By Gavin Seim: Today I want to share a tip that some of you may already be using, but many others have not delved into. It’s called Auto Sync.
Within Lightroom’s Develop Module (D) you can select multiple images in the filmstrip and you’ll see the sync button appear on the bottom of the right panel. You can select the images you wish to sync, and click Sync. It will ask what settings you want to apply, then apply those settings to the selected images. OK so most of us know this already, and while it can be a big time saver there’s still more.
Auto Sync is slightly more hidden, but very useful. With your images selected, hold CNTRL (Win) CMD (Mac) and the Sync button now turns into the Auto Sync button. Click on the Auto Sync button to activate it. It now stays active until you click again to turn it off.
Now edit any of your selected images. You can change settings, apply presets, correct white balance, even crop. The edits are instantly applied to all selected images, without popup or option windows. One cool part is that prior image changes are not effected like a normal sync. Lets say you had three images selected, applied a preset that synced to all three. Then you added two more images to that selection and changed another setting. Only changes made to while an image is selected in Auto Sync would be applied.
You can of course apply global settings in thumbnail grid mode (G) by selecting thumbnails and changing settings, but you’re much more limited than in the Develop module. Auto Sync is a fast easy way to make custom changes groups of images.
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Awesome – when you do the first sync – is it the first image that was clicked that then syncs its settings to the rest? i.e. it becomes the master image effectively?
Caledonia with a std sync the active image would be the master. With Auto Sync however it does not matter.
“One cool part is that prior image changes are not effected like a normal sync. Lets say you had three images selected, applied a preset that synced to all three. Then you added two more images to that selection and changed another setting. Only changes made to while an image is selected in Auto Sync would be applied.”
Like it says only currently selected image are effected by changes made while selected. Previously added settings are not effected. For that you would so a std sync.
Gavin
I always wondered about that Auto Sync – just tried it out what a nice feature!
Thank you for sharing this.
thanks for sharing … saw the “auto sync” button a few times, but never tried it … i guess i will tomorow morning 😉