Happy Friday, everybody. OK, this one is a simple fix, but I think it would speed a lot of folks workflow who use the Lens Connection panel (I use it almost daily, and numerous times a day — for me, this is one super-important panel). Here we go for #6 on my list:
#6: Simplify the Lens Correction Panel
Don’t take stuff away. Don’t hide it. Just don’t make us toggle back and forth between FOUR different tabs within one panel. With that many tabs it’s like its own mini-program within a program. There’s no reason these can’t be simplified into just two tabs. Take a look:
Above: You can combine the first two tabs: Basic and Profile. Combining these two into gives you the most gain, because once you turn on the camera profile (by the way, the same checkbox to turn it on appears in TWO of the four tabs as it is), then you have to switch to a different tab just to use the Upright Feature. By combining these two tabs into just one tab, you can now turn on the Profile Correction and use Upright without having to jump tabs. Then there’s this:
Above: Combining the Color and Manual tabs into just one tab and removing the 2nd instance of the Constrain Crop checkbox (yes, it appears in two separate tabs in the same panel), you’re now down to just two tabs total, without losing anything. Two less tabs to jump back and forth between means a faster workflow.
BONUS: By putting everything in just two tabs, you increase each feature’s “discoverability” so people who didn’t even realize that there’s an entire Defringe section, now will  (otherwise, many just turned on the “Remove Chromatic Aberration” checkbox and left it at that.  By the way — that checkbox appears TWICE in the same set of four tabs as well. That’s three checkboxes that appear twice in different places within the same single panel. Just sayin’.
OK, that’s another that seems like “low hanging fruit.” No math. Just User Interface stuff that makes our lives easier and our workflow faster, and it helps Adobe in getting people to find features they may not have know even existed. It’s all good.
Hope you all have a great weekend, and have a safe, and happy Memorial Day Weekend!
Best,
-Scott
P.S. If you missed our show “The Grid” on Wednesday, I showed the Lightroom editing I did on that fashion image that I did that went to the #1 spot on 500px.com with a 99.9 rating (whoo hoo!). Here’s the link to the episode — the Lightroom post processing part starts at around the 23:05 mark (you’ll be amazed at how easy it is).Â
There is a simple item I would want for the next version of Lightroom (as I do not see it in this version). I want the option to add a panorama or HDR photo merge to the stack.
There is a setting for this on HDR Efex and if I bring it to PS, then I get it on a stack. If I do the photo merge inside Lightroom, I do not get it inside a stack. If there is an option i am missing (which is entirely possible) has anyone found it?
I like to put all the images for a photo merge into a stack inside of Lightroom as it makes less cluttered display in my mind.
anyone has a problem after conversion db (catalog) from LR 5 to LR 6?
I have!! 🙁
Why Adobe permanently changing LR catalog (db) ?!
LR CC is my current sw version… and shooting a sony a7 ii, using a metabones adapter, the lens info isn’t even making into the camera lens settings.. .which is a real loss…
any way to fix this on the LR end, or is it just going to be manual going?
thx
Top of my head, I’d like to see two things in Lightroom 7.
1. Support in-camera tagging (as in lock icon with Nikons)
2. Faster culling of photos. LR is dead slow at the moment
In the export menu, I’d welcome an option for applying a digital frame to the image (similar to how a watermark is applied). Please!
I would like Lightroom mobile to support ColorTRUE so the colors displayed on my iPad are the same as those on my (calibrated) iMac. My Colormunki Display can also calibrate iPads but only with apps that support ColorTRUE.
Good series, but lens “connection” panel?
Personally, I’d really like to see Lightroom have a better UI to deal with selective adjustments (brush, radial, etc.). Like Capture One, or even to a certain extent like Aperture used to have, I’d like to see blocks or layers for each adjustment that you can easily see, turn off and on, and ideally that you can name. If Adobe is at it, it would very well allow for these layers to support multiple blending modes. Not sure if Apple will ever do this, since by increasing the value of Lightroom, it challenges Photoshop. But this would make the whole selective adjustment much more usable in my opinion. Comments? anyone else finds this relevant?
This is one time I can’t agree … that would make me got to two tabs to perform basic lens correction and remove basoc chromatic aberation. That’s something I do on nearly all photos.
If you do this on nearly all photos (like I do), then I suggest you apply those settings on import to save you some time.
Thanks, streamlining is so important. I’d love to see a “favorites” panel and an “analytics” program that really does look at where we genuinely spend the time and what we click on most often rather than what we think we spend our time doing. That could reveal a new layout for the menus, potential customizable panels, really helpful presets/actions. Wouldn’t it be great if over time our “favorites” panel gradually got better and better and became a one-stop-shop for the bulk of our Lightroom time?
Thanks for the series, Scott. I’m so happy with LRCC as it now has just about everything I need, so it is reorganization and streamlining that I’m looking for.
This is by far one of the lowest of low hanging fruit. It cleans up the interface, simplifies it thus making it more functional. For those of us doing a lot of editing, a “simple fix” of this panel would be VERY WELCOME. Great idea Scott, sure hope Adobe is truly listening in on this series.
Love this suggestion, so hope Adobe sees this and implements in a future update.