Lightroom bits and pieces

I wanted to do a post to address the Lightroom info that people are searching for lately. There are a few questions that seem to come up regularly. Here are a few of those questions, and some things I’ve helped my friends with lately.

This is a simple thing, but it had a friend of mine stumped. Have you ever been using the adjustment brush or spot removal tool and lost the cursor? You can see it over the panels and the rest of your computer screen, but not over your image? Make the brush bigger. If you make the brush too small you will not be able to see it over your image. I have only had this problem on my MacBook pro, since you can scroll with 2 fingers on the trackpad to change the brush size. With one swipe of the trackpad your cursor disappears!

Another frequent question about the tools in the tool strip is how to hide or show the ‘pins’ that show where the brush or gradient begins. Simply press the ‘H’ key to hide the pins, and again to show them. This also applies to the dust removal tool as well. Press ‘H’ to show or hide the circles where the dust was removed. To show or hide adjustment’s mask, or areas that are being affected, press the ‘O’ key. Press shift+O to change the mask to a different color. For example, if your image is mostly red, you would want to change the color of the mask so you could see the mask against the image.

Keep an eye out for more quick tips like this in my column on the DP Experience website. This new site features a great podcast with Rick Sammon and Juan Pons, and lots of info about shooting and processing your digital images. The site officially launches on December 1.

Please email me with questions or ideas for more quick tips.

My Lightroom Workflow- Sorting and Smart Collections

I had planned to write this post today BEFORE I read Scott Kelby’s post this morning about collections in Lightroom. It was interesting to read his post because we pretty much end up at the same place, but we take a different route to get there…

As you know from my previous post, I import the photos from a shoot into their own folder on my hard drive. For this example let’s say I’m working with a folder called “0001_landscapes”. Before I begin sorting I create a collection set by clicking the plus (+) icon in the collections panel. I give the set the same serial number and description as the folder that contains the images I’m using. In this case I would name the set “0001_landscapes”. I click plus (+) again and create a new smart collection within the “0001_landscapes” set I just created. I call the smart collection “landscapes picks”. The rules for this smart collection are “Pick Flag is flagged” and “folder contains 0001”. I create one more smart collection within the set called “landscapes stars” with the rules “rating is 1-star” and “folder contains 0001”. Now I can sort my images and my collections are populated automatically.

I start my sorting by selecting the folder I want to work on in the ‘folders’ panel on the left side of the Library module. I double-click the first image to enlarge it and press shift-tab to hide the side, top and bottom panels so that my image is as large as possible. The keys I use for my first sort are ‘P’ for pick and ‘X’ for reject. Press the ‘caps lock’ to automatically advance to the next image as you pick or reject a shot. I go through the photos adding a pick flag to my favorites and a rejected flag to shots that are out of focus or otherwise beyond repair. I press command-delete (mac) to remove the rejected photos from the folder.

Now I click on my “landscapes picks” collection, which now contains all of my flagged images. This time I want to select the cream of the crop. Photos that I might show to a client or add to my portfolio. For my favorites I use 1 star. You can use 1 to 5 stars, but for me it’s either a star or not. I go through the “picks” and use the ‘1’ key to add a 1-star rating to my favorite shots. Now my smart collections contain my favorite shots and I can access them easily for editing or exporting.

For complex shoots, a wedding for example, you can create collections for ‘formal’, ‘reception’ etc. You can then create smart collections that include picks and stars from a particular collection. Just add the collection’s name as one of the rules for the smart filter.

I use Lightroom’s color labels for HDR and panoramas. I give the images I shoot for HDR processing a red label, and shots for panoramas a purple label. Then I can find these images easily using the library filters, or I can create smart collections that add these photos automatically.

Next week I’ll get into more develop module ideas, and put some of these ‘star’ images to good use.

My Lightroom Workflow- file management ideas

When I started posting Adobe Photoshop Lightroom tutorials a few weeks ago I started with the adjustment brush. It occurred to me that the adjust brush is a weird place to START a series about Lightroom, so I decided to go back to the beginning and talk about my workflow. For me, the most important part of “workflow” is the FLOW. The more images you deal with the more important it is to develop a system to keep track of them easily. It’s much easier to think creatively about your work when you’re not trying to find lost images and worrying over files and hard drives. This is about what works for me, and maybe it will give you some ideas for your own workflow.

I started thinking seriously about “workflow” after reading The Digital Photographer’s Notebook by Kevin Ames. Kevin deals with TONS of images and has great ideas about how to keep track of them. Just when I thought I had a system worked out, I switched from an iMac to a Macbook Pro for most of my editing and added two small external hard drives. I didn’t realize how much that would end up changing my routine, or how much happier I would be after the change. This is how I go about importing images, and where I keep them all…

My system involves two hard drives and Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. I happen to use two external drives, but you could just as easily use your computer’s hard drive and one external drive. I have three directories on my main “photo” drive- “photos”, “catalogs” and “main Catalog”. When I import a shoot, I begin by creating a new Lightroom catalog. Hold the ‘option/alt’ key when opening Lightroom, then select “New Catalog”. I save the new catalog in the “catalogs” directory on the “photo” drive, and give it a serial number and a descriptive name. I like using a serial number because it keeps your files in chronological order, and I find it easier to use a 4-digit SN than a 6 or 8-digit numerical date. I use the ‘Import’ dialog within Lightroom. I create a file inside the “photos” directory with the same serial number and name as the catalog I created. All of the photos get converted to DNG and copied into this folder. I add my copyright info as a metadata template, and add any keywords that apply to all of the photos. I select ‘standard’ for the initial previews and import the photos. I do most of my sorting and adjustments in this catalog. When I’m mostly finished editing the photos in a new catalog, I open the “main catalog” on my “photo” drive and select “import from catalog” to add the new photos to my master catalog. I import the photos without moving them, because they’re already in my “photos” folder. This gives me an easy way to access all of my photos, and I can open the individual catalogs if I want to work on a shoot separately. I use a lot of collections and smart collections, and with a main catalog I can make collections using photos from more than one shoot.

I use an app called Carbon Copy Cloner to backup the “catalogs”, “photos” and “main catalog” folders to another external drive immediately after importing new photos, and three times a week. By keeping the catalogs and photos on external drives I can easily use virtually any computer that has Lightroom 2 installed. I can download photos each day when I’m traveling, then when I want to print my photos I simply plug my “photo” drive into my desktop computer that drives my printer. Nothing needs to be copied or exported because I’m using the same drive and catalog with both computers.

I will talk about how I sort my images next week, including how I use collections and smart collections. Have a great week!