Today’s Question: When I have several images of the same scene under the same lighting is there a way to apply the same adjustments in batch at least as a starting point for those photos in Lightroom Classic?
Tim’s Quick Answer: Yes, you can simply select the similar photos and enable the Auto-Sync feature in the Develop module in Lightroom Classic, so all adjustments will synchronize to the selected photos in real time.
More Detail: There are several ways you can batch process images in Lightroom Classic, to apply the same adjustments to several similar images, for example. One of the most efficient options is to enable the Auto-Sync feature for several selected images.
To get started select the images you want to apply the same adjustments to. You can select images from different folders and collections or having filtered the images based on specific metadata criteria, for example. As long as the images you want to synchronize adjustments for are selected on the filmstrip on the bottom panel while you’re in the Develop module, you can synchronize adjustments for those images.
With the images selected on the filmstrip, make sure the Auto-Sync option is active. At the bottom of the right panel you’ll see two buttons, one for synchronization and the other for Reset. If the button on the left says “Auto-Sync”, that means real-time synchronization is already enabled. If it says “Sync”, click the toggle switch on the left side of the button to enable Auto-Sync.
At that point you can apply any adjustments you’d like in the Develop module, and they will be synchronized in real time to all selected images. That even includes advanced features such as masking. If, for example, you use the Sky option for a mask to apply a targeted adjustment, the sky will be analyzed and masked for each image individually. In other words, you’ll get an accurate result for each image even if the horizon was in a different position for each.
While applying your adjustments, you’ll notice that the thumbnails on the filmstrip update for all selected images. When you’re finished, I recommend turning off the Auto-Sync feature by clicking the toggle switch again, just to make sure you don’t inadvertently synchronize adjustments unintentionally if you later select the same images for a different purpose.
