Adobe released a few new updates to Lightroom this week (mid February 2018). Most of them are related to searching for photos and collections. But they also promised some performance enhancements too. So I did a quick video that goes over everything. Enjoy!
PS: If you haven’t updated yet, open Lightroom Classic and go to the top menu to Help > Updates or use your Creative Cloud updater program.
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.
I’ve just attended a course and the lecturer said monitor calibration equipment wasn’t necessarily useful. He said if you do not have the right print choice selected in the program to match the paper (as in Gamma) all in conjunction with the matching printer Settings you will have ‘muddy’ issues.
I’m very new to Lightroom so I haven’t explored this area just yet however I’m hoping it’s the answer to some of my printing issues.
Thank you, Matt.
Any help is appreciated – I’m relatively new to the program & im stuck!
Hello! I just updated and my vibrance and saturation will not “turn on” the keys seem to be deactivated. Can you give any advice?
Thanks Matt, always useful! So, was that recorded in a new office?
Hey Mike. My office is the same. I did get some wood paneling on one of the walls so I’m using a different camera angle 🙂
Thank you, Matt. Keep them coming. Adobe gives a lot for a small monthly fee.
Thanks, Matt, for your useful and timely updates. I had another photographer show me how to have LR import the jpeg previews that the camera creates to be used by LR that supposedly speeds up that part of the import. Do you have any thoughts on that?
Hi John. During Import, I suggest using the “Embedded and Sidecar” option. It doesn’t necessarily speed up the import, but it speeds up viewing the photos once their in LR.
Hi Matt,
Always watch your tutorials, and you have no idea how much I have learnt from your less technical and very practical way of teaching. I am a LR CC subscriber. One thing you commented on this video is that there is no point in creating new collection exactly as your folder. I clearly understand why. But I end up putting everything in collections because that is the only way I can see all my pictures on LR Mobile App (phone or other computers), i.e. it only shows your collections and not folders. I would like your comments on how to get around that.
Second question I have is about collections as well. Changes you make in collections via LR Mobile WILL affect your originals in the Folders in your main host computer. I understand that as well. My question is – what happens if you have same pictures in 2 or 3 different collections? How will changes in one collection affect the original in host folder? I have not tried that but would like to hear your thoughts. Thank you again for sharing your expertise.
Hi. Thanks for the kind words.
1) Unfortunately There is no way around it. Collections are the way that LR Mobile works.
2) Whenever you change a photo in a collection or anywhere, it changes all of them. That’s what virtual copies would be for but I don’t believe those exist on mobile.
Hope that helps.
Thanks – useful information
Matt:
I own Lightroom 6.14. With the release of Lightroom Classic, does this mean Adobe will no longer support the 6.14 product into the future and I will have to “rent” from now on?
Hi Sam. Yes, Adobe has come out and said they have released a few camera update “maintenance” updates for LR6 but I believe they’re done. No more development will be done for it. I’m not a sales person for them, so I don’t want to try to convince you. All I can say, is that 9.99 a month is a great deal for LR and PS. So you should consider it. Especially if you’re on a budget and need to plan your photo expenditures each month – it makes a very easy. If you’re not, I’d suggest moving to another program like ON1. Thx.
Recently I managed to remove pick flags from a unknown number of photos. I remembered searching for photos worked on before and went looking for a way to find photos I had worked on and couldn’t find one. I did find a smart collection I created a few years ago to find photos I had worked on when I revising my management system. The search criterion was “has adjustments” which is no longer on the list but the smart collection still works. I am happy the feature is back.
I have now tried out the feature. It doesn’t do what I hoped. When I import I apply the lens corrections so the filter catches every photo.
Your videos are extremely enjoyable and informative. I really enjoy your style of teaching and I learn so much by watching them. Thanks so much for your efforts in teaching us these LR updates and techniques.
Matt, please can you explain how you select your favourite photos first and then create a collection from the folder with only the favourites moving into the collection.
Hi Belinda – you click (or shift-click to select multiple photos) your favorites. When you create a collection, there’s a checkbox to “add selected photos”. Thx.
Thanks Matt but I’m not there yet – sorry. I’ve always used the method you’ve described when creating collections in the old way but when I create the collection from the folder (by right clicking and choosing create collection), the option to include selected photos doesn’t appear. I’m clearly missing something here but I can’t figure out what.
You are the man.
Thank you so much.
Thanks, Matt, for this clear explanation of the latest LR update – really appreciate all you do.
Thanks for making the video Matt. Those are some great new features.
Once again, thanks for all the update info thru out the years. Unfortunately I’m one of thoughts who the update did not help on the side of performance. All those out there who have laptops that can’t upgrade there ram for one reason or another will suffer because of this. My laptop for instants, I can’t upgrade my ram from 4 gigs to a min of 12 gigs. I would have to purchase a new laptop. And as a side note, most laptops today don’t have the ability to upgrade. I for one don’t like using the cloud base system because you don’t get the full benefit of the classic system. I think what may happen is that some users of LTR will witch to another system i.e. On1, Landscape Pro etc., that doesn’t require more ram to use. Just my thoughts. Thanks again.
Great Matt, Thanks again.
Thanks Matt. My LR does not show the “edit” column. David
Hi David – if you don’t see it that means you’ve not upgraded. When you go to your ABOUT LIGHTROOM menu it should say version 7.2.
I’m definitely seeing a speed gain with this release. Lightroom is fun again! I don’t have the lag I was having with the last release, folders are loading quickly, and I can move from library to develop without freezing.
Nice!
Thanks for all those videos, for me they are really useful
Matt,
Thanks million for your updates. I am learning a lot.
I have a question about Photoshop. Couple of month ago you had a lecture about Cropping and Rotating images with Content Aware. I used it and worked like magic. My picture remained the same size and all four corners got filled. I tried to Rotate with Content Aware last week, spent hours and it did not work. I go from Lightroom to Edit in Photoshop click the Crop Tool, click Content Aware and I do not get the anchor points (little squares) around the picture. When I crop around the picture I get the anchor points, but cannot click the Contend Aware.
So I use Edit-Fill-Content Aware 4x, for 4 comers. I have MacPro that I bough last year in January and subscribe Photoshop Lightroom and updated both this Tuesday. I use Raw files.
Wrong settings? Please help.
Thanks
Marcela
Hi Marcela – not sure about this one. The only thing I can think is that the “Content Aware” checkbox is not turned in when you select the crop tool. Other than that I’m stumped.
Hi Matt,
A worldwide group of us have been requesting that Adobe add color coding into the Folders and Collections panel. We have been asking for this for seven years so far!!
It would be a great help in quickly finding headings such as Travel, Family, Portfolio etc. It would be like assigning the label colors to our images. Each update (including this current one) arrives and still no color coding. We go through the Adobe Forum, telephone calls etc. with no results. I have told them that they now have heavy competition from non-subscription based systems such as ON1, Affinity, Topaz, etc. etc. and that they are already losing subscribers. Do you have any idea why they simply will not honor our request? Surely their software developers can figure out how to do this. Some of us have even sent them prototypes of what it would look like. One person posted the panel he has had in Photomechanic for ten years and there’s the color coding. Any ideas how we can make our voices heard short of cancelling our Lightroom/Photoshop subscriptions? Thanks and keep up the good work!
Sorry Rick. I haven’t heard of this one and don’t have an answer for you.
Still trying to make my way through Lightroom ….not finding it easy by the way. Just found your tutorial and found it very helpful.
Thanks Matt .. these videos are so helpful.
Another terrific tutorial, Matt. You’re a natural! Thanks
Great presentation thank you. I really like. as so many others have said, the ‘to the point’ presentation.
Thanks Matt, this was very helpful.
on the ball as usual, great presentation
Matt, thanks you for all you do for us users. Keep up the good work!
Another good video Matt, keep them coming.
I did get a significant increase in performance with this upgrade. So I am pretty pleased. Just as a point of reference I have 32 meg ram on a 4 year old XPS 8700 i7 4770 @ 7.40 GHz running Windows 10.
Great job as always. I’ve been following your educational offering since the NAPP days. Thanks much.
Hello Matt,
thank you for this webcast. Just a short comment about collections:
– it makes sense to me to get a whole folder as collection, because folders can not be send to “Lightroom CC”. And sometimes I want to review my pictures on my iPad.
– my workflow is more folder and keyword based, because two years ago I had trouble with my catalog. Backups have been not useful, because the problem seemed to be old, means was in all backups. I can recreate a catalog with a simple import of the pictures, if there are XMP files written for my picture. But, the collections are not stored in the XMP files. So all collections are lost in such a case. Folders and keywords are safe.
I also have the complete On1 Raw package and have been comparing performance with Lightroom Classic. I found that LR exported to a jpeg in about 7 seconds . After the update I noticed that LR was even faster, about 4 seconds with GPU off and under 4 seconds with GPU on. (Should I have GPU on or off?).
Now as I “own” On1 Raw (in no small way due to your endorsement last year) and rent LR, I would like drop the Adobe subscription after the next On1 Raw update that has soft proofing. I would like your opinion as to whether I will be missing anything meaningful that LR offers if I do it, I know I will gain some capability that LR lacks, like layers and a smart brush, plus I can replace Photoshop with Affinity, Photo which I also “own”. I look forward to an answer from Honest Matt.
Thank you for all your help. I have bought your course and it is truly helping ! These videos are awesome.
Thank You for taking the time to do this. It was very helpful. I’m beginning to wonder if Adobe is ever going to increase the editing power in Lightroom. They know what people would like but it doesn’t seem that’s what Adobe wants.
Hey Richard – they gave some huge features in October with the range masking. What else are you looking for. It seems pretty darn powerful to me. They ask us often what people are looking for so feel free to reply. Tx.
Thanks Matt! Really appreciate all you do for us.
Thanks Again Matt
Excellent update. Just what I was looking for. Thank you.
Great update. Thank you.
Thank you for the update.
Thanks for all those videos, for me they are really useful
Thank you very much I have been following you for several years now and love Lightroom and use it all the time. I’m trying to learn Photoshop and it is coming slowly but then I’m 77 years old and everything slows down. Keep up your good work and I will keep up watching.
Great job as usual Matt! This made me think about revising how I use the collections in the Library.
Thanks for the timely update. A question I have is about the feature which allows folders to be collections. I don’t see the point of that. If folders can be favorites for quick retrieval and folders can be searched for quick retrieval, why make a folder a collection? What new versatility does that give me? I see collections as ways to group photos that come from multiple folders. So if you have a folder of shots of Maine and another of shots of Florida, a collection might contain favorite bird shots from Maine and Florida — something that a folders only structure can’t give you. But why have a folder as a collection, which to me is cataloging the same files twice.
Hey Terry – because the collection should just be an album of your favorites – not the entire folder. It’s not something I see everyone needs to use though, so I wouldn’t overthink it too much and just skip it if it’s not applicable to you.
Question for Matt: I am getting a new iMac next week. How to transfer everything from a 10yo iMac, including LR and PS (subscription based). My catalog and files are now on separate hard drives. Do you recommend keeping these on separate folders inside the new computer; or catalog in the new computer (ss drive) with folders on an external 4TB HD; or both externally. Of course I will backup both of these.
And should I use time machine (on my Drobo) or Apple’s Trandfer to move everything. How do I tell Adobe which 2 machines I’d like to use (laptop for travel and transfer travel catalog to desktop when I get home).
Any tips on how to work with the 2 computers in this manner?
A little off topic. I recently moved from pc to Mac book pro and can’t figure out monitor color correction. The tool I used for my pc works with my Mac but it seems my Mac book pro at its own setting is closer than when I use my color correction software. Is this normal? Do you have a video on this?
Hi Mike. I don’t do any monitor color correction. But from people I know who do, they use the Color Munki or the ones from Spyder. Good luck!
Matt, I’m interested as to why you don’t do any monitor colour correction. In many places I read where it mentions you can’t get prints to match your monitor unless one does do monitor calibration using the Spyder or Color Munki devices.
Hey Pete. I’ve read that too. In “practice” and actually printing, I’m able to do it just fine without calibrating the screen. I guess I’d suggest trying it. Do your prints match your screen? If not then it’s something to look in to. But I personally wouldn’t spend the money if it’s not something you’re having a problem with. Thx.
As always, Matt, a great concise update. Always helpful.
Hi Matt
Once again,
Another small tip that I always end up learning a whole lot more that was in the update in the first place
Thank you
Regards,
Gary
Thanks Matt. Not a monster release but those improvements are actually pretty valuable.I’m hoping there are less stability issues from now on.
Thanks Matt. I didn’t know about the edit and non-edit filters. You are right about wishing we had this years ago. I do jump right into a particular image that I know was good when I shot it and couldn’t wait to do the post then I don’t know what I didn’t edit among the rest of the shoot.
Hi Matt, you are a new acquaintance to me but I have to say your videos and remarks are just what I¨m looking for. Straight to the point and informative so thanks!
Thanks Matt. Clear and concise as always.
Matt,
Thanks for your continued updates. I find them very helpful
Thank you so much for this. I was one of those who saw a big performance downgrade from last October. Look forward to getting the new upgrade and see if it helps. Thanks again for all you do!!!!
Sam
Thank you for all the info. you give.
Thanks for the helpful tips for the latest Lightroom update.