How to use Lightroom to create a pdf book

How to use Lightroom to create a pdf book and print/sell via MagCloud. Look here: MagCloud

Plant and Animal Keywording in Lightroom

If you are a nature buff, and want to add keywords to the birds, animals, or plants that you photograph, then a good list is required. You can purchase some keyword lists at xxxx. If you want to create your own keyword lists, there are resources on the internet for that. A good source for plant data is the Plant Database hosted by the USDA. You can download the entire list or just a list for your state. For SC, where I live, the list contains almost 13500 items. Wow! I will modify that list by leaving out anything without a common name. If it doesn't have a common name, I'm unlikely to know what it is anyway. I will modify this file in Microsoft Excel. You can probably do this in Google Spreadsheet or Open Office as well. I will filter out the scientific names without common names.

Square Tag

If you use a photo database like Lightroom or Aperture, here's a quick tip. For square format photos, tag with "square". This will come in handy when you are searching for a square photo for a frame or card.

Adoramapix plugin for Lightroom

I use AdoramaPix for photo prints and books. I came across a plugin for Lightroom that will allow you to export photos directly to AdoramaPix. It comes from alloyphoto. I never saw this plugin mentioned on the Adorama site, but stumbled across it today in one of my Google alerts. This will make it easy to upload photos to my adoramapix account. I tried it and found the following problem: it only saw one of my existing albums. Not a big problem, but annoying. You can create a new album. This plugin will save time.

Using a LED Head Lamp as Macro Light

I am always looking for ways to light up my macro subjects. I recently saw a 12 Led headlamp at the local Walgreen's. The cost was only $5.99. I thought this might somehow be adapted to the camera for a little bit of extra light for macros. I was able to use the existing elastic band that came with the light to attach it to the camera. The angle of the light is adjustable so you can aim it at the subject. It doesn't add a tremendous amount of light, but it does make a difference. Sometimes the difference can be between getting a shot or not. I'll add this to my bag until I get a ring flash.

Some photography books...

Below are a few of the photography/photoshop books I would recommend:

1. Creative Digital Monochrome Effects by Joe Farace - Includes sections on in camera black&white, post production b&w, and all sorts of interesting effects. Includes lots of how-to and links.
   
2. The Creative Digital Darkroom by Katrin Eismann and Sean Duggan - Shows you how to create many of the effects you see in photographs today. Written for photoshop and lightroom users. Lots of information and details.
   
3. Magic Lantern Guides - Olympus Evolt E510 by David Schloss - More in depth than the Oly manual. I got the DVD as well. I put page tabs in mine and refer to it as needed.
   
4. The Photographer's Eye by Michael Freeman - gives you instruction on how to develop the ability to compose good photographs. Filled with examples, showing the scene, and explaining how the best shot was accomplished. A worthy read.