Category Archives: Folders

Adobe Lightroom Classic 7.4 | June 2018

This release of Lightroom Classic CC add a few new features and enhancements, support for new cameras and lenses, and bug fixes. Full details of what’s new and fixed in Lightroom 7.4 can be found on the application support page.

Before discussing new features there are a couple of tweaks to the Presets and Profiles functionality introduced in version 7.3. The first and probably most annoying for customers editing large images such as HDR are Panorama is the delay in loupe view screen redraw when the mouse is hovered over a preset. To address this, Adobe has added a new preference in the performance panel (see below screenshot). There is no similar preference for the Profile Browser but you can press down the Option/Alt modifier key to temporarily turn off the profile preview in the loupe.

Enable Hover Preset Preview in Loupe View

Manage Presets and Profiles

With version 7.3 Adobe introduced a new method of previewing and applying Develop Presets and Camera Profiles. Unfortunately, the ability to manage the presets and profiles was absent. It was a strange omission, especially since customers have, since the very earliest versions of Lightroom, asked for a way to hide presets they don’t use. With version 7.4 Adobe have addressed this omission, which will no doubt please many customers. However, you can only disable/hide groups, not individual presets or profiles.

To show/hide preset groups:

Click on the [+] button at upper right corner of the Presets panel to bring up the context-menu then choose Manage Preset groups to activate the Preset Manager. Also, notice that the presets that shipped with Lightroom for years are now prefixed ‘Classic’. If Adobe wanted to confuse customers this is the perfect way to do it.

Preset Manager

To show/hide profile groups:

  1. In the Profile Browser, right-click (Win) / Ctrl-click (Mac) any profile group and choose Manage Profiles from the menu.
  2. In the Manage Profiles dialog, select the profile groups that you want to show in Profile Browser. Deselect the profile groups that you want to hide from Profile Browser.

Profile Manager

Colour Labels for Folders

The addition of colour labels, like show/hide presets is, in my opinion, long overdue. Customers have been asking for folder labels since back in the days of the Lightroom 1.0 public beta (i.e. 2006).

In the Folders panel (Library module), you can now organise assign colour labels to folders.

  1. In the Folders panel, select one or more folders and right-click (Win) / Control-click (Mac) to bring up the context-menu.
  2. From the context-menu, choose Add Color Labeland then select any color from the submenu.

You can also filter all the folders that have been assigned a colour label. If you prefer to structure your catalog based on folder dates rather than names, then I think you’ll be very pleased.

Colour Labels on Folder

The folder search feature has also received some attention in the form of a performance boost. A new database file  ‘Helper.lrdata‘ is used to assist Folder Search is stored alongside the catalog (.lrcat) and previews (previews.lrdata).

HEIC image files support on macOS High Sierra

Lightroom Classic CC now supports Apple’s HEIC image file format.

Auto stack HDR and panorama

You can now configure the HDR/Panorama dialog to automatically create  stacks for HDR and Panorama images. For example, in the HDR Merge Preview dialog, select the Create Stack option to group the exposure-bracketed images and the HDR image in to a stack. The merged HDR image will be displayed at the top of the stack.

Auto-stack in HDR dialog

New Camera Support

New support added since the last release appears in green.

  • Fujifilm X-T100
  • Pentax K-1 Mark II*
  • Phase One IQ3 100MP Trichromatic**
  • Samsung Galaxy S9
  • Samsung Galaxy S9+

*Dynamic Pixel Shift Resolution is not currently supported. Opening images captured in this mode will display only the first raw image frame.**Denotes preliminary support.

A full list of cameras supported by Lightroom can be found at Cameras supported by Camera Raw.

Adobe Updates Lightroom CC iOS (aka Lightroom Mobile)

The last big update to Lightroom mobile was back in July (version 2.8). This latest update brings with it new features, a new name, and a new application icon.

The background to the new name and application icon are directly linked to the release of a new desktop based application called Lightroom CC (more about same in a day or so). The official line from Adobe being a common name and logo for all clients of the Adobe Creative Cloud ecosystem. An alternative explanation might be – Adobe marketing taking the opportunity to create confusion were none previously existed. Either way, Lightroom mobile is now Lightroom CC iOS and Lightroom CC Android, where iOS and Android denote that they’re clients intended for mobile devices rather than the desktop.

So, what’s new in Lightroom CC iOS?

Organise/All Photos/Camera Roll:

  • Folders – unlike conventional Operating System folders, these are containers into which Albums can be placed (i.e. similar to Collection Sets). It’s therefore import to note that you cannot put actual photos into a folder.
  • The bottom bar that previously included the camera roll and capture button has been replaced with a blue FAB (floating action button) in Organise and All Photos.
  • Focus peaking! See in live view how your focus changes when using the manual focus.

Create Folder or and Album + Camera Roll (FAB)

In below screenshot, you can see the Organise view with All Photos shown top left and two Folders, each containing multiple albums, below

Organise

In this next screenshot, I’ve expanded one of the folders to show the individual Albums stored within it.

Album View

  • You can now jump to the top in Organise and All Photos by tapping on free space in the top bar.
  • Blue bar confirms move of Albums/Folders
  • Delete Photos from Album possible (not only remove)
  • Coming back to Grid from Loupe highlights the Photo in the Grid
  • Rejected Photos are dimmed in the Grid
  • Better visualisation of Locally Stored Albums
  • The Segment headers in Grid have an unfold for the Segment

Edit:

  • Fading slider panel when adjusting a slider while panel is overlapping the photo on iPad
  • reduced the size of the side panel on the iPad
  • Presets, Crop and Selective moved to the right bar

Search:

  • Tap on the blue bar in search now jumps back into search
  • Improved alert when leaving a search with the back button

Keywords:

  • Keywords – Add them in the Keywords section, you can also add multiple keywords at once by separating them with a comma.
  • Copy/paste keywords via ••• menu
  • Keywords can sync with Lightroom CC Desktop, but not Lightroom Classic.

Apply and Edit Keywords

General:

  • Search is now also available in the Album/Collection view — how does it feel?
  • You can now pause (and resume) sync in the Cloud panel (helpful when travelling, expensive hot spots, limited WiFi etc.)
  • Improved navigation when removing album from folder
  • Updated “Help & Support” section in the Lr menu — still work in progress
  • In order to make a set filter more visible we now have a blue line, when a filter is active
  • Scrolling to just created item in the albums view and in the albums picker
  • Change in the Sync settings: Smart Preview is now the default, for cellular usage you can choose between on/off
  • Changed “Show All” in the filter options to “No Filter” to point out the possibility of a filter reset
  • Import from iOS Files (iOS 11)
  • Export to iOS Files (iOS 11)
  • Various layout adjustments
  • Clean up: ••• menus now hide options that are not available
  • Improved speed rating experience
  • “Add photos” in album ••• includes “Files”
  • “Add photos” now possible in organize

Cloud Storage Settings and Sync Behaviour with Cellular Data