5th June 2009
Posted in Blog, Tutorials
Tagged in: lightroomtips

One great thing about the Lightroom Library is the amount of information that you can see just by glancing at your image files. From flag status, stack placement, virtual-copy…-ness, it’s all right there on top of the little file preview.

If you don’t know what I’m talking about, fire up Lightroom. Make sure you’re in the Library module (E), then get yourself in Grid view (G). Select a folder, of course, to make sure you can actually see some photos. Now, press J to cycle through your grid overlay view options. There are three choices, what I like to call “totally not helpful”, “standard”, and “woah”. Your mileage may vary.

Each symbol has a specific function – but there are sometimes so many symbols that it can get overwhelming. What the heck is that little arrow at the top corner, and what am I supposed to do with that information? Since I’ve been organizing my library, my files are a little out of whack, and I looked at my library and saw every single possible option in three images. Crazy stuff. I’m going to take you through them, one by one. Enjoy.

A few things to know before we begin :

1. Toggle states (when I talk about clicking to toggle something on or off) will activate the current photo and all other photos you have selected.
2. If you see me refer to a letter or number in parentheses – such as (E) – that is the keyboard shortcut for what I am talking about.
3. No, really, over time you will understand what all of these different options do.  Be patient.

File Info

Index Number

The index number is shown in big, light numbers at the top left corner of the tile.  The photos above are index numbers 10713, 10714, and 10715.  I have a lot of photos.

File Name / Other Info

I have this turned off, but at the top of the tile you can choose to have alternate information about the photo.  Go to your View > View Options …, and in the dialogue box, under “Grid View > Compact Cell Extras”, go ahead and turn on Top Label.  Check out the different options!  Depending on what information your photo has in the metadata, you might not see anything for some of the options.  You’ll also see various options for the bottom label.  Leave these as “Rating and Label” for right now.

File Problems

File not Found

If you see a little question mark in the top right corner, that refers to “File not found”.  Click on the mark and a dialogue will pop up that will help you to find your file.

Updated Metadata

You’ll see three lines followed by an arrow or an exclamation mark in the top right corner if your metadata has gone out of sync.  I actually don’t know HOW to make this happen; it happens when the metadata on the file is different than the metadata in Lightroom.  You can save the metadata to your file if you want by clicking this icon and then pressing “save” in the dialogue box that appears.

• Metadata was changed in Lightroom and is unsaved on the file.
• Metadata was changed externally and is not synced in Lightroom.
• Error saving metadata to file.

Loading….

This one isn’t actually shown, because I couldn’t screencap it quickly enough.  If you see three little dots in the top right corner, that means that the file preview is loading.  You don’t have to do anything with this status.

Flags, Ratings, and Colors

Flagged Status

The flagged status of a photo shows up in the top left-hand corner.  Photos flagged as “Pick” (P) will have a white flag, “Reject” (X) will have a black flag with an x on it, and unflagged photos (U) will have no flag.  If you hover over the top-left corner of an unflagged photo, you will see the outline of a flag appear – click to “Pick” the photo, click again to “Reject” the photo, and again to “Unflag” the photo.

Star Rating

Star ratings are shown at the bottom left of the tile, right underneath the photo itself.  Hover to see the various star ratings, and click to select.

5 stars / 0 stars

This can be a tricky way to rate your photos – I find the graphics are often too small to fine tune my ratings.  I prefer to use the number keys (1 – 5 / 0 to remove) to add stars to my photos.

Color Label

Color labels are shown as the tile background (rather than the default gray) as well as the little color label below the photo.  The color labels can be changed by click on the little square, or by selecting a photo and pressing (6 – 9).  Yes, you’re right, not all the colors have a number!  If you are using the number keys to add color labels, you can’t apply purple.

Edit Me!

Photo has adjustments

The presence of this icon in the bottom-right corner of the photo preview is an indicator that your photo has adjustments applied to it. Click to go to the develop panel.

Crop

The presence of this icon in the bottom-right corner of the photo preview is an indicator that your photo has been cropped. Click to go to the develop panel and adjust crop.

Keywords

The presence of this icon in the bottom-right corner of the photo preview is an indicator that your photo has keywords applied to it. Click to show the Keywords pane.

Rotate

Hover over the bottom right and left corners to show the rotate handles.  Use these to rotate your photo.

Stack and Copies

Stack Handle

Two lines (let’s call them drawer handles) on the left or right of a tile indicate that the photo is the top or bottom of a stack.  All the photos that are in between these two marks are also in the stack.  If you have one photo that has a drawer handle on either side, that is a closed stack.  Go ahead and click on the drawer handle to open or close the stack.

Number in the Stack

The top photo of the stack will always have a number on it – if you are hovering over that photo, it will say “1 of x” with x being the number of photos in the stack; if you are not hovering over it, it will just say the number of photos in the stack.  As you hover over the various photos in the stack, you will see their numbers.  If you click on the numbers, the photo will move to the top of the stack.

Virtual Copy

Virtual copies of an original photo will have a little folded corner on their bottom left.  They will be next to the photo they are copies of / grouped with the other virtual copies of that photo.

Quick Collection

The circle at the top right corner of the photo is the toggle for adding a photo to the quick collection.

Don’t Like What You See?

If you want some alternate view options, go to View > View Options.  Play around with the various options in the Grid View option tab to see what works best for you and your workflow.

If you have any questions, or want to share how YOU keep your grid view and why, feel free to leave a comment!  I’d love to hear from you!