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Lightroom Classic CC Version 8 is Here …

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… and we’re not sure why.

Lightroom Classic CC Version 8

Lightroom Classic CC Version 8

Lightroom Classic CC Version 8 Splash Screen

Adobe is branding this as a full version update of Lightroom Classic. However most of the updates and changes are under-the-hood improvements with a few important, feature specific improvements. Since this release coincides with the start of the 2018 Adobe MAX conference, we assume the marketing department wanted to have a bigger sounding headline. Nevertheless, these updates are welcome and demonstrate Adobe’s ongoing commitment that Lightroom Classic CC isn’t going away.

Given the total number of updated features and bug fixes we thought it best to give you a review what we feel are the four most notable improvements. The laundry list, with short notes, of everything else is at the bottom of this post for those interested in more details about this “major” release.

And, unlike previous major releases, version 8 will not upgrade your current catalog by creating a new “-2” catalog. Your catalog and its name will remain unchanged.

Luminance Range Mask

If you have been using the new Range Masking features, you’ll appreciate this useful update. The Luminance Range Masking panel now includes an eyedropper tool for faster sampling of a single point or a range of luminance. Along with this added feature, there is now a “Show Luminance Mask” checkbox. This shows a preview your luminance mask selection against a monochrome version of your photo.

Lightroom Classic CC Version 8

Luminance Range Masking Now Includes an Eyedropper and Mask Preview

Depth Range Mask

Lightroom has added Depth Range Masking support for HEIC format images. HEIC is a new format which we expect will slowly replace the JPG format. The HEIC format has a lot of advantages, least of which is the ability to record how far away objects are from the camera.

This version of Lightroom will be able to read that information which will allow users to be able to select the different depths and selectively apply local adjustments. Depth Range Masking will work the same way Luminance Range masking works, with an eyedropper to sample points and similar set of sliders.

Currently, the only cameras that use depth range information are Apple iPhones shooting in the Portrait mode (7+, 8+ and X’s). Read more about this feature here.

Negative Dehaze Improvements

Ever since its introduction, the Dehaze slider has been hugely popular! It was initially designed to help compensate for the perceived effect of humidity/moisture in the air. However, the actual effect is so dramatic that many users love to use the slider to quickly punch up their images.

In this release, significant improvements have been made to Dehaze when making negative adjustments (moving the slider to the left). These changes are reflected in something called Process Version and Adobe has updated this release to Process Version 5 (PV5). In PV4, negative Dehaze adjustments would make an image appear to have an overall milky haze. In PV5 we see a notable change with contrast, color and details far better preserved. Positive Dehaze slider results remain the same.

Negative Dehaze is Improved in Lightroom Classic Version 8

Using Negative Dehaze Slider Settings No Longer Add a Milky Haze

Improved Tether Support for Canon

Professional photographers will appreciate that the Lightroom development team have been working on a complete overhaul of the tethering features, to be released in future updates. That said, Adobe has decided to throw some direct support  to only Canon users for the moment. With this version, Canon users have improved tethering, faster performance and shorter time between capture and loupe view of images with improved reliability with less hanging or crashes. Nikon’s tether performance enhancements (as well as support for other cameras) will be in upcoming releases. We expect to see additional improvements and features for tethering in the near future.

Adobe has released more details on tethering support here.

Now, for the Version 8 Laundry List …

New camera support

The new Nikon Z7 and Canon EOS-R mirrorless cameras are supported in this release. For a full list of camera raw supported cameras click here.
Updated Lightroom/ACR Lens correction support 

Process Version Update

There is now process version 5. With significant improvements made for high ISO RAW files and the Dehaze slider. Negative Dehaze slider adjustment results are improved, making for better perceptual changes. High ISO files show less color aberration and improved shadow detail.

Single Step HDR Panorama Merge

This is a great addition for photographers who shoot Panoramas and use multiple exposure HDR techniques for expanded range of tone. As a result, this feature simplifies the merging and stitching process into a single menu item. Read more about this feature here.

Video and Slideshow Library
These are under-the-hood performance updates that should improve usability.

Playing AVI files on macOS
Older AVI format video files will now open and play in a pop-up window.

HEVC Support for macOS 10.13 or higher
Support has been added for new HEVC (High Efficiency Video Coding) video format being used by Apple on newer iPhones.  Read more about this feature here.

System Requirements Update – Not supported in Lightroom Classic version 8:

  • MacOS 10.11.x
  • Windows 8.1
  • Windows 10 v1511 and v1607

Read more about Lightroom system requirements here.

New Licensing Library

You must be logged in to the Creative Cloud to use the program in this and all future versions.

Compiler Upgrade on macOS and Windows

This relates to performance optimization – hopefully we will see some more speed improvements with this version!

Jeffrey Freidl (or other) Lightroom Plugins

If you have any of Jeffrey’s excellent Lightroom plugins (or other third party plugins), you may have to update them to work with this version.

Click here for Adobe’s “What’s New” page with full notes

Click here for Adobe’s official blog post on the Lightroom Classic CC version 8 release

3-2-1 Backup Strategy

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The Number One Reason to Backup Your Photos!

“About half of all computer users either know someone or they themselves have recently lost photos or data.”

After two completely different experiences this year, one of which happened just this week, I’m writing about why backup of photos (and other files!) is so critical. Actually, to be safe, you’ll want to have three copies: one on your computer, one on a backup drive locally (in your location – traveling with you, home, office, etc.) and one in the cloud (AKA online). It’s called the 3-2-1 backup strategy and you can read more about it here.

What We Do to Keep Our Photos and Files Safe

Don't fall for quick backup strategies

NOTE

Before leaving on any trip, I always copy my important workshop files to my laptop from my desktop computer and create a backup to a Time Machine drive that I take with me. My wife follows the same routine. We shut down our respective computers at home and unplug them as a matter of practice. So far, that’s one copy on the laptop, one on Time Machine. Two copies, both local.

Backblaze to backupWe also have all of our computers, laptops and desktops, backed up to the cloud with Backblaze as an additional precaution. Backblaze is automatic and backups happen in the background while we work (just like Time Machine on Macs). We never have to consciously do anything; it’s a set it and forget application that works on both Macs and PCs. That’s three copies now: a belt, suspenders and a safety pin. With this much backup, what could go wrong?

Plenty, if I only had the first two copies.

Unexpected Disaster

The first time was in Paris in April (sounds romantic, doesn’t it?), shooting reference photos for a children’s book. I could never have imagined that both my external library drive and my Time machine drive could fail in the same day but fail they did. And I have the bad habit of reformatting my memory cards after they’ve been backed up to Time Machine. Duh. My photos were gone!

Backup your photos

So, without getting into the details of what exactly happened, this would have been a disaster (not to mention unprofessional) without a cloud backup. To make this potential misfortune even worse, the subject of the shoot was a crotchety 91-year-old toy repair man. He wasn’t about to let me take over his shop yet again, I’m sure of that. I located the photos on Backblaze and downloaded them to a new set of drives. Cloud backup to the rescue. Catastrophe #1 averted.

Workshop Files Not Transferred

Restoring from Backblaze backup

This week and next I’m in Doha, Qatar, doing research for a future photo tour, while my wife, Vicki, works at the American School here. In our rush preparing for the trip, the wrong workshop folder went to Vicki’s laptop while the correct folder remained on her turned off and unplugged home computer. From our hotel in Doha, a simple login to Backblaze gave access to her backed up files. Catastrophe #2 averted.

Moral of the Story

Catastrophic failures happen.

Both David Mark Erickson and I cannot emphasize to our readers just how important it is to use the 3-2-1 strategy. We recommend Backblaze because of its reliability, reasonable price and set it and forget it simplicity. But it doesn’t matter which cloud backup program you decide to use, no matter where in the world you may be, as long as you have internet, you have access to that third copy of your files. That means if your computer is lost or stolen (especially while traveling), you still have your photos and data.

Note: Lightroom Guy is a Backblaze and Amazon affiliate. We receive a commission when you make a purchase through one of our links, but it doesn’t cost you anything while helping support Lightroom Guy.

How to Export Photos for Instagram from Lightroom Classic CC (2018)

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Instagram
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic CC

As we work with our clients, one issue that continues to come up, with ever increasing frequency is: How to Export Photos for Instagram from Lightroom Classic CC. So, I figured it would be a good idea for us to put up a post that covers the basic settings. To make this easy for you, I’ve created a set of workflow instructions and essential export presets that you can download and install on your computer (Mac and PC).

In Lightroom Classic CC, there are two steps to exporting an image to use on Instagram: cropping and exporting. And yes, there is a plugin which will allow you to upload your images directly from Lightroom to Instagram (called LR/Instagram). However, some folks like to do things manually! So, immediately below are all the current, baseline settings you need to know to export photos for Instagram with detailed explanations and instructions.

Crop Settings

  • Square
    Aspect ratio (1:1)
    Pixel dimensions [1080 x 1080]
  • Portrait
    Aspect ratio (4:5)
    Pixel dimensions: [1080 x 1350]
  • Landscape
    Aspect ratio (1.91:1)
    Pixel dimensions [1080 x 566]

Export Settings

File type: JPG
Color Space: sRGB
Quality slider: 76
Resolution: 96ppi (minimum)
Output sharpening: Screen/Standard
[Note: there is a lot of debate about sharpening so, user discretion is advised]

Export Presets

Download our Lightroom Guy Export Presets which include the basic export settings for square, portrait, and Landscape. Installation instructions are provided at the end of this post.

A quick note and general disclaimer: there are thousands posts about this topic on the internet with lots and lots of discussion about what the current best settings are. As well, Instagram continues to silently change their standards. So, what is true today may not be true tomorrow! This article only discusses posting photos to Instagram, not videos or Instagram Stories.

Workflow

A basic Instagram workflow would roughly look like the following:

  1. Shoot
  2. Import to Lightroom
  3. Select then Develop
  4. Export to your Hard Drive
  5. Transfer to Mobile
  6. Upload to Instagram

Once you have a photo imported into Lightroom Classic CC you should proceed to developing the photo to your satisfaction. Remember to consider the “why” of your photo in order to help you develop it in such a way that it best shares your vision or communicates your point of view.

Your next step will be to crop the image in the Develop module.

  1. Lighteoom Classic CC Crop & Straighten tool

    Crop & Straighten Tool

    Open the Crop & Straighten tool in the toolbar above the basic panel.

  2. Lightroom Classic CC Aspect Ratio

    Crop Aspect Ratio Pulldown Menu

    Open the Aspect Ratio menu by clicking on the word “Original” and then choose:

    • 1×1 for a Square image
    • 4×5 / 8×10 for a Portrait
    • [Pro Tip: press the ‘X’ key to rotate the crop orientation]
    • 1.91 for a Landscape image*
  3. Adjustthe crop to suit your needs and then click on the “Done” button in the lower right corner of the Preview screen or click the Crop tool again to close the tool.

Now, for the Landscape image, [1.91:1] is NOT a standard ratio so we need to add it manually, if you haven’t done so already. Follow the video below to see how to enter a custom ratio.

Once you are ready to export, you can either use our Export Presets or you can make the selections manually.

Lightroom Classic CC Custom Aspect Ratio

Export Settings

Here are all the recommended baseline settings, along with a brief explanation for each.

Lightroom Classic CC Export Settings for Instagram

File type: JPG – At the time of this post, Instagram supports either the JPG or PNG file format. The default choice is JPG.

Color Space: sRGB – this is a big topic suffice to say that sRGB is the only choice you want to use for Instagram posts. In brief, Color Space refers to how many colors there are in a particular gamut. The easiest way to think about this as a box of crayons. A basic box of crayons may have only one shade of red, while another may have 5 or 6 different reds. sRGB is the widest and simplest box of crayons to use across the internet. Choosing a different Color Space could shift your colors in unexpected ways.

Quality slider: 76 – a lot of research has gone into this and 76 turns out to be the sweet spot in terms of image quality and file size. If you are interested in more info, the best research on this can be found on Jeffrey Friedl’s Blog.

Resolution: 96ppi (minimum) – At a minimum, you should be choosing 96ppi and many folks are currently recommending 144ppi to accommodate for the newer Retina screens. Either is fine.

Output sharpening: Screen/Standard – this is another point that engenders a lot of conversation. Once an image has been cropped and resized, the image can begin to look a little “mushy” or soft. A little bit of sharpening on the output stage can bring some life back to your image. Some people advocate for a “high” level while others say “standard” is best. Again, we recommend “standard” amount at a minimum.

Lastly, you should specify the actual pixel size of the image. The pixel width and height need to match the crop aspect ratio that you choose during the Develop process. We’ve done the math for you so here is the info again:

Square (1:1)
Pixel dimensions [1080 x 1080]

Portrait (4:5)
Pixel dimensions: [1080 x 1350]

Landscape (1.91:1)
Pixel dimensions [1080 x 566]

To enter the width and height manually, check the “Resize to Fit” option and choose “Width & Height” in the pulldown menu. You can then enter in the exact PIXEL dimensions that you want.

After you export your image you can then transfer it to your mobile phone to upload the image. There are several ways to do this, depending on what kind of phone you have. At a minimum, you can email the photo to yourself, or send it wirelessly or use a file sharing app like dropbox.

With all of these settings, you should be able to get your images looking good with a minimum of fuss. Again, things change and there is a lot of competing information available on the internet so in no way are these settings authoritative. As we can report today, these are the best minimum settings at this time for posting only photos from Lightroom Classic CC to Instagram.

Export Preset Installation Instructions

Download our Lightroom Guy Lightroom Classic CC Instagram Export Presets

Included in this .zip file are 3 Lightroom Classic CC presets for the Export process.

  1. Locate the Export Presets folder, the easiest way to do this is to go to the Lightroom Preferences and choosing the “Show All Other Lightroom Presets” button from the Presets tab
  2. Locate the Lightroom / Export Presets / User Presets folder
  3. Unzip the download and place the three Instagram lrtemplate files into the User Presets folder
  4. Restart Lightroom and you should see the presets ready to use in the Presets menu of the Export window

Lightroom Classic CC Presets

Lightroom Classic CC Export Preset File LocationNow you know how to export photos for Instagram from Lightroom Classic CC!

Hold Off On Updating to MacOS Mojave

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As I wrote in an earlier post, please hold off on updating to MacOS Mojave, which is the Mac operating system number 10.14. Apple announced its release today, September 24th at 5pm. And although you may not see it featured yet in the App Store, it’s there and available for download. Hold off on updating to MacOS Mojave

You’ll also want to hold off on updating to MacOS Mojave until you have checked to see if your particular model of Macintosh can upgrade to this version.

A really good example of “Why Not?” is compatibility issues with BookWright, Blurb’s excellent book design and publishing software. The folks at Blurb recommend to complete making any books in progress before updating toMacOS Mojave. If you have a book in progress in Lightroom’s Book Module and update to MacOS Mojave, your current book will be unaffected. Now, Blurb is a company willing to admit their software is not ready. There will be software that doesn’t work with Mojave, so hold off on updating to MacOS Mojave and save yourself some grief. We’ll try to keep you posted in the coming weeks. If you must and you’re tech savvy, we recommend going to the Eclectic Light Company’s app page and checking out 32-bitCheck to see which programs are 32 bit and Taccy to check your privacy settings and notarization.

Uninstall AdWare Doctor Now!

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We don’t usually raise alarms like this, but if you have Adware Doctor (formerly known as Adware Medic), the #1 selling app in the Apple App Store, uninstall Adware Doctor now! It is malware and this news is extremely important.

Why? Adware Doctor (also App Store’s Dr. Antivirus and Dr. Cleaner) has been stealing your browser history if you use Chrome, Firefox, or Safari. What does it do with your browser history? It sends that data to China. And it’s been doing that for years. How did we find out? On Patrick Wardle’s website, Objective-See. A site dedicated to developing Mac OS X security tools. He’s looked deep inside Adware Doctor and discovered that, under the hood, the app was deceitfully bypassing Apple’s security restraints. This is a astronomical privacy issue and we want you to know about it. So, please uninstall Adware Doctor, Dr. Antivirus and Dr. Cleaner if you have them.

What I’ve discovered in my search for uninstalling Adware Doctor is, lots of very dicey “uninstall software” websites. They run down a list of procedures for removal that would be complicated for most users and pepper the text with ads for (you guessed it!) their recommendation for “easy” to use removal software. Please, don’t download these.

Removing apps from your Mac is relatively easy. MacWorld UK has a step-by-step article on how to uninstall software apps on mac. This will get you started, but these kinds of malicious apps can go unnoticed for years. So, please read on.

uninstall Adware Doctor

Malwarebytes Labs’ most recent September 7th blog post has noted this very important privacy issue and will be updated to include all the above mentioned offenders and more in their soon to be released next version of Malwarebytes.  Our recommendation has always been Malwarebytes for all our clients. There’s a 30 day free trial of this highly regarded and easy to use software. We implicitly trust Malwarebytes for all desktop Macs and PCs and we’ve used it to save our client’s from grief many a time.

They’ve also introduced Malwarebytes for iOS. However, we haven’t used it yet and the reviews are mediocre (3.3 star rating) at the time of this writing. However, I do want to note here that, every comment on the Malwarebytes for iOS page in the App Store has a Developer Response. Those guys keep on top of their product.

And, for the record, we don’t profit from recommending Malwarebytes.

Will Your Current Mac Run Mac OS Mojave?

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Will your Macintosh desWill your mac run Mac OS Mojavektop computer or laptop run Mac OS Mojave?

In my previous post, I wrote about the Mac OS Mojave software issues with links to help you find out which software you currently have that is Mojave compatible.

Now, here’s a list of Mac OS Mojave compatible Macs:

  • MacBook models introduced in early 2015 or later
  • MacBook Airs andMacBook Pros introduced in mid 2012 or later
  • Mac minis and iMacs introduced in late 2012 or later
  • Mac Pros late 2013
  • Mac Pros mid 2010 or mid 2012 models with recommended Metal-capable graphics processor, including the 4GB MSI Gaming Radeon RX 560 and 8GB Sapphire Radeon PULSE RX 580.

Here’s how to tell which model Mac you have. In the Finder, click on the apple at the top left and select, “About This Mac.”

Mac OS Mojave

Mac OS MojaveThat will open the Overview of your Mac and show what version of the operating system you have installed and the year and model of your Macintosh.

2012 Mac Pro Tower will run Mac OS Mojave

Yes, they call this series of Macs, “cheese graters.” (But I’ve never actually used it for that.)

For those working with 2010 or 2012 Mac Pro cheese grater towers, you’ll need to wait until Apple introduces the next version of the Mac Pro. Or, if you want to update your older tower to Mojave, you’ll need to replace the graphics board with a Metal capable graphics processor. Another few hundred bucks in “life support” expense to keep your cheese grater alive (I know I will be).  If you’re working with earlier models of Apple computers, you’re out of luck for updating your operating system. Your computer will still work, of course. But, you’ll have to stick with High Sierra, or whatever earlier version of the Mac OS you might be using. The full list of what you’ll need to update to Mac OS Mojave is on the Apple website.

Holding out on updating your Mac Mini, since hasn’t been updated since 2014? You may be in luck! MacWorld rumors that there’s a Mac Mini update coming in September. On the other hand, the Mac Pro isn’t scheduled for an update until some time in 2019.

You might want to add up all those wasted moments you’ve spent waiting if you’ve been watching the rainbow pizza spinning every time you click your mouse. It could add up to hours of lost work every week. If that’s the case, you may want to seriously consider updating to a new machine.

 

Cuba Photography Tour

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Havana to Viñales Photography Excursion

Saturday February 2​nd​ ​through Sunday February 10​th , 2019

Viñales Photographic Adventure

Viñales tobacco farm ©2018 Bruce Byers

Join an intimate group of photo enthusiasts and travel to Cuba with your own professional support team there to help you maximize the potential of your images:

International Documentary Photographer Bruce Byers
Creative Director Glenn Batkin
Post-production Expert David Mark Erickson
Prominent Local Artist and Artistic guide Carlos René Aguilera Tamayo

Tobacco Farmer, Viñales Cuba

Tobacco Farmer, Viñales Cuba ©2018 Bruce Byers

Capture the energy of Havana with its 15th century backdrop, colorful mid-century cars, its vibrant art scene, dancers, musicians and more, before heading to photograph a private tobacco farm in Viñales.

Cuban countryside ©2018 Bruce Byers

Cuban countryside ©2018 Bruce Byers

$4500 All Inclusive

($350 for single supplemental)

Download your 4-page itinerary and trip details here

Book Now!

(Note: this link will take you to our partner site for booking)

$200 discount for Early Signup by Friday, October 5th, 2018

This excursion is brought to you by:
Lightroom Guy & Camera Odysseys

Contact us with any questions, to receive a detailed itinerary to sign up

Word of Caution Installing Mac OS Mojave

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Wait to install Mac OS MojaveA word of caution for our readers to consider before installing Mac OS Mojave, which is expected to be released some time in September. We follow a few tech bloggers who are Mac centric and one that we find particularly interesting is The Eclectic Light Company – Macs, Painting, and More, authored by Howard Oakley, one of the most interesting and prolific bloggers we subscribe to. Oakley is a very smart guy. He is a Mac OS app developer, but he’s much more than that and that’s what we love about him.

So, to get to the point, this week Mr. Oakley wrote a blog post, Mojave’s privacy protection is complex and will crash innocent apps, and in it he states: “What I’ve learned is how complex its new privacy protection is, and how users, sysadmins and developers may be in for a shock when they upgrade to Mojave.” Users, that’s us.

The take-away for us at Lightroom Guy is, that the current beta version of Mojave doesn’t run some third party applications. The result is an application crash without any indication of the cause.Oakley says, “Users will see this as a failing in the app, rather than the consequence of their action….” These issues will mostly stem from how Mojave’s new privacy  protection works. And in the current Mojave beta version, so far there’s no simple way to know if an app will work. If this doesn’t change by the release date, expect that some of your apps may crash.

To be clear, Mac OS Mojave is still being tested and not yet released to the general public, but it is expected shortly and these issues may still exist on release. Apple has also warned system administrators to prepare for Mojave, as there will be blowback for many users. MacWorld UK has a must read article – “Apps that won’t work with Mac OS Mojave.” – that includes how to check your current Mac OS to see if your apps are compatible.

The good news however, is that Oakley sees Mac OS Mojave as, “…already a great deal better than High Sierra. We just need to work out how to live with new features/snags!” He also further comments that, “I’m optimistic that, provided some of the current issues get sorted, Mojave is going to be a good release. I also know that a lot of Apple engineers, and third party developers, are currently working very hard to make it so.”

Oakley, as a Mac developer, has an inside perspective that we trust. So, again, we suggest you sit tight when Mojave is released and wait to see what happens. When the smoke clears, we’ll let you know.

And, since you’ve read this far, here’s a side note on Howard Oakley. He’s also an art enthusiast and aficionado, writing weekly on a broad range of topics. From little known women artists, renaissance, post-impressionism and multiplex narratives, he’s an amazing resource of comparative art history. I’m barely touching the surface of his topics! Always a fascinating read.

09/02/2018 Update:

Howard Oakley, has written an app called 32-bitCheck. It’s free for downloading. The program identifies applications that conflict with the soon to be released Mac OS Mojave. 32-bitCheck comes with PDF instructions in the download. Again, hats off to Mr. Oakley for his contributions.

Lightroom CC 1.5 and Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 Updates

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It’s only August and Adobe is already pushing out Lightroom CC 1.5 and Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 updates. Again, this is one of the upsides to having a software subscription model: continuous updates! As well, Adobe is demonstrating its continued support for Classic even as CC continues to grow and improve. When CC was released back in October of 2017, many people in the community expressed their concern that CC would mark the slow death of Classic. However, Adobe is showing that their belief in Classic is as strong as ever.

Along with the usual bug fixes and updated camera and lens support, the following are included in the these Lightroom CC 1.5 and Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 Updates…

 

Lightroom Classic CC 7.5

  • Upload Presets and Profiles in bulk
  • HEIC image files support on Windows
  • Book module enhancements

Lightroom CC 1.5

  • Keep an album’s photos locally for offline editing
  • Show album membership in the Info Panel
  • Album and Photo Sharing
  • File Type Badge

Lightroom Classic CC 7.5

In this update to Classic, we are seeing two minor (but useful!) tweaks as well some much needed attention given to the Book module. It has been a long time since we have seen Book module updates so these changes are very welcome. Lightroom is integrated with the Blurb publishing platform and Blurb has recently made some updates to their offerings. So, at a guess, those changes on Blurb’s side have prompted updates on Adobe’s side.  More on those in a moment. The first two updates to Classic to mention are bulk uploading of Presets and Profiles and HEIC support for Widows.

Upload Presets and Profiles in bulk

In the 7.4 update, Adobe introduced us to the new Profiles feature – which we like to think of as digital film stock. With the 7.5 update you can now upload a bulk set of Presets or Profiles by pointing Lightroom to a ZIP compressed file. Simply point the import dialog at the .zip and, voila, all of the Presets and Profiles in that file will be added in a single click.

HEIC Support for Windows

Not long ago, Apple decided that it would be a good idea to update the image format used by the iPhone. That’s great since the new High Efficiency Image File Format (HEIF) is really nifty; it’s just that they kind of forgot to let the rest of us know about the change! It has taken a while but, finally, Windows users are getting Lightroom support for the new format.

Book Module Enhancements

As I mentioned, it has been a while since we have seen any attention given to the Book module so these are welcome updates! In brief, Adobe has added support for …

  • Choosing the new Blurb book styles and paper types
  • Choosing where a page number is visible when printed
  • Manual positioning of photos, they are no longer locked into the template
  • Customized page templates can be saved
  • Pausing and resuming the uploading of a book to Blurb

We won’t go into the technical weeds for this post. However, if you want more details on the exact nature of these changes, you can check the Adobe site for help on creating books or drop us a note and we would be happy to chat with you about our book making services (yes, we make books for our clients!).

Lightroom CC 1.5

Besides the usual round of bug fixes, this batch of updates seems to be centered all around Album management. Adobe has been doing a lot of work behind the scenes and we are expecting more updates before the year is out.

Store Album Locally

Lightroom CC Store Album LocallyBecause Lightroom CC depends on an Internet connection, working offline or with a slow connection can be very frustrating. Remember, Lightroom CC works by keeping a full resolution of the photo in the cloud and then the Adobe servers update your desktop/laptop or mobile device by keeping low resolution proxies files on the various devices. Not until you start working with a file will Lightroom download the full version of the proxy.

While there is an option to mark individual photos for full download, this new feature is very useful! With a single click (right click on a mouse or ALT/OPT keyboard) you can designate a whole Album for downloading. This will save you both time and space as you can download only the photos that you want.

Album Membership

Lightroom CC Album MembershipTo further make Album management a bit easier CC now indicates what Album a photo is a member of. At the bottom of the Information panel will be a badge indicating what Albums the photo is a member of. These badges double as links and you can click on them to jump directly to that Album.

Shared Albums

Lightroom CC Shared Albums

Sharing Lightroom CC Albums is a breeze – you can simply right click (or ALT/OPT click) on an Album and choose to share it. In the last batch of updates Adobe added simple options to allow downloads, show/hide metadata and to show/hide location information.

With this release, Adobe has simplified organization and management by creating a new left panel view for just shared Albums and individually shared photos. Yes, you read that right, you can now share individual photos just as you would Albums!

In the grid view, right click (ALT/OPT click) on an image and choose to “Share to Web …” You have the same show/hide options as with the Albums as well as being able to give the image a unique title.

File Type Badge

Lastly, a very helpful addition to Lightroom CC is the indication of file type. You can now quickly tell what kind of file you are looking at the new badge in the lower left corner of the thumbnail in the Square Grid view (you can cycle the view by repeatedly hitting the G key).

Lightroom CC File Type Badge

The lower left corner of thumbnails in lightroom CC now indicates file type

 

So this wraps up this Lightroom CC 1.5 and Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 updates. Feel free to ask questions in the comments window below.

How to Search for Photos in Lightroom Classic CC

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Search for photos in lightroom classic cc

I tend to leave all my folders open

So, you’ve just imported a bunch of photos into Lightroom, but can’t find them. Where’d they go? Here are four ways on how to Search for Photos in Lightroom Classic CC.

It’s not unusual for me to have to search for photos in Lightroom Classic CC. I have a large library and there are way too many master year folders open, revealing a long list of subfolders that are time consuming to sift through. When I import a new batch of images, instead of scrolling through that long list of folders to find out where my new, imported photos went, I locate the folder with a simple right click on one of the “Previous Import” photos. And there are other very useful ways to search for photos in Lightroom Classic CC. The Lr:Shorts video below shows the four search methods I use most: use the contextual menu to take me to a photo’s folder in Library, filter by Edit Status, search by folder name or, search by date, camera model, lens, etc., using a Metadata search that I demonstrated for determining which focal lengths you use most in my previous blog post

These Lightroom features are all very easy to learn, and learning them will make the time you spend working in Lightroom Classic CC faster and simpler. And, who doesn’t like having Lightroom work a little faster? However, please, take note that some of these search features are only available in Lightroom Classic CC version 7.3 or later. Earlier versions of Lightroom Classic CC won’t have most of the features demonstrated in the video.

See just how easy it is to get Lightroom to behave and show you exactly where your photos and folders are located in this Lr:Shorts video!