Using Lightroom to Meet UUACPC File Specifications


The local Upper Uwchlan Area Community Camera Club (UUACPC) presents members photos at its monthly meeting. UUACPC has very specific requirements for image dimensions and file names. One of my personal rules to live by includes, “if you have to do the same thing more than twice, consider automating it”. This post describes a Lightroom Export Preset which you can easily reproduce or download from the bottom of this post.

Usage

Metadata

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The preset depends on you having filled in the Metadata for Creator and Title. I do this as normal practice for all of my photos (automatically). The Creator and other copyright/ownership metadata gets set by a Metadata Preset I use when I import photos into Lightroom. I have a script that copies the filename to the Title very early in my workflow, but the images that rise to the level of showing to others usually get a custom hand-crafted Title. I mean if you are going to show it, then show it off.

When I want to submit a photo to show off for review, I select it in Lightroom and click-on Export. From the Export File dialog, I use the “Desktop: UUACPC” preset. Then I fill in the Custom Text field with the appropriate value consisting of the submission type and two digits for the month. For instance, the monthly theme use Theme and for February use 02 , e.g. Theme02. For my favorite of the month, Fav02. For the Straight Shooter, SS02 or pSS02 for the new phone submission type. Hankin Library submissions get two digits for the year, Q for quarter and a single digit for the quarter number, e.g. 16Q1. I use AnnualShow for the Annual Show.

Enter this value in the Custom Text: field (red box in sample below). You will see a preview of file name (orange box below). When you click Export button, a dialog will will appear prompting you where to save the file. Once Lightroom completes the export the File Explorer in Windows or Finder on a Mac will open to the folder, selecting the exported image. You are now ready to upload or email the file.

ExportDiag1

 

More Details

ExportDiag2

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You can customize this preset and make it your own. Either start from the download below or build it from scratch.

If you do not want to be prompted where to store the file each time, then one variant would be to put the exported file in a specific folder on your desktop each time. In the Export Location you can Export To a Specific Folder. Use the Choose button to navigate to something like your Desktop and Put in Subfolder of your liking.

You can also see the File settings create a JPEG with the sRGB color space, and an Image Size suitable for the UUACPC website. If the specifications ever change, this would be where you fix it and forget it.

FilenameTemplate

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File Naming Templates

Lightroom allows you to create file naming templates for use when Importing or Exporting files. This preset uses UUACPC_name, which you can refine or improve, click on the dropdown menu and select “Edit..”.  The dialog essentially allows you append the value from various data fields, your own character stings or a place to enter custom text dynamically.

Download the Preset

I encourage you to use the screen shots here to build your own Export Preset, it is not as hard as you may think. You can also click-on download my Desktop-UUACPC.zip. Unzip the download to get the file Desktop-UUACPC.lrtemplate.

In Lightroom select the menu to edit its Preferences. In that dialog select the “Preferences” tab (second from the left usually) and click on the button that says “Show Lightroom Presets Folder …”. This will open  File Explorer on Windows or Finder on Mac, double-click to open the Lightroom folder, then open the “Export Presets” folder, and open “User Presets” folder inside of that. This is where you should put the unzipped Desktop-UUACPC.lrtemplate file. Once you close and restart Lightroom, the new preset should appear in your Export File dialog.

Important Update

The zip file now also contains the file UUACPC_name.lrtemplate. This file also goes in the Lightroom preset areas. The file UUACPC_name.lrtemplate gets copied to the “Filename Templates” folder, which is at the same folder level as “Export Presets” in the Lightroom folder.

In summary the files in Desktop-UUACPC.zip. get copied into the Lightroom preset folders.

Desktop-UUACPC.lrtemplate goes into “Export Presets/User Presets” folder

UUACPC_name.lrtemplate goes into “Filename Templates” folder