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RadLab Assistance Please

mcurtt

mcurtt

give me all the paleo brownies
Joined
Jan 2, 2015
Messages
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Hi all, I purchased RadLab a month ago or so when they had their 50% off sale. For those RadLab users out there, would you share your process with me about getting them into Photoshop? What I’ve found is that I have to open a photo as its own file in Photoshop, use RadLab on it, decide which variation I want and then pull it into my layout. But if the layout has multiple photos, how are you matching them? Are you just assuming that the same recipe will work overall? What I’ve been experiencing is that I’ll choose a recipe, pull it into Photoshop and it just doesn’t match as well as it could. I’ve got to be missing something here… I work in CS5, on a laptop.

Thank you.
 
Did you purchase actions? or lightroom setting? I only have the actions, and have to run each photo separately, and then adjust to suit.
 
AnneofAlamo said:
styles? oh Marilyn, are you sure it isn't actions?
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I wasn't sure what it was called, so I looked back at what I purchased. They are calling them stylets. I have a little itty bitty icon at the bottom of my tools panel that I click on and up comes the photo and all of the recipe options. I click on what option I like best, save it and then pull it into my layout.
 
AnneofAlamo said:
goodness, I have no idea, I'm sorry.
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Anne, I think this is a case of "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Whatever they call them, I get variations of my photo to select from, and then tweak it and then pull it into my layout. It seems a bit awkward for me, only because I don't have a double monitor that I'm working on, just my laptop where I can't really look at the layout for color variations before I select my Rad Lab option. I guess I'll just have to dink with it more, and like you said previously, adjust to suit. Thanks for your comments.
 
I got actions, I pull up the photo and hit run.......zooom, end results. but that being said, the peeps at RadLab love to teach too. You might buzz them.
 
RadLab is a plug in, so I think if anything its a mix of a style/action, lol!

You can open the images in your psd file, and run RadLab within Photoshop. If you don't like it, undo it. The recipe will only effect that particular layer. It will look funny in the preview because it will show the whole layout, not just the single picture. You can save your recipe as you work, then apply hat recipe for each additional picture. Does that make sense? You can also do it individually as a seperate psd file for each image. Once you like the recipe, save it. You can then apply to all images. Again if you don't like it or find another prettier recipe, you can just reset to original, and apply the new recipe you like. Is this making any sense? I am having issues communicating today!
 
Anne, RadLab is like running 75 actions at once, and then before it's all done, you can customize and save the changes you made. After RadLab came, I stopped using actions mostly. :) @AnneofAlamo
 
mcurtt said:
Anne, I think this is a case of "a rose by any other name would smell as sweet". Whatever they call them, I get variations of my photo to select from, and then tweak it and then pull it into my layout. It seems a bit awkward for me, only because I don't have a double monitor that I'm working on, just my laptop where I can't really look at the layout for color variations before I select my Rad Lab option. I guess I'll just have to dink with it more, and like you said previously, adjust to suit. Thanks for your comments.
Click to expand...


You might be able to make the RadLab Menu smaller when editing so you can put see the layout too! I can't remember. I'm on a laptop too. Usually, I run, tweak, and finish. If I don't like it, I click back to undo (or original), and do it again. When I do like it, I save and use that to move forward.
 
jk703 said:
RadLab is a plug in, so I think if anything its a mix of a style/action, lol!

You can open the images in your psd file, and run RadLab within Photoshop. If you don't like it, undo it. The recipe will only effect that particular layer. It will look funny in the preview because it will show the whole layout, not just the single picture. You can save your recipe as you work, then apply hat recipe for each additional picture.
Click to expand...

I'm going to have to try that out. I think I freaked when I saw the preview and it looked like it was affecting the entire layout. Maybe it wasn't... It would make sense to work in the layout if at all possible, so it would all match. Thanks for the tip!
 
The undo button is the best! I usually layer a number of the actions and play with the sliders too, especially if you're looking for something to use on a more artsy layout.
 
I don't use it, I use their presets in Lightroom (Totally Rad) so I'm not help!
 
I use RadLab on every picture I edit. I LOVE it.

I will tell you how I use it, which of course may not work for you at all.

I open the picture or pictures I want to use in my layout. I use the RadLab plugin to edit BEFORE adding to my layout. I do not use any pre-made recipe downloads. Instead, I just kind of start from scratch with each layout. Though, I do have styles I use more often.
- Lights On
- Oh Snap (sharpens)
- Warm It Up Kris (adds an earthy tone or makes a black and white photo look sepia)
- Boring Black and White
- B******’ Black and White

I definitely use others but these are my favorites. I like that I can adjust the levels to get each style applied appropriately for each photo.

To get cohesive photos for a layout, I edit one picture. Then, when I open RadLab on the next photo, I go to Recipes instead of Styles. The edits I did on that first photo is the top “recipe” on the list. I made need to tweak the adjustments just a bit to make it look best, but usually not a ton.

Hope this helps.
 
GlazeFamily3 said:
I use RadLab on every picture I edit. I LOVE it.

I will tell you how I use it, which of course may not work for you at all.

I open the picture or pictures I want to use in my layout. I use the RadLab plugin to edit BEFORE adding to my layout. I do not use any pre-made recipe downloads. Instead, I just kind of start from scratch with each layout. Though, I do have styles I use more often.
- Lights On
- Oh Snap (sharpens)
- Warm It Up Kris (adds an earthy tone or makes a black and white photo look sepia)
- Boring Black and White
- B******’ Black and White

I definitely use others but these are my favorites. I like that I can adjust the levels to get each style applied appropriately for each photo.

To get cohesive photos for a layout, I edit one picture. Then, when I open RadLab on the next photo, I go to Recipes instead of Styles. The edits I did on that first photo is the top “recipe” on the list. I made need to tweak the adjustments just a bit to make it look best, but usually not a ton.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...

This is EXACTLY what I do as well :) And almost the same styles I use most often haha. That B*** Black and White is my fav! And yes to the adjusting levels!

But I do the same when I have more than one photo to edit...I do one and then do the same thing to the next and then tweak it.
 
I use radlab almost exclusively on my photos. I create my 12x12 page, then open my photos in PS. I edit them with RL first before copying and pasting them to my LO.

This is how I use radlab.

Open a photo. Decide what kind of processing I want on it. I have saved my own stylet recipes i.e. basic, basic pretty (which has a bit of darker contrast and smoothing), layout finish, indoor, etc. If I am going to apply one of my own stylets, I just have to click on the action I made for it that will run it on its own layer, add a mask and then I can erase off any of it if I want or reduce overall opacity. It takes about 15 seconds. Love it. I can also automate in photoshop to apply the same process to multiple photos but its so fast to just click on Filter>Last filter, that I just do that instead. Then I can see each photo as it processes and tweak the opacity/masking before going on to the next photo. So, by selecting Filter>Last Filter (from top menu) it applies the same settings to all subsequent photos.

Hope this helps you.
 
@mcurtt Marilyn - I do what Jenn said (I use it in all my layouts too). I'll create my own recipe for a situation, save it and then apply it to all the other photos (I did that with all the pics on my Day in the Life LO).

If I need to tweak it, you can do that because RadLab will list all the steps in a recipe once you've applied it.
 
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