Darktable

I just did something that I knew I would regret later, wiping out my MBP entirely. Such an impulsive move, right? But I found the silver line sooner than I expected.

I found Darktable.

Darktable is not a table decorated with skulls and a crystal ball on it. Though it’s really cool if I own such thing.

Darktable is an image processing application running on Linux (I’m using Deepin). With Lightroom-like GUI that makes the adjustment process intuitive. At least that’s what I thought.

But apparently, his free application has a lot of tools that do not even exist in Lightroom or any other image processing app in its league. Unfortunately, it still looks stiff with some execution steps. But I believe this can be anticipated after acquiring its workflow better.

 

Auto Lightroom Preset For The Lazy

Instruction for Using Auto Lightroom Preset For The Lazy:

1. Download the preset here
2. Switch to develop tab
3. Apply the preset to your photo
4. Select other photos by holding cmd or ctrl (Or selecting all by pressing cmd + A or ctrl + A)
5. Click sync

Is that lazy enough? And I’m too lazy to write any further… 😀

Photoshop: What Is Dodging and Burning Tool

Dodging and burning is a very basic tool every photographer must know. Yes, I said it… photographer! Being a photographer nowadays without knowing the basic knowledge to do the post-processing is like being a cook without knowing how to serve a dish. And that’s just plain stupid. Being able to do basic photo retouching is your main weapon to survive in the world of “having camera = photographer” era. If your Facebook account is using the word Photography as the last name, this article can save you from humiliating yourself.

Ok, I got It! Tell Me What Is Dodging and Burning!

Dodging and burning “is” actually two separate tools even people tend to say it in one word. These two tools are nested together along with one other tool (sponge). We’ll leave sponge, for now, trust me… it’s not the one comes with SquarePants.

Dodge tool, the one we use for dodging is making the part of your photo lighter. On the other hand, Burn tool, the one we use to burning do exactly the opposite… make the part of your photo darker.

What Is It For?

Both tools are good for:

1. Adding dimension to a dull photo
2. Making photo manipulation
3. Emphasizing point interest in your photo

I Am A Good Photographer Out of The Box

Tell me, do you chemically process your negative? If not, then you’re just an ignorant bastard. Enjoy your life… under the rock. >;p

Let’s Start

This web is not a step-by-step tutorial site. I will make the article from one sample then move to another. That’s how I learned Photoshop and that’s how I gonna share it with you. Keep following this web by clicking the OneSignal red bell.

Cheers!

Lightroom To Make Web Faster

There are many ways to improve the speed of our WordPress website. One of the most crucial (and the most visual) is by compressing the images in our web. Most of the web designer uses what all WordPress users love, plug-ins! Yes, who doesn’t love plug-ins with its simplicity in installation and use. But, how many of you are willing to pay after the quota exceeded? I know that Lightroom (desktop version) is not free either, but I believe you can work your way around that. Or simply by using other free apps. The method will be alike. Here is a how to use Lightroom to make web faster.

I know, I know… I could and should just resize the images before I upload blablabla… But, what if you realized that your web is bulking images months after you first started your WordPress site?

Well, we can use our favorite image editor which can do the bulk processing. I choose Lightroom because it offers me more organized files and also great image enhancement feature and on the top of all, because using Lightroom is fun! But we ain’t going to cover this now.

Understanding Structure

Before we do anything, of course, we must know where we can find the images on our website. We can use file manager by cPanel and Plesk, but I won’t recommend that (for efficiency).

I suggest you use Filezilla, as I’m using now. That way we can see both folders on the web and our computer side by side

My picture folder is: /public_html/wp-content/uploads/2018/01

Turn on the synchronized browsing, so that we can always see the changes we make and find which copied files are different from their “twins”.

Copy everything (all folders) in your uploads folder.

Using Lightroom

If you have never used Lightroom before, you don’t have to worry about what we’re going to cover is only the very basic function of it.

• First, we have to create a new catalog so that we can start fresh. Don’t worry about your current catalog because Lightroom can’t do any harm to your photos (but you can!).
• After you create the catalog, you should import the folder you get from Filezilla.
  Choose ADD. <— this allows you to work with the files directly in your folder and NOT making a copy of them. Everything in the folders will be indexed, including the subfolders. You don’t have to import from the files.subfolder>folder because Lightroom will do this.
• On the far of your left, you will see the folders EXACTLY in the hierarchy of the folders you got from Filezilla because they ARE the same files/folders.

• Here, you can try to click the folder name and see the subfolders. When you got familiar, then we can continue.
• Select the main folder, mine is Uploads (I wrote the folder name for you in Filezilla section bold, to help you get the whole picture). You will see all of your images there (including those in subfolders).
• Press cmd+A on Mac or Ctrl+A on Linux and Windows to select ALL.
• Right-click on any of the selected files, choose Export and then apply the setting like in the picture.

• You can make your own variations here, I just find this setting works best for me.
• And as a bonus, you can add your website watermark on ALL of your images. Cool, right?
• Wait for the process to complete. Mine took less than a minute for 1000 images.

The “resized” images will replace the original. You can change the setting if you want to keep the original, but I WON’T recommend that since it only confuses yourself.

Imagine a confusion times a thousand (of identical images). 😀

Optional: You can press 6 on the Lightroom while your images still selected, this will add RED flag to the images. So you can separate which images are done with the new images later.

*1-5 set image rating, 6-9 set image color flag. It helps to know which one is what and sort the files when your catalog grows bigger.

Back To Filezilla

You can backup the (original) files on your website by placing them in another folder you create on your website just to make sure and play safe.

Delete the folder, mine is Uploads, then reverse the process we did earlier by uploading the Upload folder to your site (simply by drag and dropping it).

So, what do you think? Is it worth trying and save your time (and money)? Leave your answer in the comment section below.