As we’ve done every year for quite a while, we’re encouraging our readers to create a 2020 copyright preset for Lightroom. It’s easy! This year, direct download our free PDF copyright preset tutorial! It’s a clear, easy to follow set of step-by-step instructions for creating a 2020 copyright preset for Lightroom that you can use every year to update your settings.
Why Should You Create a 2020 Copyright Preset for Lightroom?
Before I tell you why, let’s look at what copyright is. Simply, copyright law gives the creator or owner of a creative work (photo, painting, text, even this blog post) the right to say how others can use it. Using that creative work without express permission, usually in writing, is infringement on your rights as the creator or owner.
Copyright laws have changed over the centuries, often to reflect changes in technology – like the invention of movable type and up to and including the internet.
A Little Copyright Background for Your Next Trivia Night
The first tested case of copyright infringement happened around 550 AD, in ancient Ireland. There was a dispute over the ownership of a psalms manuscript between a priest and a missionary. The priest accused the missionary of copying his manuscript, “at night in haste.” (At that time hand copying artwork could take months. So the concept of “in haste” is all relative to our current sense of time.)
The priest’s hard work had been copied without his permission! The king decided to resolve this conflict and determined, “To every cow belongs her calf, therefore to every book belongs its copy.” This ruling didn’t sit well with the missionary and the Battle of Cúl Dreimhne (also known as the Battle of the Book) ensued. The missionary lost and three thousand people died, so he sailed off to Britain to be a pilgrim.
We Have Copyright Laws to Protect Us
No longer do we need kings or have to fight wars to protect our work. We have laws like the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (yes, that Sonny Bono from Sonny and Cher) to help protect us.
Law Brochure
Whether it’s friends and family or submitted images to contests and publishers, you don’t need to be a professional to consider embedding a copyright. Take advantage of these protections to their fullest. Use a copyright preset in Lightroom on import to identify you as the creator/owner of your digital images to outside third parties. This embedded copyright information does not appear on your images, it’s hidden inside a metadata “container.”
All the best for 2020 from the Lightroom Guys!
So, we looked for a current PDF of the Lightroom Classic Manual and couldn’t find one!
Lightroom (both versions) has an official URL for user manuals. But there hasn’t been a PDF Lightroom Classic Manual download available for quite some time. The good news is, the Lightroom basics haven’t changed all that much. And there is a somewhat recent Lightroom Classic Manual posted on Adobe for download.
I keep a copy of this PDF Lightroom Classic Manual (as well as PDF manuals for my cameras, lenses and software) on my travel laptop, iPhone and iPad. No matter where I am, I can quickly search for anything I may have forgotten (or just don’t know!). Even if I’m offline. It happens.
You can download the last known PDF Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Manual (May 2018) here:
https://helpx.adobe.com/pdf/lightroom_reference.pdf
The Spanish language version is here: https://helpx.adobe.com/es/pdf/lightroom_reference.pdf.
And just to prove my point that some things in Lightroom haven’t changed much, the 05/10/2018 PDF Lightroom Classic manual contains a link to a Lightroom version 1.3 video tutorial from 2007 by George Jardine. George was the very first Lightroom pro photography evangelist. It’s dated still (mostly) holds true.
One last note, we’d like to remind our Apple readers that we’re still not recommending that people update to macOS Catalina! Reason being is that macOS Catalina works in ways that could break your essential apps or workflows! This is especially true for the digital photo community. Each new minor “dot” release is getting us closer. The information we are getting from clients and tech blogs we read is that we should all wait just a little longer.
Please wait! We’re still not ready.
Updating to MacOS Catalina may still cause issues. Want proof? Check out this December 6th, 2019 blog post from Howard Oakley of Eclectic Electric Company regarding weird problems with Catalina.
We at Lightroom Guy are always keeping our eyes on MacOS issues and we’re still holding off on updating to Catalina. It’s not ready for prime time. At least not for us, so we can’t recommend updating to Catalina to our clients and readers.
It’s been two months since our October 10, 2019 post, on holding off with Catalina, warning that Adobe had considerations about updating to Catalina. We heard from clients that even Apple offers (although privately) to roll back users to Mojave, if Catalina poses problems after installation. A tacit admission they know they have left some people in a ditch.
In the meantime however, there is a way for Mojave users to at least update their security settings while they wait. And, we’re very aggressive about security updating. This particular update is vaguely hidden under the “Update Now” Catalina prompt and is easily overlooked. The text is smaller and says, “Other updates are available.” More info.
That “more info” link, leads to Mojave and Safari updates. So, updating to MacOS Catalina isn’t necessary to get updated security.
Sit tight while we continue to monitor the situation regarding updating to MacOS Catalina. We expect to give the go-ahead sometime after the beginning of the year.
We’ve been getting quite a few questions about this issue. So we thought it would be a good idea to address it in a blog post. Should you update to Lightroom version 9 and upgrade your catalog? The short answer is: yes!
By all means, upgrading to the latest version and upgrading your catalog is perfectly safe and you should proceed without worry!
If you want more info on what’s new in version 9, the Lightroom Queen has a good summary: What’s New in Lightroom Classic 9.0 (November 2019)?
Why Do I Need to Upgrade My Catalog?
At its heart, Lightroom is a database. The lrcat file stores all the information about your photos, where they are, what develop settings you have applied and much much more. There is a lot of information packed into the lrcat! Occasionally, the underlying structure of the lrcat needs to be upgraded so that new features and performance improvement can be implemented.
It has been at least since version 7 that we needed to upgrade our catalogs. There have been a lot of process and performance improvements since then so it is natural that an upgrade is needed for version 9.
What Happens When I Upgrade?
The first thing Lightroom will do is ask you which catalog you want to upgrade. Most folks only have one catalog. However, no two photographers work the same way! In some cases it is helpful or necessary to have more than one catalog. You can, if you need, point Lightroom to a different catalog using the “Choose a Different Catalog.”
Once you have selected the catalog you want to upgrade, Lightroom will duplicate your existing catalog so that if anything goes wrong, there is a backup copy of your original! A quick side note, you can easily rollback which version of Lightroom you are using in the Adobe Create Cloud app but, that’s better addressed in different blog post!
After you find the catalog you want to upgrade, simply hit the “Upgrade” button and Lightroom will go to work. You will see a new dialog box with a progress bar.
What Do I need to Do After It Has Finished?
Nothing! Once Lightroom has upgraded the lrcat file, Lightroom will launch your catalog and you should be able to proceed as normal.
As mentioned, when Lightroom does the upgrade it will make a duplicate copy before starting. If you look in the folder where your current catalog is located you will see a bunch of files with “-2” at the end. This is normal and you can leave these as is.
However, as an optional step, you can clean these up and store your old safely catalog. First quit Lightroom. Then simply rename your old catalog (the one without a -2). Then, make sure all of the attendant -2 files for the catalog have exactly the same name. The best thing to do is to remove the “-2” from the file name.
![Upgrade Catalog Lightroom 9 - [Animated GIF] Renaming the file names of a Lightroom catalog](https://lightroomguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/catalog-upgrade-rename.gif)
Contact Us
If you have any questions or concerns, don’t hesitate to reach out to us! Use the contact form or leave us a comment down below!
New Lightroom Guy Website:
Same Great Content + More!
It has been a long road, but we finally have our new Lightroom Guy website up and running! As many of our regular readers know, we offer a number of professional services relating to digital photography, computers, software and travel. As our tagline indicates, we offer “Expert Support for Digital Photography.”
While our old website was great for putting our blog posts forward, it wasn’t always clear that we operate as a professional services company. Indeed, our website is our primary source for getting in touch with new clients. So, we wanted to make it clear to people visiting the site that we are more than just a blog.
The New Site & The Blog
We will continue to devote a good amount of energy into writing blog posts that focus on practical and informative topics that provide a real value add for our readers. If your primary purpose for visiting our site is to read our blog, we will always keep a direct link from the home page to the blog as well as feature headlines from the last couple of posts. You can also bookmark a link directly to the new Lightroom Guy website blog using this URL:
https://lightroomguy.com/lightroom-guy-blog
Our Services
As for our professional services, you can read more about them on the Services page. Not too many folks out there specialize in what we do; no doubt that is why we are always so busy! And while a few talented photographers dabble on the side in teaching and supporting Lightroom, we look at the bigger picture and think about photography from end-to-end.
From the taking of photos, all the way through to the critical steps of backing up and archiving, we have you covered by providing expert level support. Sure, we teach tried and true developing processes and provide the support you need for making prints and books. However, at our core, we’ve helped hundreds of photographers by fixing their broken catalogs, removing duplicates and setting up best practices to make working with Lightroom a pleasure, not a task.
We Are Bespoke
While we’re Adobe Certified Experts in Lightroom, we don’t limit ourselves to dealing with only one software solution. We look holistically at the client and their needs and build solutions that work for them. Because no two photographers work the same way our services are bespoke to each person. We tailor our support based on our years of experience as professional photographers as well as the deep knowledge gained by working with thousands of clients over many years.
Travel
Part of the philosophy that drives us is the idea that everyone can become a better photographer by learning how to manage and develop their images. When we take a step back from that, we see that coaching our clients in the actual act of taking photos is a crucial part of that equation. Learning to decide which images are your best photos, guides you to making better decisions when you’re taking them. So, what better way to practice photography than to travel? =)
While we both travel a lot, putting together and running photography itineraries is a new part of our business. We are leading off with DA leading a photo trip to Greece in mid 2020 and David is working on a specialized photo safari in Tanzania for early Fall of 2020 … check out the Greece itinerary now and look for the safari itinerary, which will be posted soon, here on the new Lightroom Guy website!
Get In Touch
As always, we are here to support photographers in achieving their goals. We’re active in our local community, through the American Photographic Artists NYC chapter. And, we are always happy to answer questions and tackle your issues … we are just an email away!
Thanks for visiting the new Lightroom Guy website.
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