DAM

Digital Asset Management

Lightroom: Kind Of

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 3. February 2012 - 6:10

A vacuum cleaner is something that uses a fan to push air out to create some vacuum to suck up dust and dirt. So what's that got to do with Lightroom? You see, Lightroom is a software that runs on a computer.

Most computers have many fans, my workstation has five fans. Four of the fans pull air out and the fifth fan push air in.

Lightroom: Smugmug Publishing Plug-in

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 2. February 2012 - 6:10

One of the least used feature, but very powerful feature of Lightroom, is the Publish function. Basically, Lightroom will export the photo to the destination if there's any “important” change to the photo. The important change could be the description/caption, the title, the keywords, the Develop treatment…

I use Smugmug for my photo “back-end.” I chose Smugmug over Zenfolio because Smugmug is integrated in Lightroom (I didn't know then, what I know now.)

  1. I'm not saying that Smugmug is better than Zenfolio. It's your personal choice. Each one has its good, its bad and its ugly.

Lightroom: Remember the Why of a Virtual Copy

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 16. December 2011 - 9:16

Lightroom has this wonderful concept of the virtual copy. A virtual copy is just a set of adjustments that is stored in the catalog, it's not an actual file. The beauty of the virtual copies is that it's possible to have hundreds of virtual copies of the same photo but with different adjustments, crops, colors, black and white…

Some people are amazing, years later, they remember every single detail of why they did… and then, there's me. I need to see some notes, then I can remember the tiny details. That's why I need to keep track of why I created the virtual copy.

Renaming a virtual copyLightroom has this wonderful concept of the virtual copy. A virtual copy is just a set of adjustments that is stored in the catalog, it's not an actual file. The beauty of the virtual copies is that it's possible to have hundreds of virtual copies of the same photos but with different adjustments, crops, colors, black and white…I use the `Copy Name` to type in my explanation of what I did and/or why. For me, a large number of the virtual copy are the balck and whites and that's obvious. But I also do virtual copies for printing the different size that forces me to crop such as 8½ by 11 vs 11 by 17 vs … That way I know what's what.lightroom-virtual-copy-name.jpg — ©2011 Syv Ritch -- foto-biz.com: http://www.foto-biz.com/usageterms

Lightroom: Renaming A Virtual Copy to Remember the Why of a Virtual Copy

Lightroom: Where is the Selection Criteria: “Description”

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 13. December 2011 - 6:00

I use Smugmug for my photo back-end for photos.foto-biz.com. The problem that I have is that I wanted to make sure that all the photos have a description.

The proper way would be to use Lightroom with a smart collection. If the description is empty then display the photo in the collection. Should be simple. Yes? No!

Lightroom: Selection Criterias I want to find the photos in Lightroom that do not have any description.The question is where is the description selection criteria?Nowhere to be found.

Lightroom Available Selection Criterias

Lightroom: Don't Import Suspected Duplicates

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 30. November 2011 - 6:10

Usually, when importing photos into a Lightroom catalog, the Do No Import Duplicates is checked on. The question is what's a duplicate? Everybody in their right mind would assume that 2 duplicate photos are 2 identical photos. It turns out that for programmers, 2 identical photos are not the same as 2 identical files.

What Lightroom really mean is 2 identical files. What are identical files?

  • The same name like: charlie-20111129-1234
  • The same file extension like: .cr2

This means that charlie-20111129-1234.cr2 and charlie-20111129-1234.jpg are not identical files.

Lightroom: The Case Against DNG

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 23. November 2011 - 6:24

Adobe created the DNG format: Digital NeGative, we are at version 1.3. According to Adobe:

Key benefits for photographers:

  • DNG format helps promote archival confidence, since digital-imaging software solutions will be able to open raw files more easily in the future.
  • A single raw processing solution enables a more efficient workflow when handling raw files from multiple camera models and manufacturers.
  • A publicly documented and readily available specification can be easily adopted by camera manufacturers and updated to accommodate technology changes.

Lightroom: Importing 100 Thousand Photos — My Summary

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 22. November 2011 - 7:21

After a few major crashes, I decided to start from scratch, almost (I had saved all of my XMPs.) I created a new catalog and imported 93,259 photos. I was able to import all of them in less than 5 days!

Here's my summary for the:

Lightroom: Importing 100 Thousand Photos — Part 3

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 18. November 2011 - 6:40

In this blog post we will discuss the crux of the matter when it come to importing a large amount of photos like I had to do, 93,259 photos.

The “standard” advice is to:

  1. Render Previews 1:1 so that you don't have to wait when you are scrolling through the Develop module or browsing at 1:1

Lightroom: Importing 100 Thousand Photos — Part 2

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 16. November 2011 - 6:50

In Lightroom: Importing 100 Thousand Photos — Part 1 I spoke about the importance of checking vs un-checking the Include Subfolders on the performance. Now we'll look at the basic import operations, the different ways of getting the photos into Lightroom:

Lightroom: Import Options

  1. Copy as DNG
  2. Copy
  3. Move

Lightroom: Importing 100 Thousand Photos — Part 1

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 14. November 2011 - 6:25

Importing photos in Lightroom is very easy to do, just like any the other camera processors. Click the import button, select the photos, press OK and some time later you are done. This works without any problem when you import only a few hundreds photos. If you want to import a thousand photos at a time, now we start to talk as much as 6 hours depending on your settings. Now try to import 10 thousand photos in a weekend, wish you good luck. A 100 thousand photos and now we are talking at least a month.

1.

Improve Your Photography with Lightroom

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 20. October 2011 - 5:53

In the “good old days” aka before digital aka film, if you were a professional, you would take your photos, process the film, make a contact sheet of the film and file the negatives in a PVC free plastic sheet. Finally, we would print a few of the photos.

Now we have to import everything into Lightroom before reviewing the photos. This photos are automatically placed in the Previous Import collection and in the All Photographs collection at the same time. They will stay in the Previous Import until the next import.

My steps

1.

Lightroom: Fast or Slow, it's Up to You

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 4. October 2011 - 5:53

Did you know that you decide whether you make Lightroom zoom along or crawl as a slug?

By now, you must know that Lightroom is a non-destructive editing software. What most people forget is what it means and how it affects Lightroom's speed.

Let's review the process.

  1. You start Lightroom
  2. Lightroom loads the catalog, that's the .lrcat file. It's just 1 file
  3. Lightroom loads the ancillary files, overlays, plug-in, settings

Lightroom – Correcting Existing Misspelled Keywords

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 20. September 2011 - 6:05

It's very easy and simple to correct existing keywords that are misspelled. Right Click on the keyword in the keyword in the right panel → select Edit Keyword Tag or Rename and type in the new spelling. You are done!

What about all the existing photos? It's already done. How?

None of the photos are actually associated with the keywords. Here's the table that configures the keywords. Each photo is associated the various id_global.

Pirated Lightroom

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 12. September 2011 - 5:06

A friend and customer recently spend “muchos dinaros” on a top of the line laptop. iCore 7, a real ATI video card… By the time it was all said and done with Microsoft Office 2010… $2,000+ Whew! Lots of money. Andrei asked me how he could move his Lightroom/Photoshop and his data from his computer to the laptop.

  1. Backups, backups and backups
  2. Install Photoshop
  3. Install Lightroom
  4. Restore the photos
  5. Restore the catalog (without the previews)
  6. Install the many plugins

And that's where the problems really started.

Renaming a Lightroom Catalog

Submitted by Syv Ritch on 8. September 2011 - 5:28

Rename a Lightroom catalog is easy, it's simply renaming 1 (one) file and that's it. The problems is where is the catalog located? Why hasn't Adobe provided a menu function for renaming the catalog?

  • The catalog is named (the catalog name).lrcat

So you have a few choices for finding the catalog:

  1. Do a straight search from the OS (Windows or Mac) and look for: (the catalog name).lrcat
  2. In Lightroom on a Mac: Catalog Settings / Edit → Catalog Settings → General Tab
  3. In Lightroom on Windows: Edit → Catalog Settings → General Tab
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