It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, so I’ve had plenty of time to work on some projects of my own. One has been trying to completely edit and re-organize my photo library. I have been using a mixture of iPhoto, Bridge, and Photoshop for most of photo editing needs until now. I’ve transitioned into one mainstream way of editing my photos via Adobe Lightroom. It makes things so much easier for me to quickly catalog and edit all of my pictures in one screen.
Change Lightroom’s View Mode For Easier Editing
When I edit photos, I prefer to have no distractions at all. That includes Gmail notifications in my menubar, extra panels in Lightroom, and the Mac dock. This way I can get maximum screen real estate.
- Go to Window > Screen Mode > Full Screen and Hide Panels.
- If want to show a panel that is hidden in one of the screen modes, just click on one of the arrows for that panel.
Stacking Images of Similar Form and Design
After making the move from iPhoto to Lightroom, I wanted to figure out an easier way to catalog similar pictures. Instead of making a folder for similar images, I can create a virtual stack of them. This way when I’m looking through 5,000 pictures, it takes up less space in the library window.
- Select images in the library that are of the same thing or very similar in form.
- Right-click and choose Stacking > Group into Stack.
- Since I’ve probably used this about fifty times now, it makes it easier to add a keyboard shortcut for this command. Read my article on making keyboard shortcuts if you want to know how.
- If you get a pop-up that says “Could not create stack”, right-click on the images you want to stack and choose “Show in Finder”. Now move them to the same folder.
- Then synchronize Lightroom so the changes appear. Go to Library > Synchronize Folder… and it will sync the library with the selected images.
Keyboard Shortcuts To Be More Efficient In Lightroom
As you know, I love using keyboard shortcuts when possible. Not only does it improve your proficiency with the application, but it also makes editing images a breeze. I’m only giving just a few because these ones are the ones I use the most.
- When you are in in any screen and want to quickly get back to your library, hit the ‘G’ key.
- To move to the Develop panel, hit the ‘D’ key.
- To quickly adjust the screen mode, hit the ‘F’ key and shuffle through the different modes.
- To rate pictures for faster searching later on, just hit the number (1-5) on your keyboard.
- To add a color label to your photos, just hit the number (6-9) to on your keyboard.
- To quickly compare two selected images, tap the ‘C’ key.
- To rotate an image 90° clockwise, hit ⌘ (Command) and “]” and to rotate an image 90° counter-clockwise hit ⌘ (Command) and “[“.
Use SlideShowPro To Make Your Own Professionally Designed Web Galleries
Ever since I got back from recent vacation, I’ve been looking for an online service to share my pictures on. Most of the ones I looked at had either limited storage (Picasa) or a generally basic interface. SmugMug was nice, but not quite at my level of customization. Then I thought I’ll just host my own gallery with my website because it’s easier, faster, and cheaper thanks to SlideShowPro.
- To install SlideShowPro, buy it from here.
- Once you have downloaded the zip for it, find the “slideshowpro.lrwebengine” file inside the Web Galleries folder.
- Now drag the “slideshowpro.lrwebengine” file and the Web Templates folder into “Library/Application Support/Adobe/Lightroom/Web Galleries”.
- The next time you open up Lightroom go to the Web panel and choose SlideShowPro from the “Engine” menu (top right).
- Adjust the settings until your happy with the gallery, then hit the “Export…” button to export the gallery.
- Use an FTP program (Coda or CyberDuck) and upload the folders onto your server.
- To view a sample photo gallery, check out the examples page on SlideShowPro’s site.
