Laid Back Lightroom

By Steven Reid

I have been using lightroom for many years, apart from gap year with Capture One, whilst I was shooting fuji cameras. What brought me back to Adobe was the Creative Cloud support.  I know many people may already be using the workflow I describe below, but I also know that many people are not aware of some of Adobe Lightroom’s cloud functionality.

Pre-requisites

For this workflow you will need:

1. Active Subscription to Adobe CC Photographer Package or the whole CC
2. Desktop/Laptop version of Lightroom (Classic)
3. Apple or Android tablet running Lightroom CC

Step 1: Create a collection.

Using Lightroom Classic on your PC or Mac, go into the library module and create a new collection in the collection menu. If you already have your photos organised into folders, you can right click on the folder and select create a collection.

Now on the Create Collection Dialog make sure the Sync with Lightroom option is checked.

Note: You can only sync one lightroom catalogue with the cloud. If the Sync with lightroom check is missing it may be due to being in a different catalogue.

For further information on enabling cloud sync please check out this adobe guide : How to sync collections in Lightroom Classic on the desktop to the Lightroom ecosystem (adobe.com)

Step 2: Grab your Tablet.

Now when you open Lightroom CC on your tablet , after a few minutes , it should have synced your collection ready for use. There are sync options under the settings menu to allow you to sync over mobile data as well as over Wi-Fi, if you have the data allowance.

If you want to edit your work, where you will have little or no internet access , click the ellipses (…) next to the collection and check the store locally switch.

All the edits you make on the tablet will now be synchronised back to the desktop collection.

Adobe have put a lot of effort into bringing the two versions into alignment, but you will find some features missing from the tablet version, but not many.

Step 3: Suggested Uses

1. Stuck waiting at the fence, now you can carry editing whilst waiting for your plane to come in.
2. Tired of sitting at your desk, grab your tablet and a beer and head to a garden to continue editing
3. Having trouble with an edit , now you can take it to a friends house to get their help.
4. Need a quick Jpeg to post on social, just click export button on the tablet.
5. Long trip ahead? remember to download your collections before you go and edit on the move.
6. Can’t sleep , don’t want to wake the household, carry on editing in bed

Step 4: Bonus Tip

Stuck in work, without a tablet, need to keep editing ? Follow this link https://lightroom.adobe.com/libraries , sign in and away you go.