Since version 1.1, Lightroom has been able to create and switch between multiple catalogs, but the question is, just because you can, should you? There is no 'right' number of catalogs. As with the rest of your Lightroom workflow, it depends on … Click to continue
What is a Lightroom catalog?
There are basically two different types of image management software - databases (catalogs) and file browsers. So what's the difference? Let's compare to a physical library of books to illustrate. A file browser looks at the files directly on … Click to continue
How do I send a bug report or feature request to Adobe?
As carefully as Adobe and prerelease testers check each release, Lightroom is now an incredibly complex program and it's inevitable that bugs will slip through the net. As a result, you've likely already found bugs in Lightroom - but who do you tell? … Click to continue
Lightroom Performance – What’s Slow?
Over the past 8 weeks, we've learned the pros and cons of non-destructive editing, how different computer components affect different areas of the program, and the ways you can adjust your Lightroom workflow to get the best performance. In the … Click to continue
Lightroom Performance – Workflow Tweaks
Besides optimizing your computer and Lightroom settings, you can also save yourself a lot of frustration by thinking ahead and allowing your computer to do many of its processor-intensive activities at a time when you're not using the … Click to continue
Lightroom Performance – Previews & Caches
Lightroom uses numerous kinds of previews and caches for different purposes. Having a basic idea of their usage can help you pick the right ones for your needs. The main ones you need to know about are rendered previews and smart previews. To fully … Click to continue
Lightroom Performance – Preferences & Catalog Settings
In addition to optimizing the computer, you can optimize your Lightroom preferences and catalog settings for best performance. Lightroom Updates Lightroom is usually updated every 2-4 months, and these updates frequently include … Click to continue
Lightroom Performance – General System Maintenance
Lightroom can't perform well if the operating system is struggling. While not specific to Lightroom, it's worth running regular computer maintenance and optimizing other software running on your computer. This includes operating system and driver … Click to continue
Lightroom Performance – What Computer Hardware Do I Need?
Every single day, I see posts asking how to choose a new computer for Lightroom. We're not going to go into specific hardware recommendations, because they'd be out of date almost immediately. (If you want specifics, Puget Systems are doing regular … Click to continue
Lightroom Performance – Debunking Myths
In prepping this series of articles, I read much of the information already published elsewhere. Some of the suggestions work. Others are complete myths. Some of the advice (including in my old blog post!) is simply outdated. Some suggestions can … Click to continue
Lightroom Performance – The Complete Series on Optimizing Lightroom’s Speed
The speed of Lightroom - or the lack thereof - is one of the most popular topics among photographers. You may have asked questions such as "why is Lightroom so painfully slow?" and "how do I speed up Lightroom?" or "how do I make Lightroom run … Click to continue
The Dangers of Synchronize Folder
"Synchronize Folder." Sounds safe enough, doesn't it. And it IS safe enough... as long as you read and understand the dialog. But how many of us hit OK on dialogs without first stopping to read them? I'll admit, I've done it too. If you do that with … Click to continue
How do I restore some of the photos from my backup catalog?
Last week, we discussed the options for fixing mistakes using Undo, History and restoring an entire backup catalog. But what if you only want to restore part of the backup catalog? Perhaps you accidentally synchronized Develop settings across a … Click to continue
Oooops, how do I undo?
It happens to all of us... you move the wrong slider, sync settings across too many photos, or the cat walks over the keyboard and all of your hard work disappears. Your beautifully edited photo ends up looking completely different and they all end … Click to continue
Should I store my presets with my catalog?
Last week, we discussed the options for using your catalog on more than one computer. When you open your catalog on the second computer, however, you may find that your presets are missing. These include Develop presets, Metadata presets, Import … Click to continue