It’s been a busy few months around here, but I’ve finally managed to make some time to post the free excerpts from my book, Adobe Lightroom 3 – The Missing FAQ.

When I get a little more time, some of the more detailed questions such as

“The previews are slightly different between Library and Develop and Fit and 1:1 views—why is that?”

“What happens if I’m still using an older version of ACR and Photoshop?”

“What’s the difference between ‘Render Using Lightroom’ and ‘Open Anyway’ in the ACR mismatch dialog?”

will also be posted as blog posts, but if you haven’t purchased the book yet, feel free to download the PDF excerpts.

The book is also now showing up on Amazon and other online bookstores.  My wholehearted thanks go out to all those who have reviewed the book on both Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk.  It makes all the work worthwhile, and I’m so pleased you’re finding it so useful.

We’ll get back to ‘normal’ blog posts shortly… just need to catch up with myself first!

Just a quick post – the free PDF extracts and full table of contents for Adobe Lightroom 3 Beta – The Missing FAQ are now online at http://www.lightroomqueen.com/lrqebook3.php.

You can download the beta book today, and get the final release included in the price when version 3 is finally released.  The book’s had a great reception so far!

Excerpt from Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ

Missing files are usually a result of files being moved or renamed outside of Lightroom, perhaps in Explorer or Finder.  In this case, Lightroom loses tracks of the files.

They can be identified by a little question mark in the corner of the grid thumbnail.
If the entire folder can no longer be found, the folder name in the Folders panel will go grey with a question mark folder icon.  They used to go red in LR1.

When you go in to the Develop module, Lightroom will tell you that the file is offline or missing.

If the whole folder is missing and the folder name has turned grey, you can right-click on the folder and select ‘Find Missing Folder…’.  Point Lightroom to the right folder, and it should update the links for all of the files contained in that folder.  That’s the quickest option!

If the folder is still showing as recognised, you’ll need to relocate individual images, but Lightroom will try to help where it can.

To locate a missing file, click on the question mark icon, and the following dialog will appear.

Click Locate to find the missing file.

Locate the missing file and press Select.  Check the ‘Find nearby missing photos’ checkbox shown in the dialog above in order to re-link other files in the same folder.
If you have renamed the files outside of Lightroom, each file will need linking individually.
If Lightroom appears slow to re-link related photos, restart Lightroom to force a search for file locations.
A few preventative measures, to avoid missing files in future:

1. Rename any files before importing into Lightroom, or use Lightroom to rename them.
2. Set Lightroom’s folder list to show the full folder hierarchy to a single root level folder.  If all of the files are moved from their expected locations, they can easily be updated using the ‘Find Missing Folder…’ command in the top level folder right-click menu, or by using the ‘Update Folder Location…’ command even if they’re not yet marked as missing.
3. Move any files or folders within Lightroom’s own interface, simply by dragging and dropping around the folders panel.  Folders can only be moved one at a time.

All you NAPP members out there, check the Lightroom section of your latest Photoshop User magazine (March 2009) for MY article on DNG!

For those of you who aren’t NAPP members, you’ll want to sign up now!!!

In the meantime, here’s the main bullets points directly from Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ

File size
DNG files are generally 10-40% smaller than their original proprietary format, depending partly on the size of the preview that you choose to embed.

XMP Sidecars
Proprietary raw formats have their XMP data stored as a sidecar XMP file, whereas DNG files have that information embedded within the single DNG file.  The question is, do you find sidecar files a pro or con?

Long Term Storage
The DNG format is openly documented, which means that it should be supported indefinitely, whereas proprietary formats such as CR2, NEF, RAF etc. are not openly documented.  Will you be able to find a raw converter in 20 years time that will convert a proprietary format when that camera model is ancient history?

Manufacturer’s Software
Most manufacturer’s own software will not read a DNG file, only their own proprietary formats.  Do you ever need to open a file in the manufacturer’s own software?  If so, you’d want to embed the proprietary raw file – it can be extracted use the DNG Converter tool, however it does negate the file size benefits.

MakerNotes
While there is DNG support for MakerNotes, some manufacturers don’t stick to the rules, and therefore MakerNotes embedded in an undocumented format can’t always be carried over to the DNG file, however if you’re not sure what the MakerNotes are, you probably won’t miss them.

Check the Photoshop User article for lots more pros, cons and how to’s.

Adobe Lightroom 2.3 is now available as a release candidate from the Adobe Labs website here: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Lightroom_2.3

ACR 5.3 is also available from: http://labs.adobe.com/wiki/index.php/Camera_Raw_5.3

The release candidate status it’s one step up from a beta version – it means that it’s been through some testing, but it would benefit from additional testing on a variety of different machines.  It’s your opportunity to catch any bugs before it goes final, but it shouldn’t kill your machine.

New cameras: Nikon D3X, Olympus E-30.

It also fixes the Canon 5D MkII magenta shift on sRAW fileswhich was introduced with the Canon 1.0.7 firmware.

There’s a list of bug fixes in the readme file, but particularly notable are fixes (hopefully!!) for the memory issues that appeared in 2.2 for files with local adjustments.

There are also new languages supported: Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Dutch, Italian, Korean, Portuguese (Brazilian), Spanish & Swedish.  There’s a little more work to do on the translations yet.

If you find any bugs, the Official Feature Request/Bug Report Form is just here.

Enjoy!

Excerpt from Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ

Usually a mismatch in colors is due to either incorrect color profile settings or a corrupted monitor profile.

For example, a ProPhoto RGB photo mistakenly rendered as sRGB will display as desaturated and flat.

This is a ProPhoto RGB photo correctly displayed as ProPhoto RGB:
This is a ProPhoto RGB photo incorrectly displayed as if sRGB:

First, check your color settings.
In Photoshop, go to Edit menu > Color Settings to view this dialog.

The RGB Working Space is your choice, but whichever you choose to use, you are best to set the same in Lightroom’s External Editor preferences and Export dialog. We’ll come to that in a moment.  [Which color space to use is a subject for another post!]

Selecting ‘Preserve Embedded Profiles’ and/or checking the ‘Ask When Opening’ for Profile Mismatches in that same dialog will help prevent any profile mismatches.

‘Preserve Embedded Profiles’ tells Photoshop to use the profile embedded in the file regardless of whether it matches your usual working space. ‘Ask When Opening’ for Profile Mismatches shows you a warning dialog when the embedded profile doesn’t match your usual working space, and asks you what to do.

You also need to set your External Editor settings in the Lightroom Preferences dialog. It is simplest to use the same color space as you have chosen in Photoshop.

You’ll also want to check the color space that you’re using in the Export dialog, and again, choose the same color space for photos you are going to open in Photoshop.

As long as your Photoshop and Lightroom color settings match, or you have Photoshop set to use the embedded profile, your photos should match between both programs.

Other mismatches when the color settings match correctly can also be due to a corrupted monitor profile, which you’ll remember from a previous post.

A corrupted monitor profile is often to blame for Lightroom preview issues, whether that be a mismatch in colours between programs, or simply blank grey previews.

Lightroom uses the profile differently to other programs (perceptual rendering rather than relative colorimetric), so corruption in that part of the profile shows up even though it is not noticeable in other programs.  It often happens with the canned profiles that come with many monitors.

Ideally you should recalibrate your monitor with a proper hardware calibration tool, however not everyone has one to hand.  To confirm that the profile is the problem, you can remove it and replace it with a standard profile.

How do I change my monitor profile to check whether it’s corrupted?

Windows XP

1. Exit Photoshop Lightroom.
2. Choose Start > Control Panel > Display.
3. Click the Settings tab.
4. Click the Advanced button.
5. Click the Color Management tab.
6. Click the “ADD…” button.
7. Choose a standard RGB color profile, (i.e. sRGB IEC61966 – 2.1. )
8. In the “Color profiles currently associated with this device” field, select the new profile you just picked.
9. Click the “Set As Default” button.
10. (Optional) Select the old profile.
11. (Optional) Click the Remove button.
12. Click the “OK” button.

Windows Vista

1. Exit Photoshop Lightroom.
2. Choose Start > Control Panel > Color Management.
3. In the “Profiles associated with this device” field, select the default monitor profile.
4. Click the Advanced tab.
5. Click the Remove button. or Change the Device Profile to a standard RGB color profile, such as sRGB IEC61966 – 2.1.

Mac OS X

1. Go to System Preferences > Display
2. Select the Color tab
3. Press the Calibrate… button and follow the instructions.  Turn on the Expert Options and calibrate to gamma 2.2.

Excerpt from Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ

Extract from Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ

Think of it this way… did you ever play with colored modeling clay when you were a child?

Imagine you’ve got a ready made little model, made out of a mixture of different colors, and you’ve also go separate pots of the different colors that haven’t been used before.  Yes, you can push the ready made model around a bit and make something different, but the colors all smudge into each other and it’s never QUITE as good as if you use the nice fresh separate colors and started from scratch.

Your JPEG is like that ready made model – it’s already been made into something before.  You can take it apart and change it a bit, but if you try to change it too much, it’s going to end up a distorted mess.  Your raw file is like having the separate pots of clay – you’re starting off with the raw material, and YOU choose what to make of it.

So yes, editing JPEGs is non-destructive, in as much as you can move the sliders as many times as you like and the original file isn’t destroyed in the process.  But when you do export to a new file, you’re applying changes to ready-made JPEG image data.  If you’re working on a raw file format, you’re making a single adjustment to the raw data, rather than adjusting an already-processed file.

You’ll particularly notice the difference in changing a white balance or rescuing a very under or over-exposed photo.

Extract from Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ

There are a number of options to choose from when importing your photos, and which you choose will depend on your own browsing habits.

Minimal shows the thumbnail preview embedded in the file.  It’s the quickest option initially, but it’s a very small low quality preview (i.e. usually with a black edging and about 160 px along the long edge) so you then have to wait to render previews as you browse.  Minimal previews are not color managed.

Embedded & Sidecar checks the files and their sidecar files for larger previews (approx. 1024 px or larger), giving you the largest ready-built preview it can.  It’s still just a temporary option – Lightroom will build its own previews as soon as it can.

Standard builds a standard-sized preview used for browsing through the photos.  You set the size and quality of these previews in Catalog Settings.  Standard-sized previews are highly recommended – it will greatly speed up browsing performance if Lightroom isn’t having to render previews on the fly.

1:1 previews are full resolution so they take up more space, but if you wish to zoom in on your photos in Library module, it will save Lightroom having to render 1:1 previews on the fly, which would slow your browsing experience.  If you’re concerned about the disc space that they take up, you can set them to delete after a fixed time (in Catalog Settings), or you can discard 1:1 previews on demand by selecting the photos and choosing Library menu > Previews > Discard 1:1 Previews.

You can either choose to render either Standard-Sized or 1:1 previews in the Import dialog or if you wish to render the previews later, select all (or none) of the photos in Grid view and choose Library menu > Previews > Render Standard-Sized Previews or 1:1 Previews.

In early version 1 releases, rendering previews at the same time as importing was much quicker than rendering them later, but this difference is no longer noticeable.

Extract from Adobe Lightroom 2 – The Missing FAQ

Yes, in fact it’s a very good idea to do so, and just have one or two top level folders. If Lightroom ever loses track of all of your photos, perhaps as a result of a hard drive failure, you will only need to re-link the top level folder and that will cascade through the rest.

So how do we go from this slightly nondescript tangle of folders…

to the tidy hierarchy….?

Right-click on the current top level folder and select ‘Add Parent Folder’. This doesn’t import new photos, just adds an additional hierarchy level to your Folders panel (and does a lot more behind the scenes…).

Keep clicking on the top level folder until you see the folder you’re looking for.

If you go too far and want to remove a top level folder, right-click on that folder and choose ‘Promote Subfolders’.

This does the opposite of ‘Add Parent Folder’, and will ask for confirmation before removing that top level folder.

Selecting ‘Remove…’ from the right-click menu gives you the choice of promoting the subfolders, but also gives you the option to remove all of the subfolders and their images from the catalog too, which you wouldn’t want to do when simply tidying up the hierarchy.