With the GPS plugged in, all my photographs are geo-tagged.  The geographic coordinates are visible on the back of my camera, and they show up in the metadata when I import the photographs into Lightroom.  And a double-click on the coordinates, in Lightroom, will call up Google Maps, showing my location when the shutter was opened.   Unfortunately, there was no way to enter the coordinates into the metadata of photographs that were already in the Lightroom database.

In fact, I’ve been taking photographs longer than the GPS satellites have existed.  There certainly was no automatic capture of the metadata in my film days.  But I kept records of my shooting locations on 3×5 cards that recorded the contents of each negatives, including location.  I’ve stored those cards in a little plastic box for years.

Now, in Lightroom 4, I can rectify the lack of location data in my old photographs by using the Map Module.

This marina is located in McKay, Australia.  I was there for a couple of weeks on a business trip.  (Yes, I’ve been pretty lucky with some of my business trips.)  You can see the GPS field is empty because this photo was taken long before I had a GPS attached to my camera.

Since I know where this was taken, I can zoom into the map to the location.  While the map is up, I highlight the photo (or photos); right-click on the location; and Lightroom will add the location to my metadata.  The orange marker is where I was standing, and the location is now in my metadata.  Sweet!

When you zoom out, you can see groups of your photographs displayed.  As you zoom into the groups, the photographs will be broken out of the groups to their exact locations.

So, with more than 50,000 photographs I have some work to do.  I’ve created a smart collection that gathers all images without GPS coordinates to make this task easier.  No, I won’t put GPS data into every photograph.  I don’t need the data for model shoots, weddings, or family photographs, etc.  If I’m not worried about precision, I can assign a group of photographs taken in a general vicinity and assign them all a location.   For example, all my photographs taken on the grounds of Schloss Hohenschwangau, in Bavaria, can have an identical location.

I will continue to attach my GPS during my photowalks and when I visit new places.  If you secretly want to join me in geo-tagging photographs, but don’t want to buy a GPS, you now have the capability to enter the locations after the shoot.  It’s just another way to have fun with your photography.  Just don’t let Mark know, or he will taunt you, too. 

First if you don’t already own it, they have dropped the price to $149 for new and only $79 to upgrade

Adobe has added and improved some really important features.   

The biggest improvements are in the develop module.  They have redone the engine and really simplified all the controls while giving you finer adjustments.  You can now apply things like white balance and noise reduction via the brush.  This lets you be very precise in where your effects go.

 They added two entirely new modules—Map and Photobook.

 Publish your own photobooks right from LR.  It now has a link to www.Blurb.com and looks fairly easy.  I will be testing it against the www.mypublisher.com app that I normally use and will see how it fares.  But that is for another blog.

The ability to tag images to Google Maps is pretty cool.  Roger is a huge fan of that one.  The feature actually lets you drag your pictures to the map and it will add the geocoordinates to your metadata.  Now if those words don’t gladden a geeks heart, than nothing will

One feature they added to the library and develop modules but which isn’t very import to me (yet),  is the ability to manage videos.  You can also do some rudimentary editing there, but I can’t tell you how well it worked.  At least it now gives you the capability to track, tag and sort them so you can find them again. 

The good folks at the National Association of Photoshop Professionals have put out a great LR4 learning center with videos and highlights.  http://www.photoshopuser.com/lightroom4

Well I just got back from a 3 day trip, and I want to finish downloading and playing with it myself, so goodnight. 

This new capability will allow you to apply very targeted adjustments in Lightroom that you currently would have to apply with masks inside Photoshop.  And right on top of the panel is one you may overlook – color balance.

We’ve blogged before about the varying temperature of different light sources, and problems that can occur when you mix light sources in a single photo.  If this isn’t something you did purposely for an effect, it can be very difficult to balance the light sources.  Now you have a new tool to assist you.

When I was out in our one little snow earlier this year, I managed to create an example of two different color balances in one photo.

I was adjusting my settings on arrival at this gate and noticed how the headlights’ color cast was decidedly orange.  Since this was taken right before we went to Alaska, I never got around to processing all the photos from that shoot.  (That’s lucky because this would have gone straight into the bit bucket.)   You can easily see the clash of the orange (warm) headlights against the blue of the early morning (cool).

With the new brush, I can knock that orange right into submission, cooling it so the light looks like it fits into the scene better.  Most of your viewers would never question that the light might not match reality; it would just seem to fit better.

Here is another example where your viewers’ perceptions of what is correct might not match reality.

When I came back from Alaska this summer, I had some shots from the glaciers.  If you’ve ever seen glaciers, you’ll immediately notice their deep blue coloring.  Many people looking at this photo of gulls on an ice flow asked me about the blueness of the birds.  “Why are the birds blue? Did you tint them to match the ice?”  (Once co-workers know you dabble in the evil world of Photoshop, they’ll question everything you do – even if you didn’t use it.)

Of course, I could go into Photoshop and warm up the color balance on the gulls and mask the rest of the image.  It won’t take too much effort.  Just add a new layer; adjust the color balance; mask the base image to reveal the warmer gulls; save to file; and you’re done.  Or you can stay in Lightroom and make the changes with the new Adjustment Brush.

Doing all that is possible in a single program makes more sense.  And another big advantage to working in Lightroom is Adobe’s policy that all Lightroom adjustments are completely reversible.  If I decide I’ve gone too far with warming up the gulls, I can change it instantly with the slider or easily revert to the original.  All the original pixels are still there.

I find it funny that people who proclaim they don’t like it when I resort to Photoshop are happier with the warmer tones on the gulls (“Everyone knows seagulls don’t look that blue”).  In order to make them happy, I had to adjust the image away from the original pixels.  And now both parties know I didn’t use Photoshop. 

Mark told you that the Nikon D4 was finally announced, but they also announced an 85mm f1.8 lens at $500.  A lens that will give you lots of speed and creamy bokeh for relatively few dollars.

Canon announced their high-end compact, the G1x.  It shoots RAW; 1080p video; and has a 28-112mm zoom.  It will compete with Nikon’s 1 (although the Canon doesn’t have inter-changeable lenses) and the Fuju X100 (also fixed lens).  Go read Google News about all the photo gadgets that are being introduced in Vegas this week.

But the photo world wasn’t just buzzing over the neat new hardware….  Adobe announced the public beta of Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 4.  There are some major changes, including a revamped Develop panel; a Map panel that connects to Google Earth and let’s you geo-tag any image; and a Book panel to create your own Blurb photobooks.  You can download it here; there is no cost to try it.

I’ve been playing with it all week on some recent photos, and I’m already hooked on the improvements.  It is still a Beta, so you only want to use it on copies of your photographs.  You will probably experience some slowness and crashes, but this is normal in a Beta.  They’ll have that taken care of in the final release.  When does the final release come out?   They haven’t announced that, but the Beta expires on 31 March.  (Isn’t that less than a week after Photoshop World?  Hmmmm.)

You can bet we’ll blog about all the features when it comes out, but let me show you a couple of examples of the new Develop panel.  I really love the changes here.

Here is the York Minster.  A blah sky provides enough light to create a common problem – the camera meter averages the scene, and my sky is too bright and the church is too dark.

In Lightroom 3, I would globally lighten the church and then use the adjustment brush to bring down the brightness of the sky.  This isn’t difficult, but it will take a few minutes of brushing to get the sky the way I want it.

In Lightroom 4, I moved few sliders to give much better results in seconds.  The corrections were so fast, I used the lens correction to minimize the image distortion and still had a much better image in less than one minute.

The clouds have more definition; you can see details in the towers; and the exposure is fixed.  The transformation is really something to watch as you move the sliders.  Of course, I could do this in Photoshop, but that would take even longer.

I had to try it one more time.

Wow!  I really like the way shadow detail can be revealed.  You should download the program and give it a try.  This new Lightroom is going to be fun.

At the top of the Library module is the Library Filter bar. This exceptionally powerful tool lets you search using any characteristic about your photographs, to quickly and precisely sort through your catalog of thousands of images.

The Text option lets you search through any field which contains, well, text.  Keywords, Filenames, Titles or any of the metadata fields, can all be rapidly filtered. 

Sometimes you are searching for other Attributes, such as finding all the pictures you shot with 3 or more rating stars, or even all the virtual copies you have made.

Finally, the Metadata search panel lets you look for any of the data that your camera automatically captures such as Date, Lens Type, Focal Length, Aspect Ratio, Shutter Speed, etc., or the IPTC data you put in such as City, State, or Copyright info.

If you really want to know how many shots you have taken with your 105 mm f/2.8 lens (1056), or how many images you have taken in Burbank, CA (37) you can find that out in a flash (oh, 6872 photos with a flash).   

The Library filter really lets you see what you have been shooting.  Play with it and you will learn a lot.