Think of your images as books in a library. Each book is on a shelf somewhere (folders of your hard drive). The books and shelves may be organized in some fashion that may or may not make it easy to locate an individual book.

The catalog is the little cabinet in the front of the library that is full of cards describing each book – who is the author, where is it located in the library, what keywords it has, and so forth. When you look at a card in the catalog, you see a thumbnail of the image, and have a pointer to exactly where in the library that image is located.

A collection is a list of some of the cards in the catalog that meet certain criteria. In a regular collection, you pick and choose which cards to include in a new list (for example, my favorite images). In a smart collection, you pick the criteria to match, and the computer does the work of searching through the catalog for cards that match (all images with keyword "vacation" that were taken in 2011). With Smart Collections, the list is generated automatically.

Catalogs and collections do NOT contain images. They contain the cards that tell about the image – its location, information about the image, even a thumbnail of what the image looks like.

This is why moving images around outside of Lightroom is bad. You move the image on you hard drive, and the catalog of cards is still indicating that the image is located where it used to be. Try to find it there, and you get a big question mark.

When you move an image within Lightroom, the catalog of cards is updated with the new location if the image. And, since catalogs are just groups of copies of the cards, they are all updated too.

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In album Windows (4 photos)

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These tutorials don’t cover how to capture an image in HDR – the bracketing process and the merging in the HDR software is well covered elsewhere. I’ve focused more on the overall thought process, and attention to details that get overlooked when you tonemap your images.

The process begins with the raw images, preparing them for the best possible results in the merge process. And, the process continues after the tonemapping – again, the HDR/tonemapping process is just a step on the way to taking your images beyond the ordinary. Enjoy!

Part 1 – What happens before the HDR merging starts

HDR – Beyond The Ordinary (Pt. 1) from Mike Hoffman on Vimeo.

Part 2 – What happens after the HDR merging is over – you’re not done yet.

HDR – Beyond The Ordinary (Pt. 2) from Mike Hoffman on Vimeo.

Part 3 – Post-processing and cleaning up your images is a major part of making the results extraordinary.

HDR – Beyond The Ordinary (Pt. 3) from Mike Hoffman on Vimeo.

Thanks, and I hope you find these tutorials useful!

After 4 days of Photoshop World, you’d think that would be enough – 96 hours of non-stop creative go, go, go… but no! A few die hard individuals stuck together, and stuck it out for another day of post-PSW activity. Leading the effort was well-known PSW personality and de facto security agent, Robert Vanelli (“V”), and his son Alec, accompanied by Jeff Tamagini, Michael Green and some of the FJ Westcott team, and several others, myself included. We started our Saturday morning with breakfast at the Rosen Centre hotel, where we talked about the things we had learned during the PSW conference, and the projects that might result from our inspiration.

Then, we headed over to Kissimmee, where we visited the Old Town attraction area. Old town is an eclectic and historic area with a plethora of shops, restaurants, bars, and rides, with a very nostalgic feel. We arrived early, as most places were just opening, and didn’t have to contend with many crowds as we worked our way through the area.

We strolled through the town, cameras at the ready; a gang of photographers spreading fear throughout the land. We even stopped midway through our stroll to have a lighting workshop!

I stuck around only until high noon, then had to make tracks for home. Those who stayed were treated to the weekly classic car show; I’m sure there were some nice photographs to be had there! But for me, that will have to wait until next time. I did get some more interesting photos, though:

Thanks to “V for pulling us all together! I hope this becomes a PSW tradition; I think it was an excellent way to wind up the week in a low pressure, fun and interesting way. It was great to hang out with “V” and his son Alec, a chip off the old block:

I never did get to post a proper summary of day three of Photoshop World. Call it creative exhaustion, call it happy fatigue, call it a preference to play around in Lightroom and Photoshop with the >1000 images I took during and after the conference. But, regardless, here is a rundown of the final day, and some thoughts on this Photoshop World.

Let the sunshine in!

After Thursday’s deluge, with tornado warnings, nonstop rain and the constant rumble of thunder, it was most excellent to awaken Friday morning to sunny skies and pleasant temperatures. The morning sessions kicked off bright and early, and I was able to attend illuminating classes with Moose Peterson, RC Concepcion, Rick Sammon, and in particular I found a lot of new inspiration and opportunity from Rod Harlan, in his Photoshop Video for Photographers class. You can bet you’ll be seeing some of that fruit here in the near future!

In between morning classes, there was a last and final chance to attend the expo. As in the previous two days, the Westcott booth simply stole the show! Everyone is posting their shots of the creatively-made-up models on the inventive sets; I thought it would be interesting to post a snapshot made on my iPhone of the other side of the lenses. The crowds were non-stop every day!

Once classes were done, it was time for the wrap up, and the presentation hall was packed!

Traditionally during the wrap up, Scott yields the stage to some of the instructors for a few minutes of final inspiration. This year, it was all newcomers, but the presentation and talk by Dave Black was stunning – he moved many (including himself) to tears, bounced back with tremendous excitement and ended by cartwheeling across the stage. We gave him a well-deserved standing ovation. What an amazing man, and a presentation I will remember for a long time!

And then it was over…

Or was it? So much learning, so much inspiration – I’ll be working with the ideas that PSW generated in my head for many months to come! The challenge will be to create a list of projects and ideas, based on my notes, so that I don’t forget about some of the content I saw and learned and experienced.

And, as if four days (including the preconference) wasn’t enough, I joined Robert Vanelli, Jeff Tamagini, some of the Westcott team, and a few other hardcore photographers for yet another day’s photo safari at the Old Town area of Kissimmee. Watch this space for images from that event as well!

In retrospect:

I’ve been to 5 Photoshop World conferences, and I keep coming back – because each time I do, I learn more, do more, and just plain get more out of it. By the end of the week, my brain is bursting with ideas and knowledge! But, this Photoshop World was different in some ways from the past events, in more of an evolutionary way that revolutionary, but here are some things I noticed.

The PSW iPad/iPhone app was just incredible. No more out of date PDF printouts, tattered show guides, or scrambling to figure out where I was going next. The few people at the conference who didn’t have iPhones or iPads (and there weren’t that many!) were visibly envious. The app was a lifesaver, and kudos to the developer, Shawn Welch!!

In fact, I’ll make a slight plug here – Shawn has a book out on creating iOS apps, and it was available in the Peachpit bookstore at PSW:

Social media continues to play an increasing role at PSW. From the preconference “Tweetup” by the pool (which was a full-on event in itself) to the nonstop flood of posts on Twitter (hash tag #PSW) throughout the four days, twitter was a great way to keep tabs on the events, the people and the happenings. People back home expressed their envy of we lucky attendees on Facebook, and many people have posted and continue to post some of their best images in the Flickr group for Photoshop World 2011 Orlando.

The Instructors at PSW have always been top notch, and they just keep adding more world-class talent! It seems like there were more tracks, more choices, and more learning to be had throughout the conference. There were several new faces, including Frank Doorhof, Jeremy Cowart, Clint Mautner, and Dave Black, and the new guys really brought their top game! I think the long time PSW instructors were challenged to step up their game too, in order to stay relevant. What a great competition, and the benefits all go to the PSW attendees!

The PSW Alumni have always been recognized by their little badge ribbons, but this year the NAPP folks paid special attention to the multi-year alumni – the folks who keep coming back for more. It was a very nice gesture, and greatly appreciated. Thank you, NAPP!

The Expo Exhibition Floor is always one of the highlights of the conference, but as mentioned before, the FJ Westcott booth just outright stole the show. They had a total of five separate impromptu “studios", complete with full lighting and the most creative models you could want. The Flickr Group will be buzzing for days with images from these shoots, and Westcott is sponsoring a contest, as well – with the winners published in the Westcott catalog!

Outside of the Westcott booth, though, there was still plenty to see and do. And learn! The education was nonstop, and there were several theaters with full schedules, as well as smaller demo classes at the various booths.

All in all, Photoshop World is part shenanigans, part education, and, as I believe Dave Black put it, part “summer camp.” The whole is much greater than the sum of its individual parts, and the whole this year was a whole lot, indeed.

And so, as we head out into the real world, armed with new tools, new ideas, and new ambitions, we also say, “See you in Vegas!”

The day started early, with a crowd forming at the crack of dawn to stand in line for tickets to Midnight Madness. More on that later, but it is a typical Kelby prank that you have to stand in line at 7am for tickets to an even that take place from 10:00pm to midnight on the same day!

Once the day got started, it was nothing but first class training all day, interspersed with humor and wisdom from the instructors. Joe McNally had gremlins in his computer in the first class, and he blamed it on the weather. But in the same breath, he blamed the weather on himself, claiming his ethnic heritage required thunderclouds from the shores of Ireland to follow him wherever he goes. And, when Jeff Schewe proclaimed, "thou shalt soft-proof thy images!" the accompanying flash of lightning and clap of thunder inspired me to make sure that this is one bit of advice I will follow… And, at the end of each session, was that a thunderous round of applause, or was it actually thunder?

Following the morning classes (which ran until 1:00pm) there was time for the expo, where you could get lots more training (surprise!). There was a seemingly endless rotation of excellent classes in the expo theaters, from the likes of Dave Black, Jim DiVitale, Fay Sirkis, Matt Kloskowski, Dave Cross, Corey Barker… the list goes on and on. And, of course, what Photoshop World would be complete without a live recording of Photoshop User TV? Point. Choppy.

Once again, the big hit of the day was the Westcott booth, where the inventive and inspiring interactive studio shoot continued, with great models and great instructors:

Fortunately I was able to grab a little bit of lunch during the expo, because once the afternoon classes started, it was nonstop Photoshop World goodness until the day was (quite literally) over. Several more great training classes, and then it was off to one of the main auditoriums for the Art of Digital Photography. The panel of 8 of the most outstanding photographers and artists kept a standing-room-only crowd mesmerized for two hours, with examples of their work and insights from behind the scenes.

Once the show was over, there was no time to rest. After a quick trip to the room to drop off some gear and schwag, it was off to Midnight Madness. As the crowd gathered, semi-official NAPP security personality Robert Vanelli (known to most as "V") kept the waiting masses busy with hula hoops and juggling contests.

At 10pm sharp, the doors opened, and in we all went for two hours of fun and farce, in which we were promised that we "would learn absolutely no Photoshop whatsoever." However, this turned out to be not true, as I did learn that Photoshop has an audio annotation tool!

The shenanigans at Midnight Madness? I can’t reveal this, you have to see it for yourself! But, I will say that there was silliness, fun, and of course, Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

By the end of the day, I had just enough energy left to get back to my room, plug in my camera card and pull my images into Lightroom. The almost imperceptible hum of the laptop as it imported the images lulled me softly to sleep, at the end of a long and satisfying Photoshop World Day.

The pre-conference workshops kicked off in the afternoon, and this year I elected to take the precon for Real World Concert Photography with Alan Hess and Scott Diussa. These two gentlemen have been at this for quite some time, and had the war stories to go along with the photos they displayed. After a quick run-through of gear and settings, they proceeded to take turns explaining the many lessons they have learned through years of music business photography, and all the attendees benefited from their experience. Midway through the class, we broke and headed down to the expo hall where Scott Kelby’s band, Big Electric Cat, proceeded to run through an extended set designed to give we photographers-in-training a chance to try out what we had learned.

The concert was great fun, and before it was over, even Scott Diussa got up and rocked the house along with the band. All in all it was a great time, both educational and fun!

After the precon, it was all about time crunch! Off to dinner with some of my NAPP forum friends, then out to the NAPP “tweetup” by the pool.

Meanwhile, we who took the Concert Photography precon had to upload our best image before 10:00 for judging during the keynote tomorrow. Lots of fun and shenanigans, and now it’s time to get some rest before the keynote and official opening of the conference tomorrow. If only the internet connection were faster here

Adjacent to city center and following the waterfront canal towards the east is the Nyhavn district. The area consists of a great row of restaurants and pubs ,located along the northern "sunny side" of the canal. Almost any time of year you can find people sitting outdoors (the restaurants provide heaters and blankets for their patrons in colder weather) enjoying the local seafood fare (typically served as "smørrebrød," or open-faced sandwiches) and, of course, that famous Danish beer.

Nyhavn is also one of the areas from which you can take a boat tour of the city. I opted to pass on the boat tour in favor of continuing my walkabout.

Heading south and west from the city center are several walking streets, pedestrian roadways that are (mostly) off limits to vehicles. Lined with shops and restaurants, this is a great area to spend hours window shopping or just mingling with the crowds. The streets are always filled with people, day or night (up to about 7 or 8pm, when they apparently roll up the sidewalks). Along the way, you’ll find stands and carts set up offering crepes, candy and sweets, including the popular "brandte mandler" (almonds cooked in a sort of wok or pot along with a sweet syrup, and served warm).

Further down the walking street, past many more shops and restaurants, I came eventually to Tivoli Gardens. This combination amusement park and garden is, as I have been told, the second oldest amusement park in the world. Unfortunately for my photo outing, Tivoli was closed for the season (it still being quite chilly in late March in Copenhagen), so I looped back and began heading more north, through the Latin Quarter. and back towards the King’s Gardens, the gardens of Rosenborg Castle. It being that time of year, the King’s gardens weren’t any better off than Tivoli:

North and a little east of these gardens, you come to the open air museum and the Kastellet, a huge pentagonal fortification with walking paths, waterways, fountains, and all manner of interesting old buildings. Given good weather, you could spend hours or even days exploring it all! Along one edge is the Langelinie, or Long Line Pier, where you can find the Little Mermaid, placed in honor of Hans Christian Andersen. Interestingly, the Little Mermaid was on holiday in Shanghai, visiting the World Expo. Here’s a shot from a previous visit, though. She really is quite “little” – the statue is only about 3-4 feet tall:

I hope you’ve enjoyed a little flavor of Copenhagen. There is much to see and much to explore and learn there! I’ll leave you with a few more images (click to enlarge), but if you’d like to see more, please visit my Copenhagen Album on Flickr.

Manaus is a city in Brazil, located in the middle of the Amazon rainforest. While it is a bustling city, with over two million people, there are no main highways connecting it anywhere, and nothing but wilderness for hundreds of miles in every direction. Nevertheless, it is a cultural and industrial marvel, having once been the capital of the rubber industry.

In city center is a stately old opera house, quite an architectural marvel:

Nearby, a statue commemorates some of the city’s historical ties with Asia:

And, in the square surrounding the opera house, you can find outdoor food stalls, local vendors selling various wares and snacks, and even some street entertainment:

I especially like the last photo, given the lighting, and the old woman watching over the rail in the background. This was a fun place to visit!

Be sure to check out more of my travel photos on Flickr.

I started this year with an impromptu family visit with my wife Carol and granddaughter Ava to one of my local favorite spots, Sawgrass Lake Park – a nature preserve located smack dab in the middle of Saint Petersburg. The park has boardwalk trails, a viewing tower overlooking a good size lake, and several waterways (actually canals) surrounding the park. But from a photographer’s perspective, what is has is birds. Sometimes not so many, occasionally a lot. On New Year’s Day, we were fortunate to find a lot! With water levels down, the birds were congregated near the canals and lake, and there were good photos awaiting.

We started out seeing a rather large flock of wood storks, some basking in the grass on the side of the canal and a few foraging in the shallows. With the sun low in the evening sky, and the view of the storks facing fiercely into the sun, it was challenging, but I was able to get some good backlit photos.

Moving on, we spotted a huge variety of water fowl, including several young roseate spoonbills, egrets and herons of all varieties, and even some mallards and marsh hens. But the prize for me was spotting a limpkin wading in the shade of the footbridge, dredging for clams along the water’s edge. Limpkins are local and rare to fairly common in parts of Florida, but aren’t very common in this part of the Tampa Bay area. I was able to get several good photos of him, although I was regretting not having brought my speed light and better beamer flash extender!

All in all it was a good day! For more photos of the birds we spotted, be sure to check my photo stream on Flickr.

mh++