With Lightroom 3 Beta having just been released, the first thing that most people will do – as I did – is to look and see if the features that you’ve always wanted in the program have been added.

One of the areas that Lightroom 2 fell a little short on in my book was the Print module. I wanted to be able to print with a colored background without having to import a background to use as a Identity Plate to achieve the effect and I wanted to be able to assemble a single printed sheet incorporating multiple images but I didn’t want them to have to always be the same size.

Ok, so the good news is I am a very happy gal! Both these problems are fixed in the new Lightroom 3 …

In this post Lisa Newton from Travelin’ Local and MLAPA looks at a great new service that merges Flickr with virtual mapping.

There’s a great new site I recently found, that makes the process of merging Flickr images with virtual mapping, much quicker and easier; and takes the entire process to the next level. Although I’m a big fan of Flickr, for a long time one of its major drawbacks was that I couldn’t embed Flickr maps.

That was then, this is now; you’re able to easily create embeddable maps by combining Flickr and Map Flickr, a “powerful tool to create an interactive map with geolocated images on it using the Google Maps and Flickr API.”

First things first, to use Map Flickr, you have to be a Flickr member first. Indeed, DPS recently had a wonderful new beginner’s guide to Flickr, so I hope you’ve already joined. BTW, a pro membership of Flickr isn’t required for Map Flickr, but for $25.00 per year, it’s a reasonable price if you’re a professional, or are involved with, downloading and storing a large amount of bandwidth for your photos.

In a recent post I showed you how to create a kaleidoscope using Photoshop. As one of the techniques for using a kaleidoscope, I suggested you could create a repeating pattern from it. One reader posed the question as to how a repeating pattern could be created given that there were spaces around the original shape. Today, I’ll show you how to solve the issue and, in the process, get a grasp on creating repeating patterns in Photoshop.

Step 1

Start with the finished kaleidoscope image document. If you didn’t see the original article, here’s a link to it.

Here at DPS, we’ve already covered how to use textures in your photos to give them a completely different look and feel, but now it’s time to get inspired and create your own textures – all around your house.

Finding Textures

I typically shoot landscape photography.  And when I’m shooting a landscape, I’m looking at the big picture – where the horizon is, where the sun is at, the reflection on the water – everything.  However, textures aren’t about the big picture, though, they’re about the detail.  And we’re not always used to looking at the details.  A wall for us is usually the background – or something that’s just in the wall. But walls can make for some great textures, like this:

When I first started using Gimp to edit my photos (because I couldn’t afford Photoshop), I remember getting jealous when Photoshop users would talk about the Actions they used to edit their photos.

While Gimp doesn’t have Actions, they do have scripts, and while there might not be as many Gimp Scripts as there are Photoshop Actions available, there are certainly enough to keep you busy for a while.

Finding Scripts

You can find the Gimp Plugin registry here.  This site contains scripts and plugins.  Plugins increase the fuctionality of Gimp somehow (like the ability to support RAW files), and scripts are like Photoshop actions – ways to manipulate the photos you are editing.  On the right hand side is a Keyword search.  Here you can search for the type of thing you’re looking for.  Want to add a watermark to all your photos?  Search for Watermark.  Want to make a vintage-looking photo? Search for vintage.

If you’re not really sure what you’re looking for but just want to be inspired, instead of doing a keyword search, try scrolling down on the front page until you see the Browse the Registry options.  Sometimes I’ll take a look at the tag cloud, which shows you popular tags that people use to describe their plugins/scripts.  Note: Scripts (as opposed to plugins)