How to Manage Photos in Lightroom

Adobe Lightroom 2 Keeps Track Of Digital Images Stored On A Computer

Aug 30, 2008

Adobe Lightroom 2 is more than a RAW converter, offering a range of management tools for selecting and sorting large numbers of digital photographs.

One of the benefits, or disadvantages as some people claim, of digital photography is it encourages photographers to take more shots than they might have done in the preceding film era. Adobe Lightroom 2 includes features to help photographers deal with the increased number of images.

The first step after a session taking digital photographs is sorting and selecting the images on the computer. Deleting the obvious failures in the camera reduces the number of images involved, but one of the real tasks is to choose between similar photos with slight variations in composition and exposure settings.

Import from Memory Card

A simple task but keeping the function within Lightroom is convenient and lets the photographer get straight to the first viewing stage in the one program. Adobe Lightroom 2 understands the directory structures cameras use on memory cards, reducing keystrokes making this task simpler and more convenient.

Views

There are a number of image viewing formats in Adobe Lightroom 2 to help in the sorting and selection process. A row of thumbnail images along the bottom, or a filmstrip as Adobe refer to it, always seems to be there, allowing users to select images.

Grid: In Adobe Lightroom’s main window, this view option displays the thumbnails in a grid as well as the filmstrip along the bottom. Users can vary the size of the thumbnails in the grid view window.

Loupe: This quickly changes the view in the main window to the last zoom view used, while a smaller widow on the left shows the whole image with a box outlining the area in the loupe view.

Compare: This automates the process of displaying identical views of two or more images side by side in Adobe Lightroom 2’s main window. The zoom and move tools are linked so the exact view of the images is the same. This is a very efficient way for closely examining similar images.

Survey: In a similar vein, this is a convenient and efficient one click Adobe Lightroom 2 option to fit the selected file (or files) into the main viewing window.

Sorting: There are a number of sorting indicators available just below the main view window. Users can assign a reject or accept flag or assign a rating from one to five stars. Adding keywords is another option for grouping images.

Rotating images: While this is an editing function, Adobe includes this function in the image management area to help the sorting process of images shot in the portrait mode.

The key to all these functions is their efficiency and ease of use. These other applications can perform functions, even Adobe’s Photoshop. However often it takes a number of operations to achieve the same result Lightroom does in one key or mouse click. Adobe Lightroom shines in managing large numbers of digital photographs.

The copyright of the article How to Manage Photos in Lightroom in Digital Photography is owned by Philip Northeast. Permission to republish How to Manage Photos in Lightroom in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.