The work actually begins before Lightroom when you scan those old photos.  You can purchase scanners that handle negatives, slides and prints.  As with everything, quality varies with each scanners (as does price).  I try to get the best quality and details I can, and this, generally, means that I will create TIFFs, rather than JPGs. Scanning is a complex topic in itself, so take some time to learn how your scanner works before you head down this rabbit hole.  There are many companies that will do all this tedious work for you.  Again, if you ever want to produce large, high quality images, have them create the files in TIFFs, and expect the cost of the scans to increase in line with your quality demands.

The workflow for my genealogy pictures is the same as my normal family workflow: import into family database; keyword all images; enter all known metadata; apply develop module changes. I save all my images in a single subfolder, inside my “Photos” folder.  This ensures that my regular photo back-ups include the scans.  You wouldn’t want to lose all these files, would you? 

Import your scans as you would any new photos; Lightroom can read TIFFs without a problem.  Once they are imported, I keyword all images.  In the Keyword List, I use the nesting capabilities in Lightroom to identify them as “Family,” then their last name, “Atkins,” and then their full name, “Thomas T. Atkins.” 

Sounds complicated, but you only have to set it up once, and then it becomes one simple click on “Thomas T. Atkins.” Lightroom will add the photo to “Atkins” and “Family” because of the nesting.  In genealogy databases, women are listed by their maiden names, so I include those in the full name keyword as you can see below.  Catherine (McLaulin) Dallman photos were taken after our marriage.  Photos of her before our marriage are listed under “Family”, “McLaulin”, Catherine L. McLaulin. 

The next step is to fill in all the additional facts about the photo in the Metadata section.  You can add a title to the photo if you want one.  I use the caption field to further explain the image or event occurring in the image.  This is important information for family historians because it adds to the information on an individual’s life and lets descendants know more about the experiences of their ancestors.  There is so much more to their history than their birth, marriage, and death dates. The date of the image and locational data  are also key metadata and have their own section.

Now that you have entered all the data, you can do some basic editing in Lightroom.  Most of the images you scan will have problems due to their age: discoloration, scratches, and tears.  Lightroom can handle some of the easy stuff, but you need Photoshop or some other editing tool for the heavy duty lifting of restoration.

Here is an image I received from a relative.  The photo wasn’t square to the edges when it was scanned and has a heavy yellow discoloration with plenty of surface flaws.  Lightroom can fix the tilt and yellowness and the major flaws. 

I’ll clean up the background and bring out more of his suit in Photoshop.  Until then, go find some old photographs and add them to your photo files.  Don’t forget to capture all the information – we’re trying to preserve the data, not create a new, digital shoebox.

In March (23-26), it’s time, once again, to wander down to Orlando for Photoshop World – an entire week of photography and post-processing fun.  There are two conventions every year.  The east coast is in the spring and usually rotates between Orlando and Boston.  The west coast version happens in the fall in Las Vegas.  The exhibition floor will be packed with great deals and new products.  The classrooms will be filled with lots of photography-related education.  There are several must-attend parties and discussions that occur throughout the week.  Yup, a regular photo-geek fest.  Here’s the link, so you can register now.

On the 23rd, we will be spending the day in a pre-con session with Joe McNally and Moose Peterson.  We’ve raved about Joe before.  He is an incredible photographer.  Moose is an extremely talented wildlife and landscape photographer.  This will be the highlight of the week for me.  Hope to see you in Orlando.

On a personal note, the post office delivered several of copies of The Guardian, newsletter for St. Mary’s Home for Disabled Children.  In October, I photographed their annual fund-raiser fun run in Virginia Beach and wrote a blog about it.  They used two of the pictures in their newsletter and gave me the photo credit for the pictures.  It’s always nice to start the year with a new photo credit.  You can support them by sending a donation here.  It only takes a few minutes to help them with their work.  If you haven’t given to a deserving community group yet, this is a good one to recognize.  I hope you can give them a hand.  We’ve been talking about how to start the new year off properly, and this is just another good idea.

Here is one of the pictures from the run.

We traveled up a steep hill to an old fort that guarded the inner harbor.  The fort has been converted into a tourist stop and restaurant.  It’s a nice place to take pictures of the city from a high vantage point.

I found a few shots up there that are different from my usual preference of people shots. It’s always nice to find one location with a wide variety of topics.  Remember, when you line up to take the first picture that caught your eye to look behind and to the side to find something you might miss or maybe another angle on the first shot.  There was a glass of rum on the wall that had some interesting detail with the nice blue bokeh from the water.  There was a big solid door for a monochrome texture shot.  Just across from that was a door surrounded by a wonderful splash of color.  Finally, there was something you seldom see – tall cactus beside a large body of water.  All four of these shots were within 50 feet of each other, and look at the variety I found.  Again, don’t close your eyes to your location after you get the first shot; look around for other opportunities.

After a fun day in Curacao, we headed north for Florida.  The week was full of new vistas and ideas.  The opportunity to spend a photography immersion trip doesn’t happen every day.  Enjoy it.  Thanks, Cruising Through Life!

We talked a little about traveling with your camera back in July.  I have two Tenba camera bags – one large and one small.  This time I took the small one for the day trips and got on the airplane with my Tamrac roll-away.  The roll-away allowed me to keep my gear with me on the plane, and it was easier to get onto the boat.  With proper packing, I had my camera and all my lenses, with my computer and two external hard drives for backup.  My tripod and monopod were packed in my suitcase.  I was ready to go.  Here is the Tamrac.

We stopped at Holland America’s leased island, Half Moon Cay, the next day.  I shot a few photos as I walked around the island.  There really wasn’t much there that wasn’t directly intended for fun, fun, fun – a bar, beach chairs, and kiosks for necklaces or t-shirts.  Since we were on one of the first boats to the island, there were very few folks there, allowing me to shoot images of the area without too much worry about people walking through my scene.

This was the least interesting part of the trip, since the little island provided very little of interest if you weren’t there for a swim and some tasty libations.  I headed back to the ship to play with the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 3 beta.  Maybe I can have some fun playing with its new features.  I’ll let you know what I find there in the near future.

Sean, at Cruising Through Life, has a great variety of locations and brings some great instructors to share techniques in photography and post-processing.  The seminars covered a wide range of topics, and the instructors made themselves available in the evening for on- and off-topic discussions and advice.  Sean brought lots of goodies to be handed out during the classes.  All of the classes were recorded, so attendees can go back and review what they learned at their leisure.  There were parties at the beginning of the cruise and the final night where we all had a good time and even a photo show and contest.  There were about 25 of us from all around the world.

This trip brought us some NAPP personalities: Dave Cross, Matt Kloskowski, and Corey Barker.  They have each contributed to or written books about photo techniques and currently write for both Photoshop User and Layers Magazines.  They host seminars around the country.  Dave and Matt are co-hosts on Photoshop User TV, and Corey is a frequent guest host.  They definitely know their topics. Mark and I are both NAPP members and have attended seminars with all three of these talented instructors at Photoshop World events.

I’ll go into more about the trip in upcoming blogs.  This is just a quick intro to set the scene.

These shots are from our first stop at Half Moon Cay.  Enjoy.