Author Archives

New Free Lightroom Preset Available!

Gerard Murphy - May 22, 2013 | Givaway, Lightroom Plugin, Lightroom Presets

We are really proud to bring you this amazing free Lightroom preset by one of the best photographers in the world right now – Nicole S Young.

Download the free Lightroom preset here.

Nicole created this preset called Summertime as a kick off to the season.

Nicole (also known by her various social media handles as Nicolesy) also has some great Lightroom Presets, Photoshop Actions as well as her amazing books available for sales on her blog: nicolesyblog.com

She has very generously offered all Mosaic users and blog readers 20% off using the coupon code “MOSAIC20″ on checkout.

Follow Nicole on Twitter, Google Plus and Facebook.

Enjoy the free Lightroom preset!

Why Do We Mention Apple Blossoms When Talking About Our New Release?

Gerard Murphy - May 09, 2013 | Lightroom, Lightroom Plugin, Mosaic, Software Development

Hey Everyone,

We are creating something very cool here at Mosaic and I am so very thankful for everyone who is a part of it. Part of this relationship is keeping everyone up to speed about what we have done, will do, and are doing.

As I wrote here, we launched the iOS version of our Lightroom Sync App on 4/20. Since then thousands of Lightroom users have downloaded it. Millions of photos have been uploaded and accessed by users on their iPads and iPhones.

So what does this have to do with apple blossoms? (Stick with me on this.) We are based in New Hampshire, where the apple blossoms are just beginning to bloom. I was out shooting last weekend and thought this was the perfect analogy. The apple trees are currently blooming a beautiful pink flower. But we know this is just the beginning and only a preview of the sweet fruit that is coming our way later this summer and fall.

If you like what we are doing now, just wait. More good stuff is coming soon!

Today we released a new version that fixes some of the most annoying issues seen by our users:

1) Some images in the detail view were very blurry. (This was caused by uploading a smaller version of the Lightroom previews.)

2) The images in the grid mode were blury. (Caused by less than optimized image scaling.)

3) Higher than desired memory and CPU footprint.

We also now support Mac 10.6+ (previously was 10.7+). We also fixed some annoying password and download issues we had on our website.

Please install the new version of the Mosaic Desktop Software to get these enhancements!

We also launched the Mosaic Help Desk where users can find commonly asked questions and vote on new Mosaic features.

Not a bad 3 weeks!

So What’s Next?

So although we are cranking out a bunch of new stuff… we know you still want more (So do we! We use the App too!)

So here is what we are working on….

- Sorting by Lightroom Catalogs, Folders, and Collections in the App.

- Save photos in the App to your local iOS device (Camera Roll).

- Post a picture to Facebook from the App.

here.

Two Way Metadata Sync with Lightroom!

The idea here is to allow you to rate, star, flag, and keyword from the Mosaic app and have it go seamlessly back to Lightroom.

To us, this is fruit that is coming. And although we love the flowers, we are hungry!

Of course we will continue to work on our RAW photo backup solution as well, adding new features and enhancements.

To that end, we are hiring! If you want to be part of the mobile revolution in photo management and backup, please join us.

Thank you for all of your retweets, shares, likes, and App ratings over the past couple weeks. Please refer more of your friends. The more users we have the more features we can build for everyone.

Thanks again. More good stuff is coming your way.

Best,

Gerard

Gerard Murphy
CEO Mosaic

Mosaic Lightroom App Now In Apple App Store!

Gerard Murphy - April 20, 2013 | Entrepreneurship, Lightroom, Lightroom Plugin, Mosaic

We are proud to announce today the availability of the Mosaic Lightroom App from the Apple App Store!

Until today we were only available as a Web App, meaning you needed to log into our website to access your Lightroom photos through Mosaic.

We are the only App that fully integrates with Lightroom.

As Lightroom users we thought exporting and publishing was too old fashion. We wanted instant, automatic and wireless access to everything in our Lightroom catalog. So we launched Mosaic. Since then millions of photos have been uploaded and enjoyed on our Web App.

The native iOS Mosaic Lightroom App gives our users quicker access to their photos. The first thing existing users will notice is that the same features are available on both the web and the native iOS App. (Except no browser bar…so your photos are in beautiful full screen.)

For long time Mosaic users, we now support both the iPhone and iPad.

The mission for Mosaic is pretty simple. We want you to be able to show off your Lightroom photos whenever the moment arrises on any device. Having an App that you can instantly open furthers this mission.

We also have paid services for full RAW Online Photo backup.

So why did we release on the web first before the App store? Well we wanted to support computer internet browsers, Android devices, and other tablets beyond the iPad. So we created the app in HTML5 so we could make your photos available from any device. We took our web app, wrapped a bow on it, submitted it to App store and got approved.

If you enjoy the App, please rate it in the App store for us!

Best,

Gerard and Andy
Co-Founders of Mosaic

The Best Free Lightroom Tutorials and Blogs

Gerard Murphy - February 07, 2013 | DAM, Digital Asset Management, Lightroom, Lightroom Plugin, Lightroom Presets, Photography Tips, Tips, Workflow

Free Adobe Lightroom tutorials, blogs and resources are available from a number of different sources. Naturally, there is not going to be one site that will work best learning for everyone. Each is going to offer advantages and disadvantages for different learning styles and needs. Here, we will look at the best-known resources for free Lightroom tutorials.

Adobe Lightroom Journal – Lightroom is an Adobe product and there is no better place to begin searching for advice on the software than directly from the designers. Adobe is kind enough to provide a blog on Lightroom, and there is quite a lot of information available here. If you are looking for the latest release notes, or if you need to know if a certain feature is or is not supported in your release of Lightroom, then Lightroom Journal (and the control-F function) may be for you.

Adobe TV – Host Julieanne Kost is awesomely clear and good in this video series from Adobe on the Develop Module in Lightroom. Newbies and long time Lightroom affectionados will learn lots from these just-long-enough videos.

Lightroom Secrets – Gene McCullagh is another of the Lightroom super users, writers and educators. From Printing to HDR to DAM to third party Lightroom plugins, Gene has some great posts and links to other Lightroom resources.

Lightroom Queen – Victoria Bampton is a truly great Lightroom educator and writer. Her blog has great relavent information and her member forums are some of the best in the Lightroom community.

Laura Shoe’s Lightroom – This is a wonderful selection of tutorials on Lightroom written by Laura Shoe, and is one of the best places for a Lightroom newbie to begin his or her search for Lightroom tips and tricks. Laura covers such topics as importing photos to Lightroom, managing your images, and questions about the interface. These are the types of subjects that often confuse beginners, so Laura’s website is a fabulous resource for people new to using the software.

Lightroom 101 – One of the most recent additions to the Lightroom educational space, Lightroom 101 is chalk full of great articles and tips. the layout on the blog is great and modern. The tips and tutorials sections are fantastic.

Colortrails – If you are looking to take your Photoshop and Lightroom skills to the next level, Dan Moughamian is one of the best out there. His very readable descriptions will take you from Lightroom proficient to pro.

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New Version of Mosaic Coming! Tighter Integration with Lightroom

Gerard Murphy - January 31, 2013 | Aperture, Archiving, Backup, Cloud Computing, Customer Service, DAM, Digital Asset Management, Entrepreneurship, Lightroom, Mosaic, Photographers, Photography Business, RAW Photos, Storage, Uncategorized

We are very happy to share with you some details about our upcoming release. This release is packed with awesome new features that we are super excited about.

For our existing customers there are a couple features we are retiring that you should know about.

We are taking our Lightroom integrated approach that has been very popular with our Mosaic View product and expanding it to include online RAW photo backup.

Our photo viewing app has also gotten a complete redesign. The new version of the App is faster, more stable, and also works on smartphones including the iPhone. You will also be able to see which photos are backed up from the Mosaic App.

Backing up using Lightroom data has a lot of advantages including the ability to better manage your cloud backups.

Photographers take a lot of photos (and videos) that generate a lot of data. As any photographer knows, not every photo is amazing…. or even good. One of the things we love about Lightroom is the ability to keep track of your “good photos”.

Many customers said to us that they didn’t want to pay to have their 50 bracketed photos backed up when really they only cared about the 1 complete HDR image. Why not automated this process?

Backing up images within Lightroom allows the flexibility to backup automatically by Lightroom metadata. You will be able to backup using stars, flags, dates, and/or collections automatically and easily. Or just automatically backup everything in Lightroom. This keeps your costs down while giving you all of the benefits of an automated backup solution.

This does however mean we will no longer backup any documents that are not in Lightroom.

If you are a current customer who uses Aperture, you are most likely asking, what about us? We are sorry to say we will not be supporting Aperture moving forward.

Another major change with this release is that we are moving our data infrastructure from our own servers and data center to Amazon. When we first launched Mosaic there was no scalable, offsite, redundant and cost effective cloud storage solution for photographers. So we built it. This changed when Amazon launched their Glacier service.

This is a win-win. Amazon are experts at keeping data safe. They have a stellar track record in large data management. This also frees up development resources on our end to work on the customer facing stuff as opposed to server side stuff. This should allow us to pump out more releases and features more quickly going forward. (We are also hiring!)

One temporary result of this change is that we will not be accepting new hard drive shipments. We will reactivate the service in the future.

All Mosaic Archive customers will have complete access to anything in Lightroom from our App included in their subscription fee.

We know these changes are going to delight many customers. But for others, Mosaic may no longer be a good fit for your online backup needs. Customers can cancel their accounts at any time using the “My Account” link at the bottom of our webpage. We sincerely hope that we can keep your business.

At some point in the near future, we will be shutting down our data center and discontinuing support for our current product. Lots of notices will be given before this happens.

We are very excited about this release. If you are interested in trying this service in beta, please email us. We will add you to the list!

We have lots of ideas about how to improve our product and give you more options in your Lightroom workflow. This is just the beginning!

Please never hesitate to reach out to us directly if you would like to share your thoughts or ideas.

Thank you again for your support.

Best,

Gerard and Andy
Co-Founders of Mosaic

Where is the Save Button In Lightroom?

Gerard Murphy - January 15, 2013 | Backup, Lightroom, Online Photo Backup, Photography Tips, RAW Photos, Workflow

Adobe Lightroom can feel unusual for many people who are not used to the program. One of these aspects is that there is no “Save” or “Save As” function within the application. In photo-editing programs such as Photoshop or Irfanview, you open the picture, perform your edits, and then save your work, usually under a different name. In Lightroom there is no “Save As”. The changes are automatically saved.

This can feel very unusual to a new Lightroom user. After editing your photo, a natural instinct is to want to save your work, so that it will be there later, with all of your accompanying changes. We have gotten used to doing this with our Word, Excel and PowerPoint docs.

Lightroom keeps track of things in a catalog. These catalogs are automatically saved, along with the modifications you have made to your photos. (This is the .LRCAT File you see on your computer.) This means that you do not have to save your work in the traditional manner. Because all of your edits are kept in the catalog file, it is very important to backup your Lightroom catalog files.

If you would like different effects from the same RAW photo, you can use Virtual Copies to create multiple versions without duplicates. (Photos > Create Virtual Copy)

Instead of changing the original photo, Lightroom changes what is known as Metadata. This aspect of a photo file determines the keywords, stars or flags that an image will have. But, more than that, metadata determines develop presets, which will modify the image through tone curves, white balance, cropping and other aspects of the photo.

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What’s The Difference Between Photoshop and Lightroom?

Gerard Murphy - December 12, 2012 | DAM, Digital Asset Management, Lightroom, Photography Gear, Photography Tips, RAW Photos

Lightroom and Photoshop sound like they are two competing programs made by the same company (Adobe). While there is some overlap, there are core differences. Which program you choose to use depends on what you are looking to do. OR you can also use Lightroom and Photoshop together. Many photographers use both Photoshop and Lightroom.

Everyone knows what Photoshop is; the name is interchangeable with any type of photo editing and graphic design. Your mom and dad probably even use the term “Photoshopped.” The uses for Photoshop range from graphic designers and photographers, to animators and architects. Photoshop has the power to make the unreal look real. I can guarantee you see at least 10 “Photoshoped” images every day.

It is not a knock on Photoshop when I say it’s not a complete photography workflow tool. Lightroom is a pretty complete photo management tool. (For Adobe Bridge users, think of Lightroom as an advanced version of Bridge with the photo editing capabilities of Adobe Camera RAW and more.)

Adobe Photoshop Lightroom is a digital asset management (DAM) and photo editing tool in one. It is iPhoto on steroids. Lightroom helps organize your thousands, or even tens of thousands of photos, in a neat and clean interface. Organizing and editing hundreds of images becomes a hassle with Photoshop, but with Lightroom the process becomes infinitely more streamlined. The power of Lightroom lies in how it works: it’s all about metadata and database management.

Lightroom gives you the ability to tag, rate, and write information about all of you images, and keeps it all in a “catalog.” The catalog is Lightroom’s secret weapon; it’s a database containing all of the information you’ve provided. This makes it very, very easy to search and sort through thousands of images. With Lightroom you don’t have to look in Internet Explorer or Finder to find your photos in your computer folders. You basically forget they are actually stored there. Lightroom becomes like iTunes is to your music, you stop thinking about computer folders.

Lightroom also has very good image editing capabilities. Lightroom uses the same RAW image processor (Adobe Camera RAW) as Photoshop. Your RAW images will look the same in Photoshop as Lightroom. For many photographers, they will find they don’t need Photoshop. (Or they can just use the less expensive Photoshop Elements.) You have easy to use tools to change the white balance, crop and straighten, exposure, and more. Basically, for 90% of images, Lightroom has plenty of horse power to make your images pop. In many cases you can do more with shadows and brushes in Lightroom than you can do easily in Photoshop.

If you need to do some heavier editing, it’s easy to access the same image in Photoshop, do some editing, and keep the images in Lightroom. (Just press Command++E/Ctrl + E) You are essentially working in both programs at once, as it’s a form of two way communication between them. The best part is, Lightroom is a non-destructive editor, which means any changes you make in Lightroom don’t affect your original image. Your hard drive thanks you!

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Free Lightroom Plugins – Best Places to Find Them

Gerard Murphy - December 10, 2012 | Lightroom, Lightroom Plugin, Photography Equipment, Photography Tips, Tips

Lightroom plugins can make a great program, Lightroom, even better. There are sites where you can buy Lightroom plugins, but we will look at plugins for Lightroom that you can get free Lightroom Plugins.

Lightroom’s photo editing and storage capabilities are awesome, but every user is different and has slightly different needs from the software. Think of plugins like “apps” within Lightroom. They usually do something specific within Lightroom like “find duplicate images”, “export photos to Picasa” or “sync your photos to your iPad.”

Plugins are different than Lightroom Presets. Lightroom Presets are development editing settings that make the images look different (think Instagram filters). Plugins usually have to do with posting, publishing, exporting or editing the metadata of an image in Lightroom. Plugins are more for the Library module. Presets are more for the Develop module.

Here are some of the places you can find free Lightroom plugins:

Adobe, offers a “Plugin Exchange” for both paid and free plugins. This is the Lightroom “App” Store. (You can always get to the from the link your Lightroom plugin manager.) This is an under utilized place to find Lightroom plugins especially by lesser known developers.

Jeffrey Friedl’s Blog provides loads of free Lightroom Plugins. One of our favorites is called “Metadata Wrangler”. What the Metadata Wrangler does is give you great flexibility in changing, removing or adding metadata to your digital photos. This is a handy free plugin to have for Lightroom if you are selling your photos online.

Basically anything Jeffery Freidl does is great. Check out his other Tumbler, Picasa, and Flickr Plugins. (Please consider donating if you enjoyed his plugins.)

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Lightroom Intro Tutorial Video – Interview Style Demo

Gerard Murphy - December 04, 2012 | Hard Drive, Lightroom, Photography Gear, Photography Tips, RAW Photos, Storage, Tips, Workflow

My friend Alan is getting more into photography. He decided to invest in Lightroom. But like many people he had some questions about how to manage his photos, edit them and ultimately use them using Lightroom. Lightroom can be a little intimidating, but a couple simple instructions can go a long way.

Because Alan is a good friend, I volunteered to point him in the right direction. He agreed to record the conversation in hopes that it would help others get started with Lightroom.

The result is a more conversational approach to demonstrating Lightroom than other tutorials I have seen. Hopefully it will help folks learn Lightroom to better manage their photos and to use the editing magic to make their photos pop.

This was recorded using Google Plus. Feel free to add me to your G+ circles.

Here was the basic overview of what topics where covered: (more…)

My (Very) Personal Startup Story – Sharing Photos With Grandpa

Gerard Murphy - November 20, 2012 | Archiving, Backup, Entrepreneurship, Mosaic

I debated whether or not to write this. But there are times when founding a startup that it becomes even more personal than normal.

Since I co-founded Mosaic, there have been many personal moments. I have put my life savings into the company, I have put stress on my beautiful and supportive wife, and spent countless nights and weekends away from my kids. This is normal for any entrepreneur and honestly we have probably had it easier than most.

There have also been wonderful and incredibly rewarding moments. Like when we released our app, crossed major milestones, and have returned anxious customers photos after a disaster.

But none of those moments were as personal as sharing my photos on my iPad with my dying Grandfather.

My Grandfather was very special to me. In addition to being the world’s best story teller, he was the original family entrepreneur. He started his own business after not being paid by his uncle for a 2 week vacation. After working for 50 years in his own business, he went to law school in his 70s (for fun) and day traded stocks into his 90s. He was a great man, even measured against those in the Greatest Generation. At my home office, I sit in his chair.

He died peacefully in his sleep at 96 years old. We knew he was going. His incredibly sharp mind was filling with the cobwebs of advanced Alzheimer’s. I made one last trip to say good-bye.

I didn’t plan this moment. It just happened. I had an hour with Grandpa. I had my iPad. I opened the Mosaic View App which was synchronized with my entire photo library. And we looked at old pictures we had scanned of him.

I told the stories, he always told me. When I told them, he would laugh at the right moments and even corrected me once. The photos brought him temporarily back as only photos can. I left knowing that it would be my final moment with him.

Pictures helped me say my good-byes. They helped bring a smile to my grandfathers face.

We created Mosaic so people could have those experiences by sharing memories. These unplanned moments where pictures are worth even more than a thousand words because no words will do.

Founding a startup is really hard. In this moment, my product helped me in a way that has shaped my last memory of my Grandfather. I write this sitting in my Grandfathers chair and hope that what we are doing would continue to make him proud and bring a smile to his face.

Lightroom. Automatically. Any Device.

Online Storage For Serious Photographers

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Author Archives

New Free Lightroom Preset Available!

Gerard Murphy - May 22, 2013 | Givaway, Lightroom Plugin, Lightroom Presets

Why Do We Mention Apple Blossoms When Talking About Our New Release?

Gerard Murphy - May 09, 2013 | Lightroom, Lightroom Plugin, Mosaic, Software Development

So What’s Next?

Mosaic Lightroom App Now In Apple App Store!

Gerard Murphy - April 20, 2013 | Entrepreneurship, Lightroom, Lightroom Plugin, Mosaic

The Best Free Lightroom Tutorials and Blogs

Gerard Murphy - February 07, 2013 | DAM, Digital Asset Management, Lightroom, Lightroom Plugin, Lightroom Presets, Photography Tips, Tips, Workflow

New Version of Mosaic Coming! Tighter Integration with Lightroom

Gerard Murphy - January 31, 2013 | Aperture, Archiving, Backup, Cloud Computing, Customer Service, DAM, Digital Asset Management, Entrepreneurship, Lightroom, Mosaic, Photographers, Photography Business, RAW Photos, Storage, Uncategorized

Where is the Save Button In Lightroom?

Gerard Murphy - January 15, 2013 | Backup, Lightroom, Online Photo Backup, Photography Tips, RAW Photos, Workflow

What’s The Difference Between Photoshop and Lightroom?

Gerard Murphy - December 12, 2012 | DAM, Digital Asset Management, Lightroom, Photography Gear, Photography Tips, RAW Photos

Free Lightroom Plugins – Best Places to Find Them

Gerard Murphy - December 10, 2012 | Lightroom, Lightroom Plugin, Photography Equipment, Photography Tips, Tips

Lightroom Intro Tutorial Video – Interview Style Demo

Gerard Murphy - December 04, 2012 | Hard Drive, Lightroom, Photography Gear, Photography Tips, RAW Photos, Storage, Tips, Workflow

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