Today’s Question: You have a video on updating older photos to the latest process version. Why would you not do that? It seems like a periodic housekeeping chore when a new process version comes out.
Tim’s Quick Answer: The only reason not to update all (or many) photos in batch to the latest process version is that doing so can cause a change in appearance for the photos. While that may actually be a good thing in many cases, there are many situations where you may not want the appearance of a photo to change after having previously finalized your adjustments.
More Detail: When you change the process version for a photo, it is very possible that the appearance of your photos may change. In most cases those changes will be very minor, and often the changes may actually improve the appearance of the photos. But sometimes even a change for the better may be problematic.
For example, if you sell prints for some of your best photos, consistency from one print to the next can be very important. You may want to ensure that every print will have an identical appearance to the extent possible. Changing the process version would generally mean that later prints would not match earlier prints, for example.
Again, the differences are generally relatively minor, but in some cases even a small change may be a problem. Some photographers may be perfectly comfortable updating many photos to the latest process version, and then simply reviewing the final results as needed, such as when preparing an image to be shared. Others may prefer to take a more cautious approach, only updating photos that they specifically want to work with in the Develop module to refine the overall appearance.
Note that the lesson that discussed locating (and updating) photos that are set to an older process version is included in my “Lightroom Quick Tips” course. That particular lesson was #93 from April 17, 2019. This course features a new tip every week, and you can get more details on the GreyLearning website here: