Thoughts

Four wishes for Lightroom

It’s 2011, a new year, and it’s likely that Adobe will put out a new version of Lightroom this year. With that in mind, it would be wonderful if the Lightroom team could implement the following features in the next minor or major version of LR:

  • Find and Replace within metadata (details here)
  • Faster navigation and rendering when working with large catalogs (details here)
  • Filter catalog for metadata conflicts (details here)
  • More accurate time of capture for movie files captured with an iPhone 4 or a Nokia N95, or other video camera that doesn’t supply sidecar THM files (detailed explanation here and bug report here)

Thanks!

Standard

5 thoughts on “Four wishes for Lightroom”

  1. A few options I’d like, especially one that some would argue defeats a key point of Lightroom – I want my photos destructed! I make changes to photos because I prefer them that way. I don’t actually want to keep multiple back ups of the same photo.

    I’d like a switch to turn off the non destructive side of Lightroom.

    Like

    • But Gary, LR doesn’t keep multiple backups of the photo, and neither should you. LR records every action you’ve taken as you processed a photo, and keeps that info in the metadata and in the catalog. The space that takes is tiny compared to the space taken up by the photo. So every time you export a photo out of LR, it’ll apply those actions to it, and you’ll get the very same result. This is exactly what you should want: non-destructive editing that gives you the same result, every single time, just as if a photo had been modified permanently.

      Like

      • I know LR doesn’t but I’ve gotten into the habit of exporting photos into new folders. However, maybe I’ve gotten behind the times. Years ago, with an early iteration of LR, I lost all the changes I’d made to my shots when I reformatted my PC. They reverted to pre processing state. Which was depressing.

        I’ve been looking at my images and playing around with LR3 though, and I get the feeling that this doesn’t happen anymore…

        Like

        • If you work with RAW files, enable the “Automatically write changes into XMP” option. And even if you don’t have it enabled, as long as you have backups of your catalog and your photos are in the same place after a reformat, you’ll be able to see all your modifications once you re-install. And even if the photos aren’t in the same place, as long as you have a catalog backup, you can re-install LR, open the catalog, and point it to the new location of the photos, and you’ll be able to pick up right where you left off.

          Like

          • Ah…so it is still possible to lose your changes. That’s the point of my comment I guess…destructed images = no possible loss of alterations. I understand what you’re saying and what the plus points of non destructive editing are. But I’d prefer my changes to be more permanent. That’s just my preference.

            Like

Comments are closed.