I spent the weekend with Hal Schmitt learning about LightRoom 2.0 at The [Lepp] Institute in Los Osos and running off to shoot the Santa Barbara County Vintners' Association Harvest Festival at Rancho Sisquoc, California. Both were superb.
But I need to back up just a second to report that I have had two major computer failures that have been taking up my time which is why I haven't been blogging as frequently as intended. I won't dwell on them ... I am a compulsive backer upper and would have lost no data even if I had not been able to recover both machines which I have been able to do. One up side is that I have built and am migrating onto a new machine that I will describe completely with pictures when I'm done and one down side is that the two failures really have complicated the hell out of the process of migrating! But I will fill you all in later when I have a nostril above the waterline.
LightRoom 2.0 is here. Hal says LightRoom 2.1 is close and that it will fix lots of the little bugs that have been revealed, making a much more solid release by Adobe. I have been a LightRoom user since the first public release of 1.0 due to a most fortuitous coincidence of taking a class at The Institute that I thought was going to be Photoshop but which turned out to be LightRoom. It is now an integral part of my workflow where I mainly use it for RAW conversion. I rarely Photoshop any images after the conversion. This is mainly because the things you do with Photoshop are not things that interest my current clientele. But this is changing and as I move into more areas of photography such as fashion, glamor, family and maybe weddings, I will need these skills. To this end, LightRoom 2 looks like another significant increment in the toolkit. I have LR2 installed on my new machine and 1.4.1 on my old machine ... I'm trying to tease myself along!
So, in his usual inimitable instructor fashion, Hal has created a really super LightRoom weekend that combines material for LR newbies and for those of us migrating from 1 to 2. I think our class of about a dozen was a mixed bag of new and continuing users. No one was bored! And there are a lot of little tricks and treats that I can't imagine stumbling upon or even reading about that are part of Hal's show. In fact, I was chatting with Hal and a couple of other students when I heard myself say, "It's not that I get everything that I expect in taking a Hal Schmitt class, it's that I get so much that I didn't expect that makes Hal's classes so exciting!" Hal and Victoria bring a lot of top flight instructors through The Institute, but I don't think any of those I've attended or read do quite the job that Hal does. He's not as cute as Tim Gray. He's not as verbose and chatty as Scott Kelby. He's only been into photography for a short time. But he understands teaching and students so thoroughly that he is seamless and getting better with experience.
Hmmm, I guess I'm impressed ... yet again. Anyway, Hal covered all the significant new stuff, particularly in the develop module, as well as its interface with PS CS3, since that's where the meat of the new release lives. But be clear, you would understand the entire workflow through all modules after attending this weekend seminar.
Enough of that! My next Institute class will be with Andy Katz the first weekend in November doing vineyard and winery photography and I'll give you another report.
I have a lot of topics lined up (my wife is getting tired of all the boxes, lenses, bags, Pelican cases and the like that are cluttering the hallway to and inside my office and studio) to write about. I really want to show the rest of my gear so I can finally talk more about using it and the workflow involved. So stay tuned and we'll get to everything from grapes to girls and concerts, too!
Be Safe!
Dwight
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