Our first rule of fight club is…
Exporting from Lightroom is probably THE simplest function of Lightroom Classic CC. This is basically a point, click and ship procedure. So how do I really use it.
The Lightroom Classic CC export dialog w/ presets that I have created.
Lightroom Export Tips - Presets
Presets are the most important aspect to speeding up your export process from within Lightroom. Think about how you are using your photos in the “outside” world and that is how to tackle the process of Lightroom export presets.
I upload photos to various social media platforms. I upload them to my stock website and export them for articles right here on my Pro Journal. In addition, I send photos to clients for publication and also send photos out to my lab for fine art prints. Most of my Lightroom Export situations need similar settings. This is why I create a series of export presets.
Up until recently, you would have to select one export preset, export that photo(s), then pick another preset and export again. Lightroom has since updated its export preset process to compete with Capture One. So now you can select multiple presets at once. Then boom, you could potentially export photos for print, client, social media and website ALL at once. This is a huge time saver.
How To Know
Wondering when to create a preset? It’s simple, any time I feel as if I am checking the same export box options, I create a Lightroom Export preset.
Lightroom Export Tips and a Mac
If you export a lot of photos like I do and you are using iCloud on a Mac, you should think about where you are exporting to.
I have my desktop set to sync with my iCloud Drive. I discovered that every time, I exported large groups of files, iCloud would need to sync those large files to the cloud. This in turn slowed down my ability to send those files out to a client using the upload service WeTransfer.
Some of my WeTransfer deliveries are in the gigabytes. I worked around this by setting up a specific export folder on my external hard drive. This hard drive does not sync with iCloud, thus, once the Lightroom Export action is complete, the files are ready for immediate upload to WeTransfer. I utilize a really fast internet connection, so a 2GB zip file can upload in less than 30 minutes. If I am dealing with that file syncing to iCloud simultaneously, the times could easily double.
Lightroom Export Settings of Note (1)
If you are exporting your photos to the web and don’t rename those photos within your Lightroom Library, you should rename them on export. You can actually create presets for renaming as well! Those camera file names are NOT searchable. Google does not know what J1010206.DNG means, so you should give your photos a descriptive name on export at the very least. A perfect example is something like: tetons-wyoming-landscape-0001.jpg or wildlife-bear-alaska.jpg.
Now I actually rename photos within my Lightroom Library because it helps me find those photos when searching for something specific. I will also rename files on exports if they are being used in a specific article.
One other setting that I am fairly particular about is turning off location info when exporting. This is so f*%$ers like you cannot find the exact location that I took a particular photo. Don’t worry, if you ever join me on a trip, I will take you to many of the locations that I have discovered great shots.
The End
This article on Lightroom Export tips concludes our series of articles on Lightroom. From here on, I will be focusing my attention on Capture One Pro. I began using Capture One a while back, only to move back to Lightroom and now since I started shooting a Sony a7R IV. Capture One works significantly better at processing the high resolution photos that come out of the Sony than Lightroom. Thus I am fully committed to Capture One from now and through the foreseeable future. Stay tuned for more videos, tutorials, and articles about switching and processing photos in Capture One Pro in the near future.
Lightroom 5 Export Video
It’s a bit dated from the newer version’s features, but the concepts remain the same.
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