David Mark Erickson | Lightroom Guy

Case Study: Using Photo Mechanic to Speedup Lightroom Workflow

November 15, 2018 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

If you work on tight deadlines, using Photo Mechanic to speedup Lightroom workflow might be right for you …

Anyone who works on tight deadlines or is simply frustrated with Lightroom’s importing speed might want to consider using Photo Mechanic. As a professional, you know that getting your photos processed as efficiently as possible is essential to your business. As a photo enthusiast, you’d much rather spend time developing your photos and not spend time waiting for them to import.

In this Case Study, we look at using a 2-stage workflow, using Photo Mechanic with Lightroom Classic CC. Photo Mechanic is used to review photos, make selections and add metadata. Lightroom Classic is used for developing photos and long term, archival storage.

A Note About Photo Mechanic

Photo Mechanic has been around since the dawn of digital photography but, don’t be surprised if you haven’t heard of it before. While not a niche product, it is largely used by photojournalists, sports and stock photographers. Photo Mechanic 5 is made by Camera Bits and it can be purchased for $150 from their web site–and they do offer a 30-day free trial!

Where Lightroom is a massive, fully featured cataloging platform, Photo Mechanic is a lightweight photo browser and metadata editing program. What’s more, Photo Mechanic is super fast for reviewing and tagging. There is no “import” process like Lightroom, so you can get right to reviewing your photos and adding metadata. While Photo Mechanic does have some additional features, like a built in FTP client and an ICC color matching engine, in this case study we are going to look at a basic workflow without using any of the extended features that Photo Mechanic offers.

Photo Mechanic + Lightroom Workflow

There are a number of other valid ways to setup Photo Mechanic and Lightroom. However, this particular workflow is based on a real world client scenario. This setup was designed for a working photojournalist who operates under tight deadlines. As a Case Study, this is a great starting point to demonstrate how the two programs can work together.

Key assumptions: client is shooting 100-300 RAW only images on each assignment; making a selection of 3-8 photos for uploading to the picture editors; adding key info for specific metadata fields; only light cropping and limited tonal adjustments to balance/enhance the scene. Further, client is working on a Macbook Air with limited hard drive space and a small screen.

1. Image Copy process

In this case, the simplest process is to copy the image files from the camera card directly to the Pictures folder on the laptop.
Maintain an orderly library by using a folder naming protocol

Using a “YYYY-MM-DD [shoot name]”structure for the folder name helps keep things in order for later archival purposes.

2. Photo Mechanic process

Review: Photo Mechanic is built as a file browser so it can be pointed at a target folder and images will preview immediately. Reviewing images is fast, even with large RAW files. Client makes initial selections by giving photos a 1-star rating. In this case, this works as simple, binary pick option for filtering in subsequent processes.
Metadata: 1-star photos are filtered and then, using the IPTC Editor, captions, copyright and other key metadata are quickly added to the photos. Metadata is easily copied from one photo to the next and/or saved templates can be applied.

3. Lightroom process

Add to Lightroom: At this stage, since photos are already on the hard drive and stored in a properly named folder, all of the photos from the shoot can be quickly imported into Lightroom using the “ADD” button in the Import dialog. This method reads the files from their current location instead of making copies. Then Lightroom makes the necessary database entries (copyright, captions, etc.) and generates previews.
Developing: the 1-star images are filtered and then, in the Develop module, light cropping and basic tonal adjustments are made.
Exporting: the developed 1-star photos are exported as JPGs to a specific folder. All of the “edited” photos for the year are kept, for easy reference and archival purposes. File renaming is done at this point, using a Custom Name text and Sequence tokens, which are part of a saved Export Preset we created specifically to meet client requirements.

4. Upload process

The exported JPG files are then FTP’ed to the upstream editors using FileZilla, an open source, free FTP client.

5. Archive process

At a later time, image folders are moved off of the laptop to an external hard drive for archive and backup. This is done in Lightroom so that the main catalog always has previews of past assignments available (in this case Smart Previews were not required). The external drive is then periodically cloned to another drive, using Carbon Copy Cloner.

As noted previously, this custom workflow is designed around job requirements and constraints for a specific client. The advantages of using Photo Mechanic are to increase review speed and minimize dependencies on “black box” feature. Image review is fast and only the selected files are post processed, making for an efficient workflow.

In an upcoming post, we will include a step-by-step video demonstrating how using Photo Mechanic with Lightroom can speed up your workflow. If you have questions, comments or suggestions please post them below!

Our Favorite Lightroom CC 2018 Improvements

October 25, 2018 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

In this post, we’re reviewing our favorite Lightroom CC 2018 improvements (Lightroom CC version 2.0) of the desktop application. Last week we reviewed our favorite new features of Lightroom Classic 8. This week we’re reviewing our favorite Lightroom CC 2018 improvements and key features. Just a reminder, this is the cloud-based version of Lightroom. At the end of this post you can find direct links to Adobe for additional info (and under-the-hood-improvements) for this latest Lightroom CC version 2.

People View (Sensei)

Arguably one of the most important features Lightroom CC has brought forward is automatic face detection. This feature automates the massive and thorny problem of finding all the photos of the people you care about or need to identify in your library of photos. The People View feature is based on Lightroom’s machine learning system, called Sensei. Sensei is increasingly being relied on for many features of Lightroom (in both CC and in Classic) such as Auto Tone in the Develop modules as well as improved search capabilities (see below).

Once images have been uploaded to the Adobe Cloud servers, the photos are run through Sensei and grouped into a spread of images. Double clicking on a face opens up that individual’s group of photos where you have the opportunity to name that person. And, like any automated system, the process is not perfect! So, Lightroom may also ask you about other photos it is not sure of and you will have an opportunity to merge those.

A couple of tips and tricks we think you should know about …

1) You can rename a person anytime by simply clicking on the name in the header

Lightroom CC 2018 Improvements

2) You can choose hide a person by right-clicking with your mouse on their face (or use control/alt-click)

3) For several more options, click on the three dots at the top right to:

Lightroom CC 2018 Improvements – Batch show/hide faces
– Batch merge
– Sort by name or number of photos

The development team at Adobe is working very hard rolling out updates and they seem to be averaging around four or more updates per year. So, we expect to see additional improvements of this feature!

“New!” Improved Search

Even after typing the first letter of your search Lightroom CC is looking!

One of the most brilliant features of LrCC is its search feature, which is now smarter than ever! For the record, this is definitely something we wish was included in Lightroom Classic (maybe someday). There’s no need for keywording because of the Lightroom CC 2018 improvements, as Adobe Sensei compares your photos to their extensive library of reference images. When you’re connected to the internet and LrCC is actively synced, Sensei can identify pretty much everything from airplanes to mountains, pizzas to zebras without a keyword. It’s not always perfect, but we were impressed. It even located an art installation of projections against a cathedral at night. Impressive.

Migrate Apple Photos (Mac Only)

If you are an Apple Photos user and want to start using Lightroom CC, there is now a new migration tool that can help you with this process. We have not tested this yet so we won’t vouch for it, other than to say that once you commit the import you won’t be able to stop or undo it.

Professionally, we don’t advise using these types of “black box” processes. We have migrated hundreds of catalogs for our clients and have learned the hard way that, when these black box tools fail, they cause huge problems that can take a lot of time, money and effort to correct.

If You Need Help

While our custom migration processes may be a bit labor intensive, we have found that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. If you do find yourself in need of a catalog migration, contact us for a quote! We have successfully moved many Picasa, Apple and Aperture catalogs.

You can find more detailed instructions about Apple Photo Migration here on the Adobe Lightroom CC Help Pages.

Lightroom is Expanding Its Reach

Beyond the “photographers” market (hobbyists through professionals), Adobe appears to be making a direct challenge to programs like Apple Photos, Google Photos and Windows’ Photo App, which serve the broader consumer market. So, for the casual iPhone photographer, Lightroom CC is becoming a powerful alternative.

Additional Information About Lightroom CC 2018 Improvements

Updated Camera and Lens Support

New cameras and lenses have been added, including the new mirrorless offerings from Canon and Nikon. The extensive list of supported cameras and lenses can be found in the links below.

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

October 2, 2018 by David Mark Erickson 2 Comments

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:

Shoot
Import to Lightroom
Select then Develop
Export to your Hard Drive
Transfer to Mobile
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.

Crop & Straighten Tool

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

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.

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
Locate the Lightroom / Export Presets / User Presets folder
Unzip the download and place the three Instagram lrtemplate files into the User Presets folder
Restart Lightroom and you should see the presets ready to use in the Presets menu of the Export window

Now you know how to export photos for Instagram from Lightroom Classic CC!

Lightroom CC 1.5 and Lightroom Classic CC 7.5 Updates

August 22, 2018 by David Mark Erickson 3 Comments

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

Because 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

To 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).

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.

Another batch of updates for Lightroom CC and Classic

April 4, 2018 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

Adobe CC Lightroom Updates As of Tuesday morning, Adobe has released another batch of updates for Lightroom CC and Classic, Lightroom CC version 1.3 and Lightroom Classic CC version 7.3, just two short months from the last batch of updates! Additionally, the Lightroom versions for both iOS and Android have been updated with significant enhancements.

The big focus of these updates are with Profiles — more about those below. Beyond Profiles, most of the updates and changes are incremental and/or community specific requests. Below is a quick run down of the changes for each platform …

Lightroom CC Feature Updates

Three new full sets of Profiles have been added, including Adobe Raw, Creative and camera profiles
Support for Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices has been added, allowing CC users to keep local copies of their files on a NAS device

Lightroom Classic Feature Updates

New Adobe Raw and Creative Profiles have been added and are now accessible from the Basic panel in the Develop module
Everyone’s favorite Dehaze slider moved to the Basic panel (a popular community request)
The Tone Curve tool in the Develop module has been enlarged to make it easier to use (another popular community request)

Here is Adobe’s official blog post on these updates:
April Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw Releases: New Profiles and More

Profiles

This is the biggest feature change/update for both CC and Classic. However, you may be asking yourself: what are profiles?? Are those like presets? And the answer is: sort of!

Lightroom Classic has long had this feature but, it was buried deep in the Develop module where few knew about it, let alone used it. The way we at LRG like to think about Profiles is like film stock. Back in the film camera days, different film manufactures and types of film were prized for the different way the individual film stocks would convey color. Some film had more pop while others had smoother or richer gradients of tones. Different film stocks were prized for different shooting and conditions and subject matter. And not just film stock but, most cameras bodies would also produce a wide variety of color results.

Ironically enough, these same fundamental differences continue to play a key role in digital photography. Different camera bodies and different sensors each have a unique look. To manage for this, Lightroom developed “camera profiles” to account for variations in color representations, even allowing for users to manually update these profiles to shift the way colors could be displayed.

The practical upshot of this is: users will now have more creative options to develop a look or style based on different profiles that Adobe has included in Lightroom. Adobe has seeded bother versions of Lightroom with +50 different profiles and 3rd party companyes will be able to write their own Profiles and sell them to consumers, just as we have with the Presets marketplace.

However, it’s easy to confuse the difference between Profiles and Presets. Presets do something very similar visually and they have been in much more regular use by Lightroom users. Without getting into too much into the technical details, here is an easy way to think about Profiles: they’re like film stock.

When you apply a Profile to an image, it will change the visual look of the image. It’s that simple. And, while you will be able to undo the change, you won’t be able to tweak the Profile look very much using any of the sliders. Profiles are design to achieve specific results with a click of a button and from there, you can still use Presets and manual slider adjustments to make changes you want to your photos.

While Classic has always had profiles, they are now more accessible as they have been moved to the top of the Basic panel in the Develop module. Lightroom CC didn’t have Profiles and in this release they are getting a full implementation, thereby keeping CC on par with Classic in terms of developing tools.

You can read more about Profiles and the other key updates on Adobe’s official Lightroom blog post: April Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw Releases: New Profiles and More

Lightroom CC vs Lightroom Classic: Should You Switch?

January 21, 2018 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

Since last October, when we published our first post introducing Lightroom CC, some of the questions asked most by our clients are: What should I do? Should I keep Classic or switch to the new Lightroom CC? The only answer we can offer is: it depends!

Lightroom CC vs Lightroom Classic: Should You Switch?

Besides asking us if they should switch, another oft asked question is: what’s up with the name?? Yes, it is confusing but, so far it hasn’t caused too much trouble in our estimation. The trick is to just be clear when you are talking about CC vs Classic. Classic is the same Lightroom we have grown to love oh these many years (think Coke Classic), and CC is Classic’s new little cousin who’s doing everything differently and, achieving a lot of success in the process.

Lightroom CC is the New Lightroom

Lightroom CC is a brand new program which Adobe has designed from the ground up to address several challenges that digital photographers face today. Adobe Lightroom Classic is the full featured and robust application that is the Lightroom we have been using since it was first released, way back in 2007. However, because Classic is full of features and specialized tools, it can often be too much for users who have simple and straightforward needs.

Lightroom CC’s new design and feature set were created to make viewing and developing your photos a much more streamlined process. To do this, Adobe choose not to include many of the features and options that makes Lightroom Classic such a powerhouse application. As well, Lightroom CC addresses the issue of being able to access your photos from any device, anywhere, anytime. Their new cloud based “ecosystem” let’s you make a change to a photo on your desktop and then see it almost instantly on your phone or tablet. To be sure, this is no small feat and it seems like Adobe has done a very good job tackling some of the complexities of keeping photos synchronized across multiple devices.

So, to answer the Lightroom CC vs Lightroom Classic conundrum, you should ask yourself these 3 simple questions:

1. Do I use any of the other Lightroom Classic modules, other than Library and Develop? Or, do I use any of the extended metadata features, like Maps or keyword sets?

If the answer is Yes, then you should not switch at this time! Keep using Classic the way you are doing now and trust that Adobe will keep rolling out feature updates and performance improvements. Adobe has been clear on their commitment to Classic users that Classic is here to stay. In fact, the next update of Lightroom Classic is coming in April with even more improvements and features!

2. Is Classic too much program for my purposes? Am I struggling to stay organized with imported files and folders or not using any of the Lightroom modules beyond Library and Develop?

If the answer is Yes, then you should consider switching. Lightroom Classic can be a headache and the new program is a dream to use since the program has been designed from the ground up to be fast and easy to use.

3. Do I need the power of Classic but really, really want to take advantage of the easy sharing features as well as mobile access?

If the answer is Yes, then you may be that rare bird who should use BOTH of the applications, simultaneously. Technically, the two programs aren’t yet playing well with each other. However, we have found some simple workarounds that let you harness the power of Classic while taking advantage of the new CC features.

To recap:

If you use any advanced features in Classic, stay with classic.
If Classic is too much for your needs, then switch.
And, if you need the power of Classic but need the features of CC then use both!

And, if you’re looking to see, in-depth, the differences between Lightroom CC vs Lightroom Classic, Adobe has online manuals for both Lightroom applications here.

Shameless plug: We here at Lightroom Guy specialize in teaching users how to get the most out of any version of Lightroom. And, we’re also experts at migrating third party catalogs into Lightroom, including discontinued programs like Aperture and Picasa. Hundreds of photographers have successfully moved their photos into both versions of Lightroom with our help.

Drop us a note if you have a question or want to learn more about our services! And, feel free to comment or ask questions below. We’d love to hear how you are using either application, especially if you are using both!!

December Updates for Lightroom CC & Classic

December 12, 2017 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

Lightroom CC (1.1), Lightroom Classic CC (7.1), Lightroom iOS Android mobile Apps and ACR

Adobe Lightroom Updates

Hot on the heels of the official release of Lightroom CC and Lightroom Classic CC, Adobe is releasing a full version updates for both of their flagship photography programs. This is an important update as both programs have been plagued with bugs, reports of unsupported camera files as well as a number of key usability issues.

You can read the full, official post here on Adobe’s blog from Sharad Mangalick, who is the Product Manager for Adobe Camera Raw, Lightroom Classic and Lightroom CC.

Auto Sensei Feature

Beyond the bug and stability fixes, the biggest change comes with the new Auto Settings feature which will use Adobe’s Artificial Intelligence engine, called Adobe Sensei. Don’t ask us how this exactly works but we must say that it does work surprisingly well! The Sensei update works across all of the platforms, including iOS and Android mobile apps as well the CC and Classic versions of Lightroom.

Adobe Lightroom 6 Perpetual

One of the biggest gripes from the Lightroom Community following the last updates was that it seemed that Adobe was cutting off support for the standalone version of Lightroom, also known as Perpetual. Version 6 was the last version before Adobe shoehorned users onto the Creative Cloud platform.

Adobe has heard the complaints and have announced that new camera support updates will be released on December 19th!

As well, Adobe has turned off the automatic feature which would uninstall previous versions of Lightroom when doing any install/updates using the Created Cloud application.

Lightroom CC Feature Updates

Specifically for Lightroom CC, Adobe is updating the program with some additional key editing features, including Tone Curves and Split Toning. And, new features for being able to Change Capture Time and view images in Full Screen View (using the ‘F’ key).

Classic & ACR Updates

For Classic and Adobe Camera Raw, updates have been made to the Color Range Masking tool, allowing users to more easily remove individual sample points (using the Alt (Win) or Option (Mac) key while using your mouse to select the sample point).

Also, Nikon D850 users should be able to use the tethering features in Classic.

Mobile Updates

Both the Anroid and iOS applications have a number of updates. From the Adobe blog:

Android Updates

App Shortcuts — For Android Nougat and later devices, tap and hold on the app icon to quickly launch the app into popular modes.
More control for managing storage.
Resolved an issue that prevented some Huawei customers from importing images.
Resolved a problem that prevented some Samsung customers from installing the previous version.
Bug fixes and speed improvements.

iOS

Watermarking on export — Create and customize a text based watermark for use when exporting your image from Lightroom CC on iOS.
Improved quality to HDR capturing.
Layout optimized for iPhone X.
Bug fixes and speed improvements.

All in all, these are welcomed updates! For more infomrmation about the new Lightroom CC program and/or the key updates in Lightroom Classic, check out our training video on Pluralsight.

CrashPlan Discontinued, Carbonite Not the Solution

September 9, 2017 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

To the shock of many CrashPlan users, the online backup provider announced on August 22nd that it will exit the home consumer market and is now referring CrashPlan for Home users to Carbonite. As highly rated as CrashPlan is (was), Carbonite is not; its basic plan is Mac only, leaving PC users to pay more. Additionally, Carbonite only rates a 5 out of 10 rating on Tom’s Guide.*

*reference https://www.tomsguide.com/us/best-cloud-backup,review-2678.html

Within the online backup market, there are a number of providers who all complete pretty heavily to capture new customers and they’re now all pitching the CrashPlan users who are being abandoned.

Just earlier this year, we dug in and did some heavy research on all the various providers and came to the conclusion that Backblaze meets all our requirements: easy on the wallet, simple to install, uncomplicated instructions and a set-it-and-forget-it approach.

And for that reason, Backblaze is our favorite, the one that we use ourselves and recommend and install the most. The program runs in the background and continuously backups your system with no user intervention. There is no data limit and the billing is simple and affordable at $50/year. There’s a free trial from Backblaze as well. You can get that here: https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html#af9kd3

Backblaze Control Panel

The other key feature which we absolutely love are the data recovery options. While you can access all of your data through the web, downloading terabytes of data isn’t really practical if you have to restore a significant portion of your data. With Backblaze, you can request to have a hard drive FedEx’ed to you with all of your data on it. Once you’ve finished restoring, you can send the drive back or buy the drive and keep it.

If you are a CrashPlan customer, we strongly urge you to consider all of your options as there are many providers out there. The folks at CrashPlan have pre-negotiated a special price to migrate users to the Carbonite platform, but that’s not our recommendation. To read more about Backblaze, here’s a great article and comparison chart: https://www.backblaze.com/best-online-backup-service.html#af9kd3

On a final note: Our core business at LightroomGuy.com is to work one-on-one with our clients to support them in all aspects of their digital photography workflow. Having a solid backup system in place is a critical element and we spend a lot of time with our clients making sure their systems work for them. No two clients have the same needs and one of our business philosophies is to work with our clients, and not the other way around. To that end, we are generally agnostic when it comes to recommending specific equipment or 3rd party services; we look at the features and benefits of any given solution and offer our recommendations on the relative merits.

That said, we like Backblaze so much that we both use it and officially endorse them and even have an affiliate account. If you signup using our link, we receive a small commission that costs you nothing. It’s not a lot but, what is greater is knowing that our customers’ data is safely backed up.

Lightroom Before and After Tools – Part 1

December 8, 2016 by David Mark Erickson Leave a Comment

How to use the Lightroom Before and After tools in the Lightroom Develop module

I always love discovering something new in Lightroom that helps my workflow and developing process! I’ve been editing (selecting) and developing some photos that I shot for a wedding at a lovely farm in the Catskills this summer. The groom is a good friend of mine and he happens to be a film director as well so, he knows a lot about color process. He and his wife had some specific requests for how they wanted their photos look, which posed a slight challenge so having a robust set of Before and After tools at my disposal was invaluable for my workflow.

For a small set of the photos the bride and groom really wanted a unique look to really communicate the vibe of their wedding ceremony. After doing some basic corrections, I started experimenting with various presets I found online. Ultimately we decided that we really liked the Vintage Spring 2016 collection from Prolost and so used that as a basis for giving the photos a little something extra.

The Lightroom Before and After tool, allows you to easily compare the originally imported version of your image to the one you are currently working on in the Develop module. However, as with most things in Lightroom, there are the basic functions most people know about and then, there are the not-so-obvious power-users features, which can really extend the usefulness of the tool for everyone! This part 1 video explains the keyboard shortcuts and why Before and After is so useful.