How to Speed Up Lightroom
Image Credit: jacoblund via iStock
If you've ever lamented a sluggish Lightroom experience, you aren't alone...
As fantastic as Lightroom is, sometimes it feels like it takes longer to do what you need to do in the program than it did to take the series of photos you're trying to edit.
That's where Matt Kloskowski comes in.
Matt is a Lightroom expert and puts his knowledge to good use by sharing some under-the-hood adjustments you can make to Lightroom in his tutorial, shown above.
If you're sick of waiting around on Lightroom to get done what you want it to get done, give his tips for how to speed up Lightroom a try!
I've outlined a few of his tips below for quick reference.
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How to Speed Up Lightroom: Optimize the Catalog
Located under the File menu, Optimize Catalog instructs Lightroom to streamline the catalog for improved performance.
What this means is that Lightroom will examine the underlying data structure and make changes as necessary to ensure that the catalog is as succinct as possible.
This simple move will often result in faster performance, and as Matt notes, it should be done about once a month to maintain that faster performance.
Learn More:
Use Embedded & Sidecar
YouTube Screenshot/Matt Kloskowski
If you have a ton of images to go through, using Embedded & Sidecar can significantly speed up the process.
When you import your images into Lightroom, go to the Build Previews drop-down menu in the upper right-hand corner of the window and select Embedded & Sidecar.
After doing that, click Import.
As the images import, you'll see a badge in the top-left corner of each image. If you place the cursor on that badge, it'll say "Embedded Preview," and if you click that, you can see the preview of the image that was embedded with the RAW file.
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This enables you to view the images you've imported very quickly when in Library mode.
In fact, as Matt demonstrates, you can fly through the images so fast that they look like a movie, though that might not be the most productive way to view your photos.
But the point is that if you want to speed up the process of previewing your images in the Library, use Embedded & Sidecar.
Optimize Your Graphics Card
YouTube Screenshot/Matt Kloskowski
Not all things that cause Lightroom to be slow have to do with Lightroom.
In fact, you might need to do some tweaking to how your graphics card works.
To do so, go to the Preferences Menu and select the Performance tab.
At the top of the menu is a checkbox that says Use Graphics Processor.
Lightroom is optimized to work with certain processors, and if your computer doesn't have one of those processors, having this checkbox checked might reduce performance.
As Matt notes in the video, clicking on the "Learn More" link in the Performance window will take you to the details you need to determine if you should or shouldn't have the checkbox marked.
Learn More:
Wrapping It Up
Image Credit: nicolas_ via iStock
Lightroom is a wonderfully powerful tool for organizing and editing photos.
But as you certainly have discovered, there are times when the process of using Lightroom can be frustratingly slow.
But using these tips for using Lightroom, you can speed up the working experience and make the most of your time editing photos.
Be sure to check out Matt's other tips in the video at the start of the article to learn even more about how to speed up Lightroom.
