Lightroom Articles

Cheat Sheet / Updated 03-14-2022

If you're new to Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic, you'll be eager to discover its exciting possibilities. Use this Cheat Sheet to get the most out of Adobe Lightroom Classic, get to know the ins and outs of Grid view and the Library module toolbar, discover keyboard shortcuts, and, if you run into a problem, get Adobe Lightroom Classic help by following the troubleshooting steps.

Article / Updated 10-04-2019

After you process your photos in Adobe Lightroom Classic (like a pro!), you’re ready to send them out into the world. That means it’s export time! The humble Export dialog punches a great deal of power, and with a little practice, you can harness all it has to offer. Employing an export workflow Lightroom Classic (as you’ve probably figured out by now) is a workflow application, and within the larger workflow of taking your photos from input to output, there exist many smaller workflows within workflows. Export is no exception. Here are the basic steps: Select the images you want to export. Initiate the Export command. Configure settings as needed to meet your output needs. (Optional) Save settings as a preset for reuse. Step 1: Selecting the images you want to export The photos you select for export are determined by your needs at the time. You can export images from within any Lightroom Classic module, but the Library module gives you the greatest access to your entire portfolio and exporting from there usually makes the most sense. So, if you’re not there already, press G to jump to the Library’s Grid view. From here, you have access to all your folders and collections, as well as the Library Filter bar, meaning that you can go ahead and track down the images you want. (Go ahead; take your time.) After you locate the images you want to export, you can select them by any of the following methods: Pressing Command  +A (Ctrl+A for Windows) to select all photos within a folder or other grouping of photos. Clicking the first image in a series, holding the Shift key, and clicking the last image in the series to select all images in between. Holding the Command   key (Ctrl key for Windows) and clicking each image individually to make a noncontiguous selection. Step 2: Initiating the Export command After you select the images, you can initiate an export from any module (except where noted) through the following means: Choose File→ Launches the Export dialog. Choose File→Export with Previous. Skips the Export dialog and simply exports selected files by using the settings from the last export. Choose File → Export with Preset → Select Preset. Allows you to select a preset and export without additional configuration of the Export dialog. Press Command  +Shift+E (Ctrl+Shift+E for Windows). Keyboard shortcut that launches the Export dialog. Press Command  +Option+Shift+E (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+E for Windows). Keyboard shortcut for Export with Previous. Right-click a selected photo and choose one of the previously mentioned export options from the contextual menu that appears. Click the Export button at the bottom of the left panel in the Library module. Only visible in the Library module, but comes in handy. Use the keyboard shortcuts in your export workflow as soon and as often as possible. They’ll be second nature before you know it, and they’re great time-savers. Step 3: Configuring settings to meet your output needs The first choice you’re going to make is if you plan to export to your hard drive, to a CD/DVD burner (if you even still have one!), an email or some export plug-in you’ve installed. Your most common choice will be Hard Drive. From there, you configure all the panels relating to the choice you made. While additional panels will appear with different export plug-ins, they are too specific and varied to be covered here; I focus only on the panels that come with the hard drive, as that covers the most options. THE EXPORT LOCATION PANEL The Export Location panel, shown here, is used to configure where you want to save a batch of copies on your hard drive. Even if you ultimately burn these copies to DVD or hand them off to another application, Lightroom Classic first needs to save the copies to your hard drive. Where you choose to save the files is driven by two factors: how you manage your files and what you determine your output needs to be. The Export To drop-down menu provides a few options for designating a location: Specific Folder: When you select this option, you can point Lightroom Classic to any folder on your disk. Just make sure it has enough free space to hold all the new copies. Click the Choose button and navigate to the folder you want to use. Same Folder As Original Photo: This option does exactly what it describes, which is to put your exported copies back into the same folder as the original. Choose Folder Later: This option is useful when you’re creating presets and don’t want to hard-code a specific location into the preset. When you use a preset, Lightroom Classic prompts you to provide a location. User Locations: Below those options will be a list of common user locations like Desktop, Documents, Home, Movies, and Pictures folders to make it easy to select. After you choose the location for the export, you have a few additional options to consider: Put in Subfolder: This option allows you to create a subfolder within the designated export location. Check the box and enter a name for the subfolder in the corresponding text field. Add to This Catalog: Think of this as an Automatic Import option. After your copies are exported, they appear inside Lightroom Classic without your having to go through the Import dialog. Add to Stack: Stacking is a function that allows you to arrange groups of photos under a single thumbnail for organizational purposes. This option is only available when you’re exporting copies back to the same exact folder as the originals (and not putting them in a subfolder). When checked, the exported photos appear stacked with the source photos when you view that folder in Lightroom Classic. Because you may export photos into a folder that already contains other photos, you must tell Lightroom Classic how to handle situations where your exported copies have the same name and are the same file type as the existing photos. You have four options under the Existing Files drop-down menu: Ask What to Do: This option is the safest option and the one recommended. If such a situation occurs, Lightroom Classic prompts you for further instructions and then you choose one of the other three options. Choose a New Name for the Exported File: In this case, Lightroom Classic simply appends a new sequence number to the end of the exported file, so you end up with two copies of the same file but with unique names. Overwrite WITHOUT WARNING: Does what it says (and it even uses all caps in the drop-down menu). Only choose this option if you are really sure it is what you want to do. Note that Lightroom Classic does not allow you to overwrite the source photos, so don’t choose this option thinking you can export copies with Lightroom Classic adjustments and save over the existing source files — it won’t work. Skip: If you choose this option, no new copy is created (that is, Lightroom Classic skips the file) when an existing file with the same filename is encountered. THE FILE NAMING PANEL In many cases, you’ll want to maintain name consistency between your source files and your exported copies. By simply choosing the Filename template, you can achieve just that. Other times, you may want to use custom names that are completely different or perhaps some variation of the original name, as shown. In any case, because you’re always creating copies, you must tell Lightroom Classic how you want them named, and just as when you use the Import command or rename files in the Library module, Lightroom Classic uses filename templates to do it. Click the Template drop-down list and choose one of the installed templates, or you can click Edit and create a custom filename template using the good old Filename Template Editor. THE VIDEO PANEL If you have a video file selected for export, you need to check the Include Video Files check box to access the (limited) format options for video, as shown. DPX: A lossless format suited for sending to professional video editing tools (like Adobe Premiere). Choose this only if you know it is required. 264: Good for exporting compressed video files for viewing and sharing. A description of each quality setting appears under it when selected. Original, unedited file: Produces an exact copy of the original. THE FILE SETTINGS PANEL Choose your file format based on your output needs (such as choosing JPEG for photos going on a website). Some formats require additional settings. Here’s a list of the formats and their options: JPEG: When you choose the JPEG (or JPG) format, you also need to choose the level of compression to be applied to each JPEG file. You make this selection by using the Quality slider, as shown in the following figure. The higher the quality value, the less compression — and the larger the file size. JPEG compression is always a tradeoff between file size and image quality. If you’re not too concerned about file size, leave it set around 90. The Limit File Size To option is useful if you need to achieve a specific file size in bytes, but keep in mind that you may need to also reduce the pixel dimensions when exporting large files. PSD: PSD is Photoshop’s native file format. You can choose between 8- and 16-bit. TIFF: TIFF is a widely supported format. Use the panel’s Compression drop-down list to pick one of the lossless compression options. “None” is pretty straightforward; ZIP and LZW reduce the file size, but the length of time to open and close the file increases. (Note that not all image editors can open compressed TIFF files. Also note that only the ZIP compression option is available with 16-bit files.) If your photo contains transparent pixels and you want to keep them in the exported copy, check the Save Transparency box. DNG: This is Adobe’s open format for raw (unprocessed by the camera) photos. Note that the Use Lossy Compression option is occasionally useful for situations in which you want to keep the exported copy as a DNG file while also reducing its pixel dimensions by using the options in the Image Sizing panel. Original: Selecting Original from the drop-down list results in the creation of an exact copy of your source image. (Raw and DNG photos will include Lightroom Classic edits in the photo’s XMP metadata.) No additional file settings are available with this option. Two additional options, which appear only when you choose JPEG, TIFF, and PSD formats, warrant a separate discussion. (Raw files are always 16-bit and don’t have a color space.) Color Space: A photo’s color space is what determines the range of possible colors it can contain. You need to decide what color space you want these copies converted into during the export process. Your choice of color space is determined by the reason you are exporting these copies to begin with and where they will be used. Here’s a look at your choices: sRGB: This color space contains the narrowest range of colors and is the standard for exporting photos destined for the web. It’s also used by some print services. AdobeRGB (1998): Contains a wider range of colors than sRGB and is most often used when additional editing or printing is the next destination for your files. ProPhoto RGB: Contains the widest range of colors and should only be used with 16-bit files. (I discuss bit depth in the next boldfaced bullet.) This is the best option when you want to retain all the color information that was in your source files. Not recommended when delivering copies destined for the web or anyone not used to working with ProPhoto color space. Other: While the previous three options are the most common, there may also be advanced situations where you need to convert your files to a custom color space for printing purposes. Consult your print service to see whether it provides or requires custom profiles, and it will help you get them installed. By choosing Other, you’ll be taken to the Choose Profiles dialog, where you can select a color profile. Bit Depth: Bit depth determines the amount of data a file contains. The higher the bit depth, the more data is contained in the file (which also means its file size is going to be larger too). If you’re working with raw files, you’re working with 16-bit files. If you’re working with JPEG files, you’re working with 8-bit files. During export, you have the option of saving PSD and TIFF files as 16-bit. If you choose JPG, bit depth is grayed out, but know that JPEGs are all 8-bit by default. Saving files in 16-bit only makes sense when both the source files were originally 16-bit and when the output needs require this original data (such as when you plan to archive the exported copies to DVD or edit them in some other image editor). In all other situations, 8-bit is the more common choice. THE IMAGE SIZING PANEL Sometimes, you need to save your exported copies in a different size from the source photos, such as when you want to email them or put them in a web page. To do so, you use options in the Image Sizing panel (see the following figure). Lightroom Classic can make the exported images smaller or larger than the original images — a process known as resampling. The six options for resizing your exports are Width & Height: The values entered for width and height define the maximum amount each side can be resized to fit while maintaining original aspect ratio. Dimensions: This option resizes exported images to fit within the entered dimensions while maintaining aspect ratio. When this option is selected, height and width are no longer associated with the values fields. You just enter the maximum dimensions you want the images resized to fit, and Lightroom Classic does the rest regardless of orientation. Megapixels: If you need to resize to a specific total number of pixels (width times height), this is your option. Long Edge and Shortest Edge: These options function in the same manner. You set the maximum value for the edge in question, and Lightroom Classic resizes all images to fit. Percentage: This option is useful when you want to create exported copies that are a certain percentage smaller than the original. Check the Don’t Enlarge box to prevent an image from being resampled larger than its original pixel dimensions. (This option is grayed out when Resize to Fit is unchecked.) If your output needs require your photos to print at a specific size and at a specific number of pixels per inch (PPI), you can set its resolution value — the metadata tag used by software to determine how big the printed file appears. For example, the value of 300 PPI is commonly requested by print services, in which case you would enter 300 and choose pixels per inch. 300 PPI is always a safe choice, but if your photos are destined for the web only, this value is meaningless and can be ignored. THE OUTPUT SHARPENING PANEL I love having the ability to add sharpening tailored for the specific output destination as part of the export process. The Output Sharpening panel, shown in the following figure, is where you choose and configure your output sharpening settings. The possible output settings are defined as Screen: Use this option when your photo’s final viewing destination will be on a computer screen (that is, on a web page). Matte Paper: Use this option when you’re sending your photos to be printed on a type of photo paper that has a matte (non-shiny) finish. Glossy Paper: Use this option when you’re sending your photos to be printed on a type of photo paper that has a glossy (shiny) finish. After you identify the output you are sharpening for, you can set the amount of sharpening to apply; your choices here range from Low (almost none) to High (often too much), with Standard in the middle (just right). THE METADATA PANEL The Metadata panel, shown in the following figure, allows you some level of control over what metadata is included in the exported copies. Clicking the Include drop-down menu offers the following options: Copyright Only: Only the metadata entered into the Copyright field of the Metadata panel is applied to copies. Copyright & Contact Info Only: This is the same as the above option with the inclusion of any contact information you applied via the Metadata panel (or a metadata template). All Except Camera Raw Info: Camera Raw Info means the actual slider values dialed into Lightroom Classic, written as part of the metadata (the adjustments themselves are applied to the pixels regardless of any of these settings). So, this option builds on the above option and then includes all other metadata except the slider values (Camera Raw Info). All Except Camera & Camera Raw Info: This does everything that the previous option but leaves out the camera-generated EXIF metadata and the Camera Raw Info. All Metadata: Nothing is left out. All EXIF metadata created by camera, plus everything added in Lightroom Classic, is applied to copies. Th Metadata panel has three additional check boxes: Remove Person Info: If you used People view to tag photos with the names of the people shown, you can check this box to avoid writing that information into the metadata of the exported copies. Remove Location Info: If your photos have GPS information in them, you can check this box to avoid writing that information into the metadata of exported copies. Write Keywords as Lightroom Hierarchy: Keywords are the descriptive terms you assign to your photos in the Library module. When you enable this option, and \ use keywords with parent/child relationships (meaning that the keywords are in a hierarchical structure), the exported copies retain that same keyword structure. This feature is useful for photos that will be imported into another Lightroom Classic catalog or managed with Adobe Bridge. THE WATERMARKING PANEL You can apply one of three types of watermarks to exported copies. Check the Watermark box to enable the drop-down choices. The most basic is the Simple Copyright Watermark, which pulls the information from the Copyright field of each file’s metadata and renders it as a watermark in the lower-left corner of each exported copy. This type of watermark has no configuration options. For greater control, choose Edit Watermarks to enter the Watermark Editor, where you can create either a text-based or graphical watermark with more control and save it as a preset for easy reuse. THE POST-PROCESSING PANEL This is an optional panel, but it can provide a nice productivity boost to your output when you know your photos are going to be opened in some other application after they have been created (such as for additional image editing or viewing in your file browser). The Post-Processing panel (with the After Export drop-down list expanded) is shown in the following figure. With the help of the options in this panel, you can tell Lightroom Classic to hand off your exported images to another application — in effect, having Lightroom Classic perform what is commonly referred to as an “export action” on your photos. The After Export drop-down list includes the following preinstalled options: Show in Finder (Show in Explorer for Windows): Automatically opens the folder containing the exported images in your file browser. Open in Photoshop: If you have Photoshop installed, you have the option to open the exported images in Photoshop after they’re saved to the export location. Open in Additional Editor: If you configured an additional external editor you see it listed here as an option. Open in Other Application: Selecting this option gives you the opportunity to designate another application (such as an email client, an alternative image editor, or an FTP client) that will be invoked at the end of the export. Lightroom Classic attempts to open the exported photos in that application; just keep in mind that not every application can accept images this way. Click the Choose button and navigate to the application you want to send your photos to. At the bottom of the After Export drop-down list is the Go to Export Actions Folder Now command. Selecting this option opens Finder (or Windows Explorer for Windows) with Lightroom Classic’s Export Actions folder selected. You can place either an executable file or an alias (shortcut for Windows) to an executable file in the Export Actions folder to include it as an option in the After Export drop-down list the next time you start Lightroom Classic. This is another way to set things up so you can send your photos to a specific program or a Photoshop droplet with one quick command. “What’s a droplet?” you say. A droplet is a Photoshop action that you manage to turn (with Photoshop’s help) into a tiny executable file. After you create a droplet, you can literally drag and drop photos on top of it to run the photos through the action automatically — a really powerful way to run a batch of images through a favorite action, such as applying a specific Photoshop filter, converting to an alternative color space, or applying a custom watermark. By including the droplet as an export action, Lightroom Classic automatically runs the exported copies through the droplet after they are created. Saving export settings as a preset for reuse Presets are such an awesome time-saver! Just think about it — you get to save scads of commonly used settings and then access them any time you want to directly from the Export with Preset menu (choose File → Export with Preset). Sweet! Refer to the following figure to see the Presets panel — it’s there on the left side. You get four preinstalled presets to start you off, right under the Lightroom Classic Presets heading — presets that can’t be ditched or updated, by the way. They are Burn Full-Sized JPEGs: Sets JPG as the file format with the least compression and no resizing and then adds burning the exported images to a disc as an After Export step. Export to DNG: Sets DNG as the file format, which essentially means you’re set to convert to DNG on export. Note that using this preset makes sense only when your source files are raw format. For Email: Sets JPG as the file format with JPG compression set to 60 and resizes all images to fit within 500 x 500 pixels. This option tells Lightroom Classic to pass exported copies to your default mail client when you export them. For Email (Hard Drive): Sets JPG as the file format with JPG compression set to 50 and resizes all images to fit within 640 x 640 pixels. Note that this preset doesn’t actually pass files to your e-mail client; it just configures the export to an email-friendly size and saves them to a location of your choosing on your hard drive. The preinstalled presets aren’t incredibly sophisticated, but they can make good starting points and can help you see the possibilities. For example, if you like to email photos to friends and family, you can take the For Email preset as a starting point and customize it to your liking. Here’s how to do that: Click the For Email preset to load its settings into the Export dialog. Expand the File Settings panel. If you prefer a higher Quality setting, set to 70. Expand the Image Sizing panel. If you prefer a larger pixel dimension, set to 1000 pixels. Expand the Output Sharpening panel. Check the Sharpen For box and selected Screen at a Standard amount. Leave the settings in the remaining panels as they are. Click the Add button at the bottom left of the Presets panel. This opens the New Preset dialog. Enter a descriptive name in the Preset Name field. (Optional) Create a new folder in the process of saving your preset. You can click the Folder drop-down list and choose an existing preset folder or create a new one. Click the Create button to complete the process and add the preset to the Preset panel. You can delete custom presets and folders by highlighting them and clicking the Remove button. Note, however, that removing a folder deletes any presets inside it! You can update custom presets with new settings by adjusting the settings as you want, right-clicking the preset, and then choosing Update with Current Settings.

Article / Updated 10-04-2019

You probably have some photos on your hard drive that you’d like to import into Adobe Lightroom Classic, and you will have new photos to import from your memory card. The workflow is the same in both cases, but the options you encounter have some subtle differences. An effective photo import workflow Things you want to keep in mind before you start the import process: What import method are you going to use? Are you going to back up your imported copies? Do you know where you want your photos to go/remain? Are there things like keywords or presets you want to apply? Have you created a filename template for the file-naming convention you want to use? When you begin the import process with all your ducks in a row, it saves a great deal of time down the road. Remember, the import process provides the opportunity to do more than just start looking at your photos in Lightroom Classic. Take a Big Picture look at an import workflow that takes advantage of the import process’s full potential: Initiate the import. You can initiate an import in several ways, but nothing happens without you taking the first step. Select the photos you want to import. No matter where your photos originate, you have to choose which ones to import. Configure the settings to meet your input needs. Having answers to the questions at the start of this section allows you to quickly set up the Import dialog and click that Import button. With the Big Picture out of the way, time to sweat a few of the smaller details. The next few sections help you navigate the import process. Initiating the import of photos into Lightroom The Import dialog is the gateway all photos have to pass through. You can open the door in several ways: Click the Import button in the Library module. This method might be the most common way to launch an import because the big Import button in the Library module is easy to spot (and who doesn’t love to click a button). It can be used when importing from any disk or device. Connect your camera or a memory card to your computer. If you enable this feature in Lightroom Classic’s Preferences file ahead of time, the Import dialog automatically launches whenever it detects the presence of a memory card — either solo or as part of a digital camera. This can be a real time-saver if the only time you connect a camera or memory card is when you want to conduct a Lightroom Classic import. Choose File→ Import Photos and Video from the main menu. Use this option if you’re importing files from a memory card or those already on your hard disk. Drag and drop. You can drag and drop a folder of images from your file browser right onto the Library module to start the import process. Selecting the photos you want to import into Lightroom Classic Although it may be true in most cases that you’ll want to import every photo on the memory card, it’s still worth your while to scan through the images to verify that you really want to import them all. The Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates option on the File Handling panel is checked by default to ensure that you don’t import the same photos twice, but when scanning the previews, you might find you just don’t need to waste time importing some of the (bad) photos. Uncheck the check box on any photos that you don’t want to import at that time. In some instances, you may find it easier to click the Uncheck All button at the bottom of the dialog and then just check the boxes for photos you do want to import. You can use faster methods to sort the wheat from the chaff in the Library module, but there’s no need to import photos of the inside of your lens cap. Configuring the settings to meet your input needs When you know which photos you want to import, it’s time to make choices regarding how they’re imported and whether you’re going to multitask a little and process them on their way in the door. The Import dialog gives you four options along the top center. The source you are importing from largely determines which options are available in the Import dialog. If you are importing from a memory card, Copy as DNG and Copy are the only available options. If you are importing from a drive all options, Copy as DNG, Copy, Move, and Add are available. Here’s why. If you’re importing from a device (say, a memory card), you don’t want the Add option because memory cards are only temporary storage devices. Lightroom Classic knows this and disables the option. Move also isn’t an option, based on best practices for dealing with memory cards. First, you don’t want to remove files from your memory card until you can visually verify that the files have been copied safely to at least one other disk (two if you want to be safe). The idea here is that you don’t want to risk something going wrong in the moving process because you haven’t yet created a backup. Second, it’s better to use your camera to reformat the card when you’re ready to erase the contents than it is to let your computer perform that task. When you reformat the card in-camera, the process is done in the best way for the camera, which means you experience less chance of corrupted data when the camera is writing files to the card in normal operation. The Copy and the Move file-handling options include additional settings not found when using the Add option. The reason for this is that when you’re only adding, you aren’t changing anything about the photos. You’re simply telling Lightroom Classic where the files are located and getting on with the business of importing their data. It would follow that if you’re choosing to copy or move the photos and then import, you would need to tell Lightroom Classic where you want them to go and whether you want to change their names in the process. To that end, when you choose one of the Copy or Move file-handling options, you see the following options appear in the Import dialog: Destination: Even though this option appears at the bottom of the Import dialog, I’m talking about it first because it is the most important. You do two things here: select the destination where the photos will go and control the folder structure that is created in the import process. You can choose three Organize methods: By original folders: This option is useful when you’re moving or copying from a disk and want to replicate the same folder structure on the destination disk. By date: The is the default option. Lightroom Classic provides eight date-based folder structures (YYYY/MM-DD, YYYY/Month/DD, and so on) to choose from. The capture dates from the photos are used to create the actual dates used, which is reflected in the space below the Organize field. The slash separating some of the date options means a folder and subfolder structure will be created. Into one folder: This option allows you to put all your photos into a single folder without regard for dates or original folder structure. File Renaming: Provides the option to change the filenames when placed in the destination folder. Choose Filename from the Template drop-down menu if you want the filenames to keep the original names. An example of how the filenames will look is displayed above the Template field, using the selected template. Lightroom Classic’s file-renaming function is quite powerful and versatile. It’s a great option to have during import, but keep in mind that you can rename files later in the Library module. So, don’t feel pressure to do it at import. Lightroom Classic installs with a number of prebuilt filename templates for you to use, but its true power is unleashed when you use the Filename Template Editor, as shown, to create your custom templates. You access the editor by clicking the Template drop-down menu and choosing Edit. The editor works by using what it calls tokens to represent various text strings that you can assemble into various configurations. There are tokens for image name data, image numbering options, date formats, metadata, and even custom text. The assembled tokens can be saved as reusable templates any time you want to rename files. (You’ll use the same editor and tokens if you rename after import as well.) Click through the various sections to get a sense of what data is possible to include in your filenames. Give your attention to two tokens in particular: Import #: You can use this token to include the import number in your filename. The Import Number is managed from the File Handling tab of the Catalog Settings dialog box. Image #: You can include this token when you want to number files incrementally across multiple imports. Controlled by the Photos Imported value, Image # is managed from the File Handling tab of the Catalog Settings dialog box. It can be hard to draw the connection between what they represent and the Catalog Settings dialog. Follow along this example in which you create a custom template that combines date information and part of the original, camera-generated filename (refer to the preceding figure to see what the template ends up looking like): Click the Template drop-down menu, and choose Edit. Doing so launches the Filename Template editor. When the editor opens, notice that the active template displays in the Preset field at the top of the editor and that the tokens that make up that template appear in the Editing field. Take a moment to click through the other templates and see how the tokens are constructed. Delete any tokens that appear in the editing field. Start with a clean slate. Just click into the field behind the tokens and press Delete (Backspace for Windows). Notice the example above the field changes as you add or remove tokens to preview how the filename will appear. Click the drop-down menu in the Additional section of the editor, and choose the Date (YYYYMMDD) token. Just selecting from the menu adds the token to the editing field. Click the editing field behind the date token and type an underscore. You aren’t limited to using just the tokens to build your filenames. You can type right into the editing field. Just remember that with filenames, you don’t want to make them any longer than necessary, and you want to avoid all nonalphanumeric characters except for dashes and underscores to prevent potential problems down the road. In the Image Name section of the editor, choose the Filename Number Suffix token from the drop-down menu. This is the camera-generated file number. Click the Preset drop-down menu at the top of the editor, and choose Save Current Settings As New Preset. Doing so opens the New Preset dialog. In case you haven’t noticed, the folks at Adobe use the words template and preset interchangeably. Don’t let that confuse you. Give the preset (template) a descriptive name, and click Create. After you click Create, you see this name appear in the Preset menu. Click Done. You’re brought to the Import dialog with your new template selected. Regardless of the file-handling method you use, you always have the option to apply three types of information to all the imported files via the Apply During Import panel: Develop Settings: While some prebuilt Develop settings are available to you out of the box, I don’t recommend using any at this point. Applying a Develop setting to all photos at import can be helpful at times (such as when you’re shooting in a studio and want to apply a custom white-balance setting), but the majority of your imports can do without Develop settings — which means you should leave this set to None. Metadata: There’s no reason not to apply a basic set of metadata to all imported photos. Create a preset (more on that later) that contains your basic copyright and contact information, and apply it every time. Keywords: Keywords identify your photos and — when used consistently — provide a powerful means to find specific photos after your catalog grows. It isn’t a sexy aspect of the import process, but do it, and you’ll reap the rewards. During import, you only want to be careful about getting too specific because the keywords you enter here are going to be applied to every imported photo in the session. The process for creating a Metadata preset is worth a closer look. You can create an unlimited number of Metadata presets, which can be applied during import or later in the Library module. I create a baseline preset (meaning information that I want on all photos regardless of subject, job, or location) containing all my relevant information (copyright, name, contact info, and so on). To create a basic Metadata preset, you do the following: In the Apply During Import panel of the Import dialog, click the Metadata drop-down menu, and choose New. Doing so launches the New Metadata Preset dialog (see the following figure). Enter a name for your new preset in the Preset Name field. Fill out all the fields in the IPTC Copyright and IPTC Creator fields. This is the basic information about who holds the copyright to this photo and how to contact them. Adding it here means it’s written into the metadata of your exported files and can be written to the XMP metadata of your source files. Here's how to create the (c) symbol so that it can be included in the Copyright field. If you are working in Windows and have a separate number keypad, hold down the Alt key and press 0169 on the keypad, and then release the Alt key. If you’re on a laptop with a keypad overlay on your regular keyboard, hold down the function (Fn) key and the Alt key, and then press 0169. If you’re working on a Mac, hold down the Option key and press G. Click the Create button. This saves the preset using the name you entered in Step 1 and closes the Metadata Preset dialog. You see the new preset in the Metadata field of the Import dialog. The last setting to configure before clicking the Import button is Build Previews in the File Handling panel. Lightroom Classic begins rendering the previews after the import process is complete. This setting determines the size of the previews it starts creating after import. Here are your options: Minimal: With Minimal selected, the lowest-resolution previews are grabbed from each file as quickly as possible. Lightroom Classic renders its previews as needed when you are working. Embedded & Sidecar: Some photos have a larger or full-size preview embedded within their files (or their companion metadata files). With this option, that preview is grabbed first, which may provide higher initial quality viewing over what you see if you choose the Minimal option. This is a great option for a fast import with the ability to check focus and separate the keepers from the deletions. I use this option almost all the time. Standard: This setting tells Lightroom Classic to go ahead and start rendering standard-sized previews based on those settings for all recently imported images. 1:1: This is a full-size, pixel-per-pixel preview of the source file that Lightroom Classic displays when you are viewing photos up close in the Library module. With this option is set, Lightroom Classic doesn’t wait until 1:1 previews are needed; instead, Lightroom Classic starts rendering them after the import is complete. No matter which setting you use, Lightroom Classic still eventually renders the previews it requires when needed. The main purpose of the setting is to give you a little control over this background process that happens after the import is complete. I routinely choose the Embedded & Sidecar option. Importing your photos to Lightroom Classic The two most common types of imports you perform are the Add (especially for new Lightroom Classic users) and Copy variants. Importing from a drive (Add) For photos on your hard drive that you want to manage with Lightroom Classic, but keep them right where they are on your hard drive, you use the Add method. Here are the steps for adding existing photos to the catalog: Click the Import button in the Library module to open the Import dialog. Note: To get to the Library Module, press G (for Grid) from anywhere in Lightroom Classic. In the Source panel, navigate to the top-level folder that contains your photos and select it, making sure that Include Subfolders is checked. Click the Add button. Leave all photos checked for import. You can use Lightroom Classic's tools later to sort out and delete any less-than-perfect photos. In the File Handling panel, set Build Previews as desired. In the Apply During Import panel, set the Develop Settings drop-down menu to None, and choose your Metadata preset in the Metadata menu. Apply any globally applicable keywords (doubtful that any would apply to all photos when you’re first importing). Click the Import button. After that final click, the Import dialog closes, and you see the progress meter advancing in the upper-left corner of the interface as thumbnails start appearing in your catalog. Likewise, the Folders panel shows the imported folders. Importing from a memory card (Copy) Use a card reader instead of directly connecting your camera. A card reader is cheap and portable, doesn’t drain your camera batteries, and frees your camera to take more photos if you have multiple memory cards. Card readers often provide a faster data transfer rate than most cameras do. Card readers are so common these days that many laptops and monitors have them built right in! Time to go through the steps for importing from a memory card — no matter how you connect the card to the computer. These steps are for the manual method and work only if you disable the Show Import Dialog When a Memory Card Is Detected preference setting: Connect your memory card to the computer, and click the Import button in the Library. Verify that your memory card is selected in the Devices section of the Source panel. Confirm Eject after Import in the Source panel is checked. Scan the previews, and uncheck any photos you don’t want to import. Choose the Copy option at the top of the Import dialog. Go right to the Destination panel, and choose where you want the new copies to be saved. Click the Organize drop-down in the Destination panel, and choose how you want the photos organized. Confirm that Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates in File Handling is checked. (Optional) Check the Make a Second Copy To box in the File Handling panel, and configure a backup location. Set Build Previews as desired. In the File Renaming panel, choose a file-naming template from the Template drop-down menu. In the Apply During Import panel, click the Develop Settings drop-down menu, and choose None. While you are in there, click the Metadata drop-down menu and select an existing preset or create a new one. Apply any globally applicable keywords. Double-check settings in the Destination panel. Click the Import button. The Import process is now under way. After the progress meter is complete, it’s safe to remove your memory card. Always visually verify that all the photos are where they’re supposed to be before formatting that memory card!

Article / Updated 10-02-2019

The camera module within the Lightroom app for mobile (iOS and Android) has become an absolute favorite camera for those on the go. When you sync your Lightroom Classic catalog with Lightroom for mobile, all the photos you take in the mobile app are automatically uploaded to the cloud and then eventually downloaded to the computer running Lightroom Classic. This is an unbeatable combination just for that alone, but there’s a lot more in the Lightroom for mobile camera to love. Some of the features found in the camera module will depend on the mobile device you are using at the time. Be sure to check out the minimum requirements to ensure that your mobile device is compatible. (Note that these screen captures were made on an iPhone 7+.) This app undergoes rapid development, so there will be new features added that are not covered here. Keep up with all Lightroom news. Note that these screen captures were made on an iPhone with dual lenses, so they may vary slightly from what you see on your device. Shooting in Raw mode (DNG) Sure, you can shoot in the standard JPG file format, but why not shoot in Raw mode and take full advantage of the editing power inside the Lightroom app? Keep in mind that photos captured in the app are not saved to the local camera roll (they are stored in a temporary cache until they can be uploaded to the cloud (data charges may apply) and then removed from the device) so these photos won’t clog up your device’s local storage. Tap the Camera icon (it looks like a blue camera) to open the camera. You can change file format between JPG and DNG (raw) by tapping the File Format icon in the top-center of the screen, as shown. This opens the File Format Selector, where another tap will switch you DNG (if not there already). Note that for iOS, DNG raw image capture is supported on any iPhone or iPad device that has at least a 12-megapixel camera and is running iOS 10.0 or later. For Android, DNG raw image capture is supported on devices running Android versions 5.0 and later (though support for DNG capture is enabled and set solely by the device manufacturers). Shooting in Professional mode When you first open the camera, it will probably be set to Auto mode, which lets the camera control shutter speed, ISO, focus, and white balance automatically. That’s fine for snapshots or when you are in a hurry, but try taking back a little more control by switching over to Professional mode. Tap Auto to expand the Mode Menu and tap Professional, as shown. In Professional mode, you can choose from the following controls (or leave them in auto mode): Exp: This is the control for exposure compensation, which allows you to override the camera’s meter and increase or decrease the exposure value to better match the scene. Sec: Control shutter speed if you are trying to stop motion or play with creative blur. ISO: Manually control ISO setting to avoid noise or work in low light. WB: Choose the right white-balance setting for the scene you are in. [+]: This is the control for switching from auto focus to manual focus. Note the green highlight appearing along in-focus edges is called focus peaking. The area highlighted in green is in focus. Reset: One tap sets all the previously mentioned controls back to automatic modes. Tap the icon representing the aspect you want to change to access its options (usually represented by a simple slider except in the case of white balance). Double-tapping an icon resets it to its default settings. Using shoot-through presets If you like to visualize creative effects while shooting, tap the Shoot-through Presets icon in the lower-right corner of the screen. There are five built-in presets (in addition to none) to choose from: High Contrast, Flat, Warm Shadows, High Contrast B&W, and Flat B&W. To help you visualize the scene in B&W, for example, choose either of the B&W presets and the live scene changes to match, as shown in the following figure. These presets are completely non-destructive, so you can modify the settings applied to the photo or completely reset the settings when editing. Helpful overlays There are a number of overlays that you can invoke to help compose the photo and avoid over exposing the highlights. Tap the three-dot menu in the upper-right corner of the screen to expand the options. From left to right, as shown, the options are Aspect Ratio: This will show the default aspect ratio for your device at first, but you can switch between 16:9, 3:2, 4:3, and 1:1. You’ll get a live preview of the aspect ratio you choose for taking the photo, but you can always revert to the full (uncropped) image in the Crop tool by choosing Original from the list of aspect ratios. Self Timer: Set a 2-, 5-, or 10-second timer before the shutter trips. I cover this more in the next section. Grid & Level: You can switch between three grid overlays to help with composition and even enable an electronic level indicator to help you avoid crooked horizons. Highlight Clipping: Enable this option to easily see any area of the photo that the highlights are being over-exposed. Any highlights in danger of being clipped will show a series of diagonal lines called zebra stripes. Use that exposure compensation mentioned in the previous section to recover those highlights before taking the photo. Settings: The Settings panel contains controls for maximizing screen brightness to help you see in bright daylight conditions and to enable/disable geotagging photos. If your camera supports HDR mode you can have the app save the normal unprocessed photo in addition to the HDR version. Self timer, Burst mode, and remote trigger You can trigger the shutter within the app by tapping the big shutter button within the app interface or by pressing the volume control on the side of your device. Note that on Android, you need to first click that Settings icon I mentioned previously and enable capture from the Volume Keys Function menu. This is very handy when you hold the device in landscape orientation. You can also leverage that volume control trigger by turning your headphones (with volume control) into a remote camera shutter. This can be useful for slow shutter scenes when your device is on a stable platform (like a tripod). There are even Bluetooth-enabled volume control buttons that you can buy for a true handsfree remote shutter trigger. On the iPhone (and I hope coming to Android), you can fire the shutter in burst mode by pressing and holding the volume control button, which is very useful for capturing fast action scenes. One final tip, switch your phone to silent mode to disable all sounds, including the fake camera shutter sound. Last photo preview You can quickly see a preview of the last photo taken by tapping the small thumbnail to the left of the shutter button. This is useful for things like making sure everyone’s eyes are open in a group photo. Just tap the preview photo to dismiss it, return to the camera, and keep shooting. Exposure lock When faced with a tricky exposure situation, you may want to ensure that the camera doesn’t change its exposure settings due to changing light (such as on a partly cloudy day). To do so, you can frame up your photo, dial in any desired exposure compensation, and then tap the Exposure Lock icon (refer to Figure 18-2) to lock in your settings. The camera will hold those settings until the Exposure Lock icon is tapped a second time. In-camera HDR mode A relatively new feature added to the Lightroom camera is the ability to shoot in HDR mode. This allows you to shoot in raw (DNG), and when you press the shutter button the camera takes three photos exposing for the highlights, shadows, and midtones, automatically aligning and blending them into a single DNG photo with a much higher dynamic range than any single photo but with all the benefits of a raw photo for editing purposes. You can even shoot these handheld, so no tripod is needed. Use this mode when photographing a scene that has bright highlights (such as clouds in the sky on a sunny day) and dark shadows (such as shaded areas on the ground). It is not ideal for moving subjects, but don’t be afraid to experiment and see what is possible. Take a selfie or switch lenses You can switch between the rear- and forward-facing cameras on your device from within the Camera app by tapping the Camera icon in the upper-right corner of the interface (refer to Figure 18-2). Selfie is also an option in the widget and 3D touch options I cover in the next section for faster access. If you have a dual-lens device, you can switch between the wide and telephoto lenses by tapping the Lens icon that appears to the left of the shutter button. Camera launch shortcuts Beyond tapping the Camera icon in the app to open the camera, you can use any of the alternative shortcuts when you want to open the camera quickly. These shortcuts do vary with your operating system, so let’s look at iPhone first. If you have a device that supports 3D touch, you can do a long press on the Lr app icon to access a shortcut for jumping right to the camera. Additionally, on iOS you can configure a Lightroom widget on the Home screen to allow fast access to the camera. Head here to learn more about configuring widgets on iOS. In a somewhat similar fashion on Android, you can add a Lightroom camera widget to the Home screen. Head here to learn more about adding widgets on Android. After you have the options configured, you’ll be ready to capture anything that comes your way!