Lightroomers » Before You Start

Getting to the Lightroom Help Docs

Rob Sylvan — Sat, 12 Jun 2010 13:47:38 +0000

With Lightroom 3 freshly minted and rolling out, I’ve heard from some folks using Lightroom 2 who are confused when they press F1 or go to Help > Lightroom Help, from inside Lightroom 2, and wind up on a page (Help and Support) that has a lot of info about Lightroom 3. Don’t despair! Adobe has not abandoned you. You can change that behavior, so that you can go directly to the Lightroom 2 help docs if that is what you prefer. Here’s how:

Go to the Lightroom 2 Help page directly.
At the bottom of that page, choose Help on the Web
Close your browser.

Now, the next time you launch Lightroom 2 and use the Help > Lightroom Help menu, you should go directly to the Lightroom 2 help doc.

That said, don’t give up on the Community Help page! There is a ton of great info to be found from there, and even the links to the Help pages for all versions of Lightroom under the Additional Help menu:

And you can still access all the Lightroom 2 content via the search field at the top of the Community Help page:

What about Lightroom 3?

When you launch Lightroom 3 and go to Help > Lightroom Help don’t be surprised if the Adobe Community Help AIR application opens, which runs a local version of the Community Help as well as the Help docs. Enjoy!

Lightroomers Guide to Lightroom

Rob Sylvan — Wed, 09 Dec 2009 17:31:15 +0000

Ever since writing Lightroom for Dummies I’ve wanted to teach a class based on the most common topics people are asking about as they come to grips with using Lightroom. Topics they are either not finding covered in other places or are just not covered in a format that allows them to ask questions and learn while doing. To that end I am extremely pleased to have the opportunity to teach that exact course in an online format through the Perfect Picture School of Photography (PPSOP)!

From the course description …

“Are you a new to intermediate Lightroom user who is looking to take your Lightroom experience to the next level? Do you have the basics down, but still want to know more? Does Lightroom drive you crazy sometimes? Would you like to learn how to better integrate Lightroom into other aspects of your digital life? Would you like to avoid common problems and learn from the mistakes of others? Well then this is the course designed for you. After answering questions from thousands of Lightroom users over the last 3 years I created a course that covers the most common things people have been struggling to understand while integrating Lightroom into their photography workflow.”

Continue reading about Lightroomers Guide to Lightroom class over at ppsop.net. The part of this class I am most jazzed about is that it allows for a level of interaction between me and the students you won’t find in most online learning experiences. This class includes lessons, assignments, video tips and lots of Q&A interaction via the classroom message board. You’ll be able to reach me via email, my blog, and twitter too, so it is the next best thing to having me at your side for 4 weeks while you take your Lightroom skills to the next level!

PPSOP was founded by one of my long time photography heroes, Bryan Peterson, who authored (among many others) my all time favorite book on understanding exposure, perfectly named, Understanding Exposure. I highly recommend this book to anyone wanting to wrap your head around exposure once and for all.

Bryan produced a great video explaining how PPSOP courses work. My class will continue to run throughout the year so if the January 8 start date doesn’t work for you keep checking back for the next session. I look forward working closely with you over those 4 weeks!

If you are brand new to Lightroom and you are looking for a great place to get started then I suggest taking Jon Canfield’s Lightroom From Import to Output first and then take my class next. I’ve designed my class to build on the materials in Jon’s class so your learning continues to the next level!

Tutorial: Boosting Lightroom Performance

Rob Sylvan — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 13:07:56 +0000

New: Updated for Lightroom 3 Beta!

Some regular maintenance and a little TLC from you will go a long way toward improving your Lightroom experience and boosting its performance. Here are five things to get you moving faster right now.

1. Free up space on your startup drive. You want to keep at least 15-20% (or more) of your startup drive free and clear of data at all times. Your operating system and some applications need the elbowroom to operate. Running out of space can seriously impact performance. Simple things like emptying your recycle bin/trash, moving data to another internal or external drive or uninstalling unused applications can recover an amazing amount of disk space. Keep in mind that if you are going to move photos to another drive that you should do it from inside of Lightroom.

2. Run your system’s disk maintenance functions. Windows has two utilities that can help you keep your system running in optimal condition—Error-checking and Defragmentation. Double-click My Computer and then right-click the C drive and choose Properties. Go to the Tools tab to launch these utilities. Run the Error-checking first, reboot and then come back and defrag. These can take some time to complete, so you might consider running them overnight.

On a Mac you have the Disk Utility. Open Finder and go to Applications > Utilities > Disk Utility, select your disk and click the First Aid tab. Click the Repair Disk Permissions button. This is good to do before and after you install any application as a regular part of your workflow.

3. Relaunch and optimize your Lightroom catalog. Lightroom has a built-in catalog maintenance function that you can run any time you feel performance is getting sluggish. You probably won’t notice a significant difference on a small catalog, but there is no harm in running this operation. This just performs some basic housekeeping on your catalog and can result in both a smaller catalog file size and a performance boost.

In Lightroom 2, go to Edit > Catalog Settings (On Mac, go to Lightroom > Catalog Settings) and click the General tab. Click the Relaunch and Optimize button. Lightroom will close and relaunch. During startup you will see the Optimizing Catalog progress window, which lets you know it is working. Click the OK button when the operation is complete and Lightroom will open.

In Lightroom 3 Beta this process works a little differently. The big change in Lightroom 3 is that there is no relaunch and optimize button on the Catalog Settings dialog. Instead, just go to the File menu and choose Optimize Catalog. Click the Optimize button when prompted to complete the process.

4. Increase the size of your Camera Raw Cache. The purpose of this cache is to store recently rendered versions of photos you’ve brought into the Develop module to prevent Lightroom from having to re-render them each time, which can greatly boost performance. Go to Edit > Preferences (On Mac, go to Lightroom > Preferences) and click the File Handling tab. Increase the size of the Camera Raw Cache to 20-40 GB based on the amount of free space you have (see Step 1). If you have another internal drive with more free space you can click the Choose button and relocate it to that disk. Click OK to put the settings into effect.

5. Render 1:1 previews after import. This is one of those times where you can pay up front and enjoy faster performance down the road, meaning you will notice a slight performance drag right after the import is complete, but once all the 1:1 previews are rendered you will enjoy a performance boost while you are working later. On the Import dialog there is a setting at the bottom for Initial Previews. This allows you to tell Lightroom what to do about rendering previews immediately after the import process is finished. If you click the drop-down menu and choose 1:1, you can have Lightroom jump right into the process of rendering 1:1 previews right after the import is finished. You will see the progress meter above the Identity Plate increment as it works. You may notice a bit of sluggishness while that is happening, but once it is complete it should be much smoother sailing from there.

Location of Initial Previews setting in Lightroom 2:

Location of Initial Previews setting in Lightroom 3 Beta (top right corner of expanded Import dialog):

The one downside to this is that 1:1 previews are stored in the preview cache (alongside the catalog file) and can take up a fair bit of space over time. To keep from undoing the work you did in Step 1 you can configure Lightroom to discard those large 1:1 previews after a certain period of time. Go to Edit > Catalog Settings (On Mac, Lightroom > Catalog Settings) and click the File Handling tab and choose the interval that makes sense for your needs. There isn’t any reason to set it to Never as Lightroom will always re-render the 1:1 previews if needed at a later date.

My top 10 tips for new Lightroom users x 2 thanks to Scott Kelby

Rob Sylvan — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 15:39:23 +0000

I had the highest honor ever bestowed upon me since I started blogging about Lightroom. One of my biggest Photoshop/Lightroom heroes thought one of my blog posts was good enough to use as a starting point for his own blog! One more thing I can cross off my bucket list.

Big thanks to Scott Bourne for providing the platform for my 10 Things I Wish I Could Tell Every New Lightroom User blog post and big thanks to Scott Kelby for making it twice as good with his own 10 Things I Would Tell New Lightroom Users list! I love it!

Well, not wanting this to just be a blog post about a blog post about a blog post here’s a few 5 new tips for you:

To quickly find where all your presets and templates are stored go to Lightroom > Preferences > Presets (Win: Edit > Preferences > Presets) and click the Show Lightroom Presets Folder button. They are all in there. Windows users will even find the Lightroom preference file in there.
If your presets should all vanish one day, check to make sure the Store Presets with Catalog box is unchecked.
If your photos appear to be getting overly brightened on import and you don’t know why, check to make sure Apply auto tone adjustments is not checked. The auto tone function is much improved in Lightroom 2, but I don’t think applying it to all imported photos is a good idea. Just use Auto Tone button in the Basic panel or the General – Auto Tone preset on a case-by-case basis.
While you have the Preferences dialog open click the File Handling tab and set your Camera Raw cache to 20GB and see if that gives you a speed boost in the Develop module (especially with the Adjustment Brush).
Now click on the Import tab and check the box next to Treat JPEG files next to raw files as separate photos so you will see both the raw and JPEG side by side in Lightroom after import.

Hope you find that helpful!

Late edit: I just saw that Matt Kloskowski did a blog post where he added 3 more Lightroom tips, so there’s at least 28 tips all bundled up for the taking.

Tutorial: The Purpose of Importing into Lightroom

Rob Sylvan — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 02:51:30 +0000

Lightroom is built upon a database. Inside this database, commonly referred to as the catalog, is all the data about your photos. This includes all the metadata created by the camera at the time the photo is taken (shutter speed, f-stop, ISO, etc.) as well as all the data you add in Lightroom (keywords, IPTC data, ratings, etc.) and all the adjustments you make in the Develop module.

Read The Purpose of Importing over at peachpit.com.

Tutorial: Don’t Let Lightroom Take Over Your Hard Drive

Rob Sylvan — Sat, 07 Feb 2009 03:31:57 +0000

I know how exciting it is when you first get Lightroom and you can’t wait to start importing photos and putting Lightroom through its paces! If you are like most people you keep the Lightroom catalog in the default location and never look back. Time goes by and your catalog has 10,000 – 20,000 photos imported into it and you notice that you are running out of disk space on your start up drive. Let’s take a look at some of things you can do to manage this data and keep your start up drive as free as possible.

Read Don’t Let Lightroom Take Over Your Hard Drive over at peachpit.com.

Tutorial: Managing Presets and Templates

Rob Sylvan — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 15:11:04 +0000

You may hear them referred to as either presets or templates interchangeably and you can find some form of preset/template in every Lightroom module. No matter what you call them they have a single purpose, which is to speed up your workflow by keeping you from having to recreate the same settings from scratch over and over again. Let’s take a closer look at how to manage these little timesavers.

Read Managing Lightroom Presets and Templates over at peachpit.com.

Tutorial: Rendered vs. Raw in Lightroom

Rob Sylvan — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 15:04:33 +0000

Even if you only shoot raw the reality is that we all still have a lot of rendered files on our systems too. What are rendered files? These are the photos rendered in pixels as opposed to the raw capture data produced by our cameras. Lightroom can work with 3 types of rendered files—JPG, PSD, and TIF—but there are some subtle differences in how to work with these files in Lightroom that you should know.

Read Rendered vs. Raw in Lightroom over at peachpit.com.

Tutorial: Using the Secondary Display in Lightroom 2

Rob Sylvan — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 18:53:02 +0000

Lightroom’s Secondary Display option allows you to make the most efficient use of your screen real estate when you are working with your photos. Ordinarily, when you open Lightroom you are greeted with Lightroom’s primary window. This is where you do all your work on and with your photos and navigate between modules. This is the window every Lightroom user is familiar with.

Read Using the Secondary Display in Lightroom 2 over at peachpit.com.

Tutorial: Working with Lightroom 2’s Panels

Rob Sylvan — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 03:29:39 +0000

Lightroom’s interface is primarily comprised of panels. While they can’t be separated from the interface like the panels within Photoshop there are a number of cool things you can do with them. Knowing how to configure Lightroom’s panels to fit your needs can both speed up your workflow and maximize your workspace.

Read Working with Lightroom 2’s Panels over at peachpit.com.