Having been a hobby photographer for 6 years before I decided to purchase Lightroom. I am well aware of what life is like without the software. Editing files in free software like Picassa or iPhoto worked well for me.
But upon purchasing Lightroom I discovered its Publishing Services and exporting became my forever friend. Initially disliking Lightroom as I couldn’t find the Save As option I quickly realized my rookie mistake. It’s easily become a mainstay in my photography workflow and has since helped create a backbone for my business.
This service allows the user to set rules for how the pictures will be exported. For example, once the images are exported from said folder they can be:
- Sharpened (Further sharpened)
- Renamed
- Have quality reduced for size
- Have additional meta data added.
- Receive a watermark
Below are two of my favorite Lightroom Publishing Services and what I commonly use each of them for.
DropBox Plugin
I use DropBox as my cloud based hard drive and love it. It allows me to have my pictures with me wherever I go. And also keeps my hard-drive from getting bogged down by different formats/sizes of the same images.
Most photos end up in 1 of 4 DropBox Plugin folders. Once an image is placed into one of these folders my set rules are applied to said image and the file is exported to the destination. In this case, the destination is my DropBox.
Here is a breakdown of my DropBox Plugin setup:
- Folder 1 contain small images with watermarks and are used mostly for myself. I generally export the photos at 60% quality so Lightroom condenses the image to only a few megabytes. This is not the best for printing, but it works for email sharing and social media sharing if I’m posting lot of photos. The watermark option is selected as well.
- Folder 2 contains small images without watermarks and are used mostly for clients. If a client is mainly interested in sharing their images online and not printing large photos I will send them photos in this manner. The quality is set at 60% but the watermark option is left blank.
- Folder 3 contains large images with watermarks and are used primarily for Instagram/Twitter. I set the quality to 100% and make sure no additional changes are made to the size/quality. With large watermarked images saved in my DropBox I am able to post high quality images anywhere with cell service.
- Folder 4 contains large images without watermarks and are given mostly to clients for printing. I also use this folder to store my images that will be uploaded to micro-stock websites. I ensure meta-data is correct before placing the images in the folder and not altered as part of the export.
Additionally, if the images are re-edited or updated, hit re-publish and they’re updated in DropBox as well.
Imagely Plugin
Additional Lightroom Publishing plugins like Facebook and Flickr make it super easy for Lightroom to export images directly to the app or social media site. But I also use Imagely on my WordPress blog. Which is basically a image management system for Genesis based WordPress sites.
Imagely allows the user to create beautiful galleries to display your photography and even sell them directly though its own eCommerce option.
To make life so much easier, Imagely happens to also have a Lightroom Publishing plugin. This plugin allows images to be uploaded directly to your website’s admin page. Again reducing headaches and saving space on your hard drive.
Once the images are uploaded the user can place the image in the applicable post, page, etc. Although I have found the Imagely plugin isn’t the best for re-publishing photos once they’re updated, this plugin has been a lifesaver.
So, No Save As Option?
As a photographer, if you were ever on the fence about purchasing Lightroom, let it’s Publishing Service be the reason for caving. My workflow has greatly improved and my laptop’s tiny hard drive is happy. I do not regret leaving the Save As option in the dust.
Purchase Lightroom here.
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