Category Archives: Books

Adobe Lightroom Classic 8.1 | December 2018

If you’ve been paying attention to the timing of Adobe’s recent update cycle for applications within the Photography Ecosystem you’ll have noticed that the period between updates is roughly every two months. The last updates were in mid October. So, it isn’t surprising that today sees updates and enhancements to Lightroom, Camera Raw, etc. My main focus of attention below relates to Lightroom Classic CC and Lightroom CC for the desktop.

Customise order of Develop module panels

Customisation of Develop Panels has been at the top of customer feature requests for more than decade. As of this release it has now become a reality, albeit not as full fledge as many would wish for. Until now you could only choose visibility of the Develop module panels, now they can also be rearranged. While this enhancement will please some it falls short of the Holy Grail of customisation; i.e ‘floating’ panels, and for this reason some customers might see it as more of a miss than a hit.

  • Right Clicking (Control + Click on macOS) on the header of any panel (in the right-side only) will show a context menu with “Customise Develop Panel…” option as shown below.

  • You can also choose visibility of the panels in the same dialog.
  • Lightroom must be restarted to show the panels in the new order.
  • The KBSC for the panels (CMD/CTRL + #) will also reflect the current custom panel order; e.g. if Transform panel is moved to 2nd position, then the KBSC CMD/CTRL + 2 will expand/collapse Transform panel.

In below example, I have reordered the ‘Detail’ panel so that it’s between the ‘Basic’ and ‘Tone Curve’ panels.

Lightroom Classic 8.1 – Repositioning Develop Panels

Add to Collection during Auto-Import

Another long awaited feature is the ability to automatically add an image to a collection when using Auto-Import. For example, you can setup a Watched Folder on your computer into which images are automatically placed then add the images into a collection.

From File menu choose Auto Import > Auto Import Settings > check ‘Add to Collection’ and specify the collection.

Lightroom Classic 8.1 – Auto-Import to a collection

Snap to Grid in Book Module

After a long period in the doldrums the Book module has seen much needed attention in recent updates. For 8.1 Adobe has added the ability to snap an image to either a Cell or Grid, thus allowing you to easily align images in a Book layout.

From the ‘Guides’ section, select ‘Grid Snap’ choose:

  • “Cells” so that the cells of two images are aligned
  • “Grid” so the image is aligned to the grid guidelines

Lightroom Classic 8.1 – Snap Grid

Presets and Profiles

While the enhancements to develop presets and profiles introduced in version 7.3 (April 2018) were widely welcomed not all customers found the transition trouble free. Fortunately, the engineering team have worked to address many of the issues some customers experienced. With version 8.1 their attention was focused on improving the handling of duplicate presets.

Duplicate Presets

There now have a variety reconciliation options available if you attempt to create a duplicate preset that shares the same name in same group. These include the ability to:

  • ‘Replace’ the existing preset – only the latest preset with the same name will remain in the group.
  • ‘Duplicate’ the preset – choosing this option allows you to have two presets with the same name now listed in the group
  • ‘Rename the preset’ – where a numeric extension is applied to the name by default or you can rename it yourself

Lightroom Classic 8.1 – Reconciliation of Duplicate Presets

Partially Compatible Presets

Some Develop Presets may not appear in the Presets panel because they are incompatible with the selected photo. For example, camera profiles that are not applicable to the current photo or presets that only apply to raw files. These non-compatible presets are shown as faded and in Italics style in the Presets panel in Develop.

You can configure Lightroom Classic to show all presets even if they are not compatible with the current photo by enabling a preference in the Visibility section as demonstrated in below screenshot.

Lightroom Classic 8.1 – Display all presets

Performance Improvements

Improving performance in Lightroom Classic remains a high priority for Adobe, and with this update their focus has been on faster grid scrolling, and switching between the Library and Develop modules. The latter will be most obvious to customers using 4K and 5k monitors.

Full details of what’s new and fixed in Lightroom 8.1 can be found on the application ‘What’s New‘ page.

Camera and Lens Support

Details on Camera and Lens support by Lightroom Classic CC can be found on following pages:

Victoria Bampton releases Adobe Lightroom CC / 6 – The Missing FAQ

lr6faq-sq300-150x150Victoria Bampton (aka The Lightroom Queen) recently dropped me a note to say that the 6th edition of her Lightroom – The  Missing FAQ book is now available.

As a long established member of the Lightroom Pre-release Group Victoria is well placed to get the inside track on the new features found within Lightroom CC/6. In this latest edition of her well regarded Missing FAQ series of books Victoria again shares this information and knowledge in an easy to read format. Anyone serious about getting the best from Lightroom CC/6 shouldn’t think twice about getting a copy.

So, what’s new in the Lightroom CC/6 book?

Victoria writes – When you have a Lightroom question, where do you look? Do you spend hours searching the web? From now on, you look right here.

About the Book

As the name suggests, Adobe Lightroom CC/6 – The Missing FAQ is primarily designed as a conversational FAQ-style reference book, giving you the detailed information you need to make informed choices, whether you’ve been using Lightroom for a few months or a few years. No more pressing buttons without understanding the repercussions!

Unlike most other Lightroom books, this isn’t just the theory of how Lightroom’s supposed to work, but also the workarounds and solutions for the times when it doesn’t behave the way you’d expect.

Who’s the book written for?

For less experienced users, the Fast Track weaves its way through the book, with short tutorials that guide you through a simple workflow, allowing you to gain confidence before diving into the more advanced questions. To get an idea of the style, download my free Quick Start eBook.

The book then switches to a conversational question & answer format, going into greater detail for intermediate and advanced users. There are questions ranging from simple ones like how to import photos, to much more in-depth details about how the previews are used and how to create your own camera profiles. Check the Table of Contents tab to see the full list of questions covered in this release.

What’s new?

The LR CC/6 version is a major rewrite that’s taken 2 years to complete, and I’m confident it’s my best yet. The information is now easier for less experienced users to understand, and easier to find using the comprehensive new index. If you’ve read previous versions, don’t worry, all of the advanced information is still there and has been expanded too.  The book’s also available in color print for the first time. To learn more about the rewrite, check the “A Major Rewrite” tab on this page.

Is it worth reading?

For many years, the Adobe Lightroom – The Missing FAQ books have been among the most popular Lightroom books available. They have almost all 5 star reviews on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Some of my favorites from the Lightroom 5 book are copied on the Reviews tab. Many of the Articles on this website are taken directly from the book, if you’d like to read some excerpts.

When you have a Lightroom question, where do you look? Do you spend hours searching the web? From now on, you look right here.

About the Book

As the name suggests, Adobe Lightroom CC/6 – The Missing FAQ is primarily designed as a conversational FAQ-style reference book, giving you the detailed information you need to make informed choices, whether you’ve been using Lightroom for a few months or a few years. No more pressing buttons without understanding the repercussions!

Unlike most other Lightroom books, this isn’t just the theory of how Lightroom’s supposed to work, but also the workarounds and solutions for the times when it doesn’t behave the way you’d expect.

Who’s the book written for?

For less experienced users, the Fast Track weaves its way through the book, with short tutorials that guide you through a simple workflow, allowing you to gain confidence before diving into the more advanced questions. To get an idea of the style, download my free Quick Start eBook.

The book then switches to a conversational question & answer format, going into greater detail for intermediate and advanced users. There are questions ranging from simple ones like how to import photos, to much more in-depth details about how the previews are used and how to create your own camera profiles. Check the Table of Contents tab to see the full list of questions covered in this release.

What’s new?

The LR CC/6 version is a major rewrite that’s taken 2 years to complete, and I’m confident it’s my best yet. The information is now easier for less experienced users to understand, and easier to find using the comprehensive new index. If you’ve read previous versions, don’t worry, all of the advanced information is still there and has been expanded too.  The book’s also available in color print for the first time. To learn more about the rewrite, check the “A Major Rewrite” tab on this page.

Is it worth reading?

For many years, the Adobe Lightroom – The Missing FAQ books have been among the most popular Lightroom books available. They have almost all 5 star reviews on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk. Some of my favorites from the Lightroom 5 book are copied on the Reviews tab. Many of the Articles on this website are taken directly from the book, if you’d like to read some excerpts.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers

 I’m often asked which books I recommend for Lightroom and Photoshop. On the face of it it’s a fairly reasonable question but one that I struggle to answer without showing my bias.  How come?

Well,  since Lightroom 1.0 I have assisted Martin Evening with his Lightroom Book: The Complete Guide for Photographers. My input has been fairly limited in so far as I act as his technical editor. Nevertheless, having read pretty much every Lightroom book available in the english language I can say that Martin’s is by far the most comprehensive. I wont pretend that it’s a book for beginners or even an easy read. No, this book is written with the intention of providing the reader with comprehensive information and tips on all aspects of Lightroom.

Lightroom was designed from the ground up with digital photographers in mind, offering powerful editing features in a streamlined interface that lets photographers import, sort, and organise their images. In this completely updated version Martin describes features in Lightroom 5 in detail from a photographer’s perspective.  He has been working with Lightroom from the beginning, monitoring the product’s development and providing valued feedback to Adobe. As a result, Martin knows the software inside and out, from image selection to image editing through image management to the final print. In this book he’ll teach you how to:

  • Work efficiently with images shot in raw or JPEG formats
  • Import photographs with ease and sort them according to your workflow
  • Create and manage a personal image and video library
  • Quickly apply tonal adjustments to multiple images
  • Integrate Lightroom with Adobe Photoshop
  • Export images for print or Web as digital contact sheets or personal portfolios
  • Make the most of new features in Lightroom 5, such as extended spot
  • removal, Upright™ corrections, and Smart Previews

The book can be obtained from Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk