Pretty handy, right? This probably isn’t one you’ll use every day, but when you need it, it’s sure nice to have it.

Thanks to everybody who attended my sessions yesterday at Fotoclave out in San Ramon, California. They were super nice people, and I had a really wonderful time. Thanks to Same at SlickPic and all the Fotoclave folks for their gracious hospitality.

Have a great Lightroom Tip Tuesday, everybody!

-Scott

P.S. Tomorrow on “The Grid,” we’ve got John Dukes as our in-studio guest, so all bets are off. LOL!

The post Lightroom Tip Tuesday: The Easy Way To Make Relative Edits appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

STEP ONE: In Lightroom Classic, go under the Metadata menu up top and choose ‘Set Keyword Shortcut’ (as shown here).

STEP TWO: That brings up this dialog box (shown above). You can add just one keyword or a number of them – just separate each keyword with a comma (as shown ), and click the ‘Set’ button. OK, that’s it – now let’s put it to use.

STEP THREE: Next, go to the image you want to apply the keyword(s) to. Take a look at the Keywording panel in the right side panels here, and you can see the keyword field is blank – there are no keywords applied to this image.

STEP FOUR: Now just press Shift-K, and those keywords you entered previously are added to this image (as seen in the keywording panel shown above). NOTE: you can also select multiple images and use this shortcut to apply those keywords to multiple images.

There ya go – a quick tip for a Monday morning and the beginning of a great week! #RollTide!

-Scott

The post Keyboard Shortcut For Applying Keywords appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

OK, this isn’t the tip – it’s leading up to the tip, but if you see an exclamation point warning up in the right corner of the thumbnail, that’s letting you know it can’t find the image. If you take the image over to the Develop Module, you get a large “Photo is Missing” warning. So, you click directly on that exclamation point warning, and it brings up the name of the missing file (in this case, it was SK1_0298-HDR.jpg which is a long name to remember), and the location of where it was LAST (it’s obviously not there, or it wouldn’t be lost, but at least it tells you where it last saw it). You have the option to click the “Locate” button and then search your drive or external hard drive e to find it. Don’t do that yet.

Here’s the tip: That little dialog that shows the name and location of where it last saw your original image file? You can click and highlight the name (as shown above), and then hit COPY (Command-C on Mac / Ctrl-C on a PC), and copy the exact name of that file into memory (no having to memorize a long name).

Now just paste that copied name into the Search field (it’s in the upper right corner on a Mac), and boom – it finds the image and you’re set (as seen above). Don’t forget (if you’re on a Mac anyway), to click ‘Search:” and choose ‘This Mac’ or it’s going to look just where you were last, and not your whole computer or external. Pretty handy stuff.

The FREE “Depth of Field” Two-Day Portrait Conference, Which Kicks Off Tomorrow (and I’m teaching two Lightroom sessions)

Some folks will be watching online, some watching in person at the event at the New Yorker Hotel in New York City, but no matter where they are, B&H Photo is doing this entire event for free, and it’s not too late for you to come to either – all you have to do is RSVP at this link, and let ’em know you’re coming.

I’m teaching three classes along with some amazing instructors like: Joe McNally, Kristina Sherk, Peter Hurley, and so many more great teachers. Check out the class schedule here. Hope I see you in New York (I’m heading there today!). Can’t wait!!!

Have a great Monday, ya’ll!

-Scott

The post The Best Little Lightroom Tip You’ll Learn All Day appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Onto today’s quick tip

This is one of those little-known but oh-so handy features in Lightroom Classic that once you use it, you’ll wonder how you lived without.

Give this one a try, and you’ll super dig it.

Looking forward to seeing a whole bunch of you at the conference. It’s going to be (wait for it…wait for it…) epic! Have a great Monday, everybody!

-Scott

The post How To Turn Any Collection Into A Favorite appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

The key to understanding why you want to do this in LrC is that the path to where each photo is stored on your computer is what LrC uses to find and access your photos. On a Mac, that path starts with the volume name and on Windows the path starts with the drive letter, but in both cases the path goes on to include every folder and subfolder down to the actual filename of each photo.

As long as you use LrC to rename the folder then it will update the actual name of the folder as well as the path stored in the catalog, and all will be well. Here’s how to do it:

First, expand the Folders panel and locate the folder you want to rename.

Then, right-click the folder and choose Rename… to open the Rename Folder dialog box.

Enter the desired name, and click Save. This will rename the folder as it appears in the Folders panel and as it does on your drive. You can right-click the folder again and choose Show in Finder (PC: Show in Explorer) to open your file browser to that folder to confirm.

That’s all there is to it. If you rename folders outside of LrC, then you will need to follow the steps for when photos and folders are considered missing to update the catalog to the folder’s new name.

The post Renaming Folders in Lightroom Classic appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Organizational Tools

The Develop module is the sexy beast everyone likes to spend time in, but the Library module is the most important place for keeping your photo library under control and for finding the photos you want when you need them. I include the import process as part of the Library because that is your first opportunity to keep yourself organized and moving in the right direction, so let’s start there.

The Import Window

Earlier I stated that the main job of the import process was creating records in the catalog file about each imported photo, but the secondary job of importing can involve copying or moving photos to a storage location of your choosing. You need to be in the driver’s seat for this job and ensure that LrC is not placing photos in an undesired location. There are two choices on the import window that determine where your photos will end up. The first choice is along the top of the screen where you choose between Copy as DNG, Copy, Move, or Add.

The two most common choices are Copy and Add. If your photos are coming from a memory card you will choose Copy (Copy as DNG is effectively the same as Copy except it also includes the operation to convert the raw photos to DNG, but for organization purposes it is beyond the scope of this article). If your photos are already exactly where you want them to be stored (because you put them there outside of LrC), then you will choose Add.

A word about Move. I don’t recommend using Move for safety reasons because Move includes a copy operation followed by a delete operation from the original location. It is much safer to use Copy for import, and then once the copy operation is done successfully you can go and manually delete the source files from the original drive if that is what is needed. Move will be unavailable when the source is a memory card, so it would only come into play when source photos are on a hard drive.

When choosing Copy the only other choice you need to make at this time is in the Destination panel. When Add is selected the photos are already in their final location, so the Destination panel is not included.

When configuring the options in the Destination panel you have two choices to make. The first is where do you want the photos to be stored and the second is how do you want them to be organized at that location. Keeping in mind that the settings in the Import window apply to ALL photos being imported at this time you want to choose a location that works for all photos being imported. The default setting in the Organize drop-down menu at the top of the panel is By date, which includes options for your choice of date format in the drop-down menu below it.

The nice things about the By date organize option is that it is fully automated using the creation date of each photo to create corresponding folders within the folder selected in the Destination panel and it scales nicely into the future. That said, dates alone may not give you enough information to find your photos easily in the future. I work around this limitation by simply renaming the date-based folders after import (using the Folders panel) to include additional meaningful information along with the date. This way I don’t have to think about organizing my photos during the Import window, can let the automation of folder creation save me time, and get the benefit of dates added to each folder so that they sort in a meaningful way within the Folders panel.

All that said, if your system utilizes the Into one folder option in the Organize drop-down menu, and that works for your brain, then don’t let me stop you from using that option. I recognize the benefits of putting your photos in custom named folders from the outset, and I know many who use that option.

Additionally, I recommend standardizing on the top-level location for all newly imported photos. In my case, I copy all new photos to a folder structure within the Pictures folder of my internal drive with the same top-level parent folder selected for all imports (and let LrC create the subfolders within it). This way I don’t have to spend any time thinking about where to put photos at this time, and best of all, can create an import preset that includes the settings in the Destination panel (as well as all the panels above it). Over time, I use the Folders panel to move folders to a larger external drive to maintain space on the internal drive.

To create an import preset, configure all desired import settings (in all panels), then click the Import Preset drop-down menu at the very bottom of the screen and choose Save Current Settings as New Preset. You can create as many of these import presets as your workflow requires. These are huge time savers and allow for consistency in your organizational efforts. For each subsequent import job, simply choose your desired import preset and everything is done. After a quick visual confirmation all you need to do is click the Import button and LrC does the rest.

The Library Module

Once the import process begins your view returns to the Library, and as the photos fill your screen you can turn your attention to the Folders panel to confirm the photos are going exactly where you designated. The Folders panel is one of the most powerful tools for organizing your photos over time. It is here that you can move folders into new folders and drives, rename folders, remove folders, create subfolders and more. For example, I mentioned that I rename all newly created folders during import to include a meaningful name in addition to the date. Here’s how to do this:

Step One: Right-click the folder you want to rename.

Step Two: Choose Rename from the contextual menu.

Step Three: Enter a meaningful name in the Rename Folder dialog box that appears and click Save.

This renames the folder in the Folders panel as well as on your drive all in one move while keeping the record in the catalog up to date. By performing all your file management tasks in LrC you keep your files organized and keep the catalog updated. To learn even more about the Folders panel and how to unlock all of its power, be sure to bookmark my article on the Role of the Folders panel.

A powerful benefit to naming your folders with simple, descriptive, and consistent names is that you can utilize the filter at the top of the Folders panel to quickly find all of the folders that match what you type in that field, even across multiple drives. This works with both numbers and names, so if I wanted to see only folders from 2021 I can just type that in the filter and display only the folders that match. Likewise, if I wanted to find all folders containing photos from Yosemite, I just type that in the field and I don’t need to remember when I was there at all.

The key is to be consistent when naming folders so you can get consistent results from the filter. This same trick works in the Library Filter bar for finding photos based on the names you gave the containing folder. Here’s how to do it:

Step One: Click All Photographs in the Catalog panel so the entire library is searched and press G for Grid view if not there already.

Step Two: Click the Text button on the Library Filter to open the text input field.

Step Three: Type the text you want to search on into the field. In my case I typed Yosemite here too.

Your entire library is now searched for that word in all searchable fields, which includes folder names. In this screen capture you can see the folder name displayed on the thumbnail. I find this much faster and simpler than keywording each individual photo. I’ve got nothing against keywording in general if it is needed for a given workflow, but in my experience, it is a non-preferred activity for most people. If keywording is your thing, then take a dive into my controlling keywords article to learn more about them.

With these basic concepts mastered and put into practice you’ll be well on your way to being organized, and can then take it up a notch with becoming more efficient over time.

The post Keys to Getting Organized in Lightroom Classic Part 2 appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Tip #14: Leverage Collections in Your Workflow

When using Lightroom Classic, your photos are always (and only) stored in folders on some local drive (even if it is a network drive). Those folders show up in the Folders panel, and there’s nothing wrong with looking in a folder to find your photos. In fact, that is the place to do various types of file management. Folders are important, and you need to treat them with care to avoid losing photos or creating problems in the catalog, but they have limitations too. The Folders panel is only found in the Library module, and that’s fine for those file management tasks I mentioned, but there are six other modules you could be working in any any given time. Guess what panel is visible in all modules? Yep, the Collections panel! Wherever you are working in Lightroom Classic, you will find the Collections panel, so why not take advantage of it?

Here are some of the other benefits of using collections in your workflow:

• You can group photos together based on your needs without moving or duplicating them on disk.
• You can use smart collections, which are basically saved searches, to automatically gather photos based on rules you define.
• You can organize your collections and smart collections using collection sets, which can hold other collection sets or collections.
• If you sync your catalog to the Lightroom cloud you use collections as the vehicle to sync photos to the cloud.
• When you are done with a collection, you can delete it without fear of deleting your photos on disk.
• You can designate one collection as the Target Collection, which makes it really easy to add photos to it with a keyboard shortcut.

There may be other benefits as well, but as you can see they are really powerful and open up new workflow possibilities. If you want to dive deeper into collections, be sure to check out my series on mastering collections to learn more. Also, be sure to check out all previous tips for new users.

The post Tip Number 14 for People New to Lightroom Classic appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Anyway, right now a lot of folks are buying lenses for their new mirrorless bodies, maybe replacing the lenses they had for their DSLR. For example, I have a Canon 24-70mm f/2.8 but for my DSLR, not a native mount for my mirrorless body, and B&H has them (but right now they’re backordered, which really doesn’t help this story, but stay with me).

Like all lenses these days, it’s not cheap at $2,300. The question is: Will I use it? Well, how much did I really use the old one (and what f/stops did I shoot it at? Maybe I don’t need an f/2.8 at all — maybe an f/4 would work just as well and it’s 1/2 the weight and 1/2 the price). These are both situations where Lightroom can help.

Here’s what to do: Go to the Library module and hit the backsplash key to bring up the Library module filters (seen above). Click on the Metadata tab up top and four columns will appear. Make sure the first column is set to Date (click and hold on the name of the first column at the top left of the column and a pop-up menu of choices will appear). Set the 2nd column to Lens. Set the third column to Aperture (as shown here).

Now, in the first column on the left, hold the Shift key and click on the last five years (as I’ve done here) to select all the photos from the past five years. Now, in the lens column, find your old 24-70mm in the list, click on it and to the right of it, it will show you how many shots you’ve taken (or at least, you’ve kept) with that exact lens in the past five years (in my case, it was 1 single photo. Obviously, I took more, but I only kept one). Now, look in the third column — I didn’t even take that one keeper at f/2.8. I took it at f/4.5.

Conclusion

Not only do I not need to buy the f/2.8 version of that lens — and not only do I not need to buy the f/4 lens in the first place, I need to SELL my existing 24-70mm f/2.8 lens, because for the past five years I’ve been barely using it, and when I did, I didn’t even shoot it at f/2.8. This is the kind of stuff Lightroom can tell you, instantly, and it could save you thousands when it comes time to get some new glass. Hope you found that helpful.

Incredible Aviation Photography Opportunity with Moose Peterson

Can you imagine spending a couple of days with the man who literally wrote the book on aviation photography at a live seminar? If you’re into aviation photography, this is just an incredible opportunity to learn from the very best. More details and tickets right here.

Revelation of the Month

This has nothing to do with Lightroom or photography, but I believe that Tater Tots are such an incredibly perfect food that they were probably brought here by aliens in an act of benevolence to help further mankind. Who’s with me here?

Hope you all have a fantastic weekend, and we’ll catch you back here on Monday. Cheers.

-Scott

P.S. We have officially announced the “Photoshop World Conference” is back — three days, all online, with your favorite Photoshop World instructors. More details over on my blog today, or over at photoshopworld.com. It’s August 30-Sept 2nd, 2021. And yes, there’s a full Lightroom track throughout! Awwww, yeah!

The post Thinking of Buying an Expensive f/2.8 lens? Lightroom Can Help appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Thanks, Terry!!!! (Awesome, as usual).

Check out my field report on the Tamron SP 150-600mm f/5.6 – f6.3 G2 lens

Over on my daily blog, I give you my initial impressions after shooting with it for a full day shooting the US Navy’s Blue Angels. Here’s the link.

Have a great weekend, everybody! Stay safe, happy and healthy, and I hope to see you again here next week.

-Scott

The post How to Pick Your Favorite Shots Faster in Lightroom Classic appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.

Get Ready To Go “Old School”

I’m going to answer this question with something that won’t make sense to a lot of folks, and I have a bit of trouble reconciling it myself, but it’s what I do and there’s an old school reason why, but I’m not sure my reason really makes sense beyond “Well, that’s what I’ve always done.” Luckily, at least it’s a simple rule I go by:

When I’m doing my initial “cull” (going through the just-imported images to find the keepers and mark them as “picks” in Lightroom), if I see a photo that’s crazy out of focus, or my flash didn’t fire, or it’s a shot of my foot when I was walking, I delete those.

I mark them as a reject by pressing “x” on my keyboard, and then I go under the Photo menu up top and choose “Delete Rejected Photos” (as shown above).

I keep everything else.

All of them. Even photos that aren’t good, aren’t picks, aren’t selects, and they will never be shared on social or seen anywhere else, ever. Why? Because I come from a traditional film background (yes, I’m that old), and back then you never, ever threw away the negatives no matter what, even if they weren’t keepers. You just didn’t do it. The negative were ‘sacred.’

Today’s Raw photos, to me, are the negs, so I don’t delete them either, even if they’re not keepers, and even if I know it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to keep them. I know — that’s so “old school.” Luckily, I have a bajillion terabytes of open storage, and storage is so cheap these days, I can just hang out to shots with no worries.

However, there is hope for me, because me deleting those few out-of-focus shots of my foot and stuff like that is actually progress.

FYI: I still have all those negatives and slides from back in the day, stored in (you guessed it), shoe boxes. Well, they’re plastic shoebox sized containers sealed with tight lids, but essentially, they’re shoe boxes. Say what you want about our parents storing their photos in shoeboxes but…it worked.

Anyway, that’s my old school, but truthful answer about how I deal with shots that’s aren’t “keepers.” Apparently, even my bad shots, on some level, are still keepers. Ain’t no school like the old school!

Hope you have a great week, and make sure you check out Rob here on Wednesday for his column.

-Scott

The post Should You Delete Your Bad Photos in Lightroom? appeared first on Lightroom Killer Tips.