Hey folks! Here’s another Q&A day for ya. Keep the questions coming.

Q. Why does it take so long for Lightroom to export JPEGs? Is there any way to optimize or speed this up?
A. You know, if I were asked this a couple months ago, I would have said you were outtaluck. But I read about a cool tip on Scott Kelby’s blog that Lloyd L. ChamberÂ’s (Macintosh Performance Guide) found. Here’s a direct link to what Lloyd has to say and his time-saving tip for exporting lots of JPEGs.

Q. Every time I import my photos into lightroom and watch them in the Library-Module, Lightroom is always adjusting the brightness or color of my photos, without me doing anything. Is my Lightroom broken?
A. When you Import your photos, Lightroom is first showing the embedded JPEG that comes with it. Sometimes that embedded JPEG has been slightly processed by the camera and that’s what you’re seeing first. But if you’re shooting Raw, then Lightroom renders the file for a moment and reverts the preview to the raw data once its done rendering. Kinda weird I know, but that’s what is going on. And no, your Lightroom is not broken.

Q. Matt, I LOVE your presets. You rock and are the coolest, best looking, most awesomest guy on the planet. OK, you got me! The actual question didn’t say that 🙂 Real Question: Is there a way to decrease the opacity of a preset you apply in the Develop module. Almost like applying a filter in Photoshop on a separate layer and decreasing the opacity to lessen the effect?
A. No, there’s no Opacity slider for a preset. The only thing you can really do is figure out what is too strong about the preset that you’re applying and lower that setting. For example, let’s say the preset you apply significantly warms the photo. If you knew that, you could go to the temperature slider and reduce the warming. But that’s really about it and it does entail you knowing specifically what it is you don’t like about the preset. Cool idea though! Sounds like a great feature request 🙂

Q. When I export to JPEG from Lightroom, it is a 16-bit JPEG File. MPIX (or any lab) requires an 8-bit JPEG. I can’t figure out how to export as a JPEG and to change from 16 bit to 8 bit in the same export.
A. Actually, JPEGs don’t support 16-bit so when you export as a JPEG you’re automatically converting your photo into an 8-bit image. You don’t have to change any settings to do it.

That’s it for today. Have a good one!

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