There have been times when I have decided that the settings that I had applied to the Virtual Copy are better than what are on my Master. In this case, I can quickly apply the settings from a virtual copy to the master, by selecting Photo > Set Copy as Master (in the Library module).
Although it’s easy to find your Virtual Copies by using the Filter options in Lightroom, (use the Attribute filter and click the Virtual Copy icon on the far right),
it isn’t as readily apparent how one can create a Smart Collection that automatically finds your Virtual Copies – but it can be done! In the Lightroom 5 Beta, choose Library > New Smart Collection and under the Match category, choose File Name / Type > Copy Name. Then, set the pull down menu to “isn’t empty”.
The Lightroom team has added new criteria (filters) for Smart Collections including:
• Size (in megapixels). Note: the sub-options include Long Edge, Short Edge, Width, Height, Megapixels, Long Edge Uncropped, Short Edge Uncropped, Width Uncropped, Height Uncropped, Megapixels Uncropped, and Aspect Ratio
•Bit Depth
•Number of color channels
•Color Mode
•Color Profile
•Smart Preview status
•PNG
Note: the last two options, Smart Preview Status and PNG are also available as Filters.
In addition, Lightroom now remembers your last viewed image in a Collection so when navigating from one collection to another, you’ll be restored to that image upon returning to the Collection.
In this Quick Tip (How to Remove Unwanted Collections when Exporting Catalogs in Lightroom), Julieanne demonstrates how to quickly clean up an exported catalog of any extraneous collections.
Just as an FYI – I had a great talk with the engineer who works on the Import/Export as Catalogs (after I recorded this video), and he provided an excellent synopsis on why those extra collections are there. As it so often turns out, the topic is much more complicated than my little brain imagined:
The idea is that for every single photo that is included in the export, all information related to that photo is included. Let’s take for example that you have a collection of “Tree”. One piece of information that is related to some of these photos is “I’m in the Tahoe collection” so the Tahoe collection appears in the collection panel, containing those photos. The Tahoe collection doesn’t contain all of the photos it contained in the original catalog of course, but only the photos that were part of the source (Trees) that was selected for export.
Perhaps this behavior seems odd. We could change the behavior, but it’s a dangerous, slippery slope. For example, what if the source you selected for export wasn’t “Trees” or “Tahoe” but instead was a folder that contained photos, some of which appear in both Trees and Tahoe? Should neither of the collections appear in the exported catalog? I think if we start dropping information from catalog exports, we’ll quickly hit scenarios where we’re dropping things that customers don’t actually want us to drop.
Hence, you now have a simple work around to quickly remove the collections that you don’t need, while still making sure that you still have the option to see all of the information related to those photos when you do choose to export a catalog. : )
In the Lightroom 5 beta, you can choose to display guides in the Library (while in Loupe view), the Develop module and during Tethered Capture by selecting View > Loupe Overlay > Guides. To toggle the display of the overlay, select Guides from the menu (or use Command + Option + O (Mac) | Control + Alt + O (Win).
To reposition the guides, Command (Mac) | Control (Win) -drag the intersection of the guides.
Grid overlays aren’t limited to cropping anymore! In the Lightroom 5 beta, you can choose to display a grid in the Library (while in Loupe view), the Develop module and during Tethered Capture by selecting View > Loupe Overlay > Grid. Note: by default the Grid menu option displays a dash (not a check) before its name because the overlay is not visible by default. To toggle the display of the overlay, select Grid from the menu (or use Command + Option + O (Mac) | Control + Alt + O (Win).
While the grid is visible, Command (Mac) | Control (Win) displays options for Size and Opacity. Click-drag left/right on Size to decrease/increase the grid size. Likewise, Click -drag left/right on Opacity to decrease/increase the grid opacity.
In Lightroom’s Develop module, when you choose Settings > Copy Settings or use the shortcut Command + Shift + C (Mac) | Control + Shift + C (Win), Lightroom copies the setting that you select (in the subsequent Copy Settings dialog), to the clipboard and holds on to them. Therefore, as you move through your photo shoot, you can easily paste those setting to any additional image(s). This might be a great way, for example, to paste a subset of attributes such as a vignette or color toning to images while moving through a shoot, and still be able to use Sync (or Auto Sync) to apply other modifications.
Lightroom automatically saves the original file name in the metadata of the file. In the Metadata panel, (in the header area where you can choose from a number of different ways to display the panel), choose the “EXIF and IPTC” or “Location” display options and you will see the “Original Filename” filed.
In this episode of The Complete Picture (How and When to Rename Files in Lightroom ), Julieanne provides several suggestions for file naming conventions for creating templates for import, Batch Renaming, Export and Editing in Photoshop as well as recommendations for how and when to rename your files.
This is a pretty rare occurrence, but I occasionally find that I have multiple copies of the same folder of images in two locations. For example, I might need a copy of a folder of images to use in a demo, or I might have changed my mind as to which folder of images (the one on my internal or external drive) contains my “working” files, or maybe I’ve just plain gotten confused and have made duplicates for some unknown reason! Note: I just want to be clear, here I’m talking about an identical folder of images, that for whatever reason, appears in two different locations – not copies for redundant backup purposes.
Instead of deleting the unwanted folder from the Lightroom catalog – because that would remove the files from Collections, delete any virtual copies and, if I haven’t saved information to the files, discard metadata changes and develop settings, I simply Control -click (Mac) | Right Mouse -click (Win) on the Folder and choose Update Folder Location. Then, I navigate to the folder/images that I want Lightroom to work with and select it, enabling Lightroom to “keep track of” that set of images and forget about the others.
Command–Option–Up Arrow will toggle between the currently selected module and the previous module visited in Lightroom.
By default, when creating Virtual Copies, Lightroom automatically gives each Virtual Copy a sequential copy name: “Copy 1”, “Copy 2”, “Copy 3”, etc. To create a custom name for each Virtual Copy, in the Metadata panel (in the Library module) type the preferred name in the “Copy Name” field.
Note: to see the custom file name in the Grid or Loupe views, you may need to make a change under View >View Options. In the example below, I have set my view options to “Show Grid Extras: Expanded Cells” and my “Expanded Cell Extras” to “Copy Name or File Base Name”. Note that you can also choose to see both Copy and File name.
For more information on Virtual Copies, you may want to watch this video tutorial (When to use Virtual Copies and Snapshots in Lightroom).
In addition to new camera support, Lightroom also includes HiDPI within the Library and Develop Modules. Click here for all of the details…
If the images in the Filmstrip are really small, then neither the badges nor any of the View Options (including Rating and Picks, Stack Counts, Photos in Navigator on Mouseover or Photo Info Tooltips) will be displayed. However, increasing the size of the thumbnails in the filmstrip will display the badges.
To customize what is displayed in the Filmstrip when the Thumbnails are larger (hide the Badges), choose Preferences > Interface.
To help identify what treatments/adjustments have been applied to an image in the Library module in Lightroom, the team created several different badges including: GPS Coordinates, Collections, Keywords, Cropping, and Develop Module Adjustments.
To toggle the Badges on and off, in the Grid view in the Library Module, select View > View Options and check on/off the Grid View > Cell Options > Thumbnail Badges. Notice that you can also choose to show/hide Flags, Unsaved Metadata and Quick Collection Markers.
