This is a multipart series in a blog series about using Lightroom and the Samsung Frame TV. Check out Part 1 (Lightroom configuration), Part 2 (using ChatGPT for generating an upload script) and Part 3, Lightroom Mobile integration.
I originally bought the Frame TV as a large-format outlet for my photography. The Canon R5 truly takes fantastic pictures that look amazing on a large TV. The Frame TV definitely gets the Canon R5 out of the camera bag and out on the road. As I’ve uploaded more content to the Frame TV, I’ve noticed a few things that are worth an extra blog to share how Lightroom Mobile rounds out my integration of Lightroom and the Frame TV. Lightroom Mobile helps me in a few key ways:
- Making photos available on my phone
- Changing matte colors or sizes
- Correcting incorrect crops
1. Making photos available on my phone
One of the challenges I find with using an SLR camera is that my photographs often don’t travel with me. For example, a few weeks ago I had a great weekend up in Lake Tahoe taking photographs of Sand Harbor State Park. I downloaded all of the photographs into Lightroom and chose a few to add to the Lightroom collection for the Frame TV. While not required to integrate with the Frame TV, syncing the Frame TV collection with Lightroom Cloud keeps a copy of all of the Frame TV-worthy photos on my phone. I can then easily share those photos in conversation rather than missing the moment or using an iPhone snapshot to convey the experience. Photos on my Frame TV represent some of the best and most meaningful photos, and syncing with the Lightroom Cloud means I can carry those experiences with me.
2. Changing the matte colors
After I decide a photo is worthy to be added to the Frame TV gallery, I need to choose a matte color for the photograph. Generally, I’m right about 90% of the time, but sometimes the color I choose doesn’t work well in large format, or it clashes with the photograph itself. I try not to choose black or white for every photo, so it’s natural that these clashes happen from time to time.
I don’t look at every photo on the television after it uploads. I’d rather have a variety of photographs on the television than go through a laborious process making sure that everything is “perfect.” Lightroom Mobile steps in to make changing the configuration on the Frame TV easier. Let’s take a look at the example below. I was experimenting with the matte color burgundy, and it leaked onto a photograph it clearly wasn’t intended for.
To fix it, I pulled up the Frame TV collection in Lightroom Mobile, tapped on the information icon, and chose the metadata section to see the matte color I’d targeted.
Yep, there it is: burgundy. In Lightroom Mobile, I simply change the caption to flexible_sand to choose the more natural gray to accentuate the color of the asphalt in the mountains. While making this change in Lightroom Mobile doesn’t change the TV configuration in real time, it does store the configuration in Lightroom so the next push of photographs will fix the matte color on this one.
3. Spotting incorrect aspect ratios
The Frame TV looks best with photos that have an aspect ratio set to 16:9. The Frame TV honors other aspect ratios, but it often results in large amounts of matte color on the screen, which I find personally distracting. However, sometimes I forget to set the aspect ratio or I choose the wrong photograph to add to the Frame TV collection. Much like with the matte color, I can easily change the aspect ratio inside of Lightroom Mobile to 16:9 and update the Frame TV on the next push of photographs.
As a more proactive option, I can easily scan through the Frame TV gallery on Lightroom Mobile to see any photographs that don’t have the 16:9 aspect ratio. To do so, use the following steps:
- Launch Lightroom Mobile on your phone
- Choose the Frame TV collection
- Pinch and zoom the collection so that only two photographs show in each row
- Scroll through the collection from top to bottom
Any photographs that are not 16:9 will cause the center column to appear “off,” as in the third row in the image on the right. I can then tap that photo, correct the aspect ratio, and then Lightroom Mobile will show a restored centerline.
I could certainly fix either of these items inside the Samsung app on my phone or on the TV directly; however, the configuration only stays with the television. When I reload photographs from Lightroom, those changes will get lost. That’s why it’s important to always keep the changes within Lightroom and make replacing photographs on the TV easy with uploading scripts. All I have to do is delete all of the photos on the TV using the Samsung UI and then re-upload from Lightroom. The entire process takes less than 10 minutes. This check could be done in the Python script as well, but I do have photos that aren’t 16:9 that I don’t want to “error out” every time I upload.
In closing, the more I use the Frame TV, the more I love it. These scripts have profoundly changed the way I use the television, making it easy to add new, high-quality SLR photography and to change the content on the TV for different parties, seasons, or events.
If this blog series has been helpful to you, I’d love to hear from you. Drop me a note in the comments below!
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