When I import images from Lightroom 4 into FotoMagico 4, all of the images are oversaturated. Can someone please gives me some guidance on correcting this? I realize that I can adjust saturation in FM. However, after post-processing my images in Lightroom, it seems that I should not have to correct the saturation in FM.
In the event that my procedure for importing images might be an issue, let me provide a brief explanation. I use Lightroom’s export function to export the images to my desktop. From the desktop, I simply drag & drop the images into the FM Storyboard.
As a follow-up to my question above, I tried to import the RAW images directly from Lightroom using the FM Media Browser. The good news is that oversaturation of the images was no longer a problem. The bad news is that many images would not load & were noted as “missing”.
Please help. Thank you.
Sorry to belabor this, but I am trying to provide as much relevant information as possible. This time to converted my images in Lightroom from RAW to JPEGs. Then I used the Media Browser in FM to import them. This time all of the images loaded onto the Storyboard. However, most of the images were out of focus. This might be due to the fact that the zoom factor (on import) was 632%.
I’m stumped on how to seamlessly import my images out of Lightroom & retain their image quality.
The problem with trying to import directly from the LR4 library is that FM has to rely on the preview files that LR4 maintains. I don’t believe that Adobe gives them direct access to the export engine so that they can generate their own files that take into account the LR edits. As a result, I gave up using the direct import option after about 20 minutes of trying – it wasn’t really worth the effort.
The process I have been using is as follows:
Export the photos as JPG file using the image quality set at around 80%. This works pretty well as it generates files of around 5 to 10 MB in size from my camera (you may need to play with this a bit). If I have created large panorama photos, they can be much larger. Once you have your settings figured out, create a preset in LR4 so that you can easily retrieve your settings. I even created a standard folder to export to so that I wouldn’t have to remember where I put the files.
I Created a folder in Finder called “FotoMagico Shows” and then created sub-folders for each of the photo exports (example Trip1, Trip2, etc.) to help me organize my photos.
I import the JPG files using the FM media browser. To make things easier, I hid all of the Media libraries except for iTunes and Folders. I then added each of the folders I created in Step 2.
This seems to work fairly well as my photos look just like they do in LR4, Preview, etc. If your photos came out blurry, I suspect that it’s the 632% zoom factor. If I zoom mine to anything close to that level it looks blurry as well.
One other thing that I do to speed up the selection of photos in LR4 is to create a collection just for that show and then set it as my “Target Collection”. I can then go through LR selecting my photos for the collection followed by a single export using my preset to get the files ready for FM.
Note that this is the same process I used with the Photodex ProShow product back in my MS Windows days so it seems to work pretty well.
Thank you for taking the time to offer your suggestions. Your comment regarding FotoMagico using the preview of LR4 files is well-taken. In my recent communication with tech support at Boinx (creators of FotoMagico), it was suggested how to render the previews to contain all of my LR edits. Since I am currently out of town, I have not been able to try it.
I am curious why you decided on setting the image quality of the JPEGs at 80% rather than at 100%. Does it result in better image quality or simply just a smaller file size?
I’m still confused why many of the images imported into FotoMagico that were blurry had zoom factors of 632%. Obviously, I never set the zoom factor to this when editing in LR.
Do you have any thoughts?
Thank you again, Brian. I will follow up on your suggestions when I get home in several days. Also, would you mind if I contacted you directly if I have any other questions?
I use the 80% setting simply to control the file size. I shoot most of my photos with a Canon 5D-MIII which is 22MP. At 100% the file size is around 22MB which is much larger than you need for creating a slide show. My images are in the 5800 x 3800 pixel size which is much larger than a 1080 HD video. Note that you will need these extra pixels if you zoom in on the image so don’t thow any away (e.g. scale the image in FM4) until you are done creating your show.
I am assuming that Boinx support is suggesting that you create the 1:1 previews in LR4 so that they have a better image to utilize. My only concern with this is that LR4 typically discards these files after 30 days or so (it’s a setting) as they fill up the hard drive. You might find yourself having to re-create the files if you go back later to work with them.
As to the 632% problem, I think it’s an issue of the number of pixels that you had available in the JPG file. If I export a photo at 80% (5800 X 3800) the zoom factor is around 33%. If I have LR4 export the image with a size of 100 x 100 pixels, the zoom factor is around 700%. What I think FM4 is doing is setting the zoom factor so that the image fills the screen with the available pixels. If there aren’t enough available it zooms in the image to the required level. It sound like you just need to export with a higher pixel count. By the way, if you look in LR4 on the Library tab at the Metadata section it should show you the both the original and cropped dimensions of the photo. If the cropped value is really small, this might help explain part of your problem.
Feel free to contact me directly if you have any other questions (it appears the forum has an inbox feature so I will take a look at how to use it). I just downloaded FM about a week ago so I am still learning how to use it. I have, however, been using LR since version 1 so I am pretty familiar with that program.
Thank you, Brian. Your points make a lot of of intuitive sense to me. As soon as I get home, I will follow up on your thoughts.
Like you, I am new to FM. And the slideshow I am working on is my first. However, unlike you, LR4 is my first experience with LR. So I am a novice there as well. Since I have gotten more serious with my photography in the past couple of years, my attention has turned to using a slideshow format for share my images. So, all things considered, I am still climbing up the learning curve. Again, thank you for your help.