Photoshop Insider

It’s “Guest Blog Wednesday” featuring Terry White

By Scott on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 8:26 am | Guest Blogger.

Digital Photographers and the iPhone/iPod touch

More and more photographers I know are now carrying around their portfolios in their pockets. The iPhone and iPod touch makes for a perfect portable pocket sized slideshow device. At a minimum you have 8GB’s of space, which is quite a bit for small JPEGs. Also, if you were only showing your best work, you would only need to show your best 20-24 shots anyway. So storage space is not really a concern. Also these devices have really nice large 4” displays. The color is fantastic and the brightness is great.

I not only use my iPhone to show off my portfolio, but I also don’t hesitate to whip it out (the iPhone of course) when people ask me “how’s the family doing?” I have the latest shots of my two girls on it all times. I also have older photos too so that they can see how much they’ve grown. Although the iPhone integrates quite nicely with Apple’s software products such as iPhoto and Aperture, I’m a Photoshop Lightroom user. I also shoot in RAW almost exclusively. So I need a method to get those RAW files into manageable JPEG files and to get them over to the iPhone.

Luckily, whether you’re on a Mac or a Windows PC, you can use Adobe Photoshop Lightroom to automate the entire process. It’s all in the Export presets. I have several Export presets setup in Lightroom for all the various ways I share photos. I also have one setup specifically to go to iPhoto. Now I realize iPhoto is a Mac only app. Don’t worry PC users, I’ve got you covered too. Hang in there with me. Since the iPhone can sync which ever photos and albums you specify in iTunes from iPhoto, it makes sense to take advantage of this app since it comes with every new Mac.

Let me be clear! I don’t use iPhoto to manage my photos. I use Lightroom. However, I do take my best/favorite shots from LR into iPhoto as JPEGs. Once those shots are in iPhoto I can then sync them to my iPhone, iPod or Apple TV.

Here’s how to set it up:

1) Open LR and select one or more photos

2) Either click the Export button or choose Export from the File menu to bring up the Export dialog box.

3) Next you’ll need to set up your settings. First you’ll need to choose a folder to export your images to. I’ve created one in my Pictures called “For iPhoto”. You can also setup if your File naming if you want it to be custom. Otherwise it will use your existing file names.

4) The next section is for File Settings. Here is where you set the format to JPEG. Color space to Adobe RGB and quality of 60 or higher. I like 80 personally.

5) In the next section we have Image Sizing. This is where you set the maximum size of the images that are going to be exported. If your images are going to only be shown on an iPhone or iPod touch, then you can set the dimensions to 480 x 480. If your images are going to be shown on an Apple TV or an iPhone/iPod connected to a TV, then make the width 1920 and the height 1024. This is 1080 HD resolution. There’s no need to go any higher than that as the TV won’t show them any bigger than that. I set mine to 1920×1080, which is the most I’ll ever need, and the iPhone and iPod touch will size them appropriately as they sync. As far as the resolution goes, 72 PPI works fine.

6) There’s not much of a need to do anything in Metadata here as these images are just for show and not being seen on a computer. So you can skip down to the Post-Processing section. If you’re a PC user. You’re done. That’s right, your export will go to the folder we setup in step 3 and you can use iTunes to point to that folder to sync your images to your iPhone, iPod or Apple TV. Simply click the Add button to add this as a custom preset and give it a name. Have a nice day. However, if you’re on a Mac, you can take it to the next level by having LR send the photos directly to iPhoto after they’ve been exported. There is an “After Export” popup menu in the Post Processing area. Click it and choose “Go to Export Actions Folder Now”. This will take you back to the Finder and show you your Export Actions Folder.

7) Find the iPhoto application icon in your Applications folder. You’re going to make an alias of iPhoto into your Export Actions Folder. The easiest fastest way to do this is to hold down the Command and Option keys and drag the iPhoto icon into your Export Actions Folder. You should see an alias of iPhoto (an icon with a little curved arrow on it) in your Export Actions Folder. Also your iPhoto application should still be in your Applications folder. You can now close these folders and go back to LR.

Now from the After Export popup, you should be able to choose iPhoto. Once you do, click the Add button on the left to add this custom export preset to your menu. You can click Cancel and give it a spin. Choose Export from the File menu and choose your new “For iPhoto” preset. This will export the JPEGs to a folder that are the right size and resolution and then if you’re on a Mac, it will import them automatically into iPhoto. From there you can arrange them into albums.

Hey, if you want to see me do this whole thing from start to finish, check out this video:

Comment form for this post

^#1

Great post Terry, Thank you.
Tom

Tom on July 23rd, 2008 at 8:44 am

^#2

Terrry / Scott

Thanks for the post I think this is the perfect excuse for me to get an
I phone. I whould love to see more tutorials on how other folks have there
exports set up. The options are endless and I really dont know what they all mean. And can you setup a preset to just burn to disk? Thanks for all
you guys do.

Have a wonderous day

David

David on July 23rd, 2008 at 8:49 am

^#3

Terry,

Thanks for the post! I have a Apple laptop on order (my first Apple) and am about to get a iPhone. The timing and the information couldn’t have been better! Thanks!

Bryan Whitehead on July 23rd, 2008 at 8:51 am

^#4

Terry, thanks for taking the time to create this post . I was thinking about getting a iTouch to store images as I take them, but the lack of RAW support doesn’t make it practical and getting the images from the camera to to iTouch may not even be possible. Do you know of anyway to do this ?

Maybe the crew at Adobe can right some code for the new apple iPhone / iTouch software service.

If you do find away, maybe you can post to your blog.

Peter M on July 23rd, 2008 at 8:53 am

^#5

Thanks for the tip Terry. Harnessing the export feature in LR is great for all kinds of things.
One question I have for you though is your specification of using Adobe RGB for the color space. Can the iphone display Adobe RGB, or is it limited to sRGB? Thanks for the great post,
-Mark

Mark on July 23rd, 2008 at 8:54 am

^#6

Great one Terry! Helps the process definitely!

Erik Bernskiold on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:00 am

^#7

Excellent post, I am LR user so it is very helpful to learn something new.

I got a off topic question: how do I go about getting this type of “kodak” frames for the portrait photo at the top of the post?

Tyson Williams on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:07 am

^#8

Peter M, The files that I exported in my tutorial above started out as RAW files. So this procedure will allow you to get those RAW files to the iPod touch (as JPEGs) in one step.

Terry White on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:18 am

^#9

Mark, not sure if the iPhone/iPod supports Adobe RGB natively, I’m just going by my experience on what worked. When I used that color space my images looked great on the iPhone screen!

Terry White on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:20 am

^#10

To Tyson:
That’s an effect I did in my “How to Show Your Work” DVD (and my live Photoshop CS3 Power Tour seminar). You basically make a square selection on a layer, fill it with black, then knock a smaller square selection out of the center (leaving just that thin black border). Then you add the yellow text and a couple of triangles (for effect), and a drop shadow Layer Style.

That completes one of the frames then you just duplicate it two more times (for a total of three frames) and rotate them. Once they’re in place, you drag a photo behind them. Now, here comes the only tricky part; you take the Polygonal lasso tool and draw a selection around the outside of all three frames (so it makes one big selection). Then you go to the photo layer, Inverse your selection, and hit Delete, and what’s left is what you see up above.

It’s kind of challenging without seeing screen captures or seeing what I’m talking about, but that’s the process to make those. By the way, once you’ve made one, you can keep all the layers in place, and save your selection as a channel, and then next time it takes just 20 seconds to put a photo into those frames.

Hope that helps.

-Scott

Scott on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:21 am

^#11

Terry / Scott,

For some reason videos are not visible in Firefox 3.0 on mac

Maciej on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:25 am

^#12

Terry,
Great tutorial, my iphone is on backorder but when I receive it I planned on making it a portfolio. Great blog!

Scott,
I thought you’re suppose to take Wednesdays off?

Nate Benson on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:28 am

^#13

Terry… I’ve just started using Apple TV and this is just what I needed… perfect!!! Thanks man!!!… Eddie

Great images of SarahK btw…

TappDaddy on July 23rd, 2008 at 9:46 am

^#14

Where many of us dabble in one thing (PS) or another, Terry seems to do it all. Enjoy reading his blog too, its on my list.

As for the post above about the kodak film frames, those are floating around in cyberspace, just do a search and you’ll find them. I have some fuji 2-1/4 & kodak film 4×5 frames that I’ve gotten that way.

keith on July 23rd, 2008 at 10:05 am

^#15

Terry;
You are the consummate geek and I’ve been waiting for Scott to get you into a guest post on his blog. Thanks for taking the time to enlighten us a little bit. I know it must be tough pulling away from your new iPhone for even a few hours (wink)

andy on July 23rd, 2008 at 10:07 am

^#16

Great post Terry… lets hope my girlfriend won’t miss her iPod once I start using it..

Chris on July 23rd, 2008 at 10:33 am

^#17

Thanks Terry. I just git the new iphone, and my wife the new touch. It’s amazing.

Even though I’m on a mac I find myself just making an on the go folder, and have a few sub folder in that. Keeps me tidy.

I defiantly need to spend more time with export presets. I make lots of develop presets, but have not spend much time with the others.

Keep up the good work… Gavin
SeimEffects.com
ProPhotoShow.net

Seim Effects on July 23rd, 2008 at 10:58 am

^#18

I so wish you’d posted this a year ago. I’ve been doing this manually in terms of the iPhoto import. You just never stop learning on this stuff.

Chris Wray on July 23rd, 2008 at 11:01 am

^#19

Hi Terry,

The timing of your post is quite perfect. I just posted a quick write up on how useful the iPod Touch is for photographers on my own blog. All great Terry’s think alike?

I used to carry my MacBook Pro with me everywhere I went just in case I ran into someone that wanted to see my portfolio or I needed to get their contact info. The iPod Touch solved all of that plus so much more for me.

However, I didn’t talk about how to set up a digital portfolio and you post covers that in great detail. I was just using iTunes to sync JPEG’s over to the Touch. Thanks for the insight on how to prep images and get them over to the Touch in a better fashion.

Terry Reinert

Terry Reinert on July 23rd, 2008 at 11:10 am

^#20

Hey Terry,

If you want to save some time, don’t bother even using iPhoto. Simply Export out to a folder and sync that folder with iTunes as you mentioned in the start of your video. Any sub-folders you put inside the sync folder will show up on your iPhone as individual albums. I fail to see what going through iPhoto would buy you.

Cheers,

Karl-Franz
http://karlfranz.com

Karl-Franz on July 23rd, 2008 at 11:23 am

^#21

Excellent post Terry! 1st-gen 4GB iPhone owner here, lol. A portable electronic portfolio is a great idea! I will set one up tonight on my iMac. Take care!

Todd on July 23rd, 2008 at 11:26 am

^#22

Karl-Franz,
You got a good point. The one thing that iPhoto does get you is the ability to have the same photos in multiple albums without actually duplicating the files into multiple folders. Therefore, reducing the amount of disk space used. Also once they’re in iPhoto they can be printed in books, calendars, greeting cards, etc. However, if that’s not a need for ya, then the folder route would be the way to go.

Terry White on July 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 am

^#23

Mark / Terry,

I just spoke with Apple regarding the color space of the iPod Touch as it was something I was curious about as well. The rep talked to the systems engineers and the final answer is that this is not a specification that they have published. Meaning, if any of them know then they aren’t telling.

Like Terry, I used Adobe RGB and the photos look fantastic on the Touch. If someone wanted to experiment and see how the other color spaces turn out that might be useful… but since Adobe RGB works… might as well just stick to using it.

Terry Reinert

Terry Reinert on July 23rd, 2008 at 11:38 am

^#24

Terry & Terry,
I have a number of my best photos on my iPhone in sRGB, and likewise, they look fantastic.
I am going to test this both ways to see if it makes any difference. I highly suspect that there will be no discernable difference.
What’s funny to me about the adobe RGB color space is that it makes for great internet chat, but I don’t think it makes a reliably discernable difference in print. Even the vaunted MPIX.com prints in the sRGB color space and people love the results.
Just something for people to chew on, I guess.
-Mark

Mark on July 23rd, 2008 at 3:23 pm

^#25

So Terry,
How do you do all of that without LR on a Windows XP machine?

derek on July 23rd, 2008 at 3:27 pm

^#26

As a Lightroom user and a recent iPhone buyer, I decided to cut iPhoto out of the loop entirely. Instead, I created an iPhone folder in my Pictures directory and configured the iTunes picture settings to sync with it. I have an Lightroom preset that exports to that folder, and maintain subfolders for different collections of photos. This way, I can manage my iPhone pictures using Finder, which I greatly prefer to iPhoto for this particular task.

John Hann on July 23rd, 2008 at 3:45 pm

^#27

Scott,
Do you have any tips on how to shoot in low light without using any flash?

Logan on July 23rd, 2008 at 4:15 pm

^#28

Logan,
I’m not Scott, but to shoot in low light, you can:
1) use the widest aperture you have. f 1.8 prime lenses are ideal for this (assuming your using an SLR)

2) use slower exposures, which will require the use of a tripod or setting your camera on a table, shelf, etc, so it doesn’t move.

3) Raise your ISO to make your camera more sensitive to light.

4) any combination of the above that achieves the results you’re looking for.
Did I forget anything?
Anyway, hope that helps!
-Mark

Mark on July 23rd, 2008 at 4:41 pm

^#29

Terry -

Excellent Post, this is so refreshing to get a tech savvy read. Do you have your own blog? If so I would like to add to my daily reads.

Thanks again,
Chad

Chad on July 23rd, 2008 at 4:45 pm

^#30

Mark,
Thanks for the help. Yes Im using a SLR and had planned on using a tripod. I was just wondering what was the best way to set the camera up. You answered my questions. Thanks!

Logan on July 23rd, 2008 at 5:04 pm

^#31

Terry -
Your blog today was so important to all of us in moving images to iphone. We could never get this out of a book!

My only reservation in displaying photos in this format may dumb down the unique display quality of any 11X14 seen on a mat ready for exhibition.
I think we may become too insensitive to the overload of iphoto images; electronically reduced images seen as a group clicked one after the other in an electronic alblum .
I think good images need to be individually seen against a silent background as unique visual statements .

Larry on July 23rd, 2008 at 5:26 pm

^#32

Derek,
The steps are exactly the same for a Windows user. You would simply sync the iPhone or iPod via iTunes to the folder that the images get exported to.

Terry White on July 23rd, 2008 at 5:45 pm

^#33

Chad,
You can get to my blog at: http://terrywhite.com/techblog/

^#34

Hi Terry… That was a great tutorial.
I am a PC user and I have been thinking about buy a IPod Touch. That was a good way to see you working on the video.
Great post
Paulo

Paulo Jordao Photography on July 23rd, 2008 at 8:09 pm

^#35

I don’t have an iPhone (only reason is AT&T service or lack thereof). I think the phone is color managed. Its easy enough to test. Export the same image in sRGB and Adobe RGB. If they look the same, they are being color managed. If not, well, no color management.

Andrew Rodney on July 23rd, 2008 at 10:04 pm

^#36

I have been using an 80gb Classic iPod to display my best photo’s. I am glad to see that I was thinking along the same lines as a Pro. I just never know when I might meet somebody who wants to see what my hobby is. I can just whip out the iPod to show them

Chris on July 24th, 2008 at 1:37 am

^#37

Terry … why even bother with iPhoto if you don’t use the program? If you work in LR and not iPhoto, you can just skip the iPhoto step and simply export right to a user specified folder. I have mine cleverly named “iPhone images”. Then setup iTunes to synch to that folder rather than to iPhoto. The cool part is that within the iPhone images folder, I can put other folders, i.e.: labeled “Kids”, “Golf”, “Nantucket”, or anything. Then I put images into the appropriate folder. After synching, all the images are in the correct subfolders. I use a preset to export to the “iPhone image” folder, but I often navigate to a sub folder to export the images directly there. This method allows me to “manage” the photo organization on my desktop/laptop machine.

Dan Leonard on July 24th, 2008 at 12:01 pm

^#38

A great article and well-explained. Thanks.

Dave on July 24th, 2008 at 2:44 pm

^#39

Dan,
Yep, you’re correct and as I explained in my comment above, if you don’t use iPhoto for anything else, then use folders. If you use it for the book, calendar printing features or to have the same photo in multiple albums without duplicating space, then use iPhoto.

Terry White on July 24th, 2008 at 5:45 pm

^#40

I am have viewed your video tutorial on exporting LR (1.41) to iPhoto to send to my AppleTV which works very well.

My question is that I have comments on many of my photos (currently listed in the Caption area of LR. How can I merge those comments into the export so when viewing photos on our Plasma, they can be seen?

Thanks.

Ron Gable on September 26th, 2008 at 5:00 pm