Lightroom not working? Tips for treatment program. Optimizing work in Lightroom: hardware and software (part 1)

This post could be entitled “how to speed up Lightroom 7 times”, and I wouldn’t say that it would be a lie, but there is still some stretch here ;-) Continuing to study the topic for myself Lightroom acceleration(which is already discussed in the key to upgrading hardware and dependencies) I carried out additional measurements, exporting the same set of files in different scenarios.

Got a change in export time from 8 minutes 51 seconds to 1 minute 19 seconds. This is almost 7 times.

The backstory is simple - one of my friends complained that his old MacBook Pro with dual-core Core i7 2.8 GHz (supporting Hyper Threading), 8 gigabytes of RAM and cool matte screen, which not so long ago cost as much as 75 thousand rubles, exports images from Lightroom for a painfully long time, and this becomes a problem when he needs to output a thousand frames to the client. We measured 127 shots from Nikon D90, this MacBook Pro took 6 minutes and 30 seconds. Therefore, he would spend 51 minutes on 1000 photos. After doing a couple of operations, on the same computer you can make it so that exporting a thousand images will take 35 minutes, that is, get a 30% speedup. And if you cheat something else, then you can waste it for export in less time.

What I'm saying is that you don't have to buy it new MacBook(PC, laptop, processor, upgrade...) in order to make Lightroom move faster. You just need to understand how and what works in it and not commit simple mistakes. Such, for example, as export to USB HDD. By the way, some laptop owners are guilty of this, wasting their time.

Briefly: To speed up the output of your photos in Lightroom, you need to (1) export the files to a fast drive [DO NOT export to USB HDD or Laptop HDD] (2) do it in multiple threads. And now in more detail under the cut.

UPD. I wanted to clarify right away, because I already see comments where they misunderstood me. Speaking about “outputting pictures from Nikon D90” I mean “outputting pictures taken by Nikon D90 from NEF to JPEG/TIFF”, that is, about _rendering_ during export, and NOT about importing from a flash drive/camera to a computer. We are talking about the procedure when RAW with the application of all masks, filters, corrections and the rest turns into JPEG and TIFF.

I already know what and where resources are being consumed. But there are two underestimated factors. Firstly, as measurements have shown, export to a slow disk is significant, and under some conditions factor of, increases export time, especially if you output RAW to TIFF16. This happens because Lightroom is “sequential” - it doesn’t start next operation without finishing the previous one. The situation is partially saved by caching write operations, but only up to a certain limit.

Also, few people know about the possibility of exporting from Lightroom to multiple streams, and it, in turn, uses resources efficiently multi-core processors, such as Core i5 or i7 (and even the old Core 2 Duo). By default, Lightroom is optimized to allow you to do other things when exporting, such as retouching in Photoshop. If necessary, you can force LR to "fire at full capacity", and this can be a decent help if the retouching is "in background" not planned.

To take measurements, I used my “photodesktop” - a rather monstrous machine with Core processor i7 3960X, 32 gigabytes of RAM, 2 GB video card with support for CUDA and OpenGL acceleration, an array of SSDs in RAID0 and other goodies, selected to get the most out of Lightroom, Photoshop, Premiere and some other resource-hungry programs . I say this not to boast, but to understand the numbers. In addition, even this piece of hardware full of mips can be accelerated in Lightroom by one and a half to two times from scratch.

Here are the numbers obtained when exporting 127 NEF (RAW) shots from Nikon D90 to JPEG maximum qualities:

As you can see, the increase is almost 2.3 times, if instead of exporting in one stream to a slow external drive(write speed 35 MB per second) we will export in three streams to the SSD. But even easy replacement slow external hard drive to fast (USB 3.0) allows you to win 30 percent without changing anything. But even in the standard scenario, when the export is in JPEG on an SSD, you can win 48 percent simply by using multi-threaded export.

Let's complicate the task. Here are the export figures for the same 127 images in NEF (RAW) from the same Nikon D90 in TIFF16/ProPhotoRGB/without compression:

When exporting to external storage With USB interface 2.0 full time the procedure took a monstrous 8 minutes and 51 seconds. Compare this to 3:39 when exporting to JPEG. But what's funny is the most a short time export (RAMdisk->RAMdisk) even decreased and amounted to only 79 seconds (versus 91 seconds when exporting to JPEG, all other things being equal) - that is, our export procedure to TIFF is less processor-dependent, but much more disk-dependent. This is understandable - when exporting to JPEG, you also need to compress images into a format with data loss, which takes additional seconds of processor time.

What does all this mean?

a) Use at least two stream exports. This is done simply - select half of the files that you wanted to convert to JPEG/TIFF and Export them. Immediately select the second half and also export to them. Two bars appear at the top, the processor load increases significantly, and the export time is reduced. If there are more than two cores ( senior Core i7), you can try exporting to 3 and 4 streams. On an 8-core system, this allows you to raise CPU load up to 100% and beg for another fifteen percent compared to export in two streams.

b) Using a laptop, export not to the built-in HDD: Either buy a fast external drive (FireWire 800 or Thunderbolt for Mac, USB 3.0 for PC), or replace the built-in HDD with an SSD. This alone, all other things being equal (processor and memory) on a more or less current machine will speed up the process. It’s not a fact, besides, that MacBook replacement from a 2-core processor to a model with a 4-core processor will greatly speed up exports, if you do not use multi-threading and a fast disk.

And now a request to the readers of this blog. If you have time and desire, please compare how much it takes to export 100 RAW images of your camera to JPEG 100% and TIFF 16 bit when outputting in 1 and 2 streams. I would really like to see these numbers in the comments indicating the config.

P.S. If we compare it with the MacBook Pro that I talked about at the beginning, it turns out that with a skillful approach it exports 1000 pictures in 35 minutes, and my desktop in 10. It seems like the difference is one tea party, but I would also remember about the speed of rendering previews 1:1 (it is equal to the column “1 thread, RAMdisk -> RAMdisk”) - it turns out that that computer will cope with the task in 50 minutes (and in reality - more, running up against the access time to the terrible LR database), mine in 15. It turns out to be a net saving of 1 hour only on the import-export of one small photo shoot. And if you add Photoshop filters and the rest, then... the difference is striking, of course. This is me not because MacBooks are bad, but because desktops still make sense. I calm myself down ;-)

1. Iron.

Probably the most important thing. Lightroom loves more powerful computers. But most important parameter is RAM. The more RAM, the faster LR will work. Based on my observation, I found that it loads into the RAM the entire catalog of photographs with which you are in this moment you are working. That is, if you have imported a catalog with 1000 photos, some of these photos will be kept in RAM. Depending on the size of the source files, the amount in memory may vary. This is precisely what causes one of the brakes in Lightroom when you select the last photo in the list. It frees memory and loads another block with a photo into it.

2. Lightroom Settings

Lightroom settings can be found in the tab: Edit - Preferences

It is important to make two global settings here.

Directory setup

This setting does not particularly affect the speed of operation. Rather, it's about setting up your restful sleep and here's why.

Example: I work as a wedding photographer. I have a lot of footage. One day something bad happened and Windows crashed. The screw was not damaged, but operating system it was necessary to rearrange and preferably from scratch. If I demolished old Windows and installed a new one, then all the information that Lightroom stored in its catalog would be lost forever. Lightroom stores all service information, all history, all presets, all actions with ravs in its catalog. So, in order to somehow be on the safe side, it’s better to put the Lightroom catalog on separate disk. This is done very simply. see pic 1

Rice. 1

The catalog settings are located in the General -Default catalog tab. There you can select one of the suggested locations or set your own.

Do this first - IT'S IMPORTANT!

Cache Settings

In the File Handing tab you can set the Cache value. As you know, there is no such thing as too much cache. See figure 2

Antivirus settings

As practice has shown, correct setting antivirus allows you to speed up Lightroom quite significantly.

You just need to configure your antivirus program to exclude the folders in which you store your RAW files. This action is quite safe, because viruses do not attach to such files. The exception is configured in the antivirus settings. How to do this at Kaspersky can be seen in Figure 3.

Fig 3

This is the basis, so to speak. There are some other nuances, but I haven’t gotten to them yet. If anyone shares, I will be grateful.

I wish you creative success and less delays.

We try for you 24 hours a day and are grateful to you for every repost!

Blog, helpful information and prices for photo services in Kyiv on my new SITE!

www.romanovskaya.com.ua

Failures and errors when working in Adobe programs Photoshop CS4,CS5,CS6 and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom every professional photographer or just a photography lover has encountered a similar problem.

If it swears, gives an error message about stopping work, is buggy and does not work correctly, or after 10 minutes of work Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 5 starts to slow down. In this article, speeding up the work of Lightroom and Adobe Photoshop, I will try to describe the solution to these problems.

If everything is fine with your hardware and you are sure that you have carried out correct installation programs

There are a few objective reasons Why does Lightroom 5 slow down and periodically crash Adobe Photoshop CS6, CS4, CS5.

1.Be sure to follow after loading or deleting a large array in Lightroom 4.5. Catalog optimization in Adobe Lightroom is performed as follows: menu file>optimize. Acceleration if you have not done this operation and the increase in speed will be noticeable immediately.

You can solve the issue quickly and simply - disconnect from the Internet before starting work.

But there is a 2nd effective way be Online, let’s say you watch lessons on and have them running at the same time Adobe editors Photoshop Lightroom and Photoshop CS4,CS5,CS6. The described method has only been tested on Microsoft Windows 7

P.S. When copying this information, a link to the site is required!!!

Sincerely, Veronika Romanovskaya, professional photographer, Kyiv

Tags:

Speeding up Lightroom, Lightroom 4 freezes and slows down, crashes when working in Adobe Photoshop CS6, how to make Lightroom work faster, optimizing the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom catalog, wedding photographer Kiev Veronika Romanovskaya

Professional wedding photographer for a wedding in Kyiv. Photography and video shooting WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHER. Wedding photos in the registry office, wedding. Wedding photographer in Kyiv, shooting your wedding in Kyiv. High-quality wedding photography. Love Story as a gift, professional wedding photographer high quality photo in Kiev, best photographer Kyiv, portrait photography, photographing children and holidays, inexpensive photography, professional photographer for a wedding, wedding photographer, photographer for a holiday, photographer in Kiev, photographer for a wedding, photographer and photography, wedding photo articles, inexpensive wedding photographer, photographer and children, wedding photo, photographer wedding prices, beautiful wedding photos, wedding photographer, wedding photography, how much does a photographer cost for a wedding in Kiev, photographer and wedding photo, wedding dress photo, professional wedding photo Kiev, children's parties, wedding photographer, organizing events, wedding photographer Kyiv, wedding decoration download photo frames Wedding walk with a photographer, beautiful wedding photos in Kiev, Need a photographer for a wedding in Kyiv, photographing newlyweds in Kyiv, the art of wedding photography. Wedding photo in Kyiv, inexpensive wedding photography in Kiev Photographer Veronika Romanovskaya Photographer services Professional wedding photographer for a wedding in Kyiv, wedding photos in the registry office, wedding Wedding photography in Kiev, wedding photographer, inexpensive wedding photographer in Kiev, wedding photos in Kiev, photographer in Kyiv, photographers in Kyiv Veronica Romanovskaya tel. 097-941-05-11 photographer Kiev, wedding photographer in Kyiv, wedding photo wedding photographer, model photographer, professional photographer photography, wedding dress photo, family photographer in Kyiv Veronica Romanovskaya, bright wedding photos, photo retouching Photographer for a wedding in city ​​of Kyiv, in the suburbs of Kiev. Photographer services Kyiv photographer - Kyiv

Like any other program, things sometimes go wrong with Lightroom. It may stop starting, start to slow down terribly, and produce some errors and mysterious messages.

To avoid problems, first of all, don’t do typical mistakes when working with the program, which you can read about in the article ““.

What to do if Lightroom is broken? The main thing is not to panic.

Then - always have a backup copy of the directories. You've probably noticed that Lightroom periodically asks you to back up catalogs. Do you close this window or do what is recommended to you? Maybe it's time to pay attention to the advice before it's too late?

Ideally, in addition to backing up directories, you should make a backup copy of the source files, but with a large number of images, this can become problematic.

But having backup copies of catalogs and sources, you can sleep peacefully. No matter what happens, you won't lose your pictures.

Now let's look at the list of the most typical problems problems arising with Lightroom and what to do about it.

Lightroom won't open

Solution options. Firstly, a banal reboot of the computer. It may be funny, but it helps.

If this does not help, then first of all delete the file with the .lock extension, which is blocking the directory while you are working with it.
In a normal situation, the file is deleted automatically after closing Lightroom. But sometimes, if the work was completed incorrectly, it may remain and interfere with the launch.

Find out more on the website

This file is located in the same place as all the files in the current directory. The default is

• Windows: \Users\[username]\Pictures\Lightroom
• Mac OS: /Users/[username]/Pictures/Lightroom

If there was no .lock file or deletion did not help, try deleting the Lightroom settings file

You need to look for it here:

• On Mac OS X: /Library/Preferences
• On Windows: c:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Adobe\Lightroom\Preferences\

On Windows these are files with the extension .agprefs on Mac - .plist

If the directory still does not open and you have backup copy, try opening it instead of the current directory.

At worst, try completely uninstalling Lightroom and installing it again. In this case, it is advisable to install the latest version.

Lightroom is slow

Optimizing Lightroom performance maximum performance- this is a separate topic. But the main tips are as follows.

Find out more on the website

First of all, try optimizing the File -> Optimize Catalog directory.
Increase the cache size for Lightroom. Also, be sure that there is enough free space on the disk where the cache file is located.
You can find out where the cache is located and change its size in the Edit->Preferences menu (Lightroom->Preferences on Mac) on the File Handling tab

Lightroom is quite demanding on computer resources. Therefore, for speed, close everything unnecessary programs, update lightroom to latest version, and also be sure that with RAM everything is fine on the computer.

Lightroom shows error when exporting

The easiest thing to do is to try restarting Lightroom first. If you are using any plugins that were applied during processing, make sure that the plugins are working correctly.
Do not use unofficial russifiers for Lightroom - no one knows who made them and how. Delete the settings file as described above.

Find out more on the website

Lightroom doesn't show preview or photo itself

First, try deleting the folder with previews of your photos. It is located in the same place as all the directory files. On Windows this is a folder with the directory name and .lrdata at the end, on Mac it is a file with the same name. Try updating your video card driver and monitor profile.

Lightroom is acting strange

There may be a large number of"oddities", but their treatment is mainly carried out using shamanic methods. Check if there is enough space for the Lightroom cache, update your video card drivers and monitor profile, be sure that hard drive and the RAM is fine.

A universal way to solve problems

Don't forget to update Lightroom. As a rule, updates include not only new cameras, as stated in official press releases, but also many bugs found and corrected in the program itself. Therefore, there is a possibility that next update your problem will already be solved.

In addition to this workflow, you can also customize your Lightroom configuration for optimal performance. However, in this article I will focus only on the operating technique, and not on optimizing the program configuration.

Note: Tips and screenshots are provided for Lightroom versions 4.2, but most of the tips apply to older versions as well.

So let's get to the tips:

1. Start with Spot Removal and the 2003 process

The more you work with photography in Lightroom, the more some tools slow down. This is the principle of non-destructive editing. None of your actions changes the original image data, therefore, than more action with the image you produce, so more work for the computer to update the image for real-time viewing as you move the slider or work with other tools.

I find this phenomenon to be most annoying when retouching with the Spot Removal tool. Using it at the end of the work process can be quite disruptive nervous system due to slowness. To solve this problem, I always use the Spot Removal tool first, before applying any other changes. It's much faster and is a bit of a warm-up for more serious editing.

To further improve the performance of the Spot Removal tool, you can change the process version to 2003. This is especially useful if you have an outdated computer. Process version is the algorithm that Lightroom uses to decode an image from RAW format in the Develop module. Various options process also have differences in settings and adjustments, with significant improvements in more later versions. The 2003 process is the base and oldest for Lightroom, hence the fastest. The 2012 process provides much more editing capabilities, but requires significantly more resources from the computer.

You can select the process version on the Camera Calibration tab.

In my work flow, especially for portrait retouching, I start with the 2003 process, do some retouching with the Spot Removal tool, and then move into the 2012 process for the final touch up.

Note: Because process versions are very different, some controls are reset when switching versions. Avoid making changes such as contrast, tone curve, noise reduction, sharpening, etc. in the 2003 process, as you may lose some changes when switching to the 2012 process. Do only retouching with the toolSpotRemoval in the 2003 process, and for other changes switch to the 2012 process.

2. Learn and use Lightroom keyboard shortcuts

The Lightroom interface is quite complex and multi-layered. Therefore, using a mouse or trackpad to get to some menu items slows you down a lot. Use keyboard shortcuts to quickly jump to necessary tools and take the necessary actions.

To quickly display a list of hotkeys for the module you are in, you can go to Help > Lightroom Module Shortcuts or use shortcuts CTRL keys+ / for Windows and CMD + / for Mac.

In addition to this, I recommend also learning Lightroom keyboard shortcuts as you work. That is, when you cannot remember a combination or do not know it, go to the menu, find the corresponding operation, pay attention to the key combination that is assigned to it, try to remember it and use it in further work.

The keys for various processing tools (for example, the Crop tool) are easy to remember using tooltips that appear when you hover your mouse over the tool icon. Place the cursor over the tool, remember the key and use it in your work.

This good ways Learn the Lightroom hotkeys you need to work. Study them in the order that suits you best. There are many shortcuts in Lightroom, but the ones I use most often are:

Switching modules and viewing modes:

E - Single View Mode Loop View
D - Go to Develop module
G - View in mode Grid View

Develop module hotkeys:

\ - before/after view switch
Q - Spot Removal Tool
M - Graduated Filter Tool
K - Adjustment Brush Mode tool
V - switch between black and white and color display mode
W - White Balance Selector Tool
R - Crop tool
SHIFT + CMD + C (SHIFT + CTRL + C on Windows) - copy processing settings
SHIFT + CMD + V (SHIFT + CTRL + V on Windows) - paste processing options

3. Apply Lens Correction at the end of processing.

Lightroom has a library of profiles for many lens manufacturers. It is used in the Lens Correction tool, which corrects optical distortion and vignetting, especially for wide-angle lenses. Sometimes this improves the image, sometimes it doesn't.

If you decide to use Lens Correction for a specific photo, turn it on at the end of your workflow, after you've done all the basic corrections. Many adjustments and tools in Lightroom are slow, such as the Adjustment Brush or Spot Removal when the Lens Correction tool is enabled.

4. Create presets for frequent operations.

In addition to using presets for quick application desired visual effects I also use them to reduce the number of mouse clicks required to access certain elements controls for which there are no hotkeys. This is especially useful for quick change version of the process as indicated in step 1 or switching lens profile correction in the Lens Correction tool.

I mainly use presets to create something like custom buttons for quick control some settings.

To create a preset for processing, do the following:

1. Apply necessary settings to the photo in the Develop module.
2. Go to the Develop menu and select New Preset.
3. In the window that opens, check the boxes next to the settings that you want to write to the new preset.

5. Use smaller files when shooting.

Not all shooting situations will require all 18, 22 or 36 megapixels of your sensor. Depending on the shooting tasks, 10 MP or even less is enough. Your computer will run much faster with smaller RAW files. Personally, I have a hard time with this - when I shoot with a smaller file size, I always feel like something is missing. Of course, you don't always need to use this technique. What are you going to do with the photo? If you don't need it for your purposes full size(for example, publishing on the Internet), select in the camera smaller size RAW file.

I hope you found this article helpful and found at least one tip you can use to speed up your work in Lightroom. Learning photo editing techniques improves your creative eye, which will allow you to shoot more effectively over time. Therefore, a well-organized workflow is essential to your development as a photographer.