4 Signs That it's Time to Start From Scratch In Lightroom

It’s inevitable. Every time I teach a seminar or workshop I have some one approach me with a catalog problem. It’s usually gotten so bad for them that they’ve sworn off Lightroom by this point because of it. Unfortunately, my advice isn’t something they want to hear but it’s really the best advice I can give them – Start from scratch in Lightroom. Sometimes it’s just more work to try to go back and fix things. That being said, here’s 4 signs that it may be time for you to start from scratch in Lightroom. Before you get mad at me though, I’ve also included links to videos that I’ve done over the past couple of years that talk more about organization and catalog management in Lightroom. They also talk about how to move photos into other catalogs so starting from scratch isn’t really starting from scratch – you’ll still get to save your settings. So I’m not just telling you to start from scratch but hopefully leaving you with a little bit of information on how to make your Lightroom life easier.

4 signs it’s time to start from scratch:
1. You started using Lightroom and just started importing your photos from all over your computer and external hard drives (basically where ever you could find them at the time). You were excited right? I don’t blame ya. But there was no real organization to the process and now its a mess – you feel like you’re constantly seeing little question marks telling you the file can’t be found and you have no idea where your photos really are.

2. You eventually got the hang of this “catalog” thing but only after you’d imported thousands of photos in haphazard ways. So now your catalog is half organized and half chaos. Almost like #1 above but not quite as bad – but still bad.

3. You started using Lightroom 2 and created a new catalog to import your photos into because you were afraid to commit and upgrade your catalog at the time. But eventually you upgraded your Lightroom 1 catalog to Lightroom 2. Now you have 2 catalogs and don’t really know why or which one you like more. All you know is that there’s 2 and you wish there were one.

4. You have 2, 3 or more catalogs in Lightroom because some one told you to create multiple catalogs. Now you hate it and find yourself really only using 1 catalog most of the time but don’t know what to do about the others you created. Or worse yet, you’ve imported photos from those other catalogs into the main one you like so now they’re in two places.
(note: I’m not saying multiple catalogs is a bad thing. I’m only suggesting that having multiple catalogs and not using them them is)

As promised, here are a few videos that talk more about catalogs, and folders, and organization and all that fun stuff:

• Lightroom Folders and Hard Drives

• Moving Between Laptop and Desktop

• Merging Multiple Lightroom Catalogs

• Organizing Photos By Date (and why not to)

• Moving Existing Folders

• Where to store your photos in Lightroom

Finally, do me a favor and leave a comment with your thoughts on the topic. What kind of catalog issues/problems do you have (if any)?

Tip – Exporting Photos with Last Settings

Here’s a neat little tip I use a lot so I hope you will too. If you want to export some photos and use the same export settings you used the last time, you can bypass the Export dialog and just go to File > Export with Previous. Better yet, memorize the keyboard shortcut Cmd-Option-Shift-E (PC: Ctrl-Alt-Shift-E), and it will automatically export the photos using your last settings. Like I said, its a little tip but it’s one I use all the time. Thanks for stopping by this week and enjoy your weekend!

Lightroom Q&A

Its time for another round of Lightroom Q&A’s. Keep the questions coming.

Q. When I export images sometimes I export to 640 x 480 for web viewing. The problem is that the images that were shot using a vertical orientation are exported as 360 x 480 instead of 480 x 640. Is there a way to export a ‘mixed’ group of photos to a custom size yet retain the original aspect ratio?

A. That’s because by setting 640 x 480, you’ve essentially set a max size for the height of the image at 480 right? So it couldn’t do 480×640 because that would be going against what you’ve set as a max height. So if you want 640 to be the max width and 640 to be the max height, then set both width and height to 640. Lightroom won’t give you square images (640×640) but rather use 640 as a max setting for each side.

Q. Do I have to leave the Develop preset file on my desktop after I import it? Or is it saved in another location?

A. I gotta admit, I’m surprised this questions hasn’t been asked before. I always tell people to download the presets to their desktop and then importing them from there. So do they live on the desktop then? It does, after all, make a little sense that they would but they don’t. When you import them into Lightroom they actually get copied to Lightroom’s preset folder. So its safe to delete them from your desktop.

Q. Are you going to do a bootcamp for the Lightroom ACE Exams at KelbyTraining.com?

A. Probably not. There haven’t been many of requests for it. But hey, things can change.

Q. I have now started experimenting with DNGs in Lightroom. One problem though the files end up twice the size of my raw file. Is there a setting in Lightroom I am missing?

A. Yup. I wrote a DNG post a few weeks back and talked about the whole DNG thing. Basically, there’s a setting in Lightroom’s Preferences dialog (Lightroom > Preferences on Mac / Edit > Prefs on PC). If you go under the Import tab, there’s a setting to Embed Original Raw file. If you choose that then your files will double in size rather than get smaller. Just uncheck that option as its redundant and you should be good to go.

Q. This one came from a post about the Lightroom 2 Exam Aid, the other week. “If I’ve gone through the Lightroom classes on Kelby Training and have read Kelby’s Lightroom 2 book… would the Exam Aid still be a benefit or would it be fairly redundant”?

A. Here’s the thing about Adobe ACE Exams (I’ve taken many so I can fairly say this). They tend to test you on what they WANT you to know about a product, rather than what you know about a product. Now I’m not saying that’s bad. They have to be complete if you’re going to get to call yourself an ACE after it. You need to know your stuff, but as authors (of books and DVDs) we don’t have to be complete. We feel our job is to try to distill Lightroom down into what we think you need to know. Otherwise, we’d create a reference book which we don’t. So going through some one’s book or DVD means you’ve learned their workflow and what they use – but not everything. That’s where you’ve got to download the free exam bulletin from Adobe and at least look through it. If at that point you feel you need more help, then I’d turn to the exam aid.

That’s it for this time. Have a great day.

Preset – Wedding Grain Effect

Holy cow! It’s February, and more importantly my birthday month It’s also preset day and I’ve got one that’s been asked for quite a bit since I started making presets. It has to do with a “grain” effect and it deals with the new Grain setting in Lightroom 3 Beta. BUT WAIT!!! If you’re not a LR3 Beta user don’t worry. The preset itself still looks cool and still works in Lightroom 2 (it just doesn’t apply the grain). Depending on the photo, the settings still bring out a little graininess in the image so its not a total loss. Anyway, take a look at the before and after by clicking below. It definitely is a nice effect with or without grain and I think it looks good on portraits as well as all the other wedding stuff (shoes, dress, table settings, rings, etc…). Let me know what you think.

To install:
1) Unzip the preset zip file on to your desktop
2) Go to the Develop module. NOTE: YOU MUST BE THE DEVELOP MODULE
3) Go to the Presets panel on the left. Right click anywhere in it and choose Import.
4) Select the .lrtemplate files you unzipped in Step 1 and click Import NOTE: DO NOT IMPORT THE ZIP FILE

• Click here to download the preset.
• Click here to see a sample of the preset.

Video – Monitor vs. Printer Calibration

Hi all. A while back I created a video on the non-Lightroom (but still very important) topic of calibration using a hardware calibration device. From what I can gather out there, a lot of photographers have heard the message loud and clear – use a hardware calibration device. I don’t really care which one, just use one. However, from being out on the road I have seen a bit of confusion surrounding what type of calibration you need. There’s monitor calibration to create a color profile for your screen, and there’s printer calibration to create a profile for your printer. Which do you need? Watch the quick video I created to see.

Click here to download the video to your computer. [Right-click and choose the "Save As" option]

Tip – Naming Your Presets

If you haven’t noticed yet, your Presets panel in the Develop module can get outta control pretty easily. I know that I’ve got over 100 presets and the list still grows. Some I use all the time and some I just keep around to use once in a while. Now, whether you create your own presets or you download them from the web, the one thing we have in common with each other is they all have different names. So here’s a couple of suggestions to help keep things tidy:

1) Since your presets are sorted alphabetically, the A’s come first right? Well, if you put numbers in front of your presets then they’ll appear first (at the top) in the list. So if you have presets you really like and want to see them at the top then put numbers in front of them.

2) If you’re like me you have presets that do the same thing but with different settings. For example, I have white balance presets for each white balance setting in the Develop module. If you name them by their original names (Cloudy, Daylight, Shade), then they’ll show up all over the place in your preset list. Instead, try putting the words “White Balance” in front so your preset name would look like “White Balance – Cloudy” or “White Balance – Daylight”. That way they’ll all stay together in the list under “W”. In this example image I have presets that remove the color saturation in all colors except for one. You can see how naming them appropriately helps out.

By the way, I never really told you how to rename an existing preset. All you have to do is right-click on the name and choose Rename. That’s it

Video – Upgrading to the Process Version in Lightroom 3

This week I wanted to tackle a tiny setting in the Lightroom 3 beta that you’ll want to be aware of. It’s called the Process Version. Even if you’re not using the LR3 beta, this will eventually come into play in your life in the full version of LR 3 when it comes out, as well as Camera Raw.

Click here to download the video to your computer. [Right-click and choose the "Save As" option]

Lightroom 2 Exam Aid is Out

For those of you that like to keep your Lightroom certifications up to date, you’ll be happy to know that the Lightroom 2 Exam Aid is out from examaids.com. The LR2 exam was released back in November 2009 and the folks over at exam aids have since put together another one of their preparation packages for the exam.

I’ve mentioned this before, but if you’re serious about taking the exam, the Exam Aids (coupled with the exam prep guide from Adobe) are the best resources to prepare with. I know its an extra cost but trust me, these prep exams can potentially a) save you time when preparing because you’ll have a better grasp of what you know and don’t know and, b) save you some money on retests because you’ll be better prepared to take and pass the test the first time.

Now, I realize that the Lightroom 3 Beta is out and you may be wondering why worry about the Lightroom 2 Exam. Well, if history is any indicator, its taking about 15 months or more for the current ACE exam to come out. So if you want to stay current, taking the Lightroom 2 exam is about the closest you’ll come.

Here’s the link to check it out.

Video – DNG and Auto-Saving Changes

Well everyone, after this week I think we will have successfully beat this DNG thing into the ground. It’s all good though. I think the topic is worth a little extra time. Anyway, I realized there was one question that came up a lot. It deals with if/how/when Lightroom will save all of your edits to the DNG files and where those edits get saved to. After trying to write out a long explanation I figured we could cover a lot more ground in a video.
Enjoy and have a great weekend!

Click here to download the video to your computer. [Right-click and choose the "Save As" option]

The DNG Follow Up Post

First off, thanks for all of the conversation in the comments on the DNG article the other day. I wanted to post a follow up to give some more thoughts and answer a few questions?

For starters, I have to say there were more DNGers than I thought. I didn’t go through and count each one but it felt like a 40/60 split (DNG/Not DNG). Based on my experience at workshops and seminars, that’s more pro-DNG than what I’ve been used to. And that’s a good thing. Don’t get me wrong. Even though my post talked about some reasons people don’t use DNG and I admitted that I don’t convert to DNG, doesn’t mean I’m not a fan of it. More on this at the end of this article though. Let’s start the Q&A:

Q. Was that Tom Hogarty I saw commenting? Isn’t he the Lightroom product manager for Adobe?

A. Yep, but he’s also the DNG product manager. When it comes to DNG Tom is the man. He wrote a pretty detailed response to each of my reasons that’s worth reading. Just look through the comments from the original post and do a search for Tom’s last name and you’ll find it. Tom also wrote about this on his blog a while back. You can read more here.

Q. Matt, you wrote “And Lightroom doesn’t automatically update the DNG file if you make changes. You still manually need to go to the Photo menu to save the settings.” Isn’t there a setting in Lightroom to automatically save your changes?

A. This question came up quite a bit. The easy answer is yes, there is a setting that will let you write your changes automatically to the file. Its in the Catalog Settings (Lightroom menu on Mac, and Edit menu on PC). But this option is off by default. So if you’re editing DNG files in Lightroom don’t be fooled into thinking that your changes are being saved automatically. Just like raw files, you either need to turn this option on or manually save changes in the Photo menu (Cmd/Ctrl – S).

Q. I understand the “Convert to DNG because you never know what happens 50 year from now” argument, but somehow don’t buy it.  My understanding is that Adobe is the company that maintains DNG: What if they are no longer around?

A. Good point. All the more reason why DNG should become an industry standard. Don’t quote me on this, but I’m pretty sure that Adobe would submit the DNG format to become an industry standard. If this happened they’d probably lose significant control over what happens with the format. Lots of other industries use standards (Pharmaceuticals for example). Without a common document exchanging standard of some sort, they’d face chaos. Imagine if one company changed their documents. Every single company that they dealt with would have to adapt and change their software to account for the change. So by having a standard, everyone’s life is better. Same goes for raw formats. If there’s one standard that the raw files have to follow (say, DNG) then everyone’s life becomes easier.

So if DNG became an industry standard, it would live on even if the company that created did not.

Q. Does DNG work with Capture NX2?

A. Nope, Capture NX2 doesn’t work with DNG. I’m not sure this is a good reason not to use DNG though. Here’s the thing. How many programs do you really need to edit your photos? You’re reading this blog which probably means you’re a Lightroom user. Then use it. You paid for it. Things like D-lighting and picture controls and things like that are all in Lightroom and Photoshop in some way, shape or form.

One more thing. Please don’t turn this into a Capture NX2 debate in the comments. If you use it and you’re happy, then go for it

Q. OK Matt, DNG seems like a no-brainer. Any reasons not to use it don’t really seem to apply to you. So what gives? Why won’t you start using DNG?

A. Good question. One of the folks who wrote a comment made a prediction that I’d be converting to DNG before long and I think that’s a good bet. I’ll keep you posted if/when it happens.

Thanks again for all of your feedback.