In this video from our Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD, we will discuss how we can use the Develop Module Menu System in Lightroom 4 if you forget any keyboard shortcuts.

(Note: the menu system (except for the File Menu and the Edit Menu) at the top of Lightroom changes a bit when you switch from module to module. For example, if we switch to the Map Module (“Ctrl + Alt + 3”) from the Develop Module (“D”), we will still see the same options for the File and Edit Menus.)

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The Develop Module Menu System

As mentioned earlier, the File and Edit Menus are constant throughout all of the modules in Lightroom 4. In the Develop Module, we then have the Develop, Photo, Settings, and Tools Menus.

In the Library Module there are a few options that you can only access through the Library Menu System, however the Develop Module is an extensive duplication of everything available in the interface. When you have mastered the interface and memorized your frequently used shortcuts within the Develop Module, you will probably rarely visit the Develop Module Menu again. For example, if we select the Develop Menu from the Develop Module Menu System, we have options to create snapshots, presets and preset folders, to clear the history, and so forth. However, we can do all of this either by using the keyboard shortcuts or by simply right-clicking and selecting the option from the dropdown menu.

Forgot Shortcuts?

If you forgot the keyboard shortcut for a certain option in Lightroom 4, there are 2 ways to access these shortcuts via the Develop Module Menu System.

#1: Develop Module Dropdown Menus
If you forget a shortcut, you can always look through the menus in the Develop Module and it will list the keyboard shortcuts that are available.

#2: Shortcuts Dialogue Box
Another way to reference shortcuts is through the Shortcuts Dialogue Box. Select the Help Menu and click on “Develop Module Shortcuts.” This will bring up the Develop Shortcuts Dialogue Box. (You can also press “Ctrl + \” to bring up this same dialogue box.)

This shortcut is the exact same for every module in Lightroom 4. For example, if we want to see the shortcuts in the Library Module, simply press “Ctrl + /” while we are in the Library Module.

Conclusion & Learn More!

Once again, if you have memorized your frequently used shortcuts, there is no point in going up to the menu system and accessing the options there since everything for the Develop Module is available through the interface and keyboard shortcuts. However, if you forget any of the keyboard shortcuts, know that the Develop Module Menu System is helpful for referencing keyboard shortcuts.

We hope you enjoyed this article and video excerpt from the Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD. Stay tuned for our next article and episode!

The Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD is a 14 hour video workshop turning any Lightroom novice into a complete master of Lightroom 4 in no time! The Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop can be purchased by itself, or within the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection which also contains our award winning and industry standard Lightroom 4 Preset System, as well as the Lightroom 4 Workflow System.

The post The Develop Module Menu System in Lightroom 4: 2 Tips if You Forget Shortcuts – From the Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

In this video from our Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD, we will demonstrate how to use the Sync and Auto Sync functions to batch process images in Lightroom 4.

Batch processing is essentially copying settings from one image and then applying those same settings onto other images in the catalog. Batch processing can save you a lot of time in post production, allowing you to spend more time behind your camera!

Watch the video and continue reading the article below.

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How to Select Multiple Images

First, select an image to use for this tutorial and make some significant adjustments to it. For our example, we will make some adjustments in the Basic Panel (press “Ctrl + 1” to expand this panel). Next, we are going to make a selection of images in our catalog. Hold down “Shift” on your keyboard and click on the last image of your selection to make a selection order. If you want to select non-sequenced images, then hold down “Ctrl” on your keyboard and then click on each individual image. For this tutorial, we will simply hold down “Shift” and select the first 5 images in the filmstrip of our catalog.

Once we have selected multiple images in our catalog, the bottom right panel button of Lightroom has changed (we still have the Reset button). Now, we have the options for Sync or Auto Sync.

To enable Auto Sync, flip up the switch next to Sync. Once you flip up the switch, the Auto Sync Button will appear. The Auto Sync and Sync buttons do different things, which we will discuss in the next sections of this tutorial.

The Sync Button

First, flip the switch back down to turn off Auto Sync. Once you flip the switch down, the Sync Button will appear again. When you click on the Sync Button, this will bring up the Synchronize Settings Dialogue Box. Here, you can choose exactly which settings you want. First, click on “Check None” at the bottom left of the dialogue box. Since we only made adjustments in the Basic Panel, we are only going to check the boxes next to “Basic Tone” and “Clarity” but you should feel free to check whichever boxes you need to!

In addition however, be sure to check the box next to “Process Version” because that we are using the same Process Version on all of the images selected in our catalog, and we don’t want to accidentally get bumped back to one of the older process versions. Once you are done selecting all of the develop settings, click on “Synchronize” at the bottom right of the dialogue box. This will take the settings from the main highlighted image (the one currently displayed) in our selection and automatically sync those same settings over the remaining images selected.

The Auto Sync Button

When we enable Auto Sync, any adjustments we make to our main image in the selection will automatically be applied to all of the remaining images selected. (With the exception of brushes and gradients; these will not be applied to all subsequent images and must be Sync’d manually.)

With Auto Sync enabled, we are basically batch processing all our selected images simultaneously! For example, if we adjust Exposure down to -4 on one of the images, the remaining 4 images in our selection will also have an exposure of -4. As you can see below, all images in our selection have an exposure of -4. If we click on the Reset Button, next to the Auto Sync Button, this will reset the settings on all of the images in our selection.

When is Auto Sync Useful?

The Auto Sync feature is just another way to batch process images inside the Develop Module in Lightroom 4. If we have a handful of images shot in the same scene with the same camera settings, we can enable Auto Sync, make all of our adjustments at once, and then un-select the group and make any final individual changes separately.

As always, our goal with post-production is to minimize repetitive adjustments.  If you need to make the same adjustment to multiple images, you should always avoid making that adjustment twice!  Just perform the adjustment once on all the images using Auto-Sync, or perform the adjustment on a single image and then sync it to every other image that needs that adjustment.

Conclusion & Learn More!

There are several different ways to move develop settings from one image to another. In our “How to Use the Previous and Reset Buttons in Lightroom 4” tutorial, we demonstrated how to batch process using the Previous Button. We can also use the Copy/Paste Buttons, demonstrated in our “How to Use the Copy and Paste Buttons in Lightroom 4” tutorial, to batch process our images as well. The Sync and Auto Sync Buttons we discussed in this tutorial are another great way to batch process images.

There are all sorts of different options out there when it comes to batch processing, so customize and use whatever system works best with your workflow. At Lin & Jirsa Photography, we typically apply settings to a specific image in the scene and then use the Sync feature to sync across the entire scene. The rapid efficiency of these batch processing techniques allows us to cull and edit over 1,000 images an hour in Lightroom 4. We then make minor adjustments as we go through each image independently.

We hope you enjoyed this article and video excerpt from the Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD. Stay tuned for our next article and episode!

The Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD is a 14 hour video workshop turning any Lightroom novice into a complete master of Lightroom 4 in no time! The Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop can be purchased by itself, or within the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection which also contains our award winning and industry standard Lightroom 4 Preset System, as well as the Lightroom 4 Workflow System.

The post How to Use the Sync and Auto Sync Functions to Batch Process Images in Lightroom 4 – From the Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

This is an interesting development, and one that begs the question. Why would adobe move to a subscription based model with their professional applications but continue to support Lightroom as a perpetual license. Is Lightroom essentially Adobe’s gateway drug to the Creative Cloud? Is Adobe trying to get you hooked on Lightroom, hoping that you end up buying CC access to gain access to Photoshop as you improve and need to advance your editing?

Or, (fingers crossed!!!!) …is Adobe going to simply make the next generation of Photoshop Elements do everything that we photographers need? Considering that Lightroom 5 is going to offer a better brush-style healing and cloning for RAW images, there isn’t much need for Photoshop when it comes to basic editing. But, for those wishing to push their images further with advanced coloring, layers, masking, retouching and other advanced image manipulation abilities, we are forced to move from the perpetual Lightroom license to the Creative Cloud for Photoshop.

I find it a bit puzzling. I suppose it all comes down to how you feel about Adobe and their decisions as of late.  Of course it certainly won’t hurt to let your voice be heard, if you’re unhappy with Adobe’s current offerings and plans!

The video also touches on some other interesting Lightroom 5 related topics including performance and catalog sizes. According to the guys on the development team in LR 5 you should see some performance improvements with images loading faster, and things like that. They also said that your catalog should be able to be as big as you want it to be, and referenced a user they know of who has 1.9 Million images in a single catalog with minimal performance degradation.

It’s an interesting look into the Future of Lightroom, and you can watch it below.

The post Is Lightroom Adobe’s Gateway Drug to the Creative Cloud? appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

In this video from our Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD, we will go over how to use the Copy and Paste Buttons, which are found under the left side panels of Lightroom 4. Like the Previous Button that we explained in our “How to Use the Previous and Reset Buttons in Lightroom 4” tutorial, the Copy and Paste buttons are also useful for batch processing images taken similar scenes with similar camera settings. In this tutorial, we will discuss the difference between the Copy/Paste Buttons and the Previous Button in Lightroom 4.

Watch the video or continue reading the article below!

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The Copy Button

The Copy Button is right next to the Paste Button, underneath the left side panels in the Develop Module of Lightroom 4.

The Copy Button allows you to copy develop settings to the Lightroom Clipboard. To copy the develop settings applied to an image, simply click on the Copy Button or press “Ctrl + Shift + C.” (On a Mac, press “Cmd + Shift + C” of course)

The Paste Button

Next, the Paste Button allows you to paste the develop settings from the Lightroom Clipboard onto any image that you select. To paste these develop settings, simply click on the Paste Button or press “Ctrl + Shift + V.”

The Copy/Paste Buttons vs. The Previous Button

The “Previous” Button, found under the right side panels of the Develop Module in Lightroom 4, will take the develop settings from the previously selected image and pastes those settings onto whatever image is currently selected.  The hotkey for the Previous button is “Ctrl + Alt + Shift + V”

Essentially, this is just a more automated version of the traditional “Cut and Paste” system; Lightroom always remembers which image you selected last, and the “Previous” button is ready to paste every setting from that image to your currently selected image.  Note, however, that it will paste ALL of the previous images’ settings onto the current image.

An Example of Using the Copy/Paste Buttons

First select an image and make some adjustments to it. For our image below, we have made adjustments in the Basic Panel (press “Ctrl + 1” to expand) and you can see a clear improvement in the overall contrast and color of the photo so we are ready to copy these develop settings to another image. Simply click on the Copy Button or press “Ctrl + Shift + C”. Below is the image that we will be using in this tutorial.

The image on the left is the original image, while the image on the right has adjustments made to it.

Once you click on the Copy Button or press “Ctrl + Shift + C,” the Copy Settings Dialogue Box will appear. Here, select the settings you actually want to copy to the Lightroom Clipboard. To manually select your settings, you can click “Check None” and then select just the one or two settings that you would like to copy.

For example if you only want to copy and paste a slight boost to your Contrast, Clarity and Vibrance so that you can apply this type of general “boost” to any image, any time, …then just select those three options and click “Copy” in the lower right of the dialog box.

You can also click on “Check All” to copy everything to the Lightroom Clipboard. However, similar to setting up a preset, if you select “Check All,” a lot of settings may either bet set at their defaults, or to something that you would rather not be pasting to all your other images.  So we usually recommend that you don’t use “Select All” in the Copy Settings Dialogue Box.  If you really need to copy EVERY single setting, you might as well just use the “Paste Previous” command!

For our image, we will first click on “Check None” in the Copy Settings Dialogue Box. Then, we will check the boxes next to “Basic Tone” and “Clarity” since those are the only adjustments we changed in the Basic Panel. In addition, we highly recommend that you check the box next to “Process Version” because otherwise you can incorrectly affect the actual options within the Basic Tone Panel. So leave “Process Version” checked unless you do in fact intend to paste settings from older images edited in Lightroom 3, for example. After we have selected the settings we want in this dialogue box, click on “Copy.”

Once you click on “Copy,” the develop settings have been copied to the Lightroom Clipboard and you can start pasting these develop settings to any image by clicking on the Paste Button or pressing “Ctrl + Shift + V.”

Batch Processing

The Copy/Paste Buttons and the Previous Button are all extremely useful in batch processing images rapidly. As you go through a photo shoot in Lightroom 4, you will most likely find that each image is shot in a similar lighting condition as the last, and you can either cut-and-paste the settings from one main image as you go through a scene, or you may be able to simply hit “Previous” each time.  Each tool has it’s uses, and you’ll want to find a consistent workflow that is best for your style of shooting and editing!

Editing this way you will achieve one specific goal:  Avoid performing the same adjustments twice!  With tools like these at your disposal, you should never have to perform simple adjustments like exposure or contrast boosts twice, especially if the images are right next to each other and are clearly shot in the same scene.

So in the end, your goal is to only have to perform minor tweaks to individual images as necessary, and do most of the “heavy lifting” in batches.

Conclusion & Learn More!

The Copy/Paste Buttons and the Previous Button are two very useful systems that can be used for batch processing to save time in post production.  One important difference to remember is that, unlike the Previous Button, you can use the Copy/Paste Buttons to copy and paste develop settings onto any images selected, and you can be more exclusive with which settings get copied.

We hope you enjoyed this article and video excerpt from the Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD. Stay tuned for our next article and episode!

The Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD is a 14 hour video workshop turning any Lightroom novice into a complete master of Lightroom 4 in no time! The Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop can be purchased by itself, or within the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection, which also contains our award winning and industry standard Lightroom 4 Preset System, as well as the Lightroom 4 Workflow System.

The post How to Use the Copy and Paste Buttons in Lightroom 4 – From the Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.

In this video from our Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD, we will explain the History Panel in Lightroom 4, which can be found on the left panels in the Develop Module. The History Panel stores a history of all adjustments made to an image. In this article, we will also address the options available in the History Panel.

Watch the video or continue reading the article below!

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The History Panel

To expand and collapse the History Panel, press “Ctrl + Shift + 3.” As mentioned earlier, the History Panel records a history of the adjustments made to an image.

You can use the History Panel to get back to any point in your processing workflow for a particular image. To go back to any recorded point in history, simply click on the step in the History Panel. For example, if we click on Highlights, it will undo all the other previous adjustments made to the image, from Vibrance to White Clipping.

The History Panel Options

If we right-click on one of the steps in the History Panel, we have 2 options.

Create Snapshot
First, we have the option to create a Snapshot from where we are, depending on the step in the History Panel selected.

Copy History Step Settings to Before
This step is similar to the Snapshots settings discussed in our article, “How to Create Snapshots and Virtual Copies in Lightroom 4.” We can copy a particular history setting so that when we hit the “\” button (Before/After shortcut) on our keyboard, it will show that history step in the Before setting.

Clear History
Although this is not an option when we right-click on a step in the History Panel, we can also clear all of the history recorded in the History Panel. Just click on the “X” at the top of the History Panel to clear all history recorded.

Note that although you clear the History Panel, this does not reset the adjustments made to the image. This simply clears the saved history. To reset the settings on an image, click on the Reset button at the bottom right of Lightroom 4, under the right panels.

History states do not take up much space at all on your hard drive, so we don’t really recommend deleting your history unless you have a very good reason to!

Conclusion & Learn More!

We hope you enjoyed this article and video excerpt from the Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD. Stay tuned for our next article and episode!

The Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD is a 14 hour video workshop turning any Lightroom novice into a complete master of Lightroom 4 in no time! The Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop can be purchased by itself, or within the Lightroom 4 Workshop Collection which also contains our award winning and industry standard Lightroom 4 Preset System, as well as the Lightroom 4 Workflow System.

The post Understanding the History Panel in Lightroom 4 – From the Lightroom 4 A to Z Workshop on DVD appeared first on Free Photography Tips Tutorials Reviews and Wordpress Themes.