Adobe Photoshop Lightroom Classic For Dummies. Rob Sylvan
here are to use no compression (None) or apply compression (ZIP). Some other applications have trouble handling compressed TIFFs, so if you want a more compatible choice, choose None. If you want to save a bit of disk space, choose ZIP.
Setting up additional external editors
In a nutshell, you choose an editor, configure its settings, and then save those settings as a preset. You can create as many presets as you need. Here are the steps:
1 In the Additional External Editor section, click Choose.
2 Navigate to and select the application you want to use as an editor.On Mac, look in the Applications folder. In Windows, look in the Program Files folder. Once selected, you’ll see the name of the chosen application listed next to Application back in the Preferences dialog box.
3 Configure all the file-setting options for the type of files you want to send to that editor.
4 Choose Save Current Settings as New Preset from the Preset drop-down menu.
5 Give the preset a name and click Create.You’ll see this name listed under the Photo ⇒ Edit in the menu, so make it descriptive of both the application and file settings.
When Lightroom Classic renders a copy to send to Photoshop, it appends an -Edit suffix to the copy by default. You can customize this suffix in the Edit Externally File Naming section at the bottom of the dialog box, but I’d say unless you have a real need to change the suffix, the default works just fine.
The File Handling preferences
Figure 3-3 shows the File Handling preference settings. Let’s go through each section and make some sense of what can be done here:
Import DNG Creation: These settings pertain to the Copy Photos as Digital Negative (DNG) on import. The medium-sized JPEG preview is a good compromise on file size. The default conversion method settings are great because they preserve the raw data and create a smaller file using lossless compression. The big choice is whether you want to embed the original raw file or not. You would want to embed the original raw file if you felt there may come a point in time where you might want to extract the original raw file so that you could process it in software that doesn’t support DNG. The downside to embedding the original raw file is that you double the file’s size because you will have the converted raw data (this is what Lightroom Classic will use) and then add the entire original unaltered file as well (which just sits untouched in case some day it is needed). I prefer to leave this unchecked. Keeping When Embed Fast Load data checked can help improve performance in the Develop module when editing DNG files with this information.
Reading Metadata: It is possible to create structure or hierarchies in your keywords (that is, you might have a keyword “Animal” and then under it, you would nest all the types of animals in your photos). No single standard exists for what character must be used to separate hierarchical keywords when they are written into a file’s metadata. Lightroom Classic automatically recognizes the | (pipe) character between two words as a means to denote structure, but if you use other programs that use either a . (dot) or a / (slash) as a keyword separator, check the respective boxes in the preferences; Lightroom Classic respects your choice during import so that your keyword structure is maintained.
File Name Generation: Different operating systems and even different applications can have problems with certain characters being used within filenames. The settings in the File Name Generation section allow you to configure how Lightroom Classic responds to these characters when it encounters them in a filename. Here’s what I recommend for creating a consistent and bombproof approach to dealing with problematic filenames:Choose the largest set of characters to treat as illegal.Choose either dashes or underscores to be used as a replacement character when an illegal character is encountered.Don’t sweat spaces in filenames (leave as-is).
FIGURE 3-3: The File Handling preferences.
The Interface preferences
Although some of the Interface preferences, as shown in Figure 3-4, are entirely cosmetic, other settings in this panel are really useful:
Panels: I’ll leave the Panels End Marks decision up to your own sense of flair, but when this option is enabled, these little decorative icons will appear at the bottom of the panel groups in each module. For the most part you won’t notice them after a while (set to none by default). In regard to panel font size, if you’re finding the panel text a little on the small side, you can try bumping Font Size up a notch (will take effect the next time you start).
Lights Out: I go over the Lights Out function in Chapter 1, but here are its configuration settings. The Dim Level controls how much the Screen Color changes at the first level of dimming (at 80% you can just make out the interface). The defaults work well, but you can increase or decrease the first dim level amount by changing the percentage, or change the color used to hide the interface to different shades of gray.
Background: The area around the photo — but inside the panels — is called the background. The default color is medium gray because that’s a neutral color that will have the least influence on how you perceive the colors in your photo. You might try different colors, but I think you’ll come back to the default.
Keyword Entry: Choose to have keywords separated by commas or spaces. My suggestion is to use commas so that you can have multi-word keywords (such as New Hampshire).
Filmstrip: When it comes to the Filmstrip settings, I prefer to keep all these options checked. I like being able to see ratings, picks, and badges (small icons that appear if keywords, cropping, or develop settings have been applied to a photo) on the thumbnails in the Filmstrip. The Image Info tooltips are a great way to see the filename, capture date and time, and dimensions; just hover over an image with your cursor. The most helpful option is to check Ignore Clicks on Badges so that you don’t inadvertently click a badge when trying to select a photo and end up jumping to the Crop tool or wherever the badge takes you.FIGURE 3-4: The Interface preferences.
Tweaks: The Tweaks section is the one area of the Interface panel where you’ll see a slight difference between Windows and Mac. On the Mac, you find an option to use typographic fractions, but if you wander over to a Windows machine, you find that such fractions aren’t available. Therefore, Mac users can have their exposure fractions expressed in a much cuter manner. Don’t take this as an unassailable argument for switching platforms, however; Windows users have a tweak that Mac does not — the Use System Preference for Font Smoothing option. What it means is that Lightroom Classic, in Windows, applies font smoothing (meaning it literally makes the edges of screen fonts appear smoother and rounder) independently of the operating system. If you intentionally turned off font smoothing at the operating system level (some people don’t like the smooth look) and want Lightroom Classic to follow suit, check the Use System Preference for Font Smoothing box. Not to be outdone, a new option was recently added only to Macs, which is Swipe Between Images Using Mouse/Trackpad. This makes for one more (very fast) way to scroll the Filmstrip, and hardly one more reason to switch platforms. Uncheck if you find the speed too dizzying.Both operating systems have a setting in common, though — Zoom Clicked Point to Center. When you check this option, Lightroom Classic zooms in and shifts the point you clicked to the center of the screen. I prefer to leave this option unchecked because when I click to zoom in, I want the point I clicked