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Adobe Lightroom 5.6 and Adobe Camera RAW 8.6 are here with Nikon D810 support and more

nikon_d810

I actually have a Nikon D810 on loan for review and I’ll be posting my initial impressions of it soon. One of the things that’s going to make it much easier for my to take the D810 through its paces is having Nikon D810 native RAW support in both Lightroom 5 and Adobe Camera RAW (ACR). Well that wait is over as they are now available. Here are the release notes from the team:

Lightroom 5.6

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is now available as a final release on Adobe.com and through the update mechanism in Lightroom 5. The goal of this release is to provide support for additional camera raw support, lens profile support and address bugs that were introduced in previous releases of Lightroom.

Release Notes

New Camera Support in Lightroom 5.6

  • Nikon D810 (Yay!)
  • Panasonic LUMIX AG-GH4
  • Panasonic LUMIX DMC-FZ1000

New Lens Profile Support in Lightroom 5.6

 

 Mount  Name
 Canon  CanonEF-S10-18mmf/4.5-5.6ISSTM
 Canon  CanonEF16-35mmf/4LISUSM
 Canon  Tamron28-300mmf/3.5-6.3DiVCPZDA010E
 Canon  Tamron18-200f/3.5-6.3DiIIIVCB011EM
 Nikon  Nikon1NIKKORVR70-300mmf/4.5-5.6
 Nikon  Tamon28-300mmf/3.5-6.3DiVCPZDA010N
 Pentax  Sigma18-35mmf/1.8DCHSMA013
 PhaseOneA/S  SchneiderKreuznachLS40-80mmf/4.0-5.6
 SonyAlpha  Sigma18-35mmf/1.8DCHSMA013
 SonyAlpha  Sony28mmf/2.8
 SonyAlpha  Sony16mmf/2.8Fisheye
 SonyAlpha  Sony100mmf/2.8MACRO
 SonyAlpha  SonyDT16-105mmf/3.5-5.6 
 SonyAlpha  SonyDT18-200mmf/3.5-6.3
 SonyAlpha  SonyDT18-250mmf/3.5-6.3
 SonyAlpha  Sony70-200mmf/2.8G
 SonyAlpha  Sony70-300mmf/4.5-5.6GSSM
 SonyAlpha  Sony70-400mmf/4-5.6GSSM
 SonyAlpha  Sony70-400mmf/4-5.6GSSMII
 SonyAlpha  Sony135mmf/2.8[T4.5]STF
 SonyAlpha  Sony300mmf/2.8GSSMII
 SonyE  ZeissTouit2.8/50M

Please note – the profile for the newly added Canon EF 16-35mm f/4L IS USM lens is not automatically located when applying lens profile corrections. This is a bug and we will fix it in an future release. The workaround is to:

– Manually select the profile and choose “Save New Lens Profile Defaults” in the Setup menu on the Profile tab. From then on, the lens should automatically select when the profile is enabled.

Bugs Corrected in Lightroom 5.6

  • Collections with a custom sort order would sometimes not properly sync with Lightroom mobile.
  • Updated the “Adobe Standard” color profile for the Nikon D810. Please note that this only impacts customers who used Camera Raw 8.6 or DNG Converter 8.6 to convert NEF raw files from the D810 to DNG
  • Star ratings set in Lightroom mobile did not properly sync to Lightroom desktop. Please note that this only occurred on images that were added to Lightroom mobile from the camera roll
  • Resolved the issues causing the persistent “Syncing … images” state that some of our customers have reported.”
  • Star ratings would sometimes not sync from Lightroom desktop to Lightroom mobile. Please note that this only occurred when attempting to sync a Collection that contained more than 100 photos that already contained star ratings.
  • Added information to the “System Info” dialogue to help designate if the customer installed Lightroom from the Creative Cloud.
  • Unable to open sRaw files from the Nikon D810. Please note that this only impacted customers that converted D810 sRaw files to DNG in either Camera Raw 8.6 RC or DNG Converter 8.6 RC.
  • Images with invalid GPS coordinates would not properly sync with Lightroom mobile
  • Lightroom occasionally crashed when changing image selection on Windows. Please note that this only occurred on the Windows platform.
  • JPEG files exported from Lightroom would not open or be available to edit within Canon Digital Photo Professional application software.
  • Lightroom would run in reduced functionality mode when it should not.

Download Links:

Lightroom 5.6:

Mac | Win

Camera RAW 8.6

Adobe Camera RAW 8.6 has the same camera support and lens profile support listed above that Lightroom 5.6 has. Camera Raw 8.6 is now available as a final candidate on Adobe Labs for Photoshop CS6 and Photoshop CC. This release improves performance when batch processing images, both through the Save button in Camera Raw and when converting images to DNG in the DNG Converter. DNG Converter 8.6 is provided for customers using versions of Photoshop older than Photoshop CS6. As mentioned here, updates to Camera Raw 8 for Photoshop CS6 only include new camera support, lens profile support, and bug fixes. The new features listed in the release notes are only available in Photoshop CC.

Camera Raw 8.6 adds camera matching color profiles for the following camera models:

• Sony DSC-RX100 III

• Sony A7S (ILCE-7S)

• Sony Alpha SLT-A77 II (ILCA-77M2)

Camera Raw 8.6 introduces the following new features for Photoshop CC customers:

– Improved performance when batch processing images via the Save button (in Camera Raw) and when converting images to DNG (in DNG Converter). The performance improvements are available only on 64 bit systems.

Bug Fixes:

• Fixed crash on launch in some cases on Hi DPI (Retina) systems.

• Fixed crash when opening some Sigma SD9 raw files.

• Fixed issue with JPEG images saved by Camera Raw not readable in some external applications.

• Fixed automatic lens profile selection for Leica M (Typ 240) when using most recent firmware version.

• Fixed issue with some Hasselblad H5D-50c and H5D-60 3FR raw images appearing slightly too dark. Unfortunately, this fix may affect the appearance of existing images captured with this combination of settings. It is recommended that you (1) purge the Camera Raw cache via the Camera Raw Preferences dialog, and (2) review previously captured images for unexpected brightness changes.

• Fixed bug with converting Nikon D810 and Nikon D4S sRaw files to DNG.

• Tweaked and updated the Adobe Standard color profile for the Nikon D810. Please note that this only impacts customers that used Camera Raw 8.6 RC with the Nikon D810.

Please note – If you have trouble updating to the latest ACR update via the Creative Cloud application, please refer to the following plugin installation:

Download Links

DNG Converter 8.6

Mac |  Win

Thank You



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This Battery Came in Handy During the Last Power Outage

HyperJuice 2

There I am at my desk at 5PM on a Sunday and I can hear the rain outside. Next I hear the wind really whipping by and bam, there go the lights. After a few seconds the lights came back on and then after a few more seconds they went off for good! Sure my APS UPS Systems kept my Server and Internet Router going for a while before they eventually ran out of juice. Since I was headed out of town the next morning I just decided to relax and take it easy for the rest of the evening. However, the one thing that I definitely wanted to keep charged and running the entire night was my iPhone. I have a battery that I keep in my backpack which is good for a couple of charges, but I had never tried to go all night with it. Also while I was sitting at my desk I hadn’t plugged my phone in so it was already down to around 40% battery left. That’s when I remembered my HyperJuice battery that was also in my office and fully charged!

DTE-iPhone

I commend DTE Energy for having a nice App to not only report the outage, but get status updates and see what other areas are affected:

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The HyperJuice  to rescue!

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This battery is really designed to power your MacBook for long periods of time when AC power isn’t readily available. However, it also has a USB port for charging/powering phones and tablets. I plugged my iPhone into the USB port and not only did I wake up fully charged 8 hours later, but the HyperJuice still had plenty of juice to top off my MacBook Pro as well! When I originally bought this battery it was for long flights and being at seminars where there were no plugs nearby. I hadn’t carried it in a while and never thought that I’d be using it to get me through the night because of a power outage.

You can get/find out more the HyperJuice here.

BTW, it’s 2014! Can’t we agree that power lines should be buried? Sigh…



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Tired of dropping your iPhone?

kenu-highline

Chances are either you have dropped your iPhone or know some who has. Hopefully the case protected it and there was no damage. Unfortunately more often than not we know at least one person that has a broken screen right now. So far I’ve been lucky. I’ve had every model of iPhone since the original back in 2007 and I have dropped them all at least once, but no broken screens for me to date. Kenu, the makers of my FAVORITE smart phone car mount, the AirFrame have come out with a solution to cut down the chances of you dropping and breaking your iPhone or worse dropping it and not realizing you dropped it and you lose it. This product is called the Keuu Highline. It’s combination clear case (which I love) and a bungee cord that’s designed to attach to the bottom of the case. It has a quick release so that you can easily disconnect your iPhone/case from the cord. The cord can attach to anything from a belt loop to a zipper. Once attached you can drop your iPhone while in a standing position and the cord is short enough so that the iPhone won’t actually hit the ground. This is great especially if you’re going to be out and about, walking, taking pictures or sporting activities.

While I like the whole concept as a packaged product, what I found that I liked the most was the actually case. I love clear cases that don’t add a lot of bulk to the iPhone and this one has become my favorite. It’s just thick enough to add protection and yet then enough to not feel like your iPhone is in a case.

You can get the Kenu Highline here.

Also see it in action here:

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How To Shoot Tethered to Lightroom Mobile

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Lightroom has allowed for USB tethered capture from popular Nikon and Canon cameras for several years now. However, I can’t tell you how many people have asked me about tethering directly to an iPad pretty much since the 1st shipped in 2010. Four years later, while there are several shoot to iPad solutions out there, there still isn’t a way to plug your camera directly into an iPad and shoot tethered like you do with your computer and Lightroom.

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Here’s what’s in my Tripod Rig Setup Above

I personally use an Eye-Fi card when I’m out in the field and my iPad then becomes a nice big 10″ display to preview my shots. The Eye-Fi cards create their own ad-hoc network and therefore no hotspot is required. The images wirelessly transfer from my camera to my iPad. Now that Lightroom mobile is here, the question becomes can I shoot tethered into Lightroom mobile and the answer is yes! However, even though the answer is yes, it still involves your computer as there is still no way to connect your camera directly to your iPad via a USB cable and shoot tethered like you do with your computer. In studio I’m shooting either tethered directly to Lightroom via a USB cable, to my computer from my Nikon D4 via Ethernet or via the Nikon WT-5A Wireless Transmitter to a folder where the images are auto imported into Lightroom. There are two ways to shoot tethered to Lightroom mobile:

Before we get into the methods you’re going to need Lightroom 5.5 and a Creative Cloud membership. The Creative Cloud Photography program is affordable at only $9.99/month and includes Photoshop CC, Lightroom, and unlimited syncing to Lightroom mobile.

You can download Lightroom for iPad here:

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I call the first method “Selective Tethering”

lightroom-set-target-collection

Recently Scott Kelby did a post “My First Studio Shoot Using Lightroom Mobile” during this shoot he was shooting tethered from his DSLR to his computer running Lightroom 5.5 desktop. However, he did a very clever thing. He had a collection marked to sync with Lightroom mobile and his creative director was holding his iPad. He made that collection the “target collection” (a Lightroom feature) so that as he saw images coming in from his camera that he really liked all he had to do was hit the letter “b” on his keyboard to add those images to the collection that was sync’d to Lightroom Mobile. Now the creative director could see the images on the iPad from any location and help direct the shoot, make changes to the wardrobe, etc. Since Lightroom mobile is a two-way communication between the iPad and the desktop version of Lightroom she could also flag or star rate images on the iPad and those flags and ratings would appear in Lightroom on the desktop for Scott to look at further and tweak if needed. This is an awesome way to work and it allows you to show only the BEST images to your client, director, assistant, etc. However, it does require more interaction on your part as you have to hit “b” for each image you want to be added to the collection. I had never thought of using the Target Collection in this way and it makes total sense. This got me to thinking if perhaps there was a way to automate this so that each image would just go into a collection as they come in to Lightroom via tethering? Currently Lightroom mobile doesn’t support Lightroom’s Smart Collections. So I began to look at 3rd party plugins….

 

The next method “Tethering to Lightroom mobile”

LRm-iPad-Thais

Like I said above, I wanted a way to bring in all the images I’m shooting so I wouldn’t have to touch the keyboard every time I wanted an image added to the iPad/Lightroom mobile. After looking at Scott’s method above this definitely has some downsides to it. As you know not every shot is good. Sometimes the strobe doesn’t fire or the image is out of focus. Sometimes the model isn’t ready or you capture an awkward frame. Chances are you don’t want your client seeing this frames. If that’s the case you’re better off using the “Selective Tethering” method above. However, if it’s you and say an assistant or other person on set that needs to be able to see what you’re shooting via the iPad then you probably don’t care as much if a few bad ones get in. As a matter of fact if it’s an assistant they could be helping by “rejecting” the bad ones for you! My search for a 3rd party solution started and ended with Jeffrey Friedl’s “Folder Watch” plug-in.

watchfolder-lr

This plug-in was originally designed as a more full featured alternative to Lightroom’s Auto Import (what we used before native Tethering) feature. Sadly after I downloaded it I realized it wouldn’t work with Lightroom’s Tether Capture feature because it needed to do the import before it could add the images to a collection.I reached out to Jeffrey and told him what I wanted it to do and guess what? He immediately added the feature for me! Now with this “donationware” plugin you can shoot tethered into Lightroom as you always do and designate a collection to add the images to as you shoot. All you do once you create the collection is sync it to Lightroom mobile.

 

Share with REMOTE viewers too. On ANY platform!

lightroom-web

One of Lightroom mobile’s best kept secrets is that it’s not just for iPad and iPhone. There’s also a web component. If you head to lightroom.adobe.com and sign in with your Adobe ID you can all of your Lightroom mobile collection right in a web browser. You can click on any of your collections and grab the link for it and share it with whomever you want to be able to view that collection. This means that you can have a large audience watching your shoot and they will see your new images as you take them (by hitting refresh in the browser) pretty much on ANY platform.

Lastly don’t forget that Lightroom is also on iPhone now

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See my video here:




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How To Get Free Add-Ons for Photoshop CC, Muse CC and more

creative_cloud_2014

In this episode of Adobe Creative Cloud TV, Terry White shows how to get FREE Add-Ons for your favorite Adobe Creative Cloud products such as Photoshop CC, Adobe Muse CC and more.

Are you missing out on my Bonus Content?

See more of my Adobe Creative Cloud Videos on my Adobe Creative Cloud TV and get the App below. It features EXCLUSIVE CONTENT that no one else gets to see. My iOS App is a Universal App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. I also have an Android version on the Amazon App Store:

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Convert Your Aperture Library to Lightroom with this FREE Utility

Aperture3

Apple recently announced that they will no longer develop Aperture. While there have been no official plans announced to move Aperture users over to Lightroom, there is a developer (7822383 Canada Ltd) that has released a “beta” utility called Aperture Exporter to help you out. First you have to realize that there is no real way to transfer/translate the adjustments you made  to your images in Aperture to the Lightroom and have the images look exactly the same. So the next best thing is to bring over as much of your Aperture Library structure as possible over to Lightroom and render out adjusted files so that they do look the same in Lightroom (or anywhere else). I think this company has done a good job and took a logical approach in doing it and sense it doesn’t harm your original Aperture Library (make a backup anyway!) it’s worth a try.

Aperture-ExporterScreen
I tested it on an Aperture library and the results were as advertised. I created a sample Aperture Library and imported images my into it. Then I made adjustments, flagged, keyworded, star rated, labeled, organized, etc. the images. Next I fired up the Aperture Exporter and did the export. Before clicking the “Begin Export” button I went back and star rated my adjusted images as it uses star ratings to determine if your adjusted images should be exported as TIF or JPG with the adjustments rendered in. Once it was done I had folders and subfolders representing the structure I created in Aperture.

Lightroom5
Then it was time to import those folders into Lightroom. No issues there. The images came in with the metadata intact. Now keep in mind things like color labels don’t translate. So instead the utility takes any Aperture color labels and adds the appropriate keyword to the images ie. “GreenLabel”. Once in Lightroom it’s easy to filter on these keywords, select all and then actually apply the corresponding Lightroom color label. So yes there is some clean up necessary once you’re in Lightroom, but overall the this utility takes the major work out of moving your Aperture Library to Lightroom.
If you’re looking to make the conversion from Aperture to Lightroom sooner rather than later, you should head over and grab the FREE download here.

Also don’t forget that you can get the NEW Creative Cloud Photography Program which includes Photoshop CC, Lightroom 5 and Lightroom Mobile for only $9.99/month.



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11 Things You Didn’t Know About Adobe Creative Cloud

creative_cloud_2014

IIn this episode of Adobe Creative Cloud TV, Terry White walks you through how to get started with the 2014 release of Adobe Creative Cloud as well as 11 things you probably didn’t know about Creative Cloud.

Are you missing out on my Bonus Content?

See more of my Adobe Creative Cloud Videos on my Adobe Creative Cloud TV and get the App below. It features EXCLUSIVE CONTENT that no one else gets to see. My iOS App is a Universal App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. I also have an Android version on the Amazon App Store:

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Charge up to 5 USB devices at once

anker_5_port_USB

Charging USB devices at home is no big deal as I have charges around the studio, office, bedroom, etc. and even USB wall plates. However, on the road it’s bit more challenging as there are limited AC outlets in hotels and on stage during presentations. Once again I sought out a USB charger that could not only charge multiple devices, but also charge at least 2 iPads, which require a little more juice (2.1A). My search led me to the Anker® 25W 5-Port Family-Sized Desktop USB Charger Travel Power Adapter. This relatively small charger can handle charging up to 5 of your USB devices including 2 iPads at full speed. While I don’t travel with 2 iPads, I do want to be able to charge one iPad and my iPhone at the faster 2.1A speed as well as 2-3 other devices at the same time. If you’re an Android user you’ll even have a dedicated Samsung Tab port as well. Even if you don’t have the specific devices labeled on each port you can charge ANY 5 USB devices at the same time. Speaking of labeled ports that’s another thing I love about this charger. Many of the smaller chargers that have only 2 ports with one of them being high speed don’t always label which one in particular is the high speed one. Lastly another reason I really like this model over previous multiple port chargers that I’ve used is that it has a regular detachable AC cord on the other end with a decent length of 5 feet. This means that I can plug in the one cord into a power strip on stage or outlet behind a night stand and put the charger itself on the table top to connect all the cords too. I used it in LA this week at my event and it worked perfectly and to my surprise it also didn’t get warm to the touch like other charger tend to do.

anker_5_port_inmyhand

If you’re looking to charge 3-5 USB devices at the same time, this is your charger. You can get the Anker® 25W 5-Port Family-Sized Desktop USB Charger Travel Power Adapter here. Charge up to 5 USB devices at once.

Or get an even better model

anker_40w_USB

You could also go with the NEWER 40W version that had intelligent port charging! No need to plug specific devices in specific ports!

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Before and After the Westcott Eyelighter

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When I initially gave a first look at the NEW Westcott Eyelighter a couple of weeks ago (here), one thing I failed to do was to show a before and after comparison

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So I took some time away from my vacation last week and setup a beauty shoot with a few models to really give you an idea of what the Eyelighter really does beyond providing interesting catchlights in the eyes. In the two shots above you can see the affect of the Eyelighter not only in the eyes of my subjects but also under the chin.

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What a difference an Eyelighter makes. The shot above is the same model under the same Westcott Skylux and XXL RapidBox 48″ octa softbox, but without the Eyelighter.

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The shot above is a production shot showing the Eyelighter setup just in front of the subject with the Skylux LED light above subject.

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The results are AWESOME and pretty much night and day.

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Again here’s another look without the Eyelighter using the exact same main light, subject and camera settings.

But what about the background?

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The background was lit using two lights shining through the Westcott Scrim Jim. This gave me the High Key look that I wanted by providing a nice big soft light source directly behind the subject that wrapped around the subject with beautiful rim lighting.

 

The Bottom Line

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I’ve always been a fan of this clamshell beauty look and the Westcott Eyelighter makes it much much easier to do now with one light. Adding another light or two behind with the Scrim Jim makes this accessory useful for in studio work as well as on location work. All of the images above were shot with my Nikon D600 and 70-200mm f/2.8 VRII lens.



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3 Tips for Shooting Tethered into Lightroom 5

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In this episode of Adobe Creative Cloud TV, I’ll share at least 3 tips that will make your life easier while shooting tethered with Lightroom 5. Get a long USB tethering cable here.

Are you missing out on my Bonus Content?

See more of my Adobe Creative Cloud Videos on my Adobe Creative Cloud TV and get the App below. It features EXCLUSIVE CONTENT that no one else gets to see. This episode has a BONUS CLIP that is available only in the App! My iOS App is a Universal App for iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. I also have an Android version on the Amazon App Store:

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