A couple of weeks ago, Brian Matiash and I recorded a podcast where we talked about the future of Lightroom Classic. In that podcast, Brian said he thought it would go away within 5 years. I said, I thought we’d be fine for at least another 7-10 years. Brian is a good friend of mine and I have no problem saying I think he’s wrong. I don’t see Lightroom Classic going away within 5 years. Mind you, neither of us have ANY official info on this and our thoughts are 100% educated guesses.
SIDE NOTE: As you read this, I know I mentioned a mini course that I’m working on for this new workflow. Stay tuned. It’ll be a really short, really affordable and simple course that should be out in the next couple of weeks.
Please… Take a Breath and Pause for a Minute
Since that podcast, I’ve gotten A TON of personal messages. For some reason, people totally missed the “7-10 years” phrase I mentioned and already stressed about Lightroom Classic going away. Then some one else reads it, out of context, and spreads the “Lightroom Classic is going away” rumor to some one else, and some one else, and you see how misinformation spreads 🙂
Please, please please… take a breath on this one. Lightroom Classic is not going away. Adobe isn’t trying to force you and your terabytes of photos in to the cloud, so they can steal hundreds of dollars from you each month. Stop with the conspiracy theories. Stop with the paranoia. And MOST OF ALL… keep an open mind to what may be an emerging workflow that could really simplify your photography life. Keep an open mind to it that some one is just trying to show you something useful, and there’s no sinister plan to extort money from you behind it.
There is a new feature that I’ll talk more about, that was meant for you. It wasn’t meant for the cell phone photographer who wants everything in the cloud. It was 100% meant for you – the photographer that uses big megapixel cameras and stores photos on regular hard drives. Again, keep an open mind as we start to talk about this in future weeks.
Some Thoughts on Lightroom Classic and Lightroom
I think Adobe has proven that they are actively developing features for Lightroom Classic. We got some great features in the past year in Lightroom Classic. And they’re not just adding features, they even rearranged a bit of the interface to clean things up, so it shows they actually do care about this app.
However, you have to realize that Lightroom Classic was really created for professional photographers that need features that hobbyists don’t. I hate to say it, but that pro market has slimmed down quite, and the vast majority of people that use LR Classic are hobbyist/enthusiasts. Now, that doesn’t mean that group doesn’t treat their photos like professionals do.
As an analogy… I’m an avid golfer with absolutely no business treating my game like a pro. Yet I take it seriously at times with gear, lessons, etc… Photographers are much the same. We may not be pros, but a lot of people take it very seriously – in some ways more seriously and meticulously than a pro, because a pro doesn’t have time for all the stuff a hobbyist has time for (they’re out running a business).
So why this this becoming a discussion right now?
This is bubbling to the top right now because a new feature was added to Lightroom (NOT LR Classic) that makes it simple to just browse and edit photos on your computer and hard drives, no matter where they are. No Import… no catalog… no disconnected photos or corruption because you moved something. So it doesn’t matter what computer it is, or what hard drive, or if you’ve moved a photo from one place to another. Just point it at ANY folder, and you’re in business.
Just to clarify again… This feature IS NOT in Lightroom Classic (and honestly I don’t think it ever will be).
As a Side note that relates to this… I’ve been talking about using Adobe Bridge for a while now. And before I talked about it last year, Bridge has been a large part of my photography workflow for years. When I get back from a shoot, I want one thing… to look at my photos quickly. Edit a few of the good ones, save ’em as a JPG and be done. I don’t want to organize, I don’t want to go through the whole shoot, I don’t want to keyword or do anything with metadata. I only want the fun part. I want to look at pretty pictures as fast as possible, and edit them.
And you know the funny thing about that? As soon as I shared that tutorial, I had hundreds of people message me telling me they love this workflow. But for some reason, even though this workflow is exactly the same – yet infinitely better – I mention the dreaded “Lightroom” word (without Classic on the end), and everyone knee jerk reacts about how bad it is.
Lightroom and the Past
For years, I organized my photos on a hard drive in descriptively named folders which is all I needed. I don’t care about renaming, or organizing by date, etc… I just put things in a folder name that makes sense to me. Then I imported them in to LR Classic. Why? Only to just look at the SAME EXACT Folder organization I just did on my hard drive – but yet I had to go through the Import and the Catalog. For what?… It didn’t offer me any benefit. I don’t Keyword / Use Metadata – I don’t use Maps, or Slideshows. The few books I make I usually do through Apple Books – and for years I’ve thought that Epson Print Layout or Canon Print Studio (the software that comes with your printer) was a better way to print than the Print module.
So why go through all that trouble using a program with all of that bloat, that didn’t let me easily move photos, travel with my library, or use a laptop desktop combo, and phone/tablet when I wanted? Why?…. Because it was the best program available. It wasn’t made for me, but it was the closest thing possible for what I (and most other hobbyist/enthusiast photographers) wanted. In short, Lightroom Classic was better (and in most cases cheaper) than any alternative we had.
For me, I want the fastest way possible to look at photos and the fastest way to get them to a “wow” point. That is all I care about. If you care about something different, then the workflow I’ll talk about may not be for you. And that’s okay… not everything I teach is for everyone. There are far more serious photographers that follow me, than I am.
Anyway, judging from the strongly worded comments I’ve already seen, some people will resist this, and that’s fine. It’s partly because of the word Lightroom “cloud” – when in fact, this version of Lightroom hasn’t been named “cloud” in years. We educators call it “cloud” but it’s named changed years ago. And my workflow has nothing to do with anything cloud-based – though there is a small feature I do like but it’s not required.
It’s also because people don’t like change, and I get it. You finally got used to LR Classic and you feel that your photography is locked in there. But after months of using this workflow, I haven’t looked back. In fact, I’m actually excited about it and how easy it is. I haven’t been this excited about a feature since Masking got an overhaul in Lightroom 3 years ago. And I’ve noticed that when I’m excited about something, most of you end up being excited as well.
I now get back from a photo shoot and I now have a crazy fast way to browse through the photos (and rate or flag or keyword them too) as soon as I put them on a hard drive. Bridge always did a good job of that in recent years, but the editing experience in Bridge was clunky. You had to leave Bridge and open an editor (Camera Raw). Then close the editor and go back to viewing photos and back and forth. Not ideal.
This is the Lightroom We’ve Always Wanted
For 20 years all I’ve heard from people who start using Lightroom Classic is why they can’t just open a folder of photos and edit them. But with the new “Local” tab in Lightroom, we have exactly that. This is the Lightroom that I have always wanted, and the majority of you reading this have always asked for.
In short, I’ve been teaching this stuff for over 20 years. I know what pain points people have and quickly looking through photos… and making them look amazing, is by far the largest pain point I’ve heard. This workflow helps that.
It doesn’t mess with your existing photos in Lightroom Classic in any way. It doesn’t require you to use the cloud or pay more money. It doesn’t ruin your photos. And it doesn’t lock you in to anything – and nothing you do will be permanent if you try it, and decide you’d rather use Lightroom Classic. In fact, as you’ll see when I share my workflow, it’s more of a hybrid and I’m going to suggest you leave everything you did in LR Classic there, and just open it up when you need to access those older photos.
Put simply… you won’t have to do anything to old stuff. You’ll just move forward with a faster and simpler workflow. Remember, Lightroom Classic isn’t going away any time soon, or ever, for all we know.
I’m Not Leaving You
I’ve already received several messages of people sad they won’t be able to follow me anymore. Folks… this is one tiny step of workflow in how you look at your photos. You know me. I don’t teach organization and library management (except in one LR course). I can’t stand that stuff and spend my time telling people to concentrate on the important stuff of editing – not organizing.
So how does this affect you if I teach it and use it? It doesn’t? My tutorials will still concentrate on editing and I’ll probably still teach most of those in LR Classic, even though the edit settings are exactly the same in Lightroom (not classic) and Camera Raw.
Moving Ahead
And as much as I already see the resistance from the few catalog / keyword /metadata lovers, I think you know I want the best for the people that follow my tutorials. And I’m certain this is it. It may not be the answer for everyone (mostly the vocal minority). And I’m going to ask the majority of you to ignore naysayers that will list all of the features you’re giving up. Ignore that guy in your camera club that tells you how important DAM, keywords, and metadata are. They may be right for them, but I promise you they are not representative of what most of you want ?
Generally, I’ve found when I’m excited about something, most of you are too.
And you know the best part… it’s free to try and it won’t mess up anything about existing workflows. And if you’re afraid I’m going to go down a teaching path that won’t help you in the future, please don’t be. I don’t teach photo organization, management, keywords, or any of that stuff. I teach how to edit a photo and make it look great. And the settings in Lightroom Classic, Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw are identical for that.
Anyway, stay tuned. I’m finishing up a VERY short and VERY affordable mini course that will walk you through this. It’ll be out in the next couple of weeks. Thanks! ?
I love teaching and photography... In that order. I feel that enjoying photography, and photo editing can get WAY too complicated. So my personal mission (and favorite thing to do), is to create education that simplifies the process of taking great photos, and how to edit them to get the results you’ve always wanted.
Hi Matt,
I’m intrigued by your new perspective on Lightroom and your upcoming new workflow course. I have never used Lightroom on my desktop, but have downloaded it to my iPhone to enable me to sync photos I have placed in my Lightroom Classic collections. The syncing from LR Classic to my iPhone has been far from good.
I use Bridge on a limited basis to sort through scans of old slides and negatives once I scan a batch to make cure everything turned our before importing them into LR Classic.
I am looking forward to your new course!
I haven’t tried the Lightroom Cloud version because it seems like every time a company comes out with a cloud version of their desktop software, it usually ends up being a “full-featured desktop version” and a “stripped down cloud version” that adds some internet-based functions of dubious value. I’d love if that wasn’t the case with LR Cloud (or whatever the name is this week).
There’s certain things in LR Classic that are extremely important, like keywords (which enable searching both within Lightroom and for exported JPGs, as well as smart collections and workflow), plug-ins, the map module (not critical but very helpful in some cases, and also fun)
Looking forward to your course, and hopefully seeing how all that’s possible in Lightroom (non-CC)!
Just read your blog and am installing LR (not classic which is my main photo editor) to see how altered workflow works for me
I trust you, Matt, so I’ll stay tuned. You’re the best photography teacher I’ve ever seen!
Matt, I’ve done all my “photo stuff” in Lightroom Classic since V4 came out. After all these years I’ve gotten kind of disgruntled with that workflow for many of the reasons you mentioned . I recently decided to change to a new workflow that Blake Rudis kind of suggests – Adjust tone and color first, then add the effects you see fit for your image. I’m still developing my own methodology for that and would be very open to trying your new workflow, or at least incorporating parts of it into my currant Bridge * Camera RAW (why is “RAW” capitalized?) * Photoshop workflow (still under construction).
I have been learning most of my hobbyist/enthusiast photography from both you and Blake for quite a long time and it’s been invaluable to me to say the least. Thank you for all the hard work you’ve done and continue to do for all photographers like (and unlike) me!
Matt, I’ve followed you for quite awhile and one of the things I admire the most is that you don’t try to sell us anything. I am an enthusiast, not a professional, but I’ve reached the same conclusion that you have. Lightroom CC is just too cumbersome and time consuming for me. I was so displeased with my Lightroom CC catalog that recently I deleted all my photos and started fresh. I only am adding current photos to the catalog. I also struggle with the necessity to shoot in Raw. It takes me so long to get a photo edited. I don’t always agree with the ‘Auto’ editing option in LIghtroom CC, but it is a place to start. My question (to myself) is, if that’s where I am starting anyway, why not just shoot in Jpeg? Then, there is my IPhone 15 Pro Max, which can do a better job editing than I’m afraid I will ever do. You’ve discussed that Lightroom Classic’s life span is time limited. I get it. In that same period of time, imagine what Smart Phones will be able to do. Short of telephoto and depth of field, which I’m sure will be greatly improved in the near future, the photos are fabulous. So what is the future of digital cameras (for enthusiasts) in the future. Just posing the thought. I do have a question for you, can I use Lightroom Mobile on my laptop? The phone is just too small for serious editing by this 76 year old. By the way, I took the same photos at Great Falls, Maryland last month with my SonyRiv.5 and my cell phone. When I get a chance, I’ll send you some. Can you tell which were taken by my cell phone? Thanks so much being you… Janis
Thanks for clarification Matt. It was getting very confusing listening to all the predictions etc. I totally agree with your philosophy and I for one would love a simpler workflow of editing my images. I have always used LR classic really thanks to you and look forward to seeing your mini course. Then I can make my own decision being better informed.
Lead on, Matt. Looking forward to your new course.
Thanks for the post. Most of my photo journey has been because I got excited because you got excited. The podcast with Brian fired me up. I’ve followed you for a while and have most of your courses which have been a tremendous help.I have been on one of your CR workshops which was awesome.Now I’m getting excited about your mini course because I’m anxious to deal with a streamed-lined workflow that I can do when I’m away from home. Can’t wait. Thanks for all you do and ignore the naysayers.
I listened to that podcast and you made it very clear what you thought. It’s a shame people panic and stop listening when they hear something that they don’t want. After the new “local” came out with LR I gave it a try, mostly because the newest iteration of LRCC is soooo slow. I hated it for so many reasons. I’ve been a LRCC classic since the first version and I’ve loved how they’ve evolved the software, it’s fairly snappy (until the last major update) it’s current and it’s very intuitive. I don’t find LR to be intuitive at all, not to mention that I can’t make the darn thumbnails big enough to see well. And I can’t keyword. So I’m hoping that LRCC will continue to be developed and effective for years to come. I will most likely get your course when it comes out since it pays to know what’s available with my subscription, so thank you for keeping things up to date and relevant.
I’m totally in your corner. I am looking forward to your new workflow tutorial on LR. I have always struggled with why LRc wouldn’t let me edit photos on my hard drive without first importing and then editing. It seemed inefficient. And, I have run into file management troubles with unlinked (LRc can’t find) photos/folders when I made a change to my hard drive and not to LRc. So, I am really looking forward to your workflow and making my editing process simpler and more fun. Thanks for informing us of this alternative. I fear change for the sake of change… but this new workflow seems logical.
No negativity here Matt. Excited to see the workflow…sooner the better !
“In short, Lightroom Classic was better (and in most cases cheaper) than any alternative we had.” This is the crux of my peace with wherever Lightroom goes. There are much better alternatives running in the pack than were available before.
The truth is that there are many tools out there and many are great. Surely if Adobe closed the entire Lightroom Classic line and went pure cloud we could find a suitable alternative.
You have taught courses on how “Bridge doesn’t suck!” and I’m currently looking at Mylio with cautious optimism. There are good things and less-good things about any tool but we are at the end of the day dealing with images, not necessarily ecosystems. Granted, for some the cataloging and keywording is important but I think the options in LR will cover most of us.
I eagerly anticipate what you have for the workflow. I bet it will be great!
Thanks for trying to bring calm to the people.
Good discussion Matt. I am on the fence about the LrC catalog, keywording and using metadata. I think information entry like adding new images is easy, but information retrieval like finding previously added images is not so easy. When I go back to the 15-20k pictures I took in 2022 and then again in 2023, I want an easy find the pictures of the Striated caracara I took in the Falkland Islands, as an example. I found a way to add keywords in LR, but it’s not a good workflow. Anyway, I plan to use LR and LrC for now. I would like to see the keywording and metadata functionality added to LR at some point.
Thanks Jay. First… Lightroom also has keywords. So if you have a photo of a Striated caracara, you can add a keyword and search through just fine. I guess, for me, if I had a photo of one, I would look in my “Birds” collection/album. Or better yet, a collection set with Birds/Striated caracara. But even if I just had a BIRDS album, that only gets the great photos. I don’t have thousands of great photos, so when I look in there it would take seconds to scroll through to find that photo. Just as many seconds as it would take me to type that in to a keyword. Thats me though. I also, will never again end up with 25K photos from a year. It’s just too much. I’d rather have a simple workflow and spend time getting rid of junk. I just refuse to manage 100’s of thousands of photos anymore that aren’t good. Thanks!
Hey Jay, today’s New York Times has a great article about the striated caracara!
Good to know that you will have a course on how to switch from LrC to Lr. Am too scared to do it on my own.
I don’t want to be hyperbolic but I think your readers should know that the podcast with Brian was lifechanging for me. I have now moved completely to Lr and its SO much better. I have all my photos (>20TB) on a NAS that I can use the Local tab to browse and I have all my edited photos (so far from the last 2 years) in the cloud and it is great to be able to access and edit them wherever I am. The thought of saying to someone “I’ll make that edit when I get home and get it to you later” feels totally foreign to me now, despite the fact that that was how I operated less than a month ago.
What a fantastic article! Change is difficult but usually (not always) brings evolutionary changes that take advantage of newer technology.
I’d be happy to move to local folders instead of a catalog! Actually I’d be very excited!
I do want a way to quickly find images so for me right now, keywords have been important. If there’s another way, I’d be happy to evaluate it. I just want to find some images quickly.
And Lightroom indeed has keywords just like LR Classic has. Just not the intricate depth of them (which I’d argue most don’t need).
Ha! I’m one of those rare photographers who NEVER liked the forced cataloguing of Lightroom, always wanted just the editing features. After all these years, I feel vindicated. Although I went through all the motions after my shoots, I’ve always done pretty much like you. Head directly to Bridge to access and edit the photos I want to see and use right away. This move by Adobe feels right. With that said, I’m surprised not to have heard anything about it until just now, reading your blog. Thanks very much for this heads up! Be well.
Thank you for all that you do! I have put great value on your education and tutorials. I have switched completely from LR Classic to LR in the last couple of weeks, and contrary to what both you and Brian have recommended, I have completely imported all of my photos up to 2001. The main reason I did that was because I wanted the ability to pull out my phone or iPad at any time that I have some free time, and start culling and eliminating some of those older photos, so having them available mobile as well as the desktop was a great incentive for me.
I know several people have mentioned collections, and as you probably know, your collections do import into LR as Albums, and you can have photos in multiple albums. Smart collections or smart albums don’t exist, but so far, I’ve been very impressed with the search capabilities of LR, and I think that it’s people view somehow seems better than in LR Classic, but that is a fairly subjective opinion!
Matt, thanks for your always thoughtful and helpful explanations! I’m a longtime LRCC and Bridge user, but I’m looking forward to trying out the Lightroom Local approach. (As soon as I transition from my workhorse Lenovo Thinkpad to my new macBook Pro, that is ??)
After years of complicated local and offsite backups to my Lightroom catalog and all my photos I took the plunge on the cloud version of Lightroom a couple years ago. The import worked, but at the time seemed a little more complicated than I would have liked. Initially I gave up some flexibility in the develop module, but over time it’s improved and I’ve found that the only thing I really miss is some of the plugins. And over the years I probably used too many plugins, just like I spent too much time entering and cleaning metadata on my photos. What I gained is easier searching—I can pull up any photo on my phone whenever I want. And it turns out that I take more raw photos on my phone than on my big camera these days because it’s always with me. I’ve used every version of Lightroom starting with v1 so I’ve been through a lot of upgrades and decision points. The cloud version isn’t perfect, but the workflow is much better for me, I spend no time on backups, and I have access to all my photos on every device I use. There are trade offs to everything, but this is one significant move that I don’t regret. And BTW, I’ve followed Matt for years and have no trouble implementing the editing techniques he teaches in Classic or Camera Raw in the cloud version apart from using plugins, which I have to jump into PS for.
Seems to me that one does not have to agree with all of your opinions to get value from your tutorials/courses. I certainly have and continue to do so. For those who tend to jump to unwarranted conclusions about your opinions, I recommend that you suggest to them that they read a copy of “Misbelief: What Makes Rational People Believe Irrational Things” by Dan Ariely. If you haven’t read it, the author’s perspectives on the tendency for some to adopt conspiracies might give you insight into this phenomenon and in that way contribute to your sanity! Please know that I continue to value your good work even as I don’t agree with some of your perspectives.
Thanks for the update, Matt. I am now in the process of getting used to Lightroom (vs Lightroom Classic). I’m sold, especially considering we won’t have to worry about a catalog anymore. I do hope that native plugin support will eventually be added, but it’s not a big deal to jump into Photoshop and back if needed. I was able to easily import my profiles and presets. There are a few UI tweaks that would be nice (e.g., ratings on filmstrip, solo mode in the edit panel) but all in all, I like the interface. I’m looking forward to your upcoming course.
You’re welcome Tim. I actually think going to PS first before a plug-in is better. It’s how I always did it from LR Classic. That way you have a layer, opacity, mask, etc… Rather than using the not-as-good masking tools that plug-ins try to add. And Solo Mode does exist. Click the “3 dots” button on the far right side (below masking icon) and choose “Single Panel Mode”, which happens to be what Solo Mode should have been called for the last 20 years 🙂
I am very curious about a new workflow. I have started exploring Bridge and like the ability to view, rate and trying to figure out how to delete. I even tried an edit in ACR including masks, but couldn’t figure out how to close mask panel. I hope you include ACR complete edit in this course showing differences from LRC. Thanks!
Hi Susan. This course won’t have anything to do with ACR since we’re talking about Lightroom. But to close the Mask panel, just click the Edit Panel icon on the right (or any other icon). And if you hover over the icons for a second, you’ll see keyboard shortcuts. Hope that helps.
Thanks for the info, Matt. I couldn’t figure out how to close the mask panel in ACR either.
No problem. It’s the same way to close it in any program (LR, LRC, ACR) – just click somewhere else.
Am very excited about this and hope you will address the travel aspects of this using an iPad. Travel internationally a lot and tried using a laptop and LrC and the weight and usability was did not feel right.
Looking forward to your new class
Hi Dan. Thanks, but this will not be a travel course on using the iPad. This will be a course for people that want to switch from LR Classic to LR for a simpler workflow. There still is no good workflow for some one wanting to travel with an iPad. You’re limited by the space on your iPad with Lightroom, even if you turn internet off and don’t sync to the cloud. If you take more photos than will fit on your iPad you’re outta luck. Stick to a light laptop if editing while traveling is important.
Thank you for responding and those are items i have to carefully condider
Matt, because of all these new changes in Lightroom, especially the ai aspects. Would it be a good idea to get rid of all old presets, etc and go with presets, etc that mights have ai. Would the two work better together?
Hi Diana. I know it may seem like there are “all these new changes in Lightroom”. But when you think of it there’s not. Some new masking stuff and a panel that I don’t think 99% of people should even use (Point Color). So I’d say any preset you have that looks good and works is a good preset. Just because it has AI in it doesn’t mean it’s better, so I’d give them a try and let your eyes tell you if you should delete it or not. Hope that helps. Thanks
Thanks. I found the podcast on the topic fascinating and this piece cleared up some of my questions. Looking forward to the mini course to learn more.
Matt, I have followed you off and on for years and always found your comments solid, honest and reasonable. Your courses speak clearly to me and I ALWAYS hear your voice of reason, joy, and knowledge. I still use an iTouch, so change and kicking-and-screaming go hand in hand for me … but I trust you. And I’m looking forward to hearing what you have to say. After all, I was able to change from film to digital!
Thanks for clarifying this issue. You have a knack of making something that seems complicated into something understandable.
Thank you Matt for the podcast and this follow up. I think I will be following you from Classic to Lightroom as this is the workflow I have been looking for. Looking forward to your mini course.
I have one question though am I correct in thinking that you cannot import / use brush presets in Lightroom like you can in Classic?
Hi Tony. Correct. Profile and Develop Presets work. But Brush/Local presets do not. Thanks.
I just learned about this from a comment on Mat’s FB page so I watched a podcast. At first I was confused as I have not heard about this “Lightroom” as a LRC user. Then I realized this was previously named LR Cloud so I had tuned out back then as I was never interested in editing with a cloud version or a mobile version. During the podcast I wondered if I did have that version so I opened up Creative Cloud and sure enough Lightroom was there so I installed it. The local tab will be a game changer as long as all the LRC Develop Module features are there. Haven’t used it yet and will look forward to the new course. I am hoping the workflow with include moving to Photoshop for further editing and file formats as right now everything gets saved as PSD file then exported as a JPEG.
Thank you
I really came away with some great information in your podcast with Brian. I’ve been looking to modify my workflow to be able to use the best of Lightroom classic and Lightroom. I believe you’re pointing in that direction where Brian is more towards the full Lightroom workflow, or as he puts at the Lightroom everywhere. I do like that concept and purchased his course to check out this workflow. I think it’s really exciting and especially looking forward to your mini course. I suspect that you will zero in on the best of both and create an even simpler workflow. Thank you Matt.
Well written, as usual. The collections in LR Classic are a huge organizational benefit for me. I may have the same photo in multiple collections. I use smart collections extensively using key words to automatically send the photo to appropriate collection(s). I may be part of your “vocal minority” and may no longer fit into your target student base. That saddens me because I’ve learned a lot from you and very much like your teaching style.
Hi Ed… What could I possibly teach on a weekly basis that would cause my training to not be useful to you anymore? So I do one tutorial on a Local editing tab. Do you ever see me teach about the organizational part of anything? I don’t do it. I don’t like it. And it’s not something I ever teach other than my main LR Course. How will my training not be useful to you now, even if I do all of my editing in Lightroom (not classic).
I have assiduosly avoided lightroom as it looked to me that it was for mobil and “cloud stuff”. I did a little follow up (10 minutes) and it still looks to me like it is mainly for pads and phones something I don’t need. I’m sure the marketing folks at Adobe have their reasons. I do light keywording. Usually no more than three words. It really helps me find stuff when my wife asks.
Then this version is for you! My workflow has nothing to do with iPads or mobile phones and I’ve ditched LRclassic for it. Trust me! 🙂
Thank you for the response, breath taken.
I am “hard of hearing” and so I do not listen to podcasts so I only saw the “outflow” etc..
I am retired and do a lot of citizen scientist work with birds and bird ID photography is my first priority. I need storage and retrieval of the image and the accompanying data including the GPS data to be simple and fast. I use maps frequently and key words are the critical link for all of that and they make finding specific bird images fast and simple.
I use only one LRC catalog and store all of my images and the catalog together on 1 external ssd hard drive (essentially a drive out of a macbook pro in an enclosure) with thunderbolt connectivity. I have 3 more of these drives that I do exact copies of using carbon copy cloner and I rotate a drive to my safe deposit box regularly.
I work on a Mac studio and calibrated 27″ mac studio display. I use Data Color Spyder X2 elite with colorimeter.
I keep my editing as simple as possible and your Light Room classes helped me do that. I also keep my home printing simple and I use the LRC print module and print to a Canon pro 100. It is no muss no fuss I tell the lRC module what paper I am using, tell it that I want it to color match by colorsync and then the size of print I want and that is pretty much it and I get award winning paper prints.
I also export with simple presets, I learned how to make from you, the jpgs that I need for sending to my pro lab that prints the prints on metal that I sell occasionally, non profit web page use, printing in news papers etc. for e bird, social media, stuff I need to teach bird photography classes etc. and more.
LRC and your presets and what I have learned from you over the years has gotten me to the point that I do everything in LRC. I have not used PS for well over 3 years now and no longer use Topaz. I want my workflow to be as efficient and effective as possible for my end product and you have helped make that possible.
You’ve convinced me, Matt. I’m looking forward to seeing your workflow and how it can help simplify my editing process.
This actually sounds great. I watched your Bridge class and love the idea. Since I somehow ‘lost’ my LR catalog in the last update, I’m sitting here with a harddrive full of photos that I dread re-importing to LR. I’ll wait on the new class and look forward to trying a new method.
Well said Matt.