Mastering Lightroom Book One: The Library Module

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MASTERING LIGHTROOM A PHOTOGRAPHER’S GUIDE TO LIGHTROOM 4 & 5 Book One: The Librar y Module

ANDREW S GIBSON

CONTENTS Introduction Notes

3 5

What is Lightroom? The transition to Lightroom

6 7

Advice to new Lightroom users

9

The workflow advantage Organising Raw files

12 15

Introducing the Lightroom Library module The Lightroom modules Customising the Identity Plate

17 18 23

Getting started: Importing images How Lightroom works: a brief overview Beginning the import

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24 25 26

Using the Library module The power of the Lightroom Catalog Lightroom shortcuts The purpose of the Library module Viewing images The Toolbar View modes Lights out The ‘most selected’ image Searching images Selecting folders or Collections Library filters Rating images

38 39 40 41 43 44 45 53 54 55 57 58 61

The right hand panels The Histogram Quick Develop panel Keywording and Keyword List panels The Metadata panel

98 99 100 101 104

The Lightroom Publish Services Hard Drive Publish Service Flickr Publish Service Facebook, Behance and 500px Koken

106 108 111 113 114

What’s new in the Library module?

116

The left hand panels Working with panels Solo mode The Navigator The Folders panel The Collections panel Putting it together: Importing Raw files Collections and virtual copies Smart Collections The Catalog panel

70 71 72 73 74 75 78 90 92 96

Conclusion Photography ebooks

121 122

INTRODUC TION

There’s no doubt that digital photography is a revolution that has changed the nature of photography as both a hobby and a profession. As digital cameras have come down in price, and the image quality has improved, more and more photographers have made the transition. Now digital photography is mainstream, and film photography is, depending on your viewpoint, either a memory or a niche. One of the benefits that digital photography has brought is ease of processing. Computers, like digital cameras, have become both more powerful and less expensive as the years go by. Now just about anybody can buy a relatively inexpensive computer and software for processing images. For most of us the question has become not ‘Should I post-process my photos?’ but ‘What software is best for processing my images?’

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For many years the answer was simple – Adobe Photoshop. It was the best image editing software out there and most photographers either bought it or (let’s be honest) used a pirated copy. Photoshop was, and still is, great software, but it has two weaknesses. The first is price. The cost is off-putting for many hobbyists who would like to use good software, but find the price of Photoshop prohibitive (or don’t like the licensing model of Photoshop CC). The second is related to workflow. Photoshop was designed from the start as photo editing (and graphic design) software. The first versions were created before Raw files were invented, when hardly anybody owned a digital camera. The need to edit Raw files didn’t exist, and no-one prioritised the task of organising images. Now any photographer who values image quality uses Raw. Adobe Camera Raw, the Raw converter built in to Adobe Photoshop, is very good at what it does. But when it comes to organising and searching images, Photoshop (and Adobe Bridge) are clumsy tools. Software makers have realised there is a better way. They are creating software that is designed from the ground up to organise, search and process Raw files, and is built for photographers not designers. Adobe hasn’t been left behind, and has produced what is probably the most popular program out there – Lightroom. The main benefit of Lightroom is that it addresses the twin weaknesses of Photoshop: price and workflow. Lightroom is relatively inexpensive. Indeed, for all that you can do with it I don’t hesitate to say that it’s the best value software you can possibly buy.

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Lightroom also addresses the issue of workflow. It is much easier and quicker to organise and process your Raw files in Lightroom than it is in Photoshop with Adobe Bridge. I genuinely believe that buying Lightroom is one of the easiest and most cost-effective ways to improve your photography. It will help you realise your vision by letting you process your Raw files in a way that gets the most out of them. But first, you need to get your images organised. This ebook will help you understand how Lightroom’s Library module works and how you can use it to organise and search your images. Believe me there’s plenty to get excited about as you delve into the workings of the Library module. For instance, if you shoot plenty of photos you are probably aware that it takes time to edit them down to the best ones that you want to process. Lightroom has tools to help you do that quickly. Or perhaps you’d like to upload photos directly to Flickr, 500px or Facebook from Lightroom? It’s easy – and I will show you how. Maybe you would like to build a website to display your best photos, and push updates to it directly from Lightroom? The Library module lets you do that too. I’ve written this ebook for two types of reader. The first is the complete newcomer to Lightroom. If you’ve never used it before, you can use this ebook to get started. The second type is the one who has used Lightroom, but wants to learn how to get the best out of it. This ebook is a little different from most others because I will tell you why you should do certain things as well as how. The aim is to streamline your workflow so you spend no more time than necessary in the Library module, freeing you up to get on with the creative task of processing your Raw files.

Notes Screen shots are taken from a MacBook Pro using OS X. If you are a PC user your screen will look different. Most of the differences are minor, and down to the operating system not the program – on the whole Lightroom looks the same most of the time in both Windows and Mac OS X. I would also like to clarify the way shortcuts are used in this ebook: Right-clicking: On a PC you can right-click just about anywhere in Lightroom to bring up a contextual menu. If you’re a Mac user and you use an Apple mouse right-click is disabled. You can access the contextual menu by holding the Control key down when you click. Or, you can enable right-clicking (System Preferences > Mouse) even with a single-button Apple mouse. The easiest solution is to use a Windows mouse – the Mac OS X recognises it and enables right-clicking. I find the right-click invaluable, and will mention it frequently in the ebook. So please don’t get confused if you also use a Mac and right-clicking doesn’t work. Option/Control keys: Keyboard shortcuts on the Mac often use the Option key, also known as the Command key. Windows keyboards use the Control key instead. I will list the Mac shortcut in the ebook with the PC shortcut in brackets, like this: Cmd-S (PC: Ctrl-S). Keyboard shortcuts: Although I will mention the most useful keyboard shortcuts, I won’t use them all. Most of the time I will guide you to the appropriate menu

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option (i.e Photo > Add to Target Collection). If a shortcut exists, it will be listed next to the relevant option in the menu (in this case, the shortcut is ‘B’). You can also bring up a list of keyboard shortcuts relevant to the module you’re in by pressing Cmd-’/’ (PC: Ctrl-’/’) at any time. Terminology: Photoshop comes in several versions: Photoshop Elements, Photoshop CS, Photoshop CC and Photoshop Lightroom. For the sake of simplicity, I will use the term Photoshop to refer interchangeably to Photoshop Elements, Photoshop CS and Photoshop CC, and Lightroom to refer to Photoshop Lightroom.

Left: Right-click on a PC or Ctrl-click on a Mac to bring up a contextual menu like this. Contextual menus act as a shortcut to commonly used functions in the Lightroom menus. The options presented are unique to the part of the program you click on.

What is Lightroom? Lightroom is designed to manage and process your photo files. It is part Raw converter, part photo processor (yes, you can edit JPEG and TIFF files in Lightroom too) and part photo organiser. The latter task is often referred to as digital asset management (or DAM for short). Why use Lightroom instead of Photoshop? For one, it’s as powerful as Photoshop when it comes to Raw processing, but much less expensive. Second, it lets you take charge of your growing photo collection and get it organised. That’s something Photoshop can’t do. Third, Lightroom saves you a lot of hard drive space, especially compared to using TIFF or PSD files. Fourth, it saves time. Is there anything Lightroom can’t do? Well, it can’t help you directly with tasks such as compositing, layer blending, adding texture layers or any similar tasks that Photoshop excels at. You can, however, export your images to a suitable plug-in when you want to do something that isn’t possible in Lightroom. In this world view, Photoshop counts as a plug-in.

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The transition to Lightroom My view is this. The way photographers use photo editing software is going through a transitional stage. Not so long ago, most used Photoshop as their main editing tool. It was more or less the only serious contender for this task. There have always been competitors, but none of them ever managed to achieve the power, ease of use or ubiquity of Photoshop.

carry out some processing tasks on JPEG and TIFF files. If you need to use other software to carry out a specific task that Lightroom can’t handle, then there is probably a plug-in or standalone program to do that. The benefit of plug-ins is a seamless transition from your main software (i.e Lightroom) to the peripheral programs (Photoshop, Silver Efex Pro and so on).

Then, as more photographers made the switch to digital, we realised that processing images is only part of the equation. It’s as important to organise, search and back up photos as it is to process them. When you have tens, or even hundreds, of thousands of images a good system for organising them is essential. Photoshop doesn’t do that. Hence a demand for software that does so (and is simple to use) has been created.

And yes, Photoshop is viewed as a plug-in. That’s because it carries out a single task – editing JPEG or TIFF files (albeit with a lot of power). And consider that even photographers who edit the majority of their images in Photoshop can still use Lightroom to organise their images and carry out some processing tasks before switching to Photoshop. In this workflow example, you are using Lightroom and Photoshop in conjunction.

At the same time, external hard drives have grown in capacity and dropped in price to the point where they are the only realistic option for saving and backing up large amounts of Raw files. Other media, like DVDs, don’t have sufficient capacity and are too unreliable. Now, hard drives are affordable enough that most photographers can store their entire collection of Raw images on a single unit. That makes it easy to use software like Lightroom to organise them.

It is like the transition from film to digital photography. Eventually so many photographers switched to digital that it became mainstream, the accepted way of doing things. Film is now used by a minority. I predict the same will happen to Photoshop. The day is coming when workflow based software like Lightroom is the centre of most photographers’ post-processing set-up.

Now, many of those photographers are switching to Lightroom (or alternatives such as Apple’s Aperture or Phase One’s Capture One Pro). The benefit of these programs is that they let you manage your entire workflow from within one interface. You can import, view, search and organise photos, process Raw files and

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Lightroom This diagram shows how Lightroom sits at the heart of a software ecosystem. For any task that Lightroom itself can’t do, there is bound to be a plug-in that can. The list here isn’t intended to be exhaustive – software comes and goes and I’m sure that there are many I haven’t heard of or used. The arrows show the way photos flow through the ecosystem. Lightroom can take care of your photo collection from the initial import to the final export, storing every edit you make in its Catalog so that you can come back and see what you did in years to come. Lightroom is designed so that everybody’s needs are catered for, from beginner through to seasoned professional.

• Importing and backing up Raw or photo files.

• Digital asset management • Processing Raw files • Editing JPEG or TIFF files

• Exporting photo files to display on a website, tablet or smartphone. • Preparing photos for print. • Exporting photo files for a client.

Other software Plug-ins for editing JPEG or TIFF files (powerful editors) • Photoshop CS/CC • Photoshop Elements • GIMP

Plug-ins for editing JPEG or TIFF files (specialised effects) • Perfect Effects • FocalPoint • Color Efex Pro • Viveza • Topaz Adjust • Topaz Clarity • Topaz Lens Effects • Alien Skin Exposure • Alien Skin Bokeh • DxO Film Pack

Plug-ins for editing JPEG or TIFF files (black & white conversion) • Perfect B&W • Silver Efex Pro • Topaz B&W Effects Plug-ins for editing JPEG or TIFF files (portrait retouching) • Perfect Portrait

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Advice to new Lightroom users These are the things that I wish someone had told me before I used Lightroom for the first time. These concepts will save you a lot of effort and wasted time in the long run. If this is the first time you have used Lightroom, you have a huge advantage as it means you can establish a consistent workflow from the start. That makes life easier as your photo collection grows. Before we get onto the advice I’d like to give you a tip. Whatever you want to do with Lightroom, keep things as simple as possible. It’s easy to over complicate matters. You’ll save yourself a lot of work by looking for the simplest way to get where you want to go. Above all, have fun! Lightroom is there to make processing and organising your photos a simple and enjoyable process. It will give you the freedom to do that thing we all love the most – being creative and producing beautiful photos.

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Understand what Lightroom is for. Hopefully you’re beginning to understand by now, but just in case let’s recap. Lightroom helps you organise and back up your images, process your Raw files and export them as photo files as quickly and painlessly as possible. It is the heart of your workflow and the first program that you open when you want to organise or edit photo files.

Put all your Raw files in a single folder on an external hard drive. Doing so makes it easy to back them up at any time. I will explain how I organise folders and back up my Raw files later on in the ebook. You don’t have to do things the same way; there are many ways to organise files and ultimately you need to do what suits you best. But sticking to the principle of creating a master folder to hold your Raw files (and Raw files only – no TIFFs or JPEGs) will help you a lot.

Set Lightroom to backup your Catalog to the same hard drive that you store your Raw files on. With Lightroom, all you need for a successful backup is a copy of your Raw files and your Catalog (minus preview files). There’s no need to back up JPEG and TIFF photo files, unless you have edited them further in another program. Any JPEG or TIFF files created by exporting from Lightroom can be created again. You can think of Raw files as being like negatives – you will never suffer an irrevocable loss as long as they are safely backed up. This leads to another benefit of Lightroom that becomes apparent as your photo collection grows. Lightroom makes it easier to back your photos up. One reason for

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this is that the total hard drive space occupied by Raw files and the Catalog is much less than the hard drive space required for TIFF and PSD files created in Photoshop. That greatly simplifies the task of making copies.

Use a single Catalog. Earlier versions of Lightroom slowed down as the number of photos in the Catalog grew, but that’s no longer an issue. Lightroom is for organising and searching your Raw files as well as processing them, so it makes sense to keep your entire image collection together. You can only have one Catalog open at a time, so if your images are spread across multiple Catalogs you can’t search your entire photo collection at a time.

Keep a copy of your Raw files and your Catalog off-site. If the worst happens, you’ll be glad you did. It’s also a good idea to regularly back your Catalog up to Dropbox.

Decide how you are going to use star ratings, colour labels and metadata from the outset and then stick to it. This isn’t easy, as you’ll probably think of different ways you can use these features as you become more proficient with Lightroom. But the more consistent you are, the simpler it is to use these tools to organise and search your photo collection. Later on I’ll give you lots of tips for using these features, and keeping your approach to using star ratings, flags, keywords and colour labels as straightforward as possible.

Use Collections and Collection Sets to organise your images.

Undo is your friend.

They are the heart of Lightroom and free you from the physical constraints set by the folders containing your Raw files.

Just about anything you do can be undone by pressing Cmd-’Z’ (PC: Ctrl-’Z’). If you’re not sure what effect doing something will have on your photos, just try it. The Undo shortcut is there to help if it doesn’t work out. On the rare occasions you are about to do something that cannot be undone, Lightroom will warn you.

You may have noticed that you can only browse photos by folder in the Library module. In the others, you only have access to images contained in a Collection. Adobe wants you to use Collections (and Collection Sets) as they are the easiest way to organise and collate your images. I will show you how in this ebook.

Use Smart Collections sparingly. There are many ways to use Smart Collections. While they may seem useful because they are automated, it’s easy to over-complicate things. Only use them when they will genuinely save you time, or as a way of storing search results.

Convert your Raw files to DNG. There are two main benefits of converting your Raw files to the DNG format. The first is that DNG files are smaller than your regular Raw files. You’ll save ten to twenty percent of hard drive space – that adds up over time. But the main benefit is that using DNG files speeds up Lightroom. DNG files contain a preview in a form called fast load data that enables Lightroom to render previews up to eight times faster. This saves you time when viewing and processing images. There’s nothing more frustrating than zooming into an image then having to wait several seconds for the preview to render. Using DNG helps prevent that.

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Do as much work in Lightroom as possible. When processing images, do as much as you can in Lightroom. You should only export a photo to Photoshop or another plug-in if you need to do something that Lightroom can’t handle. Processing images solely in Lightroom whenever you can helps keep your workflow quick and simple. Exporting to other programs or plug-ins uses more hard drive space and means that you end up with additional JPEG or TIFF files to keep track of and back up.

Lightroom will change your life. I’m not exaggerating – you’ll be amazed at how much time having an organised photo collection will save you. You’ll also be pleasantly surprised at how fast you can process your Raw files once you get up to speed with Lightroom’s Develop module. If you’re the type that’s always behind on processing, Lightroom will help you catch up. You can wave goodbye to folders of unprocessed photos and say hello to being a well-organised photographer.

The wor k flow advantage In the introduction I wrote about Lightroom and workflow. It’s time to take a deeper look at the benefits of working with Lightroom has – especially compared to the ‘old way’ of using Photoshop for processing your Raw files. But first, let’s consider what workflow was like in the days of film. If you’ve never used film this may seem strange to you. Compared to digital, there were so many laborious steps involved in processing film and printing images in the darkroom that it’s a wonder anyone bothered. The diagrams on the next page show you how workflow has progressed. The advent of Lightroom is merely the latest development in a process that has been refined over the years by the major camera manufacturers and (more recently) software engineers.

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Film Photographer takes photos on film, and either sends it away to be developed or develops it himself.

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If the photographer used slide film, the process stops here.

If the photographer used colour or black & white negative film, he then makes prints in the darkroom. Once a print is made, the only way to make another one is to repeat the process.

Photoshop Photographer takes photos with a digital camera and saves them in the Raw format.

Photographer selects favourite images and processes them one by one in Adobe Camera Raw.

Photographer finishes processing images in Photoshop.

This is the workflow used by photographers before the digital age. It was time consuming – it takes much longer to develop film, or have it developed, than it does to import images from a memory card to your hard drive. It also takes longer to make a good quality print in a darkroom than it does in Lightroom or even Photoshop. Worst of all, once you’ve made a print (or a slide) there’s no way of duplicating it without losing image quality. If you wanted to make ten copies of a print, you would have to carry out the physical steps required ten times.

This diagram shows how your workflow looks if you process your Raw files using Photoshop. It’s much quicker than using film and making prints in the darkroom. You also get to spend your time sitting at your computer in a nicely lit room rather than shut away in a darkroom. That’s even if you had a darkroom – many photographers never did. Darkrooms require space, and money to buy the equipment to put in them, and not everybody could do so (which probably helps explain why digital photography became so popular so fast).

In the digital world, the film photographer has an extra choice. He can scan the negatives, save them to his computer and work on them in a program like Photoshop. Many film photographers worked using this hybrid system until they completed the digital transition by buying a digital camera. With film experiencing something of a renaissance in popularity, there still are photographers that choose to work this way.

Compared with using film and a darkroom, this workflow is paradise. Then the day comes when you realise that creating 16 bit TIFF files and multi-layer PSD documents from Raw files made by cameras with 18 to 24 megapixel sensors takes up a ridiculous amount of hard drive space. Not to mention those tens of thousands of Raw files scattered around hundreds of disorganised folders. There must be a better way, right? Luckily there is, thanks to those clever software engineers at Adobe who were thinking about these things way before most photographers.

Lightroom Photographer takes photos with a digital camera and saves them in the Raw format.

Photographer imports images using Lightroom and selects best ones to process. He uses batch processing to save time.

Photographer processes Raw files in Lightroom. The final images can be exported in different file formats and sizes according to the required purpose.

This diagram shows the modern photographer’s workflow in Lightroom. The differences between this and what you get with Photoshop are profound. At last we have software that is designed for photographers and helps us organise our images as well as process our Raw files.

asset management programs around, but none of them seemed to do the job well enough and simply enough to capture the public imagination or challenge the dominance of Photoshop. Until, that is, Lightroom came along.

The biggest limitation to film and darkroom users, in terms of time, is that you could only process your images one at a time. You have more options if you use Photoshop and Adobe Camera Raw (ACR), as it is possible to batch process Raw files. However, Photoshop’s capabilities for batch processing are limited compared to Lightroom. The ability to organise and edit (as in choose which photos to process and which ones to reject) is also very primitive. This is something that photographers lived with for many years, as it was the only way of doing things. Yes, there were digital

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Here’s a simple example to show you the benefits of the Lightroom way of doing things. Imagine that you have taken two hundred or so portraits of one of your favourite models. You’ve used the Library module to narrow them down to the best. Now, once you’ve processed the first image, you can copy all of the settings you used, right down to the minutest edit, and apply them to any of the others. As they are completely non-destructive, you can use the copied settings as a starting point and work from there. It really does save you a tremendous amount of time.

Organising Raw files Now I’m going to show you how I organise my Raw files. I realise everyone has their own preference for this sort of thing, but this system works well for me so it’s worth sharing with you. Feel free to use, adapt or ignore it. The main benefit of this system is that it is easy to back up your Raw files. Organising folders by date makes sense to me because you can see at a glance whether the most recent folders have been backed up. Backups are important, and I recommend that you keep your Raw files backed up to at least three different hard drives, with one of those kept off-site in case of theft or fire at home. It’s easy to do with external hard drives, there’s no need to invest in a RAID system or anything complicated unless you absolutely want to. Whatever your folder structure, it’s a good idea to store your RAW files in a master folder. Keep JPEGs and TIFFs in a separate folder. As you learn how to use the Library module, you will realise that your folder structure is relatively unimportant. That’s because you will start to use Collections, a kind of virtual folder that you can organise any way you like. You can create Collections based on any criteria you like, and add any photo to any Collection regardless of which physical folder it resides in. You might like to read the section on using Collections and Collection Sets before deciding on a folder structure for your Raw files.

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Above: Here’s my system. I keep all my Raw files in a folder called RAW. The first level in the RAW folder contains a folder for each year that I have owned a digital camera.

Above: Each monthly folder contains one folder for each shoot that I shot that month. This file structure lets me see right away which folders are yet to be backed up.

Above: Each year folder contains 12 folders, one for each month.

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introducing The Lightroom Library module Most of a photographer’s work is carried out in the Library and Develop modules. This ebook concentrates on the Library module. It will teach you how to import your images and organise them into Collections so that you can use the Develop module efficiently. If you are new to Lightroom, you will discover it looks very different from Adobe Bridge, Photoshop or any other image editing software you may use. Remember, Lightroom is a tool for both organising and processing photo files. It is a workflow tool as well as an image editing program, and the interface reflects that.

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The Lightroom modules

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an earlier version of Lightroom you will be pleasantly surprised at the advances made in Lightroom 5. It is now possible to process most of your Raw files here without going into Photoshop.

Before we go any further, I’d like to explain the function of each of the seven Lightroom modules. The Library and Develop modules will be of primary interest to most photographers. You can use the Maps module to geotag your images, and the rest are there to help you do various things with your photos after you have processed them.

Map module

To be honest, you might never even go into most of these for anything other than the sake of curiosity. The heart and soul of Lightroom resides in the Library and Develop modules. The others are there to assist or encourage you to do some interesting things with your images after you have processed them. But don’t ignore them – they are well worth a look once you have got to grips with the initial tasks of organising and developing your images.

If your camera has GPS Lightroom can map the location where your photos were taken if the information is embedded in the metadata. You can also use the track log from a synchronised GPS device or add location information to your photos manually by dropping images onto a map. Lightroom lets you add GPS coordinates to the metadata and organise your images by location. In this sense it extends the search criteria of the Library module. The Maps module uses Google Maps and you must be online to use it.

Library module

Book module

This is where you import, organise and search your Raw files. Yes, you can also import JPEG or TIFF files, but for the moment I’m going to assume that your main interest is in processing Raw files, otherwise you would probably be using Photoshop. You can view your images here, make comparisons, and select the ones that you would like to process in the Develop module.

Enables you to select and lay out photos to produce a photo book. It is designed to work with Blurb books and lets you upload your completed book to its website. You can also export it as a PDF file (ideal for ebooks) or a JPEG file. The Book module doesn’t give you the same functionality and flexibility as using software like InDesign, but it does simplify the process of creating a book.

Develop module

Slideshow module

This is where you process your Raw files, and export them as JPEG or TIFF files as required. For many photographers it’s the most important part of Lightroom and the reason they bought the program in the first place. If you have upgraded from

The Slideshow module is for creating slideshows with your photos. You can add text and transition effects. Portrait or wedding photographers may find it useful for creating presentations for clients.

Print module The Print module helps you prepare your images for printing. There are a number of options to help you do so including the ability to choose paper type, border size and print resolution.

Web module The Web module helps you organise selected images into galleries. There are several design options to choose from, and more are available online. Once you have created a gallery you can upload it your website from within Lightroom or with FTP (File Transfer Protocol) software. The Web module is probably most helpful to photographers who need to put a gallery of photos online for a client or for friends. It doesn’t take the place of using software like WordPress or Koken (discussed later in this ebook) for creating a fullyfledged website.

Above: You can create photo galleries quickly and easily with Lightroom’s Web module .

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Library interface This is the Lightroom Library module interface. This is what you see when you open Lightroom and go to the Library module if have already imported some images. It will look a little different to this if you have yet to do so. The Lightroom Interface is divided into five sections. This design is used throughout all seven modules. The top panels and the filmstrip stay the same. The content of the side panels changes according to which module you’re in. The diagram on the next page shows the name of each section.

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Identity Plate & Module picker buttons panel The default Identity Plate displays the Lightroom logo and version (above). You can customise the Identity Plate to display text or a logo that you have created yourself. I’ll show you how to do that in a couple of pages.

The Module Picker buttons let you move around between the seven modules available in both Lightroom 4 and Lightroom 5. When you start Lightroom it goes to the last module that you used. Identity Plate & Module picker buttons panel Left panels Content window Right panels Filmstrip

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You can click on the white arrow above the top panel to remove it from the display (circled). You can also use the Shift + Tab shortcut to remove all four side panels.

Left and right panels The panels grouped on the left and right hand side of the display (right) contain the controls required to carry out tasks within each module. The side panels shown on this page are from the Library module. You can remove the side panels from the display by clicking on the white arrows at the edge of the screen. Remove both together by pressing the Tab button.

Content window This is where you view photos. The photos may be contained in folders (Library module only), Collections or Collection Sets, or organised according to a search. You can view multiple images together (Grid view and Survey view), compare two images (Compare view) or view your photos one at a time (Loupe view). I will explore how this works in more depth later in the ebook.

Filmstrip Displays the photos that you are viewing within the content windows in film-strip style (below). There are options to filter the photos displayed according to ranking, EXIF data or other criteria. Just like the other panels, you can hide the filmstrip by clicking the white arrow at the edge of the screen.

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Customising the Identity Plate If you have any read many Lightroom tutorials you may have noticed a customised Identity Plate in the illustrations. A lot of photographers like to do this so that you can see their name or website address. It’s easy enough, and you can replace the default Lightroom logo with customised text or a graphic file you created. The file may come in useful for displaying a logo.

Right: The default Lightroom 5 Identity Plate.

To create a text-based custom Identity Plate, tick the Enable Identity Plate box and select Use a styled text identity plate. Enter your text in the box underneath. Use the drop down menus underneath to select font type, size and colour. You can customise the font in the module picker buttons to match.

Right: To customise the Identity Plate and replace it with a text or graphical alternative start by going to Lightroom > Identity Plate Setup (PC: Edit > Identity Plate).

Alternatively, select Use a graphical identity plate and click the Locate File button to upload an image (dimensions 400 x 57 pixels).

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Getting started: Importing images Naturally, once you have installed Lightroom you will want to import some images. This adds them to your Catalog: the database that Lightroom uses to store information about your photo files, and details of any changes you have made to them, such as altering metadata or editing images in the Develop module. To get the most out of Lightroom it is crucial to understand how the Catalog works. This section will help get you started by explaining its relationship with your images and the metadata they contain.

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How Lightroom works: a brief overview If you have used Photoshop to process Raw files, you are probably aware that it doesn’t make any changes to the Raw file. Instead, your alterations are recorded in a text file (extension .xmp) that is saved in the same folder. Lightroom works in a similar way, except that it stores information about your files in your Catalog. A benefit of this system is that it keeps the editing information separate from the Raw files themselves. This makes it easy to back both up. Another advantage of this method of working is that it enables far more sophisticated ways of organising and searching images. That’s why we refer to Lightroom as a workflow tool. You can use it to keep your photos organised from the moment you import them. The Catalog does not contain any of your original Raw files. It only contains information about those files. The Catalog is saved on your computer’s hard drive. To see where, go to Lightroom > Catalog Settings (PC: Edit > Catalog Settings) and look under the General tab. The first line shows the location of your Catalog, and the second line its name. The default location for the Lightroom Catalog is Pictures > Lightroom (Mac) or My Documents > My Pictures > Lightroom (PC). While you have the Catalog Settings open, it’s a good idea to go to the Back up Catalog setting at the bottom and select Every time Lightroom exits. With this option selected, Lightroom will backup your Catalog every time you close it. The

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default location for the backup is in a folder called Backups, contained within your Lightroom folder. If you open it, you may find several backups of your Catalog. You can delete some of the old copies (but not the most recent backup) to free up hard drive space. You will be offered the opportunity to change the location of the backup in the Back Up Catalog box when you exit Lightroom. If you click the Show button, your computer will open the folder containing your Lightroom Catalog. The Catalog is actually split into two files. One has the format catalogname.lrcat and the other catalogname previews.lrdata. The previews file contains previews that Lightroom has built of your images, and is much bigger than the Catalog. They are what you see when you view images in Lightroom. It isn’t necessary to back the previews folder up, and Lightroom doesn’t do it when it backs up your Catalog. Previews can be generated again. The important information is contained in the .lrcat file. As long as your Raw files and the .lrcat file are intact, your photo collection is safe. The Catalog takes up so little space because Lightroom is a metadata editor. The changes you make to your Raw files are stored as text commands in the Catalog. Photoshop, by contrast, is a pixel editor. Changes are made at pixel level, and once the file is saved they are permanent. The only way to avoid that is to use layers, which add to the file size. Adobe Camera Raw is also a metadata editor. If you open an .xmp file with a text editor you will see a list of edits made in text form. If you import a Raw file into Lightroom that you have edited in ACR, Lightroom adds the metadata in the .xmp file. That way any edits you have already made are not lost.

Beginning the import Before you import your Raw files into Lightroom, you need to decide which folder you are going to copy them to from your camera’s memory card. You could follow my suggestion and organise your Raw files in date order, or do it differently in a way that suits you. Whatever you decide, once your Raw files are in the designated folder, leave them there. After the import, you can use Collections and Collection Sets to organise them. The illustration on the right shows the Folders panel, part of the left hand set of panels in the Library module. The folders displayed here mirror the folder structure on your hard drive. Click on the arrow next to any folder name to reveal or conceal subfolders. The contents of the selected folder or folders are displayed in the centre of the screen. Click the Import button at the bottom of the left-hand panel to begin importing Raw files. This opens the Import window – shown on the next page. After the import, your photos will appear in the Folders panel.

TIFF and JPEG files You can also use Lightroom to import and edit TIFF and JPEG files. It’s useful to know that you can use the Library module to organise your TIFF and JPEG files, as well as your Raw files, if you wish. Any edits you make to a JPEG or TIFF file are saved in the Catalog, the same way as edits made to Raw files. The original always remains intact and you can revert back to it any time.

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These are the hard drives containing images that have been imported into your Catalog. Each hard drive has a separate heading. If the Catalog contains files from hard drives not connected to the computer, they are displayed but greyed out to indicate they are not connected.

Important: If you move folders or files, or change their names after importing into Lightroom, then Lightroom won’t know where to find your images. You can avoid this by renaming files or moving folders within Lightroom. Moving folders is easy – just click on the folder you want to move and drag it to the new location. Get in the habit of moving or renaming files and folders in Lightroom – it will save you a lot of frustration and wasted time.

Importing Raw files from a memory card This is Lightroom’s import panel. There are three steps in import process, each controlled by a different part of the Import window: 1. Tell Lightroom where to import Raw files from. 2. Select which Raw files to import. 3. Decide where the Raw files are to be saved, and which settings to apply to the images as they are imported.

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1.

2.

3.

The location from which you are importing Raw files. In this example it is a memory card with the title EOS_ DIGITAL.

The destination where the Raw files will be moved or copied to.

Other potential locations on your computer for importing photos from. Most of these are hard drives.

Indicates which Lightroom preset, if any, is used to process the Raw files.

Select quality of image previews.

Indicates which additional metadata, if any, is added to the images upon import.

Minimise Import window button. Shrinks import window down to smaller size.

Number of photos in current import, plus approximate size of import.

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The destination of the imported files.

Toggle between thumbnail and single image view.

Indicates if an Import Preset is selected.

Thumbnail size slider.

When the settings are finalised, click the Import button to commence importing.

Importing photos from an external hard drive If you’re not moving your imported files to a new folder, you will see less options in the right hand panels. This may happen if you are importing JPEG or TIFF files into Lightroom. In this example, the source is a folder (or folders) on an external hard drive.

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Import window options

Benefits of DNG:

Let’s look at some of the import options in greater detail. These are the main settings you will use. The idea is to let Lightroom do as much work as possible upon import, so that you don’t have to do it later.

When you convert Raw files to DNG Lightroom gives you the option of embedding Fast Load Data (set this up under the File Handling tab in Preferences). This is a preview that enables the Develop module to work faster and can also speed up the rate at which Lightroom creates previews. If you ever feel that Lightroom is running too slow, then switching to DNG could be beneficial. According to Adobe, including Fast Load Data adds around 200Kb to the image size and gives a speed increase of up to eight times. DNG files also take up less hard drive space. The overall saving can be as much as 20%.

Copy as DNG

With DNG files you can save editing data in the file itself rather than in a sidecar (.xmp) file that sits alongside the file in the same folder. This is useful if you use Photoshop’s Adobe Camera Raw to process your images, but is not important in Lightroom as the data is saved in the Catalog instead.

Use this setting to copy your Raw files from your camera’s memory card, convert them to the DNG format, save them in a new location and add them to the Catalog.

What is DNG? DNG stands for Digital Negative and is a Raw file format created by Adobe. There are very few cameras that use the DNG format (Hasselblad and Leica are two). Most manufacturers have their own Raw file format. One benefit often touted of the DNG format is that converting your Raw files to DNG ensures that they are saved in a format that Adobe software can read for many years or decades into the future. While this seems logical, I’m sure that Canon, Nikon, Sony etc. will support their Raw formats for just as long. And if any of these companies are to fold in the future, who knows which it will be? Maybe Adobe will be the first to go and DNG will no longer be supported. Regardless, if there is ever a need to convert Raw files to DNG in the future for archival purposes, you can do it at any time, either with Lightroom or Adobe’s free DNG converter program (download links: Mac | PC).

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Note: You can set Lightroom to save editing information in a sidecar file, or within a DNG file, by going to Metadata > Save Metadata to File. This is useful if you intend to open the file in Adobe Camera Raw, but there is not much point if you only ever edit the file in Lightroom. You select this option on an image by image basis.

Tick this box to include Fast Load Data in DNG files.

Disadvantages of DNG: Longer import times. It takes longer for Lightroom to convert your Raw files to DNG than it does to simply copy them. However, you can always let your computer import Raw files while you are busy doing something else, or even let it do it overnight so your files are ready for you in the morning. The increase in speed gained from including Fast Load Data is worth the effort. Some software, such as Canon’s DPP, Nikon’s Capture NX and DxO Optics Pro cannot read DNG files.

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File Handling

Copy Copies your Raw files, saves them in a new location and adds them to the Catalog. Select this option if you are importing images from a memory card, but don’t want to convert them to DNG.

The File Handling panel is where you tell Lightroom which size previews you would like to create when you import photos, and whether you want it to build Smart Previews or make duplicate copies of your files.

Render Previews Set to 1:1 for the highest quality previews. They take longer to render, but make previewing and processing images much faster.

Move Moves your Raw files from their current location to a new one and adds them to the Catalog. Select this option if you want to move files from one folder on a hard drive to another and import them to the Catalog at the same time.

Build Smart Previews Smart Previews are new in Lightroom 5. They let you edit images in the Develop module when the hard drive your Raw files are stored on isn’t connected. Potentially useful if you use a laptop and would like to take it away somewhere with you. You can leave the external hard drive containing your Raw files safely at home and edit any images with Smart Previews while on the road.

Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates Keeping this box ticked prevents you accidentally importing the same set of images twice.

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Add

Make a Second Copy To

Add photos from the selected folder or folders to the Catalog. Use this option if you have already moved or copied Raw files from a memory card to a hard drive.

Tick this box if you are importing files from a memory card and would like Lightroom to make a second copy of the Raw files to another external hard drive.

Tick this box to enable file renaming.

File Renaming Lightroom gives you the option of renaming your photo files during the import. You don’t have to do this, but it may come in useful as your photo collection grows. Here are some reasons why:

Select one of Lightroom’s file renaming templates from this drop-down menu (below). The Custom Text, Shoot Name and Start Number fields become available if you need to enter more information to complete the file naming template. File name templates you create yourself (see next page) also appear here.

• Your camera uses a sequential file naming sequence that repeats when you reach the end. For example, on my Canon EOS cameras the first photo taken with the camera is given a file name of IMG_0001.cr2. This cycles through until it reaches IMG_9999.cr2, then it starts again. This means that file names repeat themselves as the years go by. A search of my Raw files reveals that I have six files that share the same name: IMG_0001.cr2. There’s nothing wrong with that – it doesn’t affect the way Lightroom works. But you may prefer to use the File Renaming panel to give each photo a unique name. • It may be useful to give your photos a name that tells you something about the photo. For example, you could include the date the photo was taken, or something relevant to the shoot (such as the name of a place or person). • Professional photographers may like to rename photo files to according to a system that works for them. Wedding photographers could include the client’s name and the shoot date in the file name. Stock photographers may prefer to assign filenames according to the system they use for submitting photos to their photo libraries. The File Renaming panel makes assigning new file names easy. It’s simple to customise – all you have to do is decide how to use it.

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Use this menu to set the file extension to uppercase or lowercase.

A sample filename, using the criteria you have selected, is displayed here.

If you click the Edit option in the Template menu you will bring up the Filename Template Editor window (right). Use it to create your own customised file naming system. The blue tokens show what will appear in the file name. Click on a token and press the delete key (PC: backspace key) to delete it. You can enter a dash (-) or an underscores (_) between tokens but not a space. Click on the white arrow in the token to change your selection. Lightroom displays an example name above the tokens so you can see how the file name will turn out.

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You can select one of these presets to use as the basis of your new file name template (below). You also come here when you are ready to save your filename template. Select Save Current Settings as New Preset when you are ready.

Use these drop-down menus to select file naming options. Selecting a new option from a menu inserts it into the file name template, as does clicking the Insert button.

Right: These images show the difference that using a Develop preset on import makes. The photo on the right was processed with a Develop preset I created to apply to portraits. The differences are subtle, and include important settings such as Lens Corrections and Camera Calibration. The preset saves me time as I don’t have to make these adjustments in the Develop module.

Without Develop preset

With Develop preset

Apply During Import

Keywords

Apply Develop Settings and add Metadata and Keywords at the import stage.

Add keywords to the imported images. Use them wisely to help you manage and organise your growing collection of images.

Develop Settings One of Lightroom’s features is that you can save some or all of the settings that you use to process a photo into a Develop Preset. You can then apply that Develop Preset to other images in the Develop module, the Library module or the Import window. An advantage of presets is their potential for automating mundane processing tasks to save you time. You can also buy presets created by other photographers designed to give your photos a certain look. Some photographers and software companies give presets away for free.

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Here’s an example. Let’s say you’ve just taken some portraits of a friend or model. At the import stage you can add that person’s name to the Keywords field. Then, at a later date, you could bring every photo you’ve taken (and keyworded) of that person together into a Smart Collection. The same applies to photos of any subject. A few minutes thinking about how you use keywords will pay dividends as your confidence with Lightroom grows.

Metadata Any images you import already contain metadata inserted into the photo by the camera. Metadata is information such as the camera settings used (aperture, shutter speed, ISO, focal length and so on) and the model, make and serial numbers of the camera and lens. You can add or amend metadata in Lightroom. One of the places you can do this is in the Library module. Another is the Import window, and you do so by creating a Metadata preset to apply to imported images. It’s a good way to ensure that important information such as copyright, your name and contact details are embedded into every one of your images. Here’s how to set it up: • Go to Metadata > Edit Metadata Presets. • Scroll down to the IPTC Copyright and IPTC Creator headings and fill in the appropriate fields with your personal information. Use or Option + ‘G’ (Mac) or Alt + ‘0169’ (PC) to enter the Copyright symbol. • Repeat with any other fields that you want to include. Note that if you leave a field blank, Lightroom will clear that metadata field in your Raw files even if it contains information. Press the Check Filled button to avoid that. • Click Done, then Save As to give the Metadata Preset a name. • Select the Metadata Preset name you have just created in the Metadata field of the Apply During Import panel.

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Destination Select the destination for Lightroom to save the imported files if you have selected the Copy as DNG, Copy or Move options. • The large white arrow indicates the destination folder.

Import Preset • Tick the Into Subfolder box to create a new folder to save the imported files in. • The Organise setting lets you choose whether to save all imported files in a single folder, or whether to save them in subfolders according to date.

When you import images, Lightroom remembers the settings that you selected for the next time. If you follow the same pattern whenever you import new images you probably don’t need to create any Import presets, as you will only ever make minor changes (such as choosing a different destination). However, it’s possible that you change your settings regularly according to the requirements of each particular shoot. One example I can think of is where two people or more photographers share the same Lightroom Catalog. In this case, you could create two Import presets, one for each person. It’s an easy way to ensure that the correct settings, including the Metadata preset, are used for each import. To set up an Import Preset, go to the Import Preset menu at the bottom of the Import window. Click the double-arrow icon on the right and select Save Current Settings as New Preset. You will be prompted to give the Preset a name. You can switch between presets or restore the default presets at any time.

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Using the Library Module The time required to import your images depends on the number and size of your Raw files plus the settings you selected. Large shoots may take several hours. When the import is complete, Lightroom returns you to the Library module. Now you can view your images and start the process of editing them down to the best few to process in the Develop module. There are a number of tools to make viewing and editing (as in selecting the best) of your Raw files quick and simple. Once you have a good system in place, you will be surprised at how easy it is to keep your photos organised. The benefit becomes clear right away as you find yourself with more time to take and to process your images.

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The power of the Lightroom Catalog Let’s take a closer look at the Lightroom Catalog, and why it is such a good way of organising your images.

• You open the edited Raw file in Photoshop, where you make some more adjustments, then save the edited image as a TIFF or JPEG file.

At first it may seem problematic to store every edit you have ever made to your photos, including Raw processing, in a central location. What if the Catalog is lost or the file corrupted – is the potential there to lose all your edits in one go?

Do you see what just happened here? If your Raw files and sidecar files get separated, the edits are lost (one exception: if you use the DNG format you can save the sidecar file information within the DNG file itself ). You also have an edited TIFF or JPEG file, most likely saved in a different folder (which needs backing up, creating more hassle). You’ve just ended up with two versions of the same photo (Raw file plus sidecar file and a TIFF or JPEG file).

Thankfully, the answer is no. Lightroom makes regular backups of your Catalog (providing you haven’t disabled this in the Catalog settings). Furthermore, Lightroom saves each backup in a new folder. So, worse case scenario: both your Catalog and the most recent backup become corrupted or somehow get lost (an event that is highly unlikely in itself ). You can then go back to the previous backup, and you will only lose the edits you made since that backup was made. If you make an off-site backup of your Raw files (which you should), you can also include a copy of the most recent Lightroom Catalog for extra security. Not to mention backing up the Catalog to Dropbox every now and then. Take care of your backups, and you have nothing to fear from a corrupted Catalog or hard drive failure.

In Lightroom, you have just one Raw file, and the edits are stored in the Catalog. As long as you have a copy of the Catalog, you will never lose any of the edits. You don’t even need to ‘finish’ the editing process by converting the Raw file to a TIFF or a JPEG file until you actually have need of that file. This will save a lot of hard drive space in the long run. My Catalog and previews folder together occupy the same hard drive space as 66 16 bit TIFF files created from my EOS 5D Mark II’s Raw files. The total number of images in my Catalog? A little over 50,000. Only the best of those have been processed, but 50,000 is still way more efficient than 66.

Compare this to the way it used to be with Photoshop: • You open your Raw file in Adobe Camera Raw and edit it. • You save the file. Edits are stored in a sidecar file (extension .xmp) in the same folder as the Raw file.

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Furthermore, all the edits are non-destructive. I can go back to any file and change any of the settings, or make a virtual copy and a new interpretation of the image. This is all down to the power of the Lightroom Catalog.

Lightroom shortcuts Can’t remember your shortcuts? You can view a list at any time by pressing Cmd + ‘/’ (PC: Ctrl + ‘/’). Lightroom displays the shortcuts relevant to the module you’re using. They stay on the screen until you click on the overlay.

Library module shortcuts

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Develop module shortcuts

The purpose of the Library module The illustration on this page shows the Library module after an image import. The screen is a little crowded, but don’t forget you can hide any of the four edge panels by clicking on the white arrows at the edge of the screen. You can also press the Tab key to hide the side panels or Shift + Tab to hide all four. By the way, when you see your photos laid out in a grid like this you are in the Grid view. If you see a different layout, press ‘G’ to get to the Grid view.

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The purpose of the Library module is to view, search, organise, rate, keyword and edit (as in select the best photos for processing) images. You can also carry out rudimentary developing in the Quick Develop panel. At this stage, straight after the import, Lightroom opens the Folders panel (one of the left hand panels). The folder containing the imported photos should be selected (right).

Tip: If there are any images in laying on their side, you can rotate them by hovering over the thumbnail and clicking on one of the rotate arrows that appear in the bottom corners. If the auto-rotate feature on your camera is enabled, Lightroom rotates the images automatically for you.

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Viewing images Soon, I will show you how to organise your photos in Collections. This makes it easier to edit them down to the best ones that you are going to process. But first, let’s take a look at the tools Lightroom gives you for viewing, comparing and searching your images. They work regardless of whether you are looking at photos stored in a folder or in a Collection. If you are like most photographers one of the first things you will want to do after import is view your photos to see if they look as exciting as they did on the camera’s LCD screen. Lightroom 5 (but not earlier versions) gives you an easy way to do that. Just press the ‘F’ key to enter full-screen mode. Your photos will fill the screen (right), and you can use the arrow keys to move through them.

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The Toolbar The Toolbar is located at the bottom of the Content window (below). The icons represent the different functions available in the Library module. They are there to help you navigate through and organise the images in the folder or Collection that you are viewing. The Toolbar appears in every module, and changes accordingly.

Tip: Click on the white arrow on the right-hand side of the toolbar to select which icons are displayed (right). The settings change according to the module you are working in. Shortcut: Press ‘T’ to hide and reveal the Toolbar. This shortcut works in every module.

Toolbar (T)

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View Modes There are four view modes in the Library module:

White flag icon indicates image is flagged as a pick.

Image size in pixels.

File name and type.

This number indicates the image is the fourth in the selected folders or Collections.

Click this circular icon to add or remove photo to Quick Collection or Target Collection. Can also use the letter ‘B’.

Grid View (G) Unselected image (dark grey border). The style of the coloured frame indicating the colour label is also different.

Displays thumbnails of selected images. Use the Thumbnail Size slider in the Toolbar (press ‘T’ to hide/ reveal) to adjust size of thumbnails. The diagram opposite shows the information about the photo contained in the Grid View with the Expanded Cells option activated (View > Grid View Style > Expanded Cells).

Selected image (light grey border).

Shortcut: Use the ‘G’ key shortcut to enter Grid View from anywhere in Lightroom.

Image star rating

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Image colour label (also indicated by coloured frame around thumbnail).

These two small icons indicate that the image has been added to at least one Collection (left) and that it has develop adjustments (right).

Grid View styles You can customise the appearance of the Grid View cells by going to View > Grid View Style > Expanded Cells (below). Alternatively, use the ‘J’ key shortcut to cycle through the styles. You can customise the Grid View cells even further by going to View > View Options (right). Here you can decide what information you would like to see displayed alongside the image thumbnails.

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Loupe View (E) Loupe View is for viewing one photo at a time. It differs from Full-screen mode in that you can access the Toolbar, and apply a grid overlay to help you see whether the horizon, or any other lines such as the sides of buildings, are straight. • Use the Zoom slider in the Toolbar to enlarge the image. The left-most setting of the Zoom slider (Fit) makes it fit your screen size. The next setting (Fill) expands the image so that it matches the dimensions of your monitor. The next settings are size related and range from 1:16 to 11:1. • Click the left-mouse button to zoom between the ‘Fit’ and the last zoom setting used. This also works if you press the ‘F’ key shortcut (Lightroom 5 only) to enter full-screen mode. Shortcuts: In Loupe view, hit the ‘Escape’ or ‘G’ keys to return to Grid view. If the image is zoomed, the first touch of the Escape key will return it to the Fit setting. Press Escape again to return to the Grid view.

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Tick the Show Grid box to reveal the grid overlay. Use the slider underneath to set the size of the squares. If you hold the Cmd key (PC: Ctrl) down you can alter the size of the grid and the opacity of the lines by mousing over the Size and Opacity settings that appear at the top.

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Go to View > Loupe Overlay and tick the Guides option. This turns the central horizontal and vertical grid lines into guides that you can move by holding down the Cmd (PC: Ctrl) key. They may come in useful for checking the straightness of horizons and buildings.

Customising Loupe View In both Loupe View and Compare View, you can use the ‘I’ keyboard shortcut to display an overlay containing information about the selected file or files (below). Press the ‘I’ key again to see new information, and a third time to make it disappear. You can customise the appearance of the Info overlay by going to View > View Options (right). Here you can select which information you would like to see displayed when you press the ‘I’ key by changing the settings in Loupe Info1 and Loupe Info 2. Tick the Show Info Overlay box to see the Info Overlay whenever you enter Loupe view or Compare view.

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Compare View (C) The Compare View lets you view two images together in order to, well, compare them. There are many reasons why you might do this, not least is that it lets you chose between two similar images. To compare two images, do the following in Grid View: • Select an image by clicking on the thumbnail. The border turns light grey to indicate it is selected. In Compare View, Lightroom calls this image the Select. • Select a second image to compare it to by clicking on the thumbnail. The border turns a slightly darker shade of grey to indicate the selection. In Lightroom this image is called the Candidate. • Press the ‘C’ key shortcut to go to the Compare View. The Compare view lets you compare two images. Use Survey View to compare more than two photos.

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Select image.

Candidate image.

Use these keys to navigate through the images in the selected folder or Collection. The Select stays the same, the Candidate changes. Set colour label. Set star rating.

Deselect photo.

Reject image. Flag or unflag image as a pick.

Link Focus: Click the lock to zoom both images in tandem.

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When the Link Focus lock icon is in the unlocked position you can zoom into either image independently. Click the Sync button to bring the second image back into tandem.

Swap the Select and Candidate images.

Make the Candidate image become the Select image.

Press Done to leave the Compare View. Lightroom takes you to the Loupe View and displays the Select image.

Survey View (N) Use Survey View to compare three or more images. Click on one of the images to select it. The selected image has a white border. You can flag, reject or change the rating of the selected photo.

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Lights out There are times when you will find everything going on in the background around your photos distracting. When that happens, press the ‘L’ key to highlight the selected image (or images) by fading out the rest of the Lightroom interface.

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It’s an ideal way of examining your images without distractions. If you go to the Interface tab in Preferences you can also change the screen colour and the dim level from their defaults. You can activate Lights Out from anywhere in Lightroom. Use the ‘L’ key to cycle through the Lights On (below left), Lights Dim (below middle) and Lights Off (below right) display modes.

The ‘most selected’ image Did you notice that in the screen shots on the previous page one of the selected images is surrounded by a lighter grey panel than the other? That means that it is the ‘most selected’ image: • The first image you select has the lightest border and is the ‘most selected’ image. • The next images you select have a light border. • Unselected images have a dark grey border. • You can use the ‘/’ key shortcut to deselect the ‘most selected’ image. The second image you selected then becomes the ‘most selected’ image. Keep in mind the following principles as we work our way through the ebook. They will help you understand the way selecting images works in Lightroom: • In Grid view (G), any changes you make will be applied to all selected images. • In Loupe view (E), any changes you make are applied to the ‘most selected’ image only.

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Searching images One of the benefits of Lightroom is that it is very easy to search through your images. The precise reasons you might do this depend on your needs. For example, you may have owned a 50mm prime lens for a number of years, and be curious to see photos taken with that lens. That’s simple to achieve in the Library module. You can also refine the search. You might choose to limit it to certain folders or Collections, to a specific date range, or even to photos taken using an aperture of f2.8 or greater. All these, or any combination, are possible. Incidentally, you could also carry out this search using a Smart Collection. I will show you how later in the ebook. Filter Bar Use the Filter bar to make a search. It’s positioned above your photos in the centre panel of the Library module. If you don’t see it, use the ‘\’ key shortcut to reveal it. Use Cmd + ‘L’ (PC: Ctrl + ‘L’) to turn the filters on and off.

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Filter bar

Tip: Use the Sort menu in the Toolbar to set the criteria determining the display order of images. The default is Capture Time, which displays images in the order they were taken. There are 11 more criteria to choose from (right). Click the Sort Direction icon (AZ icon) to reverse the display order. This simple search technique may be all you need to find the photos you are looking for in a folder or Collection. For example, let’s say you want to find all the photos in folder or Collection with the colour label green. Go to the Sort menu and select the Label Color option. Lightroom displays the images with colour labels first, and groups photos with the same colour label together.

Sort menu

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Selecting folders or Collections Your first task is to choose which folders (or Collections) to search. You do that by going to the appropriate panel and clicking on the relevant folders or Collections. Select more than one by holding down the Cmd (PC: Ctrl) key while you click:

Example 1: Search the folder Hawkes Bay and all subfolders.

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Tip: Use the Lock Icon on the right-hand side of the Filters bar to retain the current search settings when you go to another folder or Collection after performing a search. If it is in the unlocked position the filters will be turned off when you switch.

Example 2: Search the folder 2013 and all subfolders.

Example 3: Search the folders 01. January, 02. February, 03. March and all subfolders.

Searching by text

Library Filters The filters accessed through the Filter bar are called Library filters. They fall into three categories: Text, Attribute and Metadata. Selecting None turns the filters off. The double arrow icon on the right hand side of the filter bar provides a shortcut to commonly used search criteria.

Text The Text filter is for searching metadata for specific text, or combinations of text. The most useful searchable field here is keywords, assuming that you apply to keywords to your photos upon import. Example use: With landscape photos you could add the keywords ‘landscape’ plus the name of the country they were taken in to the images upon import. This makes it easy to search for landscape images taken in a specific country (enter the terms in the Keywords field) and bring them together in a single virtual folder.

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Attribute Lets you search according to pick status, star rating or colour label. You can also limit the search to include master photos, virtual copies or movie files.

Metadata This is the most powerful of the three filters. The default setup is shown on the right. You can add or remove columns (hover over the column heading and click on the arrow that appears on the right) and you can also change the search criteria in each column by hovering over the column heading and clicking the doublearrow icon that appears on the left. There are 26 search criteria to choose from in Lightroom 5, including some you won’t find in earlier versions such as Smart Preview Status. Note that each column is dependent on the results from the previous column to its left. For example, the first column in the example here includes all the images in my Raw folder. The second column lists all the cameras I have used in that nine year period, and the third all the lenses. If I limit the search to the year 2013 (bottom right) the second and third columns change to include only the cameras and lenses used during that year. Tip: You can combine any two search types search by clicking on both to activate them. You can even use all three for the ultimate customised search.

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Finally, there is one more way to search photos. If the Filmstrip is visible at the bottom of the screen you can enable Library filters by selecting one of the options from the menu on the far right (see below). The selected setting activates the relevant Text, Attribute or Metadata filters in the Filter Bar. The search is carried out in the selected folders or Collections.

Tip: Click the flag, rating or colour label icons in the Filmstrip to filter the displayed images by those criteria (right). You can combine filters: for instance, you could choose to display flagged images with a star rating of five and a colour label of red.

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Show Flagged images only.

Show images with a rating of five stars only.

Show images with a red colour label only.

Rating images

Flagged as pick.

Now, there seems to be as many ways of rating images as there are photographers, so I’m going to share the method that works for me here and then leave it up to you to decide what to do. My approach is based on the idea that I don’t want to spend too much time rating images – my aim is to narrow down the selection to the best images and the ones that I’m interested in processing. Whichever way you prefer to work, Lightroom gives you plenty of options for rating and grading images. That’s a good thing as some photographers have more complex rating and sorting criteria than others. Wedding photographers, for example, have different requirements to say, occasional landscape shooters. My approach differs according to the subject. If it’s a landscape shoot I may only take five or ten images. It’s easy to use flags to mark the ones that I want to process as it isn’t difficult to pick the best photos from such a small selection. Portraits, however, are different. I’ve had shoots where I’ve taken over 500 images. My aim is to get that number down to the thirty or so best that I will process properly. It takes time, so I want to simplify the process. I use Collections and Picks to do so. Adopting the system I will show you here has been one of the best things I’ve ever done. I’m much more organised in Lightroom because of it, and I spend a lot less time in the Library module than I used to. Lightroom provides three rating tools for you to use: flags, star ratings and colour labels. I’ll explain how they work over the next few pages. Star rating.

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Colour label.

Tip: One benefit of rejecting images is that Lightroom gives you the option of deleting them from your Catalog. You can do this by going to Photo > Delete Rejected Photos in the Library or Develop modules. Selecting this option deletes rejected photos from the currently active folder or Collection.

Flagging images The flag tool is very useful and is the basis of my method (which I explain fully in the section about Collections). The default status of imported images is unflagged. Press the ‘P’ key to flag an image as a pick. Lightroom displays a white flag next to the image (see above) and in the Toolbar. If you change your mind, just press the ‘U’ key to remove it. Press the ‘X’ key to mark a photo as rejected. Lightroom displays a black flag and greys out the image in Grid view. Use the ‘U’ key to remove it, or ‘P’ to flag it as a pick. Rejected images can still be selected and viewed in Compare or Survey Views.

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In the Folders panel (it doesn’t work with Collections) Lightroom gives you a choice between deleting rejected photos from the Catalog (which means they remain on your hard drive and can be re-imported) or deleting them from the hard drive as well. Deleting rejected files from your hard drive will save on disk space. But unless you have copies elsewhere, the files are gone forever. Whether you do that or not is down to you. The risk is that you may delete files that have emotional or documentary significance in the future. But it may be a useful way of saving hard drive space by deleting images that are poorly exposed or not focused properly.

Star ratings Star ratings assign images a value from one to five. The general approach seems to be to give the best images a five star rating and use the other star ratings for the rest. Imported images have a zero star rating by default. You can assign a rating by using the keyboard shortcuts ‘1’ to ‘5’ or by clicking on the star icons in the Toolbar. Lightroom displays the star rating next to an image and in the Toolbar (see right). Star ratings have a use in searches. For example, if you wanted to find your best portraits, you could search for images that have a five star rating and contain the keyword ‘portrait’. Naturally, this will only work if you adopt a consistent approach to keywords and star ratings from the beginning. My aim is to spend as little time in the Library module as possible, and decide which images to process in the Develop module as quickly as I can. For this reason I don’t use star ratings. An image either makes the cut or it doesn’t. I have no interest in wasting time trying to decide how many stars an image that I am not going to process deserves.

Five star rating.

Three star rating.

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Three star rating.

Colour labels The final way of rating an image is to assign a colour label. There are five to choose from: red, yellow, green, blue and purple. You can use these for any purpose you like. Lightroom gives you some options to get you started, or you can customise the settings to suit yourself. Suggestions I’ve come across include marking images for conversion to black and white, uploading to Flickr or for printing or uploading to a website. Another use is to help you keep track of images that you are processing. You could assign one colour to images that you want to process, another to images that are partly processed, and another to images that are finished. Go to Metadata > Color Label Set (while in the Library module) to view the colour label options (see right). From here you can select one of Lightroom’s Colour label sets or create your own. The colour label is displayed in the Toolbar and as a coloured frame around the photo in Grid view.

The selected image has a thin coloured frame around it to indicate the colour label.

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Unselected images have a thick coloured frame to indicate the colour label.

Colour label settings

This is a user created preset. The tick shows that it is the active Colour Label Set.

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Select Edit to alter, delete or rename an existing preset, or to create a new preset.

These are the Colour Label Sets that come with Lightroom.

These are the Lightroom default Colour label settings. You can leave them as they are, but it makes more sense to enter new values to remind you of their purpose. You can change any of the labels in any of Lightroom’s Colour label sets. Enter the new values, and click Change to finalise them. Alternatively, you can go to the Preset menu at the top and select Save Current Settings as New Preset to create a new custom colour label set.

The Bridge Default Colour label set uses the same settings as Adobe Bridge. It may be useful if you are accustomed to those colour label settings. The numbers on the right side of each field are keyboard shortcuts. The fifth colour label (purple) doesn’t have a keyboard shortcut; assign it a function that you don’t use as often as the others.

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The Review Status Colour label set gives you another way to use the colour labels.

If you forget what the Colour labels mean, you can quickly check by going to Photo > Set Color Label (Library, Develop and Map modules only). You can use this menu option to apply a colour label to the selected photo as an alternative to using the shortcut keys.

These are my colour labels. I don’t use the red and yellow labels much, but I do find the green and blue ones useful. You may like to read the section on Smart Collections before deciding how you will use Colour labels, as you can use both together to help organise and search your images.

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The Painter Activate the Painter by clicking on the spray paint can icon in the Toolbar (or go to Metadata > Enable Painting). It gives you a quick way of carrying out tasks such as flagging, adding keywords, rotating images or applying colour labels while you are in the Grid view of the Library module. You need to click on the double arrow icon to select which criteria you want to ‘paint’. The options in the Toolbar change according to the function selected (see right). Here’s what each allows you to do: Keywords: Label: Flag: Rating: Metadata: Settings: Rotation: Target collection:

Add one or more keywords Add a colour label Set to flagged, unflagged or rejected Apply a star rating Select a metadata preset to apply Select a Lightroom preset to apply Rotate images Add images to the Target Collection (this function is covered in more detail in the section about Collections).

Select the setting you want to apply. Lightroom displays the paint can icon when you hover over an image thumbnail. Click on the thumbnail itself (not the frame) to apply the change. Keep the mouse button held down to spray over several images. Use Cmd + ‘Z’ (PC: Ctrl + ‘Z’) to undo if you make a mistake.

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The Painter icon.

You can think of the Painter is as an alternate way of selecting images. Rather than using the Ctrl or Shift keys to select multiple images and then make an adjustment (such as adding a keyword) that affects them all, the Painter lets you modify one image at a time.

Other buttons There are five more buttons in the Toolbar in the Library module that you may find useful:

Here are some practical uses: • Adding keywords to images. It’s quicker to use the Painter to add keywords than it is to access each image individually. • Send images to a Target Collection. • Apply a specific Lightroom Develop preset to certain images. Scroll left or right through images.

• Apply a colour label. For example, if you have a colour label for photos that you want to convert to black and white, you can apply it while in Grid view using the Painter to the appropriate images. Rotate clockwise (r) or anti-clockwise (l).

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Play a slideshow of selected images.

the lef t hand panels Now it’s time to take a look at the left and right hand panels in the Library module. Let’s start with the left. These five panels are there to assist you with viewing and organising photos. The Navigator panel at the top helps you view images, and displays a thumbnail of the most selected image. The other four assist you in dealing with groups of images. One of those four panels, the Publish Services panel, is so useful that I’ve given it its own section. The others, the Catalog, Folders and Collections panels, all help you view, search and organise your photos. Let’s take a look at how you can use them.

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Working with panels These tips will help you control the four panels that surround the Content window. Each one contains useful information or functions, but there are times when you may want to move them aside to help you see the photos in the middle. Here are the keyboard shortcuts I showed you earlier. They work in every module:

Tab key: Shift+Tab keys:

Show or hide the left and right hand panels. Show or hide all four panels.

You can also click on the white arrows at the edges of the screen to hide or reveal individual panels. Right-clicking on the same arrows brings up more options:

Auto Hide & Show Enable this setting to make the panel appear when you move the cursor close to the edge of the monitor with the mouse, and disappear when you move the cursor away. If you click on the white arrow when you see the panel, the panel won’t disappear when you move the mouse away. Click on the white arrow again to make the panel disappear. This is the default setting.

Auto Hide The panel disappears when you move the cursor from it. You have to click the white arrow once to make it reappear, and twice to stop the panel disappearing when you move the mouse away.

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Manual The panel is only hidden or revealed when you click on the white arrow. This is the setting to use if you find panels that automatically appear or disappear annoying.

Sync with Opposite Panel Enabling this setting has a different effect depending on which of the preceding three options you have selected:

Auto Hide & Show The panel opens when you move the cursor to the edge of the screen. Click the white arrow to make the opposite panel come out as well. Both disappear together when you click the white arrow again.

Auto Hide Click on the white arrow once to make the panel appear, and twice to make the opposite panel appear as well. Both disappear together when you click the white arrow again.

Manual The panel and its opposite number open and close together when you click on the white arrow.

Solo Mode As you move through the modules you will see that there is anything between four and nine subpanels in each of the left and right hand side panels. If you have more than one subpanel open at a time, the screen becomes crowded and it can be difficult to find the option you are looking for. You can avoid this by enabling Solo mode. In Solo mode, Lightroom opens just one subpanel at a time. The only exceptions are the Navigator, Preview and Histogram subpanels. They sit at the top of their respective side panels and will stay open when you click on another subpanel. Right-click on a blank space in any side panel to bring up a contextual menu: The contextual menu varies depending on the module. At the top is a list of available subpanels. You can disable any of these if you don’t use them. When Solo Mode is enabled, Lightroom only opens one subpanel (other than the Navigator, Preview or Histogram subpanels) at a time. Use this option to hide or conceal the flourish underneath the subpanels.

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With Solo mode enabled, Lightroom only opens one subpanel at a time other than the Navigator (above), making it easier to find your way through the subpanels. The screen shot on the right shows the side panel with Solo mode disabled.

The Navigator The Navigator subpanel displays a thumbnail of the most selected photo.

In Loupe view, click on any of these ratios to magnify the image. More ratios are revealed when you click the double arrow icon. In Grid view or Survey view, clicking on any of the zoom settings takes you straight to Loupe view with the image magnified to that setting.

In Grid View or Survey view, click anywhere on the thumbnail to go straight to Loupe view.

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In Loupe view, click on Fit to show the entire image, or on one of the zoom ratio settings to magnify the image. Alternatively, click on the thumbnail once to go to the last used zoom setting. The white square indicates which part of the image you have magnified. Drag the square around to view different parts of the image.

The Folders panel Use the Folders panel to browse through the folders containing the Raw and photo files that you have imported to the Catalog. It mirrors the physical folder structure on your hard drive (or drives).

This heading shows your computer’s internal hard drive.

This heading shows an external hard drive. The numbers tell you the capacity of the hard drive and the amount of spare space in this format : spare space/capacity (figures rounded to one decimal point).

This figure tells you how many imported images are contained in each folder. It includes files contained in subfolders.

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Click this icon to create a new Collection, Collection Set or Smart Collection.

The Collections panel Perhaps the most difficult thing to get used to when you make the transition to Lightroom is using the Catalog to organise your images. It takes a while to see the advantages, and to learn how it can save you time. The limitations of organising images by folder are obvious. The date system I suggested earlier is convenient for the purposes of making back-ups. But it’s not so good for organising by subject or place. With Collections, however, you can organise your images any way you want. They sit at the heart of the Catalog and give you the freedom you need to arrange your images in a way that works for you. Collections are virtual folders. You can add any of the photos in your Catalog to any Collection. When you do so, the physical location of the photo is unchanged. It is still in its original folder on your hard drive. There is no limit to the number of photos you can add to a Collection, or to the number of Collections you can add a single photo to. You can also remove photos from a Collection. When you do so, the photo remains in the Catalog and isn’t deleted from the hard drive. Collections take up very little room in the Catalog. You can add or delete them as you need them. If you decide to change the structure of your Collections, you can do so easily. You can’t do the same with the physical folders where you keep your photo files, at least not without a great deal of inconvenience. They can also help you with your workflow – I will show you how shortly.

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These are Collection Sets. They contain Collections or more Collection Sets. You cannot add photos to a Collection Set.

These are Collections. The only thing you can put in a Collection is a photo.

These are Smart Collections. The ones pictured here are present in Lightroom when you install it.

There are many ways in which you can utilise Collections. The only limit is your imagination and ingenuity. That’s the beauty of the system – it adapts to your requirements. Whether they are simple or complex, there’s a way that Lightroom can help you.

Collections, Collection Sets and Smart Collections When it comes to the physical folders on your hard drive, a folder is just a folder. Each behaves the same way, according to the restrictions of your operating system. Collections are different. You can have a regular Collection, a Collection Set or even a Smart Collection. Each one behaves differently.

Collection

Smart Collection

A Collection is a virtual folder that contains photos. The file stays in its original physical folder – the Collection merely points to it. Collections differ from physical folders in that you cannot store another Collection inside a Collection. The only thing you can keep in a Collection is a photo (or video) file.

A Smart Collection is one that Lightroom fills with photos determined by rules that you create. You cannot add or remove photos from a Smart Collection – it is populated only by the criteria you put in place.

Collection Set A Collection Set is a virtual folder that contains Collections or other Smart Collections. You can’t store photos in a Collection Set.

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Smart Collections are an extension of the search functions available in the Filter bar. A Smart collection enables you to gather the images found by the search in one convenient place that you can return to in the future. Note that you cannot change a Collection from one type to another once it has been created.

If you right-click on any photo in your Catalog, regardless of whether it is in a Folder or a Collection, you will see a contextual menu similar to the one above. There are three options of interest:

Show in Finder (PC: Windows Explorer) Reveals the location of the photo on your hard drive. This is useful if you want to know where the photo is stored, for example if you want to copy it or open it in another program.

Go to Folder in Library Choose this option to open the Folders panel and go to the folder containing the photo.

Go to Collection This icon indicates that the photo has been added to at least one Collection.

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Click here to reveal to which Collections, if any, you have added the photo. Click on a name to open the Collections panel and go to that Collection.

Putting it together: Importing Raw files & Collections

1. Import images The aim is import your Raw files into the appropriate folder on your hard drive, optimising the Images for speed in Lightroom. For this, you need the DNG format.

Now it’s time to look at an example of how you can use Collections to simplify the process of selecting the best images from a shoot to edit. There are lots of ways of doing things in Lightroom, so don’t feel that you have to follow this system exactly. Follow it if it suits you, or adapt it to your own needs. The main benefit is that it keeps things simple, something I always like. Simplicity saves time, and that’s good for me. The approach you take depends as much on the number of photos you take during a single shoot as much as anything else. If you tend to take a hundred or more photos, then this system will save you a lot of time. If you only tend to take a few, then you can create less Collections than I do as you narrow down your photos to the best. This example takes you through the entire process from importing images to sorting them into Collections.

1. Connect the camera’s memory card to your computer and click the Import button at the bottom of the left-hand panels in the Library module. Select the Copy as DNG option at the top of the Import window.

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2. Open the File Handling panel in the Import window and set Render Previews to 1:1. Tick the Build Smart Previews box (Lightroom 5 only) if required.

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3. Select the Develop and Metadata presets to apply to the images upon import.

4. Choose where to save the imported Raw files. Click the Import button when you’re ready to start importing.

5. When the import is complete go to the Folders panel in the Library module and click on the folder containing the imported files. Go to Library > Validate DNG files to verify that the imported Raw files are okay. The import is complete.

2. Create Collections To get the most out of Lightroom you need to move away from using folders and start using Collections instead. In this section I will show you how to use Collections to speed up your workflow. This is a real example from a recent shoot where I took 304 photos.

1. Click on the New Collection icon to create a new Collection or Collection Set. Use the Create Collection window (above) to give it a name. Tick the Inside a Collection Set box to place the new Collection or Collection Set inside it.

2. To start I created a Collection Set using the name of the model. Any future Collections featuring this model will also go into this Collection Set.

3. I created another Collection Set and gave it a name that included the model’s name, the shoot location and the month and year it was shot.

4. I created four new Collections within the Collection set. You can see how I use them on the next few pages.

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5. Right-click on the Full Selection Collection and choose Set as Target Collection. Alternatively, you could set it as the Target Collection when you create it by ticking the Set as Target Collection box. Setting up a Target Collection gives you a quick way of adding images. All you have to do is select the photo or photos you want to add and use the ‘B’ keyboard shortcut. The first press sends the selected image or images to the Target Collection. If the image is already in it, pressing ‘B’ removes it.

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6. Go back to the folder containing your imported Raw images and go to Edit > Select All. Press the ‘B’ key to add them to the Collection named Full Selection. All the images in the folder have been added to the Collection.

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7. Now it’s time to take a good look at the photos in Full Selection Collection to see which ones are worth processing. In this example, I would like to narrow down the selection from the 304 originals to the best 30 or so I’d like to process in the Develop module.

8. Click on the Full Selection Collection. Lightroom displays the photos in that Collection in the Content window. Press the ‘F’ key to go into true full-screen mode. You’ll see the most selected photo enlarged on your monitor without any distractions (above).

Start by right-clicking on the Picks Collection and choose Set as Target Collection. Then go to Photo menu and click on the Auto Advance option to enable it, if it isn’t already. You’ll see a tick in the menu when it’s active (above).

This feature works in Lightroom 5 only. It’s a bit more long-winded in Lightroom 4: press ‘E’ to go to Loupe view, ‘F’ to enter full screen (removes menu bar), ‘Shift-Tab’ to hide the side panels, and ‘T’ to hide the Toolbar.

Tip: Right-click anywhere in full screen mode to change the background colour (above and right). The default colour is black.

9. Now, you’re ready to go. Press the ‘P’ key to flag an image as a pick, the ‘X’ key to mark it as rejected, the ‘U’ key to change your mind or the right arrow key to move onto the next one. With Auto Advance enabled, Lightroom displays the next image in the Collection whenever you use the ‘P’, ‘X’ or ‘U’ keys. You can also click on the image to zoom. This is useful for checking details. Lightroom zooms in to the last setting used in Loupe view. With this method you can move quickly through the images in the Collection. The aim is to select the images that have the most potential, and to reject any that are out of focus or poorly exposed. It doesn’t matter how many photos you flag as a pick – we will narrow them down shortly.

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10. Delete rejected images. This is up to you. I’m happy to delete most poorly exposed or out of focused images. I’m never going to use those images anyway, and they take up valuable hard drive space. Just be careful not to delete any images that may have documentary or emotional value to you in the future. To delete images from your hard drive, go back to the Folders panel and select the folder containing the image from your shoot. Then go to Photo > Delete Rejected Photos. Lightroom gives you the option of removing the images from the Catalog, or deleting from the hard drive as well (above). You can also go to Photo > Delete Rejected Photos from the Collections panel, but Lightroom will only remove the photos from the Catalog. It won’t delete them from your hard drive.

11. Back up your Raw files. Now you should back up your Raw files to two different external hard drives, preferably one of which is kept off-site. If you perform the back-up after deleting rejected photos, you will save hard drive space. If you don’t want to delete any Raw files, you can perform the backup after you have completed the import.

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12. Right-click on the Picks Collection and choose Set as Target Collection. Go back to the Full Selection Collection and enable the Filter bar (press the ’\’ key if you don’t see it). Click on the Attributes heading then on the white flag icon to group all the picks together. Select the picked images and press ‘B’ to send the to the Picks Collection.

13. Right-click on the Selects Collection and choose Set as Target Collection. Go back to the Picks Collection, select all the images (Edit > Select All) and press the ‘U’ key to remove the flag. Now you can narrow down the initial selection of picks to the images that you really want to process. Lightroom gives you several tools to help you make the decision. You can use full-screen (or Loupe view) to look at your images individually, or Compare or Survey view to see them in pairs or groups (covered in more detail on the next page). The latter options let you compare similar images to pick the best one. Finally, when you have made your selection, you can use the Filter bar to group the picked photos together and select them, and the ‘B’ shortcut to send them to the Selects Collection.

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Using Compare view If, as many photographers do, you have been ‘working the subject’ you will probably end up with many similar images. You presumably want to choose and process the best photo in a sequence, not all of them. Lightroom’s Compare and Survey views let you compare photos so you can select your favourites. They help you hone your selection so that it contains your highest quality images. To use Compare view, simply select two images (right) and hit the ‘C’ keyboard shortcut. You will see both images together, making it easy to decide which is best (see next page). Lightroom has its own terminology for the two images. The one on the left is the Select. This is the best photo – the one you intend to flag as a pick and eventually process. The other is the Candidate. This is the photo you are comparing the Select to. Use the arrow keys to scroll through the images in the Collection – the Candidate changes each time you press one. If you like the Candidate better than the Select, click the icon to turn it into a new Select. You can flag or unflag either image at any time. You can also click the ‘X’ icon to deselect an image, assuming that it is selected in the first place. It may not be, as using the arrow keys to scroll through images includes both unselected and selected photos.

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Select any two images (they don’t have to be adjacent) and press ‘C’ to go to the Compare view.

This image is the Select. This should be your favourite out of the sequence.

This image is the Candidate. The idea is to compare it with the Select. Use the left and right arrow keys on the keyboard to scroll through the images in the Collection.

Click this icon to make the Candidate become the Select.

Click this icon to go to Compare view.

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If this icon is in the lock position, both images will zoom in and pan around together when you zoom into one.

If the images are ‘unlocked’ you can zoom into one without zooming into the other. Press the Sync button to zoom into the other image too.

Click this icon to swap the images.

Tip: In Grid view, you can go to the drop down menu in the Filter bar and select Flagged at any time to show the images you have flagged as a pick in the Centre window.

Wondering how many photos have made it to your final selection? The answer lies in the Filmstrip. With Flagged selected in the Filter bar, I can see that I have picked 65 out of the 205 images in the Collection, and that one is currently selected.

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Using Survey view There are times when it may be helpful to compare more than two images at a time. That’s where Survey view comes in useful. The easiest way to use it is to start in the Grid view and select the images that you want to compare. Then click the Survey view icon, or use the ‘N’ keyboard shortcut to go to the Survey view. The option to flag or unflag each image, or apply a rating or colour code, is provided at the bottom. You can compare as many images as you like in the Survey view.

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Click this icon to go to Survey view. When you hover over an image, an X appears in the bottom right-hand corner. Click the X to remove the photo from the display. You can use this technique to reduce the selection to your favourites. Click on the flag icons underneath the images to flag the selected photo as a pick, or to remove the flag. Use the Toolbar icons to apply ratings and colour labels.

Collections and virtual copies One of the advantages of Lightroom is that it allows you to make a Virtual copy of any of your images. Virtual copies are identical to the original – the idea is that once you have made a Virtual copy you can then process it any way you like without affecting the original. This lets you have several versions of the same image (there is no limit to the number of virtual copies you can make). The main benefit of Virtual copies is that the copies take up very little space in your Catalog. Compare this way of working to Photoshop. If you want to make multiple copies of a TIFF or JPEG file in Photoshop, each copy you make occupies the same amount of hard drive space as the original. That quickly adds up. As Virtual copies use so little hard drive space, you are free to experiment with different ways of processing your images. A good example of this is working in black and white. Let’s say you have processed in image in colour, and you realise that it would also work well in monochrome. Just make a Virtual copy, and convert it to black and white. Now let’s say that you would like to tone the monochrome version, but are not sure exactly what colours you would like to use. You can create as many Virtual copies of the new black and white image as you like, toning each a different colour. It’s easy to compare the results and select your favourite. You can make things even easier by creating a new Collection specifically for photos that you want to convert to monochrome, and adding it to the Full Selection, Picks and Selects Collections. Even better, you can set the new Collection up so that it just contains Virtual copies, ready to work on. Here’s how:

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1. Go to the Selects Collection and mark the photos that you would like to convert to black and white. My method is to use the Painter to apply a green Colour label. You can do the same, or use an alternative such as keywords. 2. Click on the Attribute heading in the Filter bar and click the green square to filter the images. You will only see images with a green Colour label in the Content window (above). 3. Go to Edit > Select all to select all the images.

4. Click on the New Collection icon in the Collections panel and choose Create Collection. Call it something like ‘B&W’ and tick the Inside a Collection Set, Include selected photos and Make new virtual copies boxes (above).

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5. Your Collections for the shoot should now look something like those above, if you are using my suggested method for organising your images. The photos contained in the B&W Collection are Virtual copies. You can change them in any way you like without affecting the originals. You can also make more Virtual copies if required.

Smart Collections A Collection is similar to a folder in that you get to decide what photos should be included or removed. It’s up to you which photos are contained in a specific Collection. Smart Collections are different. They work on the basis that you can set rules to determine which photos should be included. Lightroom populates the Smart Collection automatically by searching through the Catalog and adding photos according to the criteria you set.

Lightroom already comes with several Smart Collections. They are listed at the bottom of the Collections panel (above). They are there as examples of how to use Smart Collections. They also may be of practical use to you, not only as a way of seeing which images you have added in the past month or have recently modified, but as a way of learning how Smart Collections work.

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Right-click on one of the Smart Collections and select Edit Smart Collection. The Edit Smart Collection window opens. Here you can see the rule (or rules) used to create the Smart Collection, and amend them if you wish to do so. From the illustration above you can see that the Recently Modified Smart Collection is set up to contain all images edited within the last two days. Feel free to change the value to whatever suits you.

Using Smart Collections: an example In general, I recommend that you use Collections rather than Smart Collections. They are easier to manage as they are not automated. But there are times when Smart Collections come in useful. One potential application is to use one to gather together images that you wish to upload to your website, or to photo sharing websites like Flickr and 500px. This lets you see all the photos that are either online, or that you are considering uploading, together. There’s an easy way to do this. Start by adding the keyword ‘website’ to any images that you would like to add to your website (or photo sharing site). This is easy to do while you are processing images – if you develop an image that you are particularly keen to share, it only takes a few seconds to add a keyword. Go to the New Collections icon in the Collections panel and select Create Smart Collection. The next thing you’ll see is the Create Smart Collection window. Give the Smart Collection a name (something like ‘Website images’). The bottom half of the Create Smart Collection window is where you get to set the rules that determine which images will be added. You can add as many rules as you like, but for this example we only need one.

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Go to the left-hand column and select the option Other metadata > Keywords. Set Match to All, and complete the rule by setting the middle column to Contains and typing website in the right-hand column (above). Click the Create button when you are ready to go. Lightroom creates the new Smart Collection.

Smart Collections – more uses Smart Collections have many uses. Another that I can think of, related to the previous example, is to add the keyword ‘portfolio’ to any image you think is worthy of addition to your portfolio. It’s then a simple matter to create a Smart Collection to bring all your portfolio images together. As you get proficient at searching images, you may think of ways to use Smart Collections to speed up your workflow. You have probably also noticed that the search criteria in Smart Collections are similar to those in the Filter bar. This means that instead of using the Filter bar to search for images, you could create a Smart Collection instead. Let’s say you have a 50mm prime lens – a common addition to many photographer’s gear collection. You may be curious, after you have owned such a lens for a while, to see all the photos you have taken with its maximum aperture together in one place. Here’s how to set up a Smart Collection that does this: 1. Click on the New Collection icon and select Create Smart Collection. Give it an appropriate name, such as ‘50mm f1.4’. 2. In the first column, select Camera Info > Focal length. Complete the rule by selecting ‘is’ and entering ‘50’ in the final column.

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3. Click the ‘+’ icon to add a new rule. Go to Camera Info > Aperture. Set ‘is’ and enter f1.4 (or the maximum aperture of your lens) in the final column. Click the ‘Create’ button when you are done.

This brings every photo in your Catalog taken with a 50mm lens and an aperture of f1.4 together in a single Smart Collection. The benefit of using a Smart Collection rather than searching with the Filter bar is that the Smart Collection is permanent. You can return to it at any time. You can also modify the search criteria if you wish, or delete it when you no longer need it.

Smart Collections and workflow It is possible to use Smart Collections in a sophisticated way to assist with your workflow. If you would like to learn more about this, photographer John Beardsworth outlines an interesting system on his website. You can read the article by clicking this link: www.beardsworth.co.uk/lightroom/workflow-smart-collections/

Smart Collections add great flexibility to Lightroom’s search functions. For instance, with the above example, you could:

Limitations of Smart Collections

• Widen the search to include all images taken with an aperture of f2.8 or greater.

Before you plunge into creating Smart Collections to handle all sorts of tasks, there are a couple of things you should bear in mind:

• Limit the search to photos taken with a specific camera. • If you use keywords, you could limit the results to those that include the keyword ‘portraits’. • Limit the result by date, so that you only see the photos taken in the last year. The possibilities are endless. I recommend spending some time playing with Smart Collections and familiarising yourself with the way the rules work. I’m sure you will find some interesting applications for them.

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• Smart Collections work best when you use ratings, colour labels, keywords and other metadata consistently throughout your entire Catalog. • Smart Collections don’t work well with Virtual copies. If you make a Virtual copy of an image in a Smart Collection, it isn’t added to the Smart Collection. Instead, you will find it in the folder (not the Collection) on your hard drive containing the original image.

Temporary Collections The other two are a new type of Collection – the Temporary Collection. The terminology is a little confusing, as these Collections will last until you either clear or delete them, which is potentially forever. They are called Temporary Collections because they are not designed to become a permanent part of your Collections structure. They are located in the Catalog panel so you don’t confuse them with your permanent Collections.

The Catalog panel The Catalog panel lies underneath the Navigator, but I’ve left it until the last part of this section as it contains a couple of temporary Collections that you may find useful. There are four category headings in the Catalog panel. You can think of all of these as Collections. Click on any one of them to display the photos contained inside in the Content window.

All Photographs This ‘Collection’ is straightforward – it contains all the photos (and virtual copies) in the current Catalog.

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Missing Photographs If you go to Library > Find All Missing Photos Lightroom creates a Temporary Collection called Missing Photographs in the Catalog panel (if you haven’t done this before, you won’t see the Missing Photos Temporary Collection). Missing photos have been imported into the Catalog but are no longer in the location where Lightroom expects to find them. There are a number of reasons that could happen: • The photos are saved on a hard drive that isn’t currently connected to your computer. In this case, the location is accurate, but Lightroom automatically flags the photos as missing as it can’t find them.

Previous Import

• The photos (or the folders containing them) have been moved, renamed or deleted from within Finder (Mac) or Windows Explorer (PC).

The photos added to the Catalog during the last import. You may find it useful to come here, rather than go to the Folders panel, when you organise your imported photos into Collections.

In the latter case, Lightroom no longer knows where those files are stored and needs your help to find them again.

The way to do it is to select the photo or folder you want to find, go to Photo > Show in Finder (PC: Show in Windows Explorer) and click the Locate button in the window that pops up. You can then navigate to the folder where the file is located, or search for it on your hard drive. Make sure you tick the Find nearby missing photos box at the bottom of the search window. That way if the new folder contains other missing photos, Lightroom will update those as well.

Previous Process Photos and Invalid DNGs

then send the images that Lightroom finds to the Quick Collection. The Quick Collection is permanent until you decide to clear or delete it, which means you can then go away and do other things, and return to it when you wish. The benefit of doing this is that it saves you the trouble of creating a Smart Collection, and then deleting it when you’re finished with it. The only disadvantage is that you can’t change the search criteria afterwards – you can only begin again and perform another search.

There are two more Temporary Collections that behave in a similar way to the Missing Photos Temporary Collection. In both cases, the results are placed in a Temporary Collection in the Catalog panel. Go to Library > Find Previous Process Photos to find and group all photos processed with any Lightroom process older than the current one. Lightroom searches the entire Catalog. Go to Library > Validate DNG Files to find and group any DNG files that fail the validation test. You can search specified folders or the entire Catalog.

Quick Collection The Quick Collection is a Temporary Collection where you can store photos you need for a one-off purpose. The idea is that it saves you having to create a permanent collection, then delete it afterwards if it is no longer needed. For example, in the previous section I showed how to use Smart Collections to search your images. There is often more than one way of doing things in Lightroom, and another way of performing a search is to use the Filter bar and

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You can only have one Quick Collection. The easiest way to use it is to right-click on the Quick Collection heading in the Catalog panel and select Set as Target Collection. You can then add photos to it (or remove them) using the keyboard shortcut ‘B’. You can also clear the Quick Collection by right-clicking and choosing Clear Quick Collection. If you decide that you want to turn it into a permanent Collection, you can do so by right-clicking and selecting Save Quick Collection. Lightroom saves it as a Collection titled ‘Quick Collection’. You can then go to the Collections panel and change the name to something more appropriate.

The R ight Hand panels If the left hand panels in the Library module are for organising and publishing your images, the six panels on the right help you apply metadata changes (such as adding keywords or contact details) or get a head start on developing by applying Develop presets. There’s also a histogram to help you assess the tonal distribution of the active image without having to move over to the Develop module. One of the benefits of using the Library module for these tasks is that you can select entire folders or Collections (or select groups of images in Grid view) and modify all the photos in the selection in one go. It helps you save time by enabling you to carry out as much work on a group of images as possible before moving over to the Develop module.

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The Histogram This panel displays a luminance histogram (grey) in front of three colour histograms (red, green and blue). The ISO, focal length, aperture and shutter speed used to create the selected image are displayed underneath. And at the bottom of the Histogram panel Lightroom tells you whether you are looking at the Original photo or a Smart Preview, or both. Unlike in the Develop module, you cannot use the ‘J’ keyboard shortcut to reveal shadow or highlight clipping.

The hard drive containing the selected file is connected, and no Smart Preview of the image exists.

The hard drive containing the selected file is connected, and a Smart Preview of the image exists.

The hard drive containing the selected file is not connected, and a Smart Preview of the image exists.

The hard drive containing the selected file is not connected, and no Smart Preview of the image exists.

If more than one image is selected, Lightroom displays the histogram and camera settings from the most selected image. Four icons are displayed under the histogram. From left to right they are: Originals without Smart Previews, Originals + Smart Previews, Smart Previews, Missing. The numbers tell you how many of the selected images are in each category.

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Quick Develop panel Use the Quick Develop panel to apply a Develop preset, or make global adjustments including white balance, contrast, exposure and aspect ratio. If you select more than one photo, the adjustments are applied to every image in the selection. The Quick Develop panel enables you to process your images roughly, or view the results of changing settings, without leaving the Library module.

The arrows next to each setting let you adjust the values of that setting by 1/3 stop (single arrow icon) or 1 stop (double arrow icon) in either direction. With settings that aren’t measured in stops, such as Temperature, you can think of the single arrow as a small increment and the double arrow as a large one. Note: The Clarity setting changes to Sharpening and Vibrance to Saturation when you press the Alt key.

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Keywording and Keyword List panels How much attention you pay to keywords is up to you. I don’t use keywords much, but I’m gradually finding uses for them as I get more organised within Lightroom. In the interests of saving time, I suggest you spend as little time with keywords as you can. Only use them if you really need to. Here are some situations where they come in useful: • You supply images to a stock library. • You export images to photo sharing websites like Flickr or 500px using Lightroom’s Publish Services (see next section). • You use Smart Collections to organise images by keyword. A good example of this is using the keyword ‘website’ to mark images that you would like to upload to your website. Whatever your approach to keywords, try and keep their use as simple as possible. If you can establish a methodology and stick to it from the outset, that will help you in years to come as your photo collection grows. Lightroom recognises keywords embedded into JPEG or TIFF files, or that have been added to Raw images with Adobe Camera Raw (ACR) in Photoshop. Embedded keywords appear in the Keywording and Keyword List panels.

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If the selected photo is already tagged with keywords Lightroom displays them here. You can enter keywords here. You can also type new keywords here. Click on any of these suggested keywords to add it to your photo. Choose one of Lightroom’s keyword sets here. The keywords in the set appear underneath, and you can click on them to add them to the photo. Tip: Keyword sets are a good way of ensuring a consistent approach to using keywords. You can edit a keyword set or create your own by selecting the appropriate option from the drop down menu.

Hierarchical keywords The more keywords you add to your photos, the more difficult it becomes to keep your keywords organised. The use of hierarchical keywords is one way around that. For example, let’s you have some photos taken in popular tourist attraction: Dongtai Road antiques market in Shanghai, China. You could enter hierarchical keywords like this:

Asia > China > Shanghai > Dongtai Road antiques market In this hierarchy the keyword ‘Asia’ is the most important, and ‘Dongtai Road antiques market’ the least important. The benefit of hierarchical keywords becomes apparent when you look at the Keywords List panel. The more keywords you add, the longer and more confusing it becomes. Hierarchical keywords help you retain control over that. Note: This example is relevant for Lightroom 5 only. In earlier versions, you use the ‘’ symbol to denote hierarchy. In Lightroom 4 (or earlier) the keyword sequence would look like this:

Asia < China < Shanghai < Dongtai Road antiques market

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You can enter hierarchical keywords in either of these spaces.

The Keyword list panel displays all the keywords used in the photos in your Catalog in alphabetical order. The number to the right of each keyword tells you how many photos in the Catalog use it. Can’t find a keyword? There’s a search field at the top of the panel to help you.

Move the mouse over a keyword and a white arrow appears. Click the white arrow to display every photo in the Catalog with that keyword. The search is performed by Lightroom in the Filter bar.

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The Metadata panel One of the reasons you may come to the Metadata panel is to look up the technical details of your images. If you are wondering what settings you used, or whether the flash fired during the exposure, then the answers are here. Another reason is to add your personal details. The easiest way to do this is to create a Metadata preset containing your name, contact details and copyright status and apply it to your images at the import stage. But, if you forget to apply it, or you need to change or add something, you can do that here.

Lightroom displays the metadata for the most selected photo in the Metadata panel.

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Click on the double arrow icon to reveal a list of Metadata settings. It is worth spending some time going through the options to see what information each one contains. The usefulness of each depends on your needs. Metadata is of more importance to photographers who prepare images for clients than it is for hobbyists. The Copyright status of your image is shown here. Even if you never intend to sell or even share your photos, it’s still a good idea to include your personal and copyright details. You just never know what you might do with your photos in the future.

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The technical details of your photo are here. You can refer to these if you want to know which settings you used. You can also use some of these settings as a basis for a search by clicking on the white arrows to the right. If you’re in Grid view, Lightroom will use the Filter bar to search for other images with the same setting in the selected folders or Collections.

THE LIGHTROOM PUBLISH SERVICEs

Imagine if you could export processed photos to a folder on your hard drive at the click of a button. Then that Lightroom will know if the photo has been updated, and tell you so that you can export the photo again. And what if you could do this with online photo sharing sites such as Flickr, 500px, Google +, Facebook and Behance? Well, you don’t have to use your imagination because the engineers at Adobe are way ahead of you. All this and more is made possible by Lightroom’s Publish Services. It’s even possible to set up your own cutting edge portfolio website and upload images to it directly from Lightroom. I will show you how in this chapter.

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You are probably aware that you export as many photos as you like to your hard drive (or to any of the other options supported by Lightroom’s Publish Services) by selecting them and going to File > Export. The Export window gives you all the options you need for choosing destination, image size, sharpening and adding watermarks. So, why are the Publish Services here? One reason is that they save you time. Once you have set up a Publish Service, you can use it any time, without having to reconfigure the Export window.

The potential for professional photographers to save time is enormous. The Publish Services make the task of setting up folders for deliverables (i.e. JPEG or TIFF files) for a client straightforward. It is also easy to see whether the latest version of an image is indeed the one in the client’s folder.

But the main benefit is that the Publish Services use another type of Collection (Adobe calls them Publishing Collections). These are like Collections except that they have just one purpose – to export the photos they contain to your hard drive (or another service like Flickr, 500px or Behance).

Hobbyists can make use of this feature too. Let’s say you have a folder on your hard drive where you keep photos to share with your family. Any time you decide that you’d like to share an image, you just add it to the appropriate Publishing Collection. You can update the folder on your hard drive any time you like.

Publishing Collections are a little like Smart Collections in that they have some dynamic features. In fact, they are quite clever. Let me explain. Imagine that you use the Publish Services to export photos to a folder on your hard drive where you store photos that you wish to upload to a stock photography website like Alamy. One way of doing this, in Lightroom, is to process the images and then export them to the appropriate folder. That works well if you never touch them again. But, in real life, sometimes you want to make changes. You may decide to process the image in a different way, or realise that you missed some dust spots, or add some keywords. Then you need to export the photos again, and find a way of keeping track of which images are modified.

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If you use Publish Services then Lightroom does the hard work for you. If you make any changes to an image contained within a Publishing Collection, Lightroom lets you know the next time you go to that Collection. You can see at a glance which images have been amended, and export them again with a single click.

Hard Drive Publish Service The Hard Drive Publish Service lets you export photos to a specific hard drive on your computer. You can set up as many Hard Drive Publish Services as you wish. Click the New Published Collection icon (below) and select Go to Publishing Manager to get started. You’ll see a window like the one on the right, where you can set up the Publish Service. Just like the Export window, you can select criteria such the destination, the file type, image size, sharpening and watermarks. Get started by clicking the Add button and selecting the Hard Drive service.

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The name of the folder you have set as the destination appears under the Hard Drive Publish Service. This is a Publishing Collection. Right-click and choose Set as a Target Collection to send photos to this Publishing Collection using the ‘B’ keyboard shortcut.

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You can add another Publishing Collection by right-clicking on the Hard Drive Publishing Service heading and selecting Create Published Folder from the menu. The name you give the new Publishing Collection is also the name of the subfolder the Publish Service will export images to. You can add as many new Published Folders as you like. You can also create a Published Smart Folder or a Published Folder Set. These behave in the same way as Smart Collections and Collection Sets.

When you add photos to a Publish Folder, Lightroom places them under the heading New Photos to Publish. Click the Publish button to begin the export.

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Published photos appear under the heading Published Photos. You can see at a glance which photos have been exported, and which ones haven’t. Click the Publish button to export any unpublished images.

If you amend a photo that has already been exported, Lightroom places it under the heading Modified Photos to Re-Publish. Any change, however minor (even the addition of a single keyword), is enough to trigger this action. Click the Publish button to republish modified images.

Flickr Publish Service If you have a Flickr account you can set up a Lightroom Publish Service to export photos directly to your account. It works the same way as the Hard Drive Publish Service. Each time you go to the Flickr Publish Collection you can see which photos have been published, if there are any new images waiting to be exported, or any modified images. These are the benefits of using the Flickr Publish Service: • Simplifies the export process. There is no need to store photos destined for Flickr on your hard drive, or to go to the Flickr website or use the Flickr Uploadr app. • You can set the export size within the Publish Service, and it stays consistent for all exported images. You can set it to export small photos that are of limited use if they are stolen.

To set up the Flickr Publish Service start by going to the Lightroom Publishing Manager and clicking the Add button. Select Flickr in the Create New Publish Connection window and give the new service a name (above).

• You can add a watermark, or change it, at any time and republish all your images with the new watermark.

Click the Authorize button in the Lightroom Publishing Manager to connect to Flickr and give Lightroom permission to upload photos to your account.

• You can manage multiple Flickr accounts. • You can enter a title, caption and keywords in Lightroom. You can use Keyword Sets to keep your keywords consistent.

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You can change or deauthorise your Flickr account here. Tells Flickr where to read the title of the photo from. Leave on IPTC Title to get it from the title field in the metadata. If you want to rename the files when you export them to Flickr, you can do so here. Tick this box if you want to export video as well as stills. Use the menus underneath to set video quality.

Set file type and quality here. Set file size here. Adjust the sharpening settings if you wish here. Flickr automatically sharpens uploaded images so it may not be necessary. Decide which metadata to keep in uploaded images. Tick Remove Location Info if your photos contain GPS data that you don’t want people to see.

Set Privacy settings here.

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Facebook, Behance and 500px The Facebook and Behance publish services work in a similar way to Flickr. You can also set up a Publish Service for 500px, but you need to download the 500px Lightroom plug-in first. You can do so from this link: http://500px.com/lightroom After you have downloaded the plug-in, you need to go to the Lightroom Plug-in Manager (File > Plug-in Manager) to configure the plug-in (right).

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Koken Lightroom comes with Publish Services already set up for Flickr, Behance and Facebook. All you need to do is enter your account details and set them up. We’ve already seen that the Publish Services can be extended using third-party plug-ins. This system allows other people to build plug-ins that let you take advantage of Lightroom’s Publish Services. 500px is a good example. Another that you will find useful if you’d like to create your own portfolio website is Koken. Koken is free content management software (CMS). All you need to set up a Koken based website is your own domain name, hosting plan and a little technical know how. The best thing about Koken, from a photographer’s point of view, is that it has been designed specifically for photographers, artists, designers and other professionals who need to display a showcase of their work online. The software has been designed with the end user in mind and has a lot of features that makes it more attractive to use than other CMS solutions like WordPress. If you’d like to learn more about Koken and how it works, or to download the software and the Lightroom plug-in, you can do so at the official Koken website: http://koken.me/

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Benefits of Koken The Koken Lightroom Publish Services plug-in allows you to upload photos directly from Lightroom (version 3 and higher) to your website. If you use Lightroom’s Publish Services already you have probably begun to see the possibilities. Here are some of the benefits: • You can tag any photo that you want to upload to your website with a keyword like ‘website’ or ‘Koken’ and create a Smart Collection or Smart Published Folder to bring them all together. • You can create Published Collections within the Koken Publish Service. Each automatically becomes an album in Koken (i.e if you create a Published Collection called ‘Portraits’ it becomes an album called ‘Portraits’ on your Koken website). This lets you organise photos and albums for your website in Lightroom. As with the other Publish Services, you can see at a glance which photos are waiting to be exported, or which have been modified. • If you update a photo contained in a Koken Publishing Service Collection Lightroom lets you know so that you can update it on your website as well. When you republish it, the latest version is uploaded. It overwrites the earlier one and the website updates automatically.

• You can enter the title, description and tags in Lightroom, and Koken will recognise them. This means you can carry out your metadata updates in one place. It saves you having to type those details in again when you upload images to your website. • What happens if you want to add a copyright watermark to the images on your website, or change the watermark you use? With any other system you would have to add the watermark manually and upload the photos again. With the Koken Publish Service, you can add (or change) the watermark with a few clicks of your mouse and upload the new photos automatically. • Are you a professional photographer who needs to upload photos to a private album on your website for clients to view? If you use Lightroom to process your images, then Koken’s integration with Lightroom’s Publish Service makes it easy. And when you’re done with the album, you can just delete it from within Koken. • Koken comes with a number of built-in themes. You can customise them to suit your needs or even design your own theme if you have the skill. The illustration on the right is a screen shot from a portfolio I set up on my website using Koken. You can visit it at this link: www.andrewsgibson.com/portfolio/

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What’s new in the library module? While this ebook is written for users of both Lightroom 4 and 5, Lightroom 5 does have some new functions you won’t find in earlier versions. The most exciting of these are in the Develop module, but there have been some improvements to the Library module too. This section lists the most important new features. Some are major, some are minor, and their importance to you will depend on how you use Lightroom to organise your photos.

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Press the ‘F’ key in Lightroom 5 to get from this – to this.

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Smart Previews

True full-screen

In earlier versions of Lightroom, the hard drive containing your Raw files has to be connected to your computer in order to use the Develop module. With Smart Previews, that’s no longer the case. This feature benefits laptop users who store their Raw files on an external hard drive the most. Now, if you go away from home, you can take your laptop and leave the external hard drive containing your Raw files behind, yet still use Lightroom to edit your images.

Press the ‘F’ key to enter a true full-screen mode. Lightroom displays your photo along on a plain background. There is nothing else on the screen to distract you. In older versions of Lightroom the ‘F’ key cycles through two full-screen modes. That feature is still available in Lightroom 5, use Shift + ‘F’ to activate it.

Smart Collections The Smart Collection criteria are grouped differently in Lightroom 5. There are also some additional search options. Examples include Smart Preview status, bit depth, number of colour channels, colour mode, colour profile and file type (including PNG, a format not supported in earlier versions of Lightroom).

Above: There are more options for searching by image size in Lightroom 5.

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Above: There are also more options for searching by colour. This could be helpful for organising JPEG or TIFF images.

Above: You can now create a Smart Collection containing images that have Smart Previews.

Metadata search There are two new search options in the Metadata attribute in the Filter bar. You can now search by Smart Preview status, and PNG recognition has been added to the File type criteria.

Set as Target Collection box When you create a new Collection, the option to set it as the Target Collection has been added to the Create Collection window. As in earlier versions, when a Target Collection is activated, the ‘B’ keyboard shortcut sends the selected photo or photos to the Target Collection.

Lock zoom position Go to View > Lock Zoom Position to retain the zoom settings when you move between photos in the Library. Lightroom remembers the zoom ratio and the position that you have zoomed into. This is useful for checking details like accurate focus on a set of similar images.

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Hierarchical keywords

Validate DNG files

Hierarchical keywords are entered differently.

Go to Library > Validate DNG files to let Lightroom check your DNG files. Invalid DNG files are placed in a Collection. This feature helps you verify that imported files are not corrupted before you delete the originals from your camera’s memory card.

For example, typing Country > New Zealand into the Keyword Tags field adds both keywords to the photo’s metadata. In this example, New Zealand is a child keyword of country. The Hierarchy is repeated in the Keyword List panel, making it easier to see which keywords you have used. Older versions of Lightroom the ‘