"Please Fix Lightroom"

[stingray]

I just came across this video clip by Tony and Chelsea Northrup, requesting Adobe to ......    "Please Fix Lightroom"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCbzgKleBpM&feature=youtu.be

The video clip has prompted me to consider what I would like to prioritise.

1. Remember the image I last viewed / editied in each folder.  I do not want to search thru 1000 images each time. Basic usability.
2. Please give us a basic Book module so I can place images and text where I want on a page, thus  avoid creating intermediate files for round trips to InDesign.
3. Allow me filter by Date and File Type on Import.
4. It would be nice to lock an image from further processing and be able to use this flag in searches and smart collections.

I can think of lots more.

[stamper]

If everybody's wishes were incorporated into the program then it would become over bloated to the point of impossible to use and would be very expensive to purchase. This type of thread is a regular recurrence on the forum and achieves very little. One wonders why you started this thread.

[jrp]

TN is suggesting that most of the modules -- Book, SlideShow, Print, Web -- be dropped/reworked (as they are based on a 199x view of the world).

[john beardsworth]

a 199x view of the world

What does that mean in English?

[Mark D Segal]

And the title is misleading. This is not about fixing anything; it's about "feature requests", which can be made through the appropriate forum on the Adobe website:  Feature requests.

[Mark D Segal]

What does that mean in English?

Good question - from what I found, I think one needs an immersion in games culture to understand it - there may be no simple translation into English as we normally use it! I'll continue enjoying the Lightroom Modules as they are, because they are well documented in English, reasonably intuitive and do their jobs very well indeed. :-)

[john beardsworth]

And the title is misleading. This is not about fixing anything; it's about "feature requests", which can be made through the appropriate forum on the Adobe website:  Feature requests.

One FR sprang to mind while watching the video - an Auto Fake Tan tool. Applies or removes tan with a single click. Or have I missed it?

[stingray]

1. I used "Please Fix Lightroom" in the title because that was the title TN used for his video. Note that I used quote marks.


2. I also agree that we do not want bloatware. We need refinement, using the structure and features that already exist.  There are years of good suggestions on Adobe forums, which would significant improve usability, do not require major effort, which have been completely ignored.

If you look at the suggestions I made, they are all refinements of existing functionality.

I am not agreeing or disagreeing with the specific points TN has made, but I am pleased he has made the effort to put his perspective forward.

[Mark D Segal]

  There are years of good suggestions on Adobe forums, which would significant improve usability, do not require major effort, which have been completely ignored.

Sure. There is only so much application development per year that even Adobe can manage, in a context where decisions need to be made taking many technical, usability and market factors into account. It's inevitable that some ideas will be adopted and many others not.

[pegelli]

More click-bait from TN. Just as useful (not) as the rest of his videos.

[stingray]

Sure. There is only so much application development per year that even Adobe can manage, in a context where decisions need to be made taking many technical, usability and market factors into account. It's inevitable that some ideas will be adopted and many others not.

I agree ... but the key word is Manage.  It is difficult to remain patient when we have to endure situations such as the disastrous Import module debacle,  which displayed a total lack of understanding and ability to deliver real user needs. That is the core of my frustration with Adobe and this goes beyond Lightroom.

I am slightly encouraged, for example, by the hint of an improvement in performance in the last point release and keep hoping we will see light at the end of the tunnel.

[Mark D Segal]

I agree ... but the key word is Manage.  It is difficult to remain patient when we have to endure situations such as the disastrous Import module debacle,  which displayed a total lack of understanding and ability to deliver real user needs. That is the core of my frustration with Adobe and this goes beyond Lightroom.

I am slightly encouraged, for example, by the hint of an improvement in performance in the last point release and keep hoping we will see light at the end of the tunnel.

They listened, they fixed the so-called "debacle" and it's history - to forget about. The latest CC update is superb, there is no tunnel, but there is Light :-) Let us enjoy what we have; there will surely be more to come. Never forget the wisdom of the late Alfred E. Neuman - "Me Worry?" More important things in this life are "disastrous", so let us view things in due proportion. 

[jrp]

As he says in the video a 1990s view of the world means that you show people slideshows of your work, upload html-based web pages to show off your work.

He is asking for fewer, better executed features, in the main.

The current update has some performance tuning, but at the expense of memory use.

[fdisilvestro]

More click-bait from TN. Just as useful (not) as the rest of his videos.

+1

[Tim Lookingbill]

1. Remember the image I last viewed / editied in each folder.  I do not want to search thru 1000 images each time. Basic usability.

Never thought of hunting for previously viewed/edited images which forced me to hunt for this in CS5 Bridge since LR4's "File" menu only lists Export/Import options through the Catalog system.

In Bridge's "File" menu it lists it as "Open Recent" but not "View" with a side menu arrow showing the image's file number which doesn't help jog my memory on what that looked like.

I never realized how useful a feature that would be trying to remember an image I previously edited out of the 100's of folders in my Picture folder. But now on further investigation I can see how impossible it would be to make it work seeing you'ld have to have a thumbnail representation of what I would be looking for.

File name numbers don't help.

[john beardsworth]

What does that ["199x"] mean in English?

As he says in the video a 1990s view of the world means that you show people slideshows of your work, upload html-based web pages to show off your work.

Ah, 1990s makes sense. Like Mark, I had googled "199x" and found gaming references that meant nothing. But for everyone who dismisses these features, there are many more who use them. Slideshows - well, only yesterday I was coaching someone who needs to use it for a job. HTML - very frequently used, and the presenter failed to distinguish between Lr1 and the new HTML5 galleries apart from "that looks nice" and so couldn't even make the point that Adobe had replaced the very 200x era, sorry 2000s Flash galleries.

I do actually agree with a lot of his points, but there's plenty that's contentious, at best.

[stingray]

Never thought of hunting for previously viewed/edited images which forced me to hunt for this in CS5 Bridge

This happens to me regularly.  Say I am editing images in a folder with several hundred images ... say a model.  I am looking for an image to suit a particular need. I am aware I shot the same model (or landscape or subject) last year some time.  I navigate back and find the folder from last year. Navigate through the alternative folder. Find the previous set of images. Decide they do not suit. Now I have to navigate back to my previous folder. Once I find it I have to start searching again for the image I was working on. Lots and lots and lots of clicks.

In all browsers we have Back and Forward buttons that allow us go back to previous pages. Why not have something similar in Lr. However, if we click on a folder then the last image which had the focus in that folder is presented. Get the computer to do what they are good at (ie the boring, repetitious stuff).

I do actually agree with a lot of his points, but there's plenty that's contentious, at best.

And that is a valid and healthy perspective. The more input the better the output.

[pegelli]

The more input the better the output.

Agree, but input in the right place might even be better and certainly more productive.

[john beardsworth]

Agree, but input in the right place might even be better and certainly more productive.

Sometimes though putting in feature requests reminds me of Kafka's (very) short story Before the Law....

[stingray]

Sometimes though putting in feature requests reminds me of Kafka's (very) short story Before the Law....

Excellent reference, very thought provoking and open to many interpretations. Thanks for the link.

One view might be that "the Law" is Adobe, the Gatekeeper is their Marketing Department  and "the man from the country" is the Customer.

Of course another view might be that the Gatekeeper is the customer, because without the customer there would be no Adobe.