Helpful Tips - Digital Darkroom

Finding A Missing Lightroom Panel

January 20, 2016 by Mark Fitzgerald

A common Lightroom annoyance is when a panel suddenly disappears. You would be surprised at how often someone contacts me in a panic because he or she can’t find a needed panel. They have looked everywhere and they don’t understand what happened to it.

In Figure 1 you can see what the problem looks like. The Basic panel is missing from the top of my Develop module panel set.

Figure 1

Though the solution to this problem is easy, it isn’t obvious. I usually instruct students to look for solutions in the View and Window menus when the interface doesn’t look right. But in this case you won’t find the answer there. Now will you find it in preferences either. Instead you need to use our old friend, right-click.

Figure 2 shows the menu that is displayed when I right-clicked on one of the panel headers (the bar that has the name of a panel) on the right side of the Develop module. This menu gives you the ability to conceal/reveal a panel in that set by unchecking/checking it. As you can see, Basic is unchecked. All I have to do is click on Basic in the menu to reveal it again. Problem solved!

Figure 2

My guess is that panels initially go missing because a user accidentally right-clicks a panel header and then compounds the accidental click by accidentally clicking a panel name on the pop-up menu when attempting to navigate away from the menu.

I honestly don’t see much value in intentionally hiding individual panels. If panels are taking too much screen real estate, you can choose Solo Mode to save space as I did in Figure 2. Solo Mode allows only one panel to be open at a time. Each panel set, right and left in every module, can be controlled individually with Solo Mode, which gives you greater control over your Lightroom setup.

Turn Off The iPhoto (Photos) Auto Import Dialog

January 18, 2016 by Mark Fitzgerald

If you are a Lightroom user who works on a Mac, you have probably run into the issue of iPhoto (now called Photos) automatically opening every time you insert a media card. Sure, you close iPhoto/Photos and continue with Lightroom, but it is a PITA to have to do this every time you import. Fortunately, there’s an easy solution using a standard Mac program named Image Capture, that will turn this sucker off for good.

Here’s how you do it:

1.) Insert a camera media card into your card reader. When iPhoto/Photos opens, close it.

2.) Open Finder and navigate to the Applications folder. Scroll until you find an application named Image Capture. Double-click on Image Capture to open the program.

Image Capture comes with your Mac and is in the Applications folder.

Figure 1

3.) When Image Capture opens, notice your media card is listed at the top-left under Devices. Click on the media card to highlight it if it isn’t already highlighted, as circled in Figure 2.

Figure 2

4.) Okay. So far so good. Now for the tricky part. See the small icon at the bottom left? Click it to open a hidden menu. (Don’t ask me why Apple decided to start hiding this menu!) When you click the icon the menu shown in Figure 3 appears. Click in the menu and choose Other, as shown in Figure 4, to open a drop-down menu showing other applications that are located in your Applications folder.

Figure 3

: Figure 4

5.) Navigate to your Lightroom folder and open it to reveal the Lightroom application nested within it. (If you are using an older version of Lightroom, the application may not be in a Lightroom folder.) Select Lightroom and click the Open button at the bottom right to choose it.

Figure 5

6.) Now you should see Lightroom displayed in the menu, as shown in Figure 6. You are done with Image Capture so you can go ahead and close it.That’s all there is to it. iPhoto/Photos won’t open when you insert your media card any more. You should see Lightroom’s import dialog instead.

Figure 6

Now you’re good to go. Just be advised that you will need to do this one time with each of the various media cards you use with your camera(s).

Use 1 Keyboard Shortcut to See Important Lightroom Shortcuts

October 21, 2015 by Mark Fitzgerald

Students often ask me if I have a list of Lightroom keyboard shortcuts. They are surprised when I tell them that all the important shortcuts are just one keyboard shortcut away. To see a list of shortcuts press Cmd/Ctrl + /. That’s Cmd / (Mac) and Control / (Windows). When you do, an overlay like the figure below is displayed in the middle of the screen. These keyboard shortcut lists are contextual to the module you are currently in. For example, the figure below is the list of Library module shortcuts. To see keyboard shortcuts for the develop module, go to the module and press Cmd/Ctrl + /. Click on the list to hide it again.

This list of Library shortcuts is displayed when you press Cmd/Ctrl + /.

Lightroom CC Merge to HDR: Ghosting and Noise Issues

May 5, 2015 by Mark Fitzgerald

The latest versions of Lightroom (Lightroom CC and Lightroom 6) have a new feature for merging HDR files within Lightroom. In the past it has been necessary to use Photoshop or HDR plug-ins like Photomatix Pro or Nik HDR Pro. As someone who shoots HDR regularly and uses Lightroom for the majority of his workflow, I like the idea of having HDR built directly into Lightroom. Even though I use Photomatix Pro for my HDR, Lightroom is a big part of my HDR process. I use it to prepare source photos with a few basic settings, such as white balance and basic lens corrections. Then I merge those photos using Lightroom’s plugin for Photomatix Pro to create an HDR file. Finally I import the merged file into Lightroom for fine-tuning. This last part of the process is where the magic often happens. But to make that magic I need a high quality merged HDR file. If Lightroom could become my go-to HDR merging solution, it would save me time and streamline my postproduction workflow.

I decided to do a test to compare Lightroom’s HDR feature to Photomatix Pro, my go-to HDR program. Below are two images merged from a three-photo HDR series I shot during blue hour last night in downtown Portland. The first image is the result of merging the three source files (2-,0,+2 EV) in Lightroom. The second image is the same set of files merged in Photomatix Pro’s Exposure Fusion Natural. Both sets of images had medium deghosting applied during the HDR process. Both merged files were processed further in Lightroom using the Basic panel, Detail panel, and gradients at the top and bottom of each image. In both cases my goal was to make each image look as good as I could after the merge.

Figure 1: Blue hour in Portland, Oregon. This image was merged to HDR in Lightroom and then fine-tuned using Lightroom’s Develop module. (Click photo to open in new window.)
Figure 2:Fully processed HDR Merged with Photomatix Pro and fine-tuned in Lightroom’s Develop module. (Click photo to open in new window).

Sharpness and Noise

The screenshot below shows a detail of each image at 1:1 magnification. The Lightroom HDR is on the left and the Photomatix Pro image on the right. The main differences to notice are sharpness and noise. The Photomatix Pro image has a greater range of detail in the shadows, such as the bushes and seawall. The Lightroom HDR image on the left has less shadow detail. In fact I had to apply +75 to Shadows in the Basic panel to get them this light. (I applied +40 to the Photomatix Pro image.)

Figure 3: Detailed comparison at 1:1 magnification. Lightroom HDR on left, Photomatix Pro HDR on Right.

Both versions shown above received the same level of sharpening for this comparison (+25, 1.0 25, 0 in the Detail panel). The Lightroom HDR on the left isn’t nearly as sharp as the Photomatix Pro file on the right. Additional sharpening can be applied to improve the sharpness of the Lightroom image, but it would be difficult to get it to match the Photomatix Pro sharpness. I should mention that I applied a generous amount of Local Contrast in Photomatix Pro to get the look I like, which is sharp and crips. This option isn’t possible when merging HDR in Lightroom.

The Photomatix Pro HDR on the right shows more noise than the Lightroom HDR on the left. (Both files received +15 Luminance noise removal in Lightroom’s Detail panel.) The additional noise is most likely due to the sharper file and the lighter shadow areas. More noise removal in Lightroom would help to manage noise in the Photomatix Pro image, though it isn’t too bad considering this is a 1:1 magnification.

Ghosting in the Machine

Ghosting is a common problem when merging multiple source photos into a single HDR image. If something in the scene is moving, such as headlights on the bridge, water, and clouds, they can create ghosts in the final image. All HDR software has some sort of ghost removal to help manage this problem. In Lightroom it’s quite rudimentary. You have four choices: none, low, medium, and high. When Show Deghost Overlay is selected, a red mask overlay shows on the image to indicate where ghost removal will occur, as shown in Figure 4. The preview increases in size with higher Deghost Amount settings. Deghosting in Photomatix Pro is much more powerful. You can make small changes to the amount of deghosting, choose which source file to use as your base image, and select specific areas for selected deghosting of a problem area.

Figure 4: Lightroom uses a red mask overlay to indicate where ghost removal is applied. Selecting a higher level results in a larger masked area than selecting Low, as shown on this other shot from the blue hour shoot..

When processing the photos in Figure 1 and Figure 2 I chose a medium level of deghosting in both Lightroom and Photomatix Pro. Figure 5 below shows a detail of a classic ghosting problem – moving headlights on the bridge. The image on the left shows black artifacts in areas where the headlights were moving. I’ve experienced this numerous times when attempting to use Photoshop to create HDR files. The Photomatix HDR image on the right shows a strange blurry smear occurring where the lights were moving. The best way to solve these problems is to increase the level of deghosting. But when I attempted that, something strange happened.

Figure 5: This comparison shows the results of medium deghosting. The headlights on the bridge in the Lightroom HDR file on the left have black artifacts outlining them. The Photomatix Pro HDR file on the right displays a bright smear along the area where the headlights were moving.

Ghost Removal and Noise

I reprocessed the source files and created new versions of Figures 1 and 2 with additional deghosting. I used the High setting in Lightroom and a value of 70 for the deghosting amount in Photomatix Pro (scale of 0-100). Then I synchronized each of the new HDR files to the files from Figures 1 and 2. As you can see in photo on the right in Figure 6, the ghosting problem is resolved. Blurred lines of headlights are isolated to single lights or short blurs. But the main thing to notice here is the massive amount of new noise in the Lightroom HDR image on the left. Where did it come from when the only difference between it and the version in Figure 5 is High Deghosting instead of Medium?

Figure 6: These photos were reprocessed with higher levels of ghost removal compared to Figures 1 and 2. Notice the extreme level of noise in the Lightroom HDR photo on the left, compared to the Photomatix Pro photo on the right.

HDR software manages ghosting by giving more weight to a single source image during the HDR merging process. When deghosting values are increased, moving objects are are removed because there is less emphasis on the content of other source photos. For example, if I have three source photos of a street scene and a person is walking through it, I’ll have three ghosts of him in the merged image. When I increase deghosting values one of the images is emphasized, removing his ghosts from the other two images. By default, Photomatix Pro uses the middle exposure value as a pivot point. You can choose an under or overexposed pivot frame if it works better.

In this case Lightroom chose to use the underexposed photo from the three source photos, which was shot at -2 EV. I was able to discern this by looking at the original source files to see where the moving headlights were in each. Because this source photo is an underexposure of an already dark scene, it contains serious noise. When that noise becomes part of the merged HDR file, it can render it unusable. Admittedly, these night photos with ghosting lights presents a worst-case scenario for HDR merging. HDR requires intentionally underexposed source photos, so noise is an issue. Underexposed photos shot at night contain a huge amount of noise. HDR software must be up to the task of managing this “intentional” noise.

Conclusion

There are almost as many ways of doing HDR as there are photographers. The HDR software you use depends mostly on your needs. If you are new to HDR and you have Lightroom CC or Lightroom 6, I strongly urge you to check it out because it’s an easy way to get introduced to HDR. You may find that it does exactly what you need with the type of photography you do. But if you plan to shoot HDR scenes that contain moving subjects, especially at night, you’ll probably want to investigate a more powerful HDR solution.

Getting the Brightness Right for Digital Competition Files

March 24, 2015 by Mark Fitzgerald

Before PPA-style image competitions went digital, we used to enter mounted prints in competition. Those prints were viewed under special bright lights during competition so it was standard procedure to print them 15-20% darker than normal to compensate for the lights. When I worked at a prolab we would set up competition lights in the custom printing area during competition season. We used this setup to evaluate customer prints in an environment designed to emulate competition.

This image looks too dark here, but the brightness was perfect on the competition display.

Though bright lights are not used for displaying digital files, it’s important to make a similar effort to emulate the competition process when making final adjustments to your files. Otherwise your competition images may be brighter than you expect when the judges see them.

At first one might think any disconnect on brightness is related to the brightness of the displays judges are usging being different than your own. You can manage this variable by matching your display settings to those used for competition. The displays used in PPA and OPPA (Oregon Professional Photographers Association) competitions are calibrated to the following standards: white balance=6500k, gamma=2.2, luminance=110 lumens. Matching these settings on your display helps to ensure your images will look really close to what is displayed during competition.

But matching display settings is just the first step in previewing what the judges will actually see. Competition judging is done in a darkened room with very little ambient light. Most of us who submit images for competition tend to work on our images in an environment that is brighter than the judging room. A computer display looks much brighter in a darkened room than it does in a well-lit lit room. This is what causes images to appear brighter in competition than they did when you prepared them.

You can test this yourself with the following experiment.

Find one of your favorite images and adjust its brightness in a well-lit room. Try to get image brightness as exact as you can.
Then darken the room or wait for evening and then reevaluate the image. You’ll find the image appears significantly brighter in the darkened room.

When submitting images for digital competition, be sure to make your final evaluation in a darkened room. After you get the brightness dialed-in, you will have greater confidence that judges will see what you see when they evaluate your images.

An Informal Survey of Favorite Photo Apps

January 30, 2015 by Mark Fitzgerald

There are gillions of mobile apps for photographers on the market. It would probably take a lifetime to investigate each of them. Since I know lots of photographers and am friends with many on Facebook, I decided to do an informal survey by posting the following question:

“What are your favorite photo apps on your phone? I’m not talking about camera or processing apps. I’m referring to other sorts of tools, like sunrise/sunset calculators, light meters, model releases, etc.”

It didn’t take long to get lots of responses. It was easy to see there were favorites, such as TPE, as well as apps that I found more obscure. For example, I hadn’t expected to learn about apps used used with film. It was a good reminder that there are lots of photographers doing many interesting things.

The following is a list of 30 of the apps I learned about. Some are single platform, while others are available for both IOS and Android. A couple also work with desktop/laptop. I added the links I used to investigate each app. I also included Facebook comments when possible.

Hopefully this will whet your appetite to try a few new apps. I know I’ll be checking out several on this list. If you don’t see your favorite app on the list, let me know about it in the comments.

LEGAL APPS

Easy Release – Model and Property releases. $9.99

http://applicationgap.com/apps/easyrelease/

“Great, annotated and photo model release app.”

“Flexible and easy to use. You can even take photo of the subject and include it in the release, which you can then email to the model.”

ASMP Release – Model and Property releases. Free

https://asmp.org/tutorials/asmp-releases-app.html – .VMmsD3b3dko

Shake – Legal Agreements. Free

http://www.shakelaw.com/

“A great app for all kinds of quick agreements: model releases, work agreements, etc. It sends a copy to the client/model, and then after they sign, it sends signed copies to both parties. Makes legalese much easier for the layperson.”

PLANNING APPS

The Photographers Ephemeris (TPE) – Natural light planning for sun and moon and more. Mobile: $8.99, Desktop: Free

http://photoephemeris.com/

“I love it. It helps me plan when to do my shoots. I know where the light will be coming from.”

“TPE is a winner, and free on PC and Mac, fee for iPad iPhone.”

“I did a workshop with Bruce Percy in Eigg, Scotland a few years ago and we used this app quite a bit. He has a 2nd edition e-book that will tell you how to use the updated app. If you really dig in you can use the app to find out when the sun will rise or set – but at a specific location.”

“Is the best (accurate sunrise/sunset and angles by location) or Magic Hour and Golden Hour apps that alert you when entering Magic Hour, Blue hour etc,”

Bluehour – Tells you when blue hour will occur. $1.99

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bluehourapp/id425965523?mt=8

Photo Pills – Natural light planning for sun and moon and more. $9.99

http://www.photopills.com/

“It is hard to use.”

“Tells you where to stand and at what time to catch a moon rise, exposures, planner, hyperfocal tables”

“I can put in my GPS coordinate for wherever I am going and determine where the moon will be that night. I can put the date in so if I want to go to Yosemite and shoot stair trails and not have the moon in the shot at least I know when not to go. Photo Pills is for IOS only at this point.”

Sun Surveyor – http://www.sunsurveyor.com/ $6.99

“Works anywhere, not dependent on data connection. All the info you might need out in the boonies.”

The Golden Hour – Monitor and predict the path of the sun. $1.99

http://app.golden-hour.com/

Sun Seeker – Monitor and predict the path of the sun. $6.99

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ajnaware.sunseeker&hl=en

Sunrise Sunset – Monitor and predict the path of the sun. Free

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.alokmandavgane.sunrisesunset&hl=en

Star Walk – Interactive astronomy guide. $2.99

http://vitotechnology.com/star-walk.html

“Shows you the constellations / stars that are in sight wherever you point it.”

skyPhysics – Natural light planning for sun and moon and more. $4.99

http://www.skyphysics.com/

“For finding good light at my location.”

MoonPhase – Information about the moon. $1.99

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/moonphase-moon-info/id287526650?mt=8

Stellarium – Interactive astronomy guide. $1.99

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/stellarium-mobile-sky-map/id643165438?mt=8

“I love Stellarium for charting stars and the Milky Way. It gives you a 360 degree view as you scroll around and the way it transitions the scene you’re viewing from day to night is smooth.”

Tides Near Me – Monitor tidal conditions. Free

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tides-near-me-free/id585223877?mt=8

TideGraph – Monitor tidal conditions. $1.99

http://www.tidegraph.com/

WeatherUnderground – Monitor weather conditions. Free

http://www.wunderground.com/download/index.asp

Dark Sky – Predict the weather at your location. $3.99

http://darkskyapp.com/

PHOTOGRAPHIC TOOL APPS

DOFMaster – Calculate depth of field and hyperfocal distance. $1.99

http://www.dofmaster.com/

Time Lapse Calculator – Compute time lapse parameters. $2.99

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/timelapse-calculator/id328074944?mt=8

SL DigiSlate – Digital information slate for productions. $9.99

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.DigiSlate&hl=en

“For Android. Simple. Clean. Works”

Luxi – Light meter attachment to use mobile device as incident meter. $24.95

http://www.esdevices.com/products/luxi

beeCam – incident light meter – Free

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.fmbee.beecam.lightmeter&hl=en

FotometerPro – Light meter. $0.99

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fotometerpro/id439913393?mt=8

Strobox – Lighting diagram creator. (App seems to be no longer available.)

http://strobox.com/app

DARKROOM APPS

Reciprocity – Film reciprocity calculator. $1.99

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/reciprocity-timer/id459691262?mt=8

Massive Dev – Film processing chart timer. $8.99

http://www.digitaltruth.com/apps/

SECURITY APPS

Malywarebytes – Android anti-malware. Free/Paid

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.malwarebytes.antimalware&hl=en

“…cause who doesn’t need it.”

Things to Consider When Scanning Photos For Editing in Lightroom

January 29, 2015 by Mark Fitzgerald

If you’re using Lightroom to process scans, it’s a good idea to create TIFF files that get the most from Lightroom’s processing power. Here are guidelines on the three most important aspects of a scanned file: color space, bit depth, and resolution. Paying attention to them before you scan really pays off during processing and printing.

Color space: Your scanner most likely has a setting for color space. Choose either Adobe RGB (sometimes called Adobe RBG (1998)), or if available, ProPhoto RGB, which is a very large color space similar to what Lightroom uses. This gives Lightroom the largest color space to work with during editing.

Bit depth: Bit depth refers to the amount of tone and color data a file contains. For color scans the usual options are 8-bit (sometimes called 24-bit) and 16-bit (sometimes called 48-bit). 16-bit files contain a huge amount of data when compared to an 8-bit file. This gives Lightroom more latitude when making tonal and color adjustments. But be advised 16-bit files are twice as big as 8-bit files and take more room on the hard drive. For example a 50Mb 8-bit scan would be 100mb 16-bit scan.

Resolution: Scanners allow you to scan at a variety of resolutions. The topic of resolution can be intimidating if you’re new to digital photography. I don’t have space to discuss the subject in detail here. But here’s what to think about when scanning:

If you plan to print something at the same size as the original print you’re scanning, choose 300ppi. For example, say you’re scanning a 4 x 5 print and you plan to create another 4 x 5 print, choose 300 ppi. That’s because 300ppi is a common resolution for printing so your scan will match the size of the intended output.

If you plan to make the final print larger than the original, double the resolution for each 2x increase in size. For example, if you are scanning a 4 x 5 print and plan to make an 8 x 10 print, doubling the dimensions of the original print (4 x 2=8, 5 x 2=10, 2×300=600), choose 600ppi for the resolution. This creates a larger file with more information used to upsized for 8×10. If you need a 16 x 20 (four times larger than 8 x 10), scan the 4 x 5 at 1200 resolution to facilitate increasing the size for 16×20 output.

Scanning film: If you’re scanning film, it’s important to choose the proper resolution. For example, if you are scanning a 35mm slide, the original dimensions are approximately 1.3 x 0.85. is 1.4 inches in length. It is highly unlikely that you will be making prints at the original size unless you are preparing a contact sheet. Because the scan will be printed larger than original, it’s important to increase the resolution when scanning film. To scan a file large enough to comfortably make an 8×10 print requires a resolution of 3000ppi. Many film scanners top out at 4000ppi so if you plan to make a large print like a 16 x 20, use this setting to get the most data to work with.

Considering file size: If you don’t know how you plan to use a scan in the future, consider scanning at a higher resolution to leave options open for future use. Just be advised that increasing resolution can seriously affect file size. A 16-bit 4”x5” file at 300ppi is a little over 10Mb. A 16-bit 4”x5” file at 1200ppi is a little over 164Mb.

Using Lightroom to Automatically Import Photos From Your Scanner

January 28, 2015 by Mark Fitzgerald

Most Lightroom users import photos created by their digital cameras using Lightroom’s Import dialog to copy and organize the files. However, when using a scanner the saving process typically bypasses Lightroom’s import dialog making it necessary manually import them to add them to Lightroom’s catalog. This system is okay if you only have a few scans. But when you’re working on a large scanning job, manual imports are a PITA. Fortunately the designers of Lightroom created a system for automatically importing scans that makes the process painless.

One of the coolest overlooked features in Lightroom since the earliest days is Watched Folder. It enables you to designate a folder for Lightroom to watch. Anything added to that folder is automatically imported by Lightroom and moved to the location of your choice. You can even rename and add keywords on the fly.

Here’s how to setup Lightroom to automatically import files from your scanner:

In Lightroom’s Library module, choose File > Auto Import > Auto Import Settings. When you do, the Auto Import Settings dialog opens, shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Auto Import Settings

Make sure Enable Auto Import is selected.
Click the Choose button in the Watched Folder section to create a folder that will temporarily hold the scans. In my case I created a folder on my Desktop named “Scans Temp”. Be advised that the watched folder must be empty at the start or Lightroom won’t use it.
Click the Choose button in the Destination section to designate a permanent location for the scans. This locations can be changed on a job-by-job basis. In my case I was scanning some old 4×5 negatives of a job I shot years ago of the Fairmount Hotel in San Antonio. I’m saving them to a folder named “Fairmount Hotel” in my Pictures folder.
Change the File Naming template to Custom Name – Sequence (or whatever naming template you desire) and then type the custom name you want to use into the text box. Set the starting number to what you want it to be.
Use the information section to add useful keywords and metadata.
Set the Initial Previews size to Standard or 1:1.
Click OK.

Now you’re set and ready to go in Lightroom. All you have to do to make it work is designate the watched folder in your scanner’s software as the place to save new scans. Then each new scan will be added temporarily to the watched folder and then automatically moved to the destination folder, renamed, and keyworded.

An Oregon Path to Success in PPA Photographic Competitions

January 20, 2015 by Mark Fitzgerald

Photographers enter PPA-style image competition for two main reasons: To become better photographers and to earn image competition merits. Those competition merits are then used to qualify for local, state, and PPA degrees, such as Fellow of Photography (FP) and PPA Master of Photography (M. Photog.).

This image received a perfect score in the 2012 PPA Western District competition and went Loan at the 2012 IPC.

This image received a perfect score in the 2012 PPA Western District competition and went Loan at the following IPC.

When I began my quest for competition merits, I used the following process to earn merits for my PPA Master of Photography Degree. I was able to accumulate the thirteen needed merits in a little over two years. It’s a simple process that anyone can follow to maximize the opportunity to receive the highest number of merits at the annual Professional Photographers of America International Photographic Competition (IPC).

Competition is a process that begins at the local and state levels and ends at the international level. Simply put, I used our state competitions to determine which of my competition images are strongest and to earn state merits. Then I entered the best of those images in PPA competitions to earn PPA merits.

I belong to the Oregon Professional Photographers Association, a PPA state affiliate. OPPA holds four quarterly state competitions open to OPPA members only. Members can enter up to three images in each of these four competitions, meaning a member can enter a total of twelve images during the course of annual quarterly series. This gives him or her a chance to see what’s working and scoring well. It also gives him or her the opportunity to learn from OPPA judges’ critiques how to improve specific images and then rework these images, even if they merited, and enter them in our annual OPPA Open Image Competition and/or PPA competitions. (At OPPA all images receive at least one judge critique.)

The annual OPPA Open Image Competition is held in November after the quarterly competitions are completed. It’s open to members and non-members (hence the name). Members are allowed to enter images that previously merited in OPPA Quarterly Image Competitions whether they were reworked or not. Images not entered in OPPA competition are also eligible. The Open is our final chance to see how specific images score in state competition before the PPA Western District Photographic Competition that’s held early the following spring.

PPA competitions consist of two main parts: District and international competition. North America is divided into five districts. Oregon is in the Western district comprised of Alaska, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Wyoming, Alberta, British Columbia, and Saskatchewan. You can see a map of the PPA districts here. The rules for PPA District and International competitions are nearly identical to OPPA rules. Therefore if an image that scored well at OPPA, the same file can be entered digitally at PPA competitions.

PPA members can enter up to four images in their PPA District Image Competition. If an image merits at district competition, it automatically qualifies for a PPA competition merit at the summer PPA International Photographic Competition (IPC), provided the image-maker enters the image at IPC. An image that merits at district is called “sealed”, meaning further adjustments to the image are forbidden in order for it to qualify for an automatic merit at IPC. Sealed images are judged in order to evaluate them for the PPA Loan Collection. Only the best images make it into this prestigious group. Images selected for the Loan Collection receive an additional merit. This means an image can receive up to two merits at IPC.

This image did very well in state competition and went on to be selected for the PPA Loan Collection at the 2014 IPC.

Competition merits earned at IPC are the only PPA competition merits you can earn. This means the highest number of photographic competition merits you can receive in one year is eight, which would require all four images to be selected for the loan collection (which is called Double Diamond).

Because it’s necessary to have thirteen competition merits for the PPA Master of Photography degree, it’s important to maximize the opportunity for merits at every IPC. If you follow the process I described here in your own state, you’ll know which of your images have the best chance for earning those merits. You will also earn valuable state competition merits along the way, qualifying you for degrees and numerous competition awards, such as OPPA’s Photographer of the Year.

>Not every PPA affiliate handles competitions the way we do at OPPA. But whatever the case, take advantage of your local and state affiliate competitions. In the case of OPPA, if you begin the process early in the year and take advantage of our series of state competitions, you should be ready for PPA district and international competitions. No matter when you begin, though, once you start the competition process it becomes an ongoing cycle as long as you continue feeding images into it. So keep shooting for competition. And if you are an OPPA member, be sure to enter the OPPA quarterlies early because they often sell out.

Using Lightroom to Output Competition Files

February 15, 2014 by Mark Fitzgerald

If you are a Lightroom user, you can use the Print module to prepare your competition files so they’ll be ready to submit to OPPA and PPA competitions. The following steps are for Lightroom on a Mac. Though Lightroom is almost identical on the Mac and Windows platforms, the dialogs shown below are quite different on the two platforms. On the Windows side printer and page settings in the Print module can vary considerably depending on which printers you have installed. If you are a Mac user, the following steps should do the trick. If you’re a Windows user, you’ll have to improvise a bit to figure out how to use your print driver to setup page size.

1. In the Print module, choose Single Image / Contact Sheet from the Layout Style panel at the top right.
2. Click the Page Setup button on the lower left to open the Page Setup dialog (figure 1).

Figure 1

3. When the Page Setup dialog opens, open the Paper Size dropdown menu and choose Manage Custom Sizes.
4. When the Custom Paper Sizes dialog opens (figure 2), click the plus button (+) at the bottom to add a new size. Click the name to rename it to the intended size. The set the Width and Height values to the desired size. Be sure to set all margins to 0. Then click OK, and click OK again to close the Page Setup dialog.

Figure 2

5. Use the Cell Size section of the Layout panel to determine image area on the overall layout. Use the Margin section of the Layout panel to control positioning of the cell on the layout.
6. Select Page Background Color on the Page panel and then click the color swatch to the right to open the color picker. Choose a color for your background.
7. Go to the Image Settings panel near the top and select Stroke Border. Use the color picker to choose a color and then use the Width slider to adjust the width. (You can also click in any numerical field and type values into it.)

figure 3

8. When the layout looks good, go to the Print Job panel (figure 4), the bottom panel. Change the Print to menu at the top of the panel to JPEG File. The set resolution to 200 ppi and JPEG Quality to 100*. Apply Print Sharpening if necessary. (I suggest you experiment with sharpening amounts to see how they affect your files.) Then click the Print to File button to save your file.

figure 4

9. After saving your file, check it to see if it falls within the file preparation guidelines of 3.5 Megabytes. If it’s over that size, go back to the Print Module and reduce the JPEG Quality value by 10 and saving the file again. Repeat this process as necessary to meet the file sizing standard. (Here’s a link to the rules: http://oregonppa.org/competitions/oppa-competition-rules/.)

* Digital file submission rules for OPPA and PPA stipulate a maximum dimension of 4000 pixels on the longest edge. If you have a 20 inch layout and output it at 200 ppi, you end up with 4000 pixels (20×200=4000).

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