Lightroom MagazineALL IMAGES BY SCOTT KELBYLIGHTROOM MAGAZINE › ISSUE 62Q. When I use the White Balance Selector tool, I clickon it in the Basic panel, then click once somewhereon my image, and then it goes back to the Basicpanel. I have to go get it again if I want to try to clickin a different area. Sometimes, I wind up doing thismany times and I can’t imagine that there’s not abetter way. Is this the way it’s supposed to work oram I missing something?A. That feature (and I use that term loosely) where it jumpsback to the Basic panel after just one click is called “AutoDismiss,” and while it’s designed to work that way bydefault, that’s a super-annoying way to work (well, ifyou ask me, and you did, so...). Anyway, here’s how toturn off that feature: When you click on the White BalanceSelector tool, at the bottom of the Preview area,you’ll see a gray horizontal toolbar (if it’s not there, pressthe letter T on your keyboard to make it visible). On theleft side of it, you’ll see an Auto Dismiss checkbox that’sturned on (checked). Just turn off that checkbox andnow the White Balance Selector tool will work like youalways hoped it would.Q. I have a lot of catalogs with a “-2” at the end of theirfilenames. Where do they come from?A. Those are sometimes created when Adobe releasesa major feature update in Lightroom Classic. Theold catalogs will no longer work with the new versionwithout a new, duplicate, updated catalog beingcreated (that’s why it has a “-2” added to the name;it’s the second version of that catalog). So, afteryou update to a new version of Lightroom, and youget that warning screen that says something alongthe lines of “We need to update your catalog to workwith this new version,” what it’s doing is duplicatingand updating your catalog, so now you’re workingwith the latest version of your catalog: the “-2” version.Can you get rid of the old, outdated one? Yup.You can’t use it with Lightroom anymore anyway, andthe new updated version keeps everything intact justlike it was, so you’re safe to dump the old one.Q. I know we’re supposed to keep backup copies of ourcatalog. How many backups do you think we needto keep?A. First, you’re correct, you do need to keep a backup ofyour Lightroom catalog, as it’s not only where all yourimages are sorted, but it holds all your edits, too, soit’s a really important file. How many should you keep?I keep two backup copies (just in case). It’s very rarethat you’d ever need even one, but if disaster strikes,you’ll be glad you have a copy or two (the second oneis because, as I mentioned earlier in this column, I’ma paranoid photographer). There are two reasons fornot keeping more: (1) They take up a bunch of spaceon your computer (I remember the first time I dida house cleaning of all the backups I’d accumulatedover time; I got like 32 gigs of storage back); and(2) if you did have to use a backup catalog, you’d wanta recent one, right? Not one from six months or a yearago. So, back up once every week or so, and you’ll becurrent. Just don’t forget to toss those old backups aftera while. nSend your Lightroom questions to lightroom@photoshopuser.com to have Scott answer them in Lightroom Magazine.64
Things to Learn in Photoshop ® Elements 2020:Scott Kelby’s newest Elements book is designedfor photographers, so it doesn’t waste your timetalking about what a pixel is, how to frame a shot orset your exposure. It’s all Elements, step by step,cover to cover, and you’re gonna love it!Organizing Correcting Editing Sharpening Retouching Printing LIKE A PRO !
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