Radiant Photo Batch Processing with Lightroom

If you need to process a lot of photos, batch exporting is a huge timesaver. However, you can use this type of workflow for a first-pass client review (such as processing several photos from a wedding or fashion shoot).  Or perhaps you have many images from a real estate or event job that you need to get online right away.

Setup the Export

To create this automated workflow, you need to use Radiant Photo through Lightroom Classic’s Export command.

1. While in the Library mode of Lightroom, select the images that need to be batch processed.
   • You can shift-click to select a range of images.
   • You can hold down the Command key on a Mac or Control on a PC to select multiple images.
   • The use of Collections and Smart Collections can make it easy to organize a group of photos for batch processing.
2. With a range of photos selected, choose File > Export.
   
3. From the Export menu, choose Radiant Photo.
4. Now, let’s set the Radiant Photo controls to guide the export workflow. 
5. First, set the User preset to System Presets. 
   • This command gives you access to the numerous presets that come with Radiant Photo.
   • Choose AI: Radiant Photo Subtle or AI: Radiant Photo Pro to use the Smart Presets.
   • Choose from other Systems or User Presets to access any specific presets.
6. You can speed up the Export by bypassing the Radiant Photo UI.
   • Check the Hide the Radiant Photo window box if you want to export the files directly.
   • Leave this box unchecked if you’d like to modify each image in Radiant Photo before saving.

Choose where to store files.

A batch process is greatly preferred if you’re processing more than a few images.   Because Radiant Photo will automatically analyze each photo pixel by pixel, you can trust that you’ll get a great-looking image without having to adjust each image manually.
 

1. In the Export Location, set the Export to the menu to the Choose folder later option, which is the one most useful for presets.  This way, running the Export will prompt you to choose a location for the new files.
2. If you want the batch exported to come back into your library, just check the box next to Add to This Catalog.  After the batch process is completed, both the original file and the Radiant Photo image can be viewed in the Library view. 
3. To avoid accidentally overwriting any existing files, choose the Choose a new name for the exported files from the Existing Files pop-up menu.
4. You can use the File Naming section to choose from many presets on how to name the exported files.
   The next section controls what type of files are written.  This is where you choose the file type, color space, bit depth, and compression. 
5. For maximum quality (as well as future editing or printing), choose TIFF files with no compression, an sRGB color space, and a bit depth of 16 bits.  A JPEG file works well if you want to export to the web. However, if you want to match the default color of Lightroom and intend to do further edits, you can choose ProPhoto RGB. 
6. Set the Image Format type to JPEG in the File Settings area. 
7. Set the Quality to 80% for a visually lossless file that is still a reasonable upload or download size. 
8. For best results on the web, use the sRGB color space. Do not use ProPhoto RGB for the web, though, as it often leads to unusual color shifts in web browsers.
   

If you’d like to watermark your images for the web, simply use the Watermarking controls at the bottom of the Export workflow. Using the Metadata controls, you can also control which Metadata is written to the file as part of the Exports.