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The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC /

Lightroom 6 Book
The Complete Guide for Photographers

Martin Evening

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Introduction

Work on the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom program began toward the end of 2003 when a
small group of Adobe people, headed by Mark Hamburg, met up at photographer Jeff Schewes
studio in Chicago to discuss a new approach to raw image editing and image management. What
would it take to meet the specific needs of those photographers who were now starting to shoot
digitally? More specifically, what would be the best way to help photographers manage their ever-
growing libraries of images? It was shortly after this that I was invited to join an early group of
alpha testers and help work out what sort of program Lightroom (or Shadowland, as it was known
then) should become. As we began to discuss our different digital photography workflows, it
became increasingly obvious why we all needed a better way to manage and process our digital
photos. Lightroom underwent some pretty major changes in those early stages as the team tried
out different workflow ideas, until eventually we ended up with the Lightroom program you see
now.

The Adobe Photoshop Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6 Book represents the culmination of more than
nine years work in which I have been involved with Lightroom. Basically, this book is intended to
be the ultimate reference guide to Lightroom and designed to help you get the maximum benefit
out of the program. In writing this book, I have had in mind both amateur and professional
photographers and have aimed to provide what I believe is the most detailed book there is on this
subject. I also wanted to make sure space was given to explaining the background to some of the
features. The feedback I have had for previous editions of this book has been encouraging.
Newbies to Lightroom have found it easy to access and understand all the basics, while advanced
professional users appreciate the background detail thats provided. I have to confess, when I first
started work on this project, I never imagined the book would end up being 744 pages in length.
Mark Hamburg once joked that he must have failed in his mission to make Lightroom
unreasonably simple if you needed a book as thick as mine in order to understand it!

So many changes have taken place since version 1.0 was released. As a result, not only has the
book ended up being a lot bigger, but I have also had to rewrite almost everything that was in the
original edition. As always, I suggest you approach the book by reading it in chapter order, starting
with Chapter 1: Introducing Adobe Photoshop Lightroom, which explains some of the fundamental
principles behind Lightroom.

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The Lightroom catalog is a major feature of the program, which is why I have devoted more than
200 pages of the book to providing in-depth advice on how to work with the Library module,
including how to import photos and manage your photos through the use of keywords and
metadata. Even more space is devoted to image processing and how to make use of all the
Develop module controls. Here you will find some great picture examples, which show how
Lightroom can help you unleash your creativity.

This edition of the book has a companion website: thelightroombook.com. It contains additional
resource material in the form of Lightroom movie tutorials, templates, and PDF downloads. I know
a lot of readers would like to have access to the images that appear in the book. In response to
this, I have created a downloadable Lightroom catalog that contains nearly all the photos that
appear here.

Full instructions on how to install the catalog once you have downloaded it are contained on the
website.

Overall, I am still as excited about Lightroom as I was at the beginning of the programs
development, and I hope the book provides the inspiration and insights to help you get the most
out of the program, too.

Martin Evening, March 2015

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Lightroom book updates
Adobe has been known to release interim updates for the Lightroom program in which new
features are added. I am proud to say that I have had a good track record in always providing
readers with updated content in the form of PDFs or movies whenever this happens. So when
this happens, do remember to check the book website for new content. I also have a Facebook
page where reader scan be kept updated:
facebook.com/MartinEveningPhotoshopAndPhotography.

Acknowledgments
I would like to thank Pamela Pfiffner, for prompting me to get started on this project and for her
advice and help during the planning stage of this book series. For this particular edition, Valerie
Witte was my editor and has done an excellent job making sure everything has come together
smoothly.

Other members of the publishing team included the production editor, Tracey Croom; copy editor,
Elizabeth Kuball; proofreader, Patricia J. Pane; indexer, James Minkin; and additional
compositing and corrections by David Van Ness. I would also like to thank Charlene Charles-Will
for the cover design, as well as Sara Jane Todd, who worked on the marketing.

Lightroom is really the brainchild of Mark Hamburg, without whom none of this would have
happened. Since then I have been helped a lot by the various Lightroom engineers and other
members of the team. It is all thanks to them that I have managed to gather the background
technical knowledge required to write this book. In particular, I would like to thank Thomas Knoll,
Eric Chan, Max Wendt, and Josh Bury (who worked on the Camera Raw engineering). I would
also like to thank product manager Tom Hogarty, product evangelist Julieanne Kost, and previous
product evangelist George Jardine for the support and help they have given me. I would especially
like to thank Ian Lyons, who tech-edited the book. Thank you, Ian, for clarifying all the many
technical points and providing additional insights. Thanks, too, go to Sean McCormack, who
provided me with valuable feedback and assistance.

A number of photographic shoots have been carried out specifically for this book. I would like to
thank the models, Lucy Edwards and Veronica at M&P and Kelly from Zone; Camilla Pascucci for
makeup; Terry Calvert, James Pearce, and Nadia Foster for hair; Harriet Cotterill for the clothes
styling; Stuart Weston and Neil Soni for the use of their studios; and Harry Dutton and Rob
Cadman for assisting me. Also a big thank-you to Jeff Schewe and George Jardine for
documenting the shoots with stills and video.

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It has been an interesting experience to see a new program emerge from scratch and has been
a pleasure to share the development process in the company of a great group of alpha testers
and fellow authors, who were all willing to share their knowledge about the program with one
another. You will notice that this book is dedicated to the memory of Bruce Fraser, who sadly
passed away in December 2006. Bruce was one of the original core group of Lightroom alpha
testers who helped shaped the program. The Lightroom capture and output sharpening are both
based on Bruces original work on Photoshop sharpening techniques. Bruce was a true genius
and is deeply missed by all those who knew and worked with him.

A book like this would be rather boring to read through without having some decent photographs
to illustrate it with. To supplement my own photography, I would, therefore, like to thank Peter
Andreas, Sean McCormack, Eric Richmond, and Jeff Schewe, all of whom are individually
credited throughout this book. And lastly, I would like to thank my wife, Camilla, and daughter,
Angelica, for yet again being so understanding and patient while I was glued to the computer!

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 1. Introducing Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

An introduction to the main features in Lightroom, showing an example of a typical

studio shoot workflow

Welcome to the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom image processing and image asset
management program, designed to meet the needs of digital photographers everywhere. This
book explains all the main tools that are in Lightroom and provides inspiration and advice on how
to get the most out of the program. It also offers tips on how to set up your computer and how to
get the best results from your digital camera files.

Lightroom was designed from the ground up to provide todays digital photographers with the tools
they most need. This is reflected in the way Lightroom separates the various tasks into individual
modules, is able to process large numbers of images at once, and lets you archive and retrieve
your images quickly. But before I get into too much detail, let me begin by explaining a little about
the basic concepts of Lightroom, the essential preference settings, and the Lightroom interface.

Lightroom is now available as a perpetual license product called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 6
and also as a Creative Cloud subscription license product called Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
CC.

How you acquired the program will therefore determine the in-application branding that appears
in the Identity Plate and splash screens. Throughout this book, the screenshots all use the
Lightroom 6 (perpetual license) branding, but at this stage the software is in every respect identical
to the current Lightroom CC (subscription) version. Future update information will be found on the
books website.

What is Adobe Photoshop Lightroom?

Lightroom is a high-quality image processor and image database management system rolled into
one. The guiding light behind Lightrooms development was Mark Hamburg, who was formerly
the chief scientist working on Adobe Photoshop. For a good many years Mark and the rest of
the Lightroom team at Adobe looked closely at how photographers worked and the problems they
faced when processing and managing large numbers of digital images. Lightroom is the result of
that research. It is not a single, monolithic application; instead, it should be viewed as a suite of
application modules that, when combined together, provide an ideal workflow for digital
photographers.

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 Note
You will notice Lightroom has a locked interface, where all you can do is edit the visibility of
the modules and module panelsyou cant actually rearrange the panels or make them
float. I see this as a positive thing since you always know where you are when you are
working with Lightroom. With other programs, like Photoshop, people tend to personalize
the program in the way they arrange the panels and their appearance. I find that if I am
asked to take control of someone elses computer, it can take a while to work out where
everything is in their version of Photoshop. With Lightroom, the interface is always the same
and its never a problem trying to locate a particular panel or tool.

Keeping things simple

One of the early goals of the Lightroom project was to remove complexity, and right from the start,
the founding principle of Lightroom has been to provide unreasonable simplicity. Lightrooms
tools are, therefore, designed to streamline the image management and editing process and to
make the user experience as smooth and simple as possible. The program aims to provide
photographers with the tools they need most and eliminates the call for complicated workarounds.
For the most part, Lightroom has succeeded in doing this. It does not have too many complicated
preference dialogs, nor does it demand you do anything special to optimize the program settings
before you get started.

For example, there are no color management settings dialogs to configure. This is because the
color management in Lightroom is carried out automatically without needing any user input. The
Lightroom print workflow is very logical and, once set up, very easy to work with. However, as the
program has evolved, these principles have been compromised with the introduction of more
options and additional features, not to mention new modules.

Modular design
Lightroom was created from scratch. This allowed the engineers to build upon their experience
and knowledge of how Photoshop works to produce a program that is built for modern-day image-
processing requirements. Lightroom is comprised of individual, self-contained modules that are
built around a core containing the image processing and image database engines. Each module
can be thought of as offering a unique set of functions, and in Lightroom there are seven separate
modules: Library, Develop, Map, Book, Slideshow, Print, and Web. Figure 1.1 shows a summary
of the Lightroom workflow. You can begin by explicitly importing stills or video files into Lightroom,
where you can import files from a cameras flash memory card, directly from a (supported)
tethered camera, from files on a hard drive, or via an import from another catalog. The master
files are then stored wherever you choose to place them. Once the files are imported, Lightroom
is able to process and manage them without your actually editing the files themselves. Everything

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you do in Lightroom in the various modules is saved automatically to the master catalog file, which
is used to store all the Lightroom edit information independently of the master images. As shown
in Figure1.1, you can export data from the Lightroom catalog either as a complete catalog with
copies of the master images, plus Smart Previews, or as a lightweight catalog made up of the
Lightroom catalog plus the Smart Previews and image previews only. You can also synchronize
collections via Lightroom mobile (see Appendix). The Create modules are for creating different
types of outputs from Lightroom, such as published books, slideshow presentations, prints, or
web galleries.

Figure 1.1 Lightroom is engineered using a modular architecture system. At its heart are the
Camera Raw image processor and image catalog database engines. Lightroom is designed so
that all individual modules are able to tap into these two core components of the application. This
is what gives the program its speed and adaptability. Lightroom 5.4 saw the introduction of
Lightroom mobile, which allows you to synchronize collections via the Adobe Creative Cloud
servers and thereby view and carry out basic edits using an Apple iPad or Apple iPhone.

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Note
You can use the following Mac shortcuts when switching between individual modules (PC users
should use Ctrl+Alt plus the number):

Cmd+Alt+1 > to select Library

Cmd+Alt+2 > to select Develop
Cmd+Alt+3 > to select Map
Cmd+Alt+4 > to select Book
Cmd+Alt+5 > to select Slideshow
Cmd+Alt+6 > to select Print
Cmd+Alt+7 > to select Web
Cmd+Alt+Up Arrow > to go back to the previous module

In addition, G selects the Library module in Grid mode, E selects the Library module in Loupe
mode, and D selects the Develop module.

Lightroom performance
As long as the computer you are using meets the minimum requirements listed on page 8, youll
have all that you need to get started, although Lightrooms performance will vary according to the
size of your image captures. The basic specifications shown here may be fine for rocessing small
capture files, but you will definitely want to use a modern, dual-core processor computer with at
least 4 GB of RAM to achieve the best performance. With a well-configured computer, youll be
able to quickly navigate a collection of images, apply image adjustments, and synchronize
settings across a folder or collection of photos. Image catalog searches should be fast, and the
Lightroom interface is designed to make it easy for you to edit the metadata and make use of
such metadata when carrying out an image search. Wherever possible, Lightroom utilizes the
cached image preview data to generate the previews, and as a result, you will find it takes no time
at all to generate a slideshow or a web photo gallery. Plus, when you are in the Print module, it
should take only a few seconds to generate a set of contact sheets using the draft printing mode.
(This is because Lightroom is able to print directly from the high-quality image previews instead
of re-rendering from the master files.)

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 Note
Since version 4.3, Lightroom has provided high-pixel-density display support for
Macintosh users owning one of the latest MacBook Pro computers with a Retina display.
Lightroom now also supports high-density displays at 150%, 200%, and 250% resolutions
for Microsoft Windows users who have devices that support high-density displays. In
these instances, Lightroom is able to display the user interface, including cursors, at a
suitable resolution for such displays. This refinement allows these computer owners to
see smoother text and icons in the Lightroom interface. So far, high-density display
support has been added for previews in the Import dialog and Slideshow module.

Various steps have been taken with each version to improve performance speed. With this current
release, import speed has been improved for Macintosh users. A new video engine should result
in better video performance, steps have been taken to make tethered shooting more reliable, and
working in the Develop module should now be faster if you have a recent-generation (Sandy
Bridge or Haswell) Intel chip, not to mention support for graphics processing (a GPU). Lightroom
also now uses a newer JPEG library. This change shouldnt be too apparent, but it will affect the
quality of exported JPEGs and lossy DNGs created via Lightroom. Lastly, the Map and Web
modules now use Chrome embedded frameworks, which should also result in more reliable
performance when working in these modules. Smart Previews can also help you achieve faster
Develop performance. Of course, as camera files get bigger and photographers tend to shoot
more and more pictures, it remains an ongoing and uphill battle for the computer hardware,
operating systems, and software to keep up with these demands. But on a reasonably fast
computer, Lightroom should cope fine managing a large catalog.

Note
When Smart Previews are created, you can manage the photos via the Library module,
edit them via the Develop module, and work with the Map module to geotag the photos
as well.

However, although you can create on-screen slideshows using Smart Previews, you
cannot export. Similarly, you cannot use the Print or Web module to make prints or export
a web gallery. You cannot generate a book either, although you can use the Book module
to create or edit a book layout.

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Adobe Camera Raw processing
If you are accustomed to using the Camera Raw plug-in via Adobe Bridge or Photoshop,the
Develop module controls will already be familiar to you. This is because Lightroom shares the
same Adobe Camera Raw processing engine that was originally developed by Thomas Knoll,
who with his brother, John Knoll, created the original Photoshop program. It has since evolved to
become one of the best raw processing tools on the market. As of this writing, Camera Raw
supports more than 490 proprietary raw file formats. These include the full range of Canon and
Nikon digital SLRs. In recent years, Thomas has worked with Zalman Stern, Eric Chan, Max
Wendt, and Joshua Bury, all of whom have made significant contributions with their work on
Camera Raw.

Color controls
Lightroom is mainly intended for working with raw images, but the image adjustment controls in
the Develop module also can be applied to TIFF, PSD, PNG, or JPEG images that are in RGB,
Grayscale, CMYK, or Lab mode (but note that Lightroom image adjustments always are carried
out in RGB). The Basic and Tone Curve panels provide intuitive controls with which you can easily
adjust the tone and color in any photograph. The B&W panel offers an adaptable approach to
black-and-white conversions whereby you can adjust the balance of color information that is used
to create a monochrome version of a color original. As you dig deeper, you will discover that the
split-tone controls work nicely on color images as well as black-and-white converted pictures, and
with a little experimentation you can easily produce quite dramatic cross-processed-type effects.
The Develop module provides further tools to optimize your photographs. The sliders in the HSL
/ Color / B&W panel behave exactly the way you would expect them to, so you can easily
manipulate the brightness and color characteristics of targeted colors. There are also tools for
spotting and applying localized adjustments. Lightroom 3 saw a major leap forward in image
quality and improvements made to the demosaic, sharpening, and noise reduction. The Process
2012 image processing introduced in Lightroom 4 continued that trend with its much-improved
Basic panel slider controls.

Note
Lightroom includes support for the PNG file format, which is now commonly used in many
mobile photography apps. PNG files can be imported into Lightroom, but when choosing
the Edit in command, a PNG will open up in Photoshop as a TIFF or PSD. Any
transparency contained in the PNG original will be supported, though (and will appear
white in Lightroom). However, there is no PNG option available when exporting from
Lightroom (other than to export a PNG image using the original file format).

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It is worth pointing out that all Develop adjustments in Lightroom are non-destructive and
recorded as edit instructions that are stored in the central catalog (and also can be stored as
meta data with the image itself). This means that a single raw master file can be edited in many
ways and output or printed at different sizes without having to create different pixel image
versions from the original. Any image edits and ratings you make in Lightroom can be
recognized in current versions of Bridge and Photoshop. The same thing applies to ratings and
other metadata. If you edit the metadata in Lightroom and save the changes made to the file,
these can be read in Bridge. The reverse is also true. For example, if you add keyword sand
assign a colored label to an image in Bridge, these metadata edits can be read by Lightroom
and updated to the Lightroom catalogalthough this does raise the question of which settings
are correct when a single image has been modified in two separate programs. In this situation,
Lightroom informs you of any conflicts and lets you decide.

Managing the image library

Lightroom has been designed to provide a flexible workflow that meets the requirements of all
types of photographers. When you work with Lightroom, you begin by explicitly choosing the
photos you would like to add to the catalog. From this point on, the way Lightroom manages those
images is actually not that much different from working with any other type of browser program.
Most browser programs are like glorified versions of the Mac Finder or Windows Explorer and
mainly useful for inspecting the contents on a computer and allowing you to see everything that
is on a drive or in a specific folder. The main difference with Lightroom is that you control which
images and videos are imported into the program. Files can be imported from a camera card,
directly from the camera (via the Tethered Capture panel), or by copying them from an existing
folder. Or, you can tell Lightroom to add photos to the catalog by importing them from the current
folder location. After the files have been imported into the catalog, anything you do in Lightroom
(such as changing a folder name or filename, deleting a file, or moving a file) is mirrored at the
system level. When deleting, you have the option to remove a file from the catalog only or move
it to the trash for deletion. Working with the Folders panel in Lightroom is, therefore, not dissimilar
from working with a hierarchical folder tree list view in a browser program. But in Lightroom, the
tree list in the Folders panel shows only those files that you have requested to be in the catalog
and nothing else. Of course, a hierarchical folder management is fine if you know in which folders
your images are stored. But as you start working with many thousands of photographs, youll
soon find this is no longer such a practical solution. Yes, Lightroom can store all your images in
a neat hierarchy of folders, but its real power as an image asset manager comes into play when
you use the Filter bar to search for images in the catalog. Once you get into the habit of entering
descriptive keyword information each time you import new photos, you will be able to search your
archive more easily and more quickly when browsing for specific photographs.

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Where does Photoshop fit in?
For many years now, Photoshop has pretty much dominated the pixel image-editing market and
has constantly adapted to meet the varying demands of lots of different types of Photoshop
customers, from graphic designers to illustrators to special effects artists working in the motion
picture industry. Although Photoshop is a powerful image-editing program with a wide range of
tools to suit everyones requirements, it also has become increasingly complex. When the two
Knoll brothers, Thomas and John, first created Photoshop, they could hardly have predicted how
their program would develop or what Photoshop users in the future would be doing with it, much
less predict the technological demands that digital capture would make. Photoshop started out
as a program for editing single images in real time (as opposed to a deferred image processing
route), and the legacy of this basic Photoshop architecture led to various compromises being
made as more and more features were added.

Many Photoshop authors love to write about what they describe as simple Photoshop
techniques, but then proceed to take up eight pages with step-by-step instructions. (Before
anyone gets too upset, I confess that I have been just as guilty as anyone else when it comes to
writing about Photoshop!) And then there are all those bits of contradictory advice, such as Dont
use Convert to Grayscale when converting a color image to black and white, or Dont use the
Brightness and Contrast dialog to adjust the brightness and contrast. Sometimes it is almost
impossible to avoid going into such detail because to write anything less would only cause more
confusion. Plus, some features, such as the Brightness and Contrast command, have been in
Photoshop for so long that it would be unwise to remove them now. Lightroom is unencumbered
by such legacy issues. You dont have to follow complex workarounds to achieve optimum results,
and the Develop module controls behave exactly the way you would expect them to.

Because Lightroom was built from scratch, the engineers have designed a program that not only
addresses current demands but also anticipates future needs. For example, take image
adjustments. Whenever you apply consecutive image adjustments in Photoshop, you are
progressively degrading the image. Lightroom, on the other hand, allows you to make as many
adjustments and changes as you like, but it only applies them as a single adjustment at the point
where you choose to edit in Photoshop or export the photo as a fixed-pixel image.

Note
Once you start bringing images into Lightroom, you wont necessarily find yourself locked
into working exclusively in Lightroom the way you are with some other programs. Lightroom
is flexible enough to allow you to work simultaneously with Bridge or other image browser
programs.

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The Adobe Camera Raw plug-in that is used by both Bridge and Photoshop does provide the
same level of flexibility, but only up until the point where you render a raw file as a pixel image
to be edited in Photoshop. In Lightroom, the photos in the catalog are like your digital negatives.
Whether they are raw files, PSDs, TIFFs, or JPEGs, they are always preserved in their original
state throughout the entire Lightroom workflow. You can create slideshows, generate web
galleries, or make print outputs without ever physically altering the original files.

Integrating Lightroom with Photoshop

People often ask if Lightroom could ever become a complete replacement for Photoshop. I
somehow doubt it, because Photoshop will always be a specialist tool for retouching single
images, making photo composites, and performing other essential production tasks such as
CMYK color conversions. That said, Lightroom can now be used to perform many of the jobs that
would previously have been carried out in Bridge and Photoshop. The retouching capabilities in
Lightroom are so impressive that you may find you can process most of your images entirely
within Lightroom. Overall, I would say Lightroom is an ideal front-end application for importing
new images and building a searchable database of your master photographs. Once your photos
are in Lightroom, you have all the controls you need to carry out image-edit selections, group and
rename photos, and make basic and advanced Develop adjustments. When youre ready to take
your photos into Photoshop, you can use the Photo Edit in Adobe Photoshop command, or use
the File Export command to create exported versions of your master images.

If your Lightroom subscription should come to an end

Although Lightroom continues to be available as a perpetual product, it is also available via Adobe
Creative Cloud. People are naturally worried about how they will be able to access their catalogs
after their subscriptions come to an end. The good news is that when this happens, Lightroom
desktop will continue to launch and give you access to your files, but the Develop and Map
modules will be disabled. Also, the integration with Lightroom mobile will no longer function.

What you need

Lightroom is designed specifically for photographers working with digital capture files. Lightroom
can process JPEGs, TIFFs, raw images, and video files. If your camera is capable of capturing
raw images, I strongly advise you to shoot in raw mode whenever possible.

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 Tip
To see if the raw files from your camera are supported in Lightroom, go to the
Adobe Photoshop website at: helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/camera-raw.html.
Cameras capable of capturing raw images using the Digital Negative (DNG)
format are also supported in Lightroom. The DNG format offers many benefits: it
is a self- contained raw format that can incorporate externally edited XMP
metadata (no need for .xmp sidecar files), and, because it is an open standard
format, offers better long-term support.

You will require a computer that meets the minimal specifications listed below. Although it is
possible to run Lightroom with a minimum of RAM, Lightroom will certainly benefit from having as
much memory as possible to work with. Therefore, it is recommended that you install 4 GB or
more of RAM. A computer with a fast processor will help, of course. You dont need much hard
disk space to install and run Lightroom, but you will need to give serious consideration to how you
will store all the images in the catalog. Some people can easily shoot 10 GB worth of images or
more in a day. If you export some of those files as rendered TIFFs or PSDs, you can see how
your storage requirements might grow considerably in a short amount of time. Here are the
minimum requirements for Mac and PC systems (note that Lightroom no longer supports Windows
Vistaor 32- bit systems).

Mac
Multicore Intel processor with 64-bit support
Mac OS X 10.8 or later
2 GB of RAM minimum (ideally, 4 GB or more)
2 GB of available hard disk space
Computer display with 1024 x 768 resolution or greater
Internet connection (for initial activation and Internet-based services)
DVD-ROM drive

Windows
Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athion 64 processor
Windows 7 with Service Pack 1 or Windows 8 (64-bit)
2 GB of RAM minimum (ideally, 4 GB or more)
2 GB of hard disk space
Computer display with 1024 x 768 resolution or greater
Internet connection (for initial activation and Internet-based services)
DVD-ROM drive

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Installing Lightroom
The Lightroom installation process should be fairly easy. All you need to do is download the
program or load the installation DVD and run the installer. Figure 1.2 shows the Mac OS
installation dialog; Figure 1.3, the PC version. Simply enter your Adobe ID information and accept
the Adobe Software License agreement. Confirm which drive you want to install Lightroom to, and
thats it. If the computer you install on is not connected to the Internet, you have a week to connect
online and register the install. Beyond that, Lightroom will go into expiry mode, where the Develop
and Map modules will be unavailable, until you have a chance to connect to the Internet again. If
you have an earlier version of Lightroom on your computer, the Lightroom installer knows exactly
what to do. If you are upgrading an existing Lightroom catalog, you will be asked at this stage if
you would like Lightroom to run a verification process to test the integrity of the current catalog
(see Upgrading from an older Lightroom catalog on page 11). The install process will also need
to update the previous catalog file.

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 Figure 1.2 The Lightroom installation dialog for Mac OS X.

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 Figure 1.3 The Lightroom installation dialog for Windows.

Note
All Adobe applications, whether they are bought as a perpetual license or as part of the
Creative Cloud, are now required to use the same install process. This requires you to
have an Adobe ID when installing the software. Doing this will save the serial number to
your Adobe profile, which can help Adobe when handling customer support issues or if
you move Lightroom to a new Computer.

The other benefit is that Adobe can improve the product by analyzing workflows in greater
detail and can ultimately present tailored content and help based on your unique workflow.

However, you will have the ability to opt out of data gathering by going to Help Lightroom
Online Manage Account and going to the Security and Privacy section.

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Note that the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom end-user agreement permits you to install Lightroom
on a main computer and a secondary computer such as a laptop. This is because it is recognized
that a lot of Adobe product customers regularly work on more than one computer. Another useful
thing to know is that you can use a single Lightroom license to run a Mac and/or Windows version
of the program. You dont need to buy a separate license to do this.

Tip
While Lightroom will require you to register the install, it is still possible to register
computers that are normally kept permanently offline (such as those used in secure
environments). Follow the regular install procedure until you get a message that
says having trouble connecting to the Internet. At this point, click the link and follow
the instructions on how to generate a response code using a separate Internet-
enabled device. This code will be valid for 72 hours.

Note
The first time you launch using Lightroom, you will be shown a dialog asking you to select
the country/region where you currently live. This is now required due to Google Maps usage
in the Map module and has been added because the Google Maps usage terms prohibits
its use in certain countries.

64-bit processing

You can only run Lightroom CC / Lighroom 6 as a 64-bit program either on an Intel Mac or
Windows 7/Windows 8 system. Now that Lightroom is 64-bit enabled, it can go beyond the 4 GB
RAM limit that was imposed on 32-bit operating systems (assuming you have more than 4 GB of
RAM installed on your computer, of course). If you do have more than 4 GB of RAM installed, you
should see an 8% to 12% boost in performance speed. Lightrooms performance will be relative
to the size of your master image files. The minimum specifications outlined on page 8 may suffice
if you are only editing raw or JPEG files from, say, a 6-megapixel camera. If you want to process
files larger than this, you will almost certainly need a faster computer with more RAM. Basically,
64-bit processing now allows you to access the extra memory that is installed on your computer.

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Sleep protection

Lightroom CC / Lighroom 6 is designed to prevent your computer from going to sleep while certain
processes are taking place. For example, while building previews, generating slideshows,
publishing, importing, or exporting. It also prevents the computer from going to sleep when
carrying out a Lightroom mobile synchronization, which might be a lengthy process (see page
20). None of the above will prevent the display from going to sleep (depending on how your
system preferences are configured).

Upgrading from an older Lightroom catalog

If you are upgrading Lightroom from a previous version of the program, you can let the installer
create an upgrade catalog for you, and it will leave the old version and old catalog intact on the
computer system. In order to carry out a super-clean upgrade, it is recommended that you first
make an export copy of your current Lightroom catalog, launch Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6 to
create a brand-new empty catalog, and then use File Import from Catalog to import the previous
catalog and at the same time carry out a catalog upgrade. Note that if you are updating Lightroom
with a dot release update (i.e., Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6.1), there is no need to take the
precautions outlined here. A dot release update will simply overwrite the current 6.x version of
Lightroom in the Application/Programs folder.

If you choose to upgrade your Lightroom catalog using the upgrade method suggested here, there
is the downside that you will lose any Publish Services data. This is because the Publish Services
data is not stored as part of the Lightroom catalog (see page 633). So, if you have previously
made extensive use of Publish Services in Lightroom, you may want to avoid using this method.

Note that Lightroom now allows you to create Smart Collections that can sort according to the bit
depth and/or number of color channels in an image. As a consequence of this, you may notice it
takes a little longer than expected to update the catalog while Lightroom reads in these additional
searchable fields in the existing catalog.

If you are upgrading from Lightroom 3 or earlier, when you relaunch Lightroom, a check will be
carried out to see if any point curve settings may have been lost during the upgrade. Where
missing point curves are detected, Lightroom will automatically attempt to recover them and place
these photos in a Point Curve Recovery Results collection (see Figure 1.4).

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 Figure 1.4 If you are upgrading from Lightroom 3 (or earlier), images found to have missing
point curves will be placed in a Point Curve Recovery Results collection. Recovered Point
Curves contains photos that have recovered point curve settings and should look the same
as they did in Lightroom 3. They will also have two new history steps: Before point curve
recovery and After point curve recovery. Needs Review contains photos that did have
missing point curves, but that were subsequently edited in Lightroom after the catalog was
updated. In this instance, the history steps will have been repaired so that the point curves
can be recovered by clicking the appropriate step in the History panel.

Tip
To get the dialog shown in Step 1 to appear, go to the Catalog Settings (shown in Figure
1.8 on page 15) and make sure the Every time Lightroom exits option is selected. In
Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6, the backup frequency menu options are now also available
in the Back Up Catalog dialog shown here in Step 1.

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 1. If you havent done so already, I suggest you first make a backup copy of your current
Lightroom catalog. Should anything go wrong during the upgrade process, you will at least
have a current copy of your catalog to fall back on. Or, you can simply make a copy via the
operating system.

Note
Should you choose Include available previews in the catalog export step? If you are
upgrading from Lightroom 3, 4, or 5 to version CC / 6, you will likely find it useful to
preserve all the current available previews. If you are upgrading from a version of Lightroom
that is older than this, you will be better off deselecting this item and allowing Lightroom to
build new previews. Whatever you do here, the export/import process will take some time to
complete. Remember, if Include available previews is checked, Lightroom may have to
export many gigabytes of previews data that will then have to be reimported again.

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2. Click All Photographs in the Catalog panel and choose File Export as Catalog. This exports
all photos in the current catalog. In the Export as Catalog dialog shown above, deselect Export
selected photos only as well as Export negative files. You will most likely want to check
Include available previews, but see the sidebar for guidance on what to select here.

3. Now launch Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6 and create a brand-new empty catalog. Go to the File
menu, choose Import from Catalog, and select the Lightroom upgrade catalog you exported
previously. When you choose to open an older catalog, you will see the dialog shown here.
This informs you that Lightroom needs to upgrade the previous catalog before it can be used
in Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6. Since you are importing from the upgrade catalog to add to a
new, empty Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6 catalog, there is no need to save the upgrade catalog,
so you should select the Discard Upgraded Catalog After Import option shown selected above.

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4. Next, you will see the Import from Catalog dialog, where in the File Handling section you will
want to select the Add new photos to catalog without moving option. This imports all the
photos that were in the old catalog with the photos in the exact same folder hierarchy. Once
all the photos have been imported, go to the File menu and choose Optimize Catalog. This
carries out one last check to make sure the new catalog file has been tested for integrity and
is optimized.

T ip
You can reset the application preferences at launch time by holding down the keys as
the program launches. Resetting preferences at launch in this way only clears the user
preferences and not the startup preferences. The Lightroom team have moved a few
critical preferences out of the main preference file, so deleting Lightrooms preferences
doesnt make it forget a few essential things like which catalog you were using or which
catalogs youve already successfully upgraded. Mac users running OS 10.9 or later will
need to take extra steps to completely delete all cached preferences. Go to
username/Library/Preferences and delete any files with Lightroom or LR in their name.
Next, launch Terminal and enter: defaults delete com.adobe.LightroomX and then
relaunch Lightroom.

Using Lightroom for the first time

During the initial install, Lightroom will ask you where you wish to store the catalog and what you
want to call it. It is important to understand here that the Lightroom catalog is something that is
stored separately from the photos themselves. You may want to keep the catalog in your
Pictures/My Pictures folder on the main system hard disk, but you can store it anywhere you like.
Just bear in mind that a large catalog can easily grow to 100 GB or more. Above all, it is important
to be aware that when you import files into Lightroom, it references the photos and videos you
import and keeps an updated record of where those files are kept and how they are named.
Lightroom doesnt actually store any copies of your files in an internal archive. So, whatever you
do, dont delete the files after you have imported them. Sadly, there have been instances where
people have imported photos into Lightroom, thinking they were then in Lightroom, deleted the
originals, and found out too late that they had just erased the master files.

Also, during the first launch, you will see the dialogs shown in Figure 1.5. If you wish to make full
use of the Map module, I suggest you click Enable. As the subsequent dialog explains, it is
possible to disable this feature via the Metadata panel options in the Catalog Settings (see page
642).

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 Figure 1.5 The first time you launch Lightroom, you will see a dialog asking if you want to
enable reverse geocoding. When you click Enable, this opens a follow-up dialog confirming
this decision. Note that you can also toggle this feature on or off via the new Activity Center
in Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6.

Note
The Catalog Settings can be accessed via the Lightroom menu (Mac) or Edit menu (PC).
There is also a prominent link button in the Lightroom General Preferences that says Go
to Catalog Settings. Or you can use the Cmd+Alt+ , (Mac) or Ctrl+Alt+ , (PC) keyboard
shortcut to open the Catalog Settings dialog.

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Lightroom preferences essentials
As I just mentioned, the default Library location for your Lightroom catalog is the
username/Pictures folder (Mac), or the username/My Documents/My Pictures folder (PC). If you
want to create a new catalog in a different location, you can do so by restarting Lightroom with
the key Alt (Mac) or the Ctrl key (PC) held down during startup. This displays the Select Catalog
dialog shown in Figure 1.6, where you can click the Create a New Catalog button to select the
location to store a new Lightroom catalog. After you have successfully launched the program, go
to the Lightroom menu (Mac) or the Edit menu (PC) and choose Preferences. This opens the
General Preferences dialog shown in Figure 1.7, followed by the other preference sections
shown in Figures 1.8 to 1.12, plus Figure 1.14. You can read about the preference settings in
more detail in the Appendix, so Ill highlight just the key settings for now.

Figure 1.6 Holding down the Alt key (Mac) or the Ctrl key (PC) during startup allows you to
select which catalog to use or lets you create a new catalog
.

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 Figure 1.7 In the General Preferences, the Default Catalog section also lets you choose which
catalog to use when you launch Lightroom. The default setting uses Load most recent catalog,
or you can choose Prompt me when starting Lightroom. If you have already created other
catalogs, you can select one of these from the drop-down menu. If you want the Lightroom Import
Photos dialog to appear automatically each time you insert a camera card ready for download, I
recommend checking Show Import dialog when a memory card is detected. Note that there is
also a language selection menu at the top of the General Preferences section. This allows you
to switch between different language versions of the program.

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 Figure 1.8 If you click the Go to Catalog Settings button at the bottom in Figure 1.7, this opens
the Catalog Settings dialog. Here, you can set the catalog backup policy, the catalog previews
sizes, and metadata handling settings. You can read more about configuring the catalog settings
in Chapters 3 and 10.

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Figure 1.9 This shows the Presets section in the Lightroom Preferences dialog. If you think
applying auto tone adjustments as a default setting will help, check the Apply auto tone
adjustments option. However, I would suggest checking the Apply auto mix when first
converting to black and white option. Well be looking at the camera default settings later, so
for now leave the Make defaults options unchecked. If you check the Store presets with
this catalog option, it allows you to store custom preset settings as part of the catalog. This
is fine if you are working with one catalog. A downside of this approach is that presets are
from then on saved specifically to the Lightroom Settings folder thats stored with the catalog.
They are no longer saved simultaneously to the globally accessible Lightroom folder. If you
later create a new catalog, you wont be able to access and share the settings you had created
previously, whereas you can if this option is left unchecked.

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 Figure 1.10 In the Lightroom External Editing preferences, you can customize the pixel image-
editing settings for Photoshop plus an additional external editor. These are the file format, color
space, and bit depth settings that are used whenever you ask Lightroom to create an Edit copy
of a catalog image that is to be opened in an external pixel-editing program. The File Format
options include Photoshops native PSD file format or TIFF. The Color Space can be ProPhoto
RGB (which is fairly close to the chromaticities of the native Lightroom workspace), Adobe RGB
(which many photographers like to use when working in Photoshop), or sRGB (which is ideal
for web-based output only). The Bit Depth can be 16 bits, which preserves the most Levels
information but doubles the output file size; or 8 bits, which is a more standard bit depth but
wont necessarily preserve all the Levels information that can be obtained from your master
library images.

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Figure 1.11 In the File Handling preferences, the Import DNG Creation section lets you customize
the DNG settings for when you choose to import and convert to DNG directly. These DNG options,
as well as the others that appear here, are discussed more fully in the Appendix. If you mainly
use proprietary raw files with sidecar files, you might also want to increase the Camera Raw
cache to say, 20 GB, depending on how much free disk space you have. Note, though, that
Camera Raw 6.7 and Lightroom 3.7 upward now use a more compact method for archiving the
cache data. This results in some substantial savings in disk space, so the amount of disk space
you allow here does not need to be quite so high as it was previously. Also, if you mainly use
DNG with fast load data, the fast load data is used in place of the central Camera Raw cache, so
the cache size here is less relevant.

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 Figure 1.12 In the Lightroom Interface preferences, you can customize various items such as
the appearance of the interface when using the Lights Out and Lights Dim modes and
customize the background appearance of the main window and secondary display window
when viewing a photo in Loupe view. You can also configure separately the Fill Color and
Texture backdrop settings for the primary and secondary window displays. In Lightroom CC /
Lightroom 6, there is a new item, Ignore clicks on badges, which when checked disables
badge linking (such as clicking the settings badge to go to the Develop module).

Figure 1.13 In this example, the main window Fill Color was set to Darker Gray (the Pin Stripes
option has now been removed due to it degrading performance on larger displays).

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 Figure 1.14 The Lightroom Performance preferences.

Tip
You can right-click anywhere in the background to access the contextual menu,
which will allow you to change the default color of the background.

Note
Currently, the GPU acceleration described here applies only to processing carried out on the
main display. Users with multiple displays should be aware that performance on secondary
displays will be unchanged regardless of whether Use Graphics Processor is checked.

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Performance preferences

The Performance section is new to Lightroom (Figure 1.14). This contains a single item, Use
Graphics Processor, which when checked allows Lightroom to use the Graphics Processing Unit
(GPU) to speed up its interactive image editing when working in the Develop module. This option
will be particularly helpful if you are using a high-resolution display, such as a 4K or 5K display
(where the benefits will be most noticeable). The Use Graphics Processor option is normally off
by default, so youll need to visit this section of the Lightroom Preferences dialog and check it in
order to boost Develop module performance. And it should be stressed here that you will only see
any difference in the Develop module interactive processing. If you try this out for yourself, the
first thing you will notice is how the panning and zooming are both much faster. If you open a
large image and choose a 1:1 zoom view, check out how quickly you can scroll from one corner
of the image to another. Without GPU support, the Lightroom Develop module performance will
be identical to Lightroom 5.x, and youll notice how the scrolling will tend to be slow and jerky. But
when Use Graphics Processor is enabled, the scrolling should be much smoother. If you look
at what is happening more closely, you will notice how the on-screen image initially loads a
standard- resolution preview image before rendering a full-resolution preview. Also, when you
have an image in the Develop module at a 1:1 view, Lightroom preemptively loads and renders
parts of the image that are just outside the current visible area. By doing so, Lightroom is able to
provide a smoother scrolling experience. You should also notice that when adjusting the Develop
sliders, the preview response will appear to be a lot less jerkier when Use Graphics Processor
is enabled. However, it should be noted that youll see more of a performance boost with some
types of Lightroom Develop module edits than others.

Graphics card compatibility

It is important to realize that the GPU performance boost will only be available for certain types of
video cards (OpenGL 3.3 and higher) and only if you are using a 64-bit operating systemeither
Mac OS 10.9 and higher or Windows 7 and higher. If the card you are using is compatible, the
video card name will be shown in the Performance section of the Lightroom Preferences dialog.
If it is not, Lightroom will show an error message. You will also need to make sure your video
drivers are up to date. On the Mac system, video drivers are updated whenever you carry out an
operating system update, but on Windows the operating system is not always as accurate and
may tell you that the outdated drivers you have installed are just fine. So in these instances, where
PC users are experiencing problems, they may need to go to the manufacturer s website to
download a dedicated video driver update utility.

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Lightroom can currently use only a single GPU, so if your computer has more than one video
card, this wont offer any improvement (although the performance boost from using just one
should be significant). For best results, the main requirement is that you have a compatible
graphics card manufactured in 2010 or later. You dont necessarily have to have the fastest card
to get optimum performance; a solid, midrange card can be just as effective as a high-end card.
Also, if your system has a recent-generation Intel chip (either Sandy Bridge or Haswell), this can
make working in the Develop module faster. If you check out the Lightroom system info (Help
System Info), look for an item called Camera Raw SIMD optimization. If your computer lists
AVX2, then you should see an additional small improvement over AVX in terms of Develop
module processing. Basically, the GPU is used for both the display preview management and the
rendering (but only when Use Graphics Processor is enabled, of course), where different
portions of the rendering can occur on the GPU and Central Processor Unit (CPU) simultaneously.
The GPU processing is very fast, but the CPU work may take a little longer, which is why you may
sometimes see a slight time lag in the on-screen rendering. But if you have AVX2, you will see a
small extra speed boost to the CPU aspect of the processing.

Managing Lightroom mobile via Lightroom

Lightroom 5.4 saw the introduction of Lightroom mobile for mobile devices. If you want to learn
more about this feature, there is a Lightroom 5.4 PDF available on the book website (as well as
extra information in the Appendix of this book).

Lightroom mobile preferences

The Lightroom mobile preferences are shown in Figure 1.15. This shows you information about
your Lightroom mobile account and allows you to choose to delete all data, or click to access your
Adobe Creative Cloud account information online. If there appears to be a problem with the
Lightroom mobile account, you can click the Delete All Data button. This wont delete the master
files on your computer, but it will necessitate rebuilding cloud preview data that your mobile
devices can sync with, so use with extreme caution. A new Prevent system sleep during sync
option has been added, which does just that and prevents the computer system from going to
sleep during a Lightroom sync, but will not affect the display sleep settings you might have
configured.

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 Figure 1.15 The Lightroom Preferences dialog now includes a Lightroom mobile section.
If you happen to create a synced collection, an All Synced Photographs collection item will then
appear listed in the Catalog panel (Figure 1.16). This lets you view, at a glance, all photographs
that have been synced with Lightroom mobile. Meanwhile, a Mobile Downloads.lrdata file will be
saved inside a Lightroom folder in the Pictures folder (Mac) or My Pictures folder (PC).

Figure 1.16 The Catalog panel showing All Synced Photographs.

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In the Collections panel, you will see a status icon appear next to collections that have been
synced with Lightroom mobile. In Figure 1.17, the status icons show that the Collections are in
the process of being synced. You can click the status icon to pop the dialog shown in Figure 1.18,
where you can choose to stop syncing photos.

Figure 1.17 The Collections panel showing the current sync status for the synchronized
collections.

Figure 1.18 Clicking a status icon in the Collections panel opens the dialog shown here,
which allows you to manage individual collection sync options. Note that if you stop syncing
a particular collection, this will delete all Lightroom mobile data associated with it.

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There is also a sync.lrdata file stored in a Sync Data folder inside the Lightroom Presets folder.
This can be accessed by going to the Lightroom Preferences dialog Presets section (Figure 1.9)
and clicking the Show Lightroom Presets Folder button. This contains data about the status of
catalog synchronization between Lightroom and Lightroom mobile.

Figure 1.19 The History panel showing changed status from Lightroom mobile.

History panel

Lastly, if you check the History panel in the Develop module, you can see recorded the status of
any image, which will also indicate where a photo has had its settings changed via Lightroom
mobile (see Figure 1.19).

Note
Identity plates are saved with the catalog and are therefore catalog-specific. Consequently, if
you work with multiple catalogs, youll have to repeat these steps for each catalog thats in use.

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Customizing the identity plate and interface

There are several ways to customize the appearance of the Lightroom program. The top panel
in the Lightroom interface contains the Lightroom identity plate and module selectors. If you go
to the Lightroom menu (Mac) or Edit menu (PC) and select Identity Plate Setup, you will see the
dialog shown below. The Lightroom option displays the Lightroom CC / Lightroom 6 logo, while
the Lightroom mobile option displays a smaller Lightroom logo with your Adobe ID below. You
can click the small arrow or anywhere in the identity plate area to reveal the login options to sign
in or sign out of your account (see Figure 1.20). Or, you can select the Personalized Identity
Plate option, which allows you to replace the standard Lightroom logos with a custom design of
your own. The following steps explain how.

Figure 1.20 This shows the pop-up Activity Center accessible via the Lightroom identity plate.
This can be used to sign in or sign out of your Adobe Creative Cloud account, as well as to
manage and monitor various background tasks.

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 1. This shows the Identity Plate Editor, where I had selected the Personalized option. Here, I
selected the Use a styled text identity plate option, where I could enter custom text, set
the font type and font size, and use any font that was available on the computer. In the
example shown here, I edited the text to show the full name for my business and set the
font to Copperplate.

2. After I had configured a custom identity plate, I went to the Identity Plate Custom pull-
down menu and chose Save As to save the settings as a new custom template design.

Note
PSD files can only be added via the Identity Plate Editor using the Mac OS version
of Lightroom.

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 3. If you select the Use a graphical identity plate option, you can add an image logo by
copying and pasting or dragging a PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, or PSD (see sidebar
note) image into the identity plate area. The logo image you place here should not be
more than 57 pixels tall and can contain transparent pixels. Graphical identity plates can
also be used in Slideshow and Web module templates, but be warned that a 57-pixel-
tall logo will be far too small for use in a print layout. For print work, you will probably
want to create identity plate graphics that exceed the suggested 57-pixel limit and that
are therefore big enough to print with.

By clicking the Show Details button (circled in Step 1), you can also customize the
appearance of the module selector by choosing an alternative font, which can be in any size
you like. Lastly, if you click either of the little color swatch icons (circled), this will open the
system color picker, allowing you to edit the font colors for the active and nonactive modules
that appear in the top panel.

4. Now lets see how the top panel looks after having customized the identity plate. Above you
can see examples of how both the styled text and graphical identity plates might look when
applied to the top panel.

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Getting help
Figure 1.21 shows the Help menu for the Library module. Choose Lightroom Help to access the
Lightroom Help page (Figure 1.23). If you choose Lightroom Online, this takes you to the main
Lightroom page, where, if you click Learn & Support, you are taken to the page shown in Figure
1.24.

Figure 1.21 The Help menu is common to all Lightroom modules. This screen shot shows
the Library module Help menu; the other modules look similar except that they show help
items and help shortcuts relevant to that particular module. The Lightroom Help option (F1)
will take you to a new AIR-based community help system. The module tips (Figure 1.22)
can help you quickly find your way around the different modules.

Figure 1.22 The Module tips are turned on by default each time you first visit a new module.
These are designed to help you discover the main features in each module. They can be hidden
or enabled via the Help menu.

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 Figure 1.23 The Lightroom Help page.

Figure 1.24 The Adobe Lightroom Help and Support page.

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Introducing the Lightroom interface
The following section provides a quick overview of the Lightroom interface (Figure 1.25), which
youll find provides a consistent layout design from one module to the next.

Figure 1.25 The Lightroom menu bars and Lightroom program interface.

As with any application, the main menu commands are located in the Lightroom menu bar at the
top of the screen (Mac) or at the top of the application window (PC). If you are in absolute full-
screen mode, the menu bar will be hidden, but you can reveal it by simply rolling the mouse to
the top of the screen.

The top panel section contains the identity plate, which normally shows the Lightroom logo. But
you can customize this via the Lightroom Identity Plate Setup menu. For example, you can
replace this with your own name or add a company logo graphic. On the right, you have the
module picker menu for selecting the Lightroom modules: Library, Develop, Map, Book,
Slideshow, Print, or Web. You can use the F5 key to toggle showing and hiding the top panel (see
also Figure 1.26).

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 Figure 1.26 Right-click to access the module picker menu. You can use this to hide specific
modules if you wish.

The content area is the central section of the interface where you view whatever you are working
on. In the Library module Grid view, you see the images displayed as thumbnails in a grid cell
layout. In the Library module Loupe view and Develop module, the files are displayed at a Fit view
or 1:1 scale size. In the Map module, the content area displays a map view. In the other modules
Book Slideshow, Print, and Webyoull see previews of how images or screen pages will look.

Whenever you are in the Library module Grid view, the Filter bar can be expanded from the top
of the content area. This allows you to carry out searches using a Text search, or search by rating
or flag status using the Attribute section. Or, you can use the customizable panels in the Metadata
filter section using various search criteria, such as a specific Date, Camera type, or Lens type.
You can use the key to display more than one Filter bar section at a time and use the
key to toggle showing and hiding the Filter bar.

The Toolbar is available in all of the Lightroom modules and is positioned at the bottom of the
content area. The Toolbar options will vary according to which module you are in and can be
customized when you are in the Library, Develop, or Map modules via the Toolbar options menu
(circled). You can use the key to toggle showing and hiding the Toolbar.

In the Library module, the left panel is mainly used for selecting the source files via the Catalog,
Folders, or Collections panel. In the Develop module, it is used to display the Presets, Snapshots,
and History panels, and in the remaining modules it is mainly used for accessing collections and
preset settings. For example, if you are working in the Print module, you can save custom print
settings as presets, which can then be applied to other images. The individual panels can be
expanded or collapsed by clicking the panel barheader. clicking a panel bar toggles expanding
to show the contents of that panel only or expanding to show all panels. You can use thekey to
toggle showing and hiding both the left and right panels. You can also right-click the arrows for
the left or right panels to access the contextual menu options. These allow you to determine the
hide/show behavior when clicking to reveal the side panels.

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The right panel section mostly contains panels that provide information about an image, the
controls for adjusting an image, or the layout control settings. In the Library module, you can
manage the metadata settings for the currently selected photos, and in the Develop module you
can apply image adjustments. In the Book, Slideshow, Print, and Web modules, the right panel
controls govern the layout and output. As with the Left panel, individual panels can be expanded
or collapsed by clicking the panel bar header. clicking a panel bar toggles expanding to show
the contents of that panel only, or expanding to show all panels. You can also use the
key (Mac) or key (PC) in combination with a keypad number (, , , etc.) to toggle opening and
closing individual panels in the order they are listed from the top down.

The Filmstrip is located at the bottom of the Lightroom window. It contains thumbnails of all the
images currently displayed in the Library, highlighting those that are currently selected. The
Filmstrip thumbnails are accessible in all the other modules and therefore allow you access to
individual images or sub-selections of images without having to switch back to the Library module.

Working through the book

I will explain each aspect of the program in greater depth throughout the book, where you will
notice that I have structured the book to match a typical workflow, starting with the various ways
you can import your photos into Lightroom. At the beginning of this chapter, I described how the
philosophy behind Lightroom was to offer unreasonable simplicity. If Adobe has been successful
in this mission, you should find that much of the Lightroom program is fairly self-explanatory. If
you need further help, go to the Help menu, where you will see a Shortcuts item for whichever
module you happen to be using (Figure 1.27 shows the shortcuts for the Library module). In
keeping with the spirit of Lightroom, I have tried as much as possible to avoid discussing the
technical workings of the program and focused on discussing what Lightroom does best:
managing, editing, and outputting photographs. If you really want to know more about how
Lightroom works, there is an Appendix where I elaborate on various technical features. You will
also find more detailed technical background information at thelightroombook.com.

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 Figure 1.27 It is always worth selecting the Shortcuts item in the Help menu(Mac)
or (PC)to find out more about the shortcuts for each module.

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