2. Bringing Your Photos into Lightroom

1. Start Lightroom. In the Adobe Photoshop Lightroom - Select Catalog dialog box, make sure the file LRCIB Catalog.lrcat is selected under Select A Recent Catalog To Open, and then click Open.

2. Lightroom will open in the screen mode and workspace module that were active when you last quit. If necessary, switch to the Library module by clicking Library in the Module Picker at the top of the workspace.

You have the option to use the Import dialog box in either a compact or expanded mode, providing flexibility in the process from the very beginning. The top panel of the Import dialog box, common to both modes, presents the basic steps in the import process, arranged from left to right: choose an import source, specify how Lightroom is to handle the files you’re importing, and then—if you choose to copy or move the source files—set up an import destination.

In expanded mode, the Import dialog box looks and works like the Lightroom workspace modules. The Source panel at the left provides easy access to your files on any available drive. The Preview pane displays images from the source selection as thumbnails in Grid view or enlarged in Loupe view. Depending on the type of import, the right panel group offers a Destination panel that mirrors the Source panel, and a suite of controls for processing your images as they’re imported.

The first step is to configure the Lightroom preferences so that the import process is triggered automatically whenever you connect your camera or a memory card to your computer.

1. Choose Edit > Preferences (Windows) / Lightroom > Preferences (Mac OS). In the Preferences dialog box, click the General tab. Under Import Options, activate the option Show Import Dialog When A Memory Card Is Detected by clicking the checkbox.

Some cameras generate folder names on the memory card. If you don’t find these folder names helpful for organizing your images, activate the option Ignore Camera-Generated Folder Names When Naming Folders. You’ll learn more about folder naming options later in this lesson.

If your camera records Raw images, it may also generate a JPEG version of each photo. If you wish to import both files, activate the option Treat JPEG Files Next To Raw Files As Separate Photos; otherwise, Lightroom will display only the Raw images in the Import Photos dialog box.

2. Click OK / the Close button () to close the Preferences dialog box.

3. Connect your digital camera or card reader to your computer, following the manufacturer’s instructions.

4. This step may vary depending on your operating system and the image management software on your computer:

• On Windows, if the AutoPlay dialog box shown in the illustration at the right appears, double-click Import Photos Using Photoshop Lightroom. If you wish, you can set this option as the default.

• If you have more than one Adobe image management application—such as Adobe Bridge—installed on your computer and the Adobe Downloader dialog box appears, click Cancel.

• If the Import dialog box appears, continue to step 5.

• If the Import dialog box does not appear, choose File > Import Photos And Video, or click the Import button below the left panel group.

5. If the Import dialog box appears in compact mode, click the Show More Options button at the lower left of the dialog box to see all the options in the expanded Import dialog box.

The top panel of the Import dialog box—which is visible in both the compact and expanded modes—presents the three basic steps in the import process, arranged from left to right:

• Selecting the source location of the images you wish to add to your catalog.

• Specifying the way you want Lightroom to handle the files you’re importing.

• Designating the destination to which the image files will be copied and choosing any develop presets, keywords, or other metadata that you would like applied to your photos as they are added to your catalog.

Your camera or memory card is now shown as the import source in the FROM area at the left of the top panel and under Devices in the Source panel at the left of the Import dialog box.

Depending on your computer setup, it’s possible that your camera’s memory card will be recognized as a removable storage disk. If this is the case, you may see some differences in the options available in the Import dialog box, but these differences will not affect the actions you’ll take in the remainder of this exercise.

6. If your memory card is listed as a removable disk—rather than a device—in the Source panel, click to select it from the Files list and make sure that the Include Subfolders option is activated.

7. From the import type options in the center of the top panel, choose Copy, so that the photos will be copied from your camera to your hard disk, and then added to your catalog, leaving the original files on your camera’s memory card.

Lightroom displays a brief description of the action that will be taken for whichever option is currently selected, as shown in the illustration below.

8. Move your pointer over each of the options shown in the bar across the top of the Preview pane to see a tool tip describing the option. For this exercise, leave the default All Photos option selected. Don’t click the Import button yet.

A check mark in the top left corner of an image cell indicates that the photo will be imported. By default, all the photos on your memory card will be check-marked for import; you can exclude an image from the selection to be imported by clicking its checkbox to remove the check mark.

You can select multiple images, and then change all of their check marks simultaneously. To select a contiguous range of images, select the first image in the range by clicking the thumbnail or the surrounding image cell, then hold down the Shift key and select the last image in the series. To select individual additional photos, Ctrl-click / Command-click their thumbnails. Click the check mark of any image in a multiple selection to change the import status for the entire selection.

When you import photos from your hard disk or from external storage media, the Import dialog box offers you the option to add them to your catalog without moving them from their current locations. This is possible because Lightroom does not actually import the image files themselves; it only adds entries to the library catalog to record their locations. For this kind of import, there’s no need to specify a destination folder. However, because memory cards are expected to be erased and reused, an image on your camera doesn’t have a very permanent address. For this reason, you’re not offered the Add or Move options when you import from a camera—Lightroom expects to copy your photos from your camera to a more permanent location before it adds their addresses to the library catalog.

Therefore, the next step in the process of importing from a camera is to specify a destination folder to which your photos should be copied. This is the time to give some thought to how you intend to organize your photos on your computer hard disk. For now, leave the Import Photos dialog box open; you’ll choose a destination folder and deal with the rest of the import options in the following exercises.

Before beginning the lessons in this book, you created a folder named LRCIB inside your [username]/My Documents (Windows) or [username]/Documents (Mac OS) folder on your computer. This folder already contains subfolders for your LRCIB Catalog file and for the image files used for the lessons in this book. For the purposes of this exercise, you’ll create another subfolder inside the LRCIB folder as the destination for the images that you import from your camera’s memory card:

1. In the right panel group of the Import dialog box, collapse the File Handling, File Renaming, and Apply During Import panels; then, expand the Destination panel.

2. In the Destination panel, navigate to your LRCIB folder. With the LRCIB folder selected, click the Create New Folder button () at the left of the Destination panel header and choose Create New Folder from the menu.

3. In the Browse For Folder / Create New Folder dialog box, navigate to and select your LRCIB folder, if it’s not already selected. Click the Make New Folder / New Folder button, type Imported From Camera as the name for your new folder, and then press Enter (Windows) / click Create (Mac OS).

4. Make sure the new Imported From Camera folder is selected in the Browse For Folder / Create New Folder dialog box, and then click OK / Choose. Note that the new folder is now listed, and already selected, in the Destination panel.

The name of the new destination folder also appears in the TO area at the right of the top panel of the Import dialog box.

The Organize menu, near the top of the Destination panel, offers various options to help you organize your photos into folders as you copy them onto your hard disk:

• Into One Folder With the current settings, the images would be copied into the new Imported From Camera folder. You could then use the Into Subfolder option to create a new subfolder for each import.

• By Date: [Date Format] The remaining options are all variations on organizing your photos by capture date. Your images would be copied into the Imported From Camera folder and placed into one or more subfolders, depending on your choice of date format. Choosing the date format “2015/01/11,” for example, would result in one folder per year, containing one folder per month, containing one folder per day for each capture date, as shown in the illustration at the right.

You should think about which system of folder organization best suits your needs before you begin to import photos from your camera for your own purposes and maintain that system for all your camera imports.

5. For the purposes of this exercise, choose the option Into One Folder from the Organize menu.

6. Click the Into Subfolder checkbox and type Lesson 2 Import in the adjacent text box as the name for the new subfolder.

1. In the right panel group of the Import Photos dialog box, expand the File Handling panel and activate the option Make A Second Copy To by clicking the checkbox.

2. Click the small triangle to the right and select Choose Folder to specify a destination for your backup copies.

3. In the Browse For Folder / Choose Folder dialog box, navigate to the folder in which you wish to store the backup copies of your images, and then click OK / Choose.

The purpose of this backup is mainly as a precaution against loss of data due to disk failure or human error during the import process; it’s not meant to replace the standard backup procedure you have in place—or should have in place—for the files on your hard disk.

It’s worthwhile to archive each photo shoot by burning your images to a DVD, which you can store separately. This will also help you organize your image library in Lightroom because you’ll feel more secure trimming your collection down to the best images knowing that you have a backup before you press the Delete key.

1. In the right panel group of the Import dialog box, expand the File Renaming panel and activate Rename Files. Choose Custom Name - Sequence from the Template menu and type a descriptive name in the Custom Text box, and then press the Tab key on your keyboard. A sample name at the bottom of the File Renaming panel shows how your settings will be applied for the first image imported. You can enter a number other than 1 in the Start Number text box; this is useful if you’re importing more than one batch of images from the same series.

2. Click the small triangle to the right of the Custom Text box; your new text has been added to a list of recently entered names. You can choose from this list if you import another batch of files that belong in the same series. This not only saves time and effort but helps you ensure that subsequent batches are named identically. Should you wish to clear the list, choose Clear List from the menu.

3. Choose Custom Name (x of y) from the Template menu. Note that the sample name at the bottom of the File Renaming panel is updated to reflect the change.

4. Choose Edit from the Template menu to open the Filename Template Editor.

In the Filename Template Editor dialog box you can set up a filename template that makes use of metadata information stored in your image files—such as file names, capture dates, or ISO settings—adding automatically generated sequence numbers and any custom text you specify. A filename template includes placeholders—or tokens—that will be replaced by actual values during the renaming process. A token is framed by curly brackets on Windows and enclosed by a blue outline on Mac OS.

You could rename your photos Resort_Village-April 27, 2013-01, and so on, by setting up a filename template with a custom text token, a date token, and a 2-digit sequence number token, separated by typed hyphens, as shown in the illustration at the right. After closing the Filename Template Editor you could type Cottages over the words Resort_Village in the Custom Text box; the word “Cottages” would then replace the custom text token in the filename. The capture date from the images’ metadata and the sequence number will be added automatically.

5. Click Cancel to close the Filename Template Editor without making any changes.

Despite all of the options available for renaming your images during the import process, there’s only so much information you can squeeze into a single file name. It might be better to take a minimal approach to renaming your photos and instead take advantage of the other file management capabilities of Lightroom. Metadata and keywords are far more powerful and versatile tools for organizing and searching your image library.

You’ll learn about working with metadata and keywords in the following exercises and in Lesson 4, “Managing Your Photo Library.”

You have now completed this exercise on importing photos from a digital camera or a memory card. You’ll learn about the other options that are available in the Import dialog box in the exercises to follow.

6. For now, click Import if you wish to bring your photos into the LRCIB catalog, or Cancel to close the Import dialog box without actually importing any images.

If you wish, you can still choose to copy your images to a new location during the import process as you did in the previous exercise, but you also have the option to add them to your catalog without moving them from their current locations. You might choose to do this if the images you wish to import are already well organized in a folder hierarchy.

For images that are already located on your hard disk you have an extra option: to move them to a new location, removing them from the original location at the same time. This option might appeal if the images on your hard disk are not already organized in a satisfactory manner.

1. To import the images for this exercise from your computer hard disk, either choose File > Import Photos And Video, press Ctrl+Shift+I / Command+Shift+I, or click the Import button below the left panel group in the Library module.

2. In the Source panel at the left of the Import dialog box, navigate to the Lessons folder you’ve already copied into the LRCIB folder on your hard disk. Select the Lesson 2 folder and click the checkbox at the top right of the Source panel to activate the Include Subfolders option.

An image count in the lower left corner of the Import dialog box shows that the Lesson 2 folder and its subfolders contain a total of 28 photos with a combined file size of 51 MB.

3. From the import type options in the center of the top panel, choose Add so that your photos will be added to your catalog without being moved—an option that is not available when importing images from a camera. Do not click Import yet!

4. Use the scrollbar at the right of the Preview pane to view all of the images in the Lesson 2 folder and its subfolders. Drag the Thumbnail slider below the Preview pane to the left to reduce the size of the thumbnails so that you can see as many of the images as possible in the Preview pane.

5. In the Source panel, disable the Include Subfolders option. The Preview pane now displays only the nine images in the Lesson 2 root folder and the image count in the lower left corner of the Import dialog box reads: 9 photos / 18 MB.

In the next exercise, you’ll apply keywords and other metadata to these images to make them easier to organize once you’ve added them to your catalog. For now, you can review the import type options above the Preview pane.

6. Click each of the import type options in turn, from left to right:

• Choose the option Copy As DNG to have Lightroom make copies of your images in DNG (Digital Negative) file format, which will be stored in a new location, and then added to your catalog. Collapse all of the panels in the right panel group. For the Copy As DNG, Copy, and Move options, the right panel group offers the same suite of panels—File Handling, File Renaming, Apply During Import, and Destination.

• Choose the option Copy to have Lightroom create copies of your images in a new location, and then add them to your catalog, leaving the originals in their current locations. You can set a destination for your copies in the Destination panel, as you did in the previous exercise. Expand the Destination panel and click the Organize menu. When you use either the Copy As DNG, Copy, or Move options to import images from your hard disk or from external storage media, the Organize menu offers you the option to copy your photos into a single folder, into subfolders based on the capture dates, or into a folder structure that replicates the original arrangement.

• Choose the option Move to have the images moved to a new location on your hard disk, arranged in whatever folder structure you choose from the Organize menu, and then deleted from their original locations.

• Choose Add to have Lightroom add the images to your catalog without moving or copying them from their current locations, or altering the folder structure in which they are stored. Note that for the Add option, the right panel group offers only the File Handling and Apply During Import panels; you cannot rename the original source images during import, and there’s no need to specify a destination because the files will remain where they are. Expand the File Handling and Apply During Import panels to see the options available.

1. In the Apply During Import panel, choose New from the Metadata menu.

2. In the New Metadata Preset dialog box, type a descriptive name for these nine photos in the Preset Name box (we used the country name “Croatia”); then, enter metadata information that is applicable to the images as a group, such as labels or copyright information. You can customize the metadata for each individual image after import, adding information such as titles and captions.

3. Click Create to close the New Metadata Preset dialog box, and then confirm that your new metadata preset is selected in the Metadata menu.

You can edit your metadata presets by choosing Edit Presets from the Metadata menu in the Apply During Import panel. In the Edit Metadata Presets dialog box you can edit, rename, or delete presets, or save modified settings as a new preset.

4. In the Apply During Import panel, choose None from the Develop Settings menu and type Lesson 2, Travel, Croatia, Village in the Keywords text box.

5. In the File Handling panel, choose Minimal from the Build Previews menu. Check that your settings are the same as those shown in the illustration below, and then click Import.

The nine photos from the Lesson 2 folder are imported into your library catalog and thumbnails of the images appear in the Grid view and the Filmstrip in the Library module.

6. Right-click / Control-click any of the images in the Grid view and choose Go To Folder In Library from the context menu. In the Folders panel in the left panel group, the Lesson 2 folder is highlighted and the image count indicates that it contains 9 photos.

7. Right-click / Control-click the Lesson 2 folder in the Folders panel, and then choose Show In Explorer / Show In Finder from the context menu.

8. The Lessons folder opens in a Windows Explorer / Finder window, with the Lesson 2 folder highlighted. Leave the Windows Explorer / Finder window open for use in the next exercise.

1. The Windows Explorer / Finder window showing your Lesson 2 folder should still be open from the previous exercise. Position the window so that you can see the Grid view in the Lightroom workspace behind it.

2. Open your Lesson 2 folder, if necessary, and then drag the Batch1 folder from the Windows Explorer / Finder window onto the Grid view.

In the Import dialog box, the Batch1 subfolder is now selected in the Source panel and the seven photos it contains are displayed in the Preview pane.

3. In the Apply During Import panel, choose None from the Metadata menu and type Lesson 2, Architecture in the Keywords box. Don’t click Import just yet.

1. Double-click any of the thumbnails to see the photo in Loupe view, or select the thumbnail and click the Loupe view button () below the preview pane; the image is enlarged to fit the preview area and the pointer becomes a magnifying glass cursor ().

2. Click the image again to further magnify the image to a zoom ratio of 1:1. Use the Zoom slider below the preview pane to see even more detail. Drag the enlarged image in the preview pane to pan the view so that you can inspect portions of the photo that are not currently visible.

While you’re examining the photo in Loupe view, you can check-mark the image for import or un-check it to exclude it by clicking the Include In Import check box below the preview pane. Alternatively, press the P key to check-mark the photo, the X key to un-check it, or the Tilde key (~) to toggle between the two states.

3. Click the enlarged preview to return to the Fit view where the entire image is visible. Double-click the image, or click either the Loupe view button or the Grid view button beside it to return to the thumbnail display.

4. For the purposes of this exercise, un-check one of the images to exclude it, and then click Import.

5. In the Folders panel, click the triangle beside the Lesson 2 folder, if necessary, to see the listing for the Batch1 subfolder inside it.

Both the Batch1 subfolder and the Previous Import listing in the Catalog panel show an image count of 6 and the six recently imported photos are displayed in the Grid view and the Filmstrip.

6. Switch back to Windows Explorer / the Finder and drag the Batch1 folder onto the Grid view in the Library module again.

In the Import dialog box, the six photos that are already registered in the catalog are dimmed and unavailable for import. Clicking New Photos above the Preview pane would remove them from view entirely.

7. Type Lesson 2, Architecture in the Keywords box, and then click Import to add the remaining Batch1 photo to your library catalog.

8. In the Folders panel, the Batch1 folder now shows an image count of 7; click the Batch1 folder to see all seven photos in the Grid view and the Filmstrip.

1. In the Folders panel, right-click / Control-click the Batch1 folder and choose Import To This Folder from the context menu.

2. In the Import dialog box, click Select A Source at the left of the top panel, just above the Source panel, and then choose the path to the Lesson 2 folder from the list of recent sources in the menu.

3. In the Source panel, the folder path expands automatically. Inside the Lesson 2 folder, select the subfolder Extras, which contains two photos. In the top panel, choose Move from the import type options to move the photos from the Extras folder to the destination folder and add them to your catalog. Check that your previous settings are still active in the Apply During Import panel. You may need to re-type Lesson 2, Architecture in the Keywords box.

4. Expand the Destination panel, if necessary. You can see that the Batch1 folder has been automatically selected as the destination to which the photos will be moved from the Extras folder. At the top of the Destination panel, choose Into One Folder from the Organize menu; then, click Import. Thumbnails of the two new images appear in the Grid view and the Filmstrip in the Library module.

5. In the Folders panel, the Batch1 folder now shows an image count of 9. Click the Batch1 folder to see all nine images together in the Grid view and the Filmstrip.

6. In the Folders panel, right-click / Control-click the Lesson 2 folder and choose Show In Explorer / Show In Finder from the context menu. In the Windows Explorer / Finder window, open the Extras folder inside the Lesson 2 folder; the two image files have been removed and the Extras folder is now empty.

Lesson 11, “Making Backups and Exporting Photos,” will discuss exporting photos as a catalog; for this lesson you’ll import photos from a catalog that you’ll find in the Batch2 subfolder inside the Lesson 2 folder on your hard disk.

1. Choose File > Import From Another Catalog.

2. In the Import From Lightroom Catalog dialog box, navigate to and open your Lessons > Lesson 2 > Batch2 folder, select the file Batch2Catalog.lrcat, and then click Open / Choose.

3. In the Import From Catalog dialog box, click the Show Preview check box in the lower left corner. Choose Add New Photos To Catalog Without Moving from the File Handling menu, and then click Import.

The newly imported photos are displayed in the Grid view and the Filmstrip. In the Grid view, all three image cells are marked with the Photo Is Missing badge (), which is shown highlighted in the illustration below.

4. Select the first image; the photo’s missing status is also indicated in the Histogram panel. Click the badge on the image cell; then, click Locate in the Confirm dialog box. Navigate to the folder Lesson 2 / Batch2 / Images, select the missing photo, activate Find Nearby Missing Photos, and then click Select. Check the Folders panel; the Batch2 / Images folder is now listed as a source.

5. In the Folders panel, you may now also see a missing folder, dimmed and marked with a question mark badge. If you see the missing folder (the folder in which Lightroom expected to find the images from the Batch2 catalog), right-click / Command-click the listing and choose Remove from the menu.

6. Select one of the images in the Grid view.

In the Keywording panel in the right panel group, you can see that the tags Croatia, Lesson 2, Travel, and Village have already been applied. If you wished, you could add more keywords to the images individually.

7. Expand the Metadata panel in the right panel group. If necessary, collapse the other panels in the group or scroll down so that you can see the contents of the Metadata panel. Note that these images already include the metadata from the Croatia preset. In the Metadata panel, you can edit or add to the metadata.

The imported images have also been edited. Lightroom records every editing operation performed on an image in the library catalog file. When images are exported in a catalog their entire edit history is exported with them.

8. Select one of the images in the Grid view, and then switch to the Develop module. If necessary, scroll down in the left panel group so that you can see the contents of the History panel. Move the pointer over the Import entry at the bottom of the History panel; the Navigator preview shows the image in its un-edited state. Click the Import entry to see the un-edited photo enlarged in Loupe view; then, choose Edit > Undo to return to the edited version.

9. Switch back to the Library module in readiness for the next exercise.

1. Choose File > Auto Import > Auto Import Settings.

2. In the Auto Import Settings dialog box, click the first Choose button to designate a watched folder.

3. In the Auto-Import From Folder dialog box, navigate to the Lesson 2 folder. Open the Auto Import folder and select the subfolder named Watched Folder; then, click Select Folder / Choose.

4. Now that you have designated a watched folder, you can click the checkbox at the top of the Auto Import Settings dialog box to enable Auto Import.

5. Click the second Choose button under Destination to specify a folder to which Lightroom will move your photos in the process of adding them to the library catalog.

6. In the Choose Folder dialog box, navigate to the Lessons folder. Select the Lesson 2 folder (you’ll set up a subfolder inside the Lesson 2 folder in the next step), and then click Select Folder / Choose.

7. Still in the Destination section in the Auto Import Settings dialog box, type Batch3 in the Subfolder Name text box. Lightroom will create this subfolder inside the Lesson 2 folder.

8. Choose Filename from the File Naming menu.

9. Under Information, choose the metadata preset you created earlier in this lesson from the Metadata menu and type Lesson 2, Color in the Keywords text box. Choose None from the Develop Settings menu and Minimal from the Initial Previews menu. Click OK to close the Auto Import Settings dialog box.

10. Switch to Windows Explorer / the Finder and navigate to the Lesson 2 folder. Note that as yet there is no Batch3 folder inside the Lesson 2 folder. Open the folder Auto Import and drag the seven image files inside it to the Watched Folder.

When Lightroom has finished importing, you’ll see the newly created Batch3 folder inside the Lesson 2 folder. The Watched Folder is empty once more and the seven lesson images have been moved into the Batch3 folder.

11. Return to Lightroom; the Batch3 folder is now listed in the Folders panel and the newly imported photos are displayed in the Grid view and the Filmstrip.

You can now import images into your Lightroom library by simply dragging them onto the watched folder. This makes importing photos directly from a camera or memory card reader even easier; there’s no need to attend to a dialog box and yet your images can be renamed and have custom metadata added automatically.

For a range of DSLR cameras including many models from Canon and Nikon, you can capture photographs directly into Lightroom without the need for any third-party software. If your camera allows tethered shooting, but is not on the list of models supported by Lightroom, you can still capture images into your Lightroom library using either the image capture software associated with the camera or any of a number of third-party software solutions.

You can have Lightroom name the photos, add metadata, apply developing settings, and organize them in your library then and there. If necessary, you can adjust your camera settings (white balance, exposure, focus, depth of field, and others), or even change cameras, before taking the next shot. The better the quality of the captured image the less time you’ll need to spend adjusting it later.

2. In the Library module, choose File > Tethered Capture > Start Tethered Capture.

3. In the Tethered Capture Settings dialog box, type a name for your shooting session. Lightroom will create a folder with this name inside the destination folder of your choice; this session folder will appear in the Folders panel.

4. Choose a naming scheme for your shots, select a destination folder, and specify any metadata or keywords that you want Lightroom to apply as the newly captured images are imported.

5. Click OK to close the Tethered Capture Settings dialog box. The tethered capture control bar appears.

The control bar displays the model name of the connected camera, the name you entered for the shooting session, and the current camera settings. You can choose from a wide range of Develop presets in the Develop Settings menu at the right. You can trigger the shot with your camera’s shutter button, by clicking the large circular button at the right of the control bar, or by pressing F12 on your keyboard.

As you shoot, the images captured will appear in both the Grid view and the Filmstrip. To see each captured photo as large as possible, use the Loupe view and hide unwanted panels—as shown in the illustration below—or chose Window > Screen Mode > Full Screen And Hide Panels.

1. Choose File > Auto Import > Auto Import Settings. In the Auto Import Settings dialog box, click the first Choose button to choose a watched folder. Once you’ve designated a folder to be watched, you can click the checkbox at the top of the Auto Import Settings dialog box to enable Auto Import.

2. Click the second Choose button under Destination to specify a folder to which Lightroom will save your photos in the process of adding them to the library catalog. Type a name for your photo shoot in the Subfolder Name text box; Lightroom will create this subfolder inside the designated destination folder.

3. Choose a naming option for your images from the File Naming menu. Under Information, you can choose a metadata preset and enter any keywords that you wish Lightroom to apply as your newly captured images are imported. If you wish, you can also choose a developing preset and specify a preview option. Click OK to close the Auto Import Settings dialog box.

4. Use your camera’s image capture software to designate your new watched folder as the destination to which the camera will save your photos.

5. Before you begin shooting, make sure that you are in the Library module. In the Folders panel, select the subfolder you created for your tethered shoot in step 2, so that your newly captured photos will be displayed as they are imported.

1. If you’re not already in the Library module, switch to it now.

Depending on your workspace setup in the Library module, you may see the Filter bar across the top of the work area. You can use filters to limit the images that are displayed in the Grid view and the Filmstrip so that you’ll see only those photos with a specified rating, flag status, or containing particular metadata content.

The Toolbar, located at the bottom of the work area, is common to all the workspace modules but contains different tools and controls for each.

2. If the Filter bar is not already visible at the top of the work area, show it by pressing the backslash character () on your keyboard or by activating the menu option View > Show Filter Bar. Press backslash again or disable the menu option View > Show Filter Bar to hide it.

3. If the Toolbar is not already visible, press T to show it. Press T again to hide it. Switch to the Develop module. If the Toolbar is not already visible, press T to show it. Switch back to the Library Module. In the Library module the Toolbar is still hidden; Lightroom remembers your Toolbar setting for each module independently. Press T to show the Toolbar in the Library module.

4. Double-click an image in Grid view to switch to Loupe view. The Loupe view is available in both the Library and Develop modules, but the controls available in the Loupe view Toolbar differ for each of these modules.

5. To hide or show individual tools, click the white arrow at the right end of the Toolbar and choose their names from the pop-up menu. Tools that are currently visible in the Toolbar have a checkmark in front of their names.

1. Press G to switch to Grid view in the Library module.

2. Choose View > View Options. The Library View Options dialog box appears with the Grid View tab already selected. Position the Library View Options dialog box so you can see some of the images in the Grid view.

3. At the top of the Grid View tab, un-check Show Grid Extras. This disables most of the other options.

4. The only options still available are Tint Grid Cells With Label Colors and Show Image Info Tooltips. If they’re not already activated, click the checkboxes for both of these options. As this lesson’s images have not yet been assigned color labels, activating the first option has no visible effect in the Grid view. Right-click / Control-click any image—you can do this while the Library View Options dialog box is open—and choose a color from the Set Color Label menu.

In the Grid view and the Filmstrip, a color-labeled image that is currently selected will show a thin colored frame around the thumbnail; a color-labeled image that is not selected has a tinted cell background.

5. Position the pointer over a thumbnail in the Grid view or the Filmstrip; a tooltip appears. In Mac OS you’ll need to click anywhere in the Lightroom workspace window to bring it to the front before you can see the tooltips.

By default, the tooltip will display the file name, capture date and time, and the cropped dimensions. You can specify the information to be displayed in the tooltip by choosing from the Loupe View options.

6. On Mac OS, if the Library View Options dialog box is now hidden behind the main application window, press Command+J to bring it back to the front.

7. Activate the Show Grid Extras option and choose Compact Cells from the menu beside it. Experiment with each setting to see its effect in the Grid view display. Activate and disable the settings for Options, Cell Icons, and Compact Cell Extras. Position the pointer over the various icons in the image cells to see tooltips with additional information.

8. Under Compact Cell Extras, click the Top Label menu to see the long list of choices available. For some choices, such as Title or Caption, nothing will be displayed until you add the relevant information to the image’s metadata.

9. Now choose Expanded Cells from the Show Grid Extras menu. Experiment with the Expanded Cell Extras options to see the effects in the Grid view. Click any of the Show Header With Labels menus to see the many choices available to customize the information that is displayed in the cell headers.

10. Click the Loupe View tab. The work area switches to Loupe view so you can preview the changes you’ll make in the Library View Options dialog box.

For the Loupe view, you can activate the Show Info Overlay option to display image information in the top left corner of the view. Choose items from the menus in Loupe Info 1 and Loupe Info 2 to create two different sets of information, and then choose either set from the Show Info Overlay menu.

You can reset either group to its default state by clicking the Use Defaults button. Activate the Show Briefly When Photo Changes option to show the info overlay for only a few seconds when a new image is displayed in the Loupe view. Activate the Show Message When Loading Or Rendering Photos option to display a notification in the lower part of the view while the image preview is updated.

11. Click the Close button (x) / () to close the Library View Options dialog box.

12. You can choose which of the two information sets will be displayed by choosing an option from the View > Loupe Info menu, or by pressing the I key to cycle the info overlay through Loupe Info 1, Loupe Info 2, and its disabled state.

13. Switch to the Grid view. From the View > Grid View Style menu you can choose whether or not to display additional information, using either the Compact Cells layout or the Expanded Cells layout. Press the J key to cycle through the different cell layouts.

2. What is DNG?

3. When would you use the Import dialog box in compact mode?

4. How can you transfer photos between Lightroom libraries on separate computers?

5. How can you specify the information displayed for images in the Grid and Loupe views?

2. The Digital Negative (DNG) file format is a publicly available archival format intended to address the lack of an open standard for raw files generated by cameras. Converting raw files to DNG in Lightroom will help ensure that you’ll be able to access your raw files in the future even if the original proprietary format is no longer supported.

3. Once you’ve created import presets to suit your workflow, you can speed up the import process by using the Import dialog box in compact mode. Use your import preset as a starting point, and then modify the settings as required.

4. On one computer, export the images from Lightroom as a catalog file. On the other computer, choose File > Import From Another Catalog to import the photos into the Lightroom library together with their develop settings and metadata.

5. You can choose from the many options in the Library View Options dialog box (View > View Options) to customize the information Lightroom displays for each image in the Grid and Loupe views. For the Loupe view and thumbnail tooltips you can define two sets of options and then press the I key to switch between them. From the View > Grid View Style menu you can switch between Compact or Expanded Cells and activate or disable the display of information for either style.