Is there a keyboard shortcut for 4x6 crop in Lightroom 4, or way to set a default aspect ratio?

Question

I spend a lot of time cropping photos into the 4x6 aspect ratio in order for friends and family to get prints.

When I switch to the crop tool, Lightroom always starts with an unlocked, "Original" aspect ratio, and I have to manually switch it to 4x6.

Is there a way to get LR4 to assume I want 4x6 every time I crop? Failing that, is there a keyboard shortcut (or a series of them) that I can use to quickly get into 4x6 crop mode?

Asked by Eric B

Answer

The Lightroom 4 Missing FAQ says that you can't change the default crop ratio but you can crop multiple images at the same time by either selecting them in grid view and cropping via the quick develop panel (which centres the crop on the centre of the original image) or by cropping one image and then synchronising the others (which places the crop in the same location for all images). If you need each image to be cropped differently you still need to adjust every image manually.

The are unfortunately no keyboard shortcuts to choose a specific crop ratio other than the original.

Answered by Steven Cunningham

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How do I determine the best setting for the Lightroom Standard Preview Size?

Question

I searched on the web and on this Q&A site and couldn't find an answer to this question: what size should the "standard preview size" option on Lighroom have? Does it depend on the size of your computer screen?

What do they mean by "preview"? Is it the thumbnail on the file catalog? Is it the photo displayed while on Library mode? Or is it the photo displayed while on Develop mode?

I want my LR to as fast as possible but I don't want to loose image quality while on Develop. So... should I bump up the preview quality to "High" and the preview size to maximum (which is 2048px, no matter the maximum screen resolution)?

Asked by DiAlex

Answer

Well I think I finally found a good answer here:

In the Catalog Settings preferences (Lightroom > Catalog Settings), you can adjust what size standard previews Lightroom builds from 1,024 pixels to 2,048 pixels depending on your monitor size. You can also adjust the Preview Quality (High, Medium and Low).

By adjusting these toggle boxes you can optimize Lightroom for your computer and monitor. I have Lightroom set to create standard sized previews that are 2,048 pixels wide for my Eizo ColorEdge CG243W display because it has a screen resolution of 1,920 x 1200 pixels. I also set the Preview Quality to High so that I can see the best quality preview as I edit images. Since I have my preferences set to the higher settings it slows Lightroom down just a little, but with 6 GB of RAM in my Apple MacPro it is a small difference and I prefer the higher quality previews. On my laptop, I set the previews to 1,440 pixels wide as that is the closest setting to match the width of my Apple Macbook Pro’s 13-inch monitor.

Answered by DiAlex

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What does “lifted blacks” mean?

Question

What does "lifted blacks" mean? How does it affect your image? How do I do it in Lightroom?

Asked by duysurfing

Answer

Lifted blacks refers to the action of increasing the brightness of black areas of a raw image. This can have the effect of bringing out details in areas that previously had none, but if the blacks are too deep, it can result in visible noise.

Most raw processors have a Blacks slider, simply adjust it to lift the blacks.

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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How to achieve this colored-haze effect in Lightroom?

Question

I really like the colored-haze in this photo:

http://meiirene.35photo.ru/photo_372234/

How do I do it in Lightrooom?

Asked by duysurfing

Answer

This isn't a Lightroom effect, it's just the effect of shooting during Golden Hour (an hour or so before sunset in this case, I think), and shooting into the sun: result, warm, soft sunlight. The little bokeh dots floating around appear to be dandelion seeds in the air catching the light.

Answered by ElendilTheTall

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In Lightroom how can I see all photos that have been modified after they were exported

Question

I am using Adobe Lightroom 4 and shoot RAW+JPG. I normally post process all my images and then bulk export them back out to JPG when done overwriting the original JPGs but sometimes I might forget to export a day or two. Is there a way in Lightroom to display all the photos that have been modified but NOT exported?

I imagine there is someway to define a filter or smart collection to do this but have not been able to find the correct combination of fields to choose.

Asked by Joe Solano

Answer

According to the Lightroom 4 Missing FAQ the only place that you can currently determine whether a photo has been exported is in the develop history, which is not searchable, ruling out filters/smart collections.

A hard drive publish service would keep track of unexported photos, but you would need to manually add the images to the service, and unlike the export dialog there is no option to automatically import the images back into the catalog, you would need to synchronize the folders containing the published images every time.

Until Adobe makes it possible to filter images based on being exported the best approach would seem to be either, as @Akram suggests, use a specific collection for images that need to be exported or have a 'not-exported' keyword added to your images when they are imported, which would permit you to create a smart collection of images that both have adjustments and have not been exported. Either way requires manual intervention to keep accurate however.

Answered by Steven Cunningham

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How do I get Lightroom 3 to upload my original JPEGs to flickr?

Question

I shoot in JPEG (not a pro yet) and want to publish my photos in my pro account in flickr, is there a way to tell Lightroom 3 to upload my original untouched JPEGs?

In the Flickr Publish Service settings I've unchecked all modifying setings: the "Resize to Fit", "Sharpen For" and "Watermark" options, but I think the problem is the "File Settings->Quality" options which is at 75% and I can't disable it. My photos get uploaded and when I redownload the "original" file it is like 70% smaller than my true original and the quality is severely affected. I've also tried to set Quality to 0% and 100% (thinking they could be "special" values) with similar effects (at 100% the quality is fine for my untrained eye, but file size is bigger than my original, although I could live with it).

My rationale is that JPEG is a lossy compression format and having Lightroom to recompress them is a doubly lossy process (unless I set Quality to 100%, I guess).

But it would be better to simply tell Lightroom to upload the original file.

Asked by rogelio

Answer

Don't believe you can tell LR to do that.

Regardless of whether you import raw or JPEG into LR, LR will always export derivatives of your originals, never the originals themselves.

While LR is good at managing libraries of images, my take is that LR assumes you want to make modifications to jpegs that you've imported, otherwise why import them. This assumption doesn't really apply to raw images, since you'll always be exporting a final result that is in a different file format from the original.

Answered by Conor Boyd

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Can I use a different map source other than Google Maps in Lightroom 4?

Question

Google Maps are horribly outdated in my area. Is there any way to use a different map source, e.g. OpenStreetMap, inside Lightroom 4's map module?

Asked by Erik

Answer

I don't know of any way to modify the way that Lightroom itself displays the map. But Google Maps apparently allows you to make changes and fix errors.

An alternative is to use Jeffrey Friedl's GPS plugin for Lightroom which does allow you to use some other mapping sources, in a limited way.

Answered by James Youngman

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Why do my sRGB exports from Lightroom look different from RAW files shown in the program even though my monitor can only show sRGB?

Question

I have read tons of docs about color management over the Web, but there is something I can't understand.

I have a screen that can only render the RGB color space.

It is very well calibrated using a LaCie Blue Eye Pro.

I use Lightroom to see an image, shot as RAW with a Canon camera, in "Adobe RGB" color space (even if that does not mean anything in this case).

When I open the image into Lighroom, and export it as JPG in the RGB color space, the image seen into Lightroom is not rendered the same as the one exported.

The thing that I don't understand is that, whatever the color space my original image can be, whatever the screen is calibrated or not, whatever software I use to see the image, if my screen cannot render more than the RGB color space, I guess that the image displayed into Lightroom and the one exported in the RGB color space should be rendered the same way on the screen.

What's wrong ?

Asked by Oliver

Answer

Color management is an annoyance that I've recently been learning about; it is not completely accurate to say that just because your monitor can only display sRGB that it's meaningless for your photos to be edited in the AdobeRGB or ProPhotoRGB space. What is actually happening is that Lightroom is translating colors from ProPhotoRGB into the sRGB space that your monitor can display. It does a bunch of fancy math (I think maybe some matrix algebra? I'm not positive, though, maybe somebody can correct me) to perform this translation -- thus, what you see in Lightroom is not your image as it appears in ProPhotoRGB or in sRGB, you are seeing an interpretation of ProPhotoRGB space in sRGB that tries to be as faithful as possible to what the image would look like on a device capable of displaying ProPhotoRGB.

When you export your photos from LR, you have the option of choosing what color space you want to use for the exported photo (you can choose sRGB, AdobeRGB, and ProPhotoRGB, among others). When LR does this, it first converts the photo into the chosen color space, and embeds information into the JPEG file describing the color space (these things are called ICC profiles). Now, when you open the JPEG in some other program, if that program is able to understand the embedded color space information, it can perform the same math that LR does to convert the file into your monitor's color space, and it should appear the same (or at least similar to) LR. If the program you open it in can interpret this embedded color space information, we say that it's a color-managed application.

The problem is that a lot of applications are not color-managed. Windows Photo Viewer may or may not be (I've read competing statements, but in any case it doesn't seem to work as well as LR); Firefox only supports old versions of ICC profiles, Safari and IE are, and Chrome is not. So if you open up your image in one of those applications that doesn't support color profiles, or doesn't support them well, your image is going to look bad because the proper color translation isn't being performed.

There's a really nice three-part series on color management here. You can also check out whether the device you're displaying supports the appropriate ICC color profiles using this test image. One other really neat feature of Photoshop CS5 (and maybe other editors too, I don't know) is that it will actually show you what parts of your image won't translate color spaces well; if you press Ctrl+Shift+Y, or go to View->Gamut Warning, it will highlight in grey the colors of the open image that don't exist in the target color space. I've found this to be somewhat useful.

Answered by David

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Why doesn't editing photos from Lightroom in Photoshop post-Lighroom adjustments work right?

Question

Mac, Lightroom 4.0, Photoshop CS5.1

So I import a photo from my camera using Lighroom (CR2 from EOS 5D Mk II)

Do some Lightroom adjustments to edit the image (Done here to display the obvious difference)

So I right click the photo, edit in->photoshop

and it opens the file in Photoshop, but prior to the adjustments I made in Lightroom.

I've only recently upgraded to LR4 but this is happening to all my photos and it's very annoying. I'm sure in LR3 it gave me the option to "Edit with Lighroom adjustments" or something similar, but now it seems it doesn't. I looked through the settings and couldn't find anything where I could change the setting. Has anyone else experienced this little bit of "functionality" in LR4?

Asked by sam

Answer

I've experienced the same issue with Lightroom 4.0 and CS5; I just downloaded the Release Candidate for ACR 6.7, which you can get here, and that seems to have resolved my issues. Hopefully that helps!

Answered by David

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What software can I use for post-processing?

Question

I have access to the below software and I use all of them at various times. I do not have a specific workflow and would like to start following one.

1. Aperture
2. LightRoom
3. Photoshop CS5

The general process that I follow is this:

1. Import Pictures to Aperture library.
2. "Sometimes" make some changes in Lightroom. The reason I don't always use lightroom is that my library is in Aperture and I don't want to import everything into Lightroom again.
3. Most of the processing I do is on PS. I like to do adjustments on Layers.

How can I improve my workflow? I shoot JPEG.

Asked by Vaishak Suresh

Answer

The biggest step you could take is to commit to either Aperture or Lightroom. These applications are both trying to fill the same space in a photographer's workflow, and they each work best if they are the primary tool that you use. By committing to a single application for importing, organizing and processing your images, you will be able to put the full features of the application to use and get the value out of your investment.

Since you also use Photoshop, I'd actually be leaning towards Lightroom, as it has a clean integration between the two, but the choice is yours.

Answered by chills42

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How can I export reduced resolution RAW files from Lightroom?

Question

I read that in Lightroom 4 is possible to export reduced resolution raw files.

Does anybody know how to do it?

---

Thanks to Rob's links I found the solution.

Export the photo with the following settings:

• Image format: DNG
• Compatibility: Camera Raw 6.6 and later (required otherwise the lossy compression doesn't show)
• Use Lossy Compression: Checked

For a Canon 7D raw files this process reduce the size at about the 25% of the original. I think I just found a good solution for bringing my photos with me on my laptop while keeping the original raws on my desktop computer.

Asked by Ghigo

Answer

Having done some research on the Adobe Lightroom help site I found this article on how to export to file.

http://help.adobe.com/en_US/lightroom/using/WS75C39DDC-B701-4840-A703-0755A5C04878.html

I believe the feature you are referencing to is to do with

Enhanced DNG options

• Resolution reduction via export provides the ability to share lower resolution versions of the original raw file without losing the capabilities offered by raw.

http://blogs.adobe.com/lightroomjournal/2012/01/lr4betanowavailable.html

Answered by Rob

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Mass reverse geocoding in Lightroom or an external tool

Question

I have nearly 3000 images in my Lightroom library that have GPS data but no textual location info. How can I mass reverse geocode all these pictures?

Asked by Erik

Answer

Jeffrey Friedl's Geocoding plugin is excellent. I have used it with Lightroom versions 3 and 4, but I believe it also works with version 2. It supports bulk reverse-Geocoding and one-by-one geocoding (it can also work with GPS tracks and it integrates with Google Earth, but it sounds like you don't need those features). It uses the Google Maps API to perform this. Jeffrey also has a lot of other useful plugins too. You can obtain them via the LR Plugin Manager (there is a market) or at Jeffrey's plugin website http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps

Answered by James Youngman

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Mass reverse geocoding in in Lightroom or an external tool

Question

I have nearly 3000 images in my Lightroom library that have GPS data but no textual location info. How can I mass reverse geocode all these pictures?

Asked by Erik

Answer

Jeffrey Friedl's Geocoding plugin is excellent. I have used it with Lightroom versions 3 and 4, but I believe it also works with version 2. It supports bulk reverse-Geocoding and one-by-one geocoding (it can also work with GPS tracks and it integrates with Google Earth, but it sounds like you don't need those features). It uses the Google Maps API to perform this. Jeffrey also has a lot of other useful plugins too. You can obtain them via the LR Plugin Manager (there is a market) or at Jeffrey's plugin website http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/gps

Answered by James Youngman

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How to modify local contrast in Lightroom?

Question

How to modify local contrast of a photo in Lightroom 4? The only thing comes into my mind is to use the brush tool. Is there any other way to achieve this or a plug-in to let me modify the local contrast of part of the image?

Asked by Akram Mellice

Answer

I'm not a Lightroom user (often), so I'm not overly familiar with what's available natively, but you might find a plug-in like Topaz Adjust 5 to be just about the right size and shape of ticket. It works from within both Lightroom and Photoshop (and any PS plug-in compatible editor, as well as a standalone with a free lightweight host), and offers both global and local adjustments. The ability to paint effects in and out is, I think, a deliberate nod to the environments that won't allow you to play with layers in the host program.

(No affiliation—I'm even deliberately avoiding the affiliate program—just a very satisfied user.)

Answered by Stan Rogers

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How do I make my MX880 Canon prints come out in the same colors as on the screen?

Question

I have a Canon MX880 printer which I recently bought. For some reason, prints from Adobe Lightroom come out with bad colors (i.e. not the same as on screen, though not altogether different). I played around with a bunch of setting and couldn't find something to make it work.

Thanks in advance!

Asked by Shwouchk

Answer

For best results you need a "color profile" to match your monitor to the color palette / gamut / system / ... that you are using AND you want a color profile to do the same thing for your printer. Then you see on screen what the image should look like and your printer interprets this correctly. Both are necessary for serious work. If you set printer to screen and the screen is not correctly "profiles" YOU will see good results on screen and printer BUT your electronic images will probably not appear correct to anyone else.

There is more on web about this than you'd want to wade through, but it doesn't take much effort to get a good enough idea for practical purposes.

Some printer manufacturers provide formal profiles for their printers.

Here is an excellent introduction re ICC and ICM profiles and printers -
Understanding Printer Colour Management

Good Introduction to Icc Profiles and Their Use - monitors and printers.

An about.com tutorial - main value is in a number of useful links provided - Calibrate Your Printer

If you have money - Chromix

Adding a co or profile to Windows XP

Wikipedia - color management

Answered by Russell McMahon

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Can't find recovery and others menus in LR4

Question

I made my first new import on LR4 after importing the old catalogue, but I don't find the recovery, fill lights and other slider from raw shoots! I checked the old pictures which I did import with LR3 and the slider is there but in the last import no! And yes I'm sure that the pictures are in CR2 formart so RAW.

Asked by Kreker

Answer

Lightroom 4 introduces a new process version, PV2012. The new process version has totally revamped tone controls; as you noticed, for example, Fill Light and Recovery are gone. Generally, the approach in PV2012 is to work through the controls from top to bottom, starting with Exposure. When setting Exposure, you should concentrate on getting the midtones right (in contrast to PV2010, where you would set Exposure to avoid highlight clipping). Then work your way down through the rest of the tone controls. All of the PV2012 tone controls make the target brighter when moved to the right, and darker when moved to the left. So, for example, moving Shadows to the right will brighten the shadows much like the old Fill Light control.

Lightroom 4 still supports the PV2010 process that was the default in Lightroom 3. If you previously edited an image in Lightroom 3, it will still be in the PV2010 process, and the old tone controls like Fill Light will be visible. You can update an old image to PV2012 by clicking the exclamation point in the lower right corner of the image; however, the conversion is not exact, and you probably shouldn't update images indiscriminately.

Similarly, you can still work with new images in PV2010 in Lightroom 4 if you want to. Just select the 2010 process in the Camera Calibration panel of the Develop module.

Here is a video tutorial from Adobe that demonstrates the image update process and the new tone controls in Lightroom 4.

Answered by coneslayer

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How to do a selective darkening of part of a photo in Lightroom?

Question

I have a photo that has quite a distracting corner: if you divide it by the rule of thirds it's bit less than half of the bottom right corner.

Can I use Lightroom to darken that corner? I don't know; maybe with something like a gradient from black to transparent?

Asked by Marius Butuc

Answer

The feature you're looking for is the Adjustment Brush. With that, you would select:

• the amount of exposure, plus or minus
• the size of the brush, in pixels
• the feather, which controls the hardness of the edge,
• the flow, which controls the rate at which the adjustment is applied
• the density, which controls the strength of the adjustment (transparency)

Adobe Press has an article on doing this in Lightroom 3, but it will translate to other versions as well as Adobe Camera Raw for those of using Photoshop instead.

Answered by John Cavan

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Is DxO Optics better than Lightroom, or vice versa?

Question

My guess is that they have some features in common, they have some differences too, but actually they are almost the same quality level.

Are there reason to say one is better than the other or is most of all a matter of personal taste and needs?

Asked by Paolo

Answer

I would say that they are different. Lightroom offers more bang for the buck, better detail and contrast, and better workflow, but there are situations where DxO shines. This review summarizes it well.

http://corrosphotoblog.blogspot.com/2012/03/adobe-lightroom-4-vs-dxo-optics-pro-7.html

Answered by cadmium

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Lightroom vs. Elements vs. Photoshop: Side-by-side comparison?

Question

I'm a bit overwhelmed by the available options in regards to the three major photo editing apps from Adobe.

Does anyone know of an article or site that lists the features of Lightroom, PS Elements, and PS, side by side? I know that Lightroom revolves around edits and workflow, and that PS is the big kahuna of image editing. Where does Elements fit in to this understanding?

Asked by Eric B

Answer

The three tools approximate three general levels of functionality and capability. Photoshop Elements is an entry-level image editing package. It provides image editing and some library management capabilities. It has some rich capabilities, and supports all the common editing capabilities of Photoshop. Adjustment layers allow non-destructive editing to a degree, however there are fewer adjustments possible in Elements than Photoshop. It is limited, and if you do a lot of photographic editing, you will eventually run into Elements' many limitations.

Photoshop Lightroom is a professional image editing package. It is specifically geared towards the digital photographer with an advanced workflow, RAW image support, and extensive library management capabilities. It is designed to expose the key tools important to editing digital photographs, such as a histogram, white balance and tone adjustments, color adjustments, detail adjustments (i.e. noise reduction and sharpening), as well as some advanced features like camera and lens profiles to correct distortion and vignetting. Lightroom also offers some rich tools that go beyond the basic on-screen editing, including print and book creation, slideshow generation, and web site publishing. New publishing modules in Lightroom 3 allow direct upload of your images and metadata to sites like Flickr and Facebook.

Photoshop CS is the ultimate image editing program. It is a low-level tool, giving you direct and total control over pretty much any edit you can think of. It's capabilities extend far beyond photographic editing and support artistic image creation and editing of a very wide variety. For a photographer, Photoshop brings HDR generation and editing, panoramic stitching, and a whole host of additional tools that are not available in Lightroom. Photoshop lacks some things provided by Lightroom, however, particularly its ease of use and clean workflow designed specifically to optimize a photographers image management, editing, and publishing. The most common and useful operations that need to be performed on digital photographs can be completed in much less time with Lightroom. Photoshop itself lacks any real kind of library management outside of Bridge.

Unless you do very light weight photography with only the most basic of edits, Lightroom is highly recommended as the central tool for managing, editing, and publishing your photographic works. It has an ideal price point, making it easy to acquire. Photoshop CS is a great tool to have to cover the cases where Lightroom is lacking, such as HDR or panoramic stitching. If you need the ultimate control over your prints and ICM profiles, Photoshop also has an edge on Lightroom and offers the ability to soft-proof your prints on screen.

Answered by jrista

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How do hierarchical keywords in Lightroom actually work?

Question

I thought I understood how this worked, but I've just proven myself wrong. Imagine the following keyword hierarchy fragment:

- Locations
  - Europe
    - scotland
      - inner hebrides
        - isle of skye

My upper-case tags are "meta-tags" which are set to be excluded from export, but everything below Europe should be included. To me, the most sensible way for this to work, is that when I add isle of skye to a photograph, it automatically gets tagged with the ancestor tags. This doesn't happen. Is it possible, or have I fundamentally misunderstood the way this is meant to work?

Asked by ninesided

Answer

The inherited ancestor keywords are second-class citizens compared to the keywords you explicitly apply. The ancestors won't show up as checked boxes in the Keyword List, for example. Instead, the ancestor keywords will be applied at export. There are (at least) two ways to verify that this is the case:

1. Export the photograph. For example, if you publish to Flickr, you should see the ancestor keywords in the photo's tags on Flickr.
2. In the Library module, in the Keywording pane, change the Keyword Tags drop-down to Will Export. This will show you both the keywords that you applied, plus the ancestor keywords that will export with them.

Answered by coneslayer

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