How to Create a Watermark in Lightroom 3

How to Edit an Existing Watermark in Lightroom 3

As I mentioned above, I’ve received a number of emails asking “How do I edit an existing watermark?” Here are the steps.

1. When you create an initial watermark it can be saved by using the pulldown in the top-left corner of the dialogue box.

2. Once a watermark has been saved the pulldown menu updates with options to Delete, Rename or Create a New Preset.

3. To save an edited watermark, first make your changes, and then the pulldown will update once again. This time it will display an option the “Update Preset” allowing you to save your changes.

Thanks for joining me on TipSquirrel today. I always appreciate hangin’ out with my fellow Nuts, and you as well.

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Greetings all! Hope your week has been brilliant, and you have plenty to look forward to this weekend. Today I’ve made a video on how to use Quick Mask mode in Photoshop. Quick Mask mode, something rarely seen these days, but a great feature I call upon when making selections in Photoshop. Let’s take a look:

Can’t See the Video? Click Here

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9. Side panels keep disappearing? Turn off Auto-Hide for Panels. Right-click the triangle icon on the side panels and change the setting to “Manual”. Works for top & bottom panels as well.

8. Sometimes you see the filename, other times you see a camera setting overlay? The “I” key cycles through the Info Overlay screens in the Loupe view. There are TWO overlay info screens. Press CMD+I (CTRL+I) to toggle the Info Overlay on & off. Press CMD+J to edit what is shown for Info 1 & Info 2.

7. No numbers on your thumbails? No icons indicating keywords or edits? The “J” key cycles through View Styles in the Grid view while in the Library module.

6. Seeing blue and/or red if your photo? The “J” key toggles clip warnings on & off in the Develop module.

5. Press “T” to toggle the Tool bar on & off. Use the option menu on the far right to show all available tools (assuming your screen is wide enough to display).

4. Not seeing all the photos within folders? Go to the menu and choose Library–>Show Photos in Subfolders.

3. Already have a bunch of RAW files imported in Lightroom? Want to convert them to DNG? Select the images, the choose Library–>Convert to DNG.

2. Hold the OPT/ALT key while adjusting panel sliders in the Develop module to see clipping, emboss or detail overlays.

1. Press CMD+ / (CTRL+ / ) to show Lightroom shortcut keys for EACH module.

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NOTE – I cannot take credit for this technique as it was taught to me by the wonderfully talented master retoucher David Vaught from Vaught Studio.

1. In the image below I have isolated the bottles from the background using a layer mask. You can see there is a halo around the bottles–the white fringe–which is a possibility depending on how the selection was made & layer mask created. In Photoshop CS4 & CS5, you could simply adjust the layer mask by using the Masks panel, and Refine Mask. But what if you’re not working with a newer version of Photoshop?

2a. Start by selecting the layer mask thumbnail of the bottles. With the layer mask selected, goto Image–>Adjustments–>Curves (CMD+M on Mac, CTRL+M on PC). The image below is the “pinch curve” for an RGB image. Applying this curve to the layer mask chokes in the white area–the part of the layer being revealed–effectively reducing the halo.

2b. The following image is a CMYK “pinch curve” which also chokes in the white areas of the layer mask.

3. The resulting image with halo reduced. Quick & easy, no new Photoshop features required. My thanks to David Vaught for enlightening all of us with this useful technique.

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Today I want to take a moment to talk about a few panels in Photoshop that often get overlooked.

The Navigator Panel

This is a necessary part of my retouching/restoration workflow. It’s an even better tool if you use two monitors. HINT – you should really get a 2nd monitor. The Navigator Panel provides a complete image view at all times, and shows you which part of the image you’ve zoomed in on. Most people ignore the fact that you can RESIZE the panel. When used with a 2nd monitor, the panel can be expanded to a considerable size. The benefit to workflow is a decreased amount of zooming in & out of the image you’re working on. When zoomed in closely for a touchup, you can simply glance at the Navigator Panel to see how that touchup looks in the context of the entire image.

The Notes Panel

Wouldn’t it be nice if you could open up a Photoshop PSD you worked on a year ago, and remember how you created all those cool effects? If you incorporate the Notes Panel into your workflow, you’ll be able to do just that. Using the Note Tool–found under the Eyedropper Tool–you can tag yellow “sticky notes” to your image. Select a sticky note, and type your comment in the Notes Panel. If you prefer not to see a flurry of yellow notes all over your image, simply choose View from the menu and toggle “Extras” on or off.

The Layer Comps Panel

If you want a quick way to switch between variations in a design to show a customer, you may want to take a look at the Layer Comps panel. A layer comp retains visibility of all the layers, their position on the canvas, and layer style settings. When used effectively, layer comps can prevent the need for duplicate layers, or memorization of layer style settings for design variations. I use it to help when presenting comps to a client as it’s easier to click between layer comps than it is to toggle several layers on & off or change style settings.

I encourage you to take a look at these panels, and hope they’re a benefit to your Photoshop workflow.

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We will be using the Adjustment Brush in Lightroom.

The “trick” is to use the Color adjustment located at the bottom of the Adjustment Brush sliders (above the brush size).

UPDATE – thanks to the comments from Dan & Matthew Roach who corrected a mistake I made. In this particular adjustment, I opted to use a hue that was more yellow. IF you wish to sample colors from the image, simply place the eyedropper in the color chart then PRESS & HOLD the mouse button while dragging the cursor over the image. (Works much like sampling colors outside of Photoshop). An oversight on my part, quickly caught by our wonderful readers. My apologies for any confusion.

Like sunscreen make sure you get plenty of coverage. A soft edge brush doesn’t hurt for blending. You can also desaturate a little if there’s still a bit of red.

Ta-Da! No more red nose. Yet another instance where we can stay within Lightroom, and keep Photoshop for the bigger tasks.

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In a previous TipSquirrel article I explained how to size images for print & web. As a matter of practice, I use the Crop Tool when I want to quickly make adjustments to image or canvas size. Here are some of my favorite tips: Resample an Image to Size

When you set the width & height (in inches or centimeters) as well as the resolution for the image area within the crop overlay will be resampled to the exact dimensions. Resize WITHOUT Resampling

If you want to resize the image WITHOUT changing the pixel information, do not specify the resolution. (The image resolution will change but the pixel data stays the same) Increase Canvas Size

One of the quickest ways to increase canvas size is to simply draw the crop overlay larger than the image. (Notice how CS5 now includes a “rule of thirds” set of guides)

There you have a few quick tips on using the Crop Tool to speed-up your workflow.

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What Happened to Optimize Catalog?

One of the first things you may have noticed upgrading to Lightroom 3 is “Optimize Catalog” appears to be missing from the Catalog Settings.

Optimize Catalog Moved to File Menu

As in previous versions, optimizing the Lightroom 3 catalog may take time due to the size of the file.

Increase Camera RAW Cache for Develop Module Speed

Lightroom 3 & Bridge CS5 share the Camera RAW Cache Settings. You can refer to the article by ACP Sean McCormack for details, but suffice to say increasing this cache should give the Develop module a bit more pep in its step. According to the Lightroom Queen, the Camera RAW cache can be preloaded by rendering new previews. Also consider keeping the Lightroom catalog & cache on separate physical drives from your images.

Render Standard or 1:1 Previews?

Look at how YOU use Lightroom 3 to determine the best previews to render. If you are not zooming images within the Library module, standard previews should be fine. If running exceptional video hardware, render standard previews closer to your monitor size. Don’t forget you can render 1:1 previews during the Import process.

XMP – To Write or Not?

If something were to happen to you Lightroom 3 catalog, you would still have your images, just not the adjustments you made to the files. You can automatically write changes to XMP for some piece of mind. In previous versions of Lightroom this caused a significant slowdown, LR3 seems better to the task. Another popular tweak is to uncheck metadata list suggestions.

One Keyboard Shortcut to Rule Them All

You only need to remember one keyboard shortcut in Lightroom 3 — CMD+ / (Mac) CTRL+ / (PC). That key combination opens the shortcut list for each module in Lightroom 3.

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