Today’s Question: In your Pixology article on lens corrections, at the end you said that you apply this adjustment to every photo you import into Lightroom Classic. Can you explain how you do that?
Tim’s Quick Answer: To apply a profile-based lens correction to all photos on import into Lightroom Classic, you first need to create a preset in the Develop module that includes the adjustment. You can then apply that preset in the Apply During Import section of the right panel in the Develop module.
More Detail: I find it tremendously helpful to apply a Develop preset during import, basically to apply preferred adjustments that differ from the default settings in the Develop module. A preset gives me the flexibility of choosing whether I want to apply a preset during import and which specific preset I want to use.
Start by selecting a sample image in the Develop module. Then turn on the “Enable Profile Corrections” checkbox on the Profile tab of the Lens Corrections section. I also turn on the “Remove Chromatic Aberration” checkbox. From the Setup popup choose “Auto”. You can also apply any other adjustments you’d like to apply during import along with the profile-based lens corrections.
Next, click the plus (+) icon to the right of the Presets heading on the left panel and choose “Create Preset” from the popup menu. In the New Develop Preset dialog enter a meaningful name for the preset in the Preset Name field, so you can select the preset by name, and select the group you want to include the preset in from the Group popup. Then click the “Check None” button to turn off all adjustments. Then turn on the checkboxes for only the adjustments you want to apply during import, such as “Enable Profile Corrections” and “Remove Chromatic Aberration”. When you’ve turned on the checkboxes for the adjustments you want to include, click the Create button.
When importing photos, you can select the applicable preset from the Develop Settings popup in the Apply During Import section of the right panel in the Import dialog. That will cause the selected preset to apply to all imported photos as part of that import process.
Note that the full import process is covered in detail in my lesson “Importing Photos and Videos”, which is the first lesson in chapter two of my comprehensive video course “Mastering Lightroom Classic”. You can find this course on the GreyLearning website here:
https://www.greylearning.com/courses/mastering-lightroom-classic-2023
