Today I thought I’d run the Lightroom Q&A column (from the Lightroom Queen herself, Victoria Bampton) from the October 2021 issue of Photoshop User magazine. Here ya go:

Q. Lightroom is asking to upgrade my catalog. Do I have to upgrade it and is it safe?

A. When Adobe releases a major Lightroom update (e.g., version 10.0 or 11.0), usually around October or November each year, a catalog upgrade is often needed to support one of the new features. The first time you open each Lightroom catalog after the update, Lightroom asks permission to upgrade to the new catalog format. If you want to use the new version, you do have to let it upgrade.

Good backups are always wise, but it’s generally a safe process. Lightroom takes a copy of your current catalog and upgrades the copy. You can select the new catalog name during the upgrade process but, by default, Lightroom adds the version number to the current catalog name, for example, Personal-v10.lrcat. The upgrade also renames the existing previews and sync data files to use with the upgraded catalog.

It’s worth keeping the old catalog for a while, just in case you come across a bug and need to roll back to the previous Lightroom version, but hopefully it won’t be needed!

Q. I don’t like to update to a new Lightroom release immediately, in case there are big bugs. How do I stop Creative Cloud automatically updating my Lightroom version?

A. That’s very sensible, particularly for the October/ November releases, which tend to include bigger changes. Since they require a catalog upgrade, it isn’t as easy to roll back to the previous release, compared to other smaller updates throughout the year.

To turn off Auto Update, open the Creative Cloud app, which usually lives in the menu bar (PC: system tray). Click your avatar at the top-right corner and select Preferences. In the Apps section, turn off the switch for Lightroom Classic and click Done to confirm. (In the example shown here, I have Photoshop and InDesign currently turned off.) If you want to turn off Auto Update for all the apps, click the Auto-Update switch.

When you’re ready to update, return to the Updates section in the Apps tab of the Creative Cloud app and click the Update button next to Lightroom Classic.

Q. I just imported a bunch of images and videos and I want to separate out the videos to move them to a different drive. I remember that there’s a quick way to filter the videos in the Grid view, but how? I can’t remember the steps.

A. If you wanted to search your whole catalog, you’d need to select All Photographs in the Catalog panel on the left. Since you only want to search the files you’ve just imported, you can select either Previous Import in the Catalog panel or the folder into which you imported the images in the Folders panel.

The Filter Bar should show at the top of the Grid view. If it’s missing, press the Backslash key (\) or go to View>Show Filter Bar.

To show only the videos, you’ll need to click on the Attribute option in the Filter Bar. The file type icons are the last ones to the right of the word “Kind.” The icons aren’t easy to distinguish, so from left to right, they are: Original Photos, Virtual Copies, and Videos. Click on the Videos icon to hide all of the images and just leave the videos visible.

Q. Is it possible to edit more than one image at the same time in Lightroom?

A. By default, even if multiple photos are selected, your Develop slider adjustments only apply to the active photo. If you want your adjustments to apply to all of the selected photos, you can enable Auto Sync.

To do this, select multiple photos and then toggle the switch next to the Sync button. The label changes to Auto Sync and the button is highlighted to make it more obvious. As you adjust the sliders, all of the selected photos are updated at the same time.

I should add one warning, however: Auto Sync is powerful but dangerous, as it’s easy to accidentally apply a setting to multiple photos without realizing that they’re all selected. It gets particularly confusing if you often switch between standard Sync and Auto

Sync. If you’re going to use Auto Sync, make sure you keep the Filmstrip visible so you can easily see the number of photos that are selected.

Q. I primarily work in Lightroom Classic, but I want to be able to share a collection as a web gallery. How do I do that?

A. If you don’t already have sync enabled in your Lightroom Classic catalog, start by clicking on the cloud icon at the very top right to show the Sync Activity, then click Start Syncing.

To sync a collection to the cloud, toggle the box to the left of the collection in the Collections panel and you’ll see a sync icon appear. Then, to get a link that you can share with friends or family, Right-click on the synced collection and choose Lightroom Links>Make Collection Public. This makes the collection accessible to other people, but only if you give them your secret link. The link is shown at the top of the Grid view, or you can select Copy Public Link in the same Right-click menu to copy it to the clipboard.

When someone visits the secret link, they can view the photos in Grid or Loupe view. If they sign in using an Adobe ID or social login (Google, Facebook, or Apple), they can also leave Likes and Comments on the photos, which show up in the Comments panel in your Lightroom catalog.

If you log into the Lightroom Web interface, there are additional sharing options for each collection. For example, you can allow your viewers to download photos, view additional metadata, change the gallery layout and color theme, or even add additional text describing the photos.

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There ya have it – thank you, Victoria! BTW: Photoshop User magazine is published on the first business day of the month for members of KelbyOne. It’s usually around 124 pages or so, and has tons of Lightroom and Photoshop tutorials, articles, reviews and news. For more on KelbyOne photography, Photoshop and Lightroom education, click right here.

Here’s wishing you a triple-fantastic week!

-Scott

P.S. It’s just two weeks to the Portrait Photography Conference. I’ve got some killer classes lined up, along with an absolutely top-notch instructor lineup – it’s going to be epic. Details and earlybird discount tickets right here.

The post Lightroom Room Q&A appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Beside my role as Editor/Publisher of Lightroom Magazine, I also write the Lightroom Q&A Column in each issue as well, and today I thought I’d share my Q&A from the current issue (it came out last week; we publish the mag 10 times a year for KelbyOne members). So, here’s my Q&A from the May 2020 issue.

Q. I heard there’s a way you can organize your images on Lightroom’s built-in Map, but I don’t see any way to do it. What am I missing?

A. Perhaps the coolest thing about Lightroom Classic’s Map module is that you don’t have to do anything if your images have GPS data embedded in them, because Lightroom will automatically add those images to the map. So if your camera has a built-in GPS feature, and you have that feature turned on, it auto-embeds the GPS location data right into your RAW or JPEG file, and then Lightroom does the rest for you. There’s nothing to do to make it happen: it just happens. So, go to the Map module, press Command-F (PC: Ctrl-F) to bring up the Search field, and type in a place where you’ve taken photos, and you’ll see a pin there (or many pins). Click on a pin and
it shows the images that were taken at that location. You can toggle through all the images using the little arrow buttons on either side of the preview. That’s all there is to it. You can also manually add images to the map. Simply select a collection in the Collections panel, and then drag the images from the Filmstrip to the location on the map where they were taken. Lightroom will automatically add the GPS information to the metadata of those images.

Q. I’m using Lightroom Classic and recently I also started using Lightroom for the cloud. What’s driving me crazy is that some of the keyboard shortcuts aren’t the same. Why would Adobe make them different?

A. There’s lots to cover here. First, Lightroom Classic and Lightroom Cloud (as I call it) weren’t designed to be used together. In fact, Adobe recommends choosing one or the other. They’re don’t sync fully with each other and mobile and, well, it just creates some issues that will drive you even crazier. Once we get past that, yes, Adobe did change some of the keyboard shortcuts, and I honestly have no idea why (prank?). If it’s any consolation, as someone who has to teach both versions (though my workflow is based on Classic, and that’s what I use on a day-to-day
basis), it drives me crazy, too.

Q. I went on holiday last summer to a country in a different time zone, and I forgot to change the time setting in my camera, so all of the shots have the wrong time that they were taken. Is there a way to fix this?

A. You bet. In the Library module, first select all the images that you want to adjust their time, then go under the Metadata menu up top, and choose Edit Capture Time (as shown above).

When the Edit Capture Time dialog appears, you can choose from three types of adjustments. With the first option, you can change the capture time to any time and date you want. In your case, you’re probably going to want the second option, which is to shift the capture time by the number of time zones. (The shot on the next page was taken in Hong Kong, which is 12 hours ahead of the Eastern US where I live, so I’d shift it +12 from the pop-up menu on the right.)

The final option allows you to change the time to the file’s creation date. Each option shows you a before and after so you can clearly see the time change before you make it. When it looks right to you, click the Change button and you’re set. Note: It warns you in the Edit Capture Time dialog that this change “cannot be undone,” but actually, yes it can! Right there in the Metadata menu is a command called Revert Capture Time to Original (as seen above). So, well, there’s that.

Q. I’ve been editing and organizing my images in Lightroom [classic] on my laptop for a while now, and I’d like to combine what I’ve done on my laptop with the rest of my image on my computer at home. Is there an easy way to do this?

A. There actually is. First, I’m assuming that all your images are on an external hard drive. If that’s the case, it’s really easy. Just drag your Lightroom catalog folder over onto that external drive; plug that drive into your home computer; fire up Lightroom on your home computer and then go under the File Menu and choose ‘Import from Another Catalog.”

Go info that folder you copied over to your external hard drive; find your catalog file (it will have the file extension ‘.lrcat’) and choose to import that. This will bring up another dialog asking you which photos you want to import from that catalog. You want them all, so click Import and now your two catalogs are combined into one, and all your edits are intact. Easy right? Well, we’re not done yet. You moved the catalog, but not the photos, so drag all the folders of images onto your desktop computer (or hopefully onto the external hard drive you have connected to your desktop computer). So now the catalogs are combined and the photos are now over on your home computer. Easy right? We’re still not done.

You moved the photos from their old location on your laptop (or the external drive you use with your laptop), but Lightroom doesn’t know that. So, when you go to your desktop computer’s Lightroom catalog, and click on an image that used to be on your laptop, in the Develop module you’ll see, “The file could not be found.” It still thinks those photos are on that other drive. Easy fix: Go to Lightroom’s Folder panel in the Library module, and you’ll see question marks on your missing folders. Right-click on one of the missing folders, and select Find Missing Folder. It will show you a path to where your photo used to be. You just have to show it where those images are now (where you put that folder on your desktop computer). Once you show it where you moved the folder, it then relinks all the images in that folder and you’re back to business. Now, if you moved 20 folders, you might have to relink all 20, but it’ll only take a couple of minutes. There ya go!
Anyway, here’s how to get rid of it: At the bottom of the image preview, you’ll see a gray horizontal Toolbar (if you don’t see it, press the letter T on your keyboard to make it visible). When you have the White Balance Selector tool (W) active, you’ll see a checkbox for Show Loupe. Turn off that checkbox, and your life just got that much better.

Q. When I use the White Balance eyedropper tool, there’s a grid of squares that appears below the tool. I find that grid really distracting. Do I need it, and if I don’t, is there a way to make it go away?

A. You don’t need it. It is annoying (distracting, maddening, etc.), and yes, you can get rid of it. First, what it was designed to do is help you find a neutral color to use for setting your white balance. Theoretically, you’d be
looking for all three of the R, G, B numbers at the bottom of the grid to be the same so you’d know the pixel your mouse is currently over is a neutral color. If you think that sounds dumb, you’re not alone.

Q. I have a lot of images in my catalog, and maybe that’s why my Lightroom is starting to feel sluggish. Is there a way I can speed things back up? Do I maybe have too many previews because my catalog file size is pretty large? What can I do?

A. The first thing you might try is to optimize your catalog. It doesn’t take long and could really make a difference. Go under Lightroom’s File menu and choose Optimize Catalog. This will bring up a dialog telling you the last time you optimized your catalog (be prepared for a shock for how long it’s been), and then just hit the Optimize button and take a snack break. When you come back, hopefully things will be running a lot smoother. If they’re not, go read my article called “If Your Lightroom Is Running Slow, It’s Probably One of These 7 Reasons” right here at LightroomKillerTips.com.

Q. I was watching one of your classes online and I saw you bring up a side-by-side, before-and-after view of the image on which you were working. How were you doing that?

A. Lightroom’s before and after feature is actually fairly advanced, and there are all sorts of ways to see your before and after (side-by-side top or bottom, and split top or bottom). These views are all selected from the button in the Toolbar that appears along the bottom of your image work area (it’s the one with the letter Ys); however, I rarely use that button.
You can quickly get to the standard side-by-side before/after view by pressing the letter Y on your keyboard. To get back to the normal view, press Y again (the shortcut is easy to remember because the button itself shows the letter Y). I like this one because it’s so fast, and saves you from having to toggle through all the different before/after views just to get back
to the normal view, or click any other buttons. Just one simple key in, same key out. Note: If the letter Y takes you to a split view, click on the before and after button until you have one of the side-by-side views.

Hope you found that helpful.

Have a great weekend, everybody – stay safe, and we’ll catch ya here next week.

-Scott

The post Scott’s Lightroom Q&A appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Beside my role as Editor/Publisher of Lightroom Magazine, I also write the Q&A Column in each issue as well, and today I thought I’d share my Q&A from the current issue (it came out last week; we publish the magazine 10 times a year for KelbyOne members, and the questions I’m answering below are from members). So, here’s my Q&A from the February 2020 issue.

Q. I’ve been using a Nikon 800E and Lightroom 6 for the past five years. I’ve recently purchased a Nikon 850 and so far so good, until I try importing into Lightroom. It tells me Lightroom can’t read my photos. Is there a button I haven’t pressed, or is it that the 850 has so many more pixels than the 800E and, therefore, Lightroom needs to be upgraded?

A. Don’t worry, it’s not you. Well, at least it’s not a but- ton you didn’t press; it’s a camera you bought. Adobe doesn’t go back and update old software to support the latest cameras (Lightroom 6 is nearly five years old, which is a lifetime for software). The latest versions of Lightroom (Lightroom Classic and Lightroom cloud) both support the Nikon D850 natively, and you can import and work with your images no problem. That’s why it tells you that “you have to upgrade” because only the current versions of Lightroom support that new camera. Now, there is a way around it. It’s kind of a pain, but it works. Go to Adobe’s website, download the free DNG Converter, convert all the images you take with your D850 to the Adobe .dng format, and then you’ll be able to import them into Lightroom 6. My advice to you: You spent all that money to buy a really awesome camera body—spend the $10/month and use the latest versions of both Lightroom and Photoshop. It’s the deal of the year (well, the deal of this millennium so far), and besides just opening your D850 photos, you’ll get a ton of new features and a much faster Lightroom all around.

Q. My questions relate to which versions of Photoshop and Lightroom I should use. I don’t want to save all my Photoshop files in the cloud. Does Photoshop 2020 do that? I use external drives to save my files, unless I sync a collection in Lightroom Classic, of course. So, should I use Photoshop 2020 or not?

A. Don’t worry, the cloud storage stuff is for Lightroom cloud, not Photoshop 2020, so you can just save your files to your computer or external drive like always. (You do have an option to save files in Photoshop 2020 to Cloud Documents, if you choose.) If you want to continue using your external hard drive for storing your photos (that’s what I do), then you’ll want to use Lightroom Classic. If you prefer to store your images in Adobe’s Cloud, then choose “Lightroom” (that’s it’s latest name, no word after it, like cloud or anything—just “Lightroom”).

Q. I use Lightroom Classic on my macOS 10.14.6. Can I email photos directly from Lightroom?

A. Luckily, you can email any image directly from Lightroom Classic itself. In the Library module, select the image (or images) you want to email, go under Lightroom’s File menu, and choose Email Photo.

This brings up an email dialog that’s conveniently tied to your default email application. Your image(s) is already attached to your email so all you have to do is enter to whom you want to send the photo, what quality you want the image to be sent (from the Preset pop-up menu at the bottom of the window), and send it on its way.

Q. I recall you said something about a new feature in Lightroom or Photoshop that helps address camera blur from low shutter speed or shaking hands (not from the subject moving). I don’t remember if I heard it from you in the seminar I took this year, or read it in one of your Lightroom or Photoshop books (and I have a lot of them). Can you tell me what the feature is called?

A. It was in my seminar, so the good news is that it’s in the workbook we gave you at the seminar. The feature is in Photoshop and it’s called “Shake Reduction.” It’s found under the Filter menu, under Sharpen. The nice thing about this filter is that when you open it, it analyzes the image and tries to automatically fix any camera shake it sees. If you see another area that needs analyzing, you can just drag out a Blur Trace region around it, and it will analyze that area, as well. It’s not perfect every time, but it’s saved my bacon on more than one occasion.

Q. I send my images to Bay Photo to be printed. Should I send them as JPEGs or some other format? On a standard print, say, 8×10″, what should the resolution and dimensions be? Do bigger prints, such as a pano, require higher resolution and dimensions? And what if I want to put a picture on a website? As you can tell, I’m in the dark (darkroom) on this printing and resolution stuff.

A. I’ll try to answer some of these here, but we have a bunch of courses on this type of stuff you can watch (seeing as you’re a KelbyOne member, and all), including one I did on How to Make Beautiful Prints in Lightroom Classic, which is my preferred program for printing (instead of Photoshop, or really anything else). So, I’d definitely start with that course, and then check out some of our other printing classes. All that being said, here goes: Yes, you can send images in JPEG format (well, that’s what I do). Just save it at a Quality setting of 10 if you’re saving the image from Photoshop, or 80% if you’re using Lightroom. For resolution, you’re safe using 240 ppi (again, that’s what I use). If you upload the files to Bay Photo, and you don’t have enough resolution to print the image for the size you chose, they’ll let you know. If you’re making really large prints, however, you should resize the images using Photoshop (ideally in Camera Raw from the RAW image). This is more than can be covered in this short Q&A, but again, watch the classes. As far as the web goes, the main thing is to save the file in the sRGB color space so the colors don’t look all washed out when you view them on the web. So, at least that’s a start. Now, off to watch those classes, eh?

Q. I have a question about your SLIM System. I tend to go back to photograph the same places or events multiple times, and I’m wondering how you organize those images in subfolders. For example, in the SLIM system, I’d have a folder setup like this: Images/Landscapes/Italy; however, I go back to Italy on a yearly basis. You mention that it isn’t worth sorting by date, so how would you go about managing those images?

A. In those cases, I might name collections “Italy 2020,” or “Italy with the Kids,” or “Italy Workshop,” anything that helps me tell one from the other. If you go to Italy every year, there’s nothing wrong with adding just the year to the descriptive name (I do that myself in some cases); not the day, not the month, just “Italy 2019” or “Italy summer 2019” if you went twice that year.

Q. When I select multiple photos in the Library module, and then apply a single keyword, it only puts the key- word on the first selected photo. I’ve done this many times before and it marked all the images with that keyword. What am I doing wrong?

A. Well, without actually watching you do it, it’s hard to tell, but if you select multiple photos in the Grid view (G), then head over to the Keywording panel and type a keyword in the field, it should apply that key- word to all the selected photos (I double-checked just in case). So there are a few possibilities:

(1) Something has gone funky with Lightroom (hey, it happens), in which case just quit Lightroom and restart it. My guess is that the weirdness will be gone.

(2) You did some- thing wrong that you didn’t realize you were doing. This happens to all of us, but I’m still thinking it’s #1.

(3) If the issue still persists, quit Lightroom and reset its preferences, because it’s possible that the preferences have become corrupt, and resetting them (replacing them with a factory-fresh set of preferences) will usually fix the issue. To do this, quit Lightroom, hold Shift-Option- Command (PC: Shift-Alt), and relaunch Lightroom. When the Reset Lightroom Preferences dialog pops up, choose Reset Preferences. That should do the trick.

I hope you found that helpful.

Stop back by tomorrow just in case there’s any big news (hey, ya never know), and Wednesday for another “Lightroom in 60-seconds” quick tip video.

-Scott

P.S. I’m off to San Diego tomorrow for my “Ultimate Photography Crash Course” seminar on Wed, and then in Phoenix on Thursday. Nearly 500 photographers are coming out – if you’re not signed up, it’s not too late. Here’s the link for tickets and more info.

The post How ‘Bout a Lightroom Q&A Today? appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Before and After

For those of us coming from the Lightroom Classic world we are used to buttons and the experience of using a cursor that when hovered over said buttons will pop up a tooltip giving the name of the button (and possibly other information). Here in the world of touch interfaces things don’t work the same way. Displaying the before and after view is a good example of this. The After view is the view you see while you are making edits. To quickly toggle to the Before view, simply long press (press and hold) the photo until you see it switch to the Before view, then release and you are right back to the After view.

Gesture Shortcuts

You might rightfully wonder how you would learn about those sorts of gesture shortcuts if you hadn’t read about it somewhere, well, let me tell you. Tap the settings icon (top-right) to open the Settings panel, then tap Gesture Shortcuts to see what’s available.

Learning More

Likely due to both the relative newness of the cloud-based Lightroom and rapid pace of its development there currently aren’t as many third-party learning resources (i.e. books) for it as there are for Lightroom Classic. However, the cloud-based Lightroom has something that Lightroom Classic does not, which is built-in tutorials.

The recently added Home (iOS phone and tablet / Android phone only last I checked) screen provides quick access to your most recently added photos as well as two new ways to learn how to edit in the app.

The first option you’ll encounter as you scroll down the page are the Interactive Tutorials. These tutorials have been created by leading educators in the industry. What’s so unique about these is that they literally walk you through an entire edit, prompting you with guidance for each step as you go.

You can’t help but be exposed to the various tools and functions within the app, and all the while you get to look over the shoulder of an expert as they edit. Very cool.

Scrolling down past the Interactive Tutorials are the Inspiring Edits waiting to be discovered. With these, you can sit back and watch the edits happen as the photo is processed, and if you want to see exactly what is being done, just swipe up from the bottom and manually scroll through each editing step.

To learn even more, tap back on that Settings icon we visited earlier (top-right) and then on the Settings panel, tap Help & Support. Here you’ll have access to FAQs, the Adobe support forum, and Adobe Customer Care. There is a ton of information packed into the FAQs and the Adobe forum is a great place to go if you are having problems with the app or your account. Take a few minutes to explore some of those interactive and inspiring tutorials to help you get the most out of this quickly evolving family of apps.

The post Lesser Known Things About Lightroom for Mobile appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

One: A New Way to Lose Folders

With every new feature comes a new way to miss a trick. With the Lightroom 7.4 update we were given the ability to apply color labels to folders, and then filter the folders by whether they have a label or not. This can be a useful feature for some, but just remember, when you filter your Folders panel by Labeled Folders it hides the non-labeled folders. To reveal them all again, click that (very teeny tiny) disclosure triangle next to the magnifying glass at the top of the Folders pane, and choose All.

Two: Can’t Add New Photos to Book

Let’s say you put a bunch of photos into a collection, then headed off to the Book module to create a book. You’re making good progress creating your pages and your layouts, and then you realize you want to add more photos to this book than just the ones you started with. How do you get those additional photos into the book?

1. Click Create Saved Book (in the Book module) to create a special collection that saves those photos and your book settings together.
2. Press G to switch to Grid view of Library.
3. Drag/drop any additional photos into the new saved book collection (in the Collections panel) that you want to add to book.
4. Double-click the icon on the saved book collection to jump back to that book in the Book module.
5. Create new pages, and drag/drop the photos into the new pages.

Keep on book making!

Three: Tablet Mode?

Ok, this one is really only for people with tablet computers running Windows 10 (such as the Surface or Wacom’s Mobile Studio Pro). Quite awhile back Adobe released a “Touch Workspace” for these types of tablet computers, and it made certain tasks easier for people with those devices. Sadly, a bug has rendered that mode unusable since Lightroom 7.3. So, if you have one of those types of computers, I know Adobe is aware of the issue, but I don’t have any idea of when a fix will be released. Hopefully soon.

Four: Camera not supported for tethering

This is an old one, but it comes up all the time. You want to shoot tethered to Lightroom, but your camera is not supported by Lightroom (here’s the complete list of supported cameras), a feature you need is not included with Lightroom’s tethering, or Lightroom’s tethering just doesn’t work as well as you would like. How else can you efficiently get those photos into Lightroom? Well, you can find another application for controlling the camera (such as from your camera manufacturer) and then use Lightroom’s Auto Import function, which I’ve outlined how to use on a previous blog post. This combo can (potentially) give you wider camera support, more features, and more stability. Give it a shot.

Five: Can’t see parent folders

A common trip point for new Lightroom users is the moment after importing new photos and only seeing the name of the folder containing the photos in the Folders panel, instead of the entire folder structure above that folder. We have to remember that Lightroom is not a file browser, and it only displays what has been through the import process. However it is easy-peasy-lemon-squeezy to reveal parent folders. Here’s how:

1. Right-click the folder you do see in the Folders panel to access the contextual menu.
2. Choose Show Parent Folder.
3. Repeat as needed to reveal the desired level of folders.

The post Lightroom Classic Help Desk Roundup appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

I had this question more than once at my Lightroom seminar a couple of weeks ago, and even though I’ve talked about this before, there’s still plenty of folks out there who have “cancellation anxiety” so I thought I’d update the post for Lightroom Classic.

If you cancel (at the end of your 1-year subscription) here’s what happens:

When you take an image to the Develop Module, you get the warning you see above letting you know that the Develop Module is disabled. Here’s what it says:

Develop module is disabled.
Please purchase a membership or license to reactivate the Develop module.
If you have a serial number to enter, please sign out from the Help menu and sign in again, then click License This Software.

Q. So, the Develop Module gets disabled. What else?
A. Just two other things: the Map Module (Adobe has to pay Google a fee for each licensed user, so if you’re not paying Adobe, they won’t want to pay Google for nuthin’. Don’t blame ’em). The other thing is syncing images from Lightroom Classic to Lightroom on your mobile device. Outside of that, the rest of Lightroom still works like always.

Q. What about saving files, or printing, or making new collections or slideshows?
A. They all still work. You can Print, you can Export JPEGs, you can organize — just those few things I mentioned earlier are disabled.

Q. Does Quick Develop in the Library Module still work?
A. Oddly, yes. It still works, because it’s in the Library Module.

Q. Wow, that’s really surprising that much still works.
A. I hear that all the time. I think it’s a very fair way for Adobe to handle it, and for some folks, it really took a level of worry away about subscribing in the first place.

Hope you found that helpful.

-Scott

P.S. If you’re in the Raleigh or Lansing, Michigan areas, that’s where I’m going to be next with my Lightroom seminar. It’s just $99 for the full day, including a detailed printed workbook and other goodies you’ll totally dig. Come on out and spend the day with me.  

The post What Happens If You Cancel Your Lightroom Classic Subscription? appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

I had this question last week at one of my seminars from someone who wanted to make the jump to CC (he was on Lightroom 5), but he was concerned about getting locked out of everything if he didn’t like it and wanted to cancel down the road. So I thought I’d address it here.

Hey, before we get to that, some quick news: I know many of you know French photographer and Lightroom trainer Serge Ramelli — yesterday we released our first full-length Lightroom course with Serge on post processing Cityscapes (it’s mostly Lightroom with a little bit of Photoshop). He is the master of cityscapes, and we’re already getting awesome feedback on his course.

Here’s the link to check it out yourself (and here’s Serge himself in the official trailer below).

Thanks, Serge. Now, onto what happens if you cancel your Lightroom CC subscription. Here’s what happens:

When you take an image to the Develop Module, you get the warning you see above letting you know that the Develop Module is disabled. Here’s what it says:

Develop module is disabled.

Please purchase a membership or license to reactivate the Develop module.

If you have a serial number to enter, please sign out from the Help menu and sign in again, then click License This Software.

Q. So, the Develop Module gets disabled. What else?
A. Just two other things: the Map Module (Adobe has to pay Google a fee for each licensed user, so if you’re not paying Adobe, they won’t want to pay Google for nuthin’. Don’t blame ’em). The other thing is syncing images from Desktop Lightroom to Lightroom Mobile. Outside of that, the rest of Lightroom still works like always.

Q. What about saving files, or printing, or making new collections or slideshows?
A. They all still work. You can Print, you can Export JPEGs, you can organize — just those few things I mentioned earlier are disabled.

Q. Does Quick Develop in the Library Module still work?
A. Oddly, yes. It still works, because it’s in the Library Module.

Q. Wow, that’s really surprising that much still works.
A. I hear that all the time. I think it’s a very fair way for Adobe to handle it, and for some folks, it really took a level of worry away about subscribing to the CC versions in the first place.

Hope you found that helpful.

Also, hope you get a chance to check out Serge’s class this weekend – I think you’ll really get a lot out of it. More to come from Serge at KelbyOne (and of course, he’s teaching in our Lightroom track at Photoshop World 2018 in Orlando).

Have a great weekend everybody and we’ll see you back here on Monday!

-Scott

P.S. If you’re into guitars (and who isn’t, right?), I’m the guest tonight on EVHgearTV (a live show based around Eddie Van Halen’s line of guitars and amps). Best as I can tell, we’ll be talking about guitars and music and more guitars, and Van Halen and guitars, and a little photography talk, then back to guitars and amps and volume and reverb, and distortion and fun!  Here’s the link to tune in. It’s free! 9:00 PM tonight EDT. It’s gonna rock!

The post What Happens If Cancel Your Lightroom CC Subscription? appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

First, I want to give a very warm welcome to our awesome new columnist here on LightroomKillerTips.com, Lightroom expert extraordinaire Mr. Rob Sylvan. His new column will appear here on Wednesdays, and he kicked it off with a BANG last week, with an awesome article on creating Filter Presets (something I know I’ve never covered here, but they’re so helpful). Here’s the link in case you missed it. Hope you all will make Rob feel right at home.

Anyway, I’m so glad to have Rob here sharing his Lightroom love with you guys. #robrules!

OK, onto three questions I still get asked a lot about Lightroom CC:

Q. Do have to keep Lightroom 5 or Lightroom 6 on my computer after I upgrade to CC?
A. No, you do not. You can run the uninstaller that should be right there beside your old Lightroom application to remove your old version — you don’t have to have an old version to run the new version. A copy of your previous Lightroom 6 catalog will be updated to be compatible with the latest CC version, so all your sorting, edits, metadata, etc., will all still be intact.

Q. Does running Lightroom in a browser work OK?
A. You don’t run it in a browser — you download it to your computer just like you would any other application. Don’t let the name “Creative Cloud” throw you — just think of it as the “Adobe Online Store” where you download applications like Lightroom and Photoshop, which run just like they always did — right on your computer, in the days before the words “Creative Cloud.” By the way — I still get asked this question multiple times at every single seminar I do, so don’t feel bad if you didn’t know either.

Q. What happens to my photos if at some point I stop my CC subscription? What happens to my copy of Lightroom?
A. You store your images on your computer (or hopefully an external hard drive) just like always, so if you decide to stop your subscription, your photos will all be right where you left them. As for what happens to your copy of Lightroom CC — it’s really just one main thing — they turn off your Develop module. All your changes, edits, collections, metadata — even the ability to print, export images, sort images, create slideshows, etc. all work. So do all the other modules except Develop with the possible exception (if I remember correctly, which there’s a 50/50 chance here I’m wrong/right here) of the Map module. If I remember correctly it was because the Map module uses a commercially licensed version of Google Maps, and Adobe would still get charged for your use of it even though you’re no longer paying to be a subscriber, so I think that gets disabled too, but again, I’m not 100% sure on the Maps part.

Well, I hope that helps answer a few questions I get still get asked quite a bit.

Hope you all have an awesome Monday, and if you come back here tomorrow, I’ll bet you’ll be glad you did.

Best,

-Scott

P.S. Did you see this? (Below) – that’s where I’m going next with my Lightroom On Tour full-day seminar. Come on out and spend the day with me. It’s $89 if you sign up early. Only $99 if ya don’t. Include lots of awesome freebies and it’s 100% money back guaranteed if it doesn’t totally rock (don’t worry, it will totally rock).

The post Three Questions About Lightroom CC I Still Get a Lot appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

With the newest release of Lightroom 6.2 – there have been users that are experiencing issues with the program. From random hangs to force quits – it would seem that the experiences are focused on the newest Mac OS release of El Capitan – but this is just my opinion on it.

In the interest of trying to help this along I figured I would do a short video talking about the things that could help your installation of Lightroom. Should they not – I show you how to uninstall the application and roll it back with the 6.1 release.

Hopefully this will help you guys out there. Let us know if we can help futher.

Thanks!
RC

The post Having Problems w Lightroom 6.2? Rolling Back the Update (Video) appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Happy Monday everybody!

Just wanted to let you KelbyOne members out there to know that I’ve kicked off a new Lightroom Q&A column in Lightroom magazine (this is our new “magazine within a magazine” that comes inside each issue of Photoshop User magazine, which is published in print and digital 10-times a year for KelbyOne members. 

In the magazine I’m answering many of the great questions that are posted here by you, our LightroomKillerTips.com readers  (thank you for that), so if you’re a KelbyOne member, keep an eye out for the new issue of Photoshop User, and my new column in Lightroom Magazine.”

Hope you all have a great Monday, and make sure you stop back by tomorrow – I’ve got some really cool stuff lined up!

Best,

-Scott

The post My New Q&A Column in “Lightroom Magazine” appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.