Grayscale mode and droplets
Why is it not possible to save tif files in Grayscale Mode from LR?
Because it’s not needed by many people, and I certainly can’t remember when I last needed to do so. Not for years anyway, and there’s much more demand from a group of users for exporting to CMYK, for example.
What’s more those who really need Grayscale Mode are usually those who also have Photoshop and can create an action or droplet:
- In PS, create a new RGB document
- Record an action with one step – Image > Mode > Grayscale
- In PS, File > Automate > Create Droplet
- Save Droplet In should be your computer’s desktop
- In the Play section, point it to your action
- In Destination, choose Save and Close
- In Lightroom, Preferences, Presets, click Show LR Presets folder
- You should now be in Finder/Explorer
- Go into this Lightroom folder and Export Actions
- Move the Droplet from the desktop and into this folder
- Restart LR
- Select one or more pictures
- File > Export
- At the bottom of the Export dialog, notice the Post Processing section
- From its dropdown list, choose your Droplet and click OK
- Run the export
Once the files have been exported by LR, PS should open them, make them Grayscale Mode, and save and close them.
What’s more, any action can be saved as a droplet and run from Lightroom using the same method.
In Photoshop, convert your action into a droplet
In Lightroom, choose your droplet from the Post Processing steps
Hi,
Thanks for this tutorial.
I follow those instructions but at the end of the process Photoshop wants me to select the quality of my jpg through the save window.
Do you have any advise to avoid it ?
It happens after the export. For exemple, I export a jpg or png file from LR. It’ saved as RGB then the droplet opens and change the picture to either Greyscale or CMYK and when PS wants to save it that’s the moment I get the window and have to select the quality and so on.
Thanks
Pierre
It’s a question of experimenting with the action and when you bake the droplet, Pierre. There’s an option to override save settings.
John, could you explain the way you override it ? I haven’t found the way to do it. Thanks
Pierre, in the Create Droplet screenshot above (some boxes have been moved but it’s the same detail) you would need to set the Destination to something like Save and Close, but there are extra complications if your actions contain save steps. That’s why there’s the option to Override Save commands. This is fiddly though. I admit that I get it working for a particular job, and soon forget exactly how I did it! But it’s the interaction of the Destination, save steps in actions, and override.