Believe it or not, sometimes I actually enjoy reading the names of the Adobe Lightroom folks as I wait for Lightroom to start, because I know some of these folks and appreciate what they do.

After a couple times, though, I’m ready for something new, so I now display photos:

It is relatively easy to change Lightroom 5’s splash screen — it just involves dragging one or more JPEG photos into a particular folder. If you put more than one photo in the folder, Lightroom will display a different photo each time you open the program. (Note that you cannot change the flash screen in previous versions of Lightroom.)

Here’s how to change your Lightroom 5 splash screen:

• Export JPEG copies of each photo you would like to use. Put your photo(s) in a temporary folder for now, and size them to 900 pixels by 600 pixels. I put mine in a subfolder on my Desktop. Here are the settings I use in the Export dialog:

• In the menu bar in the top left of Lightroom, go to Edit (PC) or Lightroom (Mac) > Preferences.
• On the General tab, make sure “Show splash screen during startup” is checked.

 

 

• On the Presets tab, if Store Presets with Catalog is checked, uncheck it.

• In this Preferences dialog, click on the Show Lightroom Presets button. This will open up Windows Explorer or Mac Finder with a Lightroom folder highlighted, that stores presets and more.
• Open the Lightroom folder, and then open the Splash Screen folder within it.

UPDATE: If there is no Splash Screen folder, create one and open it.

• Drag your photo(s) from where you exported them into this Splash Screen folder, and then close Windows Explorer / Mac Finder.
• Back in Lightroom, if Store Presets with Catalog was previously checked, check it again. (If it wasn’t, don’t.)
• Close the Preferences dialog.
• Close and Reopen Lightroom, and enjoy your new flash screen(s)!

The splash screen I am displaying these days is a picture of my cat Sunny, who died recently after 19 years. Seeing her is a wonderful way to start my Lightroom day!

[sc:signup]