The post The Most Misunderstood Word in Lightroom appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>After wrapping up my Lightroom tour, I can pretty much tell you there’s no other word or concept that’s more confusing. Here’s why:
Lightroom Classic:
When you hit the “Import” button it doesn’t move your images inside Lightroom. It doesn’t import your photos — you’re just using Lightroom to “Manage” your images — it makes thumbnails of your images, but it doesn’t move them. Your images never move — if they’re stored on an external hard drive, that’s right where they remain. Even if you’re importing from your memory card — your images don’t go into Lightroom — they go onto your hard drive: Lightroom just makes thumbnails for them and lets you manage them after they’re imported onto your hard drive.
It shouldn’t say ‘Import.’ Maybe it should be “Manage.”
Lightroom CC (the cloud-storage version of Lightroom)
Here’s the weird twist — in Lightroom CC it doesn’t say “Import.” It says “Add Photos” (see below):
That’s fine, except for one thing — this version of Lightroom actually does ‘Import” your photos. They do move. They leave your computer and go up to the Cloud. If you import photos from your camera, they go up to the cloud, too. Import works here’s because your photos are moving into Lightroom’s cloud, but instead it says ‘Add Photos.’
Dear Adobe:
Help new users. Switch these terms. Import belongs in CC, and Add Photos (or “Manage” or some other more descriptive term) belongs in Classic.
Whichever one you use…
I hope this helps you to have a better understanding of what’s happening with your images once Lightroom comes on the scene.
My humble thank you to the community
Last Wednesday my wife Kalebra was involved in a serious traffic accident. A young driver turned directly in front of her and hit her nearly head-on. She was rushed to the hospital with neck, back, and chest injuries. They ran a battery of tests (Cat scans, X-rays, etc.) and it doesn’t look like there’s any permanent damage, but she’s in pretty rough shape. She has lots of contusions and bruises, and she’s in a lot of pain. I was in NYC for Photo Plus Expo when I got the call and I took the next flight home. They did release her from the hospital and she’s at home now, but she’s still in a lot of pain.
Of course, I wasn’t able to teach my Advanced Lightroom workshop at the conference, but I’m very thankful that my buddy Matt Kloskowski stepped in at the last minute to the teach the workshop (and save the day) and he did a kick-butt job (which honestly was no surprise). Thank you, Matt!!!
Also, once the word got out that I had to miss my workshop for a “Family Emergency” (and my session at Westcott’s booth, and my Book Signing at Rocky Nook, and my keynote presentation at the Lucie Technology Awards), so many friends and colleagues reached out, and we’re both so grateful. Thanks so much for all your prayers, good thoughts, and offers to help — we were both really touched. Kalebra is on the mend — it will just take lots of rest, but we feel so blessed and so grateful that it wasn’t worse. Her car was destroyed and if you saw the photos, you’d know how lucky we are that she and our super doggo Maki, (who was in a pet harness in the back seat) are all OK.
Here’s to a much better week, this week!
Best,
-Scott
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]]>The post Fixing Family Photos in Lightroom Classic appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>If you’ve been using Lightroom for a long time then you may have some photos that were originally imported into a much older Lightroom catalog, and then that catalog may have since been upgraded over and over to the latest version. For example, I have photos that were originally imported into Lightroom 1, and then that catalog has been upgraded to each subsequent new version since. However, while the catalog itself is upgraded to the new version Lightroom does not change the processing applied to these older photos, so photos imported and processed (or not processed) into a Lightroom 1 catalog would have the original Process Version used at the time.
The reason this is important to know is that as Lightroom has evolved so has the Process Version. When Process Version 2010 was introduced it brought improved sharpening and noise reduction algorithms. With Process Version 2012 we saw some old adjustments evolved (Brightness, Recovery, Fill Light) into new ones (Highlights, Shadows, Blacks, and Whites). The most recent update to Classic 8.0 brought a new process version (Adobe switched from naming process versions by year to just numbers, so we’re now up to Version 5) with improvements to negative dehaze and some high ISO images. To get the most out of Lightroom’s current suite of tools you want to be using the latest Process Version when you tackle these old photos. Newer adjustments, like Dehaze, won’t even work with the older process versions.
Looking at this photo from 2001 you can see a few clues as to the Process Version applied to a photo. First look in the Histogram panel and if you see a lightning bolt icon Lightroom is telling you this photo is using an older Process Version. If you look in the Basic panel and see the older adjustment sliders that is another clue. The same would be true if the local adjustment tools were only showing older adjustment sliders, or if Dehaze was grayed out.
You can upgrade that photo to the new Process Version by clicking the lightning bolt icon, which will open the Update Process Version dialog box.
Here you can update the selected photo, or even all photos in the Filmstrip. It is recommended to only update one photo at a time to get a feel for how this can change a photo, but if you are dealing with a lot of previously unprocessed photos, then you may just elect to update all of them at once. Note, you don’t need to update the process version just because it is new. I only do it if I am re-editing an old photo to gain the benefits of a newer process version.
Alternatively, clicking the Reset button will reset the photo to the current default settings, which does include the current default Process Version. You can also change the Process Version using the drop-down menu in the Camera Calibration panel.
You may also want to consider the Profile being used, as that can have a big impact on the color and contrast of the initial rendering of the photo. Many of my oldest family photos are in JPG format, but there are lots of profiles that work on JPG photos now too. Besides there is plenty Lightroom can do to adjust a JPG, but you will not have the same latitude for adjusting white balance, recovering highlights, or dealing with noise as you would with a raw original. Regardless of file type, open up that Profile Browser and see if there is one to your liking.
With your Process Version updated and potentially a better Profile, I often find that a lot of older photos are vastly improved with a good crop. Cropping can remove distracting elements around the edges, can be used to straighten lopsided photos, or maybe you just need to change the aspect ratio to fit the print size you want to make. It is also worth noting that the Histogram reflects the area within the crop, so cropping out an area with blown highlights will change the Histogram accordingly. For example, here’s a photo of me and my son gazing at each other. The photo is totally crooked, full of noise, poorly exposed, and has blown highlights, but I love it. This was taken back in 2001 on our first digital camera (a 3 MP Kodak), so the file size is small and the noise is high even though it is only ISO 400. I don’t care so much about the noise, but let’s see what a little cropping can do.
Pressing the R key is the fastest way to jump to the Crop tool, but you can also click its icon under the Histogram panel. Because this photo is so crooked my first move is to click the Auto straighten button to see if Lightroom can automatically straighten it out, which will also crop the photo as part of the process. With one click I straightened the photo and mostly cropped out the blown highlights in the upper-right corner, which resulted in a tighter composition on the most important elements in the scene.
For good measure I applied a B&W profile to finish the job.
These days digital cameras have a built-in means to determine which orientation the camera was held when the photo was taken, which writes this information into the photo’s metadata so that programs like Lightroom can automatically rotate the photo to display it correctly. However, this was not true of early digital cameras, and if you scan through Grid view of the Library module and come across photos laying on their sides you can easily rotate them all together. Just select all of the photos that need to be rotated the same amount in the same direction while in Grid view. Hold the CMD key (PC: Ctrl) to select non-contiguous photos, or hold the Shift key to select the first and last photo in a continuous row. Once selected, click the correct rotational arrow that appears on the thumbnail, or choose the desired option from the Photo menu, to quickly rotate them all at once.
The only time I seem to reach for the Red Eye reduction tool is with those old family photos taken at parties and holidays when the camera just gets passed around to family members, which over time can be some of the most fun photos you have. Lightroom’s Red Eye Correction tool doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut, so you’ll have to click its icon under the Histogram panel to enable it. Once enabled, click and drag from the center of the red eye and then release the mouse once you get outside the eye. Lightroom automatically attempts to detect the red and apply a correction. You can then use the Pupil Size and Darken sliders to refine the adjustment. Once I’ve done the first eye I usually just click on the second eye to use the same size circle I created previously.
Our pets are people too, so don’t let a demonic dog or cat ruin an otherwise memorable keepsake. With the Red Eye Correction tool enabled, click the Pet Eye tab in the panel to switch over to the new feature added in Lightroom CC. The original Red Eye Correction tool doesn’t work on the yellow eyes we see in our dogs and cats, but this new addition can improve the situation. It isn’t perfect, so don’t expect miracles, but it can tone down a laser yellow eye to save the photo. The Pet Eye tool will only let you adjust the Pupil Size after the correction is made, so you can’t darken it any further. However, it does have the option to add a catchlight, which can give life to what otherwise may look like a dead black hole after the correction.
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]]>The post Intermediate-level Lightroom Classic Start-to-Finish Tutorial appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>OK, onto Lightroom. I’ve got another intermediate-level Lightroom Classic Start-to-Finish tutorial for you — hold on to your hats — we cover a lot of ground in this baby (including dealing with a pretty major camera mistake on my part). I think you’ll learn a lot (plus, at the end of the video there’s an invitation to take one of my free full-length Photoshop online courses for free).
Hope you found that helpful.
Have a great weekend, everybody!
Best,
-Scott
P.S. On Monday I’m in the Detroit area with my new “Photoshop for Wedding and Portrait Photographers” seminar, and then Philadelphia on Tuesday. Hope you can come out and spend the day with me.
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]]>The post The October Issue of Photoshop User Magazine Is Now Available appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Also in this issue, learn all about Photoshop CC 2019, which was just announced at Adobe MAX. Jay Nelson walks us through all the new features, and then Scott Valentine takes us on a deep dive into the new Content-Aware Fill workspace.
We’re also launching four brand-new columns in this issue based on our recent reader survey.
“Effects Toolkit” by Unmesh Dinda
“The Perfect Selection” by Mark Heaps
“Shortcut City” by Gilmar Smith
“Photoshop Q&A” by Dave Cross
KelbyOne Pro members have access to more than 60 back issues of Photoshop User magazine all the way back to January 2012, plus all 44 issues of Lightroom Magazine. Not a Pro member yet? Click here for more information.
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]]>The post Edit Capture Time in Classic appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Step One: Select the photos you want to correct in Grid view of Library module.
Step Two: Go to Metadata > Edit Capture Time to open the Edit Capture Time dialog box.
Step Three: Choose the desired type of adjustment.
Step Four: Make the adjustment and verify the corrected time is accurate.
Step Five: Click Change All to make the correction.
In my case I used the Shift by set number of hours option, and dialed in – 2 to correct for the time difference between the east coast and mountain time.
If you had incorrectly set the camera’s date/time you would select the first option, Adjust to a specified date and time, and then enter the correct date/time for the active/most selected photo that shows in the dialog box. Lightroom will use that information (the difference between the capture date/time in camera and the corrected date/time you enter) to adjust the date/time by the correct amount for all selected photos. This should also work if the time zone difference was 30 minutes instead of an hour, such as if you travelled from India to Bhutan (is that right, Mel?).
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]]>The post October 2018 Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC Release appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Lightroom Classic is still front and center in my workflow (though I do love Lightroom CC on mobile a lot), and I’m glad to see Adobe is maintaining their commitment to keeping it updated with new features, camera support, and bug fixes. I think it is safe to say that the days of splashy new versions packed with new features every 18 months are behind us. Instead we’ve gotten new features, camera support, and bug fixes every two months. This update does come with a new version number, but it is an incremental growth over version 7.5 in keeping with the pattern we’ve seen throughout the year.
The process version is the secret sauce for processing our photos, and this is something that should continue to evolve and improve. Process Version 5 will be the default for newly imported photos from now on (until it changes), and it brings improvements to image quality in high ISO raw photos and an improvement to the rendering of negative Dehaze. I’m not really one to use negative amounts of Dehaze, but comparing the same amount of Dehaze to a photo using Process Version 4 (top) to the new Process Version 5 (bottom) does show an improvement in retaining color and contrast for the same slider value.
You can change process versions via the Camera Calibration panel to test it for yourself. Current photos with older process versions will not be changed by Lightroom. You can change them manually if you wish, but you do not have to do this. You’d only change the process version of a previously edited photo if you want to leverage the new features added to the latest process version. I’ll probably only do this in rare cases to old photos, but I see no problem moving forward with Process Version 5 as the new default.
Ever since we gained the ability to merge to HDR and Pano within Lightroom I’ve shot a lot more HDR and panoramas, often just to create higher resolution images of more typical aspect ratios (as opposed to the true panoramic aspect ratios). If the situation seems to call for it, and I have time, I’ll even shoot for HDR and panorama at the same time. While the merge to HDR and pano functions made it relatively easy to first combine all the brackets into HDR images, and then merge all the HDR images into a pano, it has just gotten so much easier. Now all you need to do is select all the frames from your HDR pano, then right-click one and go to Photo Merge > HDR Panorama (or via the Photo > Photo Merge menu).
Classic takes them all into the new HDR Panorama Merge Preview dialog, where you can select a projection, perform boundary warp, auto crop, auto settings, and stack all the images together. Note, if you need to use Deghosting you’ll want to do it the old way and merge each HDR bracket individually so you can control the Deghosting settings (this dialog does not apply any). Clicking merge saves out the final HDR panorama. This will save me a lot of disk space by skipping the individual HDR image stage.
If you have a dual lens iOS device that can create HEIC photos with embedded depth map data, then you can leverage the new option added to Range Mask in the local adjustments (Graduated Filter, Radial Filter, and Adjustment Brush). The camera in Lightroom CC for iOS gained a new Depth Mode as a tech preview during the last update, which allows you to create those types of photos right in Lightroom CC. Everything created in my Lightroom CC app downloads to my Classic catalog automatically. Selecting one of those photos, I can apply a local adjustment, then choose Depth from the Range Mask drop-down menu.
This will reveal the new options associated with this type of mask. Due to the depth information contained in this photo, I can now limit the range of the mask based on that information. This provides a whole new level of control. I’ll have to explore this in a tutorial for another day, but from what I’ve seen so far it is very promising!
Note, you’ll only see the new Depth option when a photo with depth information is being edited.
Some much needed attention has been given to the tethering experience for Canon. If you are a Canon shooter and shoot tethered you should see greater overall stability and an increase in transfer speeds. Adobe has stated that similar improvements are coming for Nikon in a future release. Here’s a link to all camera’s currently supported for tethering. The Canon EOS M50 and the Rebel T7 have been added in this release. They’ve also updated the online user guide for tethering to include new options for Canon shooters.
New things came to Lightroom CC for Mac, Win, iOS, and Android too.
The new Share tab makes it easier to access all of your shared albums, whether you’ve created them here in Lightroom CC, Lightroom Classic, on mobile, or even within lightroom.adobe.com.
The new Connections tool at the top of the Shared tab gives you the ability to create a connection with your Adobe Portfolio, and easily share albums to it. Adobe promises to continue to develop this feature to add connections to other online services (such as printing).
In the My Photos section of the left panel is a new People view tab. Leveraging the Adobe Sensei powered search, imported/synced photos are now analyzed for faces, and photos of the same person are grouped together to make them easier to find. At the time of this writing it was still crunching through my photos, so I look forward to test driving this when it is done.
[Edited to add: It looks like it is taking a little while for the indexing of people to complete, so have some patience if you are still seeing the screen below – Rob]
The search also gained a new autocomplete feature that can suggest various bits of metadata (keywords, locations, camera, lens, ISO, etc.) based on what you have typed so far.
I didn’t even realize this wasn’t already included, but Lightroom CC’s local adjustment tools now have the Color swatch for hand coloring/tinting your photos as part of the adjustment.
If you’ve used Apple’s Photos app, and want a way to migrate your photos out of there and into Lightroom CC, you now have that functionality. Located under the File menu.
The same People view and search improvements have been added to Lightroom CC for mobile devices as well. In addition, there are a few new guided tutorials (under Settings). The HDR capture on Android has also been improved.
iOS and Android also gained access to improved display options when sharing your albums to the web. On a shared album, tap the tri-dot menu and tap Share to Web. Under Share to Web tap Display to access options for changing the theme, appearance, entering author info, and filtering what photos appear based on flag or rating.
New camera support and new lens support has also been added across all applications. Adobe Camera Raw is also being updated to version 11, so keep your eye out for that update as well. There’s a lot to absorb, and remember that the apps become available on a rolling basis, so if you don’t see it yet, just give it some time. Updates for mobile can take longer due to App store approval process.
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]]>The post Lightroom Classic’s Hidden “Swipe Between Images” Feature appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Here’s where you turn it on:
You turn this feature on in Lightroom Classic’s Preferences; click on the Interface Tab, and the checkbox to turn this feature on/off is at the bottom of the window: “Swipe between images using mouse/trackpad.” (as seen above).
Hope you find that helpful.
Going to Adobe MAX next week?
I’m teaching a class on their Career Track called “How to Present Like a Pro” and I’d love it if you came by. This isn’t the same stuff you read about presenting on the Internet — I’ll be sharing concepts and ideas and tips and tools I haven’t seen shared by anyone anywhere. I promise — you’ll super-dig it. I’m teaching the class twice — once each day, and I already have over 1,100 people signed by,j so come by and spend an hour with me — I’ll make it worth your while.
Going to Photo Plus Expo in New York City?
If you want a free Expo Pass to the Photo Plus Expo in NYC later this month, I can hook you up. Use this link to get in the Expo for free (or you can get 15% off a conference pass using the same link), or you can even sign up for my “Advanced Lightroom Workshop” I’m teaching at the expo, too. Hope I see you at the show in NYC. https://l.feathr.co/PPE18_Scott-Kelby-O
Have a great weekend everybody. I’m off to LA on Sunday — hope to see you at Adobe MAX.
Best,
-Scott
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]]>The post Adobe Camera Raw for Lightroom Classic Users: Part 2 appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Both Classic and ACR support the saving and using of editing presets. In Classic, this panel is found on the left side of Develop, while it is found on the right side in ACR. Back in April Adobe released updates for Lightroom Classic (7.3) and Camera Raw (10.3) that changed where presets are stored so that both programs look to a shared location. Adobe also changed the format of Classic presets to .XMP so that they’d be compatible with ACR. With both programs sharing the same location for presets you should now see the same presets in both applications. Likewise any additions, removals, renaming, etc. you make to presets in one program will be reflected in the other (after a program restart).
I do think Classic does make it easier to perform batch editing on photos as it is designed to be more efficient in this regard, but it is possible to batch edit in ACR. If you open multiple photos into ACR you will see a Filmstrip appear on the left side, while in Classic the Filmstrip appears along the bottom.
To sync settings across multiple photos in ACR you’d edit the selected photo, then select the other photos you want to sync in the Filmstrip. Click the pop-up menu at the top of the Filmstrip to access Sync Settings and open the Synchronize dialog box. Here you can check only the settings you want to sync and then click OK to perform the sync.
The parallel option in Lightroom works in a similar way, except the Sync button appears on the bottom of the right panel group.
In the pop-up menu at the top of ACR’s Filmstrip you may have noticed the options for Merge to HDR and Merge to Pano. This is a powerful way to select relevant raw photos (depending on how they were captured originally) and merge them into an HDR or Pano version that ends up as a fully editable DNG file. Lightroom has this same ability, but it is found by selecting the relevant photos and going to the Photo > Photo Merge menu. The results are the same, but the route to get there is not easily discovered to new users.
Due to Classic’s use of a catalog (database) to manage your photos it has the ability to create additional sets of editing instructions for photos, and these are called Virtual Copies. These only exist in the Lightroom Catalog but can prove to be a very useful way to create multiple different versions of your photos. ACR does not support virtual copies because it doesn’t use a catalog. However, both programs support the creation of Snapshots, which is a way to preserve different editing states right within the photo itself. In Classic, the Snapshot panel is found on the left side, while in ACR it is nested among the tabs on the right.
One thing to note is that snapshots can be written to XMP metadata, so it is possible to work in Classic, write to metadata, and then open that same photo in ACR and have access to all snapshots. This also works if you create a snapshot in Classic (among other things), then use the Photo > Edit In > Open in Photoshop as smart object menu, and then double-click the smart object layer to open it into ACR (more on that below).
In ACR, when you are finished all of your edits you have a few options, you can click one of the buttons along the bottom of the interface to determine what happens next:
In Classic, all the edits you make are written to the catalog as you work, so there is no done or save button. If you need to abandon your edits completely, you can click the Reset button to go back to the default settings. If you wish to continue editing in Photoshop, you would go through the Photo > Edit In menu and choose the desired option. If you have no need to edit in Photoshop, but you want to save out edited copies, you would go to File > Export to access the Export dialog (very similar to the Save Options dialog in ACR) where you can configure your desired output parameters.
An important note for Classic users to keep in mind is that if you start with a raw photo and choose Photo > Edit in > Open as smart object in Photoshop, a copy of the raw photo with Lightroom settings is embedded in a smart object layer of the new TIF (or PSD based on External Editing settings) file. While in Photoshop, if you double-click the smart object to edit the embedded raw photo it will open in ACR, not Lightroom. Since this is a new copy, this won’t affect the original raw photo back in Lightroom. Just be prepared to continue your editing in this new interface.
While the editing and rendering ability of ACR and Classic is the same, and they contain a parallel set of editing tools, there are some key differences to be aware of before you jump into the one you are least familiar with.
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]]>The post Lightroom Classic Beginner’s Tip: Getting Rid of the Text Overlay appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Today we’ve got a beginner tip but one I see folks using a lot, and when I ask them if they like having this text overlaying their image, their answer is usually, “Not really — but I don’t know how to get rid of it.” Well, here how to get rid of it:
Here’s that text I’m talking about — it appears over the top left corner of your image in the Develop Module by default.
To get rid of it, press the letter “i” on your keyboard and it goes away. You might have to press it twice to toggle through the three options: (1) Shows the date and time your image was taken, along with its dimensions in pixels. Press it again (2) and it shows more Metadata stuff like f/stop, shutter speed, ISO, lens info, etc. And (3) it turns it off.
If you like the text overlay, but you just don’t like the particular info it’s displaying, you can customize which info it displays — press Command-J (PC: Ctrl-J) to bring up the Develop View Options. You can turn the overlay off here if you like – just hit that checkbox at the top to turn off the overlays. So, you can use either this checkbox or press ‘i’ a coupla times until that overlay goes away.
Hope you found that helps.
Worldwide Photo Walk Group Shots from around the world over on my blog today!
Here’s the link – hope you’ll check it out.
Best,
-Scott
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]]>The post Three of My Favorite Lightroom Classic Shortcuts appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.
]]>Here’s one from the vault, but it’s a handy one – these are three of my favorite, quick little Lightroom shortcuts. Nothing really earth-shaking, but just really useful bread-and-butter stuff worth knowing. Here’s what they are, and why I think they’re so handy:
Hope you found that helpful.
-Scott
P.S. I’ve got some tips today on how to make the most of tomorrow’s Photo Walk over on my daily blog at scottkelby.com – Here’s the link if you’ve got a sec (well worth checking out). Plus, I’ve got two videos on how to use the Playpod Ultra and Max there, too.
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]]>