A smart album is simply a set of customized search criteria that you employ to automatically (and continuously) gather photos and videos that meet those criteria. The first method of creation is to click the + sign at the top of the Albums section and choose Create Smart album from the contextual menu.

This opens the dialog for giving your smart album a descriptive name, placing it within a folder to stay organized, and adding the rules to be followed for gathering the files you want to see. Note, you’ll want to create the parent folder first, as there is not a way to create a new folder from within the Create Smart album dialog at this time.

Then, click the +Add New Rule button at the bottom of the dialog to access the list of available criteria. Currently, you can create a smart album based on any combination of the following:

• Album
• Camera
• Capture Date
• Commented
• Contributors
• Depth Map
• Edited
• Extension
• F-Stop
• Favorited
• Flag
• Flash
• Focal Length
• ISO
• Keyword
• Lens
• Location
• Orientation
• People
• Rating
• Search
• Shutter Speed
• Type

For example, I wanted to monitor all of the videos I have imported into Lightroom as those will always be stored full resolution in the cloud and counting against storage quota (unlike smart previews synced from Lightroom Classic). So, I chose Type as the criteria, and then chose Video from the list of possible Types.

Once you’ve added all of the desired criteria, entered a name, and (optionally) put it in a folder (you can always drag and drop it into a folder later), click Create to exit the dialog and put that smart album to work. It will appear in the left panel within the chosen folder.

Over time, it continually updates to add any new files that match the criteria and remove any files that no longer meet the criteria.

Another way to create a smart album is to use the filter next to the search field at the top. Clicking that filter icon reveals all of the criteria you can filter your library against, and for the most part it is the same as the list of criteria you can find within the Create Smart album dialog box except for Sync Status (which is not something you can use in a smart album). Note, if you want to have your smart album search your entire library, click All Photographs first, then use the filter. If you want to filter within a specific album or folder, click that album/folder first, then open the filter to add the criteria for the smart album. For example, to create a filter on the photos with a rating equal to or greater than 1 within the folder containing all of my family albums, I’ll click on the Family folder first to view the content of all the albums within it, then engage the filter at the top.

With the filter open, I’ll click the 1 star and choose the greater than or equal icon, and a blue Create Smart Album button appears. Click that blue button to complete the creation of the smart album, where you can give it a name, choose to put it in a folder, verify the criteria you’ve chosen, and even edit the criteria further if desired. Once named, click the Create button to complete the process.

This is still early in the development of this feature, so I’m sure there will be refinements in the future. For now, you’ll need to keep in mind that these smart albums on exist in the Windows/Mac version of Lightroom. They do not sync across to other Lightroom apps on mobile or web, and they do not sync to Lightroom Classic. So while limited, it is a welcome addition to the Lightroom feature set.

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• Unable to export images from the collection
• Masks from previous versions needed to be updated after the catalog upgrade
• Incorrect shortcuts listed for adjusting Brush size/Feather in the program help

The bulleted links above will take you to the Adobe forum page where the bug was first reported if you need more info on any of them. Likewise, if you encounter any issues when using Lightroom Classic that same Adobe forum is the place to report those problems. That team is very responsive and the forum has other members who are quite knowledgeable and provide assistance with a lot of common problems people encounter.

Photoshop Missing?

One issue I encountered after updating Lightroom Classic to 14.0 and Photoshop to 26.0 is that I lost the ability to send copies from LrC to Ps for editing. Photoshop was just no longer listed as an external editor, as if I didn’t have it installed. Typically this can be fixed by uninstalling and reinstalling Photoshop, so I did that, but it did not restore Ps to the LrC preferences for external editing. So, I tried uninstalling and reinstalling LrC, but that did not work either (that rarely fixes things in my experience, but it is painless so I tried it). As a last resort I reset LrC’s preferences and that actually did the trick (or maybe it was all of the above). So, if this happens to you, give that a try. However, be warned that a lot of annoying things get reset when you reset the preferences.

Here’s hoping your upgrade experience is going smoothly!

The post Lightroom Classic Bug Fix Update and Photoshop MIA appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Along with support for new cameras, new lenses, and bug fixes, there are a few important new features to be aware of in both Lightroom Classic and Lightroom. Some of the new features are the same in both, but some are also unique to each application. Let’s start with some new features you’ll find just in Lightroom Classic (LrC).

New Catalog Upgrade (LrC)

As with each new version number change (from 13 to 14 in this case), you will be required to upgrade a copy of the LrC catalog you want to open in the new version. As soon as you launch the new LrC you’ll be prompted through this process.

Once new aspect this time around you won’t see the option to rename the new catalog here, but don’t worry as there is a new feature for renaming catalogs we’ll look at in a bit. Additionally, note that this process now includes a step where a compressed copy of the old catalog is created at the same time. This is only to preserve your old catalog in case you need to roll back to the previous version of the software for some unforeseen reason. It is worth checking the new minimum requirements for running the new version before you install. Click Upgrade to begin.

When finished, the upgraded copy of the catalog will open in the new version.

Rename Catalog (LrC)

If you now wish to rename your LrC catalog file (which is entirely optional and only for your benefit), head over to the File menu and look for the new Rename Catalog option there. Clicking that will open the Rename Catalog dialog box, which will auto-populate with the current name of the catalog.

Enter in your new name and click the Rename button, which causes LrC to quit and restart with the new name. Optionally, you can check the box to rename the parent folder too.

Before relaunching it will confirm the catalog has been renamed, then click OK to have the program launch.

Thankfully, the process is also smart enough to update the preferences to use the renamed catalog if you have changed the Default Catalog setting (Preferences > General) to open the specific catalog instead of Most recent. I don’t know why it took 14 versions to get this, but grateful it is here.

Preview Cache Size Limit (LrC)

On the subject of catalogs and preferences and such, on the General tab of the Catalog Settings dialog, there is a new option in the Preview Storage Management section that allows us to set an upper limit on the size of the preview cache. The goal of the preview cache is to speed up performance by storing ready made versions of imported photos so they load fast in Library while moving through folders and collections (as well as modules other than Develop), so having a large cache is a good thing for performance. However, if left unchecked (as it has been all this time) it can get very large over time. The idea is that you set a storage size limit that you are comfortable with from the perspective of available disk space on the drive where your catalog is stored, and once that limit is reached LrC will automatically purge the oldest preview files to make room for new ones.

In my case, my preview cache is currently 14GB (as shown above). I try to keep 300GB or so of free space on that drive, so I do have room to grow. I decided to check the box and limit that cache to 20GB and we’ll see how that goes. Note that you will be notified when the cache reaches 90% of that amount, and again when older previews are about to be purged. Keep in mind that LrC will automatically generate missing previews when you view an older folder. The only problem I can foresee is if you have older photos stored offline, as LrC can’t create previews of offline photos until you bring them online again.

One last LrC only thing to note is for Nikon photographers who shoot tethered on Silicon Macs is that you no longer need to run LrC in emulation mode, and support for the Zfc, Z9, and Z6 III has been added. Let’s look at a few things added to both LrC and Lightroom (Lr).

Generative Remove out of Early Access (LrC and Lr)

Originally added as an Early Access feature, the Generative Remove feature within the Remove suite of tools is a full-functioning feature. The first time you use it you’ll be asked to agree to Adobe’s User Guidelines for generative AI and then see a few tips to get started.

The panel has been refined, and I’m sure we’ll do a deeper dive on the way it works here soon, but Scott wrote about it when it first added.

Content Credentials (LrC and Lr)

This is being introduced as an Early Access feature, so not fully developed yet. Content credentials is a new type of metadata that allows content creators to add more information about themselves and their work as part of the export/output process. This is a new endeavor through the Content Authenticity Initiative that will likely become more important as the amount of generative AI content grows. You can find the option to include content credentials on the Export dialog in LrC:

Or as part of the Share dialog in Lr (settings are controlled in Preferences > Export):

We’ll do a deeper dive into the options, what’s included, and how to get it set up in a future blog post.

Denoise Linear Raw Files (LrC and Lr)

One last thing to note that has been added to both LrC and Lr for Mac/Windows is that the Denoise tool can now be used on linear raw DNGs, which includes merged Pano DNGs, merged HDR DNGs, and other linear raw formats. Let’s wrap up with a look at a few new features added just to Lr.

Smart Albums (Lr Windows/Mac)

If you’ve used Smart Collections in LrC then you know exactly what Smart Albums are in Lr. However, if you are new to the concept you can think of them both as a sort of saved search where you define the search criteria and then photos (and videos) appear in the saved search (smart album) automatically. Just as Smart Collections don’t sync from LrC to Lr, Smart Albums do not sync from Lr to LrC. You can create a Smart Album by clicking the + sign next to Albums and choosing Smart Album from the list. This opens the Create Smart Album dialog where you configure the search criteria and give the smart album a meaningful name.

You can also select All Photos, then use the Filter above the thumbnails to filter your entire library on desired criteria, then save that as a Smart Album.

I’m sure we’ll be taking a closer look at how to best use these down the road. This is only in the Windows/Mac (aka Desktop) version of Lr right now.

Edit 3rd Party Apps (Lr Windows/Mac)

Another new feature only for the Windows/Mac version of Lr is the ability to edit photos in external editors beyond Photoshop. This has been a big limiting factor for a lot of folks who use products like Topaz, On1, Affinity, etc. and want to integrate them with the editing they are doing in Lr. To do this, you can use the File > Edit in, then browse to the application file for the program you want to send the copy to for editing. This can also be accessed by right-clicking the photo and using the Edit in option that appears in the contextual menu.

Quick Actions (Lr Android/iOS and web)

I recently wrote about Quick Actions in Lightroom for web, and this is that same feature evolved and added to Lr for Android/iOS. This is an Early Access feature, so it will continue to evolve over future releases. For now, look for the magic wand icon to have the selected photo analyzed and ready for quick AI-powered edits.

I’m sure we’ll see this feature added to Lr for Windows/Mac in the future as well.

So that’s the highlights for LrC and Lr, but be sure to check out Adobe’s own rundowns for what’s new in Lightroom Classic and Lightroom, and check back here for deeper dives into all the new features in coming days.

The post Adobe MAX Release Updates appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

I hope you find it helpful! Many thanks to Glyn for having me on as a guest!

The post Photography Education and the Lightroom Help Desk (video) appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Among all the Premium (subscription required to access) presets, you’ll find the adaptive presets for portrait, sky, subject, and now blur background. Each of those represents a group of presets to achieve certain looks or starting points. The newest take advantage of the new Lens Blur panel (also accessible in Lightroom web), so let’s explore those.

Click each preset to see how it affects your photo, and note there is a Reset Blur preset at the bottom to clear those adjustments. Also, you can click the undo arrow icon at the top of the panel to undo any change. You also need to click the Save button at the top to apply the settings in the preset and move on. Once you click a preset you’ll see an Amount slider allowing you to dial in the intensity of the settings. Once you are happy with the amount, click Save, then click the Edit icon to access all of the editing tool panels and fine tune the results.

In the case of Lens Blur, you can further refine the Amount, Bokeh, and Focus Range to get the photo looking just the way you want. Click Save to finalize your settings, which will be synced across all other Lightroom apps, and you’re ready to move on to the next photo. Give it a spin!

Photoshop World is fast approaching (September 24-26), and I hope you’ll join me and about 30 world-class instructors for multiple days of learning on Lightroom, Photoshop, and photography! The best part of it being virtual is that you get access to the recordings of all classes you can access for one year after the conference! You can get all the details, schedule, and register here: https://photoshopworld.com

The post Adaptive Presets on Lightroom Web appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

You’ll need to go there in your web browser and log in with the same Adobe ID and password you use on your computer and mobile device for your subscription. Once logged in, and assuming you’ve imported photos into Lightroom or synced from Lightroom Classic, you’ll see your library.

To test drive this new feature, click a photo you’d like to edit to access the editing tools available in the browser-based version of Lightroom.

This new tool is the first one at the top, with the magic wand looking icon, and its name is Quick Actions. What makes this tool so different is that once you choose it, Quick Actions analyzes your photo and then shows buttons it thinks you might want to use on this photo to make it better. The buttons shown vary somewhat with the contents of the photo selected, but expect to see some presets, some single-click adjustments (like Auton tone), some adaptative presets based on subject, some background blur presets, and maybe the straightening tool (if the photo is crooked, or maybe that’s just mine).

I just used the arrow keys on my keyboard to step through all of the photos in this album to see what adjustment options appeared.

For this raw photo below, I clicked Auto light & color, Pop for subject (using a subject-based mask to apply settings to just what it considered the subject), and the Strong background blur button that I dialed back using the slider that appears under the button you click. The eyeball button at the top of the interface is a quick way to see before and after views of your progress.

Now, would I have normally just used one of the Lightroom (including LrC in that) apps to make those edits manually? Yes. That said, for someone new to editing with Lightroom (or in a hurry to quickly edit and share out to social media or both), having the app analyze the photo and only surface adjustments it thinks you might want in a simplified format (buttons), this could be very useful. It is early access, so it will undoubtedly change before it becomes final (or maybe it will just go away never to be seen again?), but worth taking for a spin if you are curious. Would love to know what others think after trying.

Photoshop World is fast approaching (September 24-26), and I hope you’ll join me and about 30 world-class instructors for multiple days of learning on Lightroom, Photoshop, and photography! The best part of it being virtual is that you get access to the recordings of all classes you can access for one year after the conference! You can get all the details, schedule, and register here: https://photoshopworld.com

The post Lightroom on the Web Quick Actions appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Now, if you never experience syncing issues, then high five, you are living your best life. For the rest of us, sometimes, for reasons I do not know or understand, some number of photos just seem to be stuck syncing for (ever) a long time. I had this recently happen to me, so here’s how you can now try to resolve that situation.

First, check the cloud icon to see what’s up. If it is in mid-sync you’ll see a blue syncing icon and if you hover your cursor over it a tooltip will appear showing how many photos are being synced.

If it seems like this has been going on for some time the simplest thing can be to close and restart Lightroom Classic, which can be enough to clear the clog. If that doesn’t work, and you want to take matters into your own hands, click the cloud icon to open the cloud storage window and look for the gear icon.

Click that gear icon to open the Lightroom Sync tab of the preferences and see what’s displayed in the Sync Activity section (this was restored with the recent update).

If you’re not sure what photo is stuck, click that blue link to view that photo in Grid view of the Library showing the photo within its containing folder. Don’t delete the photo from here unless you want to delete the photo entirely from your catalog and hard drive. If you just want to remove it from being synced to clear that (and resync later if you choose) there are two ways to do this now. First, the old fashioned way, which is to leave the problem photo selected and go up to the Catalog panel and click All Synced Photographs.

By leaving the photo selected you’ll see it is still the selected photo when viewing the contents of All Synced Photographs. If you think you will want to add it back to a synced collection later, an easy way to find it again is to drag it to the Quick Collection in the Catalog panel. Now, press Delete to remove it from being synced while leaving the source photo to remain in your catalog. You’ll see this popup telling you what will happen.

Click OK to complete the process. The photo will be removed from all synced collections, which is important to realize what that means. In other words, it will clear it from being stuck syncing, but if you had it in more than one synced collection it will be removed from all of them. So make sure you know which synced collections it was in before you hit the delete button if you plan to add it back them all. In my case, this was an old photo that I no longer need synced, so just removing it from being synced solves my problem. Repeat for any other stuck photos and you should see the Sync Activity area clear out.

The cloud icon will change to a green check mark showing everything as synced now.

Here’s the second, and much simpler way to remove a photo from being synced thanks to this latest update. You’d only use this option once you knew what photo it was (click the link to check) and if it was in more than one synced collection that you may want to add it back into later. Once you know you want to remove it from being synced, just right-click that blue link and you’ll see a new option to Remove from All Synced Photographs. This is just a short cut from the first method I showed above, but it does result in a different looking popup message you have to click through before it is done.

Hope that helps anyone with a photo stuck in the endless sync loop. To add it back to be synced, just drag it back to the synced collection it was in before (cross your fingers) and it should sync successfully.

The post New Update for Syncing Catalog to Cloud appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

First, you need to download presets to your iOS device. Most commonly, you will be downloading a zip file containing the presets. If you don’t already have a zip file of presets on your device, you can test this with these free presets provided by Adobe (scroll down near the bottom) by opening that link on your iPhone or iPad. The zip file will land in the downloads folder for the browser you use on your device.

Next, open the Lightroom app on that device, select a photo, and enter edit mode. Tap the Presets icon to open that interface.

With the Presets panel open, tap the Yours category, and look for that three-dot menu in the upper-right corner.

Tap the three-dot menu and look for Import Presets in the menu that appears at the bottom.

Then navigate to the location on your device where the zip file you downloaded is located (like the Downloads folder for your web browser).

Then tap that zip file to start the import process.

That’s all there is to it. You should now see a new preset group containing those downloaded presets in the Yours section of the Preset panel. In time, those presets will sync across any other Lightroom apps you have on other devices.

The post Importing Presets in Lightroom iOS appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

If Lightroom Classic opens and all seems exactly the same as when you last quit the program, then you are good to go, and move on using the new version. However, in some cases what seems to happen is that Lightroom Classic creates a copy of the wrong catalog, upgrades that copy, then opens it in Lightroom Classic. Upon opening, one might see all photos missing or some amount of recent photos missing. In my experience, this means that the catalog you were using is still sitting unchanged exactly where it was when you last quit the program, but maybe you had an old (possibly empty) catalog sitting in the default location, and Lightroom Classic mistakenly grabbed that catalog instead. I don’t know why this happens, but I see or get the reports of it happening every time a catalog upgrade is required.

The Solution

The fix is easy if you can find your previously used catalog file. All you need to do is quit Lightroom Classic, navigate to where your actual catalog file is stored, and double-click it to open it into Lightroom Classic, which will trigger the catalog upgrade process on that catalog, and when done, you should be good to go.

A LrC catalog file has a .lrcat file extension. You may need to change the settings in your operating system’s file browser (Finder on Mac or Explorer on Windows) to show file extensions if they are not visible on all files. It helps to change your file browser to show a list instead of icons for this task.

The default location for your catalog is in a folder named Lightroom within your Pictures folder. So, that’s the first place to look. If you have a lot of files in that location, you might check out my post on which are safe to delete (but don’t delete any .lrcat files until you’ve found the one that contains all your work).

If the catalog containing all your work is not in the default location, then think about where you may have created it originally, as some people will keep the catalog (and related files) on an external drive and navigate to that location.

Note that each time you open a catalog file to check its contents you will likely be instructed to upgrade a copy of that catalog before it can open in the new version of the software. While this is the only way to verify what’s inside, you can save yourself some trouble by checking the last modified date and file size of the .lrcat file first. If the file size is pretty small (like under 2MB) then it is probably empty and if the modified date is very old it is probably not the catalog you are looking for at this time. Look for a .lrcat file with a very recent modified date (like from right before you installed the new version of the software) and a large file size.

Once you find, upgrade, and open the correct catalog, be sure to set that one as the default catalog so that it opens each time you launch LrC in the future.

If, heaven forbid, you can’t find the desired catalog, then you’ll want to fall back on your most recent backup copy of the catalog. Hopefully, you are regularly using the built-in catalog backup function. If you don’t use the built-in backup function, then check your full computer system backup location. Here’s how to restore from a backup catalog. I hope this never happens to you, but if it does, you now know how to recover without any panic.

The post Updated Catalog Looks Wrong? appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Adaptive presets utilize the AI-based subject detection capabilities to select or mask the target subject and then apply settings to the masked area. With the new lens blur presets it will attempt to detect the subject and then apply lens blur settings to the background to simulate the type of blur you’d get from a lens. Like all adaptive presets, the quality of your results will depend on how well your subject can be detected and how well it may already be separated from other elements in the image.

While I don’t think it is intended to replace the quality of blur from a quality portrait lens shot wide open, I do think it is a useful addition to our editing toolbox when we want to enhance the existing shallow depth of field or to add some blur to further separate our subject from the background. Like most edits, this is subjective, and season to your own tastes.

You can use these presets in a couple of ways, with the first being to have the photo in Develop that you want to edit, then simply clicking the desired preset to have it detect the subject and apply the Lens Blur settings in the given preset. To get to learn what each preset can do, one can simply move your cursor over each preset in turn and see the settings preview on the photo (it will first have to detect the subject to build the mask, but once that is done it will preview quickly for each of the other presets).

Once you’ve found a preset you like, click to apply. This will activate the Lens Blur panel with the settings contained in the preset and you can tweak as desired.

If you have similar images you want to apply the same settings to, you can select them in the Filmstrip and click the Sync button to synchronize settings across the selected photos. Check the Lens Blur box (and the boxes for any other settings you want to sync).

You can also batch apply an adaptive preset right from the Library module. Start by selecting all of the photos you want to be affected by the preset, then in the Quick Develop panel, click the Saved Preset drop-down menu and choose the desired adaptive preset.

Lightroom will create an AI mask for each selected photo and apply the preset’s settings. This can take a little while depending on how many photos you selected and your system’s hardware.

Once done, switch to Develop and adjust settings on each photo as desired. You can consider these presets, like any preset, as just a starting point to move you further down the road, or if you like the look of the settings in the preset, you are done. If you’ve tweaked the settings in a preset, or just customized Lens Blur settings from scratch, you can save those settings as your own adaptive preset by clicking the + sign in the Presets panel, checking Lens Blur, and giving it a meaningful name. Now you can create your own set of adaptive presets and make the most of this cool new tool.

The post Adaptive Presets for Lens Blur appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.