I sell digital images on DVD to many of my portrait photography clients and all of my commercial photography clients. I always provide those images on a printable DVD [ Amazon: Taiyo Yuden/JVC WaterShield DVD's ] that I print directly to with my Epson Artisan printer [ Amazon: Epson Artisan 835 Color Inkjet All-In-One ]. I am incredibly happy with the results and they look very professional.

The problem is that the CD / DVD printing software that comes with Epson printers is hokey (at best), and I’ve never been able to figure out how to print directly to the DVD from within Adobe Photoshop. It always ended up off center, too big, too small, or even completely off the disc. I finally took the time to figure it out. Yay!

It turns out that the Epson printer driver requires that you use an A4 (US Letter) size print template that has the disc image positioned in just the right place. And to further complicate it Epson uses “Type 1″ and “Type 2″ disc trays that require very different placement of the template on the page. I created Photoshop templates for both Tray types and have provided them here for free for you to use.

Please use the following link to download a zip file that contains templates for Epson Type 1 and Epson Type 2 CD/DVD printer trays in TIF format. I don’t guarantee that they are perfect for all Epson printers, but they work great for me.

Download the Free Photoshop Template

• OD Epson CD/DVD Print Templates for Adobe Photoshop (Photoshop Template)

For reference here is a link to a file that contains a list of Epson Printers and indicates what tray type they use.

In general older printers are Type 1 and newer printers are Type 2.

I posted an article yesterday describing a method to reduce noise from photographic images shot at high ISO by using a free Action for Adobe Photoshop and Adobe Lightroom called the OD Virtual Tripod Action.

In that article I used an example image that was shot at ISO 400. I realized when I was writing it that the example image may not have been the most convincing; however, it was the best example I had at the time.

So I went out at sunrise and created a new series of images that could really demonstrate how well this action works.

This new example image was created from a series of 11 images that I shot in rapid fire on my Canon 1D Mark IV at ISO 12,800. I deliberately underexposed the images, which always results in noiser images than images that are exposed correctly. I also turned off all noise reduction in Lightroom. The resulting image (upper left) after applying the action is still somewhat noisy, but I think it’s a much more pleasant or organic noise than the originals.

Check out a closeup of the original image on the left below. It is really, really ugly. Now compare it to the image on the right. This is the resulting image after the OD Virtual Tripod Action has been applied. I think the result speaks for itself.

For more information about the OD Virtual Tripod Action check out the original article.

Download the Free OD Virtual Tripod Photoshop Action

• OD Virtual Tripod (Photoshop Action)

There was a post on the Imaging Professional Blog a few months ago showing how to use Adobe Photoshop to dramatically reduce the noise in a series of images that were shot at high ISO.

“This technique describes a method to stack several high ISO source images in Photoshop CS3 or CS4 Extended, in order to minimize random noise – in effect creating a synthesized long duration low-ISO exposure.”

Sometimes you really just don’t have the light you need to shoot at low ISO and still get the high shutter speeds you need to shoot hand held. If you don’t have a tripod with you then your only option may be to crank up the ISO. This will likely create some very noisy images. Using this Virtual Tripod technique will allow you to easily reduce that noise in post processing after the fact. In my experience this method works far better than noise reduction software and can result in some really great looking, noise-free images.

The original article described in detail a method to do this once you already have a series of images loaded up in Photoshop. I took those instructions and modified them slightly to simplify their use with Adobe Lightroom. I also created a Photoshop Action to automate the process. Depending on how many images you use, the resolution of your camera, and how fast your computer is, this method could take several minutes to run (or maybe even longer in some circumstances. But using this method is very easy, and extremely effective!

Example Images

The first image is one of the original images, essentially straight out of the camera. There may have been some minor global edits applied in Lightroom, but no noise reduction has been performed.

The second example is the resulting image after application of the OD Virtual Tripod Action. This was done using a series of 5 images that were shot using the high speed shooting mode with my Canon 40D.

The difference isn’t really noticeable when the images are rezzed down for on-screen display, but when you zoom in the noise in the original is extremely obvious (I’m really not that much of a pixel peeper, but even when looking at the originals in Lightroom the difference was extremely obvious.)

Here is a close up of one of the original images with no edits applied.

And here is a close up of the resulting image after application of the OD Virtual Tripod Action.

I think you will agree that the difference is simply amazing. These images were shot at ISO 400. Imagine if I had used originals at ISO 1600 or even 3200. I generally find the images shot at ISO’s above 800 on this camera are barely useable. Using this technique has allowed me to create a few really nice images that I wouldn’t even have tried to make if I didn’t have this tool in my kit.

Try it, you’ll like it!

Install the OD Virtual Tripod Action

1. Skip down to the end of this article to download the Free Virtual Tripod Photoshop Action
2. Extract the file called “OD_Virtual_Tripod.atn” from the zip file you just downloaded, and save the action to a safe place on your computer (that you will remember).
3. Open Photoshop
4. In the Actions Palette choose “Load Actions…” and navigate to the file you just saved. Choose “Load“.
5. You will now have a new folder in your Actions Palette called “OD Virtual Tripod“

If you need more help with loading actions (or using them) then you should check out the article called Photoshop Actions for Photographers over at PhotoshopSupport.com. They do a great job of teaching all about Photoshop Actions.

Using the OD Virtual Tripod Action

1. Shoot a series of photos in rapid fire. Use your best “Human Tripod” technique while shooting them. Hold your arms in tight to your body and try to be as still as possible. If there is a small amount of camera shake or body movement then the Photoshop Action will take care of aligning the images properly. This won’t work so well for large movements or for moving subjects. I suggest that you use at least 5 images, but any more than 12 is probably overkill. You can read more about how to actually make the images in the original article over at the Imaging Professional Blog.
2. Import the files into Lightroom. Do any basic edits you want to the images, but be sure to do the same edits to all of the images.
3. Select all the images.
4. Right Click on one of the files and choose “Edit In” and then “Open as Layers in Photoshop…“
5. Run the OD Virtual Tripod Action
6. When the action finishes, Save and Close the resulting file in Photoshop. The finished image will automatically get imported back into Lightroom.
7. Inspect the resulting image to ensure that there is no ghosting and that the edges are clean. If the images didn’t line up properly, or if one (or more) of the images was severely out of alignment with the others then you may need to do some additional cropping to clean up the images. You may even need to repeat the process after deselecting the offending image(s) that were badly aligned.

Download the Free Virtual Tripod Photoshop Action

• OD Virtual Tripod (Photoshop Action)

That’s it. Try it out and drop me a comment to let me know how it works! This action should definitely works in Photoshop CS4, and it may also work in prior versions. Please let me know if you try it with other versions and I will compile a compatibility list.

My wife recently decided that she wanted to get a bunch of images of the kids printed. I wasn’t around and she didn’t know what the best way would be to make a list of those images for me to print. She had lo res copies of all of the images of the kids that I’ve put out for public display over the last year and so she decided to copy the ones she wanted printed into a new folder on my hard drive. I then had to find all of those images in Lightroom in order to prep print quality versions to send to the printer.

In this case there were only a few images so I could have manually searched for them all pretty quickly. But I didn’t do that. Instead I figured out the “right way” to do it so that I could very quickly repeat the process in the future…

There are two broad steps involved:

1. Create a text file with a listing of the directory contents. I use “Karen’s Directory Printer” for that.
2. Tag the images in Lightroom so that they can be sent to the printer. I use a Lightroom plugin from Timothy Armes called LR/Transporter for that.

Note – If you haven’t used any of Tim Armes’ plugins before, you owe it to yourself to check them out. They are all free for limited use, or by donation for the full feature list. You can find them at Photographers-Toolbox.com. My personal favorite is LR/Enfuse, which allows you to blend multiple images made with multiple exposures (somewhat like HDR photograpahy, only not quite).

Updated 2009-09-30 I got an email from Amazon.ca today saying that they had screwed up on the price, and that they had cancelled my order. Fail.

Updated 2009-09-29 Sorry, this deal appears to have ended… Try checking back later to see if they revive it.

There’s a great deal on right now at Amazon.ca for pre-orders of Adobe Photoshop & Premiere Elements 8. The MSRP is $149.99 (USD) for the bundle, but if you order right now you can get them for $52.99 (CAD), and Adobe has a $30 (USD) mail-in rebate that will also apply. That brings the total price down to approximately $20 (CAD) depending on the exchange rate. Wow!

Alternatively you can pick up Photoshop Elements 8 on its own for only $24.99 (CAD) and use a $20 (USD) mail-in rebate to get Photoshop Elements for less than $5.00. Another wow!

Either way, Photoshop Elements is basically free and Premiere Elements is very cheap. Compare this to $738 for the full version of Photoshop CS4 and you’ll know that you’re getting a deal. Sure CS4 has a few more features than Elements, but if you’re using Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture as your main photo processing tool and you only need to do the occasional local edit that Lightroom can’t do, Photoshop Elements presents a pretty ideal alternative to CS4. Most photographers really have no need for the full set of features of CS4.

From Adobe:

Adobe Photoshop Elements 8
Adobe® Photoshop® Elements 8 combines power and simplicity so you can make your photos look extraordinary, share your life stories in unique print creations and web experiences, and easily manage your photos and video clips. New options enable you to create perfectly lit shots, recompose photos to any size without distorting key subjects, and quickly find your highest-quality shots or shots of specific people.

Adobe Premiere Elements 8
Adobe® Premiere® Elements 8 makes it easier than ever to create incredible movies, enhance your stories with professional style, share virtually anywhere, and easily manage your video clips and photos. Now you can easily manage all your clips and photos from a powerful, convenient new Organizer; add fun graphics and effects that automatically follow the motion in your scenes; and much more.