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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What's the difference between adding contrast and simultaneously darkening highlights and brightening shadows in Lightroom?

Question

In Lightroom 4, when editing a RAW file, what's the difference (if any) between the following edits:

A). +30 Contrast

Or

B). -30 Highlights, +30 Shadows.

Do these do the same thing?

Asked by Eric B

Answer

Well, as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words. The GIF animation below shows +30 Contrast, +30 Highlights/-30 Shadows, -30 Highlights/-30 Shadows:

The differences between the three are subtle, however there are indeed differences. Contrast increases the spread of tones across the tonal range, so technically speaking, +30 Contrast is more like +30 highlights/-30 Shadows than it is like -30 Highlights/+30 Shadows. However it is dissimilar from both, in that adjusting contrast also affects color saturation as well as tonal range. This improvement to color contrast is evident between the first two frames of the GIF animation...the colors are more washed out in the +30H/-30S frame (most readily visible in the fence.) Adjustments to contrast are also more likely to affect the entire dynamic range (every tone in the image), where as highlight and shadow adjustments are purposely designed to affect a restricted range of tones.

Answered by jrista

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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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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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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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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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Is there anything to watch out for when upgrading Lightroom 3 to 4?

Question

If I decided to take the plunge and upgrade from LR3 to LR4, does LR4 manage the migration of my catalogs for me automatically, when opening it for first time? Are there any things that break or that you wish you'd been aware of before upgrading? Obviously the safest thing to do is to take a backup of my catalogs before upgrading, but it'd be good to know if there are any "gotchas".

Asked by ninesided

Answer

There is a bug in Lightroom 4 that can cause you to lose your point tone curve settings in existing images, as detailed here. This is a serious bug, if you use point curves. There are other relatively minor issues detailed at that link as well.

The behavior of Pick/Reject flags changes in Lightroom 4. Now when you flag an image, the flag is global, instead of per-collection. This can be surprising if you depend on per-collection flags.

Otherwise, I don't think there are serious issues. As you say, make backups. Your images that you've already processed will still be PV2010 (the Lightroom 3 process version) in Lightroom 4. You have to specifically upgrade them to PV2012 if you want to try the new process, because there's usually some degree of fine-tuning required. If you don't upgrade the process, they should remain identical to they way they were in Lightroom 3.

Answered by coneslayer

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How Does Lightroom 4 Coexist with 3.6?

Question

The Lightroom 4 Beta is out and I want to try but it is Beta, so potentially not working so great. So what happens if Lightroom 4 gets installed to my existing Lightroom?

Think it is possible to install to different folders but that is not my worry. Most worry is if uses my current catalog and does something to it that Lightroom 3.6 no longer understands? Kind of like upgrading browsers than downgrade is impossible.

Otherwise I need to try on new catalog but then my collections will be broken and finding things hard, so not my favorite choice.

Answer

Yes Lightroom 4 beta coexists with previous versions of Lightroom

As explained in the Lightroom 4 Beta Release notes:

Lightroom 4 beta will not upgrade Lightroom 1.x, Lightroom 2.x or Lightroom 3.x catalogs. The beta is intended to be used for testing and feedback purposes. Lightroom 1.x, 2.x, 3.x and 4 beta libraries will be able to be migrated to the finished version of Lightroom 4.

In other words, your current catalog will be left untouched.

Lightroom 4 beta will not overwrite or interfere with a machine that currently has Lightroom 1, Lightroom 2 or Lightroom 3 installed.

As you assumed, it will automatically be installed to a new folder.

You don't need to worry, it is beta software and they limit you on purpose. You can download, install, and use it to test out the software, but you won't be moving over your main catalog and relying on Lightroom 4 quite yet as beta software.

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