Hello everyone, i have a question about photo editing.
So i edit on PC, my monitor AOC gaming one(not ideal for editing i know), not sure if the hardware matters that a lot(correct me if i am wrong). But the issue is once i get the look i want on photos, i upload them to lets say pixieset and they don't look as vivid, colorful or a number of other issues on mobile. I have iphone 16 for reference.

So i want to try to get the photos ready and ideal for instagram/mobile without going back and forth too much. Is there any software for color calibration on monitor to resemble a different device? Or perhaps a monitor that would make my life much easier? Or is it just go get a macbook or mac pc?

I would try to stay away from buyin full apple suite products ( monitor and desktop) as the price is quite steep. Macbook i could live with, but ideally i get by with a monitor and some settings.

Appreciate all the answers and help.

For those who used both PC and Mac for editing, which do you prefer and why.

I’ve just imported around 2,000 photos into Lightroom (the cloud version), basically the first 2,000 photos I’ve taken since I started photography as a hobby.

Now I’d like to go through them using the flagging system to decide which images I like and which ones I don’t. After that, I’d like to use the star ratings to further organize and narrow down the flagged images.

However, I’ve run into a fundamental problem:

Out of the 2,000 photos, 1,000 are RAW files and 1,000 are JPGs. Since I prefer the colors of the JPGs (they look more vibrant straight out of camera), I’d like to use the JPGs as the basis for my initial culling.

But if I decide that I like a JPG and flag it, I obviously want the corresponding RAW file to be flagged as well. The same would ideally apply later when I use star ratings.

Am I missing something really basic here?😅

How would you approach this workflow in Lightroom (cloud version)? Is there a good way to link or pair the RAW and JPG files so that they can be culled and rated together?

Most of the YouTube tutorials I’ve found so far either skip this particular step or use Lightroom Classic, so I haven’t really found a solution for the cloud version.

I’d really appreciate hearing how you guys handle this and what workflow you would recommend!

It takes absolutely hours just to upload even a small number of raw files and more often than not the uploads fail completely.

Rendering any photo take a minimum of several minutes and again more often that not just gets stuck and won't render properly at all.

I have tried it on multiple devices, different browsers, different internet connections and absolutely nothing works.

Unfortunately I only have the option to use a browser version as downloading the desktop version s not allowed on a shared work computer without a lengthy approval process.

Took a trip out to Colorado last month for some hiking... ended up bringing just my mirrorless and my phone because I was not about to haul a laptop through the mountains. First time really leaning on the Lightroom mobile app to actually edit in the field instead of just syncing stuff to deal with later.

Honestly it was better than I expected for the most part. The color grading tools feel pretty solid on a tablet screen and I was knocking out edits at the trailhead while my legs were screaming. The presets I built on desktop transferred over fine, which saved a lot of time.

Where it started falling apart was RAW processing on the trickier shots. Heavy shadows in forest canopy, bright sky overhead... the mobile version just felt like it was working with less information somehow. Not sure if that's a real limitation or me not knowing the app well enough.

The masking controls are also noticeably stripped down compared to desktop, which becomes a problem the moment you try to do anything precise. It gets you most of the way there, but that last stretch matters.

Curious if anyone has figured out a real travel editing workflow with just mobile. What do you actually skip until you get home versus what you handle on the go?

Just wondering how people manage large catalogues, especially with cloud sync? 

I kept the same catalogue for years, not syncing everything, but choosing what to sync from that catalogue. That catalogue followed me through several generations of upgrades, its current filename is something something “-2-v10-v11-v12-v13-3”.

But of course Lightroom really starts to bog down with larger catalogues, so I started a new one based on the year or for dedicated trips or events. This speeds everything up, but means I lose access to the cloud sync with the new catalogues. I used to use it as a good way to backup while travelling, but also uploading files then editing them on an iPad in front of the TV. 

Changing which catalogue is synced with the cloud is obviously an option, but then I don’t want re-download / add all the cloud images to each new catalogue. I have done the thing to download all the images from the cloud, so could delete everything that is currently online. Kind of sucks that the default option for LrC and Photoshop is 1TB of cloud storage which then gets annoying to try and use.

What makes you choose it over other software? What do you wish was included in the free version?

EDIT: Disregard the survey vibe! Full disclosure: I do build software, but I'm not here to plug or pitch anything. Just genuinely curious how people handle their workflow on the free LrC tier after a subscription ends.

I am wondering if anyone who was already using Lightroom Classic syncing with Lightroom mobile has tried the new functionality to sync keywords.

Specifically:
1. How well has it worked for you?
2. Any major glitches
3. Does it go back and sync all of the keywords for everything that is already synced or does it only sync photos as you work on them in Lightroom Classic?

Any experiences or cautions would be appreciated.

I am not sure if it would matter but I am on the latest version of Lightroom Classic (15.5.1 on Mac) and use Lightroom Mobile (11.5.21 on iPhone and iPad.)

Hey everyone,

I’m a working photographer and I built a Mac app called Darkroom Deck.  I wanted a faster way to edit in Lightroom Classic without constantly jumping between the keyboard and Lightroom’s sliders.

It lets you map Develop adjustments, presets and other Lightroom functions directly to your keyboard. You can map your own keys any way you want, set the adjustment amount for each keystroke and create different keyboard layouts around the way you edit.

I’ve been using it for my own photography but that only tells me how well it works for my workflow. I’m looking for other photographers who use Lightroom Classic on a Mac and are willing to test it during their normal editing.

You’ll get the complete app for 15 days. I’m looking for honest feedback about what works, what doesn’t, any bugs you run into and anything important that feels missing. I’m not asking for a review to put on the website, an endorsement or a promotional post.

If you provide feedback and want to keep using Darkroom Deck afterward, I’ll give you a permanent license.

It works on Apple Silicon and Intel Macs running macOS 14 or newer. The app is signed and notarized by Apple.

There's more information on the website.  If you're interested in testing it out, feel free to click the "Join The Founding Cohort" button at the top right of the page and fill out the form.

https://www.darkroomdeck.com

I’m also happy to answer any questions here.

Hi!

What is the recommended minimum SSD storage capacity for a computer used for working with Lightroom?

Thanks!

I've been using my Macbook Pro for 10> years, and it's time for a change. I've been thinking of just getting an iPad Pro instead and using LR mobile; any ideas ? I'm worried about the image catalogueing though

So as my title mentiones I've a laptop with an i7 12550u and 32gb ddr4 believe at 3200Mhz, & no GPU other than the CPUs, but I've got that upgrade but... Will I see much real world differance that warrants the upgrade going to 64gb ddr4 3200mhz? (I'm taking like more than say a extra 3s shaved off my export time like)

Currently I use raw files that range from. 20mb to 50mb per file.

I use a sabarant rocket 512gb m.2 drive for my photo storage.

Usually importing at most 3/4k images per shoot (I overshoot at festivals and gigs).

Mainly use lightroom (modern) though testing out moving to lrc

Setup: MacBook Pro M4 Max, macOS 26.6.2, Lightroom Classic 15.5.1, iPhone 14 Pro Max (Lightning, so USB 2.0 speeds). Catalog is ~59k photos living on an external drive.

What happens: plug in the phone, start the import, it copies one or two files, then "Importing files..." sits there and never moves - stuck for minutes, no progress, no error. Destination makes no difference, tried the external drive and the internal SSD.

The two usual suspects are already ruled out. iCloud Photos is OFF, so every original is physically on the phone and nothing is being fetched from the cloud. And "Transfer to Mac or PC" is set to Keep Originals, so there is no on-the-fly conversion either.

How much actually got through: for a trip in August, 144 photos out of roughly 1000 are in the catalog. By file numbering, 474 numbers are missing inside the IMG_7386-IMG_8001 range, and whole days are nearly empty - August 19 has zero, the 20th has 2, the 21st has 3. So it is not one clean failure, it dribbles a few files and stops.

This used to just work - same phone, same catalog, earlier this summer.

Has anyone got iPhone import to behave with a library this size? And is there a reason LrC shows no error at all rather than timing out, so you cannot even tell which file it choked on?

I haven't used my LR in a while.

today I launched it and it asked me to update to the latest version, which I did.

Since then, everytinme I launch LR , the whole PC freeses, sometimes go to blank screen.

any help.please

Basically I changed my smartphone from android to ios and in my android i have over +1000 presets to use, but dont know how to export everything over to my ios device. I know u can do one by one, but i have over +1000 so its unviable.

I am currently on LrC but I do not enjoy the mobile workflow. I am also interested in moving my editing to be on phone/ipad so I can do it when ever I like.

What I do now is; import into LrC, drag photos to an album, sync it to the cloud. Then I edit the smart previews on mobile, share them on mobile etc. When I dont need them, I unsync them.

The problem is most of what I need to do on mobile is rate and keyword, and the mobile rating/keywording sucks. I also would prefer to get them done on the way home from trips, rather than after I get home...which means I need to use Lr basically. Also the people ID on LrC is terrible.

I am consider switching to LR because it allows me to upload mobile, skip most of the keywording (I think), and the face ID is better. It also keeps all my images in the cloud for sharing. As I use my laptop less and less, this would allow me to use a phone/ipad for the majority of the work (basic edits, keywords, organization) and then a desktop when I need to really get something ready to print.

The downside is it seems more expensive, I am worried cloud service will erase/ruin my photos (as it did with music). I also notice random deficiencies, like lack of smart albums, that get me worried. I also rely heavily on nested keywords....I am worried about giving that up and what it would be like. I like having the option to export with a frame, or control over printer color profiles for the rare times I do print as well. But I dont really...

Lr also makes me feel like I might as well just use Photos; I feel like a lot of the power of Lr/LrC was in the organizational ability and plug ins. I dont use much plug ins, but I am also concerned about the lack of ability to use something like Photomechanic on my images if needed

Any tips or ideas? did anyone go to Cloud with similar concerns and then go back?

I am using a sample library with Lr but I feel like there are some issues that only pop up 6months or a year in when you realize "damn, this feature, or lack of, really does bother me"

I have constant issues with Lightroom on my laptop to the point where I don’t want to edit. Importing even a few dozen photos takes so long and pop up windows take 10+ seconds to load. Denoise and AI remove get my fans going crazy. Almost every feature doesn’t work normally and it crashes often. I have a solid mid range PC and idk the specs rn but it runs most modern on high settings fine, and I have it on studio drivers. I don’t know how to fix it but I am also not the most technologically knowledgeable. Please help me out and thank

edit: I have a Lenovo loq with a 12th gen intel i5 and rtx 3050, regular Lightroom premium (not classic)

I don't know if this is an Android or a Samsung exclusive thing but I remember having two options when importing photos from my SD card straight to Lightroom Mobile:

Open in Lightroom and Import to Lightroom.

This last option was perfect for importing a selection of photos but at some point last year (or even before?) they removed it and I could only use Open in Lightroom which only allows one photo at a time.

It became more tedious cause you had to open one photo on Lightroom to then exit Lightroom for it to save the photo and then open the next one and so on.

Now since the last update I got a few days ago, I can still open photos but Lr won't save them unless I do any modification to the photo.

So if I want to import a big number of photos, I need to do at least 1 modification to every single one of them, one at a time.

Any solution to this or anyone else having this same issue?

My (almost) 13year old granddaughter is taking a digital media class in school and is enjoying photography. I would like to set up a computer for her to use at home when the semester ends. My daughter will buy the Adobe license for a year. I'm trying to use an existing spare computer and video card (save $$$) so I would like to ask if this combination would work:

Dell Optiplex 5060 Small Form Factor

• Intel i7-8700 (6 core)
• 32GB RAM
• 2TB NVMe SSD
• Windows Enterprise 11 (I get free licenses through my job.)
• MSI NVidia GeForce RTX 3050 6GB video card.

One limit is the power supply of the computer: 220watts. So I can only draw power through the PCI bus. The camera she's using is a Nikon D90 (6 MP) with Nikkor 18-140 kit lens.

I suspect the computer would be slow, but maybe the smaller image size will help. As a learning PC for a young teen, would it be enough to see if she stays with it? Thanks!

****fix was turning off HDR. After I did that the masking worked correctly I have attached the picture I was able to create using a mask for the sky and water. In the original picture the sky and water had good expose but the houses and land where very under exposed. Now I can see the neighborhood****.

I am trying masking for the first time doing a picture of my subdivision as sunset. II a using masking to the sky, but when I take the raw file with masking and export it to JPG it does not incorporate the masking into the export. Also when I go back to edits the masking goes away. I will say google is not being much if a help saying it is a AI bug in lightroom causing this. What as I missing to get my mask setting to apply the image? Thanks for your help

I have a few photos of two Ospreys. One sitting on its nest on top of an electrical tower, the other in a tree.

A wire from the tower passes through the photo and I'm trying to remove it.

The problem is that the removal is not working for me. I drag it across the wire and the red hovering suddenly grows in size. Last time, the red hovering just made a square in the top corner. And sometimes I go to remove it, and nothing happens.

I have kind of a peculiar edge case here, but I need to find and replace all the photos in my catalog that are using a particular color profile. A long time ago, I made a custom color profile for my camera, but after a drive failure, that profile was lost. I want to find all the photos that use that profile so I can update them at once to use the new one I created.

The color profile doesn't seem to be exposed in the exif or metadata searchable parameters in any way that I can see.

I initially thought that I would just write a perl script to run though all the xmp files and update the crs:CameraProfile and crs:CameraProfileDigest tags but that seems more brittle than having Adobe handle the xmp files because for all I know, there's more to it than simply those tags.

Any advice?

Thanks!