Laura Shoe's Lightroom (and Occasionally Photoshop) Blog for Digital Photographers

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If you have a topic that you would like to see covered,   submit it in a comment here.   I will do my best to get to your suggestion.

  1. Can we add borders to pictures in lightroom? Not just in slideshow mode but also to save the file as a jpg with the border etc? or if there is a lightroom plug in?

    Reply
    Rajiv Kapoor 27 July 2009 at 6pm

  2. I keep all of my files on an external drive. But my computer (PC/Windows Vista) keeps renaming the USB port that I connect it to (I use the same port each time). So Lightroom will think my images are at G:WD Passport, but my computer has decided the port is now called F:WD Passport and Lightroom can no longer find any of my images. I then have to re-link every single folder. Anyway I can work around this in Lightroom??

    Reply
    Paula 10 October 2009 at 10pm

  3. Hi Paula, I would put all your image folders into one master Images folder. That way you only have to re-link the one folder, and it will automatically find the subfolders.

    Reply
    Laura Shoe 22 October 2009 at 11am

  4. Exporting Images from Lightroom into Pictures:
    ***How to create presets
    ***How to name folders
    ***Sequential dating of exported files

    Reply
    Bob Ross 13 February 2010 at 9pm

  5. This will be very basic for a lot of your followers, but as a novice in Lightroom, I am having trouble working with the box that pops up when I want to export an edited image for the web. The naming of files and how to set up the date the way I want – it’s all giving me much more difficulty than it seems it should. Thanks.

    Reply
    Bob Ross 15 February 2010 at 10pm

  6. Thank you, Bob — great idea — I will plan to do a video soon on using the file naming template editor.

    Reply
    Laura Shoe 15 February 2010 at 10pm

  7. Hi Laura,

    After upgrading to 2.6 I cannot find my images. For example, in my landscape folder I have 706 images. When I roll over the folder name it displays the 1st image in the Navigator but it is not a landscape image. No other landscape images show in the Library view yet they are on the my hard drive. I have 14,000+ in my C: and when I roll over that only 24 pictures show in the library view. I have not renamed folders or anything like that. I am at a loss what the problem is or where to start to recover them.

    Reply
    Roger Mullenhour 28 February 2010 at 8pm

    • Hi Roger, a couple questions: what happens when you click on All Photographs in the Catalog panel above the Folders panel? Do you get all 14,000+, and does it show that as the count? What count does it show next to your C: drive … is it 0, or is it 14,000+? If it is zero, go to File>Library Filters, and make sure Include Photos from Subfolders is checked. Click on a root (base) level folder (a folder with no subfolders in it) … does what you see correspond to the count?

      If not, you may have a corruption issue. Start by creating a new catalog (file>new catalog), and try importing your existing catalog into it: File>Import from Catalog. Navigate to your current .lrcat file in your catalog folder. If you don’t know where this is, go to Edit>Catalog Settings on the PC, Lightroom>Catalog Settings on the Mac, and in the General tab, click on Show … it will take you to the catalog.)

      Reply
      Laura Shoe 28 February 2010 at 8pm

      • Hi Laura, Thank you for your quick response. When I roll over all photographs (14,000)it shows about 40 images only. When I go over the C: it shows 14,000 but only 1 image shows in the Library view. There is only the one image at the bottom in the filmstrip. Under Library Filters I have include Photos from subfolders checked. Is the next step creating a new catalog like you outlined about.

        Many thanks,

        Roger

        Roger Mullenhour 1 March 2010 at 11pm

      • Roger, do you have any filters active? If you click on All Photographs (not just roll over), and open the Library filter bar (View>Show Filter Bar), and then click on None in the filter bar, do you then see all 14,000?

        If not, then yes, try creating a new catalog and importing as described.

        Laura Shoe 1 March 2010 at 11pm

  8. Hi Laura,

    Yes I did have filters checked somehow and now all 14K show! Thank you so much. The thought of losing all of them created gridlock in my brain. I would not of thought about filters. I am so glad I found your blog.

    Roger

    Reply
    Roger Mullenhour 1 March 2010 at 11pm

  9. Hello Again Laura,
    I just finished searching through all your archives and only found one brief mention of backing up
    I spent a good part of today downloading a program recommended by a friend – SuperDuper and then trying to figure out how to use it to back up my LR catalog to an external hard drive.
    I never did figure it out – though I am still hopeful
    Anyway, more information about suggested methods of backing up our treasured images should be of interest to a lot of your fans and foloowers

    Reply
    Bob Ross 3 March 2010 at 7pm

  10. whoops….
    my last phrase should say fans and followers.

    Reply
    Bob Ross 3 March 2010 at 7pm

  11. Proposed Topic: Lighroom – Two laptops and one hard drive

    I would like to have originals accessible from two computers, but same time have separate photos on both computers too. It’s easy to have catalog for each computer and just have HDD folder in the catalog, but then computer A doesn’t see change done by computer B. Only change I can sync is added or deleted photos/folders – right?

    I would like to have edits done to HDD photos seen from computer A and B. Is the only option to have 3 catalogs? Catalog A in computer A, Catalog B in computer B and catalog HDD on external HDD? And then switch between catalogs? Ok, but then moving photos would be pain? Like opening catalog HDD and importing (by moving) photos from computer A and later syncing Catalog A with changed folders on computer A?

    Hope I made it clear enough and not too much 🙂

    Reply
    Meelis Veeremets 13 March 2010 at 11pm

  12. Every time I open LR I get a message that there is an update available for download. The message is referring to LR 2.7. I know that I have already downloaded it – possibly more than once. Maybe I am not Installing it correctly after download? Is there any way to check while I am in LR to see if it has updated to 2.7? Thanks.

    Reply
    Bob Ross 6 May 2010 at 8pm

  13. Hi Bob, you can go to Help>About Lightroom to see which version you are running. The download may not automatically launch the installer. Double-click on the downloaded file to launch it.

    Reply
    Laura Shoe 6 May 2010 at 11pm

  14. Now running 2.7
    Thanks Laura

    Reply
    Bob Ross 7 May 2010 at 6am

  15. Hi Laura
    for some reason I cannot delete any photos when using LR. It offers remove or delete. I choose delete from disc but it wont let me. The Recycle bin on my PC is empty.

    Barry (UK)

    Reply
    barry mayes 1 June 2010 at 2pm

  16. I have just bought Lightroom 3 and have yet to create a catalog. I have 17,000+ photos in many files on my computer but with thousands of duplicates. Others in various states of modification and are renamed to ensure the modified one doesn’t overwrite the original. I am now shooting raw some of the time. I am wondering if there is any way I can use Lightroom (perhaps using metadata) to determine what photos I have duplicated and to pick the ones I want to delete from the hard drive (have not been very disciplined in deleting poor photos in the past!). Can I the unwanted duplicates using lightroom? Programs I have used in the past do not automatically delete the raw file at the same time as deleting the jpeg and ideally I would want to kill both together. Most of the duplicates are in different folders.

    Reply
    Bill Horton 18 June 2010 at 8pm

  17. Bill, if you uncheck “don’t import suspected duplicates” it will allow you to import duplicates that are in different folders from the originals. That said, renamed files won’t be considered duplicates, nor will jpeg copies of raw files, etc. Once you import everything you can click on All Photographs in the Catalog panel to see everything, then use the toolbar to sort by capture date. This will put all your copies next to each other. From here you can delete what you don’t want to keep.

    Reply
    Laura Shoe 21 June 2010 at 2pm

  18. Thanks Laura,
    Will create the catalog as suggested. Am going to the Australian outback on a trip so will not be working with the catalog until I get back in about a month. The process sounds good. Obviously I have a lot to learn but look forward to experimenting with it. Trawling through the old posts when I get back should help.

    Reply
    Bill Horton 21 June 2010 at 3pm

  19. Hi Laura,
    How about a Workshop that covers nothing else except Inkjet Printing in Lightroom?
    Bob Ross

    Reply
    Bob Ross 16 August 2010 at 7pm

    • Hi Bob, I did try this, but many wanted the other output modules as well — so I have combined them in my Lightroom Fundamentals Part Two course (coming up Sept 11-12.)

      Reply
      Laura Shoe 17 August 2010 at 12pm

  20. Laura,
    September 11-12 is that in Seattle?
    Bob

    Reply
    Bob Ross 17 August 2010 at 12pm

  21. If you have a client who wants images for both a printed brochure and a Web site. Which file format will I need to print the brochur? Can I use the same format for the Web site?

    Reply
    Renee Stone 11 May 2011 at 1pm

    • Hi Renee, sorry I didn’t see this question sooner. I assume you are exporting copies. For the web site you will want a jpeg, color space sRGB, quality of around 70 and a small size (maybe 800×600 pixels, but ask the client). For the brochure a jpeg will be ok, quality=100 … how large depends on how big it will be printed, and what color space depends on what the printer wants. If you want to just give her one file to meet both needs and don’t want to ask her more questions, then give her a full size image (don’t resize it), sRGB jpeg at quality = 100, and let her do the resizing.

      Reply
      Laura Shoe 28 May 2011 at 2pm

  22. I would like to zoom on a portion of my photo (i.e., bird’s head or eye). I can’t figure out how to zoom to 1:1, for instance, and crop. Every time I zoom and go to crop, it resets the size.
    Thanks,
    Kathy

    Reply
    Kathy 20 May 2011 at 5pm

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