Get Organized in Lightroom

Lightroom is a powerful manager of digital
photography. The heart of it is the Library
Module. Work in the rest of the modules begins
by choosing a photograph or a group of them
in the Library.
S E C T I O N 1
THE
LIBRARY
MODULE
K E V I N A M E S

DATABASE
Lightroom is at its core a database. It stores all of the information about a
photograph. From the camera settings at the time of exposure, to keywords,
copyright and creator info through all of the changes made in the Develop
module, face recognition and even GPS coordinates; Lightroom maintains and
retrieves these data on demand. It’s very important to know that Lightroom is only
a database. It references photographs stored on hard drives. It does not store
photographs. There are NO photographs in Lightroom… only information about
them. Importing photographs into Lightroom stores information about them. It
does not store the photographs themselves.
! A Sad Story—There are NO PHOTOGRAPHS in Lightroom!
When the first version of Lightroom was introduced, a photographer imported all of
his work and personal photography into it. He was delighted to see how small the
Lightroom catalog was. He immediately deleted all of his photographs to free up
space on his (at the time) very expensive and almost full 1.5 terabyte RAID
holding 4-500 gigabyte drives. His work was gone. Forever. The moral of the story
is that Lightroom only references the photographs on a hard drive. It stores
information, metadata about the photographs, not the photographs themselves.
I’ll say it again: THERE ARE NO PHOTOGRAPHS IN LIGHTROOM. There. I’ve said
it three times. If this sounds redundant, it is because it’s very important. Believe it.
WHAT HAPPENS IN THE LIBRARY MODULE?
The Library module is the place where photographs are imported, sorted, ranked,
rated, flagged, selected, collected, adjusted and exported. There are chapters in
this eBook covering each of the myriads of happenings in the Library module.
SORTING
Choosing the “hero”
photograph from a
take is one of the most
important and
arguable challenging
jobs a photographer
performs in the Library
module. Ranking,
rating, flagging and
selecting are covered
in depth in the Making
Selects section.
3
S E C T I O N 1 | T H E L I B R A R Y M O D U L E

THE TOUR
The Library module screen is divided into
two sidebars—one on the right and one
on the left, an Image Display area,
Filmstrip and a Toolbar. The major parts
of the Library Module are:
A: Left Sidebar’s panels for working with
source photographs
B: Right Sidebar’s panels for adjusting
images; working with metadata &
keywords
C: Image Display Area set to Grid view.
D: Filmstrip
E: Toolbar
F: Identity Plate
G: Library Filter Bar
H: Module Picker
4

LEFT SIDEBAR PANELS
Navigator—shows the current selected photograph. Mouse over a folder in the
Folders panel to display the ﬁrst photo in it.
Catalog—a bird’s eye view of the contents of Lightroom
• All Photographs shows the count of imported photos
• All Synced Photographs is a count of photos synced using Lightroom Mobile
• Quick Collection shows the number of photos in the Quick Collections
• Previous Import displays the number of photos last brought into Lightroom.
• Previous Export as Catalog shows the number of photos copied from
Lightroom to a new or different catalog.
• Already in Catalog shows photos that are in from a previous import
Folders—shows the mounted volumes on the computer and the folders of
photographs that have been imported. Click the + sign for options of what is
shown. Choose “Add Folder” to create a new or to choose a folder to import.
Collections—virtual groups of photographs. The + sign adds a Collection Set, a
new Collection or a programmable “Smart Collection” Highlight a collection then
click the minus (-) sign to remove it.
Publish Services— exporting presets and / or plug-ins to send photographs to a
set location on a hard drive or to upload to social media like Facebook or Flickr.
End Marks—put your logo or other ﬂourish in the space at the bottom of each
sidebar. Choose Lightroom (Mac) or Edit (Windows) > Preferences. Click the
Interface tab. Choose End Marks then Go to Panel End Marks Folder. Put your end
mark in the folder. Go back to Lightroom’s Preferences > Interface > End Marks
then select your mark. It displays like mine.
5

RIGHT SIDEBAR PANELS
The right sidebar is all about adding info to photographs in the database.  
It begins with the Histogram graphic showing the distribution of pixels by
brightness. Below that is the exposure info: ISO, Focal Length, Aperture and
Shutter Speed. Underneath this is the status of the photo and if it has a Smart
Preview. Select all of the photos in the Grid view to see a count of Originals without
Smart Previews and Originals + Smart Previews. If the external drive holding the
original photographs is disconnected, the number of thumbnails with Smart
Previews and the number missing them are displayed.  
Next is the Quick Develop panel. This is where initial tweaks to photographs are
made before refining them in the Develop module. This is a great place for
beginners. The Auto Tone button also is a quick fix. The single arrow buttons
increase / decrease Exposure by a third of a stop per click or .33 plus (right arrow)
or minus (left arrow.) All of the other settings increment by 5 plus or minus. The
double arrows in Exposure are for one stop increases or decreases. The other
choices get a 20 point plus or minus by click their respective double arrow button.
The Develop module offers much more finesse as well as many more options.
Quick Develop is offers a fast look at the Basic tab adjustments without sliders.
6

There two panels that support keywords: Keywording and
Keyword List.
Keywording is the entry point. Add keywords in the entry window.
Separate multiple keywords with a comma. If a keyword already
exists in the Keyword list, it will appear as a highlighted suggestion.
Accept it by pressing Return.
The Keyword List is exactly that, a list of all of the keywords that
have been entered in the Lightroom catalog. Of course, the Adobe
engineers have made it super useful.
Once a keyword is entered in the Keywording panel or during
import it is listed in the Keyword List panel. It displays the number of
photos carrying a given keyword. Images with multiple keywords
have them highlighted in the Keyword List. Click the arrow to the far
right of a highlighted or checkmarked keyword to show all of the
photographs with that
keyword. Super useful for
ﬁnding speciﬁc photos
quickly.
7

LIBRARY MODULE MODES
There are five modes in the Library module: Grid (G), Enlarge (E), Compare (C),
Survey (N) and People (O). They are accessed with their keyboard shortcuts, in
the Toolbar or in Lightroom’s Library menu.
The Grid is the thumbnail view shown above. Enlargement fills the content with the
selected photo. Click a second time in this view to either fill, 1:1 (view actual
pixels) or enlarge the image to a previously chosen size.
The engineering team understands how important it is to go for the extra that
makes Lightroom special. Like the amplifiers in Spinal Tap, this is where Lightroom
“goes to eleven.” These settings are found above the preview in the Navigator.
Compare is the side-by-side view. Select what you think is the “hero” shot. Use the
arrow keys in this view to compare new photos to your select. When or if you find a
better choice, it can be promoted from candidate to select becoming the new
“hero.”
Survey allows several photos to be seen in a larger view at the same time. Photos
not making the cut can be removed. The remaining pictures enlarge to fill the
space available.
8

Lightroom calls its database a catalog. There
is huge debate about the best way to
organize photographs. The debate is simply
one catalog or many. In my mind there is no
debate at all to this one. A single catalog that
uses all of Lightroom’s many methods of
categorizing photographs makes the most
sense. Here comes the hedge on that
pedantic proclamation—most of the time. I’ll
swing back to that one in a minute.
S E C T I O N 2
ONE
CATALOG
K E V I N A M E S

Think about your catalog of photographs as if it were your calendar. Answer this
question: How many calendars do you have? One. Right? Multiple calendars
mean missed appointments, to dos or (gasp) anniversaries. When all of the things
you have to do or remember are in one place, your single calendar; nothing gets
missed or forgotten. Your photographs are the same. If you maintain individual
catalogs, something is going to get overlooked or forgotten. Calendars, catalogs
and the Highlander have this saying in common: “There can be only one…”
THE “EXCEPTION” IS TEMPORARY
The exception to the “there can be only one” rule is a temporary catalog made on
a trip or a location shoot where carrying the “one” catalog isn’t practical. The
temporary catalog has all of the advantages of Lightroom in a much smaller
space. As catalogs grow, so does their size. Especially when the 1:1 previews and
Smart Previews are counted. My Lightroom catalog has just north of 450,000
photos. Counting the previews it’s huge—470 gigabytes. A new catalog has none
of the overhead initially.
MAKE A TEMPORARY CATALOG
I’ll illustrate this using a temp catalog I made during a trip to three countries in
Europe. Here, step-by-step is how I set it up.
Step One: Connect your traveling hard drive to your computer. Mine is a Drobo
Mini that provides serious protection against the failure of any of its four drives.
Step Two: Launch Lightroom. Choose File > New Catalog…
Step Three: Name the catalog using a description of the project. I start my
catalog names with the initials LR for Lightroom and the version number. In this
case it’s from the Creative Cloud so the name starts with LRCC.
10
S E C T I O N 2 | O N E C A T A L O G

Lightroom creates a folder with the Lightroom catalog with the extension .lrcat It
also creates the preview data ﬁle. Its extension is .lrdata.
Step Four: Open Lightroom’s preferences by choosing (Mac) Lightroom >
Preferences or (Win) Edit > Preferences. Click the Presets tab, then check the box
next to Store presets with this catalog,
The presets folder contains all of the templates and presets in Lightroom’s
modules. This folder appears in the LRCC folder created in step three. Launch
Lightroom by opening its folder then double clicking on the LRCC (Your Project
Description).lrcat.
BACKING UP
A location project that is managed by a temporary catalog follows the same best
practices of backing up photographs that is used in the studio—always maintain
three copies. If you have enough memory cards, that can be one of them. If not,
get a couple portable, bus powered USB drives from Western Digital and Seagate
are small, light weight and inexpensive. Use them to make exact copies of your
primary hard drive. I use a Drobo Mini for this job. Since Lightroom only references
the photographs in the catalog, the backups are not affected by changes unless
of course the photographer chooses Edit In… Photoshop instead of Open as
Smart Object in Photoshop. The former places a copy in the same folder as the
original. The latter has to be saved using File > Save as….
11

IMPORT A CATALOG
After the project like my European adventure is complete, I bring my temporary
catalog and its accompanying RAW ﬁles back to the studio. With my main
Lightroom catalog open, I choose File > Import from Another Catalog…. When the
dialog opens I navigate to the Drobo Mini, my primary traveling drive and choose
the LRCC Kevin in Europe.lrcat. Lightroom creates a temporary catalog then offers
to either leave the photographs on the location drive (bad idea) or copy them to
the main photo archive. That’s my choice. Depending on the number of photos
and the size of the location catalog, the import can take a signiﬁcant amount of
time. I usually leave this until the last thing of the day so Lightroom can work on it
overnight.
12

MANY
CATALOG
S
Should I have a single Lightroom catalog or
should I have many? That was the the ﬁrst
question I asked back in July 2006 when I
received a beta version of Lightroom. Like
many, I was sailing in uncharted waters.
S E C T I O N 3
MANY
CATALOGS
K E V I N A M E SV A N E L L I

At ﬁrst, someone started a rumor and said Lightroom can handle a maximum of 15
thousand images before performance was affected. Everyone started to repeat
that rumor. This caused many, including myself, to split my images into several
Lightroom catalogs. Before we begin, let me take a step back for a moment and
explain what a catalog is.
WHAT’S A LIGHTROOM CATALOG?
Adobe describes a Lightroom catalog as a database that stores a record for each
of your photos that contains three key pieces of information about each photo:
• A reference to where the photo is on your system
• Instructions for how you want to process the photo
• Metadata, such as ratings and keywords that you apply to photos to help you
ﬁnd or organize them.
This means when you import photos into Lightroom, you create a link between the
photo itself and the record of the photo in the catalog. Then, any work you perform
on the photo — such as adding keywords or an edit — is stored in the photo’s
record in the catalog as additional metadata.
Lightroom never changes the actual photos captured by your camera. In this way,
editing in Lightroom is nondestructive. You can always return to the original,
unedited photo.
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S E C T I O N 3S E C T I O N 3 | M A N Y C A T A L O G S

A CASE FOR MULTIPLE CATALOGS
Being a generalist photographer, my photography spanned a wide range. One
week I would photograph a sporting event, the following week a child’s portraits.
One catalog was sufficient until I started working with models.
My modeling assignments ranged from simple head shots to building their
portfolios. Some of these images were not appropriate for all to see. By creating a
separate catalog, I could keep these images private. To ensure the Main catalog
opened when starting Lightroom, I changed the default preference, “Load most
recent catalog” to “Prompt me when starting Lightroom” found by clicking on
Preference under the Edit menu then click the General tab. This gave me the
option to open the correct catalog and to avoid embarrassment.
FLAWS WITH MULTIPLE CATALOGS
As Lightroom developed, flaws with multiple catalogs grew, for example…
• When I searched for an image, I would have to open each catalog, Lightroom
can’t span a search across multiple catalogs.
• Having extra catalogs mean extra catalogs to backup, just one more task to
worry about.
• Sometimes I would become confused and import images into the wrong
catalog.
• When a major update rolls out, all catalogs have to be updated.
• Synchronizing Publish
services such as Facebook
and Smugmug Hierarchy
become complicated. For
my work flow, this flaw
sealed my decision to
switch to a single catalog. 
15

SINGLE CATALOG SOLUTION
Since I switched to a single catalog solution my Lightoom experience has become
very simple. After a photo shoot, I ﬁre up Lightroom, create a new folder and
import my images. Create a collection set of my favorite edited images then
upload them to a publishing service such as SmugMug and Facebook.
To solve my modeling dilemma, I created two new folder, Adult Models and
Children Models. I created sub folders with the names of the models under the
appropriate folder. Now when I browse for a model in front of a client, age
appropriate images are hidden.
Since switching to a single catalog solution, my workﬂow is fast and simple.
16

It’s important to remember that Lightroom doesn’t
have your photographs in it.Your photographs
reside on your hard drive, and Lightroom simply
references them. When I was a kid I went to the
library in my neighborhood and looked in the card
catalog for a book I wanted.The card in the catalog
had information about the book, and it told me
where to ﬁnd the book.The book wasn’t in the
catalog, it was on the shelf.
This is like Lightroom. Lightroom is just a catalog of
your pictures.The pictures are actually on the hard
drive (the shelf). I recommend that you use
Lightroom to manage your pictures all the time.The
thing is, if you go into the neighborhood library and
move a book from one shelf to another, the catalog
isn’t accurate anymore, and Lightroom is the same
way. If you move a picture ﬁle outside of Lightroom,
then Lightroom doesn’t know where it is to
reference it any longer.
S E C T I O N 4
IMPORTING FROM A
MEMORY
CARD
L E V I S I M

Lightroom is so powerful for organizing and finishing your photographs, and the
first step is to import photographs into Lightroom. Personally, I usually need to
import pictures from a memory card I used in a recent shoot, so I’ll show you how
to do that and walk you through the whole import dialogue.
SET THE PREFERENCES
The first thing to do is make sure a couple of preferences are set that will make
importing a little simpler. Go to the Lightroom Menu and choose Preferences
(Edit>Preferences). In the General tab, make sure the option is checked to Show
import dialogue when memory card is detected. Also, check the box for Treat
JPEG files next to raw files as separate photos. If you don’t check this second
option, Lightroom will ignore the JPEG files your camera creates when you set it to
record RAW+JPEG.
OPEN THE IMPORT DIALOGUE
Go to the File Menu and choose Import Photos and Video, or use the keyboard
shortcut Cmd+SHIFT+I (Ctrl+SHIFT+I). I use this shortcut all the time.
This is what the Import Dialogue looks like, but this is a condensed view, and I feel
the expanded view will serve you better. Click the arrow in the bottom left corner to
see more options.
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S E C T I O N 4 | I M P O R T I N G F R O M A M E M O R Y C A R D

CHOOSE THE IMPORT SOURCE
Basically, you start on the left, and work to the right. At the top left is says Select a
source, and the memory card you inserted will probably be the ﬁrst tab on the left
under the title Devices. If it’s not already selected, click on the name of your
memory card; it’s usually named for the camera model you used (for some reason,
my Lumix GX7 always reads as No Name). You’ll see all the pictures you made on
that card in a grid in the center.
CHOOSE WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR PICTURES
In the center section you decide what to do with your pictures. At the top there are
four options: Copy as DNG, Copy, Move, Add, and the one selected has a brief
description of what it does immediately underneath. Lightroom recognizes that
your memory card is not a hard drive for longterm storage, so Move and Add not
available (see the chapter on Adding and External Drive). Here’s what the other
options do.
19

Copy as DNG: New for Lr CC: This makes a new copy of the images from your
card on your computer or hard drive and converts RAW files to the Adobe DNG
file format. One advantage of this method is that DNG files are significantly smaller
than the camera’s RAW format. I personally use this option every time. Only RAW
files are affected; JPEG’s will still be JPEG’s.
There’s a terrific new feature in Lightroom CC that makes this process much faster.
Previously, Lightroom converted the files to DNG as they were imported, and it
was much slower than simply copying the files form the card. Now, Lightroom
copies the files from the card to the hard drive, then when that is complete it
converts the files to DNG. This is much faster and since you can only import from
one source at a time, it allows you start another import sequence sooner. While the
files are converting to DNG you can still begin working with them as normal in
Lightroom.
Copy: This option simply copies the files from the card to the hard drive. The
Copy and Copy as DNG options are the best because the files remain on your
card and a new version is now on the hard drive so you’ve got a solid backup
until you format the card in your camera. Some people have voiced concerns that
they don’t trust Lightroom to copy all the files from the card, and so they first copy
the files to the hard drive using Finder or Explorer, then use the Add option to
include them in the Lightroom catalog. However, in six years of importing files
nearly everyday, Lightroom has never lost or missed a single one of my files using
the import dialogue. Save your paranoia for backing up your files and trust
Lightroom to import them.
CHOOSE WHICH PICTURES TO IMPORT
Now that we’ve chosen to Copy as DNG, the center section can be used to
selectively import photographs. Most of the time, I’m more interested in getting to
work on my pictures than I am in saving hard drive space, so I just import all the
images. However, you can choose to leave some of the pictures out of the import.
Each thumbnail image has a checkmark in the top left corner. If it’s checked, it’ll
be included. Sometimes I’ll quickly breeze through and uncheck images that are
obviously junk—too dark, out of focus, pictures of the sidewalk—so that I don’t
have to bother with deleting them later. You can click on the check box, or use
SPACEBAR to toggle the check box To see which picture is which more clearly,
use the Thumbnails slider in the bottom right corner to adjust the size of the
preview. You can also double click on an image or press the E key to go to the
Loupe view and see one image at a time. Press the G key to return to the Grid
view, or use the Grid view icon in the bottom left corner. E and G are two shortcuts
I use all the time in Lightroom.
20

While in the Loupe view you can zoom in to check sharpness. Just use the slider
in the bottom right corner. 
CHOOSE WHERE TO STORE YOUR PICTURES
You’ve selected which pictures to include from the card, so now on the right side
of the dialogue you get to choose what happens as they import and where they
will reside on your hard drive.
I’d like you to know what each setting here is for…but I don’t want to bore you. I’ve
written my usual setting right up front in bold text, so if you’d like you can just set it
and move on to the next setting and get started importing.
21
Pro Tip: Right click in the dark gray area next to any of the tab headings and choose Solo Mode. This makes it so that only
one tab will show it’s options at a time. It may not sound like a big deal, but this makes it easier to ﬁnd the right options and
reduces frustration. I choose Solo Mode for all my tool pallets in Lightroom, and I recommend that you do, too.

FILE HANDLING
Build Previews: Standard After the pictures import, Lightroom will create a
preview of the ﬁle on the hard drive and this is what you’ll see on the screen.
You’ve got four options, and these are simply related to the size of the picture you
see, and they’re in order from smallest to largest. The important thing about each
option is that it affects the speed at which things get done.
Choosing the Minimal preview makes the import process a little bit faster, but it
makes viewing and developing the picture slower because when you view the
picture in Loupe view or in the Develop Module Lightroom will have to generate a
bigger preview you can view at that size, which will take a few seconds. It’s only a
few seconds, but it really slows down the process, especially when there are
hundreds of pictures to review.
Alternatively, you could opt for 1:1 which is a full size, 100% preview that will
appear crisp and ready to view as soon as you click to zoom, but this takes up a
lot of space on the drive, and takes more time up front to generate. I rarely need to
have 100% previews for every picture. Standard is a good compromise because it
shows me a good preview immediately in the Loupe, but doesn’t take up too much
space and the previews are ready quickly after the import is ﬁnished.
Build Smart Previews: Unchecked Smart Previews allow you to make Develop
Module edits to images stored on a hard drive that are not connected to the
computer. This is really handy, and I use it often, but the previews will take up a lot
of space on your hard drive, so I recommend only generating them when you’re
ready to use them. See the Chapter on Smart Previews
22

Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates: Checked This is really good. It simply
allows Lightroom to recognize pictures that you’ve already imported and stops
you from importing them again. There are two times I use this. First, if I neglected
to format my memory card in my camera after the last import, I now have pictures
on the card that I just made, as well as pictures I’ve already imported, and
Lightroom will now only import the new ones. Second, I may, for keywording and
file naming purposes, sometimes choose to import pictures from one card into two
different folders. Unfortunately, that requires two import sessions. So after I’ve
imported the first batch, those pictures won’t be available for import when I initiate
the second import session. Pictures that are already in your catalog appear
grayed out and you can’t click on them in the grid view.
Make a Second Copy To: Unchecked This simply duplicates the files and saves
them in another location of your choosing. The idea here is that there is instantly a
backup version of your pictures. I leave this unchecked because I use a Drobo for
my destination drive, and it automatically makes a backup of the files and is so
simple to manage. If I check this option and backup to another drive, that drive
doesn’t have all the changes I make to images applied, so if my primary drive fails
and I have to use the backup it’s a really tedious and possibly costly process to
get me back to the way things were before the failure. Using the Drobo, when a
drive fails, I just remove that drive and put a new one in, and nothing is lost on the
way and my catalog isn’t fouled up and I’m really not interrupted in anyway.
Add to Collection: Unchecked I’ve never used this option, but maybe after you
read the chapter on Collections you’ll find a use for it.
23
You can control how big your Standard Previews are and
how much space they take up in the Catalog Settings
(Lightroom>Catalog Settings, Edit>Catalog Settings). You
can experiment with a few settings and see where your
tolerance for performance lies.

FILE RENAMING
Rename Files: Checked I like to rename my files as I import them. If you’ve read
Kevin’s chapter about Lightroom Organization, then you may want to follow his
advice on naming. Another way to do it is to name files by the date, or the name of
the place or people you photographed. I’ve taken to adding my own name as a
precursor to the client name for one reason. In my work, I’m often delivering files
to my clients which they use for marketing and advertising, which means it’s
inappropriate to have my own name signed on the image in a watermark or
signature. Using my name in the filename may at least ensure that the next person
hired at the company to look for a photographer will have access to my name
pretty easily. 
Template I usually use the Custom Name-Sequence template in the drop down
box. Click Edit at the bottom of the list, though, and you’ll find a whole lot more
options for customizing the name of your files.
24

Start Number: 1…or not I usually start at number 1, but if I’m importing the
second card full from a shoot, then I might choose to start at the number after the
last image on the previous card. If you change this, remember to change it back
to 1 next time you import; the Import dialogue remembers your previous settings
and uses them again until changed.
Extensions: Leave as-is I’ve never bothered with this, but you’ve got options to
change the .jpg or .NEF or .CR2 or whatever file type your camera makes to
uppercase, lowercase, or leave it as-is.
Sample: I think it’s nice that they show a live preview of what the filename will look
like.
APPLY DURING IMPORT
Develop Settings: My personal preset Any preset that I’ve made in the Develop
Module can be applied during the import process. For instance, when shooting
Nikons, I usually set the in-camera Picture Style to Neutral. But, for RAW images,
Lightroom’s default setting is to apply the Adobe Standard profile, which I don’t
care for. In the Camera Calibration tab you can change this profile to the ones that
your camera has so that the image will look in Lightroom the same as it looks on
the back of the camera. Since I do this every time, I saved the setting as a preset
and can now select to apply that preset during import. This works for most
settings in the Develop Module (however, because it slows performance
significantly, I recommend not applying the Lens Correction settings during
import; apply it later to you favorite images). You’ll see here that I’m applying my
preset made especially for my GH4.
25

Metadata: My Personal Preset This is really cool. Metadata is non-visual
information in your picture file. I said I use the filename to put my name in the
picture, but metadata is much better way to do it. You can include all kinds of
information about yourself, your copyright information, your contact information,
etc. Click the drop down menu and choose Edit Presets… then just fill in the
blanks. Your camera already puts information about exposure, camera settings,
lens info, and even some copyright info, but it’s a good idea to add more complete
information during import so that it’s done no matter where your pictures end up
going. There is a lot of information available here; you can add the same fields to
any images within the Library Module once the import is done. You can even add
them during export, as may be more appropriate.
Keywords: Definitely During import you can add keywords to all the photographs
on your card, and you may want to do that generally here. Fortunately, you can do
it more specifically in the Library Module, placing keywords on only the relevant
images. See the chapter on Keywords to have your mind blown about how useful
these are.
26

DESTINATION
Super Simple method: Arrow at the top The simplest way to tell Lightroom where
you want your pictures to go is to click the black circle with an arrow in it and
navigate to the folder you want or make a new folder in the location you want. This
arrow has a drop down menu that includes your recent import destinations. I often
select Other Destination and navigate manually.
Organize: Into one folder Since Lightroom remembers your last settings, I usually
now use the Destination tab to choose where my photos will go. Again, Kevin
Ames has some great ideas for organization, and I’m working to switch my
system. But to date, this is how I have done my organization. I have a master
folder of Pictures, then subfolders for each year, then subfolders for events/shoots.
That’s pretty much it because I’ll use collections instead of further subfolders (See
Chapter on Collections) . So, I simply navigate on my drive to where I want the
pictures to reside; I often use the Into Subfolder check box to add the destination
under the year I’m working in.
Now, just press Import.
Now you’ll be taken to the Library
Module, and you’ll see a progress
bar in the top left corner of the
window. This bar has an X right at
the end so you can cancel the
process if you realize you did
something unintended.
Otherwise, your pictures will now
materialize before your eyes.
27

A QUICK SANITY SAVER
LIBRARY:CATALOG TAB: PREVIOUS IMPORT
A quick note about the view you see as your pictures import. You are seeing them
in a special collection called Previous Import which resides in the Catalog tab of
the Library Module. It’s distinct from the folder they reside in because any pictures
you add, like exporting one of these new pictures as a jpeg file, will not show up
on this set of images…which really threw me for a loop when I first used
Lightroom. This Catalog tab is really handy. There have been times I’ve assigned
the wrong folder during import (or export) and when I try to find them in the
Folders tab, it’s really tempting to freak out because they are lost. Take a breath,
go the Catalog tab and look for them in the Previous Import set. If you’ve already
imported some others, then click on All Photographs. The pictures you see will be
in order by date, so you can pretty quickly find the pictures your looking for. More
about searching for pictures in the chapter on Metadata.
28

When making photographs in the studio I
shoot tethered into an external drive plugged
into an older MacPro on a rolling AnthroCart.
On location, tethered shooting is into an
external hard drive connected to a
MacBookPro. In both cases there is a folder
holding the shots.
S E C T I O N 5
IMPORTING
FROM A
FOLDER
K E V I N A M E S

IMPORTING FROM A FOLDER
Chances are you have images already in a folder and organized. These are easy
to import into Lightroom
I copy the folder onto my primary Drobo 5D set up with dual disc redundancy.
This means any two of the ﬁve drives in the Drobo can fail and my data is still safe.
Once the folder is copied to the main drive, follow these steps…
Step One: Enter the Library module. Click Import… or use the keyboard shortcut
Command (PC: Control) + Shift + I. The condensed dialog box looks like this: The
import process requires three decisions plus presets.
Step Two: Select the source by clicking on the double headed arrow at the left of
the dialog. When the source is a folder, Lightroom automatically picks Add as the
“what to do.” In this case, there are no destination options. The folder is already
where it needs to be so the “To” reads My Catalog.
Step Three: Add the metadata preset. The develop preset is the last one used.
Change it by expanding the condensed dialog by clicking the down arrow in the
lower left hand corner. Finally click Import.
30
S E C T I O N 5 | I M P O R T I N G F R O M A F O L D E R

Tethered shooting is the digital equivalent of
taking a Polaroid® in the days of ﬁlm. Back
then, Polaroids were used to check
composition, lighting, exposure and focus;
photography’s big four. On a job it was
unthinkable not to “pull a ‘Roid.”
S E C T I O N 6
TETHERED
SHOOTING
K E V I N A M E SK E V I N A M E S

Today, professional photographers shoot directly into a computer. The monitor
performs all of the functions that the Polaroid did back in the days of film. Now
every square inch of an image can be examined at full size or larger to check the
big four and now color as well. Thanks to calibration of monitors, photography can
finally be WYSIWYG… what you see is what you get. This can’t be achieved using
the screen on the back of the camera. These monitors can be calibrated. Frankly
they are just an indicator for those who believe that quality is the presence of an
image.
LIGHTROOM AND THE TETHERED CAMERA
Most current Canon and Nikon along with a few Leica DSLR cameras can tether to
Lightroom. Click here for a list of supported cameras.
Note that as of this writing, Mac computers running El Capitan will not tether
Lightroom with Nikon cameras. This is due to a problem with Nikon’s SDK
(Software Development Kit) that has not been updated for El Capitan. It is Nikon’s
problem to solve not Apple’s nor Adobe’s.
Lightroom’s tethering allows the shutter to be released from the computer.
However control of ISO, Shutter and Aperture settings are not supported. The
tether HUD does show the model of the connected camera along with the current
settings.
SETTING UP TETHERING IN LIGHTROOM
Begin by choosing File > Start Tethered Shooting… The dialog is a bit confusing.
Here are the steps to get it right.
Step One: Start with the third section. This is where the destination for the camera
original files are stored. Click Choose… then navigate to the hard drive that stores
your folders of RAW files.
Step Two: Go to the first section, Session Name:. This creates a new folder in the
destination folder. The reason the destination is in the third section is because
once it’s set you probably won’t change it. Name the session. In this case it’s the
2889th project so it gets the prefix 2889-. The description is Model Testing. The
folder that will appear in Lightroom is named 2889-Model Testing.
33
S E C T I O N 6S E C T I O N 6 | T E T H E R E D S H O O T I N G
The monitor displays the current capture from the camera.

Step Three: Naming is next. I’ve created a preset that provides a field for custom
text, in this case 2889. The Start Number is 1. Above the preset is a Sample of
what the name of the first photo will look like. 2889-0001.DNG. DNG is the
extension for the sample only. No matter what camera or format you shoot with it
the Sample will always end in .DNG. Don’t let this bother you.
Step Four: Add your metadata preset (Chapter 3 under Get Organized) and
Keywords. Click OK.
The Tethered Capture Window appears. It shows the camera that’s tethered to
Lightroom, the destination folder, the exposure information and a drop down menu
to choose a Develop preset. The big round button at the right is the shutter
release. Click it or press the spacebar to make an exposure.
If the Library module is active, the first photo will appear in the Grid view.
34
S E C T I O N 6 | T E T H E R E D S H O O T I N G

Once the ﬁrst photo appears in Lightroom, tap E to enlarge it then look at it. While
looking learn to actually “see” what’s there. Here’s a checklist for making certain
photographs measure up.
1. Composition: Are the elements in the photograph arranged well?
2. Lighting: Are the important details in the photograph visible?
3. Exposure: Is detail visible in the highlights? How about in the shadows?
4. Focus: Is the subject of the photograph sharp?
Once these questions are answered to your satisfaction, tap D to enter the
Develop module. An enlarged version will appear as will each subsequent
photograph you make. . Use the white balance tool (W) on a ColorChecker to
neutralize any colorcast
35
S E C T I O N 6 | T E T H E R E D S H O O T I N G

I don’t erase my memory cards until I have at
least 2 copies of my photos. One of the best
time-savers is to let Lightroom back up your
photos on import.
S E C T I O N 7
BACKING
UP ON
IMPORT N I C K M I N O R E

Inside the import window, Lightroom makes it super-easy to create a second copy.
It’s always best to make sure you’re backing up to a second hard drive, rather
than another location on the same hard drive. This way, you’re okay if something
was to happen to either drive.
Look to the top right of the import window and choose the File Handling dropdown
menu.
37
S E C T I O N 7 | B A C K I N G U P O N I M P O R T

The last option says “Make a Second Copy To:” with a dropdown arrow. Put a
checkmark in the box and click the dropdown arrow.
Choose where you’d like to save a backup of your ﬁles and continue preparing to
import your ﬁles into Lightroom.
That’s it... you’ve now got a backup being made at time of import.
38
S E C T I O N 7 | B A C K I N G U P O N I M P O R T

You can user folders, just like in a ﬁle
cabinet or on your computer’s hard drive to
keep your images organized.
S E C T I O N 8
USING
FOLDERS &
SUBFOLDERS
K E V I N A M E SK E V I N A M E S

Normally, I work without any subfolders in Lightroom. When it’s time to sort
photographs I use Collections. Collections can have the same photo in several
places at the same time. This can’t be done with subfolders since Lightroom
doesn’t like duplicate images. Duplicates also take up a huge amount of space.
There is s comprehensive discussion of Collections and how to use them in our
next chapter.
FOLDERS
I assign a folder to each job or project. It gets a project name also know as a
serial number and a brief description of its contents. More on this in the section
called Using Serial Names later in this chapter.
The camera original photographs RAW or (shudder) JPEGs go here for cataloging
in Lightroom. Folders are where the RAW ﬁles from each project are stored on a
hard drive or in my case on a Drobo.
SUBFOLDERS
The only time I use subfolders is when a project is so large that it covers several
months or years. Subfolders get the four digit project number followed by the
shoot date then a brief description.
This structure manages shoots that contain many thousands of photographs made
over time. This is particularly useful when shooting a lot of time-lapse sequences.
Each one gets a subfolder. Each subfolder is a separate billing item on the invoice
the customer receives.
40
S E C T I O N 8S E C T I O N 8 | U S I N G F O L D E R S & S U B F O L D E R S

Unless you are working with other
photographers in a network environment, the
ﬁrst rule in creating a catalog is to develop a
folder structure that makes sense to you. If
you are in a network environment with other
photographers this may get a little
complicated causing you to compromise.
Unless you are working with other photographers in a network environment, the ﬁrst rule in creating a catalog is to
develop a folder structure that makes sense to you. If you are in a network environment with other photographers this  
may get a little complicated causing you to compromise.
A DIFFERENT TAKE ON FOLDER STRUCTURE
V A N E L L I
S E C T I O N 9

I’ve found it best to write a brief sentence that describes your type of photography
and what, where, or who you photograph. Review your sentence and look for a
common denominator.
Examples
• I’m a Portrait photographer whose clients include corporate professionals,
celebrities, as well as families.
• I’m a Nature photographer who travels to different locations photographing all
types of birds.
• I’m an independent Sports photographer specializing in portraits, team portraits
and games for all levels of sports. 
PORTRAIT PHOTOGRAPHER
Our portrait photographer photographs people, people associated with a
corporation and people associated with a family. A person has a ﬁrst and last
name, corporations have a name as does a family. The common denominator is
name.
Create a subfolder inside the main folder — I named my main folder Photography
— and name the subfolder the client’s name. Create a subfolder inside the client’s
folder and name it the year, month and day of the shoot followed by a brief
description.
E:PhotographyPotter Family20130411 Liam 4th Birthday
In the event you photograph this person, corporation or family several times in the
course of a few years, you have each shoot organize.
DEALING WITH A CONFLICT
Pruitt Real Estate hired you to photograph 75 of their employees. One of their
employees is Chloe Garvin, a client of yours you have photographed before. Since
Pruitt Real Estate paid for the shoot, Chloe’s portrait is in the Pruitt Real Estate
folder. If she leaves the company, the image stays with the company, not her
Louis Davis personally hired you to take his corporate portrait. Following our ﬁle
structure, you placed the image in a folder named Louis Davis with a sub folder
named year, month and day followed by a descriptions of the shoot; Louis
corporate portrait.
E:PhotographyLouis Davis20140101 Louis Corporate Portrait
All is great, in fact it's so great he hired you to take a portrait of his family. After the
shoot you create a subfolder with the year, month and day followed by a
description; family portrait inside the Louis Davis folder.
E:PhotographyLouis Davis20140307 Family Portrait
42
S E C T I O N 9S E C T I O N 9 | A D I F F E R E N T T A K E O N F O L D E R S T R U C T U R E

SPORTS PHOTOGRAPHER
Our Sports photographer photographs a wide range of sports and sport teams.
The common denominator is the name of the sport and the name of the team.
Sounds simple, however our photographer photographs different levels; Club,
High School, College and Professional teams.The common denominator is level.
To keep our folder structure organized, the first folder is Sports followed by a
subfolder of the level of sport, High School Sports, followed by a subfolder of the
name of the sport, Lacrosse. Inside the Lacrosse subfolder is the Name of the
Team’s subfolder. The final subfolder is the year, month and day of the shoot with a
brief description. This structure keeps multiple sports and multiple levels
organized.
E:PhotographySportsHigh School SportsLacrosseMelbourne High School
Along with sport portraits, our photographer also photographs games. We need to
create a Games subfolder under the name of the sport. The final subfolder is the
year, month and day of the game followed by the names of the team.
E:PhotographySportsProfessionalLacrosseGames
20140909_FloridaLaunch_vs_BostonCanons
43
S E C T I O N 9S E C T I O N 9 | A D I F F E R E N T T A K E O N F O L D E R S T R U C T U R E

NATURE PHOTOGRAPHER
Our Nature photographer photographs all types birds. The common denominator
is name. However, our photographer travels the world photographing these birds
in different locations, another common denominator. Our nature photographer has
a few options. They can organize the folder structure starting with the name of the
bird followed by the location or start with the location followed by a subfolder of
the date and name of the bird. Adding the date enables the photographer to
photograph the same bird at the same location but on a different date.
E:PhotographyEgret201508006 Viera Wetlands
E:PhotographyViera Wetlands20100512 Limkin
The question for our nature photographer is which is more important, the location
of the shoot or the type of bird they photographed. Their answer will determine
which folder structure they use.
If our nature photographer photographs several different types birds on the same
day and location using one memory card, they can import all images into one
folder then move the images into their proper folder.
These examples serve as a foundation for organizing a catalog’s folder structure.
Remember, for the structure to be effective, it must make sense to you.
44
S E C T I O N 9 | A D I F F E R E N T T A K E O N F O L D E R S T R U C T U R E

I like ﬁle trees. They just make sense. At a
glance I can see that this image is inside
this folder which is in this folder which on
this drive. It’s clear and makes good sense.
Since I have lots of drives with picture ﬁles
on them, it’s also nice to see the drives
stacked up on the side in Lightroom—it
makes it easy to see where I’m working. Let
me quickly show you how to add hard drives
to the Lightroom catalog so you can get
organized, too.
S E C T I O N 10
ADDING AN
EXTERNAL
DRIVE
K E V I N A M E SL E V I S I M

WHAT’S A HARD DRIVE?
You’ll ﬁnd that you can’t add a hard drive that doesn’t have any pictures on it. If
you’re planning to add ﬁles to it during export, you will see the drive available for
to export images onto.
THUMB DRIVES
I’ve got three or four kinds of hard drives included in my Lightroom Catalog. I often
use USB thumb drives for delivery to clients—the kind of little storage that plugs
into the computer’s USB ports and doesn’t have any moving parts.
PASSPORT DRIVES
I also travel with a couple of passport sized USB hard drives that do spin, but are
small enough to draw the power they need from the USB bus in the computer (no
external power required).
46
S E C T I O N 10S E C T I O N 10 | A D D I N G A N E X T E R N A L D R I V E

DROBO MINI
Next, I have hard drives like the Drobo Mini—they are small enough to take with
me, but they are powerful enough that they need external power to spin the drives
and read super fast. The Drobo Mini is a perfect solution for travel because it
stores my files and backs them up so there are two copies so if one drive crashes,
the pictures are still safe.
DROBO 5D
Lastly, I have drives that are not intended for travel. I’ve got a Drobo 5D on my
desk that has several terabytes of storage in a RAID configuration so everything is
protected from a hard drive crash. I also have another server set up in a similar
manner with everything backed up on multiple drives in a RAID. Trouble is, my
other server is both much larger physically than my Drobo and lacks the battery
backup that the Drobo 5D has built in. So these two servers stay at my office and
when I return from traveling my pictures end up getting moved to these.
47
S E C T I O N 10 | A D D I N G A N E X T E R N A L D R I V E

LET’S ADD THE DRIVE
Since it’s time for some more storage, let’s add a drive so Lightroom can see it.
MAKE A PARENT FOLDER
Strange as it may seem, some people use computers for things other than making
pictures. Weird, right? Well, that just means that an external hard drive may have
something other than pictures on it. I recommend making a parent folder on the
drive with all your pictures in it. Then put all the folders with your images in them
inside this folder. I may get creative with my hard drive names, but this parent
folder is simply called “Pictures” on each of my drives. I’m a simple guy in the
end.
OPEN IMPORT DIALOG
Unlike when you plug an SD or CF card into the computer, Lightroom does not
automatically launch the import dialog when you plug in an external hard drive.
There are two ways to get to the Import Dialog, File>Import Photos and Video…,
or use the keyboard shortcut Cmd+SHIFT+I (Ctrl+SHIFT+I).
If you don’t see the expanded view of the Import Dialog, click the arrow in the
bottom left corner to see more options.
48
Name your Hard Drives
Personally, I like to name my hard drives. The C drive, or the E drive
is pretty boring for me. Plus, when using external drives, I often have
several from the same manufacturer, and it’s confusing trying to keep
them separated. Instead of Drobo 1, Drobo 2, etc., I like to give them
a name, and I like to use names of famous robots. You could use any
name you like—maybe name them for your uncles, or you childhood
pets, or your favorite teachers—trust me, asking a friend to hand you
“that black hard drive” isn’t nearly as fun as saying, “Please pass R2-
D2 over here.”

CHOOSE THE SOURCE
In the Import Dialog, start at the top left and use the Source menu choose the
source you want to import from—the Pictures folder on your hard drive. Make sure
to check the box for Include Subfolders so that everything in that folder will be
included in the import.
CHOOSE “ADD”
You’ll see that the only option in the center for what to do with your images is Add.
Thank goodness for that! I could really foul things up if other options were
available here.
49
Solo Your Tabs
Right click in the dark gray area next to any of the tab headings and
choose Solo Mode. This makes it so that only one tab will show it’s
options at a time. It may not sound like a big deal, but this makes it
easier to ﬁnd the right options and reduces frustration. I choose Solo
Mode for all my tool pallets in Lightroom, and I recommend that you
do, too.

CHOOSE WHAT TO DO WITH YOUR FILES
On the right side you’ll find two options for handling the files as they are imported.
Pay attention here: these settings stay as they were last time you imported, which
was probably from a memory card. When importing from a hard drive you need to
change these settings significantly, or you’ll really foul up and pictures that were
previously altered in Lightroom.
FILE HANDLING
Now yu need to decide what o do with your files on that new drive
Build Previews: Standard After the pictures import, Lightroom will create a
preview of the file on the hard drive and this is what you’ll see on the screen.
You’ve got four options, and these are simply related to the size of the picture you
see, and they’re in order from smallest to largest. The important thing about each
option is that it affects the speed at which things get done.
Choosing the Minimal preview makes the import process a little bit faster, but it
makes viewing and developing the picture slower because when you view the
picture in Loupe view or in the Develop Module Lightroom will have to generate a
bigger preview you can view at that size, which will take a few seconds. It’s only a
few seconds, but it really slows down the process, especially when there are
hundreds of pictures to review. Alternatively, you could opt for 1:1 which is a full
size, 100% preview that will appear crisp and ready to view as soon as you click
to zoom, but this takes up a lot of space on the drive, and takes more time up front
to generate.
I rarely need to have 100% previews for every picture. Standard is a good
compromise because it shows me a good preview immediately in the Loupe, but
doesn’t take up too much space and the previews are ready quickly after the
import is finished.
Build Smart Previews: Unchecked Smart Previews allow you to make Develop
Module edits to images stored on a hard drive that are not connected to the
computer. This is really handy, and I use it often, but the previews will take up a lot
of space on your hard drive, so I recommend only generating them when you’re
ready to use them. See the Chapter on Smart Previews
50

Don’t Import Suspected Duplicates: Unchecked This is a change from what I
told you to do in the Chapter on Importing from a Memory Card. I’d uncheck this
box here because we’re importing a file structure that you already had on your
drive, and if you had files here that are also elsewhere, that’s ok. If we don’t
include them in the import, they still exist on the drive, but will be orphaned from
Lightroom. Include them in the import so that you can see them and manage them
with all your other image files.
APPLY DURING IMPORT
Develop Settings, Metadata, Keywords: Set them all to None and leave blank.
This is also different from what I suggested from importing from a card. You may
have already worked on these images in Lightroom—sorted, rated, and even
developed them—and applying any of these settings may alter what you’ve
already done. For instance, some of my drives have pictures from Nikon, Canon,
and Panasonic cameras on them, and I’ve already made develop adjustments;
these develop settings could be completely ruined if I apply one of my import
presets.
Now just press the Import button at the bottom right of the window.
CONCLUSION
When the Import is finished, you’ll see your new drive added as a tab on the left
side in the Library Module and your complete file tree of any folders that
contained images will be available without any changes made. You’ll be able to
click into any of your folders and have your pictures at your fingertips.
51

I am a keyboard shortcut (KBS) advocate and self proclaimed super user to the point that I have to think about which
menu a function is under when using a mouse to choose. Here are the ones I use most.
TEN KEYBOARD SHORTCUTS
K E V I N A M E S
S E C T I O N 11

G Grid mode in the Library module
E Loupe mode enlarges the most selected photo in the Grid mode
N Survey mode puts only selected photos on the screen
F2 Rename selected photos
Cmd + Shift + I ! Import images 
Ctrl+Shit+I
F Full Screen Preview
Shift + Tab Hides Lightroom’s sidebars and ﬁlmstrip for more room
Shift + F Cycle screen modes to create more display real estate
1-5 Star Rating
Cmd + / ! ! Display Keyboard Shortcuts!  
Ctrl+/
53
S E C T I O N 11S E C T I O N 11 | T E N K E Y B O A R D S H O R T C U T S

Many photographers are passionate about their naming conventions. Some insist that the date absolutely must be in the
ﬁle name. Others agree but say the client’s name and job description has to be in it too. Still others want to add the
location to the ﬁle name.
USING SERIAL NAMES
K E V I N A M E S
S E C T I O N 12

FILE NAMING: THE VALUE OF SERIAL
NUMBERS
Adding all of this information might produce a file name like this one:
2015-09-27 Amy Patterson Beauty Portfolio Photographs at Kevin Ames
Photography Atlanta GA.CR2.
Really? Here’s what a set of these files look like in the Finder and in Lightroom…
Is all that information necessary???
Yes, it is necessary. Some of it is already in the file. The rest gets added when the
photos are imported. Here’s the break down.
The Date: The camera adds it when the shutter is released.
The Subject: It’s found in two places: If it’s in the folder name Lightroom adds it.
Put the description in the Headline field of your metadata preset. Lightroom adds
it to each file as it’s imported.
The Location: Put the location in the preset and you’re set.
55
S E C T I O N 12 | U S I N G S E R I A L N A M E S

What’s missing is a way to know right away what is missing.  
That’s where the serial number comes in. Let’s look at the
dictionary:
serial number |ˈsɪriəl ˈnəmbər|
noun
a number showing the position of an item in a series, especially
one printed on paper currency or on a manufactured article for the
purposes of identiﬁcation.
I add a serial number to everything I shoot. Every project. Every
job. Every vacation. Every bit of personal work. Every thing.
Each new project gets the next serial number in line. I put the
serial number on the folder the photos are in. Each photo gets the
serial number for its project in front of the image number and
extension. The example I showed above is now 2878-0341.CR2.
The folder It’s in is named 2876-Amy Patterson Beauty Portraits.
That’s all I need. Everything else is in the metadata.
The serial number tells me that nothing is missing. That’s its job. A
missing number is a series is obvious. There is no way to tell if a
date is missing because nobody does a project every day. You
don’t have to change your ﬁle naming if you really love it. Do
seriously consider adding a serial number followed by a dash to
the beginning of each folder containing your photographs.
56

Add the same serial number and a dash to the front of the existing ﬁle name. I
keep a spreadsheet with my projects listed by serial number, date, description
and location. Once I look up a serial number, I plug it into the top of Lightroom’s
Library Filter Bar and all the photos appear. If they are in different folders a right
click shows me where it’s located on my Drobo.
 
The Loupe View displays metadata. Set it up using Command (PC: Control) + J.
57

When I ﬁrst started using Lightroom in 2006, I was excited I could rename my images as I imported them into  
my catalog. Up to this point, I used the default ﬁlename my camera provided; typically DSC followed by a four  
digit numbering sequence.
USING CUSTOM & SERIAL NAMES
V A N E L L I
S E C T I O N 13

Unhappy with the filename, I asked several photographers what naming
convention they used and why. I received lots of advice and settled on using my
name plus the four numbering sequence the camera provided. Example:
vanelli-0715. The rational; when a person performed an internet search on Vanelli,
my images would appear. This came at a price. Although I liked the idea I could
find my images on the internet, I had a hard time locating images outside of
Lightroom on my local computer. Once Google changed how images were index, I
searched for a better naming solution.
GOOGLE SEARCH GUIDELINE
I turned to Google for advice. They suggested to make your filename a good
description of the subject matter of the image. This descriptive filename can give
Google clues about the subject matter of the image. For example, Valley-of-
Fire-0806.jpg is a lot more informative than DSC0806.JPG. This solution gave me
the best of both worlds. By giving my images a descriptive name, I could find
them outside of Lightroom on my local computer plus find them on the net.
KEEPING THE FOUR DIGIT  
NUMBERING SEQUENCE
I've heard photographers suggest to always start the numbering sequence at zero
when importing your images into Lightroom. Example: Valley-of-Fire-0001.NEF.
This option could create duplicate filenames if you photograph a person or the
same location on a regular basis. I prefer to keep my camera’s default numbering
sequence. I have about 197,000 photos in my Lightroom Catalog and have yet to
have a duplicate name.
60
S E C T I O N 13 | U S I N G C U S T O M & S E R I A L N A M E S

EXPORTING IMAGES
Now that I have my naming structure set, I keep the same structure when I export
my images. The only difference is the ﬁle extension. Example: Jaci
Schreckengost-6117.NEF becomes Jaci Schreckengost-6117.jpg when exported.
If I make multiple edits to an image, I add a version number after the sequence
number plus added information if I need it. Example: Jaci Schreckengost-6117-2-
BW.jpg. This tells me I edited the original ﬁle Jaci Schreckengost-6117.NEF twice
plus I made this copy Black and White.
SUGGESTIONS
PORTRAITS:
Full Name-sequence number
Delaney Goff-3497.NEF
EVENTS:
Year_Month_Day-sequence number_Team name_vs_Team name
2014_05_03-1005_Syracuse_vs_Colgate.NEF
LOCATION:
Year_City_State-sequence number
2015_Saint Augustine_FL-1030.NEF
ARTWORK:
Name of the art piece-original sequence number
The Aviator-0806.jpg
WILDLIFE:
Name-sequence number
Baby_Limpkin-0116.NEF
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S E C T I O N 13 | U S I N G C U S T O M & S E R I A L N A M E S

I’m a bit of a nut, and I while I may seem pretty
carefree and easy going about many things, I
actually have a few systems that I stick to
religiously.
S E C T I O N 14
EXPORTS
L E V I S I M

I’ve just found that things work best when i always do things the same way. Join
me for a shoot and you’ll definitely hear me say, “If you close a bag, lock the bag.”
You’ll probably hear me say to put zippers in the middle so I always know where
they are, and I always remind myself to put one leg of a tripod downhill so it
doesn’t tip easily. Well, join me for a Lightroom class and you’ll certainly hear me
say to use Lightroom to manage all your images all the time.
ALWAYS USE LIGHTROOM,  
ALWAYS ADD TO THIS CATALOG
If you always use Lightroom to view, edit, and move your images, then you’ll never
have any trouble with Lightroom losing track of images. This makes my workflow
simpler and keeps my stress levels down—there’re few things that give me as big
a thrill of fear as seeing that little question mark on a folder indicating that
something is missing.
Always using Lightroom includes making sure that all my exported images show
up in Lightroom, too. Let me show you how I use the Export Dialog to keep my all
my images under control all the time.
EXPORT DIALOG
Select the picture or pictures you want to export, then open the Export Dialog.
This is a keyboard shortcut I highly recommend you remember: Cmd+SHIFT+E. It
opens the Export Dialog and I use it several times each day. You could also go up
to the File Menu, or you could right click on an image and select Export, but the
shortcut is just that much faster, and a few seconds compounded over my last six
years of Lightroom use adds up to several hours saved.
The first option at the top is Export To: with options for Email, Hard Drive, and CD/
DVD, as well as other plugins you have. I always choose Hard Drive. If it’s going in
an email, or onto a CD, I just manage that with my email application or CD burning
application.
EXPORT LOCATION
Export settings are sticky, which means that whatever settings you choose this
time will be the same settings the dialog begins with when you open it next time. I
love this, because it means I can export individual images to the same place
really quickly as I go through a set of images. It’s not the most efficient method,
but I often get excited about a few images and want to share them right away
while the rest of the pictures may not ever make it to a publicly viewable place.
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S E C T I O N 14 | E X P O R T S
A Quick Note About Exporting
Lightroom doesn’t have a Save function; it only updates a
file’s metadata, and it won’t apply Develop changes to the
original file. The only thing Lightroom can do to your
original image file is update the metadata, move it, or
delete it. If you want to send a picture to someone or post
it online with Develop edits, you’ve got to create a new
image file by exporting.

Export To: Specific folder, Choose folder later, or Same folder as original folder. I
usually use the first option and the last option. For instance, when I’m writing an
article for Photofocus.com, I usually gather several images in a single folder so
that I can find them easily for posting even if they are from separate folders on my
hard drives. If I’m just exporting a few pictures to email to a client or to share on
social media, then I usually use the Same folder as original photo option and then
navigate to the folder when prompted by the email or web page to attache the
photos. The Choose button is how to select where your pictures will end up when
you select Specific folder.
Put in Subfolder In both cases above, I often use the check box to Put in
Subfolder. Then I’ll choose a name like the subject of my article, or simply “Email”
or “Facebook” so it’s easy to find them in my folder structure. I can also easily find
these files to delete them when I’m done using them.
Add to This Catalog CHECK THIS BOX! My workflow differs from some of the
other authors in this option. Like I said above, I use Lightroom to manage all my
image files all the time, which means new pictures created by export must be
added to the catalog or else I won’t be able to manage them in Lightroom. The
new file maintains the original file’s metadata about creation time, so it shows up in
the filmstrip right next to the original files.
Add to Stack I leave this box unchecked. I typically don’t stack up my files in the
filmstrip. I like to see them all right before my eyes. Having said that, with
Lightroom’s new abilities, I think it could be really useful to stack HDR sequences
and all the photos used in a Panorama.
Existing Files: This box is talking about what happens when you have a two files
of the same name in a single folder. I like the option Ask what to do because it
reminds me that this file already exists there. I usually then choose to Use Unique
Names.
64

I run into this when I’ve exported one file, then gone on to another picture and
entered the Export Dialog and then just hit Enter to export with the same settings
as the last one—which includes the same name. Lightroom is smart enough to
simply add a -1 to the end of the filename for me. It’s quick and simple and gets
me moving on to the next picture quickly.
65
Which Folder?
If I’m exporting several images from separate folders
(such as pictures gathered in a Collection) I may
mistakenly select Same folder as original photo as the
Export To: option, which will put all the new exported files
into their respective original folders, which makes them
really hard to find. In this case, I go the Library Module
and on the left side under the Catalog Tab there’s a helpful
option called Added by Previous Export. Click here and
you’ll see a collection of all the new pictures you just
made, and you can select them all and drag them
together to a better folder location. Check out the other
options here—you can bet I’ve used them all when I’ve
made a mistake. Whew! This little collection has saved me
a ton of trouble over the years.

FILE NAMING
I usually check the box to Rename To: and then I select Custom Name-Sequence.
In the Custom Text field I enter a descriptive name, or a name that will help with
Search Engine Optimization (I’m no specialist on SEO, but I understand that the
file name may help people find you when the image is shared online—things like
the subject of the photo, your own name, and the places you want to be
associated with may help drive traffic your way).
I almost always include my name in the file name for one reason: sometimes down
the road it’ll be a lot easier to find me again to do more work. You never know
when a new marketing director will be hired and not know anything about who
made pictures previously. I figure this is one way I can make sure they know where
previous picture came from. The Sequence part just adds a number to the end of
the file name, and I can choose where that number starts. I leave Extensions set to
Lowercase so that the filename isn’t SHOUTING at a reader.
VIDEO
It’s so cool that we can grade video and even edit clips in Lightroom. However, if
you don’t check the box for Include Video Files, then when you export a video file
you’ll just get the same file you started with—and that was really frustrating me for
a while!
Video Format. You can choose to export a file that’s optimized for web and
mobile as a H.264 file. If you want the maximum image quality, a DPX image
sequence is a professional exchange format used in high end video work. The
Original, unedited file can also be saved for processing in another application.
Quality. If you choose to export an image sequence (DPX file) than you can
specify a frame rate of either 24, 25, or 30 frames per second. If recompressing
to a H.264 file than you can choose from four quality options. The least
compressed is Max, followed by High, Medium and Low.
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FILE SETTINGS
Image Format: I usually choose JPEG because I’m usually generating a new file
to be shared with a client as a final image, or for sharing on social media. I will
often create a DNG file, too, which is powerful because it keeps the all the settings
I made in the Develop Module. This means that if I email you a DNG, and you
open in Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW, you’ll see all the settings placed where
I put them, and you could make further adjustments to the original image yourself.
It’s been a powerful teaching tool. DNG is also the only RAW format Lightroom will
export.
If you choose DNG, then you’ll see that several of the following options are not
available.
Quality: This setting is good to adjust because it has a huge impact on your file
size, and it can mean the difference between a file small enough to email, and one
that is just too large to manage. There are loads of article online about exactly
what settings have what impact. I’ll just tell you that the visible difference between
90 and 100 is imperceptible, but the file size is a lot smaller at 90. Also, I usually
set it at 75 for sharing online and I can’t see any degradation.
Color Space: This is a really important setting. If you’re emailing a final image to a
client, or sharing a file online, choose sRGB. If you choose anything else, the
photo will probably look really terrible, and probably kinda green. The internet
sees color in sRGB.  
 
Color Space relates to how many colors can be seen in your image, and the
difference between each of these three options is huge. But unless your sending it
to another imaging professional, use sRGB. If you’re sending it to me, use
ProPhoto RGB because I’ll be viewing it in Lightroom and Lightroom can interpret
that many colors. If you send it to a lab for printing, you may be able to use Adobe
1998, but you should consult with your lab first.
Limit File Size To: This is handy if you’ve been given specific guidelines for how
large an image file may be—as with many online photo contests—otherwise, I
leave it unchecked.
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IMAGE RESIZING
Resize to Fit: I often use this to resize images for sharing online, or for my clients
to share images online. There are options for Width and Height, Dimensions, Long
Edge, Short Edge, Megapixels, and Percentage. My most common choice is Long
Edge, and then I set the length to 2048 pixels—which makes an optimal image for
sharing on Facebook, Instagram, and even Lightroom Mobile (which uses smart
previews created at this size). I also set the resolution to 72 pixels per inch when
sharing online.
If I’m exporting for print, I usually choose 240 pixels per inch and I uncheck the
box to Resize to Fit.
You're camera makes a picture that is a certain number of pixels wide, by a
certain number of pixels high. Multiply these two numbers, and you get the
number of Megapixels your camera sensor records. That’s all that megapixels
means—the size of the picture (isn’t it silly, then, that camera companies have us
using this number to compare the capabilities of cameras?). For instance, my 16
megapixel Lumix GH4 makes an image 4608 pixels wide by 3456 pixels high.
Now, if I tell Lightroom to export a new picture with dimensions great than that, it
will resize the image to become larger—and it does a pretty good job! I could go
to Photoshop or onOne Perfect Resize, but for most work, Lightroom itself does a
pretty fine job of making a small picture larger. If you don’t want Lightroom to
make the image larger (for instance, you might be exporting a batch of images all
at once, but some are cropped smaller than the output dimensions you’ve
specified) then you can check the Don’t Enlarge box.
OUTPUT SHARPENING
I always use this, and I’ve had good results, even if I’ve already sharpened in the
Develop Module (which I usually haven’t). Check the box to Sharpen For: and
choose the option that best fits your viewing intention; mine is usually set to
Screen, but if I’m printing with a lab I’ll choose Glossy Paper (yes, even if I choose
a ‘Matte’ paper from my lab; I find that matte photographic paper from a local
store is usually just a textured glossy paper). If I’m using a fine art paper either in
my own printer or with a lab—especially those from ink jet printers—I’ll choose
Matte Paper. Don’t sweat it if you forget to change this option, though. When the
Amount is set to Standard it’s really not that big a difference between them to my
eyes.
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If you see a big difference, then you’re probably more skilled at sharpening than I
am, and have probably already sharpened your image in Develop Module,
Photoshop, or some other application, and you should uncheck the box :)
METADATA
Remember, metadata includes a lot of information that you can’t see in a picture.
There’s a lot to consider as you choose which things to Include. Since I’m an
educator and I love to share my pictures and how they were made, I’ve left mine
set to All Metadata, so if you use a metadata reader on my images on Photofocus
you’ll find all the information about how I made my picture including what camera,
exposure settings, and even if I used a flash. (To read metadata, I usually use
Jeffrey Friedl’s Exif viewer at regal.info/efix.cgi)
I don’t even mind if you know where I took the image, and I don’t use Lightroom’s
person identification tools so I’m not worried about the checkboxes for removing
those. I do check Write Keywords as Lightroom Hierarchy because, as I
discussed above, I want this new exported image to show up in Lightroom, and I
want the keywords associated with it to show up, too. Plus, these keywords may
help with SEO. What ever you do, I suggest you at least include your own
copyright info with the image.
WATERMARKING
This is one of the best tools in Lightroom, and it helps answer one of
Photographers’ most often asked questions: how do I protect my copyright? I’m no
lawyer, and I’m not an expert on copyright (I recommend you to the many
excellent resources published by the American Society of Media Professionals at
ASMP.org for factual advice on copyright). However, even I know that sticking my
name and/or logo on an image is a good idea for two reasons.
First and foremost, it helps people find me, the creator of the image, without
having to look very far. The fact is, any image posted online is likely to be copied
and used somewhere else—sometimes harmlessly, and sometimes it’s outright
69

theft. Most people, though, are not trying to rip you off, and if they share a
photograph online, what better way to let people know where it came from than to
have your name or logo in the corner of the image. To me, that’s free advertising.
Second, it probably does help a copyright suit, if you ever pursue one to have
placed your name on the image. It’s a lot harder for someone to claim innocence if
they had to actively remove your watermark from the picture before using it.
A bit of unsolicited advice: don’t put your name in big letters across the middle of
an image you share on social media. Yes, it deters people from stealing it. But it
also deters people from enjoying it! Words steal the mind’s attention even faster
than a bright spot in a picture. When you post an image with big letters on it, I
can’t enjoy the picture itself because all I can see is the word.
With that, click the checkbox that says Watermark: and then choose Edit
Watermarks… from the drop down menu. If you choose the Simple Copyright
Watermark, Lightroom will use the information from your IPTC entries to tag the
image. If you’ve already made some custom watermark settings, those will be
available in the drop down menu, too. Watermarks cannot be applied to DNG files,
so the options are not available.
WATERMARKING EDITOR
This is a pretty self explanatory tool, and you’d do well to spend a few
minutes playing with the different options. It’s simple to create a text
watermark, with loads of options for fonts, colors, weights, placement—
start by typing in the field underneath your image. I wish there was a
freehand placement option, but as it is you can get your watermark to
appear almost anywhere on the image by using the Anchor and Inset
options. It’s good to note that the Watermark Editor window can be
resized as large as you like to see how your watermark will appear on the
preview image, and you can use the arrow keys at the top to cycle to the
next image if you’ve selected more than one for import. Your watermark
will appear with the same settings in all the images.
Text watermarks are fine, but on of the best things about tool is the
simplicity of adding a Graphic watermark. Just click on the word Graphic
at the top left and then find any jpeg or png file and you can use that as
your watermark.
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Make a watermark in Photoshop by creating a graphic and placing it on a
transparent background, then saving it a .png file. Lightroom will maintain the
transparent background in the watermark and you’ll have your logo looking great
on your images. Hit the save button in the bottom right corner to use this
Watermark again.
In my work, sometimes a watermark looks good in the bottom left corner, and
other times it looks best in the top left. I save a watermark with an indicator at the
end reminding me where it falls on the picture so that I can choose the right one
from the Export Dialog without entering the Watermark Editor each time. For
instance, I’ve saved one watermark of my logo for each corner and they are called
Logo BL, Logo BR, Logo TL, and Logo TR (top right).
Consider the objective of your watermark and size it accordingly with the right
amount of opacity. Is it’s purpose to main attraction of your image? Or is it an
unobtrusive calling card ready when needed?
POST-PROCESSING
This is one tool I’ve never used. I always leave the After Export: options set to Do
nothing, or Show in Finder. You can set it to open your new file in another
application; myself, if I ‘m going to open it in a another application, I do it from
Lightroom so that the new file will be imported back into Lightroom when I close.
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Metadata is a set of data that describes and
gives information about other data. In
photography, metadata contains valuable
information about a photo. Most digital cameras
automatically attach some basic information
about a ﬁle, such as height, width, ﬁle format,
and the time the image was taken.
S E C T I O N 1
THE
VALUE OF
METADATA
V A N E L L I

THE VALUE OF METADATA
This is great, however, the real power of metadata is when data and information is
entered into the image file by users. Fortunately, Lightroom makes adding
copyright information, applying keywords or adding labels to an image’s metadata
easy. This information can be used to search and organize images in our
Lightroom catalog.
USER ENTERED METADATA
Tagging images, creating a rating system and adding keywords to images can be
time consuming. Disciplining yourself to add key information – copyright
information, proper filenames, keywords – to your images when importing them
will keep your photographs organize and cut down on the amount of time you
need to manually enter this information.
FILTERING MISSING METADATA
If you haven’t started adding metadata to your images, don’t worry, Lightroom’s
filter options will help you to find missing metadata so you can add this
information. You can search images that don’t have copyright information, select
them all, then batch enter the information. The same can be applied to untitled
filenames. The key is to add information to an image that will help you to quickly
find them in the future.
Your search results will only be as good as the information you entered in the
metadata.
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S E C T I O N 1 | T H E V A L U E O F M E T A D A T A

Metadata is a set of standardized information
about a photo, such as the author’s name,
resolution, color space, copyright, and
keywords applied to it. Lightroom makes adding
this information to our images very easy
especially when we import the images for the
ﬁrst time. Open the Import dialog by clicking File
then select Import Photos and Video. The import
dialog box appears.
S E C T I O N 2
ADDING
METADATA
ON IMPORT V A N E L L I

COPYRIGHT METADATA
You've already learned that s a good idea to add copyright information to your
images. This allows anyone viewing your image on the web or preparing the file
for print at a printing lab to determine who owns the copyright of the image and
what they can do with it. The copyright metadata can also supply information on
how to contact you if they need permission to use your photo. Most cameras have
this feature built in – you may need to look through your camera's manual to find
where to add the information – but Lightroom makes this task really easy by
creating a preset.
Step One: On the right side is the Apply During Import panel. Click the drop down
next to Metadata, and choose New – or Edit if you have an existing preset.
Step Two: Type a name for the preset at the top, scroll down to the IPTC
Copyright section and fill it out.
• To create the © symbol on a Mac, press Option+G.
• On a PC use the numeric keypad. Press and hold the Alt key then type 0169.
The Copyright Info URL field is used to provide a link to somewhere on your
website where you have posted specific rights and usage terms for your photos.
In the IPTC Creator section, add your name in the Creator field, and add as much
contact information as you wish. Make sure that it is sufficient that someone can
successfully contact you if they come across your photo.
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S E C T I O N 2 | A D D I N G M E T A D A T A O N I M P O R T

Step Three: When you are done, click Create.
This preset will now show in the Apply During Import dialog as the default, and
this information will be applied automatically as you import new photos.
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S E C T I O N 2 | A D D I N G M E T A D A T A O N I M P O R T

Keywords describe the contents of a photo. A
successful keyword workflow will help identify,
search for, and quickly find photos in a catalog
with thousands of images. Once applied,
keywords can be read by any application that
support XMP metadata. Lightroom provides
several ways to apply keywords to photos. You
can type or select them in the Keywording
panel, or drag photos to specific keywords in
the Keyword List panel. Once keywords are
added to an image, a thumbnail badge will
display when in Grid view.
S E C T I O N 3
ADDING
KEYWORDS
V A N E L L I

KEYWORDING PANEL
There are a few different methods of applying keywords to an image. Each
method requires that you select at least one photo. With an image selected, type
one keyword at a time in the small ﬁeld that says “Click here to add keywords.”
Press enter to add the keyword to the white keyword box. Lightroom automatically
adds a comma to separate multiple keywords when using this method. You can
type directly in the keyword box, be sure to add a comma to separate each word.
KEYWORD LIST PANEL
When a keyword is added to an image, Lightroom stores the information in a list.
When you start to type a word, Lightroom displays a dropdown list with the
previous words you entered. This ensures the same spelling each time plus it
speeds up the process. These words can be found in the Keyword List Panel. You
can add, edit or delete keywords from this panel by right mouse clicking on a
word.
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S E C T I O N 3 | A D D I N G K E Y W O R D S

CREATE KEYWORD SHORTCUTS
Keyword shortcuts let you quickly apply one or more keywords to multiple photos.
After you deﬁne the shortcut, you apply it to multiple images.
Step One: In the Library module, Right-click (Windows) or Control-click (Mac OS)
on one keyword in the Keyword List panel and choose Use This As Keyword
Shortcut from the menu.
Step Two: In the Set Keyword Shortcut dialog box, type one or more keywords,
separating them with commas, and then click Save. A Plus sign (+) next to a
keyword in the Keyword List panel indicates that it is part of the current keyword
shortcut.
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APPLY KEYWORDS USING SHORTCUTS
Step One: To apply the keyword shortcut, select one or more photos in the
Gridview .
Step Two: Click the small box next to the keyword shortcut in the Keyword List
panel. A checkmark with indicate the image has the keyword shortcut applied.
Step Three: To view the keyword for the selected images, go to the Keywording
Panel and select Will Export from the Keyword Tag dropdown menu.
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Giving our images descriptive filenames helps
keep everything organized both inside and
outside of Lightroom. The best time to rename
your files in when you’re first importing them
into Lightroom.
S E C T I O N 4
FILE
RENAMING
ON IMPORT N I C K M I N O R E

On the right side of Lightroom’s import window, toggle open the File Renaming
panel. Put a check where it says Rename Files to enable this feature. We can
choose one of Lightroom’s built-in templates by clicking on the Template
dropdown or create our own custom template by clicking on Edit. Let’s choose to
build our own template, so click on Edit.
Inside the Filename Template Editor, we can customize our template. If there’s
anything already in the white box at the top, go ahead and delete it. Near the
bottom of the window, ﬁnd Custom Text and click the Insert button. This will let us
add descriptive text to the beginning of our ﬁlename. Remember that we’re
building a template right now, so we don’t want to add the actual text in here. On
the File Renaming panel, there’s a box for our custom text that we can use each
time we import new images. Continuing on, I added an underscore by pressing
Shift-Hyphen on your keyboard.
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S E C T I O N 4 | F I L E R E N A M I N G O N I M P O R T

These images need to be kept in sequential order, so under numbering choose
the Sequence # dropdown and make sure it has 4 digits (0001). This is so we can
import up to 9999 images at one time without a duplicate image number. Click
Insert to add it to the template. Look up into the white space at the top of the
Filename Template Editor and make sure there isn’t a duplicate number. If there is,
click on the blue box you want to delete and press Delete on the keyboard.
Lightroom gives us a sample filename on top of the white box. Take a look at the
example filename and make sure that’s how you want it to look. If it’s good, then
click Done.
With Custom Settings selected as the Template, we can now add Custom Text.
2015-03-16_ND_Scout_
I like to add a reverse date (2015-03-16 or 20150316) and then the name of my
photo shoot. Adding a hyphen or underscore helps to separate words in the
filename, without putting spaces in the name. Lightroom will add the sequence
number at the end of your filename, so you won’t need to put it in the Custom Text
box.
2015-03-16_ND_Scout_0001.nef
Double-check the sample text and make sure it looks good. If you can’t see all the
text, hover your mouse over the sample text and a box will appear with your
filename. Before you click import, make sure to specify a destination for Lightroom
to import your images to. When you click Import, Lightroom will rename your
photos automatically.
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S E C T I O N 4 | F I L E R E N A M I N G O N I M P O R T

Your images are already in Lightroom, and
you’ve never given them a descriptive name.
Lightroom has a built-in Rename Photos
command that gives you the same options as
when you ﬁrst import your images.
S E C T I O N 5
BATCH
RENAMING
N I C K M I N O R E

First select the images you’d like to rename. A quick way to select all images is
using the keyboard shortcut Command or Control-A.
BUILDING THE TEMPLATE
From the Library menu, choose Rename Photos. A popup box will appear, asking
you to select a renaming preset. If you’ve never created a renaming preset, you
can choose one of the build-in templates or create your own. Creating our own
gives us the ultimate flexibility, so we’ll build our own using the Edit option.
Clicking on Edit opens the Filename Template Editor.
If there’s anything already in the white box at the top, go ahead and delete it. Near
the bottom of the window, find Custom Text and click the Insert button. This will let
us add descriptive text to the beginning of our filename.
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S E C T I O N 5 | B A T C H R E N A M I N G

Remember that we’re building a template right now, so we don’t want to add the
actual text in here. On the File Renaming panel, there’s a box for our custom text
that we can use each time we import new images. Continuing on, I added an
underscore by pressing Shift-Hyphen on your keyboard.
These images need to be kept in sequential order, so under numbering choose
the Sequence # dropdown and make sure it has 4 digits (0001). This is so we can
import up to 9999 images at one time without a duplicate image number. Click
Insert to add it to the template. Look up into the white space at the top of the
Filename Template Editor and make sure there isn’t a duplicate number. If there is,
click on the blue box you want to delete and press Delete on the keyboard.
Lightroom gives us a sample ﬁlename on top of the white box. Take a look at the
example ﬁlename and make sure that’s how you want it to look. If it’s good, then
click Done.
With Custom Settings selected as the Template, we can now add Custom Text.
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I like to add a reverse date (2015-03-26 or 20150326) and then the name of my
photo shoot. Adding a hyphen or underscore helps to separate words in the
filename, without putting spaces in the name. Lightroom will add the sequence
number at the end of your filename, so you won’t need to put it in the Custom Text
box.
Double-check the sample text and make sure it looks good. If you can’t see all the
text, hover your mouse over the sample text and a box will appear with your
filename.
If everything looks good, then click Ok. Lightroom will quickly rename all the
selected images in the background.
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I love collections! It’s hard to believe there was a
time when I didn’t use them at all. Nowadays, I
can’t even imagine my workﬂow without them.
They are simply the easiest way to stay
organized and keep my best work at my
ﬁngertips. Let me show you how collections
work, then I’ll show you the four ways I use
collections everyday.
S E C T I O N 6
USINGCOLLECTIONS
L E V I S I M

WHAT’S A COLLECTION?
Collections are like a little catalog of certain pictures, usually related by topic. You
can collect a lot of pictures here from different folders. The key thing is, Lightroom
doesn’t make a new copy of your ﬁle to store in the collection—it just references
the original. Get it? A handy place to keep your best pictures without taking any
more space on your hard drives.
MAKE A COLLECTION FROM ANYWHERE
One of my favorite features of collections is that they are available anywhere in
Lightroom—all the modules include the Collections Tab on the left side, and you
can make a new collection anytime.
Just select a picture or pictures you want to include in the collection and click the
+ button on the right side of the Collections Tab, then select Create Collection.
Vanelli already told you how to use Smart Collections (Chapter Link to Smart
Collections) and a Collection Set is simply a folder to hold more than one
collection—more on this idea below.
Name the new collection anything you like (we’ll talk more about this below). In
this case, I’ll call it Jules since that’s the client whose photos I’m working with. I
might choose to include this in a Collection Set, but the set must already be
established. A reasonable set here might be “Clients”. Since I’ve already got some
of the pictures for the collection selected, I do want to check the box Include
selected photos, but I won’t choose to Make new virtual copies. An instance when
I will make new virtual copies is when I’m preparing black and white versions of all
the photos; then I might call the collection, “Jules BW”. If I make any changes to
an image in a collection, those changes will show up in the main folder the Library,
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which is why it may be a good idea to make new virtual copies if I’m going to be
making changes to the pictures but still want to preserve an original edit.
Set as target collection is a handy option. If you click it, then anytime you press
the B key, the image you’re looking at will be added to this collection. After my
initial sort of images, I might use this option to add my favorites from Jules’ shoot
to this collection. My normal operating procedure, however, is to have my
collection called Instagram set as the target collection. More on this below, too.
New for Lightroom CC, Sync with Lightroom mobile is now checked by default the
first time you create a collection. If you uncheck it, the setting is sticky and it will
be unchecked the next time you create a collection.
Now just click Create and you’ll have a new collection.
FOUR WAYS TO USE COLLECTIONS
1. PORTFOLIOS
The number one way I think everyone should use collections is as a ready
portfolio, and believe me, your spouse will thank me for this. You know how it is,
you go on vacation, you make thousands of pictures, but only a handful are really
worth sharing. Then your friends come to visit and want to see your pictures. If
you’re not using collections (or, worse still, not using Lightroom) then you have to
flick through your thousands saying things like, “This was right before the really
good one…oh here it is….this isn’t the one I wanted to show you, but I can’t find
the best one…and now let me show you some from the second day of our trip…”
If it were me, I’d be putting myself to sleep.
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S E C T I O N 6 | U S I N G C O L L E C T I O N S
Levi’s Dirty Secret
Here it is, I’m spilling my guts: my Collections Tab didn’t
look so neat yesterday. I straighten it up and organized
things more neatly for the screen shots for this book.
(kinda like when you know guests are coming over and
you throw everything in the closet) I deleted some scrap
collections and several incomplete ones, and a bunch
that I had used briefly to gather some pictures for an
obscure project. But that’s what’s so cool about
collections—you can use them however you like, make a
mess, and then delete them at will. They don’t affect your
Library structure in the least, and deleting a picture from a

Get Organized in Lightroom

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