Graphfucker

Since the first Adobe Lightroom, the ability to make books was requested by photographers. It’s possible in Lightroom 4. In today’s tutorial, we’ll take a look at some shortcuts built into the system, and also how to avoid making mistakes with some of the trickier areas of the program.

Making books and eBooks in Lightroom 4 is a fantastic experience if you’ve ever dreamed of being an InDesign expert, but never really caught the hang of it. The Book module in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4 is an easy way into the creation of books, being based on Blurb’s BookSmart program, and opens the doors of book creation to a wider audience, without being tied to a specific printing house or system.

The Book module in Lightroom 4 let’s you do your own Books or eBooks easily.

Lightroom’s editor is a simpler version, and some people will claim it’s too simple for their liking, but in fact, once you understand the limitations and begin to use the program, you’ll find there are ways to do more than what is obvious in a first contact.

I say this because I’ve been using BookSmart since 2008, for my projects, and I’ve asked Adobe for a “book module” since the first Lightroom beta, some six years ago. And I am having a lot of fun with the Book module. In fact, I wish I had more time to create eBooks using it.

A Look at the Past

Looking back to previous versions of the program, we had a sketch of a page creation option in Lightroom 3 (and in Lightroom 2, if you dared to look under the hood and change some code) but nothing compares to what Lightroom 4 offers. That said, this is not a substitute tool for people using InDesign, but something for the rest of us, photographers, amateurs or professionals that just need to get a book made with a few clicks.

I did create my first eBooks with inDesign and still use it, but not so much now, because I love LR4 Book module and it suits most of my needs.

The early beta days of Lightroom 4 led me to create some eBooks, eager to explore every part of the Book module, only to discover that there were problems with the creation of catalogs and also with the use of some fonts. I lost my first catalogue and book layout and it was not clear to me, at the time, the best workflow to get consistent results.

I exchanged emails with Victoria Brampton – aka The Lightroom Queen, also with Julieanne Kost, Adobe’s LR4 evangelist, and with some more people at Adobe, to try to solve the problems, and finally came to terms with some of the bugs and found ways around initial problems.

The first pages will be hard to create, but once your first book is finished, you’ll want to do another one. And another…

Sharing Knowledge

This does not mean that there will not be other problems with the software, but for now, creating books can be almost a “no problems” operation that will give you a unique chance to do your book, save it in a PDF format and take it to a print house. You can also, simply, create a lower-resolution eBook to distribute freely or sell online.

Some people have asked Adobe to create the option to save JPEGs, as some print houses prefer the format, but I am happy with the pdf, as the printer I work with in Portugal – using Xerox digital offset – accepts pdfs. Anyway, I guess Adobe will probably create that option too, in a future update of the program.

I was so excited with the option to do books – or eBooks – that during the beta period of LR4 I gave a workshop centered on the use of the module, and challenged participants to do their own eBook at the end. I believe that a hands-on experience is the best thing you can have, but some reading can also help you to get to terms with the program. That’s the reason why I decided to write this tutorial, that points out what I think is most important in way of getting some work done in Lightroom 4. So, without further ado, here are some tips to make your experience easier.

1. Make a Plan

Before committing to work in Lightroom, I would suggest you define what you want to have in your book. Sketch ideas on paper, write whatever texts you want to include, collect your images and start by importing them into Lightroom. You can always add more later if you need. Or write texts. But get some work done before.

2. Create a Collection

If you’re just doing a book from a shoot, as I sometimes do, import the whole collection, edit the images and then create a catalogue with those you want to use in the book. If you’re making a book with a selection of images from different folders I would advise you to create a folder for all the images you want to use. I create a specific folder for each book I am working on.

I prefer to have all materials in a single place than to lose links afterwards if something goes wrong. I also save the Book pages and final catalogue in the same folder, so I can just take the files to any other computer and keep working there, so long as I have Lightroom available. For this process to work you need to create a unique catalogue for each book, a solution I am using and that has the advantage of not slowing down Lightroom.

Working with just the files for your Book, makes it a faster job to accomplish. And if you’ve a collection of some 250 pictures that you’re working with, as I’ve done for my airplanes eBook, you’ll understand what I mean. And besides that, I like to have separated catalogues in Lightroom.

When creating an eBook, you must start on page one and skip the covers.

3. No Cover on eBooks

The Book module has a cover option that you don’t need to use if you are only doing an eBook. If you want to print using Blurb services you need the cover, but for eBooks you should do the cover on the first page (page one). You can always do the cover, if you want, as it will be saved automatically, but remember your eBook will start on page one. So all you will need for eBooks is the second .pdf file that comes out from LR4.

Use the cells in the page as a guide and a starting point, but define your own layout based on them.

4. The Layout is a Guide, Not a Rule

People complain that the layouts are limited in the Book module. They’re wrong. The photocells marked on the page (grey cells) don’t need to have a picture placed in all of them, you’re free to choose which to use. And you can also resize images within the bigger cells, and move them around, dragging them and using the options on the right side of the interface.

Some claim that the layouts are limited, but once you start to play the tools will reveal hidden options. Read the text to see how this was done.

5. The Secret is Having Time

The more time you invest in your layout, the better it will look. For the image on the left page of the spread above I used a single image that I placed on the 12 cells, enlarging it and moving each segment around until I got the grid result.

I know there are “more professional” ways to do a grid like this, and I could do this image in Photoshop and move it here afterwards, but I just wanted to show that it can be done this way too. and explore the limitations of the tools within the module.

Take time to look at all the pages created. Having a global vision helps you to define changes that will make for a better book.

6. Look at Your Book: Then Save It

After creating a few initial pages look at your work globally. It will help you to define little or big adjustments. Also remember, once you’ve chosen the images (you can always add some more later), to save the Book project. And export a catalogue with all the images you’re using.

I usually do this in the same folder where I have all the materials for a specific Book, that is also under a folder that has all the books for 2012. This helps me to keep track of everything: images, logos, graphics and texts (written previously in Word or another text editor).

You can do also do a text book if you want, but mixing pictures and text is what the Book module is all about.

7. A Book is Not Just Pictures

Although the Book module is in a program for editing images, Lightroom 4, it does not mean that this module was created to make books with pictures only. Adobe has answered the requests from photographers and the text areas let you fill whole pages with text, if need be. And then do whole pages with pictures, so you can create your own Book as you envision it.

Remember that when saving to pdf you need to check if there are no problems like text missing. This could happen either because it’s longer than the box it is in, or because some fonts go missing when saving the file. If this happens, change to a similar font or resize a box, and save again.

The Book module offers a chance to do panoramas, but you have to watch for the way it saves them in pdf. The initial version of LR4 has a bug that doubles text.

8. Do Panoramas, but Beware

Doing panoramas in Lightroom 4 Book module is easy, as the program offers an option to do double pages with different layouts. If you feel like trying it, beware of using text on the spread. Sometimes the software duplicates the text on both pages, spoiling the panorama.

An easy way to solve the problem is using two separated pages and then placing the same image on both, enlarging and adjusting it until it looks like a single spread. Then you can write what you want on one side. Adobe will correct this bug, I am sure, but for now it still shows up.

A Free eBook as an Example

The best way to show people what can be done is sharing with them your work. So I am sharing with you the first eBook I made in Lightroom 4 Book module. This eBook, contemplative photography essays, is written both in English and Portuguese and shows some of my workshops with people and the themes photographed. And it shows, what is more important, what anyone can do with Adobe Lightroom 4 in terms of expression. If I can do it, I am sure you also can. Download the trial version of the new Lightroom and explore it. I bet you’ll love it!

This free eBook will shows you some what can be done in the Book module in Lightroom 4.

Download my eBook (please share the link, do not share the eBook, so I know how many people downloaded this free eBook).

Download the contemplative photography essays eBook.

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It’s a month of new beginnings over at our design and inspiration gallery Creattica. April has seen the site undergo a complete redesign with a whole new streamlined grid-style layout for its over 50 different categories. On top of that, Creattica now has better navigation, a new UI Elements section and a growing Freebies area of now over 700 items. All this and over 14,000 featured works from some 100,000 members. It’s quite the site!

But that’s not all, let’s first take a look at some of Creattica’s top Photos & Retouching work – and then stay tuned for some exciting news at the conclusion!

1. mr Altamirano

2. Louise by KSB

3. Zombie Soldier

4. landscape composition

5. deep inside your ocean

6. Sand Dunes, West Wittering

7. Mica Part III

8. Mercedes Retouch

9. face-flow

10. Stunning Landscape Photography by Katarina

11. Water in Motion

12. Lightone

13. Skin Retouch 2

14. como caravaggio

15. The Blind Barber

16. Top of the Rock – NY

17. dprell silver

18. Magdalena Wasiczek’s magic garden”

19. Paris Lifestyle

20. The Unknown

The Future of Creattica

When we started Creattica (originally Faveup) back in 2007, we wanted it to be one on the top inspiration galleries on the web. And as the site has grown and changed over the years, we find ourselves with what has become one of the biggest, broadest and most in-depth galleries of design out there. So I guess we can say – mission accomplished!

Over these past few months, Envato has really started working on focusing on our core products of Marketplaces and Tuts+ sites. So while we love Creattica, we find ourselves in the regrettable position of having to put the site up for sale soon. We really want it to go to an awesome home, so if anyone would like to express interest in the sale or get more details, please contact us here.

I’m certain we’ll find some new owners who can keep Creattica growing and evolving on into the future. And in the meantime I hope you enjoy the new design and all the gorgeous work as much as I do!

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Setting up a simple home studio can be extremely beneficial to any photographer. Whether you’re a professional portrait photographer or a graphic designer who needs product shots, a home studio gives you a place to work, experiment and learn new things. Below we’ll take a look at a few considerations to keep in mind when creating your own studio.

July of 2010

The Room

The first thing to consider is obviously space. You’ll need to empty out the garage or convince your spouse to let you convert the spare bedroom.

Ideally, you’ll want something nice and spread out with plenty of room to move around after it gets filled with equipment. Realistically, your home is probably full enough without a studio, so you’ll have to overcome claustrophobia and squish it in wherever you have room.

You’ll want to choose a room where you can tightly control the lighting environment at any time of the day or night. Natural light can be a great tool but if your studio has a window, make sure you have a way to completely block off the light coming from it for the many cases where you won’t want it interfering with the shot.

Another thing you’ll want to consider is whether or not the room is climate controlled, especially if you’re going to be storing your equipment there permanently. Here in Phoenix, the typical garage can get well above 120 degrees fahrenheit in the Summer; not the ideal place to store thousands of dollars in photography equipment. Also, unless you’re going for that sweaty look, this wouldn’t be the best environment to take photos in!

One final consideration is sound. If you only shoot still photos than you’ll be fine with any room but if you’re ever going to shoot video you’ll want to choose a room far away from noisy appliances like a washing machine. You also might want to invest in some soundproofing materials.

Backdrops

Any good studio has a few backdrops to take photos against. It’s probably a good idea to avoid cliche photographic backdrops like you’d expect to see at a shopping mall photo studio and instead opt for something simpler. Solid colors work, as well as something with a little texture (as long as it’s not too busy).

Backdrops commonly come in a variety of different materials and textures including muslin (cotton), canvas, vinyl, or just plain old paper. The cheapest versions are obviously the paper backdrops and typically start around $24.

If you want to go a little more professional, you can typically expect to spend $100-300 on a tougher and more interesting backdrop. You can get a decent backdrop kit complete with stands from Backdrop Source for around $175.

Of course, to start off you could take the poor man route and grab a bed sheet or some butcher paper and build a stand out of PVC pipe like in the picture above.

Lights

Lights are probably the most complicated and costly piece of the studio puzzle. I recently went over great deal of what you need to know in our tutorial on high key lighting.

To quickly reiterate for those that missed it, there are essentially two primary choices for studio lighting: continuous or flash. Continuous lighting rigs tend to run cheaper but burn a lot hotter and aren’t as versatile as flashes. With flashes you tend have much more power, increased quality of light and a much wider range of possibilities.

You can pick up a basic lighting studio kit for a couple hundred bucks, but can also easily spend upwards of $2,000 if you’re really serious about your setup. I recommend starting off small and purchasing a kit with two or three flashes. This should be plenty to achieve excellent results in a number of different styles and you can always add to it a piece at a time.

Check out Alien Bees, CowboyStudio and Square Perfect for some quality but affordable lighting kits.

Umbrellas or Softboxes?

Looking at various lighting kits might have you wondering whether you should go for an umbrella or softbox setup for your studio. Which is better? There’s no absolute solution to this question as they both have pros and cons. Both essentially modify and filter light to make it softer and less harsh when it hits the subject.

Umbrellas are usually cheaper and fairly versatile. They often come with a reflective cover that allows you to shoot light into the umbrella and have it bounce back out or simply filter the light right through the material with the cover removed. Umbrellas can spread light out over a wide area and are therefore great for large rooms or groups of people. Finally, umbrellas are quicker to setup and tear down than softboxes, which can be quite complicated!

Softboxes tend to be a little pricier but they allow you to focus and control your light in a small area a lot better than umbrellas. These are perfect for when you’re shooting a single subject or are confined to a smaller area. Softboxes also make for much less distracting reflections than the shape you’ll get from the umbrella.

Most professional photographers would prefer to have a few of each but if you have a limited budget and are just getting started, umbrellas are a perfect first step.

Props and Costumes

Something you might not think to include but really should consider picking up is a bunch of crazy props. Having your portrait taken is a painfully boring process for many people and having silly stuff for them to dress up and play with can be a great way to loosen everyone up and inject a little fun into the situation.

Even the most stubborn model can become quite humorous with giant sunglasses and a fake mustache. Be sure to have plenty of different options to choose from: baseball bats and sunglasses for the tough guys, huge fake diamond rings for the ladies, and wildly fluffy toy monsters for the kids.

Even if the ultimate goal of the shoot is a serious portrait, starting off with some funny props encourages your subjects to relax and be themselves.

You’ll also want to consider some more practical props as well such as a few pieces of stylish furniture you can quickly move in and out of the scene. Anything you can do to break the typical mold of studio photography will help you stand out as a photographer.

The Necessities

There’s almost no end to the goodies you can put into your studio, but before you start considering mini fridges and plasma televisions, think about the things you’ll absolutely need. For instance, you’ll definitely have to pick up a decent tripod or two. You’ll also need extension cords and surge protectors to rig all that equipment up.

If you’re using flashes, you should consider some wireless flash triggers so you’ll have the freedom to move around. Finally, get a ladder to snag some above shots (and to help hang your backdrop), some curtains that people can change clothes behind, and a mirror or two for those last minute makeup and hair checks.

The costs of all this can mount exponentially and quickly leave you penniless. Don’t feel like you have to get everything at once, plenty of photographers take years to build a respectable studio. Be careful of investing too much money into a hobby that isn’t generating revenue. As you start getting paid gigs you can reinvest some money back into your equipment fund.

Show Us Yours!

Now that you’ve read our guide to setting up a home studio, get out there and build your own. Snap a photo of your setup, upload it to Flickr and leave a link in the comments below.

Also be sure to tell us if there are any items you find essential that we didn’t mention above.

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We have another Photo Premium tutorial exclusively available to Premium members today. In this tutorial, we’ll take a look at how to get that flash off your camera and improve you lighting skills. Learn more after the jump!

Off-camera flash is something that excites a lot of photographers. However, it can be a little tricky to take your flashes away from the camera. We’ll walk you through everything you need know. From selecting the perfect gear, setting your camera and flashes to full manual mode, and looking at some awesome lighting setups. In today’s tutorial, you’ll learn how to rock off-camera and cut the cord to better flash photography.

Tune In for More

Didn’t hear about Photo Premium? You can find out more here. It’s an additional, in-depth article, published each week just for our Premium subscribers (on top of all our regular free content!)

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This is a really interesting technique to perfect, and you’ll be really pleased with the result! This Premium tutorial will help you get started with ease.

For those unfamiliar, the family of Tuts+ sites runs a premium membership service. For $19 per month, you gain access to exclusive premium tutorials, screencasts, and freebies from Phototuts+, Nettuts+, Psdtuts+, Cgtuts+,Activetuts+, Aetuts+, Audiotuts+, and Vectortuts+! For the price of a pizza, you’ll learn from some of the best minds in the business.

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Is there a specific technical aspect of photography that you really want to learn more about? How about a very advanced technique that you could never quite grasp fully?

We really want to make our Premium content as relevant and useful to you as possible, so do send through your comments and requests to photo@tutsplus.com. Let us know what you want to see, and we’ll commission top-notch photographers to teach you!

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Photography is a quick medium. When we begin to study it, we learn composition techniques that make our images easier to view and more quickly understood. While all of these techniques are valuable, they tend to work against an equally valuable technique: making your viewers look deeply into your images, delaying their response to engage them, and creating a moment of discovery.

Imagine hiding a message beyond all that which is recognized at first glance, and having the viewer peel away a layer or two before revealing the essence of the photograph. We’ve all seen it in movies, where the camera slowly approaches an open door or walks us through a dim hallway and then lets us in on what might be going on in the next room or across the hall. But how can we apply such a technique in a single, still frame?

Truth is, the less work your viewer has to do to get the idea behind a photograph, the faster they move on and onto the next. To keep your viewer engaged with your work and urge them to stay involved, it sometimes helps to give them the chance to further investigate and try and decode the hidden message underneath it all. To give them the feeling that there’s more to this piece of work than meets the eye (at least at first glance).

In Practice

In order for this technique to be successful, you need to delay your viewer’s complete response to the image while not losing them entirely, and to succeed in correctly directing your viewer’s attention to your goal.

To achieve this you can incorporate any of the known eye-leading exposure or compositional photography techniques such as lines (converging lines, diagonal lines…), scale, frame within frame, and tonal gradation.

Photo by Claudio.Ar

The above image is a good example of using scale. The viewer’s attention would probably be attracted to the bright waterfalls in the back towards the top of the frame at first. The eye might then follow the water all the way down to the little lake, up to the trees in the foreground, followed by that little terrace or porch to finally rest upon the crowd who are standing there enjoying the whole scene all the while. Note how the successful use of scale in portraying the crowd as tiny objects with relevance to the immensity surrounding them delayed our attention from finding out about them till later on.

Photo by Sergiu Bacioiu

Another cool scaling example. The vast mountains are there to draw the attention first, down to the lake and then to the sides towards the trees to find out there’s actually a tiny little hut just lying there in the midst of it all. What helps this hut actually being recognized is the white that is contrasting with the green background formed by the bushes on the bottom left hand side of the frame. If it was placed towards the center of the picture against the mountains, I don’t think it would have made it and that message probably wouldn’t have been delivered to most viewers.

Photo by …-Wink-…

Here’s another great example illustrating the use of light and shadows to delay the viewer’s complete response to the overall contents of the image. Upon observing this photograph, the eye is attracted to the stark dark tall trees across the image first and the soft shadows they are casting on the ground in the foreground of the picture.

Then comes the bright sun with that lovely warm flare hitting the trees, and the glow moving backwards along the line till the end. The eye then comes back to the front along the line of trees to finally recognize the silhouetted tiny human figures along the way. With this photo, the viewer’s response to the people hanging around by the trees watching the sun setting on the beach was greatly delayed both by this soft dance of light and shadows, as well as the implied scaling between the immense tall trees and the relatively not so tall human figures.

Photo by Jack Batchelor

That’s another lovely example that hides a couple more interesting ingredients. First we see the guy with a book in one hand and a suitcase in the other. Next the eye is drawn to the bright sun flare and the glow it casts across the image moving beneath the foreground towards the back and to the golden meadows, and finally we realize that faded, pastel colored little rainbow-like element towards the bottom-left of the picture.

Photo by Stefano

In the above image, the photographer has incorporated the buildings (especially the ones in the front) as a way to encapsulate the path that is leading all the way to the back of the frame, and this is what meets the eye at first glance.

Then we start to wander along the line in between to finally take notice of the couple standing there between the huge majestic buildings chatting (one dressed in black and the other in red pants). This surprise creates an element of added interest and makes us linger a little longer, pondering on what these two might be doing, which in the end engages us further and gives us something to work out while looking at such an image.

Photo by Zoriah

Here we have a view of a praying man partially obscured by what looks like a wall or perhaps an open door. Such an approach to composing the scene heightens our interest and increases our involvement in the picture. This way we are actually wondering who’s behind that door, what are they doing, what’s their relationship to this place, what else could there be that is not obvious as well, and on and on. The perfect use of light and shadows as well as the beautiful incorporation of the tonal range also helps make this approach very successful.

Photo by Vaidas M

The image above is also a perfect example of delaying the viewer’s response to the whole scene thus engaging them more in this piece of work. Here the photographer made use of the lines eroded by water and wind on the rocks at Almscliffe Crag in North Yorkshire as a framing foreground to the lush meadows and beautiful silky purple skies lying ahead, which our attention is eventually drawn to while our eyes wander about the frame.

Conclusion

The use of these techniques (among others) for delaying the viewers’ response and engaging them further in a picture is a great way to go to spice up your body of work. Not all situations require (or even allow) for such an approach, but when the opportunity arises you can experiment a little with these framing styles to see if they can add value to the particular circumstance of a given shot.

Of course, you need to be careful of not losing your audience’s interest completely or failing to get the message across. Like if you are going the “scaling” way, you need to make sure your object is not very tiny with relation to the other elements and thus being entirely lost in the immensity of its surroundings, but that the sizes and figures within the frame are appropriately scaled with relation to each other otherwise you might run the risk of your audience not getting the message and moving on.

There are ways of revealing your message in a photograph bit by bit other than these discussed here. For example you can try placing your main subject off center, or you can try only showing part of the subject and letting the viewer work out what the rest might be, or you can try shooting off target and playing with leading lines or focus to get the message across.

Generally speaking, upon looking at a photograph the eye is usually drawn to larger shapes and forms and contrasting areas and later tries to work out the smaller details, so this should be kept in mind in order to help you compose your image correctly in such a way that your message gets delivered eventually instead of being lost.

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