Lightroom 7.3

[DP]

It sounds like each new profile can consist of some of all of the following,
 - Camera Raw Profile

no, it does not "consist of" of it - it contains a reference (by name) to a dcp profile

[Chris Kern]

If you are interested in a high level overview of how an image is rendered from raw you can find a short article here.

Excellent explanation.  Clear, and just the right amount of information for someone like me who wants to understand the raw conversion process but doesn't need the level of detail necessary to actually write the code to implement it.  Thanks for posting the link—and, of course, for writing the essay in the first place.

[DP]

Excellent explanation.  Clear, and just the right amount of information for someone like me who wants to understand the raw conversion process but doesn't need the level of detail necessary to actually write the code to implement it.  Thanks for posting the link—and, of course, for writing the essay in the first place.

except ACR/LR do somewhat differently than described in that article... for example Jack needs to put a note about the workflow indicating that some converters (ACR/LR) do demosaick before WB (that's why linear DNG exists)

[Mark D Segal]

As John said, this isn't new to 7.3, so nothing to stop you upgrading. In fact, I think it's been going on intermittently since 7.0, but it's only just been identified in the last few weeks, too late to get a fix into 7.3. It may only affect a very small number of people, but it's a serious issue for those it does affect, and very easily prevented, so just worth erring on the safe side.

Thanks Victoria, and I, as well as many others no doubt, appreciate your "heads-up" and the suggested workaround. However, the generic question it raises is why, if this were a known issue a couple of dot versions back, it was not by now corrected. One of the headline features of the subscription model approach was to have been more real-time flexibility to fix problems and get the solutions out to customers. Or did the decision-makers on the Lightroom team give this problem very low priority because it's a low impact problem in terms of numbers affected. Would be interesting to know how they prioritize new features and bug fixes.

[DP]

Thanks Victoria, and I, as well as many others no doubt, appreciate your "heads-up" and the suggested workaround. However, the generic question it raises is why, if this were a known issue a couple of dot versions back, it was not by now corrected. One of the headline features of the subscription model approach was to have been more real-time flexibility to fix problems and get the solutions out to customers. Or did the decision-makers on the Lightroom team give this problem very low priority because it's a low impact problem in terms of numbers affected. Would be interesting to know how they prioritize new features and bug fixes.

one good reason to separate DAM and raw converter, despite certain conveniences of an integrated solution... eggs in different baskets - $0.02

[DP]

One of the headline features of the subscription model approach was to have been more real-time flexibility to fix problems and get the solutions out to customers.

please, you certainly understand that reason was for Adobe to ensure the cash flow on a regular basis... why repeat the marketing "headline" BS ? technically nothing prevents software developers to release you upgrades just in time for any pay model...

[digitaldog]

Mark, LRs backup is IMHO lame and half baked, not that it should not be fixed. I haven’t used it from day one because I back up everything and to multiple locations. The idea of only backing up the catalog is not a sound back up strategy. Upgrade and turn the feature, if I can be so kind, off.

[Mark D Segal]

Mark, LRs backup is IMHO lame and half baked, not that it should not be fixed. I haven’t used it from day one because I back up everything and to multiple locations. The idea of only backing up the catalog is not a sound back up strategy. Upgrade and turn the feature, if I can be so kind, off.

I don't want to hijack the thread - but maybe this is relevant insofar as back-up strategy is part of any application version upgrade. For Lr, what is there outside the catalog that needs backing up? I was under the impression that the catalog contains everything Lr except for the raw files themselves, which the catalog only references back to their storage location. One of the most basic functions necessary to work the application is the catalog, so catalog corruption is something to really avoid as much as one can control it. I do back up my whole computer every night using CCC, but that's for clean-up after a major crash. I was hoping the Lr catalog back-up would be sufficient to deal with replacing a corrupted catalog, is it not? Otherwise what's the point?

[Mark D Segal]

please, you certainly understand that reason was for Adobe to ensure the cash flow on a regular basis... why repeat the marketing "headline" BS ? technically nothing prevents software developers to release you upgrades just in time for any pay model...

Not everything depends on "technically". We don't live in their boardroom and we aren't entitled to more commercial information than what they say in their annual 10-K submissions to the SEC, which has been interesting on this particular subject. This is a rabbit hole I won't explore with anything more than that.

[john beardsworth]

Thanks Victoria, and I, as well as many others no doubt, appreciate your "heads-up" and the suggested workaround. However, the generic question it raises is why, if this were a known issue a couple of dot versions back, it was not by now corrected.

Mark, it was only recently shown to be an issue. To use Victoria's expression "I think it's been going on intermittently since 7.0, but it's only just been identified in the last few weeks". You see this kind of issue in isolation and you can easily think it's insignificant, maybe only a local problem. And a lot of more savvy users will rely on their own backups and not encounter/report the issue.

John

[john beardsworth]

For Lr, what is there outside the catalog that needs backing up?

Apart from the lrcat file, remember all your presets and templates in the Application Support folder, or in the same folder as the catalogue if you have chosen that option.

There's some value in backing up the previews folders, ie the time to rebuild them. Not enough in my view.

A similar argument can be applied to the smart previews folders, but maybe it's stronger since they provide some safeguard against catastrophic loss of originals and their backups. Again, not enough in my view.

John

[digitaldog]

I don't want to hijack the thread - but maybe this is relevant insofar as back-up strategy is part of any application version upgrade. For Lr, what is there outside the catalog that needs backing up?

Your images. Your presets. Your profiles. Maybe you want to back up your previews (you can regenerate them but that will take a long time). You want to back up EVERYTHING. 

[digitaldog]

Apart from the lrcat file, remember all your presets and templates in the Application Support folder, or in the same folder as the catalogue if you have chosen that option.

My presets are stored with the catalog. Makes cloning that to other drives that are used on other machines much easier to deal with. All that other stuff scattered over the HD is an Adobe mess (but they are not alone). They could if so desired store everything pertinent in the catalog like presets and I think they should. This again illustrates Adobe's idea of backing up is lame and nearly worthless unless you're a computer use who has no idea you should back up lots of other data. And if you do, you hardly need their single backup of a catalog. Adobe has really no business giving it's users an idea knows how to backup data.

[Mark D Segal]

Mark, it was only recently shown to be an issue. To use Victoria's expression "I think it's been going on intermittently since 7.0, but it's only just been identified in the last few weeks". You see this kind of issue in isolation and you can easily think it's insignificant, maybe only a local problem. And a lot of more savvy users will rely on their own backups and not encounter the issue.

John

Yes, I agree with you that there are other back-up solutions. But let's look at the logic of the argument here. Victoria thinks it's been happening intermittently since 7.0, but it's only been identified in the past few weeks (by who - presumably Adobe?). If Victoria thinks it has been happening since 7.0, how is it that whoever you mean here (Adobe perhaps?) only identified it in the past few weeks? The passive voice is seldom an aid to understanding a sequence of events. Did Victoria keep it a secret all this time? That's not like her. And exactly who is it that sees this kind of issue as local and insignificant? Are you talking about Adobe? Does it make sense to take this position unless they actually check it out to be sure of that? Obviously there is some discomfort from an application perspective as Victoria tells us the matter is now being addressed with some urgency. There are so many systems and configurations out there, quite possibly some are doing things that deserve to be fixed at the application level? If that's the case, so be it, we now know about it, what to do about it and depending on the cause, may be fixed. It's a complex business and mistakes can happen. What matters is that they are identified and fixed, which Adobe usually does. No need to dance around over it. The context of my initial observation is that this is an example of why I like to wait a while before adopting the latest updates - but I appreciate the updates and Adobe's ongoing commitment to improving the application. Other people are eager to be early adopters, and thank goodness for that - they do the rest of us a great service.

[Mark D Segal]

My presets are stored with the catalog. Makes cloning that to other drives that are used on other machines much easier to deal with. All that other stuff scattered over the HD is an Adobe mess (but they are not alone). They could if so desired store everything pertinent in the catalog like presets and I think they should. This again illustrates Adobe's idea of backing up is lame and nearly worthless unless you're a computer use who has no idea you should back up lots of other data. And if you do, you hardly need their single backup of a catalog. Adobe has really no business giving it's users an idea knows how to backup data.

Thanks Andrew and John, yes that makes sense - forgot about the previews and presets; anyhow, I do back-up my whole computer every night with CCC.

[john beardsworth]

But let's look at the logic of the argument here. Victoria thinks it's been happening intermittently since 7.0, but it's only been identified in the past few weeks (by who - presumably Adobe?). If Victoria thinks it has been happening since 7.0, how is it that whoever you mean here (Adobe perhaps?) only identified it in the past few weeks? The passive voice is seldom an aid to understanding a sequence of events.....

The passive voice has its uses.... In hindsight, one was hearing about the problem a while ago, but I only recognised the pattern a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't say when Adobe reached a similar view, but I don't believe it was much earlier.

John

[Mark D Segal]

The passive voice has its uses.... In hindsight, one was hearing about the problem a while ago, but I only recognised the pattern a couple of weeks ago. I couldn't say when Adobe reached a similar view, but I don't believe it was much earlier.

John

OK, we've exhausted that one I think! Cheers.

[john beardsworth]

OK, we've exhausted that one I think! Cheers.

Getting back to 7.3, the new preset & profile mechanism does slightly worsen the problem about what needs backing up. Previously all presets and templates were buried in the Application Support folder (I use a symbolic link to put it on Dropbox), or stored with the catalogue if you prefer that option. Now though, Develop presets and profiles are tucked in a settings folder shared with Camera Raw, and people will want to ensure those are backed up too.

[digitaldog]

On my Mac the new profiles I just purchased from Matt K are to be installed under:

Macintosh HD/Users/my machine name/Pictures/Lightroom Settings/Settings

There's now a slew of folders with profiles:
/Library/Application Support/Adobe/CameraRaw
Like John, the best solution I've found is making a symbolic link to wherever you wish to quickly find and backup those important files. For me, in the folder with the LR catalog and all other important items.
And while on the subject of profiles and LR, we really, really need a search criteria for Smart Collections to find specific images that have used specific profiles!

[john beardsworth]

Macintosh HD/Users/my machine name/Pictures/Lightroom Settings/Settings

That's interesting, Ron. I don't think it's a standard location or documented. Try right clicking a regular preset and going to the presets folder in Finder. Is there anything related to these profiles in that folder too? An alias or something?

I'd definitely hold off on purchasing profiles, if you buy them at all.