Just so you know!

To save valuable time in LR make personal presets.

I suggest making user templates for multiple repetitive edits in develop mode. For example, you change things in multiple panels such as Tone Curve, Lens Corrections and Detail many times on many images.
On the left panel there is "Presets" click the + sign and give your preset a name to recall those specific changes. If this is your first preset, I suggest making a Folder titled "personal" and saving it in there.
You will notice that LR ships with many and did I say many included presets! Maybe you will like to use some of these also?

I know this has nothing to do with backing up or catalogs but it may save you time while actually doing the fun stuff :)

Thanks Marc
I actually made a Marc Muench preset based on the settings above.
I was up at 5am shooting the stars and used that preset on import

Originally Posted by eoren1 Thanks Marc I actually made a Marc Muench preset based on the settings above. I was up at 5am shooting the stars and used that preset on import

Your on it!

tip for night stuff, as I know the full tut will not come for a bit!

I prefer a blue sky.
My Temp is usually between 4300 and 4500 and tint between -4 and +8 with not much moon light
I notice this works with setting the camera to AWB on both Canon (multiple bodies) and Nikon 1d3 body.
If full moon temp is closer to 5000!

I do most of the additional work in PS as the masking of the sky and ground is VERY important!

Thanks Marc
I was going to mention that I was waiting on the tutorial but decided to hold off as I didn't want to nag.

I did a real quick scan through my shots from this morning and worked on two for about 5 minutes each. Found that Lightrooms auto WB was much better than the camera's setting but will see what the temp/tint was based on that. We had a sliver of a moon this morning.

My posts to my website are all set through the new year and I have a backlog of 100 images waiting in the queue so I can definitely keep waiting on the tutorial. I'll try my hand at the star shots when I have more time to devote to them and see what others think.

Thanks for all of your help on Dgrin (and off)!

Originally Posted by Marc Muench I am asking for others who can explain to me how they successfully manage multiple catalogs and why?

Hey Marc, I know one LR user that maintains more than one catalog successfully, her reasoning is separation of the three parts of her business. One catalog for boudoir shots, one for engagements and weddings, one for school portraits. The first two are setup to publish to her two SmugMug accounts, the last one is setup to publish to harddrive for ROES. I think she also said she had a fourth catalog for personal stuff.

Originally Posted by cabbey Hey Marc, I know one LR user that maintains more than one catalog successfully, her reasoning is separation of the three parts of her business. One catalog for boudoir shots, one for engagements and weddings, one for school portraits. The first two are setup to publish to her two SmugMug accounts, the last one is setup to publish to harddrive for ROES. I think she also said she had a fourth catalog for personal stuff.

Cabbey,
Thanks for the note.

Still using my one single catalog in LR!


DavidTO and I scouted in Death Valley this past weekend for our upcoming workshop. There were some great night scenes,



but also some very interesting salt encrusted grasses,


DV never fails to amaze me. We were both hot after only a half hour in 65 degree sun on this salt flat

Originally Posted by Aaron Nelson you still haven't found Ian's truck grill?

We did hold a very emotional ceremony at which point Ian broke down in tears.

With a Waning moon, the stars will be bright early in the night, so we may actually get some descent sleep...... at least a few hours.

Here is a short vid with some tips for shooting at night! However, the scene with Ian's grill ceremony was cut at the last minute

Originally Posted by Marc Muench We did hold a very emotional ceremony at which point Ian broke down in tears.

Why did you have to bring that up again? I was...just.......starting to get...over it

Originally Posted by Aaron Nelson Hi, Marc Not sure when you can comment on my question, but let me throw it out there... Your image : K-4714 What struck you to do what you did when you did it?

Aaron, sorry I missed this. Not sure which image your referring to?

Originally Posted by Aaron Nelson maybe this link will work, http://muench.photoshelter.com/image/I00008qBMvT3oAks p.s. while looking for that link I was going through somemore of your work and I have questions on about everyone of them.... here's the plan... I win the lotto, give you a huge pile of it and you teach me everything you know... k?

psssst, I think that's David's photo.

Your right Walter, my father shot it with a 4x5 field camera 210mm lens and most likely Fuji Velvia film. As for what was going through his head hrm........... that has always been a mystery :)

Originally Posted by Aaron Nelson Walter!!! Next you're going to tell me that was a curb I just hit!

Some of my thoughts regarding the new Cannon 5d M3 vs Nikon D800.


<iframe frameborder="0" scrolling="no" width="640" height="360" src="http://api.smugmug.com/services/embed/1801285523_QBLK67b?width=640&height=360"></iframe>

Very cool video! Thanks!

However, I would be even more interested what you thought about the Nikon D3 vs a D4. ;)

Unbiased opinions.......you gotta love 'em.

Originally Posted by jww Very cool video! Thanks! However, I would be even more interested what you thought about the Nikon D3 vs a D4. ;)

I did some comparisons months ago and came to the conclusion that the D4 was no better than my Canon 1ds M3. Regarding the D3s I believe that is the best sensor out! I used it in Africa in many diff situations and after processing many files for months I can say with great confidence "I love those files"
This is why I was so interested in the D800. If Nikon could deliver something almost as clean at a higher resolution than 12mp, I wanted to see!
My next test is tonight actually. The Nikon D3s against the D800 at 1600 ISO and beyond.

Originally Posted by Marc Muench I did some comparisons months ago and came to the conclusion that the D4 was no better than my Canon 1ds M3. Regarding the D3s I believe that is the best sensor out! I used it in Africa in many diff situations and after processing many files for months I can say with great confidence "I love those files" This is why I was so interested in the D800. If Nikon could deliver something almost as clean at a higher resolution than 12mp, I wanted to see! My next test is tonight actually. The Nikon D3s against the D800 at 1600 ISO and beyond.

Ahh.. did not see that comparison, but appreciate your input. I know I love both of mine and haven't quite understood the need to spend money on upgrading to 2 D4's! :)

I will be interested to see your high ISO tests. Thanks so much!

Originally Posted by jww Ahh.. did not see that comparison, but appreciate your input. I know I love both of mine and haven't quite understood the need to spend money on upgrading to 2 D4's! :) I will be interested to see your high ISO tests. Thanks so much!

Made a big mistake! When I read your comment regarding the D4 I was thinking "D3X" !
Actually I have hopes the D4 and look forward to getting my hands on one and testing. I think the test will be against the Canon D1X.

Sorry for the misunderstanding. But, If I owned D3s I would not upgrade to the D4 unless I wanted to shoot video.

Just spent a week aboard the Northern Song with Hal Schmidt of Light Workshops. We discussed the Canon 5d M3 and I will post a vid sharing his thoughts soon. However, we also were discussing LR 4 and one VERY BIG sucky!

LR 4 has added a tone curve by default with no preview. The only way to preview this very hidden curve is to switch from 2012 process to 2010 and back!

Here is the low down:
Go to Develop module > go to camera calibration > select the pulldown at the top called process and change from 2012 to 2010.
Now you will notice a little square box at the bottom of the preview screen just below the image with an exclamation point in the middle. Click this and then click update.
Now go to the Tone Curve and look at the curve that has been applied.
Quite amazing hey!

The final move I suggest making is changing the curve from custom to linear.

Now you are back to the actual RAW file.

Cheers