Lightroom: Creating and Managing Collections by Jim Cornish

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Collections:

Lightroom’s Virtual Photo Albums

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Table of Contents Collections ………………….….………………….…………………………………... 3

Collection Sets ………………….……………………………….…………

The Collections Panel ……………………………………….………………. 4

Creating a Collection Set ……………………….……………………

Smart Collection Sets .…………………………..….……….….……………

Creating Regular Collections for Collection Set ….…

Creating a New Regular Collection …….…………………………

Deleting a Collection …………………………………………………….

Setting the Target Collection ……………….….…….………………..

Moving Around Collections …………………………………………

Adding Images to a Target Collection ….….…………….…….

Renaming Collections …………………………………………………….

Adding Batch of Image and Creating a New Collection at the Same time …………………………………….

Using Drag-and-Drop to add Images to a Collection . 10 Adding Image to Collection in Develop Module…………… . 11 The Painter Tool ……………………………………………………………….. 12 Using the Painter Tool to Select Images for The Target Collection.…………………………………………………

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

If you ever owned a film camera, changes are you have shoe boxes filled with photographs stashed away in a closet. It is equally likely that you have your best pictures stored in photo albums which you pull out from time to time when family and friends visit. Lightroom enables you to similarly organize your “digital photographs “ using a little know and often underutilized panel called Collections. It is easy to understand Lightroom’s version of Collections if you compare them to the shoe boxes and photo album systems of storing prints. The Library Module (aka the shoe box) holds all your digital images. Collections (aka photo albums) hold only the images you want to share. You can think of Collections as “virtual photo albums” that contain your best images chosen from vacations, weddings, children and grandchildren to name a few. Lightroom enables you to create as many Collections as you want and fill them with any number of images from one or more folders. Imported into Lightroom. The software also enables you to bring collections together into a set, a scheme that works much like the folders

and subfolders used by your computer’s operating system. You can, for example, create a collection set for images from your last vacation that include separate collections of each place you visited. You can even place the same images into multiple collections, a option impossible in the days of film without first paying for additional prints. The secret to Lightroom’s collections versatility is its Catalog; the database Lightroom uses to store image previews and all the metadata and edits you add to them. Collections and collection sets do not actual duplicate the original images or their previews. Lightroom simply uses small files with instructions that connect them, saving you a tremendous amount of space and, searching and loading time.

Collections and Collection Sets can be created and stocked with images in both the Library and Develop Modules. The Library Module enables you to add multiple image at one time. The Develop Module restricts you to add images only one at a time, when, for example, you are finished editing the image and want it placed in an existing or in a brand new collection. You can also add one or multiple images from the filmstrip, which is also located at the base of the screen in all six modules. Collections fall into three categories; regular Collections, Collection Sets and Smart Collections. This document only deals with regular Collections and Collection Sets. Smart Collections will be covered by a separate document.

Collections can also be used in the Develop Module. If you decide to edit an image that happens to be in multiple Collections, the changes you make on one image in one Collection will be visible immediately when the same image is viewed in all other Collections in which it is stored. All of this is done without duplicating any images!

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

The

Collections Panel

The Collections Panel, as pictured in the screen capture to the right, is located in the left panel in all six Lightroom Modules. Your Collections list will, of course, reflect your own system of naming and organizing collections. Regular collections and collection sets are organized alphabetically in a tree structure that looks similar to the directory structure of your computer’s file management system. Keeping that in mind, you can think of Collection sets as parent folders and regular collections as subfolders. The images, when displayed in the center panel of the Library and Develop Modules, are like individual files. And as with folders and subfolders, when collections and collections sets are added, moved and renamed, their position in the tree can change to maintain the alphabetical order. The regular collections and collection sets in the Collections panel are revealed and concealed using a disclosure triangle, also called a twirlie. These twirlies act like toggle switches. If the twirlie is pointing to the right, the contents of the Collections panel are concealed. To reveal the contents , click the twirlie once. If the twirlie is pointing down, all the regular collections and smart collections are revealed. If you nest regular collections, (place one inside another), the parent collection will display a twirlie as well.

Panel Tab

Twirlie (Disclosure triangle) Collection

Collection Set Shape distinguishes it

Collection with customizable options as

Delete

Add

Collection currently displayed as

Number of images in collection

Target collection as indicated by the +

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

The Smart Collections Set By default, the Collections panel contains at least one Smart Collection set. The shape of the smart collection set icon is slightly different from the icon of regular collections. Clicking its twirlie reveals/conceals the collections added to that set. A small circle located in the lower right corner of the icon identifies it as a collection within a Smart Collection set. Also note that the Smart Collection set tab does not show the number of images it contains. That is left to the individual smart collections within the set. Smart collections in the Smart Collections set are tied to image metadata included in Lightroom’s catalog. The collections visible in your Smart Collection panel will likely differ from what appears in the screen capture presented here. I added the “Coloured Red” and a “Five Stars” collections to see only the images I rated as five star ratings and red tagged. I rated only what I consider my best images with 5 stars, so this Five Stars Collection will show all of the images with this rating no matter where they are stored in the Library Module. I red tagged only those images that are mushrooms, so that all of my mushroom images can be displayed when the Coloured red collection is selected. And since they are both “smart” collections, they will be updated to include new images every time I

tag a new image red or give it a five star rating. If I apply both a red tag and a five star rating to the same image, the images will appear in their respective collections. This is what makes each smart collection “smart”. You are likely to see each of the following collections in the Smart Collection when running Lightroom for the first time: These are default collections with default settings. How these smart collections work will be covered in a separate document. 1. Recently Modified This is a smart collection of all images you edited over the last 2 days.

listed in the metadata for that image. If you decide to add a keyword to an image, it will be removed from the collection.

2. Past Month This is a smart collection of all new images you imported in the past month. 3. Without keywords This is a smart collection of all Images in the catalog that do not have keywords

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Creating A New Regular Collection Lightroom enables you to create any number of regular collections. The name you give each collection should be one that immediately reminds you of the images the collection contains. The maximum length of a collection name is 65 characters, so you have plenty of characters to create great names. The letters can be either upper or lower case or a combination of both and can include spaces and underscores to separate words. You should, however, keep a collection name as short as possible so the entire name is visible without having to resize the panel’s width and lose valuable working space. Lightroom gives you several options when creating a regular collection. You can create the regular collection and then add one or more images later. You can also select a bunch of images you want in a new collection and then have Lightroom create that collection and add the selected images automatically. Both options will be covered in this document. To create a new, empty, regular collection, follow the steps below. Please note that the use of the word click refers to the left mouse button. Anytime the right mouse button must be used, the instruction will be written as right click.

1. Click the twirlie on the Collections tab to display all existing collections and collection sets.

Click the Create button to create the new collection.

2. Click the + sign on the Collections tab. A contextual menu, as pictured to the right, appears. It gives you three collections options. 3

Click the Create Collection option as displayed in a red rectangle in the screen capture to the right. A dialog box as pictured lower right will then appear.

4. Type a name for the collection in the Name: text box. 5.

Leave the Location: Inside a Collection Set box unchecked.

If present, click the checkmark on Include selected photos to undo adding any selected images to this new collection.

If present, click the checkmark on the Set as target collection to undo setting the new collection as the target. The purpose of the target collection will be covered later in this document.

The new collection will now appear in alphabetical order in the collection panel. If you want to create additional regular collections, repeat steps 2-5. Adding images to a regular collection is covered on the next page of this document.

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Setting the Target Collection After you create your collection(s), you will want to add images. Since there is now more than one collection in the panel, Lightroom needs to know to which “specific collection” you want to add images. Lightroom calls this “specific collection” the target collection. If you don’t set the target collection correctly, the images you select to add will end up in the wrong collection. To identify a specific collection as the target collection follow the steps below.

A collection designated as the target will always remain the target until you change another collection to become the target. So, when you decide to add images to a collection, you need to begin that workflow by first selecting the correct target collection. The target collection can be set and changed in all six Lightroom modules and images can be added to the target collection in all modules.

1. Click on the collection you want to make the target collection. The collection will be highlighted as shown in the screen capture to the right. 2. Right click on the collection this time. A contextual menu as pictured to the right will appear. (You can actually right click on the collection first and not have it highlighted as in step one, but highlighting it first ensures you have the right collection selected as the target.) 2. Click on the Set as Target Collection option as outlined in the red rectangle on the contextual menu seen here. A + sign will appear after the collection’s name to identify it as the target. In the screen capture opposite, the collection Cobbs Pond Flowers has a + sign to indicate it is now the target collection.

Lightroomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Collections Panel and Toolset

ÂŠ Jim Cornish, 2014

Adding Images to a Target Collection Images can be added to a target collection one at a time or in batches. Adding images in batches can be done in the grid view of the Library Module or from the filmstrip that appears along the bottom of the screen in all Lightroom Modules. Adding images can be done via a contextual menu option or via click-drag-and-drop. Both options will be covered.

Adding An Image via the Menu Option It does not matter what Module you are in or if you choose to use the filmstrip, adding a single image is very straight forward. 1. Select the collection you want as the Target collection (see instructions on the previous page). 2. Right click on the image you wish to add. A contextual menu as displayed to the right appears. 3. Click the Add to Target Collection option in the middle of the contextual menu that appears. The number of images in the target collection will now increase by one.

Adding Multiple Image via the Menu Option Adding multiple images to a target collection can only be done while in the grid view in the Library Module or from the filmstrip that appears at the base of the screen in all modules. How multiple images are selected for the target collection depends on whether the images are scattered throughout the grid view or filmstrip or whether they are arranged contiguously- next to each other in an uninterrupted string. To add multiple scattered images, follow the steps below. 1. Hold down the CTRL key and then click on each image you want to add to the target collection. The border on each image will change to a light grey to distinguish them from unselected images. 2. When you have finished selecting all the images, right click on any image you have selected and then choose Add to Target Collection option in the middle of the same contextual menu. The number of images in the target collection will now increase by the number of selected images added.

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Adding A Batch of Selected Images As previously stated, you can select a bunch of images to add to a collection and then create the collection and have those images automatically added. This is a good option if you are using Collections for the first time and want to add images to collections that don’t yet exist. Using this method does not require the use of a target collection since the collection has yet to be created

5. In the Options section, click on the boxes “Include selected photos” and “Set as target collection” to check them. Having these boxes checked means Lightroom will create a new collection with the name you typed, set it as the target collection and then add the selected files automatically. 6.

To select a batch of images and create a new collection at the same time, follow the steps below. 1. CTRL click (hold the CTRL key done while you click on each image) to create a batch of images you wish to add to a new collection. 2. When finished selecting the images, click on the + sign on the Collections tab. A Create Collection dialog box as pictured to the right will appear. 3

Click the create button to create the new collection and add the images.

The new collection will now appear in alphabetical order in the collection panel. The images will be added and the number of images you added will appear . Images that are included in a collection have a “stacked symbol” located in the lower right hand corner of the image as displayed to the right whenever they are displayed in the Library module and on the filmstrip. Other icons that indicate the image has a keyword attached or the image has been edited will also be displayed.

Type a name for your collection in the Text box..

4. Leave the box in the Location: Inside a Collection set section unchecked.

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Using Drag-and-drop to Add Images to a Collection Drag-and-drop is a method many people use to move files and folders around the directory structure of their computer’s file management system. This method works basically the same way in Lightroom.

Note: 5, Scroll down until the collection you wish to drop the images into is visible in the list. 6.

The instructions below can be used to drag images from either the grid view in the Library Module or from the filmstrip visible at the base of the screen on all modules. 1. Open the Folders panel and select the folder containing the images you wish to add to a collection. 2, While holding the CTRL down, click on each image you wish to add to the collection. When selected, the border around each image will turn a bright grey to distinguish selected images from nonselected images. 3. Once you have all the images selected, click on the twirlie to conceal the Folders panel. Don’t worry, the images in the grid/filmstrip will remain visible and selected.

Click and hold the mouse button on any one of the images you have selected. Be sure to do this on the image and not on the border.

7. With the mouse button still held down, drag the mouse toward the collections panel. The mouse will change to a stack of images with the one you clicked on top. 8. Drag the stack to the Collections panel and hover over the Collection that you want to drop the images into. The Collection will be highlighted. If the collection cannot receive the images the stack will change to the Ø symbol and back to a stack once you move on. 9.

The selected images themselves are not moved as they would be in your computer’s operating system. Instead, Lightroom simply updates the Catalog by adding a reference to their location in a new or additional collection . If you would like to add these same images to another Collection, just repeat steps 3-5 as the images will remain selected even after they are dropped. If you wish to use the grid view of the Library Module to click-drag-and-drop images into a collection, follow the same steps

When you have the correct collection selected, release the mouse button. The images will now be added to the collection.

4. Click on the twirlie to reveal the Collections panel if it is not already opened.

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Add Images To a Collection While Working in the Develop Module The Develop module displays only one image at a time; the image you are currently editing. Lightroom makes it possible for you to add that image to a Collection. To add an image to a Collection while in the Develop module, follow the steps below.

Please note. If you have an image in the Develop module that is already in a Collection, the “Add to Target Collection will not appear. Instead, you are given the option of removing the image from the collection.

1. Click on the image you want to edit and bring it into the Develop module. 2. After or while editing the image, open the Collections panel. 3. Right click on the Collection you want as the Target Collection. A contextual menu appears. 4. Click on “Set as Target Collection” . A + sign will now tag the collection as the target. 5. Move the mouse back to the image and right click on the image. A contextual menu as pictured to the right appears. 6. Choose “Add to Target Collection”. The image will now be added to the target collection.

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

The Painter Tool The Painter is a new, little known yet very versatile tool for managing and tagging images in the Library Module only. The Painter tool is one of 10 optional icons that can be displayed on the tool bar located immediately below the grid view in the Library Module. When added, the Painter looks like a spray paint can as pictured above. If you can’t see the Painter tool on your toolbar now, click on the downward pointing arrow at the end of the toolbar and select the Painter option- the second one in the list. To select the Painter tool, simply click on its icon on the toolbar. The mouse cursor will immediately change to a spray paint can. Its place on the toolbar will change to a dark gray circle called the Painter’s holder.

eight different tasks the Painter is programmed to do. The pair of arrows to the right of whatever option appears can be clicked to reveal and change the Painter’s purpose. The screen captures to the right shows how the Painter can be used. As you can see, all but one of the eight options(Rotation), is tied to managing your images instead of editing them. The Painter icon will be visible only when it the mouse is moved over the images displayed in the grid view. When the Painter is moved from the toolbar, its holder is left empty. To deselect the Painter, simply click on this empty holder and it will snap into place and the mouse will assume its default arrow shape.

As the painter icon suggests, the Painter works by simply clicking the mouse button on whatever image you want to work with- the equivalent to spray painting something to may it noticeable. The next page in this document lists the steps in a workflow that uses the Painter to add images to a Target Collection. Except for the “batch select and add to collection” described on page 9 of this document, I think you will find this tool to be a much better option than the CTRL click-drop-and-drag to target images. The Painter is customizable and is very efficient at getting the job done immediately and with just a single click of the mouse.

When selected, the Painter tool will also be extended to include an tool option as shown in the screen capture top right on this page. In this case, it shows the Target Collection option. On your computer it will likely show something different. You can change this option to one of

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Using the Painter Tool to Select Images for the Target Collection The instructions below will turn the Painter into a tool that you can use to add images one at a time to the target collection.

Painter shape when hovering over any image (but not the border for that image) in the grid view.

1. Open the Library module if it is not already displayed.

7. Click on a picture you want to add to the Target Collection selected on step 3 above. You must click on the image itself and not the border. If you accidentally choose an image with the Painter, you can remove it from the target collection by simply doing a right click on the image and choosing Remove from Target Collection near the bottom of the contextual menu that appears.

2. Open the Collection panel. 3. Right click on the collection to which you want to add images and choose Set as Target Collection on the contextual menu that appears. Remember, the target collection will have a + sign added to its name. 4. Select the Painter tool on the toolbar. 5. Click on the double set of arrows on the Painter tool and select the Target Collection option. When an image is clicked with the “paint can shaped cursor”, the selected image will be added to the target collection. 6.

Open the Folders panel and choose the folder that contains the images you wish to include in the target collection. When moving the mouse off the grid view, it changes to an arrow, but returns to the

After clicking the Painter on the image a small circle will appear in the top right hand corner of the image to show you that this image has been added to the target collection. The number of images in the target collection will increase by one each time your click the Painter on an image. Clicking on a selected image a second time will not add it to the collection a second time. 8. Click the other images you would like to add to the target collection.

Lightroomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Collections Panel and Toolset

ÂŠ Jim Cornish, 2014

Collection Sets Another option in Lightroom is to create a collection set, essentially a collection of collections. You can even take it one step further and nest collections and sets of collections inside one another. Collections sets are a great way to organize your best images based on a theme such as Travels. You can then create collections for every different place you visited over the years. If you are a world traveller, for example, a Collections set based on this idea might look like the screen capture to the right. The Collections nested in the set could be the names of the places you visited. Creating a Collection set requires a little planning, so it is best to think through the name for the set and the names for the collections before you create them in Lightroom. To create a collection set you must create the Collection Set and then create the collections that set will contain. The next page explains how this is done.

Collection Sets

Nested Collections

Notice the icon for the collection set is different from the icon for a regular collection.

Lightroomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Collections Panel and Toolset

ÂŠ Jim Cornish, 2014

Creating an Collection Set To create a Collection Set, follow the steps below. 1. Open the Collections panel.

In the screen capture below, Travels is the Collection Set. Africa, China, Ireland and United States are all nested Collections in the Travels set.

2. Click on the + sign on the collections panel tab. The now familiar contextual menu will appear.

The next page contains the steps you must follow to add these travel destinations to the Travels collection set.

3. Click on the Create Collection Set option. A dialog box will appear. 4. Type in the name for your collection in the textbox. To follow through this handout, type Travels. 5. Click to uncheck the Inside a Collection Set option. 6. Click the Create button to create the collection set. It will now appear in the Collections panel. Notice the icon for the collection set is different from the icon for a regular collection.

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Creating Collections for a Collections Set Collections can either stand on their own or they can be nested in a collection set. To nest collections on your Travels Collection Set created from the previous page, follow the steps below 1. Click on the Travels Collection set in the Collections panel to highlight it. This indicates to Lightroom to which collection set you want to add new collections. 2.

Click on the + sign on the Collections panel tab. The familiar Create Collection dialog box appears

Type a name for you collection in the text box. This time choose the name Africa- one of the places you visited on your travels.

If you did step one correctly, the box will now be checked and Travels will be named as the Collection set. 4.

For now, leave the “Set as Target collections” option unchecked. If it is checked, uncheck it.

5. Click the create button to create your first collection.

6. Repeat steps 1-5 to add additional collections named China, Ireland and United States.

collection, any editing changes you make will be visible on the image when viewed.

When you have completed adding the location collections from step six, you will have a collection set with four nested collections. From here, you can select one of the collections (Africa, China, Ireland or United States) as the target collection. Then find the folder containing your images in the Folders panel and add the images to the target collection. You can add images to a collection in one of three ways described in this document. When you have added the images from one of your travel destinations to a collection, choose another collection as the target collection and then add the images to that collection. When you are finished, you will now have all of the best images from your vacation organized in location collections nested in one collection set so it will be easy to find them When someone comes to visit, you cal now bring up your collections and they will be treated to the best photographs. You can use any Collections to choose an image for editing. Wherever the image appears, in the Library Module’s grid view or even another

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Deleting a Collection Sometimes you can use a Collection for a singular purpose. For example, as you edit your images you might like to put all the images you want to show a certain friend or client in a collection so when the time comes, your don’t have to go through your images and select them again. When you are finished working with that client, you might want to delete the collection to reduce the clutter in your Collections panel.

4. Click on the Delete button to delete the collection.

When you delete a collection, the images are not deleted from your hard drive. Deleting a collection simply means you are deleting the catalog references to the image that Lightroom uses to build that collection.

1. Open up the Collections panel to see all the collections you have created.

There are two ways of deleting a collection: 1. using a contextual menu and 2. using the - sign on the Collection Panel tab. To delete a collection using a contextual menu, follow the steps below. 1. Open the Collections panel to display all of the collections you have created. 2. Right click on the collection you wish to delete. A contextual menu will appear. 3. Click on the Delete option. A Confirm dialog box as pictured lower right appears indicating the name of the collection you wish to delete.

The collection will now be deleted from the Collections folder.

To delete a collection using the - sign on the Collections panel tab, follow the steps below.

2. Click on the collection you wish to delete. It will be highlighted so there is no mistaking which one you want. 3. Click on the minus sign. A Confirm dialog box appears indicating the name of the collection you wish to delete. 4. Click on the Delete button to delete the collection. The collection will now be deleted from the Collections panel. If you should decide to delete collections you have created but have no images in them, clicking on the - sign after choosing that collection will not display the confirm dialog box. The collection will simply be delete.

Lightroom’s Collections Panel and Toolset

Moving Around Collections As you collections grow, there might come a time when you will want to move a collection from one collection set and place it in another. Lightroom can do this as easily as moving folders and files using click-drag-and-drop, the same method used by your computer’s operating system. But, there are rules.

3. A collection set cannot be nested into a regular collection.

Moving a Collection and a Collections Set To move a collection from one collection set to another follow the steps below.

Rules About Regular Collections 1. A regular collections cannot be moved to become nested in another regular collection.

3. A regular collection nested inside a Collection set can be moved to stand on its own. 4. A regular collection nested in a Collection set can be moved to another Collections set.

3. Release the mouse to drop the collection into its new set.

Rules About Collections Sets

This click-drag-and-drop system works the same way when moving regular collections and collection sets around. You can practice this before you add any images by simply creating a few empty collections and collection sets.

1. A Collection set can be moved and nested inside another Collection set.

Moving collections and collection sets with hundreds and even thousands of images can take a bit of time, so be patient while Lightroom makes the necessary changes to its catalog.

1. Click and hold the mouse on the collection you wish to move. 2. Drag the mouse to the collection set icon nameplate. As you move the mouse, a Ø will appear when you reach a spot where you can’t move the selected collection. When you reach the collection set nameplate, the mouse will change to a symbol looking like a stack.

2. A regular collection can be moved from one Collection set to another Collection set.

WARNING:

2. A collections set nested inside another collection set can be moved to stand on its own.

Lightroomâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Collections Panel and Toolset

ÂŠ Jim Cornish, 2014

Renaming Collections From time to time, you will want to rename a collection or a collection set. Lightroom allow you to make this change and will update the catalog so all the connections between the renamed set and its contents are not lost.

To rename a collection or a collection set using a contextual menu, follow the steps below.

There are, however, some limitations.

2. Right click on the collection or collection set you wish to rename. A contextual menu will appear.

1. Two regular collections cannot have the same name. If you try this, a message will appear in the renaming dialog box indicating a collection by the same name exists. 2. Two collection sets cannot have the same name. 3. Collections can only be renamed using the contextual menu. Two regular collections can have the same name but only if they are in separate collection sets.

1. Open the Collections panel to display all of the collections you have created.

3. Click on the Rename option. A Confirm dialog box as pictured lower right appears indicating the name of the collection you wish to rename. If you are choosing to rename a collection set, the title on the dialog box will reflect that 4. Type in the new name of the set. The collection will now be renamed and because sets are listed alphabetically, it may shift location in the collection tree.