I just want to leave you with a few resources to follow up on the topics I covered this session:

• Which Version of Lightroom is Right for You?
• Getting Started with Syncing Lightroom Classic to the Lightroom Cloud
• Managing Adobe Cloud Storage Space for Classic Users
• Lightroom Classic for Dummies (2nd Edition)  

• Managing Your Catalogs for Travel
• Exporting and Importing a Catalog
• Transferring Catalog and Photos to a New Computer
• Exporting and Importing Smart Collection Settings
• Exporting and Importing a Keyword List
• Apple Lighting to SD Reader
• Apple USB-C to SD Reader
• Photoshop World Aug 30 – Sept 1
• Lightroom Classic for Dummies (2nd Edition)

See you for Part 2 of this topic on September 21st. Check out the Event Space for details and link.

There will be 3 tracks of classes running over 3 days covering Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography topics that are sure to increase your knowledge and improve your skills. It is all virtual this year (hopefully for the last time) so you can watch from anywhere, and you get 1 year of replays to enjoy over and over again, so you don’t even have to attend the live event. They even throw in a 6 month subscription to KelbyOne. 

I hope you’ll consider joining us as they try to create a feel of a live conference with live Q&A, meetup events, after hours events, and more. Connect with instructors and other attendees while having fun and learning. Head over to the site to learn more and register! I’ll be online and learning those days too!

There’s also a VIP pass that includes lifetime access to re-watch all content, workbooks, and a few bonus items thrown in. The early pricing is only $99 for the VIP pass, but that ends on Monday (and goes up to $149). Anyone purchasing a VIP pass is automatically entered into a drawing for daily prizes outlined below:

• One-on-one consults with Kristi Sherk, Tobi Shinobi, Daniel Gregory, and me!
• B&H gift card
• Free courses from Dave Cross and Sean Bagshaw
• A Starter Tethering Kit from TetherTools
• Preset collections, original artwork and more

Whether you are getting the VIP pass or just watching the 40 sessions from 20 instructors for free, be sure to register now so you don’t miss out. I can’t wait to see what the other instructors have to share.

I’m super psyched to be among the 20 instructors, and can’t wait to share my sessions with you. I’m just as excited to learn from the other 19 experts because we never stop learning. Hope to see you there!

I’ve also compiled a list of resources for each session into a PDF, which I shared during the presentation. Unfortunately, the PDFs I uploaded here got flagged by Google for being potentially malicious because they contain links to other sites (duh, that is the point). So, I compressed the PDFs into ZIP files and have posted the links here. I apologize to anyone who followed the links to find the PDFs unavailable. Here they are for each session, I hope you find them helpful.

PDF Resources

Using Lightroom Classic and Lightroom together: PDF (114KB download ZIP file and extract PDF)

Lightroom Classic to Photoshop and Back: PDF (114KB download ZIP file and extract PDF)

Take Control of Your Lightroom Classic Catalog: PDF (1.3MB download ZIP and extract PDF)

B&H Event Space Sessions

If you’ve missed the sessions, you can catch them on demand at the links below. Thanks to Adobe and B&H for making this possible!

Lightroom Classic and Lightroom Together: Part 1

Lightroom Classic and Lightroom Together: Part 2

Lightroom Classic to Photoshop and Back

Coming March 17 at 5pm east coast time: Take Control of Your Lightroom Classic Catalog

It kicks off this Tuesday morning at 9am Pacific Time, and runs for three days. However, I suspect the recorded content will be accessible to registered attendees for some time to come, so I would sign up even if you can’t make the premiere streams of the classes you are most interested in viewing.

I was honored to speak there last year, and doubly so to be invited back to speak again this year. I’m doing a Lightroom Classic Lab split into 3 sessions (one each day), and apparently over 10,000 people have already signed up for my lab. Gulp.

Aside from the 3 lab sessions I also prepared a 30 page workbook to go with it (see the update below if you are having trouble finding it), which contains dozens of links to additional (free) resource information. That’s just my lab … there are literally over 300 other sessions to choose from! I’m just a tiny cog in this great wheel. I can’t imagine the amount of work that has been done behind the scenes by everyone involved to pull this off. Thanks to all!

If you attended any of my sessions, and have any questions not answered by the workbook, be sure to leave a comment here and I’ll get you that answer!

Update:

It seems some folks are having trouble finding the Lab Workbook and practice files, so here’s the scoop. Head over to the session page for the any part of the lab (such as Part 1), then scroll down to the bottom and look for the Tools and Resources box. In there you’ll find the link to download the workbook. You’ll need to be logged in with the account you used to register for Adobe MAX to access the downloads.

For the practice files, click the Add to your Creative Cloud button, which will open a new browser tab showing the assets for the lab (as shown below).

The file with the .ZIP extension contains the practice files and the PDF is the instructions for accessing the lab assets. So, just click that PDF if you need help downloading and accessing the files. You can either add the files to your own Creative Cloud storage (that’s what “Copy to Your Work” means), or click the 3-dot menu next to the ZIP file and simply download it directly to your computer. The workbook and practice files you download from any part of my labs is the same for all 3 parts, so you only need to do it once.

You can save $150 on your ticket with early bird pricing now.

It is easy to run into problems with any computer application, and Lightroom Classic is no exception. I’ve been answering Lightroom-related questions since version 1.0 first launched and I’ve found that for every one person with a new problem I can expect a steady stream of other people with the same problem soon after.

Common Problems of the EveryUser

The first problem has a simple fix, but ranks right up among the most asked question I’ve ever seen about Lightroom Classic. If you should ever find that the buttons at the top of the interface (the red, yellow, green buttons on a Mac or the minimize, maximize, close buttons on Windows) have seemingly vanished it just means you are in Full Screen Mode. The solution is to press the Shift+F keys to cycle to the next screen mode. That’s it. Problem solved. Side note, you can just move your cursor to the top of the screen, wait a moment, and the menu bar will appear.

In the same vein, and almost the same in frequency, if the Adjustment Brush or Graduated Filter pins have disappeared without a trace press the H key to bring them back. The H key seems to be an easy one to hit accidentally. You can also switch the Show Edit Pins drop-down menu from Never to Always in the Toolbar (press T if the Toolbar is missing).

Next on the countdown is, The file named “suchandsuch.dng” is offline or missing.

There are question marks on all thumbnails and folders! What’s going on? Lightroom Classic stores the path to each imported photo in the catalog from the file name all the way down to the drive name (drive letter on Windows). If anything in that path changes or is not accessible then Lightroom shrugs its software shoulders and considers your files offline or missing. You can avoid this unpleasant experience by only using Lightroom Classic to move, rename and delete your imported folders and photos, which will keep the catalog updated with the correct path information. Note to Windows users with photos on external drives: if this happens to you check to see if Windows changed the drive letter on you. If so, change it back and Lightroom Classic will reconnect to your photos automatically.

Here’s a tutorial I wrote on how to update the catalog with the correct location of all the offline or missing files.

Troubleshooting 101

OK, say you are faced with some other quirky Lightroom Classic behavior. Here’s what I suggest doing to get back to normal:

Step One: Reboot. If behavior persists go to next step.

Step Two: Reset Lightroom Classic’s preference file. If problem still exists, go to next step. Read this before you reset.

Step Three: Create a new testing catalog (put it someplace obvious and name it accordingly to avoid confusion with problem catalog), import a few test photos into it, and try to recreate problem. If the problem does not replicate in the test catalog then it could suggest the problem is in your working catalog. To remedy this, I would create a new (empty) catalog at a location of your choosing, name it something useful (like New Master Catalog), and try importing your problem catalog into this new one (choose the option to Add new photos without copying so that the new catalog simply references all photos in their current/original location), and then giving it a test run. For whatever reason, I’ve seen this leave the problem in the old catalog. If the problem still persists, see the next section.

Where to go for Help

If you are a KelbyOne member the first place you can turn for all your Photoshop, Lightroom Classic, and Lightroom questions is the KelbyOne Community forum. This is a great resource and full of knowledgable members, instructors, and staff (like me) who are happy to help you out.

In addition, I recommend checking out one of the Adobe run forums for help. The first is Adobe’s community forums (from there, pick the forum for the program you need help with), which are best suited for general discussion of the program, troubleshooting advice, how-to advice, etc. and are populated by other customers as well as community professionals. The other is the Photoshop Family forum, which is best suited for reporting bugs, requesting new features, and troubleshooting errors/crashes, as it is populated with both knowledgable customers and Adobe support staff. When seeking help in any forum, I have a few tips to help you convey your situation clearly so other people can best understand and assist you.

When trouble strikes fear not! For you are in good company (even if you are by yourself).