So you now know the stacking shortcut key, so how about creating a stack pick?

Creating a stack in Lightroom is just the first step of optimizing how to use a stack. The second is picking your image that you want to be on the top of the stack. This is pick is also generally known as the best image in the stack. Here are a few shortcuts to organize your stacks:

Shift + S - Moves an image in a stack to the top of the stack.

Shitt + [ - Promotes an image up in the stack

Shift + ] - Demotes an image down in the stack

So now you know how to create a stack and organize it. Using these shortcuts will really help!

Todays shortcut is GECN. What is GECN you say? Well I find it an easy way to remember how to view your photos under the Library tab.

G - Grid view (default view)

E - Loupe

C - Compare

N - Survey

This is todays shortcuts to help you remember how to quickly and easily go through the different views.

Shortcut keys are a Lightroom users best friend. With all the new features in v1.0 I find it rather annoying to have to click everything to get things done. Thus my "be more efficient" part of my brain kicks in and I search for the shortcut keys. When it comes to shortcuts, it’s never easy learning them all but you can learn them. I find easiest is to learn one at a time and use it lots. So I will be posting one Lightroom shortcut that will make you more efficient every 3 days (that is usually how long it takes me to finally remember it for good).

Todays shortcut is on Stacking.
- To stack a group of photos merely select the photos then hit "Command(mac)/Control(pc) and G" to stack them.
- To open a stack, simple select the stack and hit the "S" key and it will open it.

Nope, it’s not all the stacking shortcuts but the whole reason for this post is for easily remembering things. So take those, use them, remember them, and we come back here in 3 days and remember some more!

I’m not sure how many have noticed, but Lightroom has finally gone gold and is out to the public. I downloaded it today and there is a 30day trial version. The v1.0 has some great new additions, it’s also much snappier.

I have yet to use the spot and patch tool, but I’m glad that they put it in (even though I NEVER used it in Aperture). There is also the new HSL saturation "nipple" as some like to call it. After using this on some of my images, I can see how it would help, although I could also see how this could get extremely annoying.

Overall a great first release of Lightroom and at $199 (thats $150 cheaper then Aperture) they are coming into the market with a very competitive price!

As simple as it sounds, capturing action can take many different form in photography. The simplest and way is of course to merely set your shutter speed high and ISO high to freeze everything in sight. This, as easy as it is, sometimes results in not very dynamic photos. After shooting lots of action this past summer, I have come up with a technique that I have come to love. While it can be harder, the results can be wonderful.With this technique I tend to let the shutter drag for a bit. Usually between 1/50th - 1/10 of a second. With this slow of a shutter speed you can create some great blurred backgrounds and interesting effects. I will give a couple tips on how to get the best results from this.

Get Into the Action: While shooting moving subjects, its a great idea to get into the middle of it. Getting up and close to your subjects (while not getting torn apart of course) can help you capture amazing angles that not many others will see. While being close to the action it is also suggested to not look through your viewfinder of the camera. Being aware of your surroundings is huge here, so holding your camera out with one hand and snapping off lots of shots in a row will work.

Pan the Subject: It’s easy to point and shoot a subject, but you will get much better results if you are panning with your subject while firing off many shots. Since my technique uses a slow shutter speed you will have to pan with your subject to create the desired effect. This is by far the easiest part of the technique, it’s just a matter of follow your subject and firing off as many shots as you can so you get that perfect motion shot.

Bring Lots of Memory: While using this technique I found that I had to bring lots of memory with me. If you have noticed by now I have been saying lots about firing off shots. This is because this technique has a lot of room for error. But by no means does this mean that this technique does not create a good result. I would on average carry about 2-3 2GB CF cards on me while I was out shooting action shots. This also really depends on how long you will be spending shooting. I would generally fill those cards in about 45 minutes worth of shooting. Remember, its never overkill to bring to much!

Lenses: It doesn’t matter which lens you use. From wide-angle, prime and zoom lenses these will all work.

Shooting Mode: It is recommended to shoot in full Manual mode or Shutter Priority (Tv). Since depth of field is not a big issue here, any F-number will work. Of course shoot in the 1/50 - 1/10 of a second shutter speed. Your ISO levels will be dependent upon the lighting conditions to which you are shooting in. Same goes with your white-balance, it is very dependent upon the lighting conditions.

While this is the first revision of my tutorial, I think this will get people going on some great new actions shots. If you have any questions anything that was said in this tutorial, please feel free to drop me an email (info@jordannielsen.com) or simply drop a comment at the bottom of this post.

I just finished editing up the first image of the Faces project and have posted it to the image gallery on the right hand side of the blog.As was stated I will be posting one image everyday still the 28th of February.

I often check out lots of great photo websites, even ones that aren’t about photography. There is one that I find particularly intriguing is Yahoo’s: Hotzone.

Kevin Sites has one of the most interesting and hardest jobs that I’ve seen in media. He is a "sojo" or solo-journalist. Primarily working in conjuction with Yahoo to create the great website.

This is a great website that photographers should go see.

After thinking through some more on the “commissioning” post, I decided to go with “faces“. After finally receiving back my 50MM f1.8 lens from Canon and getting a new Rebel XT for a second body, I can start on this right away.Oh and did I mention, I’m falling in love with the XT again! The small body combined with the 50MM lens makes a great little camera for doing this type of project.I will be starting tomorrow and working on it for the rest of February, ending on the 28th. All the images will be in black and white and in portrait format. There will be a photo album created on the blog for the faces project.It all starts now.

Have you ever thought about commissioning yourself to a pictorial documentary? This is something that has been in the back of my head. What would happened if you decided to commission yourself to shoot a pictorial documentary each month of something that you don’t know much about?I will have to think this through more, but I think this would be a good practice for any photographers pictorial storytelling needs. More to come soon…I would also love to hear any of your thoughts, please leave me a comment or drop me an e-mail.

After looking at a very popular photography website I noticed that some of the images that I am starting to like a lot are black and white images. Not just any type, but high contrast types. I find that sometimes colour can start to be distracting from the story you want to tell, while a black and white image points directly at the heart of the situation.I have started to go through my library of images and pick out images that I thought were great but just don’t do much in colour, it’s interesting to see what they do when converted to B&W. This is one sample of an image that was “meh” in colour but I find really shows the awe and excitement of the boys face.Speaking of collecting images, I’m hoping to get to get a new folio page up on my website within a couple of weeks. An old friend is back in town and she does website design so we’re going to work together on creating a great little flash based folio.

I just found this great little article on National Geographic.com on some traveler photography tips.Go check it out here.

Lately I have been stocking up on photography books and magazines from composition, photoshop, and business. Here is my list of great books and magazines I feel every photographer should have.

Books:
The Best Business Practices for Photographers - Amazon.ca
The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers - Amazon.ca

Magazines:
National Geographic - Nationalgeographic.com
Outdoor Photograper - Outdoorphotographer.com
Popular Photography & Imaging - Popphoto.com

There’s my quick list as of now. If you have any great books or magazines that you use, I’d love to see em.

It seems that my 30D has decided to die out on me. Every other photo is now coming up with a ERR99 message. Nothing makes a person more annoyed then having their "barely" used dSLR crap out on them when they are about to have a couple of gigs lined up.

So I will have to send it to Calgary to get looked at and fixed. I really hope they are quick, I recently sent off a lens to Canon to get fixed and it took 2 months to come back! I honestly can’t take not having my camera for 2 months.

I hope that there is some way to get your camera to the front of the line and get my camera back in a week or better. If anyone knows how to do this, please drop me a comment.