The post Moving Forward on the Right Foot appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>(Note, this is an excerpt of an article that appeared in the January 2021 issue of Photoshop User magazine.)
I consider the catalog file to be the second most important component of the LrC system (with the first being your photos). The catalog file has a .lrcat (that’s LRCAT not IRCAT) file extension. This is where all the work you do in LrC is stored, along with all the information LrC knows about your photos. When it comes to the catalog file you need to know where it is stored and you need to keep it backed up frequently and consistently.
To make sure you know where your catalog is located, go to Lightroom Classic > Catalog Settings > General (PC: Edit > Catalog Settings > General), and you’ll see the location of the currently open catalog.
Ideally, this is exactly where you expected your catalog to be located. However, it is not uncommon for people to discover the catalog they have open is not at all where they expected it to be stored. If your catalog is not where you expected, or not where you want it to remain, then you’ll want to check out my article on moving your catalog to a new location.
Next, click that Show button to open the folder containing your catalog, and let’s take a look inside. Along with the .lrcat file can be several .lrdata files, which are supporting players to your catalog and contain some type of preview used in normal operation of LrC. If that catalog file is currently open in LrC you’ll also see some other files that automatically go away when the catalog is closed (notably the .lock and -wal files). That’s all fine.
Now, if you’ve updated to the latest version of LrC (currently version 10), then you may also see your old catalog file from when you were using the previous version of LrC. In my case, the file named Lightroom Catalog.lrcat is my old catalog. When I opened the new version of LrC I was prompted through the process of upgrading a copy of the old catalog and renaming the new copy to be used with the new version. In my case, the current (updated) catalog is named Lightroom Catalog-v10.lrcat. I’ve been using the new version without problem for a few months now, and have plenty of backup copies. I’m not going to go back to LrC version 9, so I no longer need the old Lightroom Catalog.lrcat file, and I will delete it to recover that disk space. Clearly, you need to be just as certain as I am about which catalog is which. This is why we started by looking at the name of the currently used catalog in the Catalog Settings dialog. Once you are sure, you can safely delete any old catalog files that you no longer need.
While we’re in this folder and looking at the name of the catalog, if you don’t like the name of your catalog, and want to rename it to something else, check out my article on how to rename your LrC catalog (and its supporting files).
Next, let’s ensure that catalog file is backed up on a regular basis. Head back to that Catalog Settings dialog, and note the Back up catalog drop-down menu at the bottom. I have mine set to prompt me to backup the catalog every time Lightroom exits. I don’t actually run the backup every time, but I do like to have the option and the reminder. This way, if I have done a lot of work I can exit LrC, then when prompted, click Back up, and if I don’t have time, I can click Skip.
Note, this prompt that appears when you exit is the only place where you can configure the location for the backup copy to be stored. I am a big Dropbox user, so I send my backup copy to be stored within my Dropbox folder. This ensures that my backup copy of the catalog is going to be synced to the cloud and my other computers automatically and quickly. If you don’t use a cloud storage service, then simply pointing that location to another drive is good enough.
Each time that backup process runs it creates a copy of your catalog at that moment in time in the location configured on that backup prompt, and then compresses it into a .zip file to save space. LrC never ever removes old backup copies of the catalog, so it falls entirely on us to periodically remove old backup copies to keep your drive from filling up. How many to keep? I usually just keep the most recent 3 or 4, and pop into that folder once a month or so to clear it out. If you ever needed to recover from a backup catalog you would go to the most very recent, not the one from 3 months ago, so out with the old and in with the new.
Word to the wise, I can’t tell you how often I encounter people who follow this exercise only discover the catalog they have open is stored among their backup copies. Don’t feel badly if this happens to you. You will want to follow my previous link for how to move your catalog to a new location though so that you don’t accidentally delete it when you are clearing out the old backup copies. The reason your working catalog seems to magically appear in your backup folder is LrC’s default preference for what catalog file to open when the program is launched. Here’s how to change that so you are making that decision and not LrC. Head over to Lightroom Classic > Preferences > General (PC: Edit > Preferences > General). In the Default Catalog section, if you have never changed this yourself, you’ll see that it is set to Load most recent catalog.
That means if you happen to open a catalog in your backup folder out of curiosity and then close that catalog (quit LrC), then the next time you launch LrC it will open the catalog in the backup location because it was the most recent catalog you opened. To avoid that fate, simply click the drop-down menu and choose the specific catalog you want LrC to open every time you launch the program. If you use multiple catalogs, then choose Prompt me when starting Lightroom to see a list of catalogs to choose from, and you are on your way.
Taking these simple steps, and re-checking in on your catalog throughout the year will help ensure you are in control of your Lightroom Classic experience, and help you avoid a lot of frustration.
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]]>The post Seven More of my Favorite Lightroom Shortcuts appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Let’s kick off this week by learning some really helpful Lightroom keyboard shortcuts. Here we go:
(1) To open all the panels in the left or right side panels, hold the Command-key (PC: Ctrl-key) and click on any panel. To close ‘em all back up, use the same shortcut.
(2) To have Lightroom show you exactly where your currently open image is found on your computer, press Command-R (PC: Ctrl-R) and it will open the original image in the Finder (Windows: Explorer)
(3) To play an instant slideshow of your current images in the Library module or the Develop Module, press Command-Return (PC: Ctrl-Enter).
(4) To apply an Auto White Balance to your image in the Develop Module, press Shift-Command-U (PC: Shift-Ctrl-U).
(5) To change the color of the Mask Overly from its default tint of red, press Shift-O (each time you press it, it toggle to the next color).
(6) If you’re cropping an image and feel likes it needs some straightening too, while you still have the Crop border in place, just hold the Command-key (PC: Ctrl-key) and your crop cursor will change temporarily to the Straighten tool, so you can drag the tool out over an area of your image, vertically or horizontally, that should be straight.
(7) To instantly see your image as a Black & White photo, press the letter “v” on your keyboard. If you want it back in color again, just press “v” again.
Hope you found those helpful, and here’s to a great, healthy, happy week ahead!
-Scott
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]]>The post Cool Tip From Gilmar On How She Uses Lightroom Gradients In Her Portrait Work appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>I like how she adds little things like negative Clarity to her gradient so the viewer’s eye doesn’t land in areas where she doesn’t want to you go.
Hope you have a fantastic Friday, a safe, happy wonderful weekend, and we’ll catch you next week!
-Scott
P.S. Today over on my blog is a cautionary tale about me being one-click away from being ripped off and losing my camera gear on eBay. Here’s the link if you’ve got a sec.
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]]>The post Using a Workaround for Sending Email appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>I don’t use this feature a lot as I usually share photos via a link to a file or folder in Dropbox, but every now and then, just attaching the photo to an email is the way to go. For whatever reason, there seems to be an issue with doing that from LrC on a Mac right now. At least for some of us, when using Apple Mail (I don’t have the problem when sending from LrC using gmail). If you are experiencing this issue, you can chime in on the Photoshop Community Forum too.
Thankfully, there is a simple workaround for this since LrC has no problem exporting. The issue seems to be in the handoff to Apple Mail. So, here’s what I did:
2. On the Export dialog, configure the file type, color space, and sizing, as I would if the built-in email function worked properly.
3. Choose a folder for where this exported copy will be saved. This is actually the nice part of the built-in email function is that it doesn’t need to leave an orphan file in some folder just to send the email. However, I figured out a workaround for that too, which I’ll share at the end.
4. Optional, since I was testing this I was sending the same photo each time, so I configured the Existing Files option in the Export Location panel to Overwrite WITHOUT WARNING, so it wouldn’t bug me each time. These copies are completely disposable to me, so all that matters is that the email gets sent. I’ll trash this folder entirely later.
5. The key setting to make this work smoothly is in the Post Processing panel at the bottom of the Export dialog box. Click the After Export drop-down menu and choose Open in Other Application. Then, navigate to the Mail.app in the Applications folder and select it. This way the exported copy is automatically handed off to the Mail app as part of the Export.
6. Once you’ve configured everything as desired, click the Add button and save these settings as an export preset. This makes this process almost as good as the built-in function (the only exception being leaving the copy behind in that folder as part of the process).
Then, in the future, just select your photo, then go to File > Export with Preset, and choose the export preset you just created. The copy of the photo will be created based on your export settings and appear attached to a new email message, ready for you to fill out and send.
What if we could make all of that happen with just a keyboard shortcut? Would be cooler, right? What if we could also automate the deletion of the exported copy as part of that process too? Even cooler!
Since this is a Mac-specific issue in this instance I’m going to share a Mac-specific solution as well. I have long been a huge fan of an app called Keyboard Maestro (I have zero affiliation and fully paid for my copy myself). Keyboard Maestro is an amazing automation utility that can do way more than I even know how to do with it, but one thing that I use it for is to create custom keyboard shortcuts for LrC.
So, using Keyboard Maestro, I created a custom keyboard shortcut that simply triggers the File > Export with Preset > [myexportpreset] command.
Now all I need to do is select the photo I want to email, hit the shortcut I created, and the photo instantly appears in a new email message. Nice! However, since Keyboard Maestro can do so much more, I added another step to the macro that pauses a few seconds and then trashes the folder where these email attachment photos are being dumped by LrC. This way I no longer have to worry about these orphan copies, AND, this workaround is just as good as the built in email function.
I’m sure whatever bug in the works will eventually get fixed, but until then, I can just keep on going. Hope that helps anyone else in the same situation.
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]]>The post Lightroom’s Hidden Conditional Smart Collections Feature appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>It’s hidden alright, and I had forgotten it was even a ‘thing’ (even though I had written about it in my Lightroom book), but it’s the hidden ability to create conditional situations when creating Smart Collections. Here’s how you reveal these features.
Above: here’s the standard ‘Create Smart Collection’ window with a few of its standard choices.
To access these extra ‘conditional’ features, hold the Option key (on Mac) or the Alt key (Windows) and the + sign at the far right (where you add a new collection criteria) changes to a pound sign (#) as seen above right.
Above: Now you have a few pop-up menu on the left where you can choose conditional actions when creating your Smart Collection. There ya have it. Pretty sweet little hidden feature.
Hope you found that helpful. I look forward to seeing a whole bunch of you tomorrow as I kick off the Travel Photography Conference.
-Scott
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]]>The post Next week our “Travel Photography Conference” Kicks Off appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>The conference itself is Wednesday and Thursday of next week, but it kicks off a day early on Tuesday with a special pre-conference session I’m teaching called “What makes a great travel photo?” I’ve got such a great session put together for this pre-con — I can’t wait to share it with the folks who’ve signed up.
Give the trailer above a quick look (it’s only like 2 minutes or so), and then go sign up right now — it’s going to be an amazing few days with an incredible team of instructors from all over, and you’ll learn a ton (there are a number of sessions on Lightroom and Photoshop for travel photography, including a session I’m doing on “Travel Photography Special Effects.”
Here’s the link to sign up, and we’ll see you next week!
Have a great weekend, stay safe and healthy, and we’ll catch ya back here next week.
-Scott
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]]>The post Deciding Between Lightroom Classic and Lightroom appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>In the years since this change both applications have continued to gain new camera/lens support, interface tweaks, and new features. It does not appear that either one is going away, and that leaves us with choices. It is nice to have choices, but it can also be frustrating and confusing. I often get asked about which version people should choose, or I see people confused about the version they have, and they want to understand the differences. Here are my thoughts.
Note, in an effort to be clear about which program I am referring to I will refer to Lightroom Classic as LrC and Lightroom as Lr (as shown on their icons) from here on out.
There are a lot of things I love about both versions of Lightroom, but we all have different needs, gear, experience, time, etc., to factor into which application will best suit our needs in the short term and into the future. This is where it gets tricky, and there is not a one-size-fits-all answer. To me, I think it is most helpful to understand the key differences between the applications as you consider what is most important to you and your workflow.
The most important benefit to using Lr, indeed the entire core of its reason to exist, is that it stores every photo (and video) you import into it in the Adobe cloud so that you have full access to the original photos from any device you pick up. If you are the type of person with a phone, a tablet, a laptop, and a desktop computer, and you are frequently moving between those devices, and you love the idea of being able to access your entire photo library from all of them, then this is a pretty compelling feature.
Once you go all in on the cloud, then you are able to leverage the advanced machine learning technology Adobe is employing to help you find/access photos based on their contents (not manual keywording) as well as its facial recognition abilities for finding photos of specific people in your life.
Adobe has taken a lot of the lessons learned from people using Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) and LrC for over a decade and applied that knowledge to making the new Lr easier to use. It has a much simpler interface, a reduced feature set (no additional modules for slideshows, books, and printing), and all the same editing power* as LrC and ACR.
*Technically, there are still some editing features that have not made it into Lr yet, like Range Mask and tighter integration with Photoshop, but I suspect that it is just a matter of time before we see those small differences get resolved.
But the biggest make or break decision you have to come to terms with is do you want your entire photo library in the Adobe cloud or not. If you have any hesitation at all, then perhaps LrC is a better choice for you. If that is not a problem, and indeed a benefit, then maybe Lr was designed with you in mind.
There are two key Creative Cloud subscription plans that someone making this decision would want to consider. There is the Photography Plan, which has been around for 5 or 6 years now, which includes LrC, Photoshop, and Lr, but only comes with 20GB of cloud storage. This plan is $9.99/month (here in the US), and as far as I know, it requires an annual commitment, so let’s just call it $120/year. The other plan is called the Lightroom plan, and that too is $9.99/month (also annual commitment, so $120/year), and it simply includes Lr on all of your devices and 1TB of cloud storage.
So, if you have less than 1TB of storage needs and don’t need/want Photoshop, then the subscription cost is the same. You can examine the plans more closely here (and there are additional features of both plans).
However, if you want Photoshop or if you have over 1TB in storage needs, then the costs may start to shift in favor of the Photography plan, or if you want it all, then you might consider what I think of as the hybrid plan, which is the Photography plan with 1TB of cloud storage, which is $19.99/month. This gives you all the apps of the Photography plan and the same amount of cloud storage of the Lightroom plan. You can also purchase additional cloud storage with either plan.
I’ve written about how to use LrC and Lr together with just the 20GB of cloud storage, but having 1TB of cloud storage opens up additional workflows and gives you greater flexibility, though with obviously greater cost and honestly, greater complications to navigate.
One the face of it LrC undoubtedly has more features than Lr, so if you are just tallying them up, LrC wins. However, I can’t tell you the last time I used the Web module, so how much value is a feature you never use? This is where the calculus gets very in the weeds and very personalized. You may have feature needs that I do not, and vice versa.
What matters most is arguably the editing and organizational tools in each program, and then I would put in ease of use, efficiency of workflow, and output/export options. I’m sure there are other considerations, but the longer the list the more personalized it is to our own needs, and I guess that is my point. It’s personal.
All that said, LrC still wins for me in this regard. LrC simply has more features in every way you can measure, is more friendly to a high efficiency workflow, and has more output options. This isn’t in any way meant to be a dismissal of the value or features in Lr, it is just a simple accounting of what is there right now.
However, if what matters most to you is the ability to access/find, view, edit, and share any photo from your entire library from any device you own, then all the features in LrC don’t matter so much because Lr makes it so much simpler to do just that.
What I’ve written here is basically the conversation I’ve had these past 3 years with people from all skill levels and experience with photography who are trying to navigate this decision. Because nothing in this equation is static, this is an evolving discussion, and I truly see great value in both options.
I would be happy to continue the conversation further with anyone in the comments, especially if you want to dive deeper into some of the nuances of the features. I’ve also written about the different paths one could take to migrate from LrC to Lr or from Lr to LrC, as well as how to use both together, so make the best choice you can for today, and reach out for help as you move forward.
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]]>The post How To Update Your Lightroom Copyright Info For 2021 appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>So, here’s how and where you update it:
STEP ONE: Go to the Library Module; go under the Metadata menu and choose “Edit Metadata Presets” as shown here (by the way — even if you don’t have a Copyright template in place, you can use this same menu to create one, so still choose Edit Metadata Presets to get started).
STEP TWO: When the Edit Metadata Presets window appears (shown above), choose the name of the preset you want to Edit, and it displays your copyright template info (as seen).
STEP THREE: Go to the IPTC Copyright section, and click on the field to the right of Copyright (as shown here), then just type in 2021 right over where it previously said 2020. If you’re creating your first Copyright template, just go ahead and type in the IPTC Copyright and Creator Fields info (as seen here).
STEP FOUR: Once you’ve updated the date, it’s time to save you new preset by going to the pop-up menu at the top of the window and choosing “Save Current Settings as New Preset.”
STEP FIVE: This brings up a small dialog where you can enter the name for your New Preset (as seen above).
STEP SIX: If you don’t have any old 2020 images you haven’t imported into Lightroom yet, then you can delete last year’s preset if you want (you won’t be using it again if you’ve already imported all your images from last year), so if you want to delete it (totally up to you — you don’t have to), just choose the 2020 Preset from the pop-up menu; then go to the same pop-up menu and choose Delete Preset “2020 Copyright” (or whatever you named it), then click the Done button.
Hope you found that helpful.
-Scott
P.S. We’re less than 10-days from our first online conference of the year — the “Travel Photography Conference” and the day before I’m doing a pre-conference session for anyone registered for the conference on, “What makes a great travel photo” — that kicks off a week from Tuesday, and I hope you can join us. Tickets and more info here.
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]]>The post The January 2021 Issue of Photoshop User Is Now Available! appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>The January 2021 issue of Photoshop User is now live on the KelbyOne site and KelbyOne Mags for iOS and Android.
By the way, don’t forget that we have moved all the Lightroom content from Lightroom Magazine into Photoshop User, so it’s now “The Magazine for Lightroom and Photoshop Users.” Plus, Photoshop User now comes out every month!
In this issue, learn how taking advantage of Content-Aware in Photoshop can be a recipe for success, plus using the Transform panel in Lightroom Classic to correct distorted perspectives in landscapes, creating neon text effects in Photoshop with layer styles, adding nondestructive depth-of-field and lighting effects for more dramatic images, a brand-new column by Ibarionex Perello called “Visual Storytelling,” and so much more!
This issue’s cover image by Fernando Santos (aka Chicky Nando)!
KelbyOne Pro & Plus members have access to more than 85 back issues of Photoshop User magazine all the way back to January 2012, plus all 64 issues of Lightroom Magazine. Not a Pro or Plus member yet? Click here for more information.
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]]>The post A Few Things To Tidy Up at Start of Year appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>As long as you know where your working catalog is located, then now is a good time to open the folder containing the backup copies that Lightroom Classic creates, and delete the oldest ones. I usually keep the most recent 3 or 4 in case I need them.
I direct my backup copies to be stored in my Dropbox folder so that they are automatically synced to the cloud for an additional layer of backup. So, I just open that folder. Select the oldest copies, and send to the Trash.
While I keep the majority of my photo library on an external drive, I have always found it easiest to store recently imported photos on my internal drive so that they are accessible for editing even if that external drive is disconnected.
I also use a date-based folder structure that is automatically created by LrC during import, but then I simply rename folders after import to contain more descriptive information. This date-based structure makes it easy to move folders to the same structure on my external drive. I start by using the filter at the top of the Folders panel to show only folders named 2020.
Then, with all other folders hidden from view, I can just select the folders on my internal drive and prepare to drag and drop them to the visible 2020 folder on the external drive.
Once the folders are moved, I can clear the filter to show all folders again.
This allows me to manage the disk space on my internal drive to ensure it doesn’t run low on space.
This may not apply to you if you don’t use date-based folders, but it is good to know how to create a new folder right from within the Folders panel.
Just right-click the parent folder under the drive you want to create the folder on, and choose Create Folder Inside … from the contextual menu.
Then, enter the desired name for the folder in the dialog box that appears and click Create.
I’ve written about this little Copyright Status tip before, so since I have that smart collection created, I can just click on it to see its contents. For me, this smart collection catches all of the photos I import through one of the Lightroom cloud apps, since the ability to apply copyright info in those apps is limited. Basically, it allows you to only populate the Copyright field and none of the other fields.
Then select all photos in that smart collection, and apply my existing metadata template.
Once the metadata template has been applied, those photos no longer meet the criteria for that smart collection and are gone from there.
Of course, this is also a good time to update your metadata template with the new year. Hoping for better things for us all in the new year.
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