Photo Taco Podcast

Jeff explains why photographers should choose their top ten image annually and what benefit he saw from doing that for 2018.

Jeff and Greg Benz discuss the what, why, and how of RAID for photographers. What Is RAID Storage? RAID is a way to make a few hard drives work together to look like they are all one drive to your computer that can be very fast and more reliably than a single drive. We try hard here on Photo Taco ... The post Photographer’s Guide to RAID appeared first on Photo Taco Podcast .

Greg Benz joins Jeff to answer the question of “What is Luminosity Masking?” Episode Sponsors: Squarespace has beautiful templates to make your website look great and 24 hour support if you do happen to get stuck.  Head over to squarespace.com/improve for a free trial and when you are ready to launch use offer code IMPROVE to save 10% off the ... The post What Is Luminosity Masking? appeared first...

Chris Marquardt talks with Jeff about everything you need to know about digitizing prints and negatives/slides using scanners and cameras. Episode Sponsor: Squarespace We love squarespace and are sure you will too for showing off your best work.  Head over to squarespace.com/improve for a free trial and use offer code IMPROVE to save 10% off your first purchase of a ... The post Ultimate Guide to...

Jeff is joined by good friend of the show, Victoria Bampton (better known as the Lightroom Queen), to talk about the new desktop and mobile features of Lightroom CC 1.5 released in August 2018.

Jeff Harmon answers a listener question about how it is that adjustment syncing between two or more photos should work in Lightroom. He describes some important details about how photo selections work, the role of the "active" photo in selections and adjustment syncing, and some reasons why it may be that adjustment syncing may fail. Episode Resources Photo Taco: Fast Lightroom Editing Tips (https...

Jeff talks with computer building expert Matt Bach of Puget Systems about the best choices for building a computer to run Lightroom in 2018. They talk about all of the decisions to make to custom build a Windows computer, as well as the recommendations for where it is worth spending the money if you are buying a Mac or a PC from a big box store. Episode Sponsor: Duggal Visit Duggal Vision Solution...

Jeff walks through the details of XMP, what it is, why photographers should care, the pros and cons, multiple options to turn in on in Lightroom, and a couple of lesser known options.

Jeff refreshes information from his 2015 article, the ULTIMATE Backup Workflow for Photographers, with information from 2018 including the two "storage walls" photographers slam into in their photographic journey and how to recover from hitting both of them. Photoshop Feedback forum post on the Wacom tablet drive problem: https://feedback.photoshop.com/photoshop_family/topics/wacom-touch-ring-for-...

Jeff walks through a revamp of the profiles feature in the release of Lightroom Classic CC 7.3 and Camera Raw 10.3.  Even though profiles have been around for nearly 20 years, Adobe made a lot of changes to them in this release.  Jeff walks through: There are now two types of profiles.  Camera-specific and creative. Let’s dig into each type ... The post Lightroom 7.3 Profiles Explained! appeared f...

Jeff Harmon walks through how to significantly speed up you culling process in Lightroom by using the Embedded Preview workflow: Disable background processes (pause syncing to Lr CC, pause addresses lookup, pause face detection) Set critical preferences (Camera Raw Cache at least 50GB, enable “Use Smart Previews instead of Originals for Image Editing”, enabled Generate Previews in Parallel if you...

Jeff Harmon provides go/no go on the State of Adobe Updates Q1 2018. The he outlines 8 steps of good hygiene for memory cards: 1) Turn off Camera 2) Wait for 5 seconds 3) Carefully remove card and put it in a card reader 4) Use a GOOD card reader 5) Copy the photos to the computer using Finder on ... The post SAU Q1 2018 and Memory Card Hygiene appeared first on Photo Taco Podcast .

Jeff is joined by Victoria Bampton, a.k.a. The Lightroom Queen, to talk about Lightroom Classic CC 7.1.  They talk about her new Lightroom Classic CC The Missing FAQ book and go over 6 questions (including tips on faster culling in Lightroom, the magic alt/option key, Range Masks, and why you should use Quick Adjustments in Library): What is the future ... The post Lr Classic CC 7.1 With The Light...

Jeff and Don Komarechka geek out over one of the most misunderstood concepts of DPI or dots per inch.  They talk about how file size, pixel dimensions, and DPI don’t really have anything to do with each other, how Adobe isn’t doing photographers any favors with how DPI is so prominently displayed in Photoshop and Lightroom, and how even the ... The post DPI With Don Komarechka appeared first on Ph...

Jeff updated his Lightroom Classic CC status with version. 7.1 from “WAIT!” to “cautiously proceed”. He recommends backing up your catalog prior to updating and then checking out the new version at a point where you don’t have a huge client Jon to process and see how it works. He also found Classic to be about 25% faster with import ... The post Lr Classic CC 7.1 Update & Composite Portraits appea...

Jeff Harmon goes over gift ideas for the 2017 holiday season in budget categories from $20 to $2,000. Don’t forget about the Improve Photography Retreat 2018 and Jeff’s post-Retreat workshop “Be a Ninja With Your Camera” that you can sign up for at http://www.jsharmonphotos.com/workshop. Links to gift ideas: Canon T5i ($550): https://www.amazon.com/Canon-EOS-Rebel-EF-S-18-55/dp/B00BW6LWO4/ref=sr_1...

Jeff Harmon goes over the details about the two new Lightroom programs now available to Creative Cloud subscribers, the costs of the various Creative Cloud options, and a healthy number of bugs that have been reported making his recommendation be that photographers who need to get work done using Lightroom wait to update. Not Ready For Professional Use I know ... The post Is Lightroom CC Classic?...

Jeff answers a listener question about hobbyist photographers getting into flash photography from listener Jose Lopez “I’ve primarily been taking photos of landscapes, events, and other natural light subjects, but recently wanted to do more photography where a flash would be beneficial. I’ve watched the Improve Photography tutorials and spent hours looking online at YouTube and I find that it’s .....

Jim Goldstein, from cloud backup provider Backblaze, comes on to talk with Jeff about 7 important questions photographers should have about backing up their photos and Lightroom catalog to the cloud: 1) How can a cloud backup provider help with the “1” of the “3-2-1” backup strategy? 2) Does adding an external hard drive change how cloud backup providers can ... The post Online Backup appeared fir...

Jeff Harmon does a detailed “How I Got The Shot” (HIGTS) for the first portrait shot he felt like he created instead of just captured. It happened to be a wedding photo taken in the summer of 2017. He talks about how he actually had a sad ending to the story because the Lexar USB drive he was using to ... The post HIGTS – Millers Park Wedding Photo appeared first on Photo Taco Podcast .

Jeff Harmon revisits one of the most popular Photo Taco topics ever published and talks about his experience doing Autofocus Micro Adjustment (AFMA) tuning over a 5 month period. There are things he has learned that are important for portrait photographers to understand. Resources Mentioned: Photo Taco AMFA Explained! : https://phototacopodcast.com/2017/04/25/afma-explained/ Other Photo Taco Resou...

Jeff Harmon talks with Bill Claff about his Photographic Dynamic Range testing and math that can be seen on his photonstophotos.net website. Jeff goes over the following questions with Bill: 1) Who is Bill Claff and what do you do with photography? 2) What is the story or background of your excellent photonstophotos.net website? Why did you create it? 3)You ... The post Photographic Dynamic Range...

Jeff Harmon talks about a few changes to the show with some consolidation to a single Improve Photography podcast feed and a single Facebook group and then answers a question from listener Katie Shipley who asked: “I had just finished listening to the podcast and taking notes on what to look for when buying a new computer when Apple announced ... The post 2017 iMac For Photogs appeared first on Ph...

Jeff Harmon takes listeners on a surface level tour of the PhotoPills app with 5 stops on the tour: 1) What does the PhotoPills app do? 2) How photographers should learn to use the app? 3) Why is the app called PhotoPills? 4) What do each of the Photo "Pills" do? 5) What are in the MyStuff and Academy sections of the app? Links mentioned: Photo Pills User Guide: http://www.photopills.com/user-guid...

Jeff Harmon is joined by Rafel Pons of the PhotoPills app team to talk about how photographers can learn to use the fantastic PhotoPills app: 1) Best way to get started? 2) Free, online videos are great (photopills.com) but are there good cheat sheets available? 3) Advice for photographers overwhelmed by the app? 4) Most used feature? 5) Least used but compelling feature? 6) How to plan a shoot wh...