Category: Tutorials

technology related posts tutorials

Posted on
by
screen shot

I’m lazy. I try to automate routine repetitive tasks. For photo blogging, one task that I performed repeated was export images to upload to WordPress. My workflow used to be, export sized image to disk, upload the image to WordPress, optimize the image with a WordPress plugin, and then edit the image caption for use later in a post. It was tedious.

A few years ago I simplified my workflow with a combination of Jeffrey Friedl’s export filter, and presets, Automattic’s WordPress and Adobe Lightroom plugins. This post is a combination of two posts, Export directly from Adobe Lightroom to WordPress and Set WordPress Image Caption with Jeffrey Friedl’s Metadata Wrangler Export Filter with the addition of information about the use of JPEG mini Pro. You can also consider this an update of the Export directly from Adobe Lightroom to WordPress that includes all the information from Set WordPress Image Caption with Jeffrey Friedl’s Metadata Wrangler Export Filter that includes information about how I use JPEG mini Pro to optimize images.

Requirements

To make this work, you’ll need Adobe Lightroom Classic CC, Automattic’ WordPress plugin, Jeffrey Friedl’s “Metadata Wrangler” Export Filter, and JPEGmini Pro Suite. The requirements assume you’re running macOS Mojave. I don’t use Windows. For me, Linux is a server OS. I also assume that all the required software is installed already including Jeffrey Friedl’s filters and presets, JPEGmini Pro Suite, Adobe Lightroom. Jeffrey Friedl has excellent instructions on how to install and use his “Metadata Wrangler” Export Filter on his website. You’ll need WordPress.com or self-hosted WordPress with Jetpack installed.

Configuration

Setup for the JPEGmini Pro plugin is complete once it’s installed. There are no settings. Setup and configuration for Automattic’s WordPress plugin can be found on my earlier post. JetPack is a requirement for this to work. I don’t think it’s necessary to repeat all the steps here. Setup and configuration for “Metadata Wrangler” Export Filter are the same as in my earlier post on the topic.

Metadata Wrangler

From the export preset window, add the JPEGmini and Meta Wrangler post-process actions to the export preset.

The export template that I am currently using is:

{Title?{Title} —} {CameraName?{CameraName }} {CameraMake?+ {CameraMake}} {Lens?{Lens}}  — ({FocalLengthMM? {FocalLengthMM}}, {Aperture?{Aperture}}, {ISO?ISO{ISO}})

I set the title of the image in Adobe Lightroom before I export the image. Upon export, the template set the image caption by appending the title information along with image specific information.

Example.

Upper Buttermilk Falls along the Gorge Trail, Ithaca, New York — FujiFilm X-T2 + Fujifilm XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR — (16 mm, f/16, ISO200)

Other notes

While the specific setup I use if for WordPress if I used Jekyll or Hugo or some other static site generator, my image file export to disk workflow would work well for that purpose. It’s similar to the preset above, except the images are export to disk. In fact, exporting images from my Adobe Lightroom catalogue to disk, to WordPress, to Instagram, to email etc. is all done with variations of this export preset. The only thing that changes is the export destination.

Summary

I name, size, caption, optimize, and export my image files directly to WordPress using this Lightroom export preset. It’s one step – right-click, then select the export preset.

Posted on
by

Jeffrey Friedl is a software developer and photographer based in Japan. For years he has been scratching his own itch and creating plugins for Adobe Lightroom that make using and exporting images from Lightroom easier. He makes these plugins available for a nominal fee — whatever you want to pay. I’ve used many of his plugins for years.

Need to export images to Tumblr or Twitter or Facebook? Need to control what metadata is/isn’t included during any export? Need to inject Creative-Commons license data into exported images? Jeffrey has written plugins to do each of those things. And some of the export plugins can be combined with other export plug-ins. Which is what prompted this blog post.

Some time ago I [started using the Automattic’s WordPress.com export plugin to export directly from Adobe Lightroom to my Jetpack-powered WordPress.org website. This plugin-in saves me time.

One of Jeffrey’s plugins is the Metadata Wrangler Export Plugin. This “export filter” plugin for Lightroom allows me to strip or modify selected metadata components from images as they are exported.

I just learnt a trick for adding EXIF data to the caption of the images I post to this website and also to Instagram by combining the two plugins.

I use the Metadata Wrangler Export Plugin as a post-process action to overwrite the caption metadata field with image data from my Lightroom catalogue before it is exported to WordPress.

Here’s the information inserted into the caption.

{Title?<p>{Title}</p>—}{Caption?<p>{Caption}</p>—}

<p>{CameraName?{CameraName}} {Lens?+ {Lens}} {FocalLengthMM?@ {FocalLengthMM}}, {Aperture?{Aperture}} {ShutterSpeed? at {ShutterSpeed}}, {ISO? ISO {ISO}}</p>

{RightsUsageTerms?<p>{RightsUsageTerms}</p>}

These preset template tokens inserts the image capture information such as camera make and model, and image EXIF data.

On my WordPress website, images with a caption display will display capture information.

Posted on
by
A Secret to the Best Bacon Ever (Kitchn)
I think we can agree that crispy, smoky bacon is one of life's greatest pleasures. However, standing over a hot stove dodging sputtering bacon grease is not. Here is how we can have the best of both worlds: a hands-free, hassle-free method for cooking perfect bacon, all in the oven.

I’ve cooked my bacon this way for several years. It’s easy and simple. I like simple breakfasts.

I like thick cut bacon but my family (except for my vegetarian wife) prefers the thinner slices. The bacon expert in the house, my daughter Kiran, says the thin slices cook more crisp. I’m still practicing and developing my technique for cooking super crispy bacon while preventing burning. But I think she’s correct; the thicker cuts will produce chewier bacon while the thinner cuts will produce crisper bacon. When I choose bacon, I look for a nice blend of meat and fat, with a little more meat than fat.

Every year we take part in my wife’s family’s version of the white elephant game. My wife doesn’t believing in wasting money so we always try to buy something that still has practical use. Better yet, something we would use ourselves. My wife and I are good bargain shoppers on Amazon.com and find it easy to find something within the defined dollar limit. One year we found two items we liked, an electric breakfast sandwich maker and an electric waffle maker. Both met the dollar limit. We bought both. We kept the waffle maker and won back the sandwich maker.

One Thomas’ English Muffin fits perfectly within the sandwich maker. I learned how to make egg, cheese and sausage sandwiches in three minutes with minimal clean up. Just separate the English muffin layers and layer on the fixings: egg, cheese, sausage. At first, I put the whole egg directy into the top layer. But in the last few months I’ve experimented with whisking a a tablespoon of heavy cream into the egg. It produces a light fluffy (and less chewy) egg layer for the sandwich.

Oven Baked Bacon

  • Servings: 1
  • Difficulty: easy
  • Print

A hands-free, easy method for cooking perfect bacon in the oven.


  • Nutrition facts: 390 calories, 29g carbohydrates, 19g protein, 19g
  • Credit: Khürt Williams

Ingredients

  • 2 slices Trader Joe’s Uncured Apple Smoked Bacon
  • 1 Thomas’ Cinnamon Raison English Muffin
  • 1 Wegmans Organic Large Brown Egg
  • 1 tablespoon heavy cream

Directions

  1. Pre-heat oven to 400ºF (~ 204ºC).
  2. While the oven is heating up, arrange bacon slices side by side on an oven baking rack and place in baking pan.
  3. Put pan in oven when oven temperature reaches 400ºF. Cook in oven for 20 minutes.
  4. Pre-heat electric sandwich maker.
  5. While the sandwich maker is heating up, whisk the egg and heavy cream for 15 seconds.
  6. Pour egg into top half of sandwich maker. Cook for 3 minutes, 30 seconds.
  7. Separate halves of English muffin and toast.
  8. Remove cooked egg from sandwich maker and place atop English muffin.
  9. Remove cooked bacon from oven and set to cool.
  10. Make coffee.