Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic For Dummies. Rob Sylvan
Name field.
6 Configure the check boxes at the bottom.Figure 2-9 shows I am exporting a catalog with 1108 photos and 4 virtual copies (more on virtual copies in Chapter 5). By clicking All Photographs in Step 2, I told Lightroom Classic I wanted to export everything, so I don’t want to check Export Selected Photos Only (this option appears only if one or more photos were selected before invoking the menu). The Export Negative Files option means that Lightroom Classic will include a copy of every imported photo along with the exported catalog, so that needs to be checked. (This is how you move the photos from the laptop to the desktop.) Including available previews is not required, but it will enable you to see the thumbnails when you import this catalog into the master catalog. There isn’t a need to create Smart Previews now, so leave that unchecked.
7 Click Export Catalog.Your export begins.
FIGURE 2-9: The dialog that appears when exporting a catalog on Mac. In Windows, the dialog box looks like a File Explorer window but functions the same.
When the progress meter is complete, a copy of your catalog has migrated to the new location you chose. It’s a fully functional catalog containing all the data the master catalog has on those exported photos. Look in the exported folder, and you see the folders containing the photos alongside the catalog file. Phase 1 is done. Time to connect that catalog to the one on your desktop computer.
Importing from a catalog
Now that you have a folder containing your exported catalog as well as copies of your photos, you need to make it accessible to the desktop computer. In my example, I used an external drive that I moved from the laptop to the desktop computer. Here are the steps to import from a catalog:
1 Connect the external drive to the desktop computer.
2 Open the desired Lightroom Classic catalog on the desktop computer.This opens the catalog you want to import the data from the other catalog into.
3 Choose File ⇒ Import from Another Catalog.A file browsing window appears.
4 Navigate to the exported .lrcat file on the external drive, select it, and then click Choose (Open on Windows).Doing so launches the Import from Catalog dialog shown in Figure 2-10. Note: The name of the .lrcat file you’re importing from is shown on the Title bar of the dialog. If your photos aren’t visible in the Preview section, select the Show Preview check box.
5 Choose the Copy New Photos to a New Location and Import option from the File Handling drop-down menu.The goal is to copy files from the external drive to the internal drive and store them with all your other photos.
6 For the Copy To field, click the Choose button, navigate to a folder on the desktop computer drive where the photos can be saved, and then click OK.The selected location is entered into the Copy To field.
7 Click Import.The import process kicks off. The data from the .lrcat file on the external drive is copied into the .lrcat file on the desktop computer. The photos are copied from the external drive to the desktop computer as well.
FIGURE 2-10: The Import from Catalog dialog.
Once the progress meter is complete, you’ll have successfully transferred a group of photos (and all the work that has been done to them) from the laptop to the desktop computer. (Time to congratulate yourself.) By using Lightroom Classic to perform the data handoff, you ensure that the program never loses track of the source photos and that all your work makes it back home.
Note that there is an option for importing edits made to existing photos under Changed Existing Photos. If you include photos from your master catalog when you first leave on your (imaginary) trip and then edit them on the road, you can import the changes back to the master catalog. In this case, I didn’t have any existing photos, so there wasn’t anything to import.
The other thing to keep in mind in this scenario is that once you have everything safely transferred to the master desktop catalog (and backed up), you should delete the temporary catalog and photos from the laptop and external drive used in the transfer to avoid confusion and duplication down the road.
Chapter 3
Lightroom Classic Basics That You Should Know
IN THIS CHAPTER
Beyond the all-important catalog, there are a number of things, from key preference settings to color spaces, that every Lightroom Classic user should know before they dive in too deep. I also want to clarify what is meant by “the cloud” in the context of the Lightroom world. Let’s start with the nitty-gritty preference settings you’ll want to know.
Configuring Lightroom Classic Preferences
Lightroom Classic’s default preference settings are good for getting you up and running, but that doesn’t mean you can’t make a few tweaks to suit your workflow better. You adjust the seat or mirrors in your car every now and then, right? You’ll probably want to do the same here.
To see what’s what with your default settings, first open the Preferences dialog by choosing Lightroom Classic ⇒ Preferences (Edit ⇒ Preferences in Windows) from the main menu. The Preferences dialog appears on-screen in all its glory, as shown in Figure 3-1. What you see here are global preference settings, meaning these preferences are in effect regardless of which catalog you have open. Although many of these preferences are self-explanatory (I’ll skip those), a few are worth digging into. I do the digging for you in the next few sections.
FIGURE 3-1: The Preferences dialog set to General.
General preferences
The General preferences tab is kind of like the catch-all drawer in the kitchen; it’s got all the stuff that didn’t fit neatly anywhere else:
Default Catalog: I cover this in Chapter 2, but it’s important enough to repeat that you should choose a specific catalog instead of Load Most Recent.
Import Options: Controlling some