Adobe Lightroom eBook for Digital Photography (Scott Kelby, 2006)

The Adobe Lightroom eBook for Digital PhotographersBy Scott Kelby...............................................Publisher: New RidersPub Date: March 21, 2006Print ISBN-10: 0-321-43736-5Print ISBN-13: 978-0-321-43736-5Pages: 177

Table of Contents | Index

You've just downloaded the brand-new, free Beta version of Lightroom, the revolutionary newworkflow application from Adobe. Now what? Pick up this ebook, written by best-selling authorScott Kelby, to give you all the dirt you need on Lightroom to allow you to work faster,smarter, and more creatively. You'll learn the essential shortcuts you need to know to savehours every week, the best ways to import and organize your images, which tools and featuresto really hone in on to get the most out of this application, how to manage your photos like apro, plus all the inside secrets on processing raw images. You'll also learn how to use Lightroomtogether with Photoshop to get the best, most efficient workflow, along with the best images.Finally, the book is loaded with tips, tricks, and insights that will absolutely transform the wayyou work with digital images!



You've just downloaded the brand-new, free Beta version of Lightroom, the revolutionary newworkflow application from Adobe. Now what? Pick up this ebook, written by best-selling authorScott Kelby, to give you all the dirt you need on Lightroom to allow you to work faster,smarter, and more creatively. You'll learn the essential shortcuts you need to know to savehours every week, the best ways to import and organize your images, which tools and featuresto really hone in on to get the most out of this application, how to manage your photos like apro, plus all the inside secrets on processing raw images. You'll also learn how to use Lightroomtogether with Photoshop to get the best, most efficient workflow, along with the best images.Finally, the book is loaded with tips, tricks, and insights that will absolutely transform the wayyou work with digital images!



Copyright

Acknowledgments

Other Books By Scott Kelby

About the Author

An Unexpected Q & A Section

Chapter 1. Importing Getting Your Photos into Lightroom

Getting Your Photos Into Lightroom

Where Your Photos Wind Up

Chapter 2. Navigation Finding Your Way Around

Working with Lightroom's Modules

Putting the Focus on Your Photos

Adding Your Studio's Identity to Lightroom's Interface

Chapter 3. Library Organizing Your Photos

Separating the Keepers from the Losers

Sorting Your Photos in the Grid View

One-Click Sorting by Using Collections

Staying Organized by Assigning Keywords

Chapter 4. Quick Develop Making Minor Adjustments

Using Quick Develop for Quick Fixes

Editing Multiple Images the Easy Way

Chapter 5. Develop Making Serious Adjustments

The Basic Adjustments Aren't Basic

Using the Tone Curve

Converting to Black and White, and Split Toning

Adjusting Individual Colors Using HSL Color Tuning

Sharpening and Reducing Noise

Fixing Problems Caused by the Camera

Cropping and Straightening

Overcoming Color Problems Inherent in Some Cameras

Creating Your Own Presets

Jumping from Lightroom to Photoshop and Back

Chapter 6. Slideshow Sharing Your Photos Onscreen

Getting Photos Into Your Slide Show

Customizing the Look of Your Slides

Customizing the Background

Adding and Editing Drop Shadows

Adding Text to Your Slides

Saving Your Custom Layout as a Template

Playing Your Slide Show

Exporting Your Slide Show to the Web

Chapter 7. Print Printing Your Photos

Printing Essentials

Printing Contact Sheets (or More Than One Photo on One Page)

Inside Back Cover

Index

CopyrightTHE ADOBE LIGHTROOM EBOOK FOR DIGITAL PHOTOGRAPHERS

Published byNew Riders

Copyright 2006 by Scott Kelby

First edition: March 2006

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form, by anymeans, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storageand retrieval system, without written permission from the publisher, except for the inclusion ofbrief quotations in a review.

Composed in Cronos and Helvetica by NAPP Publishing

TrademarksAll terms mentioned in this book that are known to be trademarks or service marks have beenappropriately capitalized. New Riders cannot attest to the accuracy of this information. Use of aterm in the book should not be regarded as affecting the validity of any trademark or servicemark.

Lightroom is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.

Photoshop is a registered trademark of Adobe Systems, Inc.

Windows is a registered trademark of Microsoft Corporation.

Warning and DisclaimerThis book is designed to provide information about Adobe Lightroom for digital photographers.Every effort has been made to make this book as complete and as accurate as possible, but nowarranty of fitness is implied.

The information is provided on an as-is basis. The author and New Riders shall have neitherliability nor responsibility to any person or entity with respect to any loss or damages arising fromthe information contained in this book or from the use of the discs or programs that mayaccompany it.

The Adobe Lightroom eBook for Digital Photographers Team

CREATIVE DIRECTORFelix Nelson

TECHNICAL EDITORSCindy Snyder

Kim Doty

PRODUCTION EDITORKim Gabriel

PRODUCTION MANAGERDave Damstra

COVER DESIGNED BYJessica Maldonado

COVER PHOTOS COURTESY OFiStockphoto.com and Scott Kelby

9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

www.newriders.com

www.scottkelbybooks.com

DedicationFor the cutest little baby in the whole wide world, Kira Nicole Kelby.

AcknowledgmentsFirst, I want to thank my amazing wife Kalebra. We've been married 16 years, and just looking ather still makes my heart skip a beat, and again reminds me how much I adore her, how genuinelybeautiful she is, and how I couldn't live without her. She's the type of woman love songs arewritten for, and I am, without a doubt, the luckiest man alive to have her as my wife.

Secondly, I want to thank my 9-year-old son Jordan, who spent many afternoons pulling meaway from writing this book so we could play Shadow the Hedgehog or head to the putt-puttcourse. God has blessed our family with so many wonderful gifts, and I can see them all reflectedin his eyes. I'm so proud of him, so thrilled to be his dad, and I dearly love watching him grow tobe such a wonderful little guy, with such a tender and loving heart. (You're the greatest, littlebuddy.)

I also want to thank my newborn daughter Kira Nicole Kelby for being such a little sweet-ie. Mywife and I knew we were having a baby girl, we just didn't realize that she would in fact be "thecutest little baby in the whole wide world."

I also want to thank my brother Jeffrey for being such a positive influence in my life, for alwaystaking the high road, for always knowing the right thing to say, and just the right time to say it,and for having so much of our dad in you. I'm honored to have you as my brother and my friend.

My heartfelt thanks go to the entire team at KW Media Group, who every day redefine whatteamwork and dedication are all about. They are truly a special group of people, who cometogether to do some really amazing things (on really scary deadlines), and they do it with class,poise, and a can-do attitude that is truly inspiring. I'm so proud to be working with you all.

Thanks to my layout and production crew. In particular, I want to thank my friend and CreativeDirector Felix Nelson for his limitless talent, creativity, input, and just for his flat-out great ideas.Thanks to my in-house editors Kim Doty and Cindy Snyder who put the techniques throughrigorous testing and made sure that I didn't slip any of my famous typos past the goalie. Also,thanks to Dave Damstra and his amazing crew for giving the book such a tight, clean layout.

Thanks to my compadre Dave Moser, whose tireless dedication to creating a quality productmakes every project we do better than the last. Thanks to Jean A. Kendra for her support, and forkeeping a lot of plates in the air while I'm writing these books. A special thanks to my ExecutiveAssistant Kathy Siler for all her hard work and dedication, and for showing great restraint whenher Redskins beat my Buccaneers in the playoffs.

Thanks to my Publisher Nancy Ruenzel, and the incredibly dedicated team at Peachpit/NewRiders. You are very special people doing very special things, and it's a real honor to get to workwith people who really just want to make great books. Also many thanks to the awesome RachelTiley, Ted Waitt, and to marketing maverick Scott Cowlin.

I owe a special debt of gratitude to George Jardine, photographic evangelist at Adobe, for all hishelp. Getting detailed information on a Beta version of anything is a challenge, but George wentout of his way numerous times, and the book is better because of it. Also thanks to Kevin Connorand John Nack at Adobe for their help, and for letting me unload on them because Beta 1 didn'tsupport music with slide shows.

Also thanks to my "Photoshop Guys" Dave Cross and Matt Kloskowski, for being such excellent

sounding boards for the development of this book. You guys are the best!

Thanks to my friends at Adobe Systems: Terry White, Addy Roff, Cari Gushiken, Russell Brady, JillNakashima, Julieanne Kost, and Russell Preston Brown. Gone but not forgotten: Barbara Rice,Rye Livingston, Bryan Lamkin, and Karen Gauthier.

Thanks to my mentors whose wisdom and whip-cracking have helped me immeasurably, includingJohn Graden, Jack Lee, Dave Gales, Judy Farmer, and Douglas Poole.

Also, my personal thanks to Patrick Lor at iStockphoto.com for enabling me to use some of theirwonderful photography in this book.

Most importantly, I want to thank God, and His son Jesus Christ, for leading me to the woman ofmy dreams, for blessing us with two amazing children, for allowing me to make a living doingsomething I truly love, for always being there when I need Him, for blessing me with a wonderful,fulfilling, and happy life, and such a warm, loving family to share it with.

Other Books By Scott KelbyThe Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers

The Photoshop Channels Book

Photoshop Down & Dirty Tricks

Photoshop CS2 Killer Tips

Photoshop Classic Effects

The iPod Book

InDesign CS/CS2 Killer Tips

Mac OS X Tiger Killer Tips

Getting Started with Your Mac and Mac OS X Tiger

About the AuthorScott Kelby

Scott is Editor and Publisher of Photoshop User magazine, Editor-in-Chief of Nikon Software Usermagazine, and Editor and Publisher of Layers magazine (the how-to magazine for everythingAdobe).

Scott is President and co-founder of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP)and is President of the software training, education, and publishing firm KW Media Group.

Scott is a photographer, designer, and award-winning author of more than 30 books, includingPhotoshop Down & Dirty Tricks, The Photoshop CS2 Book for Digital Photographers, PhotoshopClassic Effects, and is Series Editor for the Killer Tips book series from New Riders.

For the past two years, Scott has been awarded with the distinction of being the world's #1 best-selling author of all computer and technology books, across all categories.

Scott is Training Director for the Adobe Photoshop Seminar Tour and Conference Technical Chairfor the Photoshop World Conference and Expo. He's featured in a series of Adobe Photoshoptraining DVDs and has been training Adobe Photoshop users since 1993.

For more information on Scott, visit scottkelby.com.

An Unexpected Q & A SectionQ. I didn't expect to see the book start with a Q&A section. Don't Q&A sections

normally come after a chapter, rather than before the first chapter?

A. Normally they do. That's why this one is so unexpected. But there is a reason it'shere. It's here to take up pages. You see, authors are paid on how many pages theywrite, regardless if the pages are actually necessary or if they even relate to the topicof the book. So, I thought I'd just pick up a few extra bucks right up front and add aQ&A.

Q. Really?

A. Of course not. That's not the way book publishing really works. It's unfortunate,because us authors could really cash in, but sadly, you don't get paid on how manypages you write. You get paid on how many books you sell, and how many books yousell is dependent on three factors: (1) how many times you can work naughtydouble-entendre phrases into your text, (2) how many times you can work Frenchwords into your text, like "double-entendre," but mostly it's (3) how useful peopleactually find your book.

Q. So how useful is this book going to be?

A. That depends on whether the person who bought the book (that's you by the way)takes the time to read the introduction. You see, the introduction of the book iswhere the author bares the soul of the bookwhere he (or she) shows how to get themost out of the book, so readers really maximize their experience. The authoraddresses common concerns, gives tips and ideas on how readers should best usetheir time, and generally tries to help readers connect with the book.

Q. But this book doesn't have an introduction. Why not?

A. It's because no one reads the introduction of books anymore. No, they'd rather turnright to the first chapter and fumble around on their own, stumbling from project toproject, rather than spending just two minutes to find out how the book was written,why it was written that way, what to look out for, and what to avoid.

Q. Are people really that shallow?

A. Yes. But not you. You're not like that. You know why? Because you're reading theintroduction right now. Oh sure, it's called "An Unexpected Q&A Section" but comeon, have you ever heard of an unexpected Q&A section? Especially one that comesbefore the first chapter? You knew this was a ruse to get you to read the introductionbut you kept on going. I like you, kid. You've got moxie.

Q. What exactly is moxie?

A. Moxie is an industrial-strength abrasive cleaner that removes lime, rust, and scalefrom a variety of surfaces.

Q. I have that? I have moxie?

A. I'm not 100% sure.

Q. Is the rest of the book like this?

A. Thankfully, no. The rest of the book is pretty much step-by-step, without straying toomuch from the path. That's why, in this unexpected Q&A, I stray quite a bit from thepath. You see, when you write step-by-step books, there's no room for your ownwriting style to come through. It's pretty much "Go under this menu for this" and"click on that button for that." It's just so "to the point." So, in a step-by-step booklike this, I only get two real writing outlets which keep me from climbing into a towerwith a high-powered rifle and picking off pedestrians. They are: (1) this unexpectedQ&Atroduction, and (2) the chapter intros for each chapter, which by the way, havelittle to do with what's actually in said chapter.

Q. But the rest of the book is regular?

A. Absolutely. Thanks to my strict regimen of high fiber. Sorry, that was lame.

Q. Okay, I've been pretty patient now, where are those "helpful tips" you weretalking about earlier?

A. Oh those. Well, here's one: Where should you start? That might seem like kind of a"duh" question, with the answer being "Start at Chapter 1, followed by Chapter 2,and so on." However, if you've read any of my other books, you know I generallywrite books that are "jump in anywhere" types of books. That's because those booksare written on applications that have been around a while (like Photoshop), so manypeople who buy a Photoshop book have a specific topic they're hoping to learn, forexample, sharpening. So, they buy the book and jump straight to the Sharpeningchapter, and that's okay in those Photoshop books.

Q. But this isn't a Photoshop book, right?

A. Right. Adobe Lightroom is a workflow tool. It's designed to take you through theprocess of importing your photos, sorting them, processing them (in your digitaldarkroom), viewing them in their final version, and then printing them. Lightroomhas been designed that way, as a workflow tool, from the very beginning. So, Irecommend that you learn it that wayin order, starting with Chapter 1 and workingthrough the book in order.

Q. But what if I bought the book specifically just to learn the Slideshowfeatures?

A. Too bad, you have to read Chapters 1 through 5 first.

Q. Are you serious?

A. Of course not. These are just guidelines, not steadfast rules carved into stone. So, ifyou're kind of loose with money, and getting a good value by learning in the mannerthe author suggests isn't of interest to you, then just jump in anywhere. Again, I'mkidding (kind of). However, I do recommend learning Lightroom's workflow in order.It's the way the program was designed, and if you learn it that way, you'll have abetter understanding, but heyit's your bookif you decide to hollow out the insides to

safely store your valuables, I'll never know. You'll feel guilty as hell, but again, I'llnever know.

Q. I hate that word "workflow."

A. Everybody does, but that's not a question. Can you restate it in the form of aquestion?

Q. Yeah, whatever. Here goes: Don't you hate that term workflow?

A. Not at all.

Q. I thought you said everybody hates it?

A. You can't believe everything you read. Okay, I do hate that term, because it makesthings sound like work. There's definitely a flow to working in Lightroom, but Iwouldn't call it "work." Workflow just means "The order in which you do things."Since there are no officially sanctioned guidelines for what a proper workflow is,workflow then is a personal preference. It's the order in which a particularphotographer has chosen to manage and process his or her photos. Most everyphotographer has his or her own workflow method.

Q. So whose workflow is right?

A. Mine.

Q. Really? You've got the right workflow?

A. Well, it is for me, but it might not be for you. By the way, if it's not right for you,that's okayit just makes you wrong (kidding). Actually, it's trueeveryone's workflow isdifferent, but with Lightroom, Adobe went a long way toward helping photographersby leading us through what they, and many photographers around the world, feel is asensible and quick way to work with digital images. That's what Lightroom is allabout, and I'm here to help you through that process as best I can. So, from here onout, I'm Mr. Serious, but I do appreciate you taking the time to read this unexpectedQ&A and hope you'll join me for some unexpected chapter intros between all theStep One, Step Two stuff. See you there!

Q. So we're pretty much done here?

A. Yup. Now turn the page, before I start tearing up.

Chapter 1. Importing Getting Your Photosinto Lightroom

Now, do we really need an entire chapter just on importing photos? Nope. We could just skip it,

but then the book would start with Chapter 2, and you'd be sending emails to the book's publishercomplaining that your book is missing Chapter 1. See, that's the key word theremissing. Youwouldn't think I intentionally skipped ityou'd think that there must have been some mix-up at theprinting plant, and your copy accidentally wound up without a Chapter 1. So, you'd take it back tothe bookstore and you'd ask for a replacement copy. You'd get home and find out that, onceagain, Chapter 1 was missing. Then you'd start to think that this is no coincidence. It must besome sort of a printing conspiracy (orchestrated by a covert government agency), and that rightnow, somewhere in the Midwest, there's an unmarked warehouse chock full of Chapter 1s. You'dthen start to call me names. Unspeakable names. Names that would make you feel ashamed anddirty, but you'd do it anyway because you'd feel so certain that this was all part of a carefullycrafted strategy designed to keep you from knowing the contents of Chapter 1. Obviously, there'ssomething in Chapter 1 that "they" don't want you to know. Suddenly that missing Chapter 1 isworth fighting for. You deserve a Chapter 1, and to know exactly what's in it. So, because I careabout you, my reader, the way I do, I stood up to "the man" on your behalf and demanded thatthis book have a Chapter 1, and that it would be on importing photos, because there's more to itthan it first seems. See, it all makes perfect sense once you look at it calmly and logically.

Getting Your Photos Into LightroomThis is where it all startsbringing your photos into Adobe Lightroom so you can begin organizing,editing, and printing them. Lightroom is set up to let you import from two different sources: (1) itlets you manage photos that are already on your computer, and it gives you a number of optionsof just how it does that; and (2) it lets you import photos directly from your digital camera or amemory card reader. If you're smart about importing now, it will save you a lot more time andtrouble, and make managing your images that much easier.

Step One

First, we'll start with importing photos that are already on your computer (my guess is, youprobably already have at least some, if not more, already on there). To begin importing, first clickon the Library link (found along the top-right side of the Lightroom window), and then click theImport button on the lower-right side of the window (shown here circled in red).

Step Two

Lightroom needs to know where the photos are on your hard disk, so when you click the Importbutton an Open dialog appears from the top of the Lightroom window (as shown here). Navigateyour way to the folder of images you want to import and click the Import button (of course, youcan import individual photos, not just folders, but for our example we're importing a folder ofimages with six photos inside).

[View full size image]

Step Three

Once you click the Import button in the Open dialog, the Import Photos dialog appears (shownhere). This is a very important dialog for two reasons: (1) you need to make some simpledecisions on how you want your imported photos treated, and (2) you can save yourself a lot ofwork down the road if you spend a few extra moments here now. We'll start in the top-left cornerwith File Handling (your first important decision).


Step Four

Here's a close-up of the File Handling pop-up menu. You have four options here. The first,Reference Files in Existing Location (shown here), lets you leave the photos right where they areon your computer, but now you can manage and edit them using Lightroom. If you choose CopyFiles to Lightroom Library (also shown here), it makes a copy of your photos and moves theminto one central folder called the Lightroom Library. So this way, you'll have your original files andthen an additional copy. Personally, I don't like this option because it just eats up space on yourcomputer's hard disk. Another option here is Move Files to Lightroom Library, which doesn't copythem, it just picks up the images and moves them into the central library.

Step Five

The last option, Copy Photos as Digital Negative (DNG) makes a copy of your photos and putsthem into the central library but it changes their file format to Adobe's DNG (digital negativeformat, which is an open source archival format for RAW images. For the full scoop on the AdobeDNG file format, visit www.adobe.com/products/dng/main.html).

Step Six

So which is the right choice here? There really isn't a right choice. It's up to you how you want tomanage your images: Do you want all your photos in one location, like in the Lightroom Library

(shown here, which is in Hard Drive:Users:Home: Pictures:Lightroom:Photos on your Mac)?Here's another question: How do you feel about having multiple copies of the same photo on yourhard disk? Personally, I'm always fighting the battle of too little free hard disk space, so I don'tcopy my images into the Lightroom Library. Of course, I could use the Move Files to LightroomLibrary option (so there would only be one copy on my hard disk), but I guess I'm just used tothem being where they already are. See what I mean? You have to make the choice that you'remost comfortable with.

Step Seven

Once you get past the only hard part of this dialog (deciding where, or where not, to move yourfiles), you can start to put this dialog to work. One of the most important things you do fororganizing your photos is to give them usable names, and luckily there's an option that lets youautomatically give your files custom names as they're imported. To enter the custom name youwant, turn on the Rename Files checkbox and then click directly on the downward facing arrowson the right (as shown here) to reveal the Rename Files options.

Step Eight

Once you reveal the Rename Files options, you'll see a Name field, and a collection of tokens(think of these tokens as naming templates). You start the renaming process by typing in a

name. When you look in the Name field, you see a light blue pill-shaped token called Filename.That represents the image's current name. To get rid of the current name, just click directly onFilename and hit Delete. Now the Name field is blank, so just type in the name you want for allyour imported photos. Then, from the Tokens field, you can add a sequential number by clicking-and-dragging the Seq# (001) token up to the Name field, after your name. You choose thestarting number by typing a number in the First Sequence Number field.

Step Nine

By dragging Seq# (001) after the name, Lightroom will automatically number your photos,starting with the number you entered in the First Sequence Number field (so your files would benamed "BrochureShots61," "BrochureShots62," etc.). By the way, you can choose how manynumbers you want for your sequence by clicking directly on the right side of the Seq# (001)token and choosing your desired numbering schedule from the pop-up menu.

Step Ten

Just to see how it works, drag the Date token up to the Name field, then click-and-hold on theright side of the Date token (on the down-facing arrow) and a pop-up menu will appear withdifferent date formats. Choose Date (YY), which adds just the last two digits of the year to theend of your filename (so now your files would be named "BrochureShots6106," for the 61st shotfrom 2006). Now, here's where the tokens are really handy. Since you don't want the numbers torun together, just click on the Date token and drag it to the first position in the Name field (so thedate comes first, before the name), then from the Date token pop-up menu, choose the full yearformat (as shown here). So now, your files will be named "2006 BrochureShots 61." By the way,to put a space between formats, just press the Spacebar between each token.

Step Eleven

The next section down in the Import Photos dialog gives you the option of segmenting the imageseither by folder or date. We'll look at what the folder segmenting means first. Let's say you'reimporting a folder of photos, and inside that folder there are three other folders of photos, andinside one of those three there's yet another folder with photos. When you turn on Segment By, itkeeps all those photos grouped together when they're importedit doesn't just pretend that thereare no folders and lop them all into one big folder in Lightroom (actually, Lightroom calls theseimported folders "shoots"). So in short, when Segment By is turned on and Folder is chosen fromthe pop-up menu, we import everything in folders, just as they are on your computer.

Step Twelve

If you choose Date in the Segment By pop-up menu, it separates your imported photos intogroups by date. So if you import a folder, and some of the photos were taken on the 14th ofJanuary, and some were taken on the 24th, they'll be imported as two subgroups within the sameshoot. The Organization pop-up menu simply lets you choose the format for how the date forthese will be displayed within Lightroom. By the way, Segment By is turned on by default. If youdon't want segmenting at all (so everything from this import will all be together in the sameshoot), you can just simply turn off the Segment By checkbox.

Step Thirteen

The next field down lets you embed your copyright information (or other metadata) directly intothe document itself. From the Metadata pop-up menu, choose New. In the resulting NewMetadata Preset dialog, just type in your copyright info in the Copyright field, give it a New PresetName, click Create, and that info will automatically be embedded into every imported photo forthis shoot. Simple enough. By the way, you can see this embedded copyright info later, in theimage's metadata fields, once the photos are imported into Lightroom. And if you want to use thesame info for future imports, it is now in your Metadata pop-up menu under the preset name youassigned.

Step Fourteen

On the right side of the Import Photos dialog is a preview of the images you're about to import.To see the individual images, just drag the slider to the right. Directly under that slider is a fieldfor naming the shoot you're about to import (again, Lightroom calls each group of images youimport a shoot), and if you chose segmenting it automatically puts the folder name (or date) inthe Shoot Name field, but you can always just click in the field and type in a new name for theshoot if you want. This won't change the name of the individual imagesjust the shoot name.Below the Shoot Name field are fields where you can embed keywords for this shoot (to makesearching for images easiermore on this later) and any custom name you want embedded intothe images. Now, before we look at where your imported photos appear within Lightroom, weneed to briefly look at another scenariowhen you're importing photos directly from your digitalcamera's memory card (rather than importing photos already on your computer).

Step Fifteen

If you already have Lightroom open when you plug in your camera or card reader, by default theImport Photos dialog will appear automatically. There's only one real difference when importingphotos from your memory cardthe File Handling options are limited. That's because the photosaren't on your computer, so you can't just point to them using the Reference Files in ExistingLocation option or Move Files to Lightroom Library because they're not on your computer to moveyet. So, there are just two choices: (1) Copy Files to Lightroom Library, or (2) Copy Photos asDigital Negative (DNG) (if they're in RAW format). However, another great feature lurks here, andthat's the ability to make a backup copy of your imported photosjust turn on the Backup toSecondary Location checkbox (as shown here). You can back up to a different location, externalhard disks, or servers by clicking the Choose button and choosing a new backup destination.

Tip

Once you click the Import button in the Import Photos dialog, your photos startimporting (whether from your memory card or from a folder on your computer). Butwhat if you change your mind and want to cancel the import before all the photos aredone importing? Just press Command-Option-A to bring up the Activity Viewer. You'llsee a status bar showing the import in progress. To stop importing photos, just click thered X button (as shown here).

Where Your Photos Wind UpOnce you click the Import button in the Import Photos dialog, your photos are imported intoLightroom, right? Right. But exactly where are they? They're in two different places, andunderstanding the difference between these two areas is important.

Step One

Remember how I mentioned that your images come in as shoots? Well you can quickly find justthe photos you imported in two ways. The first is to find your shoot and click on it. You do this onthe left side of the Library module, in the Browse by Shoot panel. Just scroll down until you seeyour named shoot, then click on it (as shown here), and the photos from that shoot appear inyour Library window.

SCOTT KELBY


Step Two

Want an even quicker way to see the photos you just imported? In other words, do you want tosee them now, without having to dig through the Browse by Shoot panel, which can be quite longonce you've imported a number of shoots? The top panel on the left side of the Library module iscalled Photo Library and if you look in that panel you'll see a one-click button to get you to yourlast imported photos. It's called Show Previous Import. Click on it, as shown here, and they'llappear.


Step Three

When you import your photos, their home within Lightroom is the Library. This Library holds allyour imported photos (not only the ones you just imported). In fact, if you browse through ashoot, click on a photo, and hit Delete, it only deletes the photo from that shootit doesn't delete itfrom Lightroom because that photo is still in the Library. If you really want a photo to becompletely deleted from Lightroom, in the Photo Library panel, first click on Show Entire Library(which is your master collection of photos), then click on the photo you want to delete, and pressthe Delete key on your keyboard. Now it's really gone. For good.

ISTOCKPHOTO/DOUGLAS FREER & FEDOR PATRAKOV


Step Four

So now you knowyou can delete a shoot (click on the shoot then hit the minus button at the topright of the panel), but that doesn't delete the photos from Lightroomit just deletes the shoot. Toactually delete the photos themselves, click on Show Entire Library, click on the photo, orCommand-click on multiple photos, and hit the Delete key. If you want to see where a photo inyour Library resides on your hard disk, press-and-hold the Control key, click on the photo'sthumbnail, and a contextual menu will appear. Choose Show in Finder (as shown here) and a MacOS Finder window will open with your image file. Now you can copy that file to disk, delete it, etc.,like you would any other file in the Finder.


Chapter 2. Navigation Finding Your WayAround

Although Adobe Lightroom seems like just one application, it's actually more like four mini-applications in one. Well, they're not mini, because that makes them sound like they're small ordon't have as many features, but that's certainly not the case, because some of Lightroom'smodules are large and complex. Now, I don't mean large and complex like it's a bad thing. That'sthe good large and complex. It's more like a compliment. For example, if you were having dinnerat a friend's house, and he or she brought out a delicious-looking appetizer, you might smile andsay something like, "Hey, that seared yellowfish tuna with Asian cucumber salad looks very largeand complex." See, it's a compliment. By the same token, Lightroom may sometimes seem largeand complex (in a good way) because it has four different modules. Adobe uses the term"modules" because it sounds so mysterious. For example, "I wonder what's in that module? Couldit be a radioactive isotope?" It could be, especially if this was an episode of Fox's 24, where

virtually every object has a reasonable possibility of being radioactive. Another reason Adobechose to use the technical-sounding word modules, rather than calling them regular everydaywords that we all understand like "sections" or "areas," is because the term modules sounds morelarge and complex, and as we learned earlier, that's a compliment.

Working with Lightroom's ModulesLightroom has four separate areas (Adobe calls them modules because an in-house committeedecided that would be the stuffiest, most engineering-like name possible). You're going to bemoving between these four modules quite frequently so we might as well learn the best ways toget where we want to go, and know why we want to go to each area in the first place.

Step One

The name of each module is listed in the top-right corner of the Lightroom window, but thosearen't just names they're links, so click right on them to move from module to module (go aheadand click on them now, just so you'll see what I mean). Now, clicking on them is the slow way, soinstead try using the keyboard shortcuts: Command-1 takes you to the Library module (which iswhere you do two things: [1] sort and organize your images, and [2] do basic color correctionsand adjustments). Press Command-2 to switch to the Develop module, and press Command-3 toswitch to the Slideshow module. If I have to tell you what Command-4 does, I'm not sure you'reready for software of any kind. To jump back to the last module you were at, press Command-/(forward slash). If you switch modules by accident, just press Command-Z to put you right backwhere you were. So, from here on out, let's use the keyboard shortcuts to jump from module tomodule, simply because it's quicker (and time is money, and all that jazz, right?).

ISTOCKPHOTO/TRACY HEBDEN


Step Two

Now, click on any photo thumbnail in the Library and then press Command-2 to switch to theDevelop module. You can see that everything looks different in this module, except for onethingthe filmstrip running along the bottom of the window. That filmstrip stays there no matterwhich module you're currently using. Press Command-3 and then Command-4, and you'll see thefilmstrip is still there. This is one of my favorite features of Lightroom, because you always haveaccess to all the photos in the current shoot you're working with. So, if you want to fix the color ofa different image, or use a different image in your slide show, or print a different image, the otherphotos are right there, one click awaywithout having to go back to the Library module.


Step Three

While we're on the filmstrip, you can change the size of the thumbnails by clicking on the lettersin the bottom-right corner of Lightroom's window. Clicking on XS gives you extra small thumbnails(as shown here) and clicking on XL gives you huge thumbnails (you can imagine what S, M, and Ldo).


Step Four

If you've got more photos than can be displayed at one time in the filmstrip, there are two waysto move through them: (1) click-and-drag the shuttle control (shown here) in the direction youwant to go, or (2) click-and-drag the gray scroll bar at the bottom center of the window. In theLibrary and Develop modules, you can move individually from photo to photo in the filmstrip byusing the Right and Left Arrow keys on your keyboard.

Step Five

Now we're going to look at how Lightroom organizes its controls. Photoshop (and most otherAdobe programs) uses floating palettes, but Lightroom uses these handy expandable panelsinstead of palettes, and I have to sayI love 'em. I always know where they are, they're notfloating in front of my photos, and they tuck out of the way when I don't need them. Theycouldn't be simpler to useyou just click on the panel header, and its contents expand into view.Here on the left, you see the Library's panels all neatly tucked away. Click once on the Browse byShoot panel header and the contents expand (as shown on the right).

Step Six

So, now you know how to expand one panelwant to know how to expand them all? Just press-and-hold the Command key, then click on any panel header, and they all expand (popdownwhatever). If this causes your panels to extend down so far that you can't see them all, agray scroll bar appears on the left side of the panel area (as shown hereit extends along the leftside down to the word "Violins." To scroll down farther, you'd click-and-drag the bar downward).To tuck them all back up, do the same thingpress-and-hold the Command key and click on anypanel header.

Step Seven

To view just one panel and have all the rest close automatically (which is great for clearing all theclutter), press-and-hold the Option key and then click on the panel header (as shown here).

Step Eight

The little - (minus) and + (plus) signs on the right side of some of the panels are there to let youcreate or delete new things within that panel. For example, if you want to remove a particularshoot, you'd click on that shoot (you can see the Glassware shoot is selected here) and then clickon the minus sign (as shown) to delete it. Of course, it brings up a warning dialog asking if that'swhat you really want to do (as shown here) just in case you clicked the minus sign accidentally. Ifyou click the plus sign, it just brings up a dialog for you to name your shoot (more on managingyour shoots in the next chapterfor now we're just learning how to get around).


Step Nine

If you want a larger preview of your image, you can make a few moves that will enable yourpreview to jump to a larger size. For example, here I have switched over to the Develop modulefor a single-image preview in the center of the module. To hide just the filmstrip, click on thedownward-facing arrow at the bottom center of the Lightroom window, and the filmstrip tucks outof the way (as shown here). It'll stay like that until you click the arrow (which is now upward-facing) again.


Step Ten

You can also resize the panels on the left and right sides of the window. For example, to make thepanels on the right larger or smaller, click-and-drag within that black divider line between thephoto preview and the panels (as shown here). Just click-and-drag in the direction you want to go(in the example shown here, I clicked-and-dragged to the left, in toward the photo, which madethe panels wider).


Step Eleven

Now try the left panel. Click-and-drag the divider between the left panel and the photo preview tothe right a bit, to make that panel larger, and as you do you'll see that the preview adjusts itsposition, and gets larger or smaller to compensate for your new layout. If you're working withimages that have a landscape orientation, making the panels as thin as possible will have a bigdifference in the size of your preview.


Step Twelve

If you want to work with one of the side panels hidden, just click on the arrow on the far edge ofeach panel, and they'll stay tucked away until you click on them again (in the example shownhere, I hid the adjustment panels on the right).


Step Thirteen

By default, Lightroom is like many other Macintosh applicationsit floats in its own separate window

(as shown here). However, there are two different modes that let Lightroom take over as much ofyour screen real estate as possible. It's great for an application to do this because it makes yourphotos the real star of the show.


Step Fourteen

To see the first mode, press the F key on your keyboard and the window expands to fill the entirescreen. This is different than clicking the green zoom button in the title bar on the top-left cornerof the floating window (you can see that green Mac OS X window zoom button in the screencapture in Step Thirteen), because although that expands your window as far as possible, it's stilla window. You can still see the Mac OS X window title bar across the top of your screen and youcan click-and-drag the window as you normally would. Instead, when you press the F key, it tucksthat title bar away. It's no longer a floating window and gives you the maximum amount ofworking space. Well, almost.


Step Fifteen

If you press the F key once again, you have even more focus on your working area. Now even themenu bar at the top of the screen is goneit's a wall-to-wall application.


Step Sixteen

Now I know what you're thinking, "But what if I need something that's in Lightroom's menu bar?"(See, I knew you were thinking that.) Just move your cursor up to the top of your screen and the

menu bar will temporarily pop down (as shown here). What's nice is, it doesn't shrink or move thework area downit literally pops down over the work area (you can see it's cutting off the top ofthe letters in the words "Adobe Lightroom" in the top-left corner of the screen). If you like thisfull-screen uncluttered look, then you're really going to love what's coming next.


Putting the Focus on Your PhotosPicking the right photo is an art and Lightroom gives you some of the best options for viewingyour photos, and making them the star of the show, while the software's interface and panels cankind of "step off stage," if you like. You've got a lot of choices, including some I've never seen inany application before, and I think you'll be surprised at how clever some of them are.

Step One

Press Command-1 to switch to the Library module, then double-click on one of your photothumbnails. Press the F key twice, so Lightroom takes up the full screen. Now, press the Tab keyon your keyboard and you'll notice that the panels on both sides of your photo are tucked awayout of sight, putting your photo on center stage. I love this view because the filmstrip is stillvisible and you can view other photos in this unobstructed view by just clicking on them in thefilmstrip (or using the filmstrip shortcuts we learned earlier).


Step Two

If you just want to see your photo, all by itself, without any distractions whatsoever, then pressShift-Tab, which not only hides the panels, but hides the filmstrip at the bottom as well (as shownhere).

Step Three

What's nice about this mode is that although your image is center stage, to get to either of thehidden panels on the sides, just move your cursor over to where the panels used to be and theypop right out. In the example shown here, I moved my cursor over to the right side of the screenand the panels pop out from the right side. Move your cursor away (back near the center of thescreen) and the panels tuck back out of sight.


Step Four

Now, what if you want the panels to stay open and not pop back out of sight when you move yourcursor over to them? Just click directly on the little left-facing arrow that appears on the far right-center of the Panels area (circled in red here) and the arrow flips to the right (as shown) lettingyou know that the panels on that side are now locked into place. To have them tuck back inagain, click the same arrow. You can lock down either the left or right set of panels by clicking ontheir respective side center arrows.


Step Five

Okay, press the F key and then Shift-Tab to get back to the regular floating window mode. Clickon a different photo in the filmstrip (just so we don't get bored looking at the same photo overand over again). Now we'll use one of the out-and-out coolest view features in Lightroom (or inany program for that matter). There are actually really two view modesthe first is called Dimmode. Just press the L key and everything but your photo is dimmed, leaving your photo at fullbrightness.


Step Six

So, we've dimmed the screenbig deal, right? Well, the big deal part comes in when you find outthat although the panels, filmstrip, and controls are all dimmed, they're also still active. Try itwhile we're in this dimmed modego ahead and click on a different photo in the filmstrip and itappears. Click on a control in one of the panelsopen a panel, close a panel, move a sliderit allworks even though it's dimmed. How slick is that? And if that weren't enough, there's yet anothermode.


Step Seven

The other mode is called Lights Out, where everything is blacked out (not just dimmed, butblacked out) except for your photo. You get into this mode by pressing the L key again (sonormally, to get here you'd press the L key twice). Although you can't see the panels and filmstripin this mode, you can switch to the next photo in the filmstrip by pressing the Left and RightArrow keys on your keyboard.

Step Eight

While you can't see any options in Lights Out mode, you still have access to them. Just move yourcursor to the top of the screen, and the menu bar pops down and stays there until you move yourcursor away. To temporarily access all the panels and filmstrip, move your cursor to the bottomof the screen, and you temporarily enter the regular view mode, so you can see the filmstrip andmake selections from it. When you move your cursor back upward, you re-enter Lights Out mode.(Note: This temporary view will only work if your filmstrip is minimized before entering Lights Outmode.) To leave Lights Out mode completely and return to the regular view mode, press the Lkey again.


Adding Your Studio's Identity to Lightroom's InterfaceThere may be another application that has this feature, but I sure haven't seen it. It's called theIdentity Plate, and what it does (among other things that you'll learn later on in this book) isreplace the Adobe Lightroom nameplate (which appears in the upper-left corner of the window)with either your name, your studio's name, or even a graphic of your logo. It really does a greatjob of giving the appearance that you're using a program created especially for your studio.

Step One

Here's the standard Adobe identity nameplate that appears in the top-left corner of the Lightroominterface. To customize this nameplate, go under the Lightroom menu and choose Identity PlateSetup.

Step Two

This brings up the Identity Plate Editor (shown here). The first thing you need to do is turn on theEnable Identity Plate checkbox in the upper-left corner of the dialog. Now, whatever you enter inthe name field (the large black text field on the left) will appear where "Adobe Lightroom" used toappear in the Lightroom window. By default, whatever you enter in the name field appears in thefont Zapfino, but you can change that (as you'll soon see). By the way, if you change the font,you can also change the fonts the module names are displayed in (in the text field on the right),so that they either match or at least complement each other.


Step Three

If you want to change the typeface, just highlight the type (you can choose different fonts fordifferent words, as shown here where I'm using the same fonts Adobe does: Minion and Myriad)and then click the Font Panel button, which appears under the type field on the left side of thedialog. This brings up a Font panel where you can choose your type-face, size, and color.


Step Four

Here's how the new nameplate will look within Lightroom once you click OK, if you just edit thetype and change the font.


Step Five

If you prefer to use a graphic, rather than just text, then turn on the Use a Graphical IdentityPlate radio button above the name field. Then click-and-drag your graphic (most popular fileformats are supported) right into the name field (or click the Locate File button). Just make surethe graphic is not more than 60 pixels high.


Chapter 3. Library Organizing YourPhotos

The first module you wind up using in Adobe Lightroom is usually the Library moduleit's whereyou go to sort and organize your photos. Now, here's the thing. While what you're supposed to dohere is organize your photos, very few people have the intestinal fortitude to actually do ittoactually go through all their images, and tag each and every one with keywords and custommetadata. My hat's off to these meticulous people (freaks), but I'm not one of them. That'sbecause as soon as I import my photos, I take a quick look at 'em, separate the good from thebad, and then start messing with the good ones in the Develop, Slideshow, and Print modules.Those are the party modules. That's where the fun is, so I hang out there (it's kind of like theRain Nightclub in Vegas, only without all the celebrities, flashing lights, music, and liquor. Okay,there's some liquor, but not all that much). You know who uses the Library module to its fullestextent? People who have a metabolic predisposition to become serial killersthem and molecularbiologists. I don't know why. Anyway, maybe I'm just speaking for myself here, because honestly,I couldn't keep track of all my photos if they had my name and phone number embedded in themwith a microchip tracking device. I guess it's because I don't care about my bad photos. I onlycare about my good photos (you know, the ones that are "large and complex"), so I don't want towaste my time tagging photos I'm probably never going to use for anything other than my workin molecular biology.

Separating the Keepers from the LosersOne of the most important parts of the digital photography workflow happens right after you'veimported your photos, and that is sorting the "keepers" (your best shots from a shoot) from the"losers" (the shots that hopefully will never be seen by anyone, including your dog). Photo editing(separating the good from the bad) is an art. In fact, many people make their living at magazinesas professional photo editors, and luckily this is an area where Lightroom really shines, because itmakes what could be a task into an awful lot of fun.

Step One

Sorting takes place in the Library module, so if you're not already there, press Command-1. Thenin the Browse by Shoot panel on the left side of the module, click on one of your recentlyimported shoots (as shown here). We'll start by finding the keepers in this shoot. We do this bystarting in the Grid view, which displays small thumbnails of all the shoot's images in the Previewarea in the center of the screen.

ISTOCKPHOTO


Step Two

Here's a close-up of just the Preview area in Grid view. The size of the thumbnails in the Grid viewis determined by the Grid Size slider (shown circled here in red). To shrink the size of thethumbnails (and fit more thumbnails within the grid), drag the slider to the left. To make thethumbnails larger, drag it to the right.

ISTOCKPHOTO


Step Three

To check the sharpness of your image, you're going to want to zoom in close, and to do that you'lluse Lightroom's Loupe view. To view your image in Loupe view, just double-click directly on thatphoto's thumbnail, or select an image and press either the Loupe view button found beneath thePanels area on the left side of the window or the E key (the Loupe view shortcut). This makesyour selected photo fill the Preview area (as shown here). If you want to view other photos whilestill in Loupe view, just use the Left and Right Arrow keys on your keyboard.


Step Four

If you want to zoom in even closer, just click your cursor right on the spot where you want tozoom in to, and your image instantly zooms in to give you a 1:1 view of that area. To quicklyzoom back out to the standard Loupe view, just click anywhere on the image.


Tip

To return to Grid view (and see all your thumbnails again), just press the G key on yourkeyboard (of course, you could also click the Grid view button that appears under thePanels area on the left side of Lightroom's window, but pressing the G key is faster).

Step Five

Besides just clicking to zoom in on a photo, there's another way to inspect your photo up close,and that's to pan around your zoomed-in image by clicking-and-dragging the zoom square. Thezoom square appears in the smaller preview window at the top right of Lightroom's interface. Justclick within the square and drag it around in the preview window. As you drag, the area thatappears within the zoom square is displayed at full 1:1 size within the center Preview area.Remember, if you want to return to the standard Loupe view, just click anywhere on the imagewithin the center Preview area.


Step Six

Now that you know how to view your image up close (again, that's critical for viewing thesharpness of your photos), it's time to get down to business and find those keepers. We do this inCompare view (C), and if you're already in Loupe view (in other words, there's only one imageopen in the Preview area), you're just one click away. Just press-and-hold the Command key andin the filmstrip, click on the photo that you want to compare with the photo you currently haveonscreen. Once you click that photo, the two images appear side-by-side onscreen (as shownhere), so you can easily make comparisons.


Step Seven

Want to add a third, fourth, or more photos to compare onscreen? Just press-and-hold theCommand key and click on those photos in the filmstrip as well, and they'll join the two photosalready being viewed in Compare view.


Step Eight

Stuffing all these photos onscreen at the same time can get pretty crowded. That's why I

recommend hiding the panels and the filmstrip (press Shift-Tab) when reviewing more than twophotos at one time in Compare view. The photos are then large enough for you to really makesmart decisions on which ones make the cut.


Step Nine

All right, now that you've got your photos onscreen at a decent size (thanks to having the panelsand filmstrip hidden), how do you remove one of the photos under review when it doesn't makethe cut? You can do it one of two ways: (1) move your cursor over the photo you want to removefrom contention and click on the tiny X that appears just below the photo's lower-right corner, or(2) press-and-hold the Command key and click on the photo you want to remove. Now, I'm downto just three photos (as shown here).


Step Ten

So, that's the processto remove a photo from the Preview area in Compare view, Command-clickon it. To add another photo to be compared (while you're in this panel-and-filmstrip-hidden view),move your cursor down to the bottom of the screen (so the filmstrip temporarily appears, asshown here) and Command-click on any photo you want to add. Now, there's another way toenter this Compare view, and that's to enter it directly from the Grid view, so first let's get backto the Grid view by pressing the G key, then press Shift-Tab to bring back your panels andfilmstrip.


Step Eleven

To enter Compare view from here in Grid view, you have two choices: (1) you can Command-clickon the thumbnails of the photos you want to compare, then press the letter C, or (2) Command-click on the photos you want to compare, then press the Compare view button on the lower-leftside of Lightroom's window.


Step Twelve

One last thing about Compare view while you're in Compare view there are going to be timeswhen you need to take a closer look at one of the photos you're comparing. No sweat, just clickon that photo, press the letter Z, and it takes you to a zoomed Loupe view of the photo. Onceyou've seen what you needed to see, press the letter Z again, and you'll return to Compare viewwith the same photos selected. Pressing the letter Z is the shortcut for toggling between azoomed Loupe view and the previous viewin this case you toggled between Compare view and azoomed Loupe view.


Sorting Your Photos in the Grid ViewThe Grid view in the Library module is where most of your sorting will take place and there are afew key things you need to know about the sorting process that will keep you from pulling yourhair out. Here's how to start managing your images with ease.

Step One

Lightroom automatically sorts your photos in the Grid view, either by the time and date they weretaken or by star ratings you assign to your photos. By default, it sorts by time and date, but youcan choose whether you want your photos to appear in ascending order (starting with the mostrecently taken photo in the top-left corner of the Preview area, followed by the next most recent,etc.), or you can go under the View menu, under Sort, and choose Descending (as shown here) tohave the oldest photo in the first position.


Step Two

The other method of sorting (since you can't just drag the thumbnails into the order you want atthis point in Lightroom's development) is to give your photos a 1- to 5-star rating (with 5 beingthe best). Assigning ratings is easyjust click on the thumbnail, then press either 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 onyour keyboard to assign a rating. When you do this, you'll see a message appear near the bottomof the Preview area confirming that your rating has been applied (as shown here). To remove arating, press the 0 (zero) key.


Step Three

Now, you're probably wondering why you just assigned a star rating and yet your photo didn'tjump to the top? It's because you have to change your sorting choice to sort by rating. To dothat, go under the View menu, under Sort, and choose Rating (as shown here). Now, if you wantyour highest-rated photos to appear first (at the top left of the Preview area), then you'll alsoneed to make sure the sort is set to Descending (also found in the View menu, under Sort), so the5-star photos appear first, and then the photos sort in a descending order down to 1 star (withthe unrated photos appearing after the 1-star photos).


Step Four

To save time, you can rate more than one photo at a timejust press-and-hold the Command key,click on all the photos you want to have the same rating (as shown here), and then press thenumber key on your keyboard for the rating you want them all to have.


Step Five

Another way to apply ratings to photos is to make the star ratings visible under each photo'sthumbnail, and then click directly on the rating you want to apply. To have the ratings appearunder the thumbnails, click on the View Options panel header on the left side of the Lightroomwindow and the view options will appear (as shown here). Once the view options appear, makesure the Show Extras checkbox is turned on, and then turn on the Rating checkbox to make thestar ratings appear below the thumbnails. When you move your cursor over photo thumbnails inthe Preview area, photos that haven't been rated yet will have five tiny dots below them. To add a4-star rating to a photo, click on the fourth dot. To give a photo a 3-star rating, click on the thirddot, and so on. To remove a rating, click on the small circle to the left of the first star.


Step Six

Using ratings can be really handy for sorting your images because once you've assigned ratings,you can use the Minimum Rating slider (shown circled in red here) so that only your highest-ratedphotos are displayed. The slider appears in the Search panel, just below the Search field, andwhen the slider is all the way to the left, all your photos, regardless of their rating, are displayed.As you click-and-drag the slider to the right, it raises the minimum rating. So, click-and-drag theslider to the right until it shows a 4, and then only your 4-star or higher rated photos will still bevisible in the Preview area (as shown).


Step Seven

You can also apply ratings in Loupe view and even in Compare view, by clicking on the dots in theInfo panel on the right side of the Lightroom window (circled here), or by pressing a number keyon your keyboard. In Compare view, you can also click on the dots beneath each image. Sinceright now we're narrowing your photo selections by using the Minimum Rating slider set to 4 ormore stars, when you're in Loupe or Compare view, only the photos that currently have a ratingof 4 stars or more will appear in the filmstrip.


Step Eight

One last thing before we leave this section. If you want to rotate the orientation of your photos(while you're in Grid view), you have two choices. First, turn on the Rotation checkbox in the ViewOptions panel. Then when you move your cursor over a thumbnail in the Preview area, two smallrotation icons will appear in both lower corners of the thumbnail (I've blown up two thumb-nailshere, so you can see them better). Click on the left rotation icon and the photo rotates counter-clockwise. Click the right rotation icon and it rotates clockwise. My advice? Leave this turned off,because there's a better wayjust press-and-hold the Option key and click on your thumbnail andeach click rotates your thumbnail by 90.

One-Click Sorting by Using CollectionsWhen you're sorting your photos, there are going to be plenty of times where you just want tofocus on a particular group of images. Maybe it's all your best shots from a shoot, or maybe it'sall your black-and-white shots, or maybe you want to decide which photos you want print.Luckily, you can make all of these groups of photos just one click away by using collections (whichare there every time you fire up Lightroom) or Quick Collections, which are temporary collectionsyou use just when you need them.

Step One

Another way to quickly separate out your best photos is to create a Quick Collection of just thosephotos. Here's how it's done: As you're looking at your photos (in any viewGrid, Loupe, orCompare), when you come across one you like, just press the B key on your keyboard and thatphoto is added to your Quick Collection (it's like flagging your best photos). If you have the QuickCollection Marker checkbox turned on in the View Options panel, you'll see a black dot appear inthe upper-left corner of your thumbnail (circled here in red) to let you know that it was added toyour Quick Collection.


Step Two

Now, to see just the photos you've flagged, click on Show Quick Collection (as shown here), whichappears in the Photo Library panel on the top-left side of the Lightroom window (or just pressCommand-B). To remove a photo from your Quick Collection, just click on the little black dotagain, or click on the photo and press the letter B again, or just click on the photo and press the

Delete key on your keyboard (don't worry, this only deletes the photo from this QuickCollectionnot from your Library of photos).


Step Three

Quick Collections are great for helping you quickly rate your best photos. Now that your bestphotos from your shoot are in this Quick Collection, you can instantly give them all a 5-star ratingby simply pressing Command-A to select all the photos, then pressing the number 5 to assign a5-star rating to them all. Another cool thing about using Quick Collections is that once you've gotone, you can create an instant slide show of just those photos by going under the Library menuand choosing Impromptu Slideshow. In just seconds, you'll see a full-screen slide show withtransitions (to cancel this slide show, press the Esc key).


Step Four

Once you've used the trick above to quickly rate your best photos, you can then clear yourtemporary Quick Collection (so you can use it later for sorting other photos). You can do this byeither clicking on Options, in the bottom-left corner of Lightroom's window, and choosing ClearQuick Collection from the pop-up menu, or just pressing Command-Shift-B. You can also use theOptions pop-up menu to add photos to your Quick Collection, but using the keyboard shortcuts isjust so much faster.

Step Five

Quick Collections are temporary collectionsjust a tool to help you temporarily sort your images orto make an impromptu slide show. But if you've come up with a Quick Collection that you'd like tokeep for future reference, just transfer it to a regular collection so it's always just one click away.Here's how: Go to the Browse Collections panel (it's in the group of panels on the left side ofLightroom) and click on the large + (plus sign), as shown here circled in red. This brings up theCreate Collection dialog where you can name your new collection (as shown). Enter a name andclick the Create button.


Step Six

Now, if you're not still viewing it, press Command-B to jump back to your Quick Collection. PressCommand-A (the shortcut for Select All) to select all the photos in your Quick Collection. Next,click-and-drag on any one of those photos and they all drag together as a group (you'll see a tinythumbnail appear as you drag that shows a stack of photos, as shown here circled in red). Click-and-drag this group of photos over to the Browse Collections panel and drop (release the mousebutton) them right on the collection you created in the previous step.


Step Seven

Now, just to make sure that the transfer from your Quick Collection to a permanent collection

worked, it's not a bad idea to quickly click on Show Entire Library in the Photo Library panel (soyou see all your photos). Then, in the Browse Collections panel, click on your new collection (asshown here), just to make sure your photos really made it in there. I know, it's kind of paranoid,but just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you. But I digress. Onceyou've confirmed that your photos made it into your new collection, you can clear out the QuickCollection by pressing Command-Shift-B or by choosing Clear Quick Collection from the Optionspop-up menu on the bottom left of the Lightroom window.


Step Eight

There are a few things you'll want to know about collections. First, as long as you're in the Gridview, you can add photos to your collection by just dragging-and-dropping them right onto yourcollection. To remove a photo from your collection, click on it and press the Delete key. This onlyremoves the photo from your collectionnot from your main Library. If you do, in fact, want toremove a photo both from the collection and from your Library (meaning you're going to movethe photo to the Trash and delete it for good), then press Command-Delete. You'll get a warningdialog (as shown here) just to let you know this photo is really going away for good. To delete acollection, click on the collection, and then click the (minus sign) on the right side of the BrowseCollections panel. To rename a collection, just double-click directly on its name in the BrowseCollections panel.


Staying Organized by Assigning KeywordsOne of the biggest challenges in managing thousands of images is finding the exact photo (orphotos) right when you need it. Luckily, you can stay totally organized, and find the right photosfast, by simply applying keywords to your photos. It takes just a small amount of time up front,but it can save you hours every week and potentially extend your life by several years byremoving a special level of frustration and stress that appears after searching for hours to find aphoto you know is in there...somewhere. Ask your doctor.

Step One

To create a keyword, go to the Browse Keywords panel (on the left side of Lightroom's window)and click on the large + (plus sign), as shown here. This brings up the Create Keyword dialogwhere you can type in the keyword you want to assign to one or more photos in your Library,then click the Create button to create this keyword.


Step Two

You can assign a keyword to a photo in the same way you add a photo to a collection. In Gridview, just drag-and-drop a photo from the Preview area right onto the keyword you wantassigned to it in the Browse Keywords panel (as shown here). You can do the same select-multiple-photos-and-drag-and-drop trick as you did with collections.


Step Three

Unlike collections, there's another way to assign keywords and you might actually like this waybetter (I certainly do). Instead of dragging the photos to the Browse Keywords panel and tryingto hit that thin little panel, you can actually drag the keyword itself and drop it on your photos, asshown here (a thick black border appears around your thumbnail letting you know you'vetargeted that photo). I like this method better because thumbnails make a much larger and easiertarget to hit. You can still select multiple photos (Command-click on them) and drag-and-drop thekeyword on any selected photo, and they'll all be tagged with that keyword.


Step Four

Now when you want to instantly see the photos that are tagged with a particular keyword, justclick on that keyword. In the example shown here, I clicked on Acoustic and now only the guitarslabeled acoustic in my Library appear.


Step Five

Of course, the real strength of keywords is when you add more than just one, so you can quicklydrill down and find just the photos you're looking for. For example, here I've added 10 morekeywords, and dragged-and-dropped them on the appropriate photos. So, if for example, Iwanted to see just my bass guitars, I'd click on the Bass Guitars keyword (as shown here) andinstantly all my bass guitars, and only my bass guitars, are displayed. Even better, since you canassign multiple keywords to photos, my first bass guitar images show up not only under BassGuitars, but also under Black Guitars and Flat Views.


Step Six

Another advantage of creating and assigning keywords is that now you can search your entirelibrary by simply typing in a name. For example, want to find all the guitars that are red? Go tothe Search panel (shown circled here) and just type in "red." Now every red guitar shows upinstantly. This keywording is great for tagging photos of family members (for example, my son isnamed Jordan, so I can instantly find every photo of Jordan just by typing his name in the Searchfield).


Step Seven

Just a reminder, you can save yourself some time by assigning some of your keywords when you

first import your photos. For example, if you were importing a shoot of just one guitar, you couldautomatically tag all those shots with descriptive keywords from right within Lightroom's ImportPhotos dialog (shown here). There's a Keywords field for typing in the keywords you want (it'scircled here in red). Just type in your desired keywords, separated by a comma, and once they'reimported those keywords will be added to your Browse Keywords panel to make sorting easy,plus you can use the Search field to find images tagged with those keywords.


Step Eight

To see the keywords you have assigned to a photo, just go to the Info panel, on the right side ofLightroom's interface under the Histogram (you may have to scroll the panels down a bit to revealthe Info panel). In the Info panel, you'll see a field that not only lists the keywords assigned tothe currently selected photo, you can also add additional keywords by just clicking in theKeywords field (shown circled in red) and typing in your desired keywords. Also, keywords thatyou enter in this field are automatically added to the Browse Keywords panel. Once you get in thehabit of adding keywords to photos, you'll be amazed at how quickly you can get right to thephoto (or photos) you're looking for.


Chapter 4. Quick Develop Making MinorAdjustments

I know we'd like to think that every shot we take is worthy of the same level of careful colorcorrection and individual selective sharpening, but the sad reality is some of our photos just don'trequire it. Not every photo we take is destined to hang in some famous gallery. Some photos, likethose taken for insurance claim purposes after a fender bender in your car, will only wind upbeing shown in some of the smaller galleries, fetching only a few hundred dollarsperhaps athousand on rare occasion but they have little chance of competing with your more seriouspieces. It's those instances where you have to decide, "Do I really need to go into the Developmodule and process the living daylights out of this puppy or can I just click a few buttons here inthe Library module's Quick Develop panel and be done with it?" It's an age-old question, but youcan make the decision easier if you take the time to ask yourself a few questions beforehand.First, ask yourself this, "When this shot of my dented fender is displayed, will it be exposed tohigh ultraviolet light content, and will that affect its overall sale price?" If the answer is "No," thenyou can safely correct this photo using the Library module's Quick Develop panel. However, if theanswer is "Yes," then in order to maintain consistent color rendition you need to give carefulconsideration to the spill and angle of the fill lights in the gallery and whether using an undimmed,low-voltage 20W dichroic lamp will minimize any potential fluctuation in the color temperature. Bythe way, I have no idea what any of that means.

Using Quick Develop for Quick FixesSome photos need lots of work, and usually the more important the photo, the more tweaking itgets. But when you've got photos that need just quick minor adjustments, you can do them fromright within the Library module itself using the Quick Develop panel, which gives you simple one-click adjustments for everything from Exposure to White Balance to black-and-white conversions.When you need minor simple changes, this is where to start.

Step One

The Quick Develop panel appears just below the Histogram on the right side of Lightroom'sinterface. If you only see the words Quick Develop but don't see a list of controls under it, justclick in the bar with the words Quick Develop (as shown here) and the controls will pop down.

SCOTT KELBY


Step Two

There's a Preset pop-up menu at the top of the Quick Develop panel, but most of these presetsare special effects, like sepia tone effects, grayscale conversions, etc. More on these later, but fornow we're going to focus on the most likely adjustments your photos are going to need: WhiteBalance and Exposure. Since the photo we're using is so underexposed, we'll start by adjusting

the Exposure first.

Step Three

Each of the Quick Develop adjustment setting controls has three buttons: the left arrow decreasesthe adjustment, the right arrow increases it, and the center button resets that particularadjustment to how it was set before you made any adjustments. We'll start with the Exposuresetting, so click the right arrow once. You can see the image now appears somewhat brighter.Each time you click the right arrow, the overall exposure of the photo will get brighter. I had toclick on the right arrow six times to get the exposure just about right (as shown here).


Step Four

If you're squeamish about making your own adjustments, there is an Auto button (shown here),which applies an automatic adjustment, but it only applies the Auto setting to the Exposureitdoesn't affect the Brightness, Contrast, or Saturation settings. Now, I have to be honest withyouI'm not a big fan of this Auto setting (at this point anyway). The changes either seem toosubtle or too extreme, but so far I haven't had one that looked about right. Go ahead and open afew images, try the Auto button, and see what you think. If it works for you, don't be afraid touse it, but my guess is you're not going to fall in love with it. In fact, since the Quick Developpanel gives you kind of crude pushbutton adjustments, I doubt you'll use this entire section formuch more than adjusting snapshots from your vacation taken with your point-and-shootcamera, rather than images you're shooting with your D2X or 1D Mark II.

Step Five

The other three tonal controls in the Quick Develop panel work the same way, (meaning you clickthe right arrow to increase their effect, left to decrease, center button to reset). Under theExposure controls is the Brightness, which controls the overall brightness of the photo. Under thatis the Contrast, and increasing the Contrast setting does just thatit increases the contrast (asshown here), making the shadows darker and the highlights brighter.


Step Six

The last control, Saturation, makes the colors more saturated each time you press the rightarrow, and less saturated when you click the left arrow. If you click the left arrow enough times,you'll remove all the color, making it a black-and-white photo. However, if that's what you're after(a black-and-white photo), you'll get better results by turning on the Convert Photograph toGrayscale check-box (circled in red here).

ISTOCKPHOTO/PAULUS RUSYANTO


Step Seven

By the way, don't worry about trying things like a grayscale conversion, or tweaking your colors,or any kind of tonal correction, because everything you do in Quick Develop is non-destructive.You're always just one click away from returning to the original unedited photo by clicking theReset button that appears at the bottom of the Quick Develop panel (it's shown circled in redhere).


Step Eight

Another thing you'll wind up using a lot within Quick Develop is the White Balance control. The

reason this control is so important is this: unless you go and set the white balance manually inyour camera to match the lighting conditions of where you're shooting, chances are your whitebalance is set to Auto. That means in challenging lighting situations, like this indoor shot underfluorescent lighting (which makes everything look kind of yellow), having the ability to fix yourwhite balance after the fact is huge. By default, As Shot (in the camera) white balance isdisplayed as the current White Balance setting. If you click on the White Balance pop-up menu (asshown here), you see the list of white balance settings you can apply.

SCOTT KELBY


Step Nine

If we had set the white balance to Fluorescent in the camera, we wouldn't have that yellow cast,but that's easy enough to fixjust choose Fluorescent from the White Balance pop-up menu (asshown here) and you can see how the yellow cast has been neutralized (which is fancy digital talkfor "it's gone"). Compare this photo with the one in the previous step, and you'll see how muchgood the right white balance setting can do.


Step Ten

I mentioned earlier that the Quick Develop controls are kind of crude you can only click a fewtimes, and the photo either looks good or it doesn't. However, the Develop module of Lightroomis full-powered, containing all the RAW processing controls of Adobe Photoshop's Camera Raw,and more! So, if you make some adjustments in Quick Develop and you're not getting the resultsyou hoped for, you can keep the edits you've applied in Quick Develop and continue editing thephoto over in the more powerful Develop module. To do that, scroll down a little further in theQuick Develop panel and you'll see the phrase "Continue work in the Develop module." That's notjust a phrase, that phrase is actually a button you can click on (move your cursor over it andyou'll see it highlight). Click on that to continue editing your photo in the Develop module.

Step Eleven

Okay, so now that you've had a chance to edit your images using Quick Develop's Exposure,Brightness, Contrast, and Saturation controls, along with setting the White Balance andconverting your images to grayscale, you're now ready to use the presets, which give you bothtonal corrections (like you've been doing) and some special effects. These are found at the top ofthe Quick Develop paneljust click anywhere to the right of the word Preset and a pop-up menuwill appear (as shown here) with a list of preset corrections and effects (put there by Adobe).

Step Twelve

Just so you can see how the presets work, go ahead and open a photo, and choose Sepia Tonefrom the Preset popup menu (as shown here), and you can see the instant results. The photo isfirst converted to a black-and-white, and then a sepia tint is added to the photo. There are nobuttons to push, no decisions to makeit's a preset. However, if you want to tweak the photo now,you canjust click on the Exposure arrows, or the Contrast arrows, etc. What's nice about this isyou can use the presets as a starting point, and then tweak the image to your liking with just afew quick clicks.


Editing Multiple Images the Easy WayWith digital photography, and "free" film, we're pressing that shutter release more than ever andinstead of just editing 24 or 36 photos, we're importing and editing hundreds. That's why it's soimportant to be able to edit one photo and apply those same edits to dozens, or even hundreds,of photos taken under similar lighting conditions. Here are a few different ways to make an editonce and have it applied to as many photos as you'd like, quickly and easily.

Step One

If you want to make the exact same change to a number of similar photos, then this couldn't beeasier: you start by Command-clicking on all the photos you want to have the exact sameadjustments applied to (as shown here).

SCOTT KELBY


Step Two

Now, just head over to the Quick Develop panel and any changes you make here willautomatically be applied to every selected photo (here I just simply turned on the ConvertPhotograph to Grayscale checkbox, and all the selected photos are then converted to grayscale,as shown here).


Step Three

More likely, you'll be performing your edits all on one photo, and then if you're happy with someor all of your edits, you'll choose which other photos you want to have those same edits appliedto. Start by choosing a photo and then make your adjustments in the Quick Develop panel (in theexample shown here, I increased the exposure and contrast by clicking on the right arrow buttonfor each setting three times. I changed the white balance to Cloudy by choosing it from the WhiteBalance pop-up menu, and then I lowered the saturation a bit to remove some of the green fromthe photo). Now, click on the Copy Settings button (shown circled in red here).


Step Four

This brings up the Copy Settings dialog (shown here). This is where you get to choose which ofthe adjustments you applied to the first photo that you want applied to other photos you select.(Note: If most of the checkboxes here sound unfamiliar, it's because most of them are in the fullDevelop module, instead of just Quick Develop.) I want to apply just some of the changes I madeto the other photo, so first click the Check None button (so all the choices are unchecked), thenonly turn on the checkboxes for White Balance and Saturation, and then click the Copy button.Now, only those two edits

Adobe Lightroom eBook for Digital Photography (Scott Kelby, 2006)

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