- Getting started
- Organizing folders
- Using collections to organize images
- Taking your collections on the road
- Using flags and ratings
- Adding metadata
- Tagging faces in the People view
- Organizing photos by location
- Finding and filtering files
- Reconnecting missing files and folders
- Review questions
- Review answers
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Taking your collections on the road
Lightroom Classic CC enables you to sync photo collections between your desktop computer and your mobile devices so that you can access, organize, edit, and share your photos anywhere, anytime. Whether you’re working in Lightroom on your desktop or on your iPad, iPhone, or Android device, any changes you make to photos in a synced collection will be automatically updated on the other device.
Setting up to go mobile
Lightroom CC will let you sync from only one catalog, so you can start by creating a personal catalog rather than syncing your LRClassicCIB Catalog.
If you already have a personal catalog, load it now; if you have not already established a personal catalog, do so now (File > New Catalog).
There are no lesson images provided for this section; you’ll need to import a selection of your own photos. Lightroom Classic CC syncs designated collections from your desktop catalog, rather than individual images or folders, so you’ll also need to create at least one collection to work with.
Import the photos you’d like to sync. Make a selection in the Grid view; then, click the plus sign (+) at the right of the Collections panel header and choose Create Collection. In the Create Collection dialog box, make sure the option Include Selected Photos is checked and all the other options are disabled; then, click Create. Select another group of photos and create a second collection.
Install Lightroom CC for mobile on your device. You can download the app free from iTunes or the Apple App Store (iPad and iPhone), or from Google play (Android), on a trial basis; then, choose a subscription plan later if necessary.
Syncing photos from Lightroom Classic CC
Note
This exercise assumes that you have already signed in to Lightroom Classic CC with your Adobe ID. If you have not yet signed in, you’ll need to do so before you begin; choose Help > Sign In.
Move the pointer over your name in the identity plate at the upper left of the workspace. Click the small white triangle to open the Activity Center menu, and then choose Sync With Lightroom CC.
In the Collections panel, click the empty checkbox at the left of the name of one of your new collections to sync it to Lightroom CC. If the Share Your Synced Collections tip appears, dismiss it for now.
A syncing progress notification appears at the upper left; in the Collections panel, the empty checkbox is replaced by a two-way arrow icon indicating that the collection is synced. Repeat the process for your other collection(s).
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Tip
You can disable syncing for a mobile collection by clicking the two-way arrow sync icon next to the name of the collection in the Collections panel or by right-clicking / Control-clicking the collection and un-checking Sync With Lightroom CC in the context menu.
You can also sync an existing collection by right-clicking / Control-clicking the collection name and choosing Sync With Lightroom CC from the context menu. When you create a new collection with syncing activated, you’ll find a Sync With Lightroom CC option in the Create Collection dialog box.
Expand the Catalog panel, if necessary; a new All Synced Photographs entry in the Catalog panel shows an image count for your synced photos. In the Grid view, the thumbnails of synced photos show a two-way arrow badge in the upper right corner of the image cell.
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Viewing synced photos on your mobile device
On your mobile device, tap the Lightroom CC app icon; then, sign in to Lightroom CC for mobile with your Adobe ID, Facebook, or Google.
The first screen you’ll see is the Albums view, which lists the collections you’ve synced from your desktop, as well as those you may create in Lightroom CC mobile, and also offers an All Photos view where you can browse all your synced images.
Tap with two fingers to show extra information about the albums in the list.
In the Albums view, tap All Photos to see all of your synced photos. Tap the three dots (...) at the right of the header and choose Grid View > Segmented.
Tap the Back button (<) at the upper left to return to the Albums view. Tap one of your synced albums to see its contents in Grid view. Tap the three dots (...) to access view actions and settings; then, try the sorting options. Tap the Grid view with two fingers to cycle metadata information for each photo in the album.
NoteYou’ll learn about editing your photos in Lightroom CC for mobile in Lesson 5, Developing Basics, and how to share collections via Lightroom CC on the web in Lesson 10, Publishing Your Photos.
On your desktop computer, choose File > Open Recent > LRClassicCIB Catalog.
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Stacking images
Another effective way of organizing images within a folder or collection is by creating stacks.
Stacks are ideal for reducing clutter in the Grid view—and the number of thumbnails you need to scroll through in the Filmstrip—by grouping similar or related photos so that only the top image in each stack is displayed. You can stack a selection of images of the same subject, a series of photos shot to test different camera settings, or action shots taken using burst mode or auto-bracketing.
A stack can be identified in the Grid view and the Filmstrip by an icon representing a stack of photos, together with an image count, in the upper left corner of the thumbnail.
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You can expand or collapse the stack by clicking the stack icon; rearrange the order of the photos within the stack or specify which image appears at the top either by choosing commands from the Photo > Stacking menu or by using keyboard shortcuts.
When you’re working with a folder containing hundreds of photos from the same shoot, you can have Lightroom stack the images automatically based on capture time; you can specify the time interval between stacks so that your shots are grouped in a way that reflects the flow of the shoot.
To create a stack, select two or more images in the Grid view or the Filmstrip, and then choose Photo > Stacking > Group Into Stack.
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To learn more about Stacks, please refer to Lightroom Classic CC Help.
Applying keyword tags
Perhaps the most direct way to mark your photos so that they’re easier to find later is by tagging them with keywords—text metadata attached to the image files to categorize them by subject or association.
For example, the image in the illustration at the right could be tagged with the keywords Vacation, Copenhagen, and Seaside, and could therefore be located by searching for any combination of one or more of those tags. If the Thumbnail Badges option is activated in the Library View Options dialog box, photos with keyword tags are identified by a keywords badge (
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You can apply keywords to your photos individually or tag an entire series of images with shared metadata in one operation, thereby linking them by association and making them easier to access amongst all the photos that make up your library. Keywords added to images in Lightroom can be read by Adobe applications such as Bridge, Photoshop, and Photoshop Elements, and by other applications that support XMP metadata.
Viewing keyword tags
Because you applied keyword tags to the images for this lesson during the import process, the thumbnails in the Grid view and the Filmstrip are all marked with the keywords badge. Let’s review the keywords you already attached to these photos.
Make sure that you are still in the Grid view, and then select the Lesson 4 folder in the Folders panel.
TipClicking the keyword badge of an image in Grid view will automatically expand the Keywording panel.
Show the right panel group, if necessary; then, expand the Keywording panel. Expand the Keyword Tags pane at the top of the panel. By selecting each thumbnail in the Grid view in turn you can confirm that all of the images in the Lesson 4 folder share the keywords “Lesson 4” and “Europe.”
Select any one of the photos in the Lesson 4 folder. In the Keyword Tags pane at the top of the Keywording pane, select the text “Lesson 4” and press the Backspace key on your keyboard to delete it.
Click anywhere in the Grid view, and then choose Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A / Command+A to select all the Lesson 4 photos. In the Keyword Tags pane, the keyword “Lesson 4” is now marked with an asterisk to indicate that this tag is not shared by every image in the selection.
Expand the Keyword List panel.
In the Keyword List, a check mark in front of the keyword “Europe” indicates that this tag is shared by every image in the selection, while the tag “Lesson 4” is marked with a dash—indicating that it attached to some, but not all, of the selected images. The image count to the right of the Lesson 4 tag shows that it is shared by only ten of the eleven images.
With all eleven images still selected, click the dash mark in front of the Lesson 4 tag to reinstate the deleted tag; a check mark replaces the dash and the image count for the Lesson 4 keyword increases to 11.
Tip
You can apply an existing keyword tag to selected images by clicking the tag in the Keyword Suggestions pane in the Keywording panel. To remove a tag from a selected photo or photos, either delete the word from the Keyword Tags pane in the Keywording panel, or click the checkbox to disable that keyword in the Keyword List panel.
Adding keyword tags
You already added keywords to your images during the process of importing them into your Lightroom library. Once the images have been added to your Lightroom library, you can add more keywords by using the Keywording panel.
In the Folders panel, select the Vacation subfolder inside the Lesson 4 folder, and then choose Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A / Command+A.
In the Keywording panel, click in the grey text box right above the Keyword Suggestions pane and type Copenhagen, Denmark. Make sure to separate the words with a comma as shown in the illustration at the right, below.
NoteAlways use a comma to separate keywords; words separated by a space (Copenhagen Denmark)or by a period(Copenhagen. Denmark) will be treated as a single keyword.
Press Enter / Return. The new keywords are listed in alphabetical order in the Keywording panel and in the Keyword List.
In the Folders panel, select the Lesson 4 folder, and then choose Edit > Invert Selection to select all the images other than the eight in the Vacation folder.
In the Keywording panel, click in the text box below the Keyword Tags pane and type France. Press Enter / Return.
Choose Edit > Select None or press Ctrl+D / Command+D on your keyboard.
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Working with keyword sets and nesting keywords
Tip
Keyword sets are a convenient way to have the keywords you need at hand as you work on different collections in your library. A single keyword tag may be included in any number of keyword sets. If you don’t see the Lightroom presets in the Keyword Set menu, open the Lightroom Preferences and click the Presets tab. In the Lightroom Defaults options, click Restore Keyword Set Presets.
You can use the Keyword Set pane in the Keywording panel to work with keyword sets; groups of keywords compiled for a particular purpose. You could create a set of keywords for a specific project, another set for a special occasion, and one for your friends and family. Lightroom Classic CC provides three basic keyword set presets. You can use these sets as they are or as starting points for creating sets of your own.
Expand the Keyword Set pane in the Keywording panel, if necessary, and then choose Wedding Photography from the Keyword Set menu. You can see that the keywords in the set would indeed be helpful in organizing the shots from a big event. Look at the categories covered by the other Lightroom keyword sets. You can use these as templates for your own keyword sets by editing them to suit your needs and saving your changes as a new preset.
Grouping your keywords in Keyword Sets is one way to keep your keywords organized; another handy technique is to nest related tags in a keywords hierarchy.
Ctrl-click / Command-click to select the keywords “Denmark” and “France” in the Keyword List panel; then, drag the selected tags onto the keyword “Europe.” The Europe expands automatically to show the Denmark and France tags nested inside.
In the keyword list, drag the Copenhagen tag onto the keyword “Denmark.” The Denmark tag expands to show the nested Copenhagen tag.
Right-click / Control-click the keyword “France” and choose Create Keyword Tag Inside “France” from the context menu.
In the Keyword Name text box, type Paris. Make sure the first three Keyword Tag Options are activated as shown in the illustration below; then, click Create.
Include On Export Includes the keyword tag when your photos are exported.
Export Containing Keywords Includes the parent tag when your photos are exported.
Export Synonyms Includes any synonyms associated with the keyword tag when your photos are exported.
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Expand the France tag; then, right-click / Control-click the keyword “Paris” and choose Create Keyword Tag Inside “Paris” from the menu. Type Eiffel Tower; then, click Create. Expand the Paris tag to show all the tags in the hierarchy.
In the Folders panel, select the Lesson 4 \ Architecture folder, and then choose Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A / Command+A. Drag the Paris and Eiffel Tower tags from the Keyword List onto any of the selected images in the Grid view.
In the Keyword List, check marks in front of the new Paris and Eiffel Tower tags, and the image count to the right of each entry, indicate that both keyword tags have been applied to all three selected photos.
In the Folders panel, select the Lesson 2 folder. If you see more than nine images in the Grid view, disable the menu option Library > Show Photos In Subfolders. Choose Edit > Select All or press Ctrl+A / Command+A. Move the pointer over the Denmark tag in the Keyword List, and then click the empty check box to the left. Press Ctrl+D / Command+D or choose Edit > Select None; then, select all but the four farmhouse interiors. Drag the keyword “Copenhagen” onto any of the five selected images.
In the Folders panel, select the Lesson 1 folder. Select all nine images and drag the Denmark tag from the Keyword list onto any of the selected photos.
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Searching by keywords
Once you’ve taken the time to organize your images by adding keywords and other metadata such as ratings, flags, and labels, it will be easy to set up sophisticated and detailed filters to find exactly the photo you’re looking for.
For now, we’ll look at some techniques for finding the photos in your library by searching (or filtering) for keywords alone.
Choose Library > Show Photos In Subfolders. In the left panel group, collapse other panels if necessary, so that you can clearly see the contents of the Catalog and Folders Panels. In the Folders panel, select the Lesson 4 folder, and then choose Edit > Select None or press Ctrl+D / Command+D.
Use the Thumbnails slider in the Toolbar to reduce the size of the thumbnails to the minimum, so that you’ll be able to see as many images as possible in the Grid view. If the Filter Bar is not already visible above the Grid view, choose View > Show Filter Bar, or press the Backslash key (\).
TipIf you find that you cannot have two panels open at the same time in either of the side panel groups, right-click / Control-click the header of any panel in the group and disable the Solo Mode option in the context menu.
In the right panel group, collapse other panels if necessary, so that you can see the contents of the expanded Keyword List panel.
In the Keyword List panel, move your pointer over the entry for the keyword “Europe,” and then click the white arrow that appears to the right of the image count. Press Ctrl+D / Command+D or choose Edit > Select None.
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In the left panel group, All Photographs is now selected in the Catalog panel, indicating that your entire catalog has been searched for photos with the Europe tag.
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The Metadata filter has been activated in the Filter bar at the top of the work area, and the Grid view now displays only those images in your library that are tagged with the keyword “Europe.”
Tip
To transfer lists of keywords between computers or share them with colleagues who are also working in Lightroom, use the Export Keywords and Import Keywords commands, which you’ll find in the Metadata menu.
In the Keyword column at the left of the Metadata filter pane, expand the Europe entry; then, click the nested Denmark tag.
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The images in the Grid view are filtered so that only the 26 photos with the Denmark tag are still visible. Now you’ll use a different technique to narrow the search further.
Click Text in the Filter Picker in the Filter bar at the top of the work area. In the Text filter bar, choose Any Searchable Field from the first menu and Contains from the second menu, noting the options available in each menu; then type Copenhagen in the text box at the right and press Enter.
TipYou can use the lock button at the right end of the Filter bar to keep your current filter settings active when you choose a different image source from the Catalog, Folders, or Collections panels.
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Only twenty photos are still visible in the Grid view—not only those tagged with the Copenhagen keyword, but also those from the Copenhagen Color collection you created in Lesson 1. Of course, the true power of the Library filters only comes into play when you set up more complex filters based on a combination of criteria, but this exercise should have given you at least a glimpse of the possibilities.
In the center of the filter bar, click None in the filter picker to deactivate the combined Text and Metadata filter. In the Folders panel, select the Lesson 4 folder, and then choose Edit > Select None or press Ctrl+D / Command+D.
