How do you speed up the time you are editing? As much as I love editing, I also like taking photos. This article will go over ways to save seconds, minutes and hours of your time editing. We will be looking at hardware, synchronizing folders, building previews, export settings and more.
Hardware
I think it is important to understand the requirements of lightroom.
RAM and video graphics, and hardware space are the main components for a fast lightroom experiences
RAM- Dual programming
- Stores catalogs, previews and current edits
- Helps switch between images and batch processing.
RAM is in 4GB increments. 8GB RAM would have a slower, process for RAW Files
16 GB is great for hobby use
32 GB is perfect for photographer
64 GB is great for large projects , HDRS, or using other heavy adobe apps like photoshop, lightroom or after effects
Raw will give you smoother multitasking.
GPU - Video Graphics Card
- Allows for zooming, panning and using brushes
- Allows for applying AI masks
Hardware space
Lightroom uses previews and caches
Affects how fast previews load
- HDD- Hard Drive mechanical, often noticeably slower then SSD. Slower previews
- SSD - Faster catalogs and previews
- NVMe SSDS- Fast exports and previews, fastests
Recommendation
Macbook Pro M4 https://support.apple.com/en-us/121552
Synchronizing Folders
One of the fastest ways that I work is through sychronzing folder.
My current setup looks like this
User > Photos > 2025 (year) > Month / Project / subfolder (if any)
Depending on where I import from my SD card, usually on the month level I can synchronize the folder. This imports the NEW photos
Steps to Access the folders panel and synchronize folder
- Open lightroom - Make sure you’re in library module
- Locate left panel, Press tab to toggle panels
- Find folder sections under catalog
- Expand the folder that you want to import from (usually you have to import something first from this folder)
- Right click on the folder and click Synchronize folder
You will see this pop up.
Important new photos - will tell you the exact amount of new images that you will import
Show import dialog before importing- Allows for popup dialog if you have to deselect anything, change meta data etc.
Scan for metadata updates- adds on new meta data if changed.
Hit synchronize
Now in the catalog menu you will have access to “Previous Import” only the photos you just imported.
No need to hunt for your images on go into each folder.
Building Previews
Always on import I build 1:1 previews. Previews allow you to see an image without seeing a full RAW image or a large scale image. Great for selecting images and rating them. In my editing process I go through images and select the ones that I like and rate those and edit only those.
Previews allow my system to breeze through them easier without getting stuck or loading.
How to build previews on import
- In the import dialog look for file handling
- Choose the preview. I use 1:1 previews, often slower but less waiting later
How to build previews after
- Go to the library module
- Select images or the entire folder
- Go to Library > Preview
- Choose build 1:1 Previews, smart previews or standard sized previews.
Export Settings
Having an export plan is also very important. When you export File>Export you will be brought to this window. This window is your starting point.
The main things to keep track of are Export Location, File Naming, File Settings and Meta Data.
Lets go through top to bottom
Export to - You will select Hard Drive.
Export location will be choose folder later – This is the setting I use because often times I’ll go from session to session with different export areas. Dumping them in one can be cumbersome for finding them later.
Specific folder lets you have a static area to place your folder
Same folder as original photo will export where they are imported from.
Choose folder later- again useful for later..
File Naming
I usually leave this the same, when I have time I edit the name in lightroom and export under that name for SEO reasons.
File settings
This one is important. JPEG quality should be 100. You should not be limiting file size here if you want the max export.
Meta data
Include all meta data.
My recommendations is after finishing these settings to save it as a preset.
Next select a photo and hit file> export with previous. This will use the current export settings and allow you to quickly select the folder you want to export to , and you’re done! No second dialog.
Bulk Editing
Creating a faster editing process can include using presets. Usually what I do is find the best photos from the set and then find a base image that has the same lighting as the surrounding photos.
From the base photo I copy and paste the presets using ctrcl shift c and ctrl shift z to the other photos.
You can select multiple photos to past presets or lighting effects to.
Additionally lightroom has a sync setting to sync one or more settings at a time.
Make sure you select ALL or deselect ALL that you need including masking/masks.
Meta Data
Bulk meta data is super helpful for tracking your images across the web. When you add meta data your images will be tagged. It is worth while looking into this. I will not go through it in this article however.
Conclusion
These are some ways that I have saved hours overtime as a photographer. Often I always expect to wait a few minutes to import, so building previews a head of time allows me to go right into selecting images.
My own computer is built on the idea to use it for smooth editing with the hardware above. Having a solid way to speed up your lightroom workflow allows you to do more with your time and always for a better experience. Please check out how to be creative on the go, this includes the cloud services I use to deliver client files after export.
