P: Ability to lock photos to prevent further editing

[FeedbackCommunityMember]

I'm a relatively newbie to Lightroom and I think it is fantastic.

It does occur to me that pros who have been using Lightroom for a while understand all the issues about selections, settings, copying, pasting, synchronising etc etc.

Like many things in life the people who do things almost as second nature forget what it was like to be a beginner.

The one thing that has surprised me about lightroom is that I cannot find a way of indicating "I am happy with this - I just want to lock it to ensure I don't damage, amend or delete it" through my own incompetence.

[abazizis]

After working with this app for quiet some time now I would like to suggest a function for Adobe to consider...

1. Lock Photo. After you made changes to your photo and that is the final Image you want to photo to be. To prevent it from accidental editing there should be a function to Lock the photo. You cannot edit the photo but ofcourse you can Export, Publish and Print the photo. You can also move the photo around the database.. the only thing you cannot do is to change the image of the photo. No preset or editing tools are allow to effect the image.

2. If in later stage you require to change the Image, the user then can Unlock the photo and thus make it availble for further development.

[Greg_Barnett]

If you're looking for a solution right now, take a look at this plugin-

http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-goodies/photosafe

[JW Stephenson]

This has been a feature request for some time for which I fully agree is much needed.  I don't think the referenced plug-in is not quite what you are looking to accompish.  I am sure this feature is on a list somewhere at Adobe, needing to be prioritized, etc.  You should post this suggestion over at the feature request forum to bring the issue current: http://forums.adobe.com/community/lightroom/lightroom_feature_requests.

Jeff

[RikkFlohr]

I would think that a Snapshot called "Final" would be as good a solution. It locks the photo where you want it and lets you continue to play. You can always get back to "Final" or even update "Final" if you chose.

What would a lock on a photo gain you over this approach?

[Miguel Hortiguela]

What a great idea.  I can see how there may be work-arounds, but an obviuous button would eliminate all chance of experiencing an unnecessary scare.

[abazizis]

Rikk,

I am looking at somewhere along the line of stopping accidental edit... Especially if you are using the publishService... I edit a photo... not knowing that I have 60 of the selected and the AutoSync to on position. I end up have to republish all 60 photos. Yes you guessed it, before that I have to browse through all of them to get them back to their published snapshots... Not a pleasant experience.. anyway.. I am thinking of buying my own copy of Lightroom... I like it so much at work and I want to use at home as well.. but Adobe need to clean up some issues soon though...

[RikkFlohr]

So, would that be much more laborious that unlocking 60 individual files? Or, do you plan to select multiple files and unlock them all? What if you select more than you intended and then inadvertently unlock things you didn't mean to unlock? And then edit them?

If your issue is not knowing what is selected before you sync an operation inadvertently, I don't see where a lock that could be overridden by the same mistake is any gain.

But then again, I avoid Auto-sync for just such a reason.

[Miguel Hortiguela]

Now you're just being difficult.  Sure ANYTHING can happen, but what harm  is there in a simple, easily accessible menu option.  One wouldn't need to unlock each of the 60 images individually.  One could select them all and apply the unlock to the group.  And besides, if this feature were added and you don't have the need for it, as there are no doubt countless other examples, then don't use it.  Simple, everyone is happy.

[Rikk_Flohr]

difficult? no. Honest-yes. Right?  Who can say?

[abazizis]

Well the reason to have it benefit some of the users. But if you don't need it just don't use it :)... I atrongly believe that this locking features will be an excellent addition to the many functions already in Lightroom...

[areohbee]

ChangeManager

[Ian Lyons]

Rob

Instead of dragging up an old thread it would be more useful to you and others going forward if you posted a NEW message with the title prefixed by ANON:

Also, add a description of what the plug-in does to the body of the message. That way the forum search engine has chance of finding the thing when folk go looking.

[areohbee]

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/773502

Thanks again,

Rob

[RikkFlohr]

It would also be useful to me-not to receive a total of 8 email notifications on this thread and its derivatives.

[abazizis]

Awesome plugin Rob.. This one really have potential.. I would test it out with my catalog...

[areohbee]

abazizis,

I think you are one of the proponents I was hoping to notify once this plugin was done - I dont keep track very well...

Anyway, the truth is, I would have found it more useful before Adobe added the export w/date line to the edit history. Since I always export after edit, it has served as my "lock state" memory.

Still, you have to know which photos to look at to see if they've changed, and you have to correct 1-by-1, so this plugin still serves a valuable purpose to me. Snapshotting can also be a partial solution, and the "snapshotter" plugin allows you to snapshot in bulk, but it still does not allow you to find all the changed photos, nor revert to snapshotted state, more less to see what all has changed and whether it was on purpose...

Anyway, one of the things still to-do is to put all changed photos in a collection, instead of just logging the changes, to make it easier to inspect changed photos.

Let me know how it goes (personal messages OK).

PS - Perhaps I give them too much credit, but I'm still imagining Adobe will come up with a solution to this in Lr4, so I'm reluctant to put much more effort into it right now. Maybe most people dont make mistakes like us ;-}

Rob

[Gene_McCullagh]

Great suggestion!

In the meantime take a look at Jeffrey Friedl's Photosafe plugin for LR. It will "protect you from yourself" LOL

http://regex.info/blog/lightroom-good...

[areohbee]

I went to a huge amount of trouble to implement a locking plugin, but native support would be better.

Jeffrey's plugin only protects you from deletion - my problem is with inadvertent edits. ChangeManager is my present solution, but it leaves something to be desired.

The main problem with change manager, is that it can't stop changes from being made, it can only detect that they have been made after the fact.

[Guest]

Thanks Rob,

It does go a long way towards what I need but I see why you say native support would be better

Pete

[ratz2]

Mark a photo as the FINAL version.
A way to differentiate a photo as the final version which is being used in a project.

[J453]

Pat, can't you use a custom color or keyword as metadata to do this?

[ratz2]

Yes I know you can and maybe I'm just being to obsessive. I was just wanting something to make it REALLY stand out but maybe I just need to be content with whats available. 🙂

I had also thought it might be nice to be able to assign file types to automatically be a certain color. Example any photo that is a .tif would automatically set to Red. But I guess I'll start a new idea for that 🙂

[ratz2]

Yes I know you can and maybe I'm just being to obsessive. I was just wanting something to make it REALLY stand out but maybe I just need to be content with whats available. 🙂

I had also thought it might be nice to be able to assign file types to automatically be a certain color. Example any photo that is a .tif would automatically set to Red. But I guess I'll start a new idea for that 🙂

[Ian Lyons]

Jeff,

Using keywords and/or colour labels to denote that a photo is final isn't really the best use of either.

Also, I think this request should be read along with the earlier request re a lock feature. A badge denoting the image is locked is as good a way as any to indicate that the editing phase has probably reached completion. At least, that's how many Bridge users operate.

[Ian Lyons]

Jeff,

Using keywords and/or colour labels to denote that a photo is final isn't really the best use of either.

Also, I think this request should be read along with the earlier request re a lock feature. A badge denoting the image is locked is as good a way as any to indicate that the editing phase has probably reached completion. At least, that's how many Bridge users operate.