Todd’s Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe, which addresses such fallacies as “everyone else’s kids are better than yours” and “every other mom loves homeschooling her kids.”

Above all, show grace. Your kids are fallible and so are you; don’t demand perfection of either. Cover your family and your homeschool in prayer, and ask others to do the same. Burnout may not be avoidable, but understanding its symptoms, causes, and methods to prevent and deal with it can help you find peace while schooling at home.

“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” – 1 Corinthians 10:13

Check out our article on page 24 of the new flipbook edition of Heart of the Matter Magazine.

Sprittibee (Heather)has been homeschooling for 6 years and has one crazy husband, 2 crazy kids (ages 9 and 11) and 2 crazy cats. When she isn’t making Tex-Mex, learning web design, teaching the kids, or rubbing her face on the cat’s belly, she loves to blog. Heather reminds us to stop and smell the proverbial flowers on this journey we call homeschooling. Not every day will be a great one. She admonishes us to learn to focus on the beauty of the moments God has blessed us with – for better or for worse – because our hearts are shaped by the memories we are making. Visit her blog at Sprittibee.

Dawn has been homeschooling her eight children–ages pre-K to college–since 1993. Her interests include photography, and both graphic and web design. She is the owner of Barefoot Blog Designs, and also blogs at My Home Sweet Home, her photoblog and The Homeschool Post.

Tags: burnout, Christianity, depression, devotional, Family Life, Familyman Ministries, fatigue, healing, homeschooling, Organization, Parenting, scheduling, stress

Fun with Photography Featuring Lightroom 2

January 7, 2009 by Dawn

3 Comments

In my opinion, there should be two additional chapters in books written for expectant mothers: photography and hair cutting. Even if you’ve never held a camera or a pair of hair scissors, you will once your baby arrives.

If you can’t cut hair, you can pay a stylist; if you aren’t a good photographer, you can hire one to make your baby’s portraits. Ultimately, however, you will want to document your family’s day-to-day life, which means learning how to use a camera.

Since we have just determined that you hold a very important job — Family Photo Historian — the goal of this column is to put some tips and tricks in your camera bag.

Although there are many photo editing programs on the market, the one that I will feature in this column is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2. Wait–don’t leave! Unless you are a current Photoshop and/or Lightroom user, you probably saw those words “Adobe” and “Photoshop” and heard “cha-ching” just as your eyes glazed over from fear that I was about to go all technical on you.

Don’t worry: You qualify for a substantial discount as a homeschooling family (and I’ll tell you how to get it) and Lightroom is a user-friendly program, less complicated than Photoshop.

Why should I use Lightroom 2?
Lightroom enables you to organize, edit, and backup your photos within a slick interface that is both user-friendly enough for the amateur photographer and powerful enough for the professional. Let’s briefly explore these capabilities.

Organize:
Doesn’t it make you nuts when you need a photo and can’t find it? Lightroom allows you to organize your photos by keywords, ratings, even colors. When I import groups of photos from my memory card, I assign them broad keywords such as “cross country,” “fair,” or “vacation” that will work for the whole batch. After import, I add additional, more specific keywords such as the names of people in the picture, or details like “sand,” “hands,” “floral,” “feet,” or where the photos were taken.

By taking a few moments to keyword my photos at import, I can easily locate them later based on the keywords that I’ve assigned them.

Edit: Lightroom has not only the basic features you would expect in most photo editing programs – red eye reduction, cropping, spot removal – but also the same powerful features available in Adobe Camera Raw. One of the neatest features is something called the Adjustment Brush, which enables you to “paint” on effects such as skin softening, brightness, contrast, and sharpness.

In my opinion, one of the most wonderful things about Lightroom is that it has a non-destructive workflow, which is a fancy way of saying Lightroom doesn’t alter your original image. You can crop and edit to your heart’s content without worrying about overwriting your original.

Backup:
Backing up your photos isn’t going to really work unless they’re being saved to a different location, like an external hard drive, instead of just another folder on your computer. If your computer crashes, it crashes, right? If you have an external hard drive attached, Lightroom can be set to automatically duplicate your photos to another location upon import.

What do I do now?

Remember when I told you that homeschoolers qualify for serious software discounts? The retail of Lightroom 2 is $299, but as a homeschooler you can purchase it for $99 or less!

First you need to email Adobe to get pre-qualified. [A word of advice: do this right the first time. I emailed Adobe without documenting that we homeschool, and I’m still waiting for their response. Three weeks later I sent another request, which included a scanned copy of my HSLDA membership card, and I received my approval one minute and twenty-seven seconds later.]

Send an email to adobeauthorizations@adobe.com and include the following:

• Name of Teacher & Student(s)

• Grade level(s) and expected graduation date(s)

• Address, phone & email

• Any other relevant information that documents home school status (Letter of intent to home school addressed to local school district for current school year; Home School Legal Defense Association membership card; Home School Charter School membership card; or book/curriculum receipt for the current year)

Don’t lose that authorization email, because you’re going to need to forward it to verify your eligibility after you place your order. I purchased my copy of Lightroom from Academic Superstore (www.academicsuperstore.com) for $98.95 plus $1.99 shipping.

Enjoy Lightroom 2 today!

The good news is that you don’t have to wait for your software to arrive in the mail. Once you’ve purchased the software, go to Adobe’s website and download a fully functional 30-day trial version. When your purchased software arrives in the mail, enter the serial number when you open Lightroom on your computer (whenever you open the trial version, you will be asked if you want to continue using the trial or enter a serial number to activate it) and you won’t even have to install from the disk; Lightroom 2 will already be installed from the online download.

Questions? Comments? Feedback? Suggestions for future columns?
Email me at dawn@heartofthemattermagazine.com.

Recommended Resources:

http://www.adobe.com/designcenter/lightroom/articles/lir2am_videotutorials.html (getting started with Lightroom 2.0 video tutorials)

http://www.lightroomkillertips.com/ (Matt Kloskowski’s Lightroom Killer Tips blog)

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 Book for Digital Photographers by Scott Kelby

Check out my article on page 44 of the new flipbook edition of Heart of the Matter Magazine.

Tags: Adobe, digital photography tips, editing, HSLDA, Lightroom 2, Organization, Photo Historian, photography